Despair! There Is Nothing To Hold You Back

Edward stared at his arm, his face twisted with fear and dread.

After being shoved, Arya landed hard on her hip. Even before getting back on her feet, she grabbed her flute and summoned Cerberus to push Cydonia away.

The demon stepped back, dodging the snapping jaws of the hound. She was no longer in a rush—soon, the corruption would spread through Edward's body.

Edward remembered how the corruption had crept through his bone earlier. He focused on the spot where he’d been touched, waiting for any sign of change.

And then, he felt it—corruption crawling into him like a swarm of tiny spiders beneath his skin, searing pain and a cold so deep it gnawed at his flesh.

“Arghhh!!!”

In a sudden burst of desperation, Edward made a grim decision. The corruption wasn't instant—it spread. Last time, he had stopped it by severing the connection between the infected bone and his body. This time, it was his arm that had to go.

He took a deep breath, steeling himself. With his left hand, he gripped the bone blade tight and swung it against his own arm.

“ARRRRGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

Ah, how he wished the blade he’d forged had been sharper. The blow wasn't enough to cleave the limb cleanly.

Arya stifled a scream as she watched the scene unfold.

Cruelly, the cut failed to break through the bone, leaving his arm half-severed and dangling.

“Damn it! Damn it! $#&$#&! $#&$#&$#&!!!”

Panting, Edward retracted his bone and struck again—this time finishing the job.

He collapsed to his knees, pain overtaking him. Arya rushed to his side, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

On the other side, Cydonia watched them with curiosity. “Hmm, that was rather clever of you.”

As Arya searched for something to use as a tourniquet, her eyes fell on Edward’s severed arm.

It no longer resembled a human limb—blackened and skeletal, it had turned into something demonic. That was the moment Arya understood why Edward had done it, and just how real the threat of corruption was.

“Edward, we have to get out of here! We need to treat your wound—now!”

The boy didn’t respond. His eyes were distant, his mind far from the world around him. Arya looked at what remained of his arm—there was no sign of spreading corruption, but his consciousness had drifted.

"(I hope you're still with me.)"

There was no time to wait for him to recover. Cydonia was already preparing for another strike.

“Looks like I don’t have another choice... Cerberus, Minotaurus—return.”

At her command, the two summons dissolved into ash.

Arya gathered every ounce of her spiritual energy and played her most powerful melody.

“... LADON!”

Behind her, the ground cracked open and a tree began to rise—dry, massive, and tinged with a golden hue.

It towered above the rooftops, with dozens of gnarled branches stretching out in every direction. From each branch hung golden apples.

“A tree? You must be joking,” Cydonia sneered, gesturing to her servant. “Go get her.”

The demon advanced as ordered, clearly meant as a decoy for whatever trap the tree might hold.

Cydonia’s instincts proved correct. As the demon neared Arya, the true nature of her summoning revealed itself.

One of the golden apples shifted, stretching out, its scales glinting—revealing a serpentine head.

The head lunged toward the demon, who tried to dodge but failed, taking a bite to the shoulder. The serpent’s neck and head glowed crimson and then—

Boom!!!

The head exploded into flames, sending the demon flying and leaving it severely wounded.

Cydonia watched her pawn crash to the ground at her feet. When she looked back at the "tree," she saw the other apples beginning to shift—hatching like eggs—each one revealing a dragon's head.

“Ladon, the Hundred-Headed Dragon,” Arya murmured, still focused on her melody. "(Edward, I hope this doesn’t hurt you...)"

Ladon’s hundred heads craved destruction.

Vooooshhh!
Boooom!

Following Arya’s song, the heads launched themselves at Cydonia. She responded with webs and evasive moves.

“What the hell are these things?!”

Cydonia found herself cornered, her back against a house. She spotted an open window to the side—but before she could leap inside for cover…

One of Ladon’s heads appeared at the window, cutting off her escape.

“...Damn.”

Kabooom!!!

The dragon heads engulfed Cydonia in flames, triggering an explosion powerful enough to obliterate the front of the house.

Arya knew that wouldn’t be enough to defeat Cydonia, but she took the opportunity to drag Edward to safety.

When Edward regained consciousness, he realized Arya had his arm draped over her shoulders, trying to pull him along by his torso.

“Arya…”

“Edward! You’re awake—thank Mors. Are you alright?”

“Yes—”

A sudden tingling shot through the arm he had severed.

“What’s happening?”

His bone began to grow on its own, the material stretching in a sticky, unnatural way.

First, it formed a skeletal frame. Then—muscles, nerves, and blood vessels sprouted from the bone, regenerating his arm’s tissue structure.

Within seconds, Edward’s arm was fully restored—yet somehow, different.

“Edward, how did you do that?”

“...I don’t know.”

It should have been a good thing—he could fight again—but there was something deeply unsettling about that regeneration. Edward hadn’t willed it. He didn’t even know his bone control could do something like this.

But there was no time to dwell on it. The battle wasn’t over.

“Hahahaha!” Cydonia rose from the rubble.

Her form had changed completely. Her face now wore an oni mask, like her pawns—but more refined. Her lower body had morphed into that of a spider, with her human torso fusing into the arachnid's front like a chimeric creature.

This was her true demon form—a Jorogumo.

“It’s been a while since I revealed my real form,” she said, eyes fixed on the pair. “But you know, no human who’s seen it has lived to tell the tale.”

“Ladon!” Arya didn’t give fate a chance. Before Cydonia could move, she unleashed the dragon once more.

But this time, Cydonia was faster. She dodged the explosions, weaving barriers of webbing between nearby walls to restrict the heads’ movements.

Unable to find their target, the heads exploded within the webs, throwing the battlefield into chaos and setting nearby structures ablaze.

Arya froze as she watched the city go up in flames, the out-of-control destruction triggering something deep within her mind.

That vision… it was stirring a buried memory.

“Arya? Arya!”

Edward’s voice snapped her back.

“Huh?”

“Are you okay?”

“...Yeah,” she replied, but in her chest, a question burned: "(Why does this all feel so familiar?)"

She could no longer focus. Her summon went berserk, attacking anything in sight. Fearing Ladon might turn on Edward, she made the call.

“This is bad. Ladon, return.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“It’s just… hard to keep control of Ladon.”

Suddenly, webs burst from the ground, wrapping around both of them and pinning them back-to-back.

“What the hell?!”

“Well, well… looks like I caught two little bugs in one go,” Cydonia sneered. She picked up a metal shard from the rubble and, using her spider limbs, shaped it into a crude harpoon. “How about dying together? Isn’t that what you humans call romantic?”

With terrifying strength, Cydonia hurled the harpoon toward their hearts.

But before it could strike, a wave of flames burst through the scene, catching the weapon—and stopping it with a single hand.

“Peter?!”

“Did you guys miss me?”

The sight of their friend rekindled hope in their hearts. Edward quickly extended his bones into a blade, carefully slicing through the webs and freeing both himself and Arya.

Masafumi arrived with a blast of wind, aiming for Peter, but his attack was blocked. He retreated beside Cydonia.

“Why haven’t you finished this bug yet?”

“That boy’s stronger than you think, demon.”

Cydonia grabbed Masafumi by the neck.

“I’m not ‘demon.’ You will call me Lady Cydonia. Understood?”

“That... might be asking a bit much…”

She let go of him, dropping him to the ground.

“Once we finish off these three, I’ll make sure your death is the most agonizing one imaginable.”

“It’s already being.”

“Silence.” It was a command.

Masafumi stood up—against his own will.

“Well done, Masafumi. Still sharp-tongued as ever.”

The other masked demon—the one struck by Ladon—began to rise, returning to his old comrade’s side. That was Kosuke.

“You too. Don’t get clever. Even with part of your masks broken, you’re still under my control. Once corrupted, you'll never be human again—not even if I die.”

“... No. That can’t be true…” Cydonia’s words crushed Peter’s hopes.

“Believe it or not, it is. A corrupted soul never returns to what it once was.” Cydonia smiled, "What? Did you thinked that you could save him? Hahaha!"

As Peter swallowed that bitter truth, the battlefield evened out once more.

It was now a three on three battle!