He hungered.

Purity had wandered for so long- farther than he'd gotten from the altar, and he starved. Oil dotted the edges of his eyes and drained down his nose, laying over his tongue and clogging his senses. He needed the altar. He needed to stabilize, needed to remember- is this what Zhusha warned him about? He'd paced through Cepheus's forests, his breath ragged and claws digging into the dirt.

If he turned back now, would he even make it to the altar?

Purity shut his eyes and shook his head, deciding to forge ahead. Well, if he was going to succumb, might as well take something down with him. He scoffed at the idea implanted in his brain, hissing from under his breath and continuing on.

The neat, orderly Palace infuriated him. Its gardens taunted him as he passed, with their pristine bushes, their colorful flowers, their overwhelming scent. As he stained the ground he passed along with his Oil, Purity drove straight for the bushes, rage and frustration building and boiling over.

He had gone mad. Racing, now, Purity targetted the first plant in sight- a beautiful purple orchid, and ripped it viciously from its stem, launching it to the middle of the garden clearing. The next victim was a hedge, and he'd launched himself to it, ripping out leaves with teeth and claws.

From the way it looked, he'd go at this until he'd drive himself to exhaustion. He needed destruction, needed to drive fear and nothing was around but stupid, stupid plants. Having made a sizable dent in the plant, Purity slowed to a halt with his throat locking up, panting and shaking with fury. Spitting leaves from his mouth, the feline swung his head with wild eyes searching for something else to destroy.

The rising voice of dissuasion did nothing to stop him. He would put this place out of order, he would enact Chaos on this--

He yowled in despair when his feet left the ground. What- what was this? His scruff was taken, and he felt so lethargic. No, he would not go out restrained..! Legs flailed as much as they could, and yet they couldn't connect in some sad, pitiful way, so he only resorted to what he knew best.

Wordlessly, he drew back his lips and hissed, Oil-stained teeth glinting in the low voidlight of Cepheus. "Put me down!" he cried, flailing again and trying to kick out.

There was no escaping this. Realizing his doom, he went nearly totally slack, breathing hard. "I can't--" He looked to the bush. He looked back to Aethril. If she kept him here, he'd be consumed, he'd be wrecked by his own hubris, and he grimaced up to her as he lowered his head.

The sane part of his mind supplied answers. Only, those were 'I've stretched myself too thin,' and 'I don't know.' They fluttered in his mind, locked behind bars of Chaos, and he only growled to their realizations. A moment later, and he spat Oil down between her feet, hissing out with a rattling breath.

Maybe he could bargain. Struggling to put words in his mouth, he lifted his head to glare back at Aethril, rumbling with anger already. "Put me down, and I'll leave." If he was going to die, he didn't want it to be in the hands of some strange... Thing.

Purity- counterintuitively- hissed right back at her. "Because I'm here!" he yowled, twirling in her grip as he flailed again.

Panic was edging at the edge of his vision- if he could only reach her- but there was no chance as she held him like this, and he was lost to whatever will she had. "I'm not some spy or some shit- I was supposed to be passing through! Let me go!" He spat out again, kicking uselessly in the air as he batted an arm out once more.

What could he do to convince her to let him go? He needed to go back to the altar, if he could even make it, but he doubted it at this point. His only chance was to press on further- and even then, would he get to wherever he was going, or would he fall to this chaos that raged through him?

Perhaps he'd never know.

In the midst of his motions, Purity froze as rage welled in Aethril's expression, and--

She imploded. He swung as she pulled back, and landed on the grass with a thump, barely catching himself as he stared up. What the hell was she doing? He scrambled back as she did, the whites of his eyes ringing his irises as his eyes went wide.

He'd hesitated for too long. What should he do? She was just holding him and demanding things of him, and he wheezed out a strangled noise. He had to get out of here. Spinning to the other direction, Purity booked it for anywhere but the Palace, only running into open ground as he tried to get away from this- this--

He glanced back, stopping. Why did he stop? The feline panted, staring, fur rising again as he watched for whatever she would do. Would she come for him- could she even catch him, on two legs?

Or was this a mistake, waiting to see if he truly needed to run? The chaos raging through him was screaming at him- make a move. MOVE!- and yet he was simply... Frozen.

Purity's ears shoved forward when Aethril just... disappeared.

'Doug.'

She was corrupted.

His eyes widened and a grin came across his face, malice running through it. This is what he was looking for, this being so filled with rage, and yet- she kept imploding with it. A step forward- then another, with confidence, as a satisfied hiss ran through his bared teeth. "You-" he choked out, his eyes trained directly on her. "Not even you can control the power of the altar, can you?" His voice was loud, confident, filled with an angry pride as he realized that through his own persistence, he had conquered it.

And, in his mind, he was completely in control. Not like this-- weak being, curled over in front of him as he paced closer, standing out of reach and yet perfectly in range to see just how fucked up she was. His front crouched down and he peered up at her face, eyes wild with the sense that he was above her. After all, he was the one still standing, wasn't he?

Oh, what a mistake he was making.