Purity laughed. He laughed in her face, deep and throaty, filled with Oil and teeth. "You can't even use your magic," and he pulled his head back, standing tall. She was-

Grabbing him. Purity let out a strangled choke, scrabbling in the dirt when her hand came down upon him. He couldn't gloat in this position, only hiss out strangled cries and tear up the earth with his claws, Oil dripping from his mouth with nowhere else to go.

She was going to kill him.

@Aethril

She was going to kill him.

Her movements were stilted and painful, but Purity's final words absolutely blinded her with rage. Her arms shook, the muscles ached with built-up acid as her second hand joined the first in choking the cat against the Gardens' floor.

And then, she felt it. All at once sickening, toxic flames spewed out of her hands and into Purity's throat, spreading quickly throughout the rest of his body. Black, black smoke rose to the air along with the scent of burning hair and flesh.

Pain shot up Aethril's wrists-- a different kind of pain, this time. Burning as her hands caught the flame, too, scorching the skin of her hands and wrists until they'd gone black with corrupted ash.

She could barely stop herself regardless of the pain. With it came relief, of getting rid of a menace, of getting revenge. The Hand couldn't breathe through the sickness and the smoke but it didn't matter to her.

She was going to kill him.

@Purity

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

He had never known pain like this. Flames, flames, surged through his body, and he screamed with gurgling cries. He had gone too far. She gained control of her magic- the dragon's magic, and he felt like he was turning inside-out.

He could smell his flesh burning.

His pelt had begun to peel away, black Oil blood dripping from wounds flaring with entropic flames, curling about him and enveloping him whole. He was going to die here. Another wheeze, and he choked again, coughing blood and flame alike as the Oil within him caught fire. OUT, his mind ever so helpfully screamed, thousands of voices pounding in his bloody ears and consuming him whole.

All he could do was dig his paws in deeper, trying, struggling to get the hell out. 'I'm going to die here.' He couldn't chrysalize, not this far from the altar..! The magic- it felt like it was stifling him, and he wheezed out another painful cry as he could feel his flesh sticking together like tar.

There was no way out. She was going to make good on the promise of death today.

+1 [60]... but at what cost?

@Aethril

Purity writhed and all at once Aethril lost grip of him. The flames died out but the pain remained; her hands distinctly too black and blotchy in her peripheral vision for her own liking. She fell sideways; rolling onto her back with a wheeze.

She stopped caring what happened to Purity, all at once. If he ran, if he died, if he chrysalized right there-- it didn't matter. What mattered to Aethril was trying not to chrysalize herself.

It'd only been a week. She couldn't go back in there. She couldn't miss another five thousand years of her life to something stupid like losing her temper to an angry cat. Aethril wheezed.

She wheezed. Her eyes fluttered. Her hands hurt.

Stay awake, she told herself. Just stay awake.

@Purity + exit

Somehow- be it through the blood on her hands, or the overwhelming implosion from earlier, he'd escaped. He felt the pressure lifting and leaving entirely, and he wheezed out again, his lungs dead. He could not die. He had to make it.

Scrambling away, Purity kept his adrenaline going for as far as he could, launching himself out of the Gardens and aiming for Tunnel F.

He was dripping Oil the entire time. Would he even make it? Where was he going? He didn't know- he just needed to survive. Without looking back, he used every last ounce of energy to leave.

;exit purity to my blood on their sneakers