[Rachel, our Eldritch MC!]

  The calming ambiance of the Greater Moon of Abundance filled Rachel with inner peace now that Aurora’s influence wasn’t causing chaos in her life. Powder floated around her as she sat on the terrace railing, legs crossed, leaning against the shimmering petals that had unfolded to reveal her new body.

  Her smile lingered on Baron Hrisu Heitinga as the fear entity returned the look. Riley’s claw materialized out of thin air, aiming for her throat, yet a single finger held up by his father froze the vampire.

  “That is enough.”

  “Father?” Aimee stepped through a rift in space, the fear vampire’s other children surrounding them. “We’d destroyed most of her roots. We are so close to forcing her to reveal the inner fear we sense. Mother?”

  The woman who had more or less watched her children savage Rachel’s clones on a balcony stepped forward to join her husband, a glass of wine instead of blood in her palm. Her long yellow eyelashes and blonde hair glowed under the moonlight.

  “Your dance with Aurora was quite enthralling, young hare. I especially love the part about the Personification of Victory. I was right, My Husband… She does not smell like the others, yet your taste for fear has fooled your nose into discounting it. I believe we have bigger issues to contend with now that the children have had their fun.”

  “I wouldn’t happen to be involved in those ‘bigger issues’ now, would I, Juliette?”

  Hrisu’s children hissed as darkness gathered, revealing the giant of an Eldritch fiend. Vyse’s cloak wasn’t spotless as two of his six eyes on his forehead observed the battle between his children, who were fighting the giant wolves; the Varcolac Twins weren’t fairing well, but the pair were providing room for Fang to get in some damage.

  Hrisu’s smile tightened at the atmosphere the Eldritch creature created. “Vyse, you would be one of those issues that must be addressed. One question would be…why has our dear Baroness Morgan yet to leave her room after we have made our exit? What say you?”

  It differed from the bone-chilling fear he and his children emanated; Vyse’s presence was like a shadow in the fog, present yet absent, and Rachel found it hard to focus on the entity, despite her wide field of vision.

  When she blinked, he sometimes had two arms, sometimes five, and his size fluctuated at random in the waves of cryptic energy he generated. Plant-like wings sprouted out of his back, splitting into shards of glass before melting and reforming into slitted eyes. Scales crawled down his arms before transforming into water that ran up his frame to shape into horns.

  Vyse’s mouth split in two, both lips curling into a smirk. “You know very well, Hrisu, which is why you had your children keep your dear hare busy so I would not intervene sooner. There is a threat that this hare knows and a threat we all have identified.”

  Rachel stretched her hands over her head, her light burning sensation bringing on a pleasurable groan as she glanced between the two barons. “You’re talking about Scarlet. And you didn’t show up until Aurora left, Vyse, so don’t try to hide behind Hrisu’s shadow. What makes Aurora so special for you to keep your distance?”

  “Sharp is the mind of the hare that guides misfortune,” Vyse whispered, fading away in a smog of darkness to rematerialize on the opposite side of her. His gaze trained heavenward to the bright celestial spheres above; the Crimson Moon was about to leave the terrace’s sight, but she had remaining roots in its light. “It is not only fear she hides, Hrisu… Be cautious of your wife’s plot, dear baron.”

  Juliette stepped closer to her husband, taking his arm, and glared at the imposter baron. “You are a poisonous one, Vine of the Arbor of Decay, was it? How long have you been spreading your roots within the Barony of Bruhl?”

  The Eldritch fiend abruptly returned to his handsome, tall facade, hands grasped at his front. “Is it not bad decorum to throw stones when one lives in a glass house, My Lady? There is a reason for Countess Elizabeth’s attention to this particular section within our world, or are you trying to hide the fact your family has worshiped the Fear Leeches of Calthrian Trench and bonded with them inside your bodies?”

  Chuckling as the Greater Moon of Abundance gave her a full picture of the battlefield devastating the eastern half of the city, Rachel observed the murderous grins that painted the faces of Hrisu’s children, hearing the wiggles from within their bodies. “What makes you think he is not Baron Vyse, Lady Juliette? He isn’t not Baron Vyse, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say he is Baron Vyse. When one descends into The Deep, one does not come out the same.”

  Whimpers came from behind her, and she saw Vyse’s children were now outgrowing the Kaiju-class wolf twins, their defenses not holding up as well as they had at the start of their fight. Red had been forced to retreat, and the Legend of Lycaon had been flung out to sea and was trying to get back onto the floating city.

  Uncrossing her legs, Rachel’s vision narrowed while glancing between the two fake barons. “Let me be blunt. Neither of you wants certain information to reach the God Emperor. Why don’t I tell you what I know…”

  She hopped off her flower, holding her elbow behind her back as she wove between parties. She spoke to each vampire as Vyse’s children stopped playing with their food.

  “I am well aware that none of us is well equipped to fight any of you barons or baronesses, much less your families. I might be one of…four, maybe five, or six individuals I’ve scouted out thus far who could pose a threat, should we use everything we have. Yet, only one of you is here for the right reasons… Baroness Morgan.”

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  Rachel paused in front of Hrisu. “A family who has forsaken their oaths to the God Emperor to join a fear cult of subterranean sea slugs that, ironically, came through a Crystal Gateway—just like us and the Vine of the Arbor of Decay.”

  Expertly balancing while twisting on her heel to face Juliette, Rachel’s smile grew as claws materialized through her chest, crushing her heart. The Crimson Moon’s light left the terrace, and a pulse of venom was injected into her plant nexus that would have spread insanity—Hrisu’s claws—yet Rachel’s smile only grew.

  “Too soon!” she winked.

  [Lunar Spike: Greater Harvest Moon - Activated]

  [Lunar Spike - Advanced to E-tier]

  [35 Seconds Remaining]

  “Agh!” Hrisu’s hand instantly retracted, carrot-colored flames bathing his skin. “Where did you get that information?”

  “Father!”

  “That fear…”

  “What potency…”

  “My Lord,” his wife grimaced, concentrating on Juliette’s face as she slid her fingers down her husband’s arm, sweeping the fire off to fall on the terrace’s ruby floor. “Frostbite and burn marks? Cursed flames of ice and fire…”

  A second swipe from Aimee phased right through her face as she giggled, her need for the Crimson Moon no longer required; as powerful as it was, the Greater Harvest Moon, like the Greater Moon of Abundance, was on a whole different level than the Crimson sphere, just now out of sight.

  [Fright of the Greater Harvest Moon: Active]

  [Horror Embodiment VI - Become the embodiment of horror, spreading the concept and conveyance of fear to those who see the user, warping their perception of who they face.]

  [Fear-Dependent Immortality IV - The user cannot be harmed so long as the user’s prey fears them.]

  [Hallow’s Eve Trail VI - Become one with the twisted Harvest, discovering paths unseen and enjoying the company of the cursed and damned.]

  [Psychosis Inducement VI - Twist the minds of those you torment to join the Harvest, breaking their thoughts, inducing paranoia, and spreading terror whenever perceived by the user’s prey.]

  [Cursed Frostfire VI - Frostfire that refuses to be extinguished, slowly burning its victims while tormenting and corrupting the victim’s mind. Deals frostfire damage.]

  The haunting chimes of the organ and instruments warped as her Feats took effect, bringing a Halloween chill to the haunting night. A tense stillness followed, with seconds feeling like minutes as the heightened sense of fear resonated in her.

  Rachel’s ears, tail, and locks were dyed pumpkin-and-vermilion-orange. Cursed flames lit in her golden eclipse eyes, overtaking the flower design that had occupied them before spreading across their hair.

  The clicking of music boxes and the cackling of hidden night fiends filled the sky, an oppressive stillness to contrast the sounds of the thrashing wolves, their howls dying in an instant. She felt Coral dancing in the waves fed to the bun, Nia transforming to support Scarlet.

  Enhanced by the Greater Moon of Abundance and protected by its restorative embrace, Rachel felt utterly invincible. Fear was her home, terror was her sweet tooth, and the nightmare was hers to command.

  Holding up her hand, Rachel’s cursed eyes glinted with inner light as she examined her painted candy-corn fingernails. The sound of the wind enhanced, whistling past the vampire’s ears as the music of the night brought a sway to her step.

  “Fear is…an interesting emotion,” she whispered, focusing on the grinning Eldritch horror. “Can you call yourselves true worshipers of horror…if you fear something yourself?”

  Hrisu’s face paled, and he dropped to one knee, his wife shivering before following her husband, and their children were swift to join them.

  “God Emperor, forgiveness! I…was not aware that you would join the hunt for the Countess!”

  “Clever, clever hare,” Vyse mused, the vampires totally enthralled by their own interpretation of her by the Greater Harvest Moon. “All you needed to do was discover what they truly feared, and then you’d won. The Greater Moon of Abundance has served you well.”

  Ignoring him for the moment, Rachel turned her attention to the trembling baron and his family. Their slugs’ cheap imitation of the True Hallows Eve was dominated by the pure essence of horror she channeled. “I know everything, Baron Hrisu… Know that when you feel a gaze upon your back, it is me. The peasant you set your eyes upon… Me… Your wife when you are alone together in the privacy of your chambers… I am there, as well. Your task is to support Rachel…for you know who I am.”

  “Your will is the will of the collective, God Emperor!”

  Rachel reached down to draw him up, a malicious twinkle in her flaming eyes as she inserted herself as the greatest fear in his mind. “Your task…stop the battle between the House of Bruhl and the wolves. Support the population. Help them find sanctuary from the slaughter… Kill all those who would harm them. This, your God Emperor commands!”

  “There is no need for such conflict,” Vyse said, and in an instant, his warped children were behind him, half-twisted into the corrupted vines that ran deep below the bloody ocean’s waves. “And thus, the prophecy is fulfilled, and we may proceed.”

  “Prophecy?” Rachel repeated, waving her hand to dismiss the terrified Heitinga family before [Lunar Spike] ran its course. “Go on, entertain and twist me in your Truths.”

  A maddening surge resonated between the Arbor’s children, excitement bubbling within them as the hidden deep horrors spoke to one another.

  “When Fear tames Fear,

  “The First Seal breaks.

  “The Blood Sea descends,

  “Misfortune dies.”

  [Fright of the Greater Harvest Moon: Deactivated]

  Her grin faded, and with the ominous, silent smiles the Eldritch fiends displayed, she had to make a choice. Aurora’s warning plucked at her brain, and Rachel didn’t hesitate.

  [Lunar Spike: Black Moon - Activated]

  Little did she know how critical that action was. Time and space froze as she stepped outside of its flow, bypassing any time restriction the Feat had. A wealth of knowledge far beyond the Greater Moon of Abundance gripped her soul—the Truth of this Eldritch prophecy. Through Cerridwen’s flaming jeweled eye, she saw Scarlet open the front door and step out into the storm.

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