"Do you think we're ready for this?"

The aged man asked, his silver hair swept back with aristocratic precision.

His attire gleamed, silk embroidered with threads of diamond, each movement scattering light like stars.

For anyone from the outskirts, the sight alone was enough to steal the breath from their lungs.

It certainly did from hers.

People called her Skunk—a cruel nickname for a child with uneven strands of black and white hair.

No name, no family. Just a blemish in an orphanage that smelled of old bread and candle wax.

"Of course, darling," said the woman beside him. Her voice was soft, perfumed with grace.

"We've discussed this again and again. After her death…" she paused, sorrow briefly touching her golden eyes, "it's too quiet. I miss the laughter."

The girl stared at her, the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen.

Her hair flowed like molten gold, her dress a cascade of red silk and diamond petals that shimmered like roses under sunlight.

Everything about her glowed with warmth, with life.

"Alright," the man said finally, his tone decisive. "Let's do this."

The lady turned toward the small girl crouched in the corner. "How about her? What's your name, little one?"

The girl blinked, uncertain. She pointed to herself. "M–me? Um… Skunk?"

The couple laughed lightly. Perhaps they thought it was a joke. It wasn't. It was the only name she'd ever known.

The orphanage keeper shuffled forward, looking uneasy. "Ah, she's… not quite normal, My Lord. Perhaps it's best to pick another. Her hair, well…" he lowered his voice to a whisper that still carried, "it's said to bring misfortune."

The woman frowned. "Nonsense."

She knelt down, her scent of roses filling the girl's world. "It's just hair and a beautiful one at that."

She brushed a stray lock from the girl's face and smiled. "How about Fleur? Because you are as lovely as a flower, dear."

Fleur.

The word struck her like sunlight. It was the first time someone had spoken her into existence with kindness. The first time she felt seen.

And yet how cruel that memory felt now. As her savior now turns into a monster.

.

.

.

"Ugh, wake up! What's her name again?!"

"It's Fleur! I think we should move now!"

A man's voice, sharp with panic. A woman's voice, frantic but trembling with relief.

They echoed in her skull like church bells in a hangover, impossible to ignore.

Fleur's lashes fluttered. Her head throbbed. For a moment, she couldn't remember where she was until the memory hit her like a hammer.

The fight. The vines. Sarah.

Her eyes snapped open, and she shot upright, gasping as pain tore through her abdomen. A hole in her stomach, half-regenerated, still raw and burning.

"Damn it…" she hissed, clutching the wound. "What the hell was in that potion?!"

"I don't think that's important right now!" Lulu shouted, pointing upward.

A shadow fell over them. A vine thicker than a carriage wheel came crashing down like a hammer of God.

The three scattered just in time, the impact splintering the earth beneath them. Dirt and petals exploded into the air.

Sarah's laughter rang through the maze, shrill and distorted, echoing from everywhere at once. The walls of roses pulsed like veins, alive with her power.

"Come to me, my daughter!" Sarah's voice sang through the air, maddened and sweet.

"Don't you wish to finish what you started? Kill your mother, you ungrateful little weed!"

"Tch…" Fleur clicked her tongue, rage simmering behind her grimace. "That damn hag…"

She darted between the twisting roots, her boots splashing through green puddles as she scanned the distorted garden. There has to be a core. There's always a core.

That was how the Crow worked. Everything these Corvane freaks made had one, something pulsing at the heart of their corruption.

"Why is it always a core?" she snarled, slashing through a vine that lunged at her face.

"Fuck, Corvane!"

Fleur hissed, clutching her side as another vine tore through the ground like a serpent.

She rolled aside just in time, the vine slamming into the wall with enough force to crack the stone.

Dirt exploded around her, raining down in clumps.

"Both of you, split up! Don't let it corner you!" she barked.

"Easy for you to say!" David shouted back as another vine swung down like a hammer.

He dove, nearly crushed as it shattered the ground where he stood.

Lulu's voice trembled, "Fleur! It's everywhere!"

The maze was alive now: every root, every leaf pulsing with Sarah's malice. Fleur could feel it crawling under her skin, the bloodlust in the air, her mother's laughter echoing from every direction.

"Oh come now, sweetheart," Sarah's voice cooed, slithering from the vines like poison smoke.

"You can't fight me in my own garden. This maze listens to me."

Fleur bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. She had a way to end this, but it meant burning all her Sanguine Veins, losing her power temporarily in the process.

"You two, listen to me."

David and Lulu turned toward her as she continued, her voice steady despite the tension.

"Don't let those vines reach me from either side. I just need two minutes!"

"What?! Are you insane? That's impossible!" Lulu shouted, panic breaking through her tone.

"We don't have a choice, do we?" David said, already bracing himself for the fight.

Fleur shook her head. "No. Let's do this, I'm trusting my body to both of you."

Both of them nodded and drew their weapons—David with his blade, Lulu with her dagger—as they slashed and sliced through the vines that came their way.

Meanwhile, Fleur knelt down, pressing her hands against the ground.

Her veins pulsed out from her skin, forming a powerful barrier so Sarah couldn't strike her from below.

The rest of her veins spread rapidly across the soil, searching for Sarah's "brain," latching onto the roots like hunters.

Some tendrils even attacked the nerves of the vines, sending waves of pain through them to weaken her control.

A piercing scream tore through the garden as the ground trembled beneath them.

"YOU! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!" Sarah shrieked, her voice shaking the air.

"I WON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS! NEVER!"

The soil split open as massive buds burst from the earth, blooming into grotesque monsters of twisted vines and thorns.

They began to advance toward Fleur. David and Lulu froze for a heartbeat, their throats dry, before gripping their weapons tighter.

"Lulu," David said firmly, his tone low and steady despite the chaos, "keep your head down and stay behind me. Guard my back."

Lulu nodded nervously. She knew this was suicide. David was already wounded and though stronger than any ordinary man, he was still just human.

And her? She hadn't even evolved yet.

The monsters didn't come alone, Sarah's laughter came with them..

"Huh, a human and vampire shield? Interesting. But you won't be able to defeat my garden! Just give up and give Fleur to me!"

David gritted his teeth. "Shut up," he growled, slashing a vine that lunged from the side.

His sword cut through it with a metallic hiss. The creature burst into sap and petals that smelled like rotting perfume.

"David!" Lulu shouted, spinning to block a thorned tendril.

Her dagger glinted before she sliced it clean, but another monster rose behind her, a humanoid mass of roses and bark, its mouth opening with a shriek that didn't sound human.

Lulu's clone intercepted, jumping onto its back and driving both daggers down its spine until it fell apart, twitching.

Sarah's voice purred again, distant yet everywhere.

"Ah, look at you! A man with a dying body and a child still pretending to be useful. Such brave, foolish toys. Do you think you can protect her?"

"Keep talking," David muttered, his breathing ragged.

He swung again, cleaving through another flower beast. His movements were sharp, efficient, but slower than before.

The blood leaking from his wound darkened the fabric at his stomach and added to the fact that he was just fighting with Elle…

He was at his limit.

Lulu darted across the field, her clones splitting into four now, each one fending off a different monster.

She couldn't tell which one was real anymore; all of them bled the same, screamed the same, fought the same.

"Left!" David shouted, but it was too late. One of her clones got impaled through the chest by a vine and vanished into mist.

Lulu gasped, "They're multiplying too fast! This isn't working!"

"Then make it work!" he barked back, slicing down another.

His blade carved a perfect arc, severing three at once, but his knees buckled slightly after.

The ground heaved beneath them. Roots erupted like spears, aiming straight for Fleur.

David threw himself forward, cutting down one—then another—until his arm trembled.

Sarah laughed again, sweet and cruel.

"You're slowing down, little knight. Shall I finish you before she even opens her eyes?"

"Try it, bitch," David spat, wiping the blood from his mouth.

He swung his sword one last time—faster than before, adrenaline drowning the pain—cutting a path for Lulu.

But as soon as he took a step forward, a thick vine burst from the soil beneath him and impaled his stomach, reopening the old wound and twisting cruelly.

David's breath hitched. His blade slipped from his fingers.

Lulu screamed, "David!" as more vines coiled around him like snakes, dragging him backward into the thorns.

Sarah's voice sang through the air, low and delighted.

"One down," she whispered, "two more to bloom."

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