Chương 58: 57: Amalgation II

/// Katherine stared into the creature's hollow eyes, hatred burning so fiercely it eclipsed fear. Tears streamed down her face. Her whole body shook. She'd rather die. She'd rather die than let this thing be the one to kill her. If she died... maybe she'd see Butter again. Maybe the good experiments went somewhere better. Maybe Butter was waiting. She hoped so. A broken sob escaped her before she lunged forward and sank her teeth into the massive hand covering her mouth. CRUNCH! She bit with everything she had.

It was like biting solid steel. Amalgation looked down.

"... Oh dear." Its fingers tightened. Her ribs groaned. Pain exploded through her body, her scream smothered beneath its palm as she convulsed.

"Shhh... Don't be scared." It stroked the side of her head almost gently. She cried harder. Hated it more. If it wanted her alive... Fine. She wouldn't let it. With everything she had left, Katherine hurled her head sideways, trying to snap her own neck against its grip. It didn't budge.

"... No, no," Amalgation chuckled.

"You're not escaping that easily." Her body trembled harder and harder until even her eyes began to shake. Tiny silver fractures spread through her irises like shattered glass. Blood welled from their corners before crimson tears streamed down her face. Amalgation's smile faltered.

"... Goodness." The fractures widened. Cobalt light ignited within them. The corridor trembled. KRRRRRMMMMM... Violent streams of cobalt energy erupted across Katherine's body. Amalgation recoiled.

"... What are you...?" BOOOOOM! The explosion of cobalt force tore Katherine free from its grasp. The towering Abomination was hurled backward, instinctively releasing her as the energy coursed around her like a living storm. Katherine landed in a crouch, blood and crimson tears dripping onto the fractured floor. She looked up.

"Exclamation mark." Her foot drove upward. The kick landed.! The symbol emphasized it. Amalgation's eyes bulged. The impact launched the towering Abomination off its feet. It folded around the blow, wheezing as it skipped across the corridor before crashing through fractured stone and skidding to a halt beneath a rain of broken masonry. It lay there for a moment. Silent.

"... What...?" One hand planted against the floor. Then another. It staggered upright, its stitched body swaying as fresh flesh crawled over bruised muscle. Hollow eyes remained fixed on Katherine, no longer amused. Confused.

"... That..." It touched its own chest, staring at the fresh dent in its stitched flesh.

"... That should not have occurred." Katherine didn't answer. She was still trembling. Every muscle quivered uncontrollably. Blood continued to stream from the corners of her eyes, pattering onto the shattered concrete. Her breathing refused to steady. Silver fractures spread through her irises as cobalt light seeped from somewhere impossibly deep. She looked less like someone standing...... and more like someone refusing to fall. Her fingers slowly curled into fists.

"... I don't care..." Her voice shook. Whether from grief. Exhaustion. Or fury... Even she no longer knew.

"... I don't care if you're an Abomination." The creature watched in silence.

"... I don't care if you're the Devil himself." Another tear of blood rolled down her cheek. Her body shuddered again. Yet somehow... She stepped forward. Each footfall echoed through the ruined corridor.

"... You ate my friend." Her jaw clenched until it trembled.

"... So listen carefully." She pointed a shaking finger at Amalgation.

"... Neither of us..." Her voice broke. She swallowed. Then screamed with everything she had left.

"... IS LEAVING THIS PLACE!" Silence swallowed the corridor. Even Amalgation said nothing. Katherine lowered her hand, shoulders still shaking, blood dripping steadily from her eyes. She stared at the stitched monster with an expression stripped of everything except resolve.

"One of us dies here."

"... And it won't be Butter again." Silence lingered. Katherine didn't move. Blood dripped steadily from the corners of her eyes, each crimson drop tapping against the fractured floor. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. She breathed once. Her enhanced perception unfolded. A heartbeat stretched...... into minutes. Ellipsis omitted. Onomatopoeia manifested. Quotation marks redefined. Exclamation amplified. Only fragments. Language was infinitely larger.

Every story she'd ever read. Every sentence she'd ever spoken. Every word humanity had ever written. They all obeyed rules. Grammar. Syntax. Meaning itself. There had to be another. Another rule. Another piece she could grasp. She closed her eyes for less than a millisecond. To the world...... she simply stood there. To Katherine...... hours passed. She tore through every memory she possessed, every book she'd ever loved, every lesson she'd ever ignored, searching language itself for anything... Anything......

that could kill an immortal monster. What else can language do? The answer came from a memory. When Butter had spoken "Perpendosi," the darkness had risen like liquid silk. Katherine had barely understood what she was witnessing then. Now... She only needed the idea. A trembling hand lifted.

"Personification." The corridor answered. Amalgation's shadow twitched. The stitched creature frowned.

"... Pardon?" Its shadow peeled itself from the floor and stood, a perfect black silhouette with burning white eyes. Amalgation took an involuntary step back.

"... That should not be possible." The shadow regarded it for a single heartbeat. Then it attacked. CRAAASH! The impact detonated through the corridor. The shadow fought like something finally freed after centuries of imprisonment. Black fists hammered stitched flesh while Amalgation cried out in confusion, its own shadow ignoring every command.

"You belong to ME!" BLAAAM! Another punch. It dropped to all fours and hurled itself forward, limbs bending at impossible angles as it repeatedly crashed into Amalgation with reckless, inhuman fury. Its shrieks became banshee wails, long, piercing cries that rattled Katherine's bones and split the walls. It slammed its head into Amalgation's chest, battered it with wild punches, then seized it and smashed them both through the floor and walls again and again. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The corridor trembled beneath every impact. Katherine stumbled back, shielding her face as the shockwaves bruised her skin. Amalgation had shattered Sonata. Sonata had only been operating at one percent, yet still possessed planetary durability. Her stomach twisted. This thing was monstrous. If it hadn't wanted to torture her for its own amusement, she'd already be dead. She had to kill it. The cobalt energy coursing through her made more of her body feel like dream-stuff, less human with every passing second.

If the end result was death... She'd embrace it. As long as the Abomination died too. — Amalgation crashed through another wall as its own shadow hurled it across the corridor. Bones shattered. Flesh stitched itself together. Again. Again. Katherine's thoughts raced. Think. English... Come on... There has to be something... Another memory surfaced. A figure of speech. A whole represented by only a part. Her fractured eyes widened.

"Synecdoche." The word settled over Amalgation. Its body became only part of itself. Its strength diminished to a fraction. Its regeneration returned only fragments of what had been lost. Every passing instant reapplied the concept. The whole... Reduced to a part. CRAAACK! The shadow drove another fist into its face. Blue blood sprayed across the corridor.

"NOOO!" Amalgation tried to regenerate. The wounds crawled shut. Only partially. For the first time... It wasn't enough. Its stitched face twisted into something primal.

"AAAAAAARRRGHHHHH!!" Light erupted from its body, flooding both arms until the corridor glowed blood-red. The aura surged violently through the floor, raced into the living shadow, then detonated. BOOOOM! The shadow tore apart into ribbons of screaming darkness that scattered across the corridor before dissolving into nothing. Amalgation's chest heaved. Its eyes found Katherine. They widened with naked, animalistic rage.

"... You have inconvenienced me for the final time." A guttural snarl escaped its throat as all four hands slammed into the stone.

"I shall tear your limbs away one by one. I shall ensure you remain conscious for every moment. When I am finished, even death will seem a mercy you were denied." Katherine's shaking hand slowly rose into a fist.

"... Come on, then." Amalgation smiled.

"Brave." It began crawling toward her with horrifying speed, limbs hammering against the floor in a blur, stitched flesh tearing and restitching with every movement as crimson light burned around its blackened hands. Its outline rippled. The air shimmered. Then it disappeared. Katherine didn't panic.

"Spineless coward." She closed her eyes. Her hearing sharpened as her accelerated perception took over. She listened to the air itself. The punch split the atmosphere before it landed, the displaced air carving invisible paths she could follow. There. She moved before the first blow arrived. Pure rage carried her forward.

"Hyperbole." Her fist connected, and reality exaggerated it. The blow no longer landed like flesh. It struck like a wrecking ball swung by an angry god. BLAAAAAAAM! Amalgation only staggered. One step, then another. It glanced down at the dent caved into its chest before slowly lifting its eyes back to Katherine. She froze. That... That only staggered it? Even after reducing its strength. Again, and again. Her stomach tightened. It was far stronger than she'd imagined.

The stitched monster lunged, one crimson fist crashing toward her.

"Understatement!" The word settled over reality. THOOM! Instead of blasting through her chest, the punch landed like a brutally hard blow to the stomach.

"HNGH!" The air burst from Katherine's lungs. Amalgation's hollow eyes widened.

"... You were not...?" Its voice faltered with genuine confusion.

"Why were you not misaligned?" Pain ripped through Katherine's ribs, but she stayed on her feet. Gritting her teeth, she planted her feet, twisted her hips, and drove her entire weight through the punch, just as she'd seen Butter do. THOOM! Shockwaves ripped through the corridor. Katherine had to rise onto her tiptoes to reach. Her fist crashed into its jaw. The impact nearly knocked it unconscious.

Amalgation staggered backward several steps, its shimmering outline collapsing as it flickered fully back into visibility. One hand rose to its jaw, more from shock than pain. It rubbed the swelling slowly, almost appreciatively, chuckling through split lips.

"Such a feisty little thing..." Its smile widened.

"So wonderfully wild." The voice wasn't singular. An old man rasped beneath a little girl's giggle, rasping together like damp paper dragged across stone. Katherine paid it no mind. Its speed... Had become an understatement too. It wasn't slow. It was simply manageable. For the first time, she could react. As she threw each punch, her accelerated perception replayed Butter's movements like footage in her mind. Footwork. Hip rotation. Timing. Elbows tucked. Shoulders loose.

Every exchange became another lesson, another correction, as though she were living through a training arc in the middle of the fight itself. Their fists collided. Another clash. Another. CRAAASH! Every collision blasted compressed air through the corridor, cracking stone beneath their feet and rattling the walls. Bruises bloomed across Katherine's arms and shoulders with each exchange, but she refused to yield.

"Ellipsis." She disappeared. Amalgation's next punch tore through empty space. Katherine reappeared behind it, the omitted motion resolving as if she'd sprinted across the corridor and hurled herself into the air, both hands clasping her feet as both knees crashed into the back of its skull. The impact buried its face in the floor. Agony exploded through her hips. Her waist nearly folded from the recoil.

"Ghh...!" She almost collapsed. No. She wanted this. She needed to beat it. Amalgation shrieked, all four arms whipping upward. Katherine leapt, catching two wrists with her hands while her legs intercepted the remaining pair. BOOOM! Another shockwave tore through the corridor as the creature drove harder, its overwhelming strength threatening to fold her in half.

"... What precisely is your plan after this absurd little display?" Amalgation asked, steadily forcing her backward.

"Did you truly believe this would stop me?" Katherine gritted her teeth.

"HERCULEAN!" Power surged through her body. Every muscle swelled beneath the impossible strain as she forced its arms farther apart, then spat directly into its eyes.

"AAARGH!" The creature recoiled instinctively, staggering backward in fury. Katherine never released her grip. She yanked it toward herself instead. Planting both feet atop the two arms she held, she sprang upward and drove both knees beneath its jaw. THOOOM! Blood burst from Amalgation's mouth as its neck snapped with a sickening CRACK! The towering Abomination was ripped clean off its feet and slammed onto its back hard enough to crater the corridor. Understatement had dulled its blows.

Hyperbole had magnified hers. Now Herculean tipped the scales entirely. Katherine felt as though she could juggle mountains. Amalgation's punches, once overwhelming, now felt almost insignificant against her body. But she felt the cost too. Each word she invoked took another piece of her, replacing flesh and self with dream-stuff. She didn't care. Katherine landed on top of it and screamed.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" Her fists rained down. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. THOOM! THOOM! THOOM! Each blow blasted Amalgation deeper into the fractured floor, the crater widening with every impact. It threw its arms over its face. Bone cracked. Flesh split. Blue blood sprayed between its fingers as every punch tore through its guard. Katherine's knuckles burst open. Bruises spread across her forearms. She didn't stop.

"LOOK AT ME!" THOOOM!

"LOOK AT ME WHEN I KILL YOU!" She kept swinging. THOOOM! THOOOM! THOOOM!

"I SAID LOOK AT ME, YOU UGLY BASTARD!" Amalgation suddenly lurched upward. Its hands seized her before she could react, and it hurled itself backward in a brutal German suplex. Her neck rushed toward the stone. Her hands shot down. BOOOOOOM! They struck the floor a heartbeat before her skull did. The corridor cratered beneath her palms as her arms absorbed the impact.

"NGH!" Amalgation's maw yawned open as rows of shovel-like teeth bit into her abdomen. Katherine flexed every muscle in her core. The teeth dug in, drawing blood, but couldn't fully pierce through. She answered with a barrage of elbows. THUD! THUD! THUD! Cracks spread wider across its skull. Snarling, she clawed at the crown of its head, fingers digging between splitting seams as she tried to tear the creature apart with her bare hands. Amalgation abandoned the struggle. It gave up trying to bite through her.

Instead, still gripping her, it sprang upright and began to spin faster and faster until Katherine became nothing but a blur. Then... It let go. She became a missile tearing toward the far wall.

"Irony." Reality reversed the joke. Instead of flying away, her trajectory inverted. She rocketed straight back toward Amalgation, both legs snapping forward. THOOOM! Her twin-footed kick folded the stitched creature in half. A colossal shockwave erupted outward, splintering the corridor from wall to wall. Amalgation blasted through layer after layer of stone before crashing into a heap of twitching limbs. Bones cracked throughout its body. Organs had been pulped. Its regeneration struggled to keep up.

Flesh still knitted together, but far more slowly than before. Injuries that would normally disappear in moments would now take minutes to heal into little more than bruises. Katherine wouldn't give it minutes.