Voice in the Void

You were on the floor, your legs and ribs were hurting. There was a commotion around, something was happening, but right now all your senses screamed at you to retreat, to hide, to wait and regenerate. To stay out of danger.

You started to crawl away. Something fell right next to you, shattered on the floor in a place you had your hand just a second ago.

You decided to let your instinct guide you further. To trust it. The autopilot you were on held your head low, just below the wild swings that were happening above. Just below anything that was able to hurt you.

You were retreating until you felt you back hit a wall. Your muscles relaxed and you let them rest for a second. The foreign will, the survival instinct that guided you here disappeared.

"Thanks, Ishtar."

You mumbled.

Yeah, yeah, I saved your ass again. Now take a deep breath, because you will have to save her now.

You finally were able to look forward. The scene in front of you could make you question your own sanity.

A more than fully grown female lion was fiercely fighting with Khaj. You could only assume that Carmen somehow turned into this animal, that it was her battle form. And she actually did some damage. The false demon lord was missing several bits and pieces of his armour. Every swing of her claws was made with some insane for a normal human speed and **** Khaj into defense, denting his armour, and sometimes even tearing it apart.

"I think she is winning."

You say to Ishtar, but she just rolled her imaginary eyes.

Think again. Or watch.

"What do you mean?"

You asked confused. Carmen was clearly on offense there, making him retreat around the room, chasing him.

Look at her. She is not going to sustain that kind of effort for long. Khaj plays it strategically, conserves energy, so he can strike when she runs out of juice. He might not be a real demon, but he sure as hell thinks as one.

She showed you a few flashing images. Wolf showing it's fangs, eagle picking up it's prey, cat stretching it's claws.

You know what to do now. Finish it. You already know how.

You did know how.

Before shutting your eyes again, you managed to see that fight was now taking a bit more balanced approach. Khaj was attacking back, carefully, but from what you've seen, strongly enough to do stop the lioness in her tracks.

But the void...

It was still there. Waiting for you to take it. To command it. To suppress the unnatural forces, to turn off the surrounding magic. You could feel you were holding it. Grasping it in a closed fist.

You opened your eyes and saw the black aura starting to stretch from your hand, touching nearby painting, leaving a mark on it. Turning it into empty canvas.

It was natural for you. Like you always knew how to use it. Like an extension of your limbs. You stood up on shaky legs, and started to approach. The candles above you were dropping down whenever you took a step.

You looked at Carmen. She was wounded, and you could see that she couldn't fight him anymore. That she was delaying inevitable at this point.

"Khaj!."

You began when you were just a few steps away, and it was enough to bring both fighters attention.

"Eat that!"

You said and opened your fist.

Carmen had enough self preservation instincts to jump away and hide, right before hells unleashed.

Black thunderbolts started to stretch in all directions, twisting whatever they touched. The cracks started to show on the ceiling, the shelves around began to fall apart like they were aging incredibly fast, all the previously floating candles were now on the floor, and the ceiling started to be covered in bloody marks.

As for Khaj, he was being struck by the void over and over, but somehow he still held. His armour began to corrode, his eyes were losing the glow.

He tried getting to you, reaching for you, but every time he moved, another thunderbolt hit him, forcing him to step back. He knelt, and tried looking at you. His helmet just fell off. There was nothing inside except for the slowly dying light. And then he completely fell apart.

Khaj was most likely dead, the spell sustaining his will dispersed.

But it didn't mean you were out of the woods yet.

You couldn't move. It was like you were frozen in places stuck in your current position. The void was flowing through your body, immobilizing you, causing more and more damage around. You couldn't speak, you couldn't even think properly. You kept feeling that all that mattered was unleashing more of this deadly ****, to destroy thousands of spells and magic sources in this world. To end the poison of magic.

Carmen, already back in her normal, Chimera form, looked at you from the distance. You couldn't even move a muscle, to scream no at what she was about to do.

She ran at you with a smile on her face. Void struck her in the head, knocking away one of the draconic horns, like it was not a part of her body, but something just attached to it. But she kept moving. The black thunderbolts were repeatedly hitting her body, but she didn't seem to mind. Carmen was determined on reaching her target.

You.

She did it. You had no idea what would come next. Or what she will do. And certainly didn't expect what happened next.

She finished her mad approach with a single kiss. Straight into the lips.

You felt her body connect to yours in a single, intimate act. It lasted for about one second, but was enough to pull you away from the destructive power.

Carmen collapsed to the floor. The void was gone. You felt like you just went through the hardest work out of your life, but you could move again.

You immediately got to your knees, to check up on your friend.

And then you noticed it. All of the features of a monster girl that she had were gone. No wings, no fur, no scales, no tail, no horns...

You were holding in your arms a human woman.