Damon squatted down, peering out the cracked window at the decaying, unassuming building cloaked in mold and shattered in places. Its glass panes, though mostly intact, revealed the broken tables and chairs inside—along with a few skeletons. Ancient fossilized corpses—some human, some beast. Zaci's Sweets must have been quite a prosperous business in Lysithara's heyday, considering it spanned three floors and was quite large… He glanced at the window, debating whether to use Shadow Perception. He had come to learn that his spatial awareness wasn't undetectable—some entities could tell when they were being watched. Hell, even his own party had begun developing a nascent ability to sense when something was observing them. Valarie pursed her lips. The delicate pair of lips rested on his shoulder. "Hmmmm… I suppose this place didn't survive the fall either… We used to come here a lot—Vathren and I—when we were children… well before he became city lord." Damon steadied his breath, winded from all the running. Evangeline glanced at the lips on his shoulder. "You knew the city lord since you were children?" Valarie's lips parted, then closed again, as if dragging back half-forgotten memories. "Yes… he was my cousin. We… grew up together. Not all of us were originally from Lysithara, though. Being a hotbed of knowledge, a lot of people moved in and out of the city… it was a cultural hub. Things that were found and created in Lysithara spread across the world in no time…" Damon and the others listened quietly. "That… soon led to the fall of our world. Even bad things could spread fast." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖 Leona looked at the lips that seemed to slum slightly, weighed down by what they recalled. "I'm sorry…" Valarie's lips twitched. "Why are you sorry? It's not your fault. It was our own hubris…" She paused, her lips trembling slightly. "I shudder to think that we could've saved our city… if we—or our city lord—had made one cruel decision…" Damon narrowed his eyes. Was she implying there was a way they could've saved Lysithara? Sylvia's grey eyes flicked toward her. "How?" Valarie's lips curled into a thin smile. "I've forgotten many things… but oddly enough, I can't forget that day. It was right over there—on the top VIP floor of Zaci's Sweets." "We had found a way to save Lysithara. Just… one decision. Everyone knew it." She sighed—even without a physical body, only her lips remaining. "Why didn't you?" Xander asked, his eyes barely visible under his helm. Valarie's voice was tired… as one would expect from a soul sealed for thousands of years. "My… the city lord… Vathren didn't agree. He was prepared to fight us all if he had to. But we believed in him. We followed his judgment… even if the future looked bleak." Damon's eyes narrowed. He recalled Alazard, the Mist Knight, regaining a shred of will. Even consumed by rot, he had raged about the city lord's decision. "Victory demands sacrifice…" he muttered. "Yes," Valarie whispered. "What was the sacrifice?" Matia asked. She understood sacrifice—she'd given up her wings to save Damon. Sometimes, sacrifices were necessary. Valarie pressed her lips together. "The gate was open. We succeeded first… and we were the first to face the consequences. The battles grew increasingly dire. While the visitors were enemies of our world, not all of them were on one side. We struck deals with some… forging the Ascendant Armors to fight the more twisted ones—the ones that spread rot and corruption…" She fell silent, as if struggling to recall something she'd wished to keep buried but didn't dare forget. Her voice trembled with pain. "We found a way. It was a simple sacrifice… We only had to let half of the population die. In truth, we knew it was just slaughter… It was going to be random. Anyone could be chosen. And we would win." "It was a small sacrifice… to save our home, our glorious city. But Vathren… he refused." Damon could feel the weight in her voice. That was a difficult choice—kill half the population to save the rest… or let all die fighting for their city. There was no winning. If they sacrificed half, even if it was random, everyone would've lost someone. But if they fought together… maybe they wouldn't have lost. Maybe. But they had. Standing now in the ruins of the once-glorious city, the outcome was clear. They lost. And now, most of the people were corrupted—monsters who had once been men. Valarie was quiet. Then she continued. "At first, we believed we could win. The Ascendant Armors gave us immunity… forged using the secret techniques of the outsiders, from a place they called the Crystal Palace. We truly thought we could win. We had the magic. The knowledge. More than that… we had the will." She scoffed, mocking their arrogance. "We watched our people slowly lose their sanity. Our soldiers began to break… watching comrades turn into monsters. Forced to raise their blades against former friends… We fought enemies within and without." The sorrow in her voice reached their wary hearts. Once, they had treated her like just a strange pair of lips—an oddity in an ancient ruin. But she had been a person. Just like them. "Soon… they fell into despair. We shouldn't have welcomed the visitors —or believed them. But not all of them were evil. Still, our people wanted someone to blame. Someone to pay for their losses… for the fall of their home." Damon bit his lip. He could tell where this was heading. "They pointed their fingers at Vathren. Soon, their blades. But he was too powerful. He loved this city more than anyone… He couldn't bring himself to accept what had happened. So he went mad…" "…Mugu—that wretch—tricked him." Damon's hands clenched. This Mugu again… that name kept surfacing, as if he had singlehandedly changed the course of the world. Why…? She sighed. "He disappeared for a time.. after he returned. He was… something else. We were stripped of our Ascendant Armors… and I don't know what became of us after. But Vathren… he sealed me under that cathedral. Unwilling to kill me. Even corrupted…" There was a low agony in her voice. "Chained… the rot spread into my form. And killed me. It was slow… agonizing. I resisted for a years… but without the armor… even my will succumbed." Damon bit his lip. Her tale was bitter. Miserable. Lysithara was in ruins now… how did she feel, knowing all she fought for had crumbled? They were quiet. Then Valarie's lips curled into a smile as of the pain was nothing to her. "Don't worry… My successors, the ones who inherited the Ascendant Armors… I will make sure you don't end up like us." She paused. Her voice turned cold. "Let's start by killing… that corrupted abomination that still thinks it's a knight of Lysithara."