Two quick strikes, barely visible in the dark, and his arms ended up several feet away from the rest of him.
Blood soaked into the grass.
He was still alive. Still conscious.
Luna approached without hurrying, each step quiet on the wet ground. She stopped beside him and looked down with the mild, unhurried attention of someone examining something that had already been decided.
Nicolas looked up at her.
In the moonlight, her eyes were worse than he'd realized, violet deep as bruises, cut through by burning crimson slits that had no business existing in any living thing's face.
"Plea—"
She crouched and placed her hand against his chest. But he didn't have time to react to that, not because he didn't want to, but because he felt something else.
Something stir behind her.
A presence, like a door that hadn't existed moments before, shimmered into being just behind Luna. Its edges were faint, almost intangible, like a mirage, but he could feel it.
"Corruption Chain."
