Evelyn completely collapsed under the weight of her own words. The terrifying, unyielding Guardian of the Ravine vanished entirely, replaced by a broken child sobbing in the dark. The blue-green bioluminescence at the tips of her hair flared erratically, and glowing, liquid bio-slime tears streamed down her cheeks, illuminating her face in the shadows.
Looking at her through the purple eyes of my stolen form, the resemblance struck me with a sudden, painful clarity. Beneath the slime bodysuit and the rare jade-green eyes, her underlying facial structure looked exactly like our brother, a female form of Elias. She was, without a doubt, a Rynd.
This was entirely too much trauma for a six-year-old soul trapped inside an S-rank, eighteen-year-old apex predator's body.
Ignoring the grinding ache in my shattered ribs and the severe tear in my abdomen, I forced my right hand to move. I uncoiled myself from the stone floor, using every ounce of my remaining physical strength to reach out. I grabbed both of her trembling hands and pulled her down into a fierce, unyielding hug.
Our organic, latex-like slime bodysuits hissed softly as they pressed together, her noticeably larger breasts crushing directly against mine. I didn't care about the tightness of the suits, the cold texture of the slime, or the lingering scent of mining tar. I just wrapped my lone remaining arm around her shoulders, holding her against my chest as if I could shield her from the last six years of horrors.
"Hush... stop crying, It's not your fault, Evelyn. None of it is your fault." I whispered softly, Oksana's deep, stolen voice softening into a gentle, maternal rhythm. I rocked her gently in the dark of the secluded cave.
Evelyn buried her face into the crook of my neck, her entire frame shaking with violent, erratic sobs. Her biological chest core hummed an erratic, grieving note against my ribs.
"Sister, no... I'm a monster! I nearly killed you out there in the ravine! If I hadn't activated my sixth sense at the very last second, my own human sister would be dead by my hands! I've killed so many people, Eirene... innocent soldiers, miners, explorers who stumbled into these lower tiers... I consumed them all. I'm a murderer!" she cried out, her voice cracking in pure, agonizing guilt.
The raw, bleeding confession tore at my heart. She had been brainwashed by a building-sized parasite since the day she was cut from our mother's womb. She hadn't chosen this life, she was a victim of the abyss, weaponized against the very world she belonged to.
I tightened my grip, burying my face into her thick brown hair, ignoring the stinging hiss of the bioluminescent slime at the tips.
"It's alright, Evelyn... big sister is here, it's alright. You are not a monster. You were just a baby trapped in the dark. Big sister has you now, and I'm not letting go." I murmured over and over, letting my own tears fall into her hair
Evelyn's body suddenly stiffened in my embrace. The soft, sorrowful humming of her chest core sharply spiked into a high-pitched, vibrating frequency. She pulled back from the hug, her voluptuous eighteen-year-old frame separating from mine as her large breasts stopped pressing directly against my tight, latex-like slime bodysuit.
Her twin jade-green eyes dilated, flashing with a sudden, devastating wave of clarity that cut right through six years of collective hive-mind brainwashing.
"It's... it's not my fault, Master... Master is the one who used me! He deceived me! He forced me to guard this hellhole and turn my weapons against my very own sister... I nearly killed big sister... and he... he brutally killed our mother!" she whispered, her voice rapidly escalating from shock to a burning, razor-sharp realization.
The sheer, monumental horror of the truth completely broke whatever emotional restraint she had left. Evelyn burst out crying again, but this time, it wasn't just a quiet sob… it was the catastrophic, chaotic meltdown of a six-year-old child trapped inside an adult body. She began throwing a violent, hysterical tantrum, weeping loudly as she frantically bashed her hands softly against my chest, her agonizing, raw screams echoing right out of our secluded side-cave and reverberating across the massive underground ravine.
"I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!" she shrieked, her adult voice cracking under the weight of a toddler's pure, unrestrained fury.
As her tantrum slowly subsided into ragged, heavy gasps, she raised her tear-stained face to look at me. She stared directly at my current form… at Oksana's elegant, sharp features and the distinctive, pointed elven ears I had morphed into. I stared back into her eyes, seeing past the terrifying aura of the Guardian of the Ravine to look directly at the innocent face of my long-lost baby sister.
Evelyn's gaze drifted downward, scanning my body. Thanks to the tight bio-slime bodysuit she had wrapped me in, the massive, agonizing horizontal claw wound across my abdomen had been completely compressed and sealed. Externally, my silhouette looked perfectly whole, the living latex-like material acting as a flawless, stabilizing armor.
Her expression suddenly hardened with a terrifying, protective resolve.
"Big sister, you need to leave this ravine right now. Go back to the upper tiers. It is far too dangerous for you down here. Master will sense that I have broken the bond soon... I'll go down to the fifth mineshaft. I'll handle Master myself." Evelyn said, her sisterly tone snapping back into that of a lethal, high-tier weapon as her bioluminescent slime wings expanded to their full, translucent span.
Hearing a six-year-old talk about launching a solo suicide mission against a building-sized, sound-speed apex parasite made my blood run cold.
Using the deep, authoritative voice of Oksana, I firmly pushed myself up from the cavern floor, ignoring the internal dull ache of my sealed intestines. I stood up to my full height, matching her stature, and looked her dead in her jade-green eyes.
"No, Evelyn, It's far too dangerous for you to face that abomination alone, human skills or not. I didn't crawl through three tiers of undead and giants just to watch my little sister march into a meat grinder." I said firmly, my tone leaving absolutely no room for argument.
I reached down, tightly gripping the heavy steel barrel of my fully reloaded Death Chant Shotgun with my right hand, my dark purple eyes flashing with a dangerous, murderous fire.
"Mind if I help? We're going to finish what Mama started six years ago… together."
Evelyn's hands shot forward, her grip locking onto my shoulders with the terrifying, unyielding strength of an S-rank slime. Her twin jade-green eyes widened, flashing with deep panic as her bioluminescent wings flared aggressively behind her.
"No, big sister! Master is too dangerous! If you go down there, he will incinerate you before you can even raise your weapon!" she cried out, her voice sharp with desperate, protective urgency.
Even though she possessed the emotional core and mental age of a six-year-old child, Evelyn was highly intelligent… terrifyingly so. Over the last six years, she hadn't just guarded the ravine, she had completely devoured multiple elite Capital Knights and high-ranking Bureau guards who stumbled into the lower shafts. Her biological slime nature allowed her to perfectly absorb their neural pathways, meaning all of those knights' collective memories, tactical combat data, and advanced military knowledge were completely stored inside her brain. That was exactly how she had known flawless, elite Alatist all along. She was a super-intelligent prodigy wrapped in a monstrous shell.
I didn't flinch at her warning. Instead, I let out a soft, weary breath through my lips. I raised my single right hand, gently reaching up to touch her soft brown hair, letting my fingers brush past the warm, pulsing bioluminescent slime at the tips.
"Evelyn, this is my very first time having a baby sister. For my entire life, I was always the youngest. I was the one who had to watch Elias and Elicia be the older siblings. I am so, so tired of being the youngest. I want to pass that mantle onto you." I said softly, my stolen purple eyes softening with a warmth I hadn't felt in six years.
Evelyn's breath hitched, her tight grip on my shoulders loosening just a fraction as she listened to my voice.
"I want you to experience what it's like to have a real family, I want to take you out of this dark, suffocating hellhole. I want you to meet Elicia and Elias. I want us to go back to the shop, away from the shadows, just like Mama wanted. I lost you once before you were even born, Evelyn. I am not losing you again. We face this together, or we don't face it at all." I continued, tears pricking the corners of my eyes.
Hearing the raw, absolute devotion in my voice, the super-intelligent tactician inside her brain warred with the lonely child who desperately craved a family. She stared at me, her lower lip trembling as the severe, cold calculations of the knights' memories crumbled under the weight of sisterly love.
She hesitated for a long, heavy moment, her eyes darting between my face and the dark tunnel leading down to the fifth mineshaft.
Finally, she let out a shaky, submissive sigh and nodded, her posture softening.
"Okay... okay, big sister. We do it together. But stay behind my Reinforced Mana when the explosion magic triggers."
With a fierce, shared resolve, she joined in, stepping side-by-side with me as we turned our faces toward the dark abyss, ready to hunt the Master.