Chapter 49: The Man Behind the Curtian
Rose sprinted through the hallways, using her 60 foot movement speed and greater dimension jumper ability to their fullest. The hallways were supposed to be clear, so she didn't have to worry about any students getting in her way.
Naturally, this meant that Lockhart would be taking a stroll of stupidity.
Rose collided with the Defence Against the Dark Arts "Professor", knocking him to the ground.
"Peta-Lorrum, watch where you're going!" he barked as he picked himself up off the ground.
"What are you doing, Lockhart?" Rose asked. "Never mind, I don't care."
"Me?!" Lockhart exclaimed. "What about you?! Where is everybody?"
"Taking shelter while we handle the Basilisk," Rose replied, taking off down the corridor.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?!" Lockhart called after her.
Gilderoy didn't know what was going on, and it was starting to anger him. First, he found out that someone had planted self-replicating fan mail in with his current batch, which was a complete waste of time. How dare they do that to Gilderoy Lockhart?!
After sorting out that mess, he left his office to find a completely quiet castle. Once again, the other members of the staff were up to something, and decided not to involve him. He was Gilderoy Lockhart! Slaying monsters was what he did! At least, that's what he wanted people to think.
Why weren't they letting him help? Did they know? At first, Gilderoy thought that Severus knew his secret, but quickly realized that the Potions Master glared at everyone as if they were up to something.
Finally, Peta-Lorrum was always there to add insult to injury. Whatever she was doing, Gilderoy wasn't about to let her out of his sight. He took off after the girl, who was surprisingly fast, and could apparently apparate at will across short distances.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?!" he shouted at her.
"Chamber of Secrets!" came the reply. "Stop following me!"
"What?! How do you know where it is?!"
The girl stopped in the middle of the corridor, causing Gilderoy to fall over her before he'd seen her stop.
"If you want to help, follow me, don't ask stupid questions, and stay out of my way."
Gilderoy wanted to tell her off, but he realized that the best way to find out what was happening, and more importantly, take credit for it, was to obey the little girl's orders. That was, at least, for the time being.
"Fine," he said. "Where are we going?"
"Stupid question!"
Peta-Lorrum didn't make it easy to follow her. She ran whole way, despite it not being far. Why was she in such a hurry? It wasn't going anywhere.
Rose followed find the path to one of the first floor bathrooms. The same bathroom in which Myrtle had been for 50 years. It was where she died.
"Myrtle!" Rose shouted when she arrived.
"Rose?" Myrtle asked. "What are you doing here?" Myrtle eyed the male professor entering the bathroom. "And why is there a boy here?"
"You said you saw a pair of eyes looking at you, and then you died," Rose said. "That was the Basilisk. Where did you see it?"
Myrtle squeezed her eyes shut as she concentrated on that day. "There!" She pointed at one of the sinks. "It was in that one right there!"
Rose ran over to the sink on the far left and tried the tap.
Nothing.
"Perfect."
"What is going on?!" Gilderoy shouted.
Peta-Lorrum ignored him and felt around the sink.
"How have people been missing that this entire time?" she muttered.
"Missed what?"
"No time to worry about how to open it; I don't know how long Luna will last."
Peta-Lorrum spread her feet apart and took a deep breath. After inhaling and exhaling a few times, she flung herself at the sink, slamming her left fist into the porcelain.
The sink and part of the wall gave way under the power of her fist, revealing a tunnel that went down beneath the school.
Gilderoy shrieked as the girl punched a hole in the wall, then jumped when he heard another crashing sound from somewhere far off.
"What did you do?!" he exclaimed.
"That wasn't me," Peta-Lorrum replied. "The Basilisk's in the Hospital Wing."
"What–"
"No time," she said, turning to the ghost. "Don't follow me."
"Wasn't planning on it," she said as Peta-Lorrum slid down the tunnel.
Gilderoy took one look down the tunnel, then turned to leave.
"Aren't you going to go after her?" the ghost asked. "You are Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, after all. I've heard the other girls talking about you. You should go help Rose."
"Of course I will, but this is part of the plan!" Gilderoy said, hoping to charm this ghost out of making him go down into the Chamber of Secrets.
"What sort of a plan involves letting a 12-year-old girl go down into the Chamber of Secrets alone?"
Gilderoy muttered some unkind words under his breath, then shouted, "Hold up! I'm coming too, Ms. Peta-Lorrum!"
After sliding down a long, dank tunnel, Gilderoy landed on something squishy. Hoping it was only mud, he picked himself up and looked around. It was so dark that he could hardly see his hands in front of his face.
"Like I said," came a voice from his left. "Don't get in my way."
He heard squishing of mud moving away from him, indicating that the girl was walking further into the Chamber. After lighting the tip of his wand, Gilderoy began to follow her.
"You coming?" asked the girl.
"I'm right behind you," the Defence Professor said.
"Good," came the reply. "Keep up."
She began to run, forcing Gilderoy to sprint to keep up with her or risk getting lost in the Chamber of Secrets.
"What's so important that you're in such a hurry?" the Defence Professor called. "Why is the Basilisk in the Hospital Wing?"
"It's going after my friends," she called back. "They're all in the Hospital Wing, so I've got to move quickly so I can get back there and kill it."
"Why not do that now?"
"If I do, then I don't know what will happen to Luna. Something's down here that's draining the life out of her. If I go back up now, I risk losing her. Professor McGonagall can handle the Basilisk. Besides, I trust my friends. Together, they'll find a way, but I'm the only one who can save Luna."
Rose hadn't received any messages from Hermione, which had concerned her. To verify the bushy-haired girl's well-being, she checked on her status and found her to be still conscious. Knowing that her friend was still alive brought Rose the comfort she needed to not worry about her.
After less than a minute, the pair reached a large chamber covered in stone tiles. The walls were lined with statues of snakes, and at the far end of it was a statue of Salazar Slytherin himself.
In each snake statue sat a green torch, giving the chamber an eerie green glow.
"Well, hello there," an unfamiliar voice said. "And who might you be?"
In the middle of the chamber was a boy in Slytherin garb. His hair was perfectly combed, there wasn't a blemish on his face, his robes fell perfectly on his form, and everything about him said "I'm nice. You can trust me."
Clearly, this boy was a natural-born liar.
"Rose. Rose Peta-Lorrum." Rose curtsied, mostly out of instinct. "And you are?"
"Tom Marvolo Riddle."
Rose groaned. "Really?! That's it?! After all of this? With all the cryptic warnings and threats, it's just you?! You're behind this?! That has got to be the biggest letdown ever!"
"Who's Tom Riddle?" Lockhart asked.
Tom frowned. "Why is that, Rose?"
"You're Voldemort," Rose said, noticing that Lockhart flinched at the name. "Of course you've got something to do with it, but come on! Everything?! I was hoping for so much more!" Rose took a breath to calm herself down. "Fine. Whatever. What'd you do to Luna?"
Tom smirked, and Rose immediately wanted to punch him. "Little Moon? Oh, I'm going to kill her."
Rose smirked. "No, you're not."
"Don't you want to hear–"
"Your plan? Not really," Rose replied. "You're absorbing her soul or something like that. I kill you, the link is broken, and Luna's free. Simple."
"It was simple," Tom said. "She was so desperate to hear from her mum, she was willing to believe me, just like that. Poor little Luna. She's told me all about you, Rose. About your family, and your friends. About Shadow. How you miss her."
"I do," Rose said. "And I'll tell you right now, you're not going to get under my skin. Better people than you have tried. This isn't my first adventure, so don't treat me like I'm first level. It's–"
"Annoying?"
"Condescending."
"Ooh, such a big word for a little girl," Tom said as condescendingly as he could.
"Thank you!" Rose replied cheerfully. "I am little, aren't I?"
Rose walked straight up to Tom and looked up at him. At just under four and a half feet, Rose fell just short of reaching his chin.
Gilderoy silently watched the two stare each other down, being thankful that it wasn't just he that was annoyed by the girl.
"What are you going to do, Rose?" Tom asked. "Luna's told me all about you. How tough you are; how nothing frightens you. But what can you do against me?"
Rose smirked. "I'll save you the trouble of trying to intimidate me, Tommy. There's one being in all of creation that scares me, and you're not it."
Through the mist of confusion, Gilderoy noted two things about that sentence: Peta-Lorrum said "being", not "person", and "it" instead of "him", "her", or even "they". Up until that moment, Gilderoy thought nothing bothered that child.
"But you do make a good point."
The Artificer drew back her arm, and punched Tom right in his perfect nose. There was a sickening crunch as her fist made contact with skin and cartilage.
"What?!" shouted Tom. "How did you hit me?! I should be untouchable!"
"Don't you just hate it when a plan goes wrong?" Rose said, grinning. She punched Tom in the stomach, then spun around, bringing her foot up to catch the Slytherin in the side of the head, knocking him down.
The boy slowly climbed to his feet, laughing. "It doesn't matter, Freak. In a few minutes, Luna will be dead. And I'll live once again. You can't save her."
"Sure I can," Rose replied. "Watch me."
Rose knelt down next to the sneering boy, and, as casually as a child would take a book from a shelf, reached out her hands and snapped the boy's neck.
Gilderoy stared in disbelief as the girl stood up.
"See?" the crimson-haired lunatic said. "Nothing–"
"Nice try."
Rose looked down to see Tom twisting his head back into place.
"I'm not so easily killed."
Now, I've got a problem, thought Rose. How was she supposed to kill him? What about disintegrate? No, Rose had no guarantee he wouldn't reform. The same went for any other death effect. Rose had no idea how he worked, but her surrogate sister was running out of time.
<Rose, I believe I know how to save Luna,> Reflectesalon told Rose.
<How?>
<He mentioned pretending to be Luna's mother. Luna said that her book was her mother.>
<Of course! The book!> Rose looked around the chamber. <Thanks, Ref!>
"What are you looking for?" Tom asked, sneering at the girl.
"Lockhart!" Rose shouted, turning to the Defence Professor. "Make yourself useful and find a black book!"
Tom's face twitched ever so slightly. Rose probably wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't rolled well on her Perception check.
Gilderoy didn't budge from his spot. There was no way he was taking orders from a girl who would so casually kill a person.
When Rose realized that Lockhart wasn't going to help, she rolled her eyes, then began the search herself.
Eight charges, Rose thought. Thirty minutes in which to use them.
Rose burned the first charge from Serendipity.
"Spontaneous search!"
Spontaneous search was a nice little first-level spell that allowed Rose to instantly search 30 feet around her as if she had inspected everything with a magnifying glass. Her head flooded with information about the type of stones around her, the content of the mud, and a black book tucked away underneath a statue.
Rose dimension jumped to the book as Smithy moved it into her hand.
"How is this book important?" Rose asked Tom.
"As if I would tell you!" Tom spat.
Rose ran through everything she knew about Tom, her mind fueled by adrenaline and desperation to save her friend. He didn't think that he could be hit, and was angry that Rose had found the book. He had pretended to be Luna's mum, which the book had done.
Conclusion: Tom was the book. Destroy the book; destroy Tom.
<Destroy the book, and there is no evidence to prove Luna is innocent,> Reflectesalon told her.
<Alright, so I'll put a hole in it,> Rose replied, throwing the book on the floor. She began to run through what she knew about damaging objects.
Cold does quarter, fire and electricity do half, acid and sonic do full.
She pointed at the book with her left index finger, and burned another charge from Serendipity.
"Sonic ray!"
A wonderful ability of hers was called metamagic spell trigger, which allowed her to apply any of her metamagic feats to a spell cast from a wand or staff, such as Serendipity. All it cost her was an additional charge for every level by which the feat modified the spell; in this case, none. Therefore, Rose could use it to modify wish to substitute energy damage for sonic, and replicate the spell polar ray, but with sonic instead of cold.
Out from her finger shot a ray of sonic energy, creating a deafening BANG! It streaked through the air and struck the book head on, ripping a hole clean through the cover. Page after page gave way to the sonic powered blast.
"WHAT?!" screamed Tom. "That's impossible!"
"If I had a gold piece for every time I've heard someone scream that before they died…" Rose said, smirking.
A large hole appeared in Tom, mirroring the one in his book. Ink began to run out of the book, which bore a close resemblance to blood.
Tom's body flickered in and out as he faded into nothingness.
"Nooooo!" he cried as he flickered out of existence.
Back in the Hospital Wing, Professor McGonagall and the Gryffindors were startled by sudden gasping coming from Luna's bed. Turning around, they all saw that the source of the noise was Luna herself.
The Ravenclaw gasped for air, then slowly calmed down as life returned to her body. Her cheeks took on their normal color, which wasn't much better than she had been a moment ago.
"Luna!" Ginny exclaimed. "Are you alright?"
"Good morning," Luna said. "I think. Why wouldn't I be alright?"
"You were out for a while," Hermione said. "We thought you were…"
"But you're fine now," Ron said. "Right?"
"I think so," Luna replied.
Hermione held onto the condition conch and sent a message to Rose.
<Rose, the Basilisk is dead and Luna's safe. Eom.>
It had taken Hermione awhile to adjust to the "eom" bit that Rose insisted she use, but with Rose's mostly unwelcome help, Hermione formed the habit of adding it.
Unfortunately, there was still no response from the crimson-haired girl.
"I'm still not getting anything from Rose," Hermione said. "I'm really starting to worry about her."
"She must be alright," Ron said. "Luna's back!"
"I guess."
"Ms. Granger, I can't say that I've always liked Ms. Peta-Lorrum, but if there's one thing that I can say about her, it's that she is capable of taking care of herself," Professor McGonagall reassured her.
"Alright," Hermione said.
Rose grinned as she watched the Slytherin disappear.
"Classic."
"Well done, my dear," Lockhart said, drawing his wand. "Excellent work, I should say."
"But unfortunately, I am interfering with your plans, so you'll have to kill me," Rose said, still smiling.
"Oh no, nothing like that," Lockhart said, smirking. "But I think this will make an excellent addition to my books. Perhaps 'Outing the Heir'? Maybe not."
"Let's see if I've got this," Rose said. "You're incompetent, but somehow managed to fool everyone into believing you're amazing. Your books are too in depth to be made up, so you've got to be drawing on some sort of real-world experience, but it isn't your own. Whoever it is, they don't come forward, nor are you worried about it. You just said you didn't want to kill me, and you look too squeamish to kill people, so I'm gonna guess you're silencing them some other way."
"Incarcero!"
I sound like my brother, Rose thought as a rope sprang out of Lockhart's wand and wrapped itself around her.
"Say goodbye to your memory, little girl," Lockhart said.
"Did you have to tell me?" Rose whined. "I was gonna–"
"Obliviate!"
There was a bright flash, but otherwise, nothing happened.
"I don't understand," Rose said, tilting her head.
"I bet you don't," Lockhart said, smirking. "You see, you were taken hostage by–"
"No, I mean, what's that supposed to do?" Rose asked. "Wipe my memory? Cos it didn't work."
Lockhart blinked. "What?"
"Mind blank," Rose replied, grinning. She slid out of the ropes as if she were covered in butter. "My mind cannot be read or altered."
Lockhart shook with fury, looking for all the worlds like he was going to explode.
"You–"
Rose didn't let him finish. She appeared right in front of him and cracked him in the head. With a bloody bruise on his forehead, the former Defence Professor crumpled to the floor.
"That was fun," Rose said, admiring her work. "I should really be getting back, though. There's no telling what could be happening upstairs." She looked around the Chamber of Secrets.
"I wonder what else is in here?"
"That, Little Rosie, is the right question," a familiar voice said. It came from all around her, echoing throughout the Chamber of Secrets.
"Don't call me 'Little Rosie'," Rose snapped. "Only my parents call me that. And my sister, sometimes. And Sk'lar, once or twice." She tilted her head. "I think Shadow might have once."
"I've been waiting quite some time for you to arrive, Little Rosie. I'm pleased to see you finally found your way."
"It wasn't that hard once I tried," Rose replied, still looking around for the source of the voice. "While we're on the subject, you should consider moving Myrtle. It's kind of a giveaway that your super secret lair is there." Rose tilted her head the other direction. "Actually, the hole I made in the wall is doing that now, I guess."
"And now, we can finally have our talk."
"Hmm," Rose said. "No, I don't think so. I'm just gonna leave."
"If you do, how will you ever restore poor little Luna?" the voice asked.
"I already did by destroying the book," Rose replied.
"Are you sure?"
Rose hesitated. She wasn't sure. She was just assuming that the book was what was keeping Luna's soul hostage. What if it was the owner of the voice?
"No, but I can find out," Rose said, turning to collect Lockhart's body.
"If you leave here, I will kill her."
Rose stopped dead.
"What do you want?!"
"Only to talk."
"What about my friends?!"
"If you stay, they might die; if you leave, they will die."
Rose clenched her fists and let out a low growl.
"I'm getting tired of people threatening my friends."
"Then don't have any."
Rose growled again, something she'd picked up from Alice, then asked, "What do I call you?"
"I have no need for a name."
"If we're gonna make this thing work, you've gotta be willing to compromise," Rose teased.
<Rose, something's moving,> Reflectesalon informed her.
Rose glanced around and saw something shifting around in the shadows.
"Very well. Call me Slytherin, if you must."
"No, I'll get confused," Rose said, scrunching her face as she thought. "What was his first name? Sal? Sally!" Her face lit up. "I'll call you Sally!"
Sally paused, and Rose could almost hear Carolina sighing.
"If you insist," Sally said. "Now, Little Rosie, I–"
"Stop calling me Little Rosie!"
"If we're gonna make this thing work, you've gotta be willing to compromise," Sally mimicked.
Rose narrowed her eyes, then glanced at the statues on the walls.
Wisps of smoke swirled around the chamber and bodies began to form out of the smoke. There were no legs, and each wore a faded, dark green cloak with the hood pulled up, covering their faces, if they had any.
"Those, Little Rosie, are called Spectres."
"Good name," Rose said. "Spelled with a 'K'?"
"Hmm. It is now."
"Kethé! Can I kill one?"
"You're welcome to try. It's been a while since they've eaten anyone other than the odd defence professor."
"That's what keeps happening to them!" Rose exclaimed, drawing Crimson Thorn.
"That, or the War, or sickness, or they go against Dumbledore."
"Professor Dumbledore!" Rose corrected as the Spektres approached her.
Rose turned to the Spektre beside her, swinging Crimson Thorn in a wide arc in front of her. The double-bladed sword lit up as both ends ignited, burning the Spektre before Rose. The creature evaporated, and the others fell back.
"Is that it?" she asked.
One of the Spektres raised its hand, and a red bolt lanced out, narrowly missing Rose.
"That's interesting," Rose said. "Can they cast spells?"
"It took me decades to manufacture them with that capability," Sally said. "Although far more important is their ability to assimilate other creatures."
Rose appeared next to a cluster of Spektres, and swung Crimson Thorn again. After a few strikes, the group of Spektres was gone. She turned to another group, pulled her arm back, and flung Crimson Thorn at the group. The weapon tumbled end over end towards the creatures, then passed right through them.
"Right," Rose said as the weapon began its return flight. I'm the one with ghost touch now, not him.
She wasn't sure why, but something about them seemed familiar. There wasn't much on De'rok that could extract living souls from people, so what was it about them that seemed familiar?
The Spektres realized that they were fighting a losing battle, and began to fall back towards the edges of the chamber.
"Anything else?" Rose asked.
As the Spektres retreated, something dropped from the ceiling. Upon further inspection, Rose saw that it was a drop of blood. Looking up, she saw a mass of blood on the ceiling, although she saw no source of the blood.
"Is that a bloodfire ooze?" she asked.
"That is Cruentius," Sally said. "It has been a long time since it has gotten to stretch its legs."
The blob dropped to the floor, although it continued to lack a distinct shape.
Before the creature could make a move against her, Rose cut into it with Crimson Thorn, only to find that he passed straight through it. It wasn't incorporeal; it was a swarm.
"Gromphun swarms!" she exclaimed, blinking through an attack from the creature.
Swarms were a pain for someone like Rose that relied on dealing massive amounts of damage with weaponry. Swarms were immune to typical combat damage, only vulnerable to area spells. Technically, she would be dealing one damage every time she hit it with Crimson Thorn, but that was going to go too slow.
"Not so easy to take on this one, is it?" Sally asked, his voice dripping with condescension.
"Oh, I'll find a way," Rose said, raising her hand to the creature.
From Rose's outstretched hand shot a jet of flame, covering the area in fire. Rose felt the heat of her attack on her face, but was more interested in the discomfort it was apparently causing her new opponent.
"Good," she muttered. Six charges remaining. Let's do this, everyone.
Folding up Crimson Thorn, Rose tumbled past a sword of blood. She vaulted off the ground as another came at her, spinning around in mid-flight to face her opponent.
Rose raised her arm and flung it down, activating another ability of the Ring of Life's Flame.
"Flame strike!" she shouted.
A shining pillar of flame erupted from the ceiling. It engulfed Cruentius, burning the creature alive. The ooze writhed as it was covered in holy fire, but still it stood against her.
"Finally," Rose said, grinning. "A challenge!"
Cruentius lashed out again, tentacles of blood whipping around Rose as she flew through the air. She tumbled around them, closing the distance between her and the beast.
Rose spun around, dancing around the attacks, then got to her feet and flung her arms out.
"Greater Fireburst!"
The surrounding air was filled with flames as Cruentius was once again hit with an area spell. After the fire cleared, the creature still towered over her.
The amorphous blob was at least 30 feet high if it stretched out enough, although it didn't remain in any one shape for more than a few seconds. Hundreds of small stubs branched off it, ready to form into full-sized tentacles and attack her.
Rose counted nearly 150 points of damage dealt to it so far, but it wasn't going to be enough. Most of her fighting style was based around using Crimson Thorn, but he was nearly useless against a swarm, or whatever Cruentius was.
Rose crossed her legs, then spun around to dodge another attack from Cruentius. She lept through the air to bypass another tentacle, then saw something she wasn't expecting.
Several small spiked balls formed around Cruentius. It whipped around, hurling the balls in all directions. As the first few touched the surrounding walls, they exploded on impact.
"That's kethé!," Rose said as she spotted two heading her way. She flipped through the air, sliding between the two of them as they flew past her.
Rose heard the balls explode as they hit the wall behind her, destroying more of the snake statues that lined the Chamber of Secrets.
Rose curtsied as she landed, then threw another flame strike at Cruentius, burning the last one she had for the week. She dove aside to dodge the attacking amorphous blob, then an idea struck her.
Rose pulled the picnic basket charm off her bracelet, and from inside of it, she pulled out a long, black bandoleer. She fastened it around her, thankful that her body never changed.
<How are adult Human women supposed to wear bandoleers?> she asked Reflectesalon.
<I do not possess enough information to speak on this subject,> came the neutral reply.
Attached to the bandoleer were ten small, dark maroon orbs. Each one was modeled after a fat rose bud, as Rose herself had dubbed them "blooms".
At its heart, a bloom was an explosive device. It had taken Rose months to perfect them, but she had devised a way to get the delayed blast fireball spell contained within each one to trip on impact. They were considered light weapons, which meant that Rose could throw two of them at the same time and take no penalties, thanks to the feats provided by Reflectesalon.
Having used her standard action for the round, Rose twirled around and dodged another tentacle, then ducked as Cruentius itself lunged at her.
Rose blinked through the beast as it attempted to engulf her, then pulled two blooms from her bandoleer. Finally, Rose used greater dimension jumper to put some distance between her and Cruentius.
"I hope you're hungry!" she shouted as she threw them both at the beast.
They collided with the beast and exploded, sending blood flying everywhere. Rose landed nimbly on her feet as she was sprayed with blood.
Seeing no immediate response from the blob, she pulled two more blooms from her bandoleer. Rose didn't know what it was, but it was taking every hit she sent at it. She didn't know for certain that it was taking damage from her attacks, but she was assuming.
Something behind her tripped her blindsight, and she saw red ooze closing in on all sides. Cruentius encased the girl, leaving no way for her to escape.
"You do know I don't need to breathe, right?" Rose called from inside the creature of blood.
"So I've heard," Sally replied, "but that doesn't mean Cruentius can't crush you."
From within the prison of blood, Rose smirked.
"It can try," Rose said, "but do you know what my sister always says trying is?"
"What?"
"Failing with honor."
With that, Rose set off the blooms in her hands.
Another explosion ripped apart Cruentius, sending its pieces scattering all over the chamber. In the middle of the blast site stood Rose, a maniacal grin plastered all over her face.
"What's the matter?!" she shouted, taunting the beast. "Is that it?!"
She looked around, but Cruentius wasn't moving.
"Well," Rose said, happy with her work. "I guess that takes care of–"
A warning from foresight cut her off, but before she could react to it, something ripped through her chest. Another hole was punctured in either arm, and barbs formed on the end of the blades, stopping her from removing them.
More holes were opened up in her legs and arms, holding her in place. As Cruentius reformed in front of her, a long blade formed from it, and Cruentius plunged the sword into her forehead.
"You d't'dok," Rose said as she felt the blood draining from her body. "Have you got any idea… how long… it's going to take… to repair this dress?"
Rose's vision began to blur, and she realized that Cruentius was depleting her hit points.
As it finished draining her, the blades all receded, and Rose fell to the floor, dead.
"That was disappointing."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone