THE GIFT CLOSE TO HER HEART.

1777, APRIL 03rd, SUNDAY 11:14pm.

Noche's vision came back like a second wind as her consciousness endured a little bit longer. It was impossible, it should have been lost forever. Yet here it was in that flash of golden light. As if it was teleported into her grasp. Her choker.

Her fingers reached out and held the fabric as it floated in place like a jellyfish. The muscles in her chest and face constricted as a wave of emotion washed over her. She brought the accessory to her neck and pinched the clasps together. Her hand lingered over the little metal anchor residing under her chin.

"What am I doing?" She thought. "How have I given up?"

She floated there as those words echoed in her head. Who cares if this monster was large enough to be seen on a world map — it was no Creeps. It wasn't some reality-warping being. It was just a large snake, and Noche wasn't going to lose to some oversized lizard.

If she allowed herself to die now it'd be the same as giving up the fight against this thing. It'd be admitting defeat. Noche couldn't allow herself to fail. Failure was worse than death. Failure would place her back in that desert. Failure led to being trapped in the nothingness.

Risking internal injuries from the backlash, Noche used a minuscule amount of her forcefully regenerated drive. A bubble of air formed around her head — she gulped in as much oxygen as she could. Blood streamed down her nose as she did; it was less damage than she had expected.

Her vision cleared and she took in her surroundings. She was floating in a void, an abyss hidden within the world's largest sea serpent. If she wanted out she had to use corruption, but first, she'd have to find a wall of flesh.

Given how its mouth was about the size of a large city it stood to reason that its throat was too. It could take hours to swim towards such a barrier. Not unless there was a quicker way.

"Corruption is powered by hate. To master corruption, you need excessive hatred," Noche thought.

Images of the Grave brothers flashed in her mind. Of Galloway when he sent her to the asylum. Of Creeps at the bottom of DeathTech. How her grandfather didn't recognize her. Being shot in the left hand as a four-year-old child. Her home in flames. The gunshot that took her mother. Edward Death.

A roiling anger built up in her as she thought about the man who stood at the center of it all. How she had failed to kill him when she fought Creeps. Fear intermingled with anger like poison on a blade as the thought of failing entered her mind. Noche focused on that feeling — on the power her hate gave her.

White flames flickered and died as her corruption arm dissolved. It started with the fingers vanishing into her palm. Then her wrist shrank into her elbow. In a matter of seconds, it shriveled to her shoulder before all of the ivory fire disappeared.

For a moment there was no light inside the hydra's throat. Noche floated in pure, pitch-black darkness. There was a spark — a small white flicker in Noche's left eye socket. It formed a spinning ring of pure incandescence before growing into a white orb. An eye of pure corruption.

Flames burst forth from Noche's left eye and drifted in the water like nebulous gas. There was a brief moment where everything was still, then the eye finished manifesting. An all-encompassing wall of white flame appeared in front of Noche — it burned away to reveal the black ocean, dark storm clouds, and more hydras.

Water rushed out of the gaping wound and formed the world's largest waterfall. Noche was dragged out of the current and into the ebony sky. It seemed after swallowing her the hydra rose above the ocean once again to continue its attack. Noche tumbled into the air as she exited the gigantic wound her corruption vision had caused.

As she fell, she spun and turned her gaze towards the hydra towering above her. Its entire body burst into white flames — as if an orbital laser made of corruption had struck it. She slammed into the black ocean and the currents sent her tumbling.

Everywhere she glanced caused an eruption of corruption. She rose above the waves and caught her breath as white fire danced all around her. Noche turned her vision towards the distant hydra heads.

As she did so, the sea, clouds, and even the air itself ignited as if she had laser vision. The white beam shone in stark contrast to the black environment. Whatever she stared at was destroyed — regardless of size and distance.

Each hydra head ignited into white flames. They screeched as their regeneration failed to keep up with such absolute annihilation. The corruption didn't stop at where Noche was looking. It spread to the ocean and air, growing like a fire surrounded by wood; becoming uncontrollable.

As white fire ran rampant new hydra heads came out of the black ocean and locked eyes on the blonde. Some opened their mouths to fire jets of water and others lunged forward to swallow her. All Noche had to do was look at them and they were erased. Gone in a flash of ivory fire. Then there was a brief moment where all the hydra heads were destroyed.

Stillness filled the air as corruption consumed most of the visible ocean. Noche floated in what was similar to the world's largest oil fire, except the flames were as pure as snow. Her ersatz eye faded as a wave of exhaustion washed over her.

Seconds later a humanoid form was running on black water towards her. Dreg stopped and floated in the air with telekinesis. He reached down and picked the blonde up, throwing her over him piggyback style.

"Were you the source of that?" He motioned towards the corruption.

"Yeah. I am," she responded.

He didn't say anything. Opting to run on water and towards the distant helicopter. Rust, Salt, and Trio all caught up a few heartbeats later.

"Ish the hydra gone?" Rust asked.

"M-M-Maybe?" Salt responded.

"We don't know if it's dead though," Trio said. "Best to stay on guard."

As the four generals ran across the ocean, corruption spread rampantly all around them. Burning the dark sea and sky — expanding into the air itself like white powder spilled on black paper.

"C-Corruption is spreading everywhere," Salt said.

"Sorry, it's out of my control," Noche said. "But at least the hydra is dealt with."

"When will it die out?" Dreg asked.

"Who can say?" The blonde responded.

It didn't take long for the five to reach the helicopter. By the time Dreg had reached it Noche had regained her breath. She hopped down and stretched her one arm.

"Noche. I didn't know you could cause that level of destruction," Medusa said.

"Neither did I."

"Can you stop it from spreading any further?"

"I can't. It's out of my control now."

"Shit. Fine, we'll have to keep an eye on it."

Noche turned to watch the clash between a black ocean and sky against white flames of destruction. It was as if the whole horizon was burning in pearlescent fire. All that corruption, erasing the existence of anything it touched, and it was running rampant. Enough to go on as far as the eye could see — in a way that's exactly what caused it.

As she watched the destruction her mind crept back to Edward. A smile flickered onto her face as she thought about using this new power of hers against him. She took out the anglerfish knife and stared at the engraving. Noche couldn't wait to fight DeathTech again.