Erica lands on the ground covered in goop, and Rielle lands near her.

“What the hell is this?” Rielle questions looking all over her body at the goop.

“I should’ve warned you earlier. This is like a liquid form of suffering, called malevolessence.” Erica states. “If left alone, it’ll coalesce and become a stronger demon.” 

“Then how do we deal with it? More importantly, how do we get it off?” Rielle questions.

“With this,” Erica states pulling out a vial from the bag at her waist.

She uncaps the bottle and it begins sucking in all the malevolessence in the area. After a few seconds, the area is left spotless.

“Well it got the goop off, but my clothes are stained,” Rielle states.

Her clothes have a dark purple tint to them.

“Yeah… this is the only part that sucks,” Erica says with a sigh. “Oh well, though.”

“Was that all we needed to do?” Rielle asks.

“Yup. Now all we gotta do is turn this nasty stuff in.” Erica says, while holding the vial of malevolessence.

Rielle and Erica return to the gates where the guards stop them again. Erica hands the vial over to them and points them in the direction of the barracks.

“You’ll need to wash the impurities off of you before entering the city.” The guard states.

“Gotcha. Follow me, Ri.” Erica says.

As they enter the barracks, Rielle speaks up.

“Wash the impurities off?” Rielle questions.

“The malevolessence was on our bodies can potentially corrupt us if we don’t use the barracks showers. They’re blessed with holy magic to purify and cleanse us.” Erica explains.

Rielle smirks as she follows after Erica. They enter the bathing area, and Erica begins to undress. Rielle walks behind Erica and whispers into her ear.

“I wonder if this wasn’t planned from the start,” Rielle says, still keeping that smirk on her face.

“Ahaha.” Erica chuckles nervously.

Rielle begins undressing as well, leaving all her clothing in a bin that had its own slot on the wall. Wearing nothing at all, the two walk into the damp shower room. The room was full of tan tiles from the floor to the ceiling. There were showers along both sides of the wall, each with a divider on both sides that was taller than Rielle. They took the showers across from one another, meaning a single turn was all it took for them to be in full view of one another. Rielle turns the water on with the incredibly squeaky handle and lets the warm water wash over her body. Droplets of water race down her skin, while she exhales.

Erica occasionally peers back, looking at Rielle’s curvaceous body through the thin layer of steam. Despite not having a complete view, she feels her body react to the sight and quickly turns away.

“Thanks for coming with me today,” Erica says, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

“Don’t mention it. I had fun fighting with you again.” Rielle says.

Erica bites her lip in a bit of frustration.

“Honestly, when I first saw you, I… was a bit scared. I wasn’t sure how much you’d change from when we were together.” Erica says nervously. “I guess I was worried over nothing.”

Erica heard a pair of wet footsteps from behind, each footstep getting closer. Erica could feel the warmth of her breath traveling down her back. Rielle silently wrapped her arms around Erica and the mellow wetness of their bodies collided underneath the racing water from the showerhead.

“I would never forget. Come a thousand years or even ten thousand. I will never forget the time that was shared between us.” Rielle states.

Erica silently placed her hand over Rielle’s and smiled.

“I may have been worried over nothing,” Erica states. “Because, of who you are. You’re an amazing partner, a fantastic woman, and above all, the woman I love the most in the world.” 

Rielle loosens up her grip, allowing Erica to turn around, both completely exposed to one another. Erica runs her hands gently along Rielle’s back as they stare into each other’s eyes. They place their foreheads together and smile, then their lips gently meet in the middle. Whilst in the middle of kissing, Rielle stops abruptly, backing away a bit, before putting her head down.

“What’s wrong?” Erica asks.

“... It’s nothing,” Rielle mutters.

Erica tries to get closer, but Rielle only backs away further. The sight wounds Erica a bit, but she remains calm.

“Please, just tell me what’s going on,” Erica says while maintaining her distance.

In Rielle’s field of view, standing just behind Erica was a man smiling warmly at her, blood trailing from his lips, with half his body encased in ice. The ice cracks and crumbles into diamond dust.

“Now it’s full-blown hallucinations…” Rielle thinks.

Amid Rielle’s hallucinations, chatter began to form in the dressing room. Erica and Rielle look at one another.

“Did the night shift guards just get off?” Erica questions, looking around frantically.

“Is this the only shower here?” Rielle asks.

Erica nods.

“There’s one at each gate, but these guys decided to come here?” Erica questions. “Did the spearman neglect to tell them that we’re here?” 

“Maybe it was payback for me freezing him earlier. I’m not about to let this turn into a peep show.” Rielle says.

With a snap of her fingers, Rielle and Erica both turn invisible.

“Not a moment too soon, either,” Erica whispers.

Each guard walks in with a chiseled physique as Rielle and Erica decide to head to the back of the shower room since the sheer number of guards is impossible to pass by. They stood against the back wall, as guards filtered in, each taking a different spot.

“Did someone leave the showers on?” A guard questions.

“Ah, we never turned them off!” Erica panics in a message.

“It’s okay, the handles were so squeaky, they’d have heard us long before entering,” Rielle says via message.

A guard walks to the back of the room, standing mere inches from Erica’s body. Erica stands there, face flushed, mouth covered as the man looks back and forth between the two showers.

“Can he make a choice already!” Erica exclaims. “I don’t suppose we can teleport out of here or anything?”

“Unfortunately, space magic is my weakest form,” Rielle says.

“Good grief. We’re gonna have to make it out of here without catching their attention.” Erica says.

“Well, they’re showering so we can, take our time slipping past them,” Rielle says.

Visible only to one another, the man standing just inches from her, finally decides to go to the shower on the left.

“Finally! Let's move.” Erica says.

The two of them begin moving through the shower and slowly stepping through.

“Man, we’ve been so busy fighting demons. I haven’t had the chance to see my wife.” The guard adjacent to them explains.

Hearing his voice, causes Erica to freeze in her tracks.

The guard across from him turns around and sighs.

“Spend some more time with her. Don’t let this place strain your relationship.” He says.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He responds.

While hard to make out the figures of the guards due to the steam in the room, Erica looks at the guard coming toward her and, notices something odd. A long elephant-like appendage casting a shadow in the steam. Her jaw drops as he moves closer to her. Erica uses her physical strength to step forward. This causes the water on the ground to splash about. That water hits the guard that had come closer causing him to look around.

Afterward, Erica had nearly crashed into Rielle but was able to dodge around her. Coming to a stop just before the exit of the room. Rielle continued calmly walking to the door when one guard who spun his towel, grabbed the other end and launched it using it like a makeshift whip. While practicing his technique, he inadvertently hits Rielle’s butt. A loud slapping noise fills the air from the impact

“That was the best one yet!” He exclaims. “They’ll never see it coming!” 

Rielle grabs the part that he struck, and Erica covers her mouth with her hand. Then, guides her out of the shower room. They grab their clothing, which had been cleaned while sitting in the bin, and leave. Rielle has a fire in her eyes as she and Erica walk down the hall. 

“Those damn guards. It’s like they didn’t tell them on purpose.” Rielle states.

“I’ll have a chat with them about that… So, don’t freeze them again.” Erica says.

Rielle sighs.

“Fine,” Rielle says.

“But more importantly, Ri.” Erica begins. “What happened back there? What was it, that you saw?” 

Rielle freezes in her tracks and Erica stops to look back at her.

“The truth is, I haven’t been completely honest with you guys.” Rielle begins.

“What do you mean?” Erica questions.

“There was another lover, which I consider my greatest failure as a witch.” Rielle states.