[attr="class","text"]
Images of the possessed played on repeat. But it was the Arbok who returned time and time again. Lydia could not shake the feeling of blood and stomach acid running down her hands. The look of surprise from the snake was seared into her mind. Still, she wondered if it felt some sense of relief as the toxic chain vanished.
[break][break]

No matter what she took, that feeling of wrong remained. It was not only an issue of muscles and bone. It went deeper than that somehow. As she forced herself out of bed, her stomach roiled. For a moment, bile threatened. “Nngh.” She swallowed down the liquid. If the veteran had failed, her sink would have been stained a bitter, acidic purple.
[break][break]

The television mentioned the rescuers left bedridden by exposure to the toxins that had flooded the region. It advised people to hid to the nearest hospital if they experienced certain symptoms. With a frown, Lydia flipped the thing off. There was no need for that. She’d stormed beaches in Johto and lived through a bombing. In some of the harshest training on earth, the blonde had thrived.
[break][break]

But the journey home had seemed impossible. A decent amount of her pension went to the room she now wished to leave. Shrugging on a jacket—not even bothering to pull the wrinkles from her shirt—Lydia took to the streets. At first, she did not really have a destination. Lydia allowed herself to wander, an attempt to shrug off whatever malaise had taken hold.
[break][break]


When she next looked up, the veteran found herself in front of a church. It was an austere, unornamented place. Its walls were of stone—more of a castle than the small shrines she encountered here. Is this your wish for me, Lord Arceus? No one answered, but her eyes spotted imagined signs. The door was open and inviting. With a nod at the sign outside, the beleaguered blonde made her way inside.
[break][break]

A hand lifts to wipe the sweat from her face. She takes a deep breath of the air. The click-click of her Lycanroc’s feet echo through the main chamber. After finding a spot near the front of the altar, the blonde knees. Her prayers are silent. They are for strength. They are for battle. They beg for this poison to be cleared from her body, so she can dive back into the fray.
[break][break]


But they are not for peace.
[break][break]
Romero Vega

NOTES

✦ Arceus give her a sign?[break]