One of the beasts leaped towards Tsukiko and As it lunged, she met it midair and swiftly dispatched it by cutting its head off, but that seemed to be a temporary fix as the creature quickly regenerated.
Tsukiko caught sight of the beast as it healed, it had the same pulsating orange glowing chest, though weaker than her mother's radiant glow.
Her eyes narrowed into slits. That glow—she knew it was connected to their regeneration. If she didn't stop it, she'd die a second time. "That's my target," she thought.
She landed on the ground and tried dashing towards the healing monster only to stop at her mother's words.
"Close your eyes, my child, and sleep. I'll keep the monsters away, just as I always have." Her mother said, her voice filled with sorrow and hurt. As those words were uttered, they echoed and rippled through space.
Tsukiko's eyes lay wide open. She felt her mind drift back into memory as if her mother's words carried a spell.
Ghostly illustrations of her past appeared Infront of her, as they did before. She saw herself years into the past, appearing to be seven or eight.
"Mum! Dad!" A young Tsukiko cried as she ran towards her sleeping parents.
They both quickly awoke, her mother ran towards Tsukiko and embraced her, while her father observed from afar.
"What happened, sweet angel, What happened that upset you?" Her mother asked, her voice filled with worry and pain.
"I'm afraid," she said, her mother's soothing voice and warm touch having calmed her tears.
"Afraid of what, oh my shining star in the night sky, afraid of what?" Her mother asked as she stroked her daughter's back.
The sound of footsteps approaching could be heard but Tsukiko wouldn't listen, she was too distracted in the scene In front of her.
"I saw a nightmare," Tsukiko said, sniffling as she hugged her mother tighter, fearing that if she stopped her mother would disappear
"What haunted your dreams, little star? Ghosts? Devils? No matter — I'll protect you. Even with my final breath I'll protect you," she said, her voice calm and soothing
"Close your eyes, my child and sleep, I'll keep the monsters away, and when you awake I'll still be here protecting you," her mother vowed and moved her hand to stroke Tsukiko's hair as the little kitten drifted off to sleep.
Tsukiko's whole body trembled, she yearned to feel that warmth again, even for a single second.
As the memory ended and drifted away into the air, she felt her mother's cold arms wrap around her in a hug, her mother's voice sounded again more eerie than before "close your eyes, my child and fall into eternal sleep's welcoming embrace."
Then— sudden pain flared in her chest, burning and unforgiving. When she looked down she saw one of her mother's tentacles going straight through her chest.
Her mother withdrew her tentacle, its hooks causing a lot of damage as it exited the wound, and set her daughter down to the ground gently.
Tsukiko looked at the sky, blood pooling under her, the cold creeping in, but what hurt more than anything was the betrayal.
She staggered to her feet slowly, her teeth grinding against one another and almost falling multiple times but managing to stay upright.
"Lay down my child, lay down and rest," her mother said in a gentle voice.
"I won't die—not again." Webs of magic appeared in the gaping hole and remade the missing part of her chest, like she had done in the magical limbo.
"No!" Her mother shouted enraged and quickly lunged towards Tsukiko, and clawed at her.
Tsukiko leaped backwards, and climbed up a tree, almost falling as some of the bark peeled off under her claws. The swarm of monsters ran behind her, she knew she couldn't beat them all at the same time so she used her magic to dress herself in shadow and dashed in the overgrown forest, hiding.
Tsukiko sat on the ground behind some shrubbery, back pressed against a tree and taking deep breaths.
Her mother shrieked again ordering the monsters to split up into the forest and try to find her. She rose slowly, then crouched behind a bush, breath quiet, claws ready. And slowly killed them as they passed by her, until only one remained.
The last of the beasts walked alone in the forest close to where she was hiding, searching for her. Tsukiko raised her hand to strike but froze. This beast was smaller then the rest, it appeared to be the size a child and it shivered as if scared.
The monster turned and locked eyes with her. It froze, then stumbled back—its gaze wide and trembling with fear.
Tsukiko's mother seemed to have different ideas though and with another command the child started attacking her, as if it was mind controlled. It's eyes still remained wide and scared, it's body still shook but it kept attacking her.
Tsukiko got out of the way of it's attacks and tried to subdue it without killing it, but nothing seemed to work, and she was quickly tiring.
She tried knocking the kid unconscious but the orange glow wouldn't let her, pinning it down would only leave her wide open to her mother. "There has to be a way."
The child trembled, hyperventilating, eyes glassy with tears—terrified of what came next.
The look in Tsukiko's eyes grew more desperate as every attempt to subdue the creature without hurting it failed. She knew there had to be a way to save it, but her stamina was depleting fast, and soon she wouldn't be able to dodge all three of the creature's limbs without getting hurt.
She tried everything—but each attempt failed, every failure felt like betrayal. The child's eyes pleaded—terrified, still human.
Her breath grew heavy, and on her last attempt the creatures tentacle had managed to scrape her cheek. "I can't risk my dying again," she thought.
"I'm sorry," she whispered "I've failed you," then, with a swift strike her hand passed through the creature's chest and out the other way in her grasp a small orange crystal, the child's heart.
In its final moments her mother's control dissipated from it's body and it spoke. "I don't want to die again..." the child whispered, blood dribbling from his lips onto her. "Please... don't..."
Tsukiko didn't dare to look up at the child's eyes, and without a word crushed the crystal in her hands, turning it into thin powder and withdrew her hand.
She looked in her mother's eyes, her eyes light aflame from the fury she felt. "You did this!" She shouted.
"That's no way to talk to your mother dear," the creature said with a jagged smile.
"You aren't my mother. You are a parasite! Agony wearing my mother's face!" Tsukiko said.
"That's enough!" She lunged at Tsukiko her tentacles ready to dig into her flesh again.
Tsukiko lunged in response, claws flashing. She dodged most of the tentacles, parried the rest with bone and instinct.
"Impudent child," she said as she clawed at Tsukiko only for her to dodge again.
Tsukiko thrust forward and cut off all the tentacles in a quick downwards strike before letting her claws rest above her mother's chest ready to kill her.
(I again apologize for my bad schedule it'll be fixed at some point, less than a month)