Shiloh was the last to enter the tunnel as she needed to make sure they weren't chased. As she guarded the rear, she sensed a spike in magic that made her want to hurl. The thing that stepped out of the shadows doubled that sensation. By now her tolerance for madness was at its absolute limit. There was only so much she could handle before she couldn't keep up the facade of courtesy forever. She was tired, nauseous, and frustrated. She hated this world, she hated this book, she hated everything. Dala gave Lizzy one last push and at last the girl was freed. No matter how enticing it was, a fantasy couldn't hold a candle to something real. There was a shudder as a massive shift occurred as everything started to go haywire. Without a source to feed on, the book wouldn't be able to maintain this realm. For a passive predator, losing their prey was their worst nightmare.

As the migraine lifted, Shiloh threw a boomerang at the edgelord, sending him flying backward. Her face was deadpan and she was eerily calm. "That's it, I'm done." Sometimes in life…violence was the only answer. As her weapon came back, she took out seven more and started throwing them at the downed man. Ever since she had gotten trapped in this cursed book, her sanity had been hanging by a thread. The appearance of this sad excuse of a romantic love interest was the last straw. Punting the edgelord like a ragdoll, the tunnel's ceiling opened up as the world around them started to become unstable. Magic was wildly fluctuating as the cursed artifact was attempting something, but she didn't know what. When she looked back the body of the edgelord disappeared, but the four previous love interests were still approaching on horseback. Shiloh hit Amir with a boomerang, which ricocheted off him to hit Duke Aster, sending both off their horses into the endless abyss. That left the red-head and the prince.

Any time now, this entire dimension would collapse. "Hurry, run!" She shouted over the noise to Lizzy and Dala, pushing them towards an area that still had solid ground. Putting away most of her boomerangs, she was getting ready to run when something grabbed her shoulder. It was the flirtatious red-head, his eyes wide and in a panic. "Wait–don't leave! What about the time we spent together?? Don't tell me they meant nothing to you?!" She stared at his face blankly with the eyes of a dead fish. "What?" 

The man fell to his knees, grasping her hand. "I'm sorry, I was wrong! I'm sorry for not thinking about your feelings! I should've taken you seriously when you said you weren't comfortable with being in the spotl–urk!" Shiloh's boot slammed into his chest, pinning him down as she glowered at him. "So that's how it's going be, huh? If you can't have her, you're going to try to latch onto me?" She pulled out a sword and stabbed the ground next to the man's terrified face. "NOW LISTEN HERE YOU SHODDY PIECE OF FICTION–YOU'RE A SECONDARY LOVE INTEREST WITH A THIRD-RATE BACKSTORY!!" As he stammered, she smacked him with the flat end of the blade like a baseball bat–causing him to vaporize into mist. As the surges in magical energy intensified, the final remaining male lead made a last-ditch effort to sway her.

"Wait, please–you don't have to do this!" Percival begged, his hands held up in surrender. "We can still work things out! If-if we try together–" Enough was enough. It was time to end this farce.

"I have a husband." "That doesn't–WAIT WHAT?!" Percival was stumbling over his words, not expecting this sudden turn in events. "I have two grown children," Shiloh added. The prince was reeling. "No…no…" This was completely out of his expectations! Before he could speak, Shiloh dealt the final blow. "–And they're married with kids!" The prince collapsed, and with the book's final attempt a failure–the illusory realm it had crafted couldn't hold any longer. There was a bright flash of light that was steadily enveloping everything as she made the mad dash to catch up with Dala and Lizzy… Then everything went dark. 

Back in Lizzy's room, the pink leather-bound book shook as it flew open. The three of them were thrown out onto the floor, and Shiloh quickly grabbed the cursed novel and ripped it in half down its spine. She made sure to hold the pages away from her face, and then stomped on it a few times for good measure. "We did it! We're alive! Alright, now somebody start a fire–we've got a book to burn."

Once the connection between Lizzy and the book snapped, the illusion or false reality around them began to unravel. Shiloh finally had enough and finally began taking her revenge against the book by slaying the edgelord. The magic ran wild and Dala grabbed onto Lizzy's hand to keep them from getting separated. The body of the edgelord vanished but the four love interests were still after them. Dala dragged Lizzy with her as they ran towards an area with solid ground. Suddenly, the red-hed had grabbed Shiloh's shoulder and was saying something about time spent together? Both Dala and Shiloh had a blank look. 

"What." Dala said. 

Were they trying to target Shiloh now? Seriously?! She knew the book was desperate but even so it couldn't be THAT desperate. Dala showed little concern as the book began to target Shiloh. Unlike Lizzy, Shiloh was a grown adult with her head on straight who could see through the bullshit these men threw her way. But she did enjoy the show as Shiloh made the man shake in terror and criticize his secondary love interest status before hitting him like a baseball. Finally Shiloh dropped the ball and told them about her husband and children, which was the final straw for the book. After a bright flash of light everything went dark. Dala was thrown into the room and slammed against the floor. She jumped to her feet but Shiloh had already grabbed the novel and tore it in half. Now they needed to burn the book. 

"My dragon should still be around here somewhere. We can have a bonfire!" Dala said with an eager smile. 

"Wait! If it went after me and her, why didn't it go after you too?" Lizzy asked Dala. 

"Look if its not economic records or sweet battle tactics, I'm not interested." She stated simply. 

Dala quickly ran to the window and gave a sharp whistle. The sound of wings flapping filled the air as her dragon flew to the building. Her golden dragon had made itself smaller to fit in the streets of Iria but its firepower would still be as strong. 

"Lets do this outside so we don't accidentally burn down the bakery." Dala stated before turning to Lizzy, "And you've got to go see your family." 

Lizzy smiled and ran off to go find her family while Dala jumped out the window to the streets below. It was faster than the stairs and she wanted to avoid getting in the middle of a heartfelt, and probably teary, family reunion. Dala gathered a pile of sticks and rocks together for a small bonfire and had her dragon start it. The fire was blazing powerfully and ready for the magic book. 

"Good riddance." Dala stated, "I don't suppose that's the only cursed book around?" 

"Perfect. Magical fire is much more effective than a non-magical one." Disposing of enchanted objects was not something to be taken lightly. If it wasn't handled properly, the item wouldn't be completely destroyed, or worse–the rampant energies released would cause other problems. She'd have to collect the ashes and conduct a few tests to ensure it was dismantled for good. Taking a seat on the floor, she waited for Dala's draconic blow torch to arrive as the two girls talked. It would appear Dala was never chosen as a target due to her desires being completely incompatible with the book's capabilities. Tax records and military strategies weren't exactly what most people would consider 'romantic'. Once they had fully recovered from their ordeal, Dala and Shiloh would notice their clothes were back to normal, their belongings had returned, and more importantly–no bloodstains. That was one less thing they needed to explain to the family when they had their reunion. Shiloh weakly waved a hand as Lizzy ran off to her parents.

When the dragon was present, she grabbed a metal bucket and doused the book with a bottle of sanctified oil. Then, she dumped it out into the bonfire. The oil was one of the few things she had on hand when dealing with cursed objects. In this case, it was lighter fuel. As they watched the flames consume the accursed thing, a sense of calm washed over Shiloh. The sight of a malicious enchanted object being reduced to dust was always a welcome sight for sore eyes. She could sleep better knowing the world had one less artifact that would wreak havoc on people's lives. She gave a nod in agreement when Dala said she was glad it was gone. When she asked if there were more of them around, Shiloh let out a sigh.

"I'm sure of it. Though to be fair, the disguise as a romance novel is new. I'm going to take the ashes to analyze once all the magic is gone. The problem with cursed items like these is that they don't have a known history to retrace. Cursed objects with plenty of rumors are much easier to deal with due to the large body of information available compiled from eyewitnesses and records of past victims. It's easier to build a case profile." Putting on a pair of gloves before handling the smoldering embers with a small shovel, she continued. "It's always good to assume there are more of these books out there. I'll keep an ear to the ground for any missing persons reports and other unusual phenomena in Parvpora. I didn't get a good look at the cover before it pulled me in, and it's impossible for me to reverse the state it's in. Good thing you showed up when you did, or else who knows how long Lizzy and I would be trapped in there." She gave a small smile to Dala.
"It's all yours." She said to the dragon, putting the bucket with its oil-soaked contents down.

Soon the flames took hold of the strange object and swiftly burned every piece of it away. Relief flooded through Dala's mind as she realized their hell was finally over. This was reality, in all its imperfections and messiness. Unfortunately, the news of more of these books did not rest easy on her mind. If there was one, then it was a possibility more people were trapped in these books. In a way, the both of them were very lucky it was a romance book and thus had little access to what either of them wanted. If she had been put into an adventure novel, she would've been in trouble. Shiloh mentioned how she would keep an ear to the ground for any other strange occurrances. She also gave credit to Dala for helping both of them escape, which Dala had only just realized.

"Oh heck yeah! I totally saved you both!" She said with a smile, "I guess that's cause I'm so awesome!"

Dala threw her fist in her air as she realized her own accomplishment. Her golden dragon snorted with a shake of its head. The dragon then saw Shiloh put the bucket down and say something like it was all yours. Assuming it was meant to be smoked, it let out a massive breath of fire and hit the bucket. Dala gasped then picked up her mini dragon with a frown.

"No Charise!" She said with a sigh, "That was not a torch it sign!"

Dala placed her golden dragon on her shoulders and looked to Shiloh.

"Sorry! Still teaching her." She explained, "Well I'd better go get some food. I'm starving! Oh and Shiloh, if you get a sign of another book thing or just a lot of missing people,  just give me a heads up and I'll be right over! You don't need to go in alone all the time."

With that, Dala went back into the bakery to see if she could buy some bread for cheap from the bakers.

Shiloh blinked slowly as Charise took her comment as the signal to go to town on the bucket, to which Dala quickly intervened. The deity then raised her eyebrows slightly, not bothered by the mistake. As Dala was fussing over her dragon, Shiloh motioned to show that she didn't mind. "Don't worry, that's fine. The bucket isn't magical, so I can fix it. Setting things on fire is just what comes naturally to a dragon." One of her daughter-in-laws had a small dragon too which was used as a literal torch for smithing, so she was used to it. She gave a nod as whatever effects the book had on them were now wearing off, assumed food consumption included. "Right, you go on ahead. I'm heading back to the Machinarium to lie down…I need my ferrets." After all that stress, passing out with her four-legged bandits was what she needed to wash away the bad memories.

She was too tired to feel hungry, and didn't feel like moving–so she began to open up a portal underneath herself. "I'll keep you posted if I find out anything, and before I go investigating too." As grateful as she was to being bailed out, her lack of caution could have ended very badly. If Mrs. Bartleby had been sucked in instead of Dala, things could have only gotten worse… Shiloh dropped through the portal, falling into Antikythera and leaving Dala and her dragon behind to finally get some real food. When her staff came by to check in on her, they found her body slumped over on the floor of Serenitas, surrounded by four ferrets sleeping in creative positions.