Harus remained kneeling, his frame unnaturally still. The silence stretched just a beat too long before he finally spoke, his voice like gravel grinding against stone:
"I wasn't the only one sent, ma'am. He's unleashed the fanatics as well."
Rin blinked.
"Ah. Okay."
Her fingers twitched at her side. She hadn't anticipated this. Gunlaug wasn't supposed to resort to them not yet, anyway.
Beside her, Sunny stiffened. "Fanatics?"
Harus didn't move, but something in the air shifted. "There's a bit of a... cult," Rin admitted, rubbing her temple. "I've been hunting them for the past three months. They've got hits out on all of you—though, admittedly, I'm at the top of their shit list."
Nephis turned slowly, her white eyes still half-locked on Harus, her voice dangerously calm. "The ones in red robes?"
Rin nodded.
A beat. Then
"Fuck," Effie spat, her grip tightening on her weapon.
Caster's sword whispered free of its sheath. "You couldn't have mentioned this earlier?"
Rin threw up her hands. "I was busy not dying!"
Sunny's shadow coiled tight around his wrist. "How many?"
Harus didn't hesitate. "Enough."
The word hung in the air like a blade.
*****
The group altered their path after the unsettling revelation, veering eastward through the crumbling ruins rather than continuing south. The air hung thick with tension part unease, part grudging acceptance of Rin's deception.
Then Harus spoke, his voice a dry rasp like steel dragged over bone.
"The huntress." A pause. "The path she's taking, I know where she intends to go. It's beyond stupid and dangerous"
Effie glanced back mid-stride, golden eyes flashing. "Yeah, well, Hunchback, unless you've got a better idea, I suggest you shut it."
Harus didn't so much as twitch. His hollow, dead-eyed stare fixed on Rin.
"May I kill her?"
Rin didn't miss a step. "Denied. She's annoying, but she's also useful. And I owe her."
Effie grinned, all sharp teeth and triumph. "Awww, Red-Eyes. You do care."
Sunny muttered under his breath, "Or she just doesn't want to deal with the hassle of replacing you."
"Also true," Rin admitted cheerfully.
Harus exhaled something between a sigh and the sound of a man reconsidering his life choices and fell back into step, a silent, looming shadow at their flank.
Nephis, watching the exchange with narrowed eyes, finally cut in. "Enough. If we're doing this, we move fast"
The air grew heavy as Sunny's vision unfolded in Rin's mind—a pack of red-robed figures moving with eerie precision through the ruins, cutting down any monsters in their path with silent efficiency. Normally, they would have slipped through unseen, but now... they were hunting.
Soon, the jagged silhouette of the city's eastern wall loomed ahead. Nearby, the shattered remains of an ancient tower lay like a fallen giant, its colossal length crushing everything beneath it into dust millennia ago.
Then—movement. Fast. Too fast.
The group whirled just as the red-robes closed in, their presence materializing like ghosts on every surrounding rooftop. The wind tugged at their crimson cloaks, revealing flashes of fanatical grins beneath their hoods. A bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the largest among them.
A figure draped entirely in black, his high collar swallowing his neck, his face hidden behind a demonic fox mask, its fangs frozen in a snarl. Four red-cloaked attendants flanked him, their postures reverent, their silence more terrifying than any battle cry.
"Harus." The masked man's voice was a velvet rasp, amused. "Who knew a dog as obedient as you would turn? I had suspicions it was that vampire bitch pulling the strings of rebellion... but this?" A chuckle, dark and delighted. "This is better."
Rin's blood ran cold.
Harus didn't react, but his fingers flexed once, the only tell of readiness.
The masked figure's presence was a suffocating weight, pressing down on them like a physical force.
But his mask she had a feeling
Effie's stomach let out a violent growl, from hunger, but also from something deeper, something wrong. Rin felt warm blood trickle from her nose before she doubled over, coughing violently, crimson spattering the cracked stones beneath her. Nephis hissed through clenched teeth, her skin flushing as if scorched by invisible flames.
"Ahhh," the fox-masked man crooned, tilting his head with theatrical delight. "I see your Flaws are revealing themselves so... spectacularly to me. All truths are laid bare before the gaze of the All-Powerful Red Fox."
Rin wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, smearing blood across her cheek. Her lips curled into a defiant grin.
"Strange. I remember killing your 'All-Powerful Fox God.'"
A beat of silence.
Then agony.
The masked man's gaze locked onto her, and Rin's body buckled. She crashed to her knees as pain wracked through her, bones grinding, blood boiling in her veins. She choked, retching up more blood, her vision swimming. But even as her body betrayed her, she forced out ragged words:
"Worth... it."
Harus moved not toward the enemy, but to Rin's side, his massive frame positioning itself between her and the fox-masked figure. His silence was more telling than any threat.
Nephis, trembling but still standing, raised her sword. "Enough games." Her voice was steel. "If you want a fight, then fight."
The fox mask tilted again. "Oh, Changing Star... this was never a fight." His fingers twitched.
And the world screamed
Rin's fingers clenched around the hilt of her katana as the world tilted in her vision. Blood dripped from her lips, her body trembling under the oppressive weight of the fox mask's influence.
*Rin, you alright?* Sunny's voice cut through the haze in her mind.
She gritted her teeth. *Fine. His mask—it's amplifying our Flaws.*
Movement flickered at the edge of her sight—two red-robed assassins lunging from the shadows, blades glinting.
They never made it.
Harus' arm snapped out, and a scythe—long, curved, and wickedly sharp—materialized in his grip. A single, effortless motion. Two heads hit the ground before their bodies even realized they were dead.
Then his free hand closed around Rin's forearm, hauling her upright with terrifying ease.
"Focus, Ma'am" he rumbled, his voice like gravel.
Rin wiped her mouth again, grinning despite the blood. "Yeah, yeah."
Nephis and the others had rallied, their weapons drawn, their defiance burning bright even under the Fox's oppressive gaze.
The masked man let out a low, mocking laugh. "How touching. The Butcher playing hero."
Rin tightened her grip on her katana, her stance steadying. "Hero, villain honestly, we're all just making it up as we go." She bared bloodstained teeth. "But I do know how this ends."
The Fox tilted his head. "Oh?"
"With your mask in pieces," Rin said, "and me laughing over your corpse."
Rin lunged
And the Fox's gaze crushed her.
She hit the ground face-first, gasping, her body seizing as if her own bones were rebelling against her. Every breath was fire, every heartbeat a hammer against her ribs. The world narrowed to pain, to the sound of her own choking.
It had stopped though without warning
A blade erupted from the Fox's chest.
Silence.
Behind him, a figure stood, blue hair fluttering beneath a red hood. Rin's vision blurred, but she'd recognize that sharp, mischievous smirk anywhere.
Luna.
"Gods, I love having spies," Rin wheezed, blood bubbling at her lips.
The Fox looked down at the sword protruding from his torso, then let out a low, guttural growl. His hand snapped up, seizing Luna by the skull—
And in one brutal motion, he hurled her like a ragdoll.
Her body smashed through the remnants of a crumbling wall, stone exploding outward in a cloud of dust.
Rin's scream was raw. "LUNA—!"
The Fox wrenched the blade free from his own chest, black ichor dripping from the wound. His mask turned back toward Rin, his voice a distorted snarl.
"You'll have to try harder than that, little viper."
Then the red robes surged forward, and the world dissolved into chaos.
Steel shrieked against steel as the battle erupted around them. Through the chaos, Sunny and Effie dragged Luna back alive, but badly injured, her breathing ragged as she clutched her side.
Nephis turned to Rin, her white eyes blazing with urgency. "Harus," she commanded, "take her somewhere safe. She won't survive this mission."
Rin's vision swam, her body still trembling from the Fox's crushing influence. But at Nephis' words, she forced herself up onto her elbows, blood dripping from her lips.
"Luna…" she gasped. "Luna, go... Go with them. Make sure—" A wet cough wracked her. "—make sure Sunny's sa—"
She didn't get to finish.
Harus moved without hesitation, his massive arm sweeping Rin up like she weighed nothing. Luna, despite her injuries, staggered forward, her usual smirk replaced by something grim. "Don't die before I get back, idiot," she muttered, before turning to follow.
Then the ruins swallowed them whole, and the world went dark for her
*****
Pain wracked her body no, pain was too gentle a word. This was a white-hot scream searing through every nerve, every muscle, as if her bones themselves were splintering. She groaned, eyes still shut, but awareness crept in: the bite of shackles around her wrists, the sickening sway of hanging helpless in the air.
"Ah. She's awake."
The voice was smooth, amused. "Your dog failed you."
She forced her eyes open. Stone walls. Chains. The rough scrape of rags against her skin—not her own clothes.
Fantastic.
"Now," the voice continued, "tell me where your friends were going. Your dog didn't talk. Still isn't. Perhaps you'll be more... cooperative."
A wooden wheel groaned, lowering her until her toes barely grazed the floor, her arms still wrenched upward. Her gaze fixed on the fox mask looming before her, the same one that had nearly killed her, that had twisted her own weakness against her. Was that its power?
"Just out for a stroll," she croaked.
Behind the mask, eyes narrowed. Then—a fist drove into her gut.
The impact stole her breath. She curled forward, retching, stomach heaving until there was nothing left but acid and agony. She spat it at his mask.
The backhand came fast, snapping her head sideways. Pain exploded behind her eyes, her vision swimming with dark spots.
"My most loyal soldier betrayed me," the masked man mused, voice deceptively soft. "How did you turn her?"
She lifted her chin, strands of black hair clinging to her sweat-slicked face. Blood coated her teeth.
"Maybe she just hated you."
She tensed, waiting for the blow.
It never came.
Instead, the mask's gaze bore into her—cold, relentless. Then her flaw ignited.
Her body seized. Blood surged up her throat, spilling past her lips in a wet cough. Muscles locked; bones felt ready to snap.
"I have other ways of making you talk," he murmured.
****
A sliver of light cut through the darkness, falling from a barred window far beyond her reach. Four days. That's how long the shifting sunlight told her she'd been here.
Four days of her own flaw eating her alive from the inside.
Four days of dying by inches.
Her eyelids trembled, too heavy to lift fully. The world blurred at the edges, half-dream, half-misery. Every breath tasted of blood and damp stone. How much longer before her body simply... stopped?
The exhaustion had begun to take its toll on her. Her body trembled, her breaths shallow and uneven, as the weight of her helplessness pressed down like iron chains. Tears spilled freely, hot and bitter against her skin, and with each ragged sob, the emotions inside her twisted tighter until something within snapped.
A flicker of warmth pulsed at the base of her spine, and before she could stifle it, her fox tail emerged, its fur bristling with unspent energy.
Useless.
What good was a tail in a moment like this? Trapped, bound, with no way out. She squeezed her eyes shut, as if that could will it away but instead of darkness, she saw it. A faint, flickering glow where her tail met her body, a small bundle of energy, restless and untamed.
Her breath hitched. Could she…?
Tentatively, she reached for it with her mind, coaxing the energy forward. It was pitifully weak, barely more than an ember, but it obeyed The warmth slithered up her arms, pooling in her fingertips. When she dared to open her eyes, a single, shimmering thread of red and gold hovered above her palm fragile, but real.
Hope flared, desperate and wild. She shut her eyes again, pouring every ounce of focus into that fragile spark. Shape it. Move it. The energy resisted, flickering in and out like a dying flame. Again and again, she tried until, at last, something solid formed in her shackled hands.
A lockpick. Crude, unsteady, but hers.
She barely had time to savor the victory before heavy footsteps echoed outside the cell. The door creaked open, and
he
stepped in, the guard who always came after, the one who smiled as he offered food, water, false kindness. His fingers lingered too long when he passed her rations, his gaze lingering where it shouldn't.
She knew where this led.
She knew what he wanted.
And tonight, he'd grown bolder.
A hand clamped over her wrist. Then her mouth. Then
No.
No no.
No no no
The shackles clicked open. The lockpick dissolved into wisps of red-gold energy, but she didn't need it anymore. Her hands were free.
Instinct took over.
She seized the chain, the one meant to bind her and lashed it around his throat. A choked gasp. A stumble. With a snarl, she yanked, slamming him backward into the wooden wheel behind her. The force jerked him upward, boots scraping against stone as the noose of iron bit into his flesh.
His keys glinted at his belt.
She didn't hesitate.
One sharp twist, a metallic clink, and the cell door swung open just as the guard's face darkened to purple.
She didn't look back.
The spell as if rewarding her spoke
[Due to the unnatural acceleration of your flaw, you have been granted power beyond normal limits—compensation for a life cut shorter]
Her freed wrist throbbed, the skin raw and burning, but she had no time to dwell on the pain. A shout echoed down the stone corridor, a guard had spotted her. The sharp clang of a warning bell shattered the silence, its metallic shriek chasing her as she ran.
She ran like death itself was at her heels.
She ran like she had never run before.