"...mi!"
"...umi!"
"Rumi!"
She gasped back into consciousness, throat raw and clogged with smoke, ash, and dust. Her lungs burned as she coughed, forcing air back into her chest. "What… what just…"
"Are you alright?" Celine's voice crackled through the communicator in her pocket, vibrating against her ribs.
Rumi groaned, rolling onto her side before pushing herself shakily to her knees. "Celine?" Her voice was hoarse, dazed.
"Oh thank God," Celine breathed in relief, though she sounded distracted, as if holding another conversation on her end. "I thought... what? Uhm, yeah, sure…"
The comm filled with static before her voice returned, sharper now. "Do you have eyes on her?"
Rumi staggered upright, swaying slightly as the smoke clung to her. It hadn't even been ten seconds since the explosion, everything was still choked white.
But her mind was already racing. "She… she tried to kill me." The memory replayed in jagged fragments, the arrow materializing out of nowhere, right in front of her and the red-cloaked girl. Her arms had crossed on instinct, bracing for impact, only for something to seize the collar of her leather jacket from behind, yanking her back just as the arrow cut past them.
"What?" Celine's confusion bled through the comm. "Of course she tried to kill you. That's the entire reason she's here. Rumi, I don't think you should be fighting this girl by yourself..."
The line hissed with interference before Zerida's voice cut in. "I see her. Two blocks down. Looks like she's making a full circle."
"Girl, I'll try to herd her. You find a way to pin her down."
Rumi's chest tightened. Her breath hitched. "You just tried to..."
"Girl, get a move on," Zerida snapped again.
Boom!
The rooftop shook violently as another building, several blocks away, erupted under an explosive arrow. Dust plumed into the air. Rumi staggered but held her footing, her eyes snapping toward the blast. Through the haze she caught a glimpse of the red-cloaked girl leaping from the collapsing structure to another rooftop, moving like the destruction barely mattered.
'Zerida tried to kill me.' The thought curdled in her chest, and for an instant, the smoke around her looked tinted red. 'That girl saved me.'
She started forward, then froze. 'But that girl… she tried to kill me too. No. No, she stopped. She...'
Her hand clenched tighter around her sword, knuckles pale.
'What's going on?'
"Rumi, what's wrong?" Celine's voice returned, steady but distant through the comm.
'Is Celine in on it too?' The thought hit like a knife to her gut. Her chest tightened, breath trembling. 'Is this a ploy? Am I being set up?'
Her knees nearly buckled, but she forced herself upright at the last second. "No…" Her voice cracked, but her eyes blazed with violet light as the glowing patterns along her arms shimmered in a wavering blue-purple hue. 'I need to know.'
Her gaze locked on the red-cloaked figure bounding across rooftops, cloak flaring with each leap. I need answers.
Rumi dissolved into a swirl of purple smoke.
The red-cloaked girl had barely landed on the lip of the next roof when a gleaming blade hissed past her chest. She had already twisted aside effortlessly, cloak fluttering.
Rumi's eyes blazed as she came out of the teleport, her sword carving a streak of violet through the night. "Who are you!?" she roared, her blade just inches from splitting cloth and flesh.
The masked girl didn't answer, didn't even flinch. She simply kept her momentum, letting her body lean naturally toward the drop.
But Rumi was already moving, twisting her sword's missed arc back into her momentum. She lunged again, body coiled like a spring, slamming shoulder-first into the girl's chest. The impact drove them both off the roof.
For a heartbeat, Rumi felt triumph.
Then everything shattered.
She could see sound, and she could taste light. The world fractured into synesthesia and chaos.
The girl's body split into petals, upper and lower halves reversing in a surreal bloom of crimson fragments. One moment she was falling with Rumi, the next she was perched upright, perfectly balanced on the roof's edge, hooded head tilted as if nothing had happened.
And Rumi was now plummeting twelve stories down, all alone, the wind tearing at her, the city tilting violently around her.
With a cry of shock and frustration, Rumi vanished into violet smoke, reappearing at the very spot she had tackled the red-cloaked girl. But the rooftop was empty.
Her eyes darted, heart pounding. Another explosion ripped through the skyline a block away, and the answer revealed itself, the girl was already bounding across rooftops, cloak whipping in the wind as she slipped past one of Zerida's exploding arrows.
High above, aboard the helicarrier, Zerida's focus never wavered. Her eyes tracked the girl through the drifting smoke and collapsing masonry, watching the cloak flare with every leap.
She drew an arrow with measured precision, exhaled slowly, and loosed.
Twang! Boom!
The arrow roared downward, detonating as it struck the city below. Zerida's hand was already reaching for the next arrow when her quiver jolted violently, yanked back toward the entry hatch.
Her eyes widened. Even Celine froze mid-step. The quiver had been clipped cleanly by one of the girl's bullets.
"She's starting to get a bearing on us," Celine muttered, sliding behind the armored doorframe. Her voice carried a sharp edge. "Each shot's getting closer."
But Zerida remained calm, perched at the threshold as though nothing had changed. She breathed deeply, letting the wind slide through her hair.
"Just like a song," she whispered, her voice level, serene.
Her fingers brushed another arrow as she spoke again, this time louder, unwavering. "Keep covering me, Celine. Her rounds are too small to damage the carrier. Let her waste her shots."
Celine bit her lip, glancing at the neat puncture holes peppering the inner wall. Zerida wasn't entirely wrong, the odds of a bullet hitting something vital were slim given their caliber. But slim didn't mean zero.
"Alright," she said at last, planting herself firmly in front of Zerida, twin swords raised in guard. The humming metal caught the dim light of the carrier's interior as she braced herself.
Outside, Zerida exhaled again, her composure unshaken, as the deadly rhythm between archer and sniper played on.
---
The red-cloaked girl slid low beneath a teleporting Rumi's kick, cloak dragging like a smear of blood against the tiles.
"Why are you doing this!?" Rumi's voice cracked with fury as she twisted, blade cutting a violet streak through the air.
Light met nothing. The girl rolled past the arc with fluid precision, and in the next heartbeat, they were standing back-to-back, shoulders nearly touching.
Rumi spun, sword slashing.
But the girl was already gone, her weight shifting in silence, steps weaving between Rumi's strikes with uncanny ease.
"Answer me!" Rumi's voice tore through the night as she blinked again, reappearing at the girl's flank, blade aimed for the mask.
Bang!
The shot rang before she even registered the muzzle flash. The bullet scraped across her sword, sparking violet light. The impact rattled her bones and nearly tore the blade from her hands.
Rumi staggered, breath ragged, eyes wide. This time, she hadn't even seen the girl draw the gun.
"All those people you killed!" Rumi whipped around, slashing wildly, but her blade struck only empty air. "Lives you took. You're nothing like Jinu."
The girl was perched on the opposite edge of the rooftop now, gun lowered, cloak drifting like smoke. Her mask tilted just slightly, almost amused, before she vaulted again into the night.
Boom!
Another explosion flared across the district as Zerida's arrow shattered a tower in the girl's path. But the sniper never slowed, weaving through the chaos as though the destruction itself bent around her.
Rumi clenched her sword so tightly her knuckles ached, heart hammering with rage, fear, and something she didn't want to name.
'It doesn't matter what she wants. She's not like Jinu, or me. Feeding Gwi-Ma, she's just another demon.'
Her patterns pulsed brighter, the glow along her arms flickering violently as her thoughts spiraled.
'If I don't end this now…'
She teleported again, violet smoke curling upward into the broken night sky, the red cloaked girl seemingly frozen for a moment.
The red-cloaked girl twisted, her oddly shaped rifle flipping upside down in a smooth, spinning arc. The heavy stock slammed into Rumi's blade, catching the strike that would have split her in two.
'...More people will die!' Rumi's thoughts roared as she pressed down harder, violet patterns along her arms burning brighter, veins of light pulsing like wildfire.
The girl slid back several feet under the force, boots scraping across the rooftop before she dug in and held her ground. Her bolt-action rifle, modified and brutal in its shape, locked tight against Rumi's glowing sword.
Steel ground against reinforced alloy, the clash reverberating through their arms as the two pushed, locked in a silent deadlock.
Rumi bared her teeth, eyes narrowing as she leaned in closer. "Why do you hide your face? Are you afraid?" Her voice rasped with both fury and exhaustion, but a thin, mocking smile cut across her lips. "You should be. After everything you've done."
The red-cloaked girl said nothing. Not a grunt of effort, not a sound of strain. Her silence was unnerving, her masked head angled low, steady, implacable.
"Say something, damn it!" Rumi barked, her voice cracking through the smoke and rooftop wind.
The girl's mask tilted upward, just over Rumi's shoulder, as if tracking something behind her.
Rumi's stomach dropped. Her body turned on instinct, muscles coiled to evade the inevitable glow of Zerida's arrow. Her breath caught...
Only to find no attack from Zerida incoming. The sky was clear... Well as clear as before.
Her realization came a split second too late.
The red-cloaked girl crouched low, sweeping Rumi's legs out from under her in a single precise kick. Rumi's balance shattered, her body twisting as she fell backward.
A gloved hand shot out, seizing the collar of her leather jacket mid-fall. With a sudden heave, the girl pivoted on her heel and hurled her across the rooftop's edge.
Air rushed past Rumi's ears, the world spinning sideways as the city lights blurred beneath her.
"Take me seriously, damn it!" Rumi roared, fury cracking her voice as she reappeared in a swirl of violet smoke.
She landed hard on the roof, only to be swarmed instantly by a pack of demons that lunged at her with gnashing teeth and claws.
"Argh!" Her scream of rage ripped through the night as she carved through them in a whirlwind of steel and glowing patterns. Flesh tore, bone cracked, and in less than three seconds the entire pack was nothing but disintegrating corpses.
Her chest heaved as her eyes locked on her target. "Get back here!"
She vanished again, teleporting directly onto the rooftop where the red-cloaked girl had just stood. But no sooner had her boots touched the tiles than another wave of demons erupted from violet tears in the air, swarming her from all directions.
Rumi snarled, her blade flashing in arcs of violet light as she shredded through them. Pink particles rained across the rooftop, and when the last one fell, she caught sight of the red cloak fluttering in the wind, three rooftops away.
"Impossible," Rumi growled. Her patterns flared brighter as she teleported again.
She appeared, straight into the middle of yet another ambush. Demons sprang from the rifts the instant she arrived. She cut them down in two seconds, body moving like a storm, her sword slicing through them with precision born of rage. But when she looked up, the girl was still three rooftops away, cloak rippling, unmoving.
Her frustration boiled. "How is she doing this? I'm teleporting, and she's still faster than me?"
She gritted her teeth, teleporting again.
This time, the demons hadn't even fully emerged from the tears before Rumi's blade cleaved them apart. The rifts hadn't closed, the first demon hadn't even evaporated into smoke, yet the last was already falling in eighteen neat, severed pieces. Her eyes darted up...
And still. The girl was there. Three rooftops away. Always three.
"Raaagh!" Rumi bellowed, her voice cracking with fury. Her patterns blazed white-hot, violet arcs searing against her skin as she hurled her sword with all the force in her body.
Boom!
The air itself shuddered with a deafening sonic crack as the weapon spun through the night, a spiraling blur of steel and light tearing straight toward the red-cloaked girl.
On the rooftop, the girl slid into a smooth crouch, her cloak whipping behind her. She raised her rifle calmly, unhurried even as the blazing weapon screamed toward her.
Then, with a metallic shriek and a ripple of shifting plates, the rifle transformed.
The sniper barrel slid back into the weapon's frame, shortening its profile. Side panels along the mid-section split open, exposing reinforced hinges as the mechanism shifted. A secondary grip unfolded from beneath the frame, swinging down into alignment like the handle of a staff. At the same time, the stock retracted, flattening against the grip to form the first segment of an extending pole.
With a sharp metallic snap, a hidden seam on the weapon's side unlocked. The massive curved blade, once folded flat against the rifle's body, swung outward on a central pivot and rotated a full one-eighty, locking into place as a crescent arc. Collapsible segments telescoped out from the grip, stretching the weapon into a full polearm.
By then, Rumi's sword had already reached the red-cloaked girl. She moved without hesitation, swinging the half-formed scythe not against the incoming blade, but with its momentum. The weapon cracked through the air like a bat meeting a fastball, and a second sonic boom echoed as Rumi's sword was sent hurtling skyward, launched four times faster than its original speed.
Even as the clash resounded, the weapon continued to complete its shift. Smaller stabilizing hooks slid out near the base of the crescent blade, and hydraulic pistons snapped into place, locking the root joint. The sniper scope retracted flush against the shaft.
When the last piece clicked into position, the transformation was complete. The weapon now stood taller than its wielder, a gleaming war-scythe, crimson and black.
---
"Damn it," Zerida cursed as her bow arm jerked to the right, then to the left, then farther still, her aim chasing shadows she couldn't pin down.
Beside her, Celine's jaw hung open. "So fast…" she whispered. "It's not humanly possible. We weren't anywhere near that fast back in our day."
For several long seconds, the two could no longer follow the fight. Rumi and the red-cloaked demon had vanished into a storm of motion. Every so often, a red streak or a flash of violet cut across the rooftops, only to end in a thunderous explosion that swallowed their view. Another rooftop would vanish in fire and debris before either of them could even blink.
Zerida's fingers twitched on the bowstring, but she hadn't loosed an arrow in over a minute. There was no point, she couldn't track their movements anymore. "So this is the true power of a half-demon," she muttered under her breath, straining to catch even the briefest glimpse. Red. Violet. Then nothing.
"Incoming!" Celine shouted suddenly. She shoved Zerida flat just as a dark shape spun toward them like a comet.
The impact shook the entire helicarrier. Zerida gasped, the air knocked from her lungs as the deck lurched beneath them. Metal groaned, alarms blared, and when they scrambled back to their feet, both women froze.
The right wing of the helicarrier had been torn open, a massive hole punched clean through its plating. Lodged deep in the wreckage, humming with fading violet light, was Rumi's sword.
---
Rumi stood rooted to the rooftop, staring up at the red-cloaked girl. She was perched high on a taller building, the moon at her back, its pale light casting her cloak in a crimson glow. Behind her, the massive scythe loomed like a shadow given form. From that height, with the night at her shoulders, she seemed less like a person and more like an omen, an otherworldly presence gazing down on Rumi.
Rumi's breath caught, then her attention snapped upward.
The clouds above shifted, parting just enough to reveal a familiar silhouette descending from the heavens. Her eyes widened. The helicarrier. Smoke poured from one of its wings, flames licking across its hull as it spiraled lower, completely out of control.
"No…" Rumi's chest tightened, her gaze following the doomed craft. "Celine!" she cried, her voice breaking.
The world shook.
BOOM!
The impact tore through the night, fire and smoke erupting across the skyline. The moonlight that had framed the red-cloaked girl was swallowed up in an instant, replaced by the burning glow of the downed carrier. The flames painted her cloak in molten shades of scarlet, her scythe catching the light like a blade fresh from a forge.
Rumi's mouth parted in disbelief, her eyes trembling at the sight.
But there was no time to dwell on shock. The red-cloaked girl finally moved. She crouched low, her body coiling, the scythe drawn back in a sweeping arc behind her.
And in that moment, the truth hit Rumi like ice.
All this time, the girl hadn't attacked her even once. Rumi had mistaken it for arrogance, an insult, a refusal to take her seriously. But now that had an entirely different meaning.
The red-cloaked girl launched forward, scythe flashing as she attacked for the very first time.