The figure remains motionless. No sound, no shift in posture. Only that unwavering, consuming gaze. It doesn't understand words, doesn't care for threats. It simply exists.
Before I know it, the figure disappears into a blur of speed, closing the distance between us in a mere instant.
*WHOOSH*
My eyes widen in surprise. It's fast. Faster than anything I've faced before.
The mad figure appears behind my back, and I only react the moment it comes in contact with my KI.
My body spins on instinct, blocking the strike with the outer edge of my left forearm.
Its claw hand seems to penetrate my KI—not through force, but with an unsettling ease, like my energy wasn't even there.
Pain shoots up my left arm.
"Hnngh!"
I stumble backward with a gasp, clutching my forearm.
It's cold. The contact is like touching something… Dead.
Blood pours down from a shallow cut on my arm, but the wound itself feels… wrong.
It's not just a cut; it feels like life is being drained from the area around it.
The figure doesn't pursue. It simply stands there again, a few feet away, its head tilted slightly as if observing a curious specimen.
Those eyes…
Analyzing.
Understanding.
It knows something about me. Something… Fundamental.
I push the sleeve of my kimono up, exposing the wound.
This isn't a normal wound...
Master Lenah said corruption doesn't just disappear... it lingers.
Could this... thing... be corruption?
I can feel the wound spreading—not the bleeding, but the cold, dead feeling crawling up my arm.
This is bad! It's trying to taint me!
"I need to cleanse this!" I mutter, panic starting to rise in my throat.
I place my right hand just above the wound, channeling my demonic energy to force it out by burning it away.
I grit my teeth, pushing harder.
It resists.
"Get off me!"
My skin burns as the demonic energy burns within the wound, fighting against the invading cold.
But it doesn't disappear.
Fear washes over me. If I can't get rid of it… What will happen? Will I… become like this thing?
No.
I won't let that happen!
With a surge of desperate energy, I amplify the demonic power in my hand, focusing it into a searing heat.
My arm screams in protest, the wound burning with a terrible intensity.
"HRAAAAAAH!"
The pain is excruciating.
But I push through it, channeling everything I have into burning away the corruption.
The heat from my own energy twists with the cold, fighting inside me like two beasts tearing at each other beneath my skin.
—In my veins, in my breath.
Something cracks.
Pressure builds behind my ribs▬
My stomach clenches.
Agony ignites from within.
I double over, gasping, as a violent spasm courses through my torso.
My mouth opens in a choked cry, but what comes out isn't sound.
Blood.
It flows from me without warning. Thick, dark, almost alive. It spatters and spreads across the cracked paths of the ruined park.
My knees give out, and I collapse to the ground, landing on my hands.
The cold spreads.
Up my arm—through my chest.
My vision swims, blurring at the edges.
The figure… It's still there. Watching. Waiting.
It's not moving, but I can feel its presence pressing down on me, a suffocating weight that steals my breath.
I can't… I can't get up.
My body is weak, trembling. The fight against the corruption… It took too much out of me.
The world tilts.
My head hits the cold, hard ground with a dull thud.
My eyes flutter, trying to stay open, but the darkness is closing in.
Ah... The cold... It's so cold...
Worse than the cold is the silence. Not just outside—inside me, too. My power, my warmth, my self... All of it's being swallowed.
Hollowed out.
This isn't death.
It's worse.
I'm disappearing...
(Mother... Touko... Lenah...)
...