“It seems my brother’s mongrel has come to save me-”

She sliced off his head and watched it bounce a little away from they body. The face had a mocking smile frozen on it.

He revived soon after in a torrent of rainbow flames.

She was surprised that Luke stood up. She knew she had stabbed the heart. Her first guess was healing aura, but the wound was still there and filled with blood. She realized his ability to control blood allowed him to live. His own blood had acted like a plug, his control over it was amazing.

But the damage was still there.

Yoru didn’t try anything. She didn’t have to. Luke stabbed at the Prince in the center of the vortex, using a spear made from his own blood. She knew it was useless, and he must have known too.

Luke faced forward at his foe with a defiant snarl.

The Prince would not allow the same mistake to happen again. He melted the spear before it even touched him. Then, the spearman, was engulfed in a blaze of red flames. He screamed in agony, the pain too much for him, he fell to the ground, and the smell of burning flesh assaulted her sensitive and bloodied nose.

If her nose wasn’t already filled with blood, she was sure that it would have been worse.

It was bad.

She step back like the Subaru behind her, and watched the crimson spearman’s final moment as he reached out towards Cedar. Cruelly, the Prince ignited him once more, and his screams silenced. The only sound was the crackling flames and the Subaru swearing under his breath.

The vortex of flames died down and Cedar stepped out as if he just finished a nice warm bath. His neck was intact and his clothes reformed with no evidence that it had been bloodied and tattered.

How convenient, she thought as her body throbbed painfully.

“Yoru,” he said in his polished and poisonous tone. Hearing her name come out of his mouth made her sick. “Why did you save me? Speak.”

He didn’t seem to care about the two still alive men, and kept his undivided attention on her.

“Kenichi is dead,” she said.

“Wait!” Subaru yelled. “He’s dead! What do you mean?”

He took a step forward towards her but stopped when the Prince glared death at him. He shut up, and stepped back. The next moment, Cedar turned to Yoru.

“The bear mongrel?” Cedar crossed his arms. “Continue.”

“He died with a smile on his face, and I fought this bastard here.” She pointed at Bell. “He almost killed me. I hid in his shadow to heal. Thankfully you didn’t kill him, and I was able to stay in hidden there.”

“None your meaningless dribble answers my question, Yoru.” He snarled. “Why did you save me? I know your desire to kill me. Enough that you killed the poor man who took my body?”

Her ear twitched to that.

“So, what he said was true then? A man from another world woke up in your body?”

A smile spread across his face. “Maybe? But there is truth to his words. My body bears two souls right now. Mine and his.” He looked over to Subaru. “I release your tongue. You may speak my truth.”

A mark on the back of Subaru’s hand appeared and diluted like oil in water. Subaru gasped in relief. From the disgusting scent, Yoru recognized that mark as a curse. Subaru looked over to Yoru and gave her a resolute nod.

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“I knocked on his Gate earlier. I sensed two of them. He’s not lying.”

“Quiet!” She growled. “I have no interest to hear from you.”

She didn’t trust Subaru. She never could understand how Kenichi got along with him. They had been on opposing sides once. He almost killed her a couple of times. It wasn’t hard to feel personal about that. He was a mercenary now, but to her, he would always be an enemy. You don’t just go from enemies like that and trust someone easily.

Only Elm could do that…and even Kenichi.

That strange smile on Kenichi’s face bothered her. How could anyone make such a peaceful face when they had their head chopped off. She made guesses, and she was sure it was whatever Aria had written.

With that in mind, she finally answered his question.

“I saved you because to defy Fate.”

Cedar rose an eyebrow at her. “Fate?”

“I had a lot of time to think while I was healing. I never liked the Cult of the Moon,” she said, her tone cold. “Kenichi died believing in the future Aria told him. I’ll never know what she wrote him, but I’ve decided to do something that I would never do. Save you.”

“Save me?” He snorted and his tone was derisive. “I think less of you now, Yoru. The mongrel that attached to my brother like a parasite, I know, would have at least had the respect of a proud wolf. What I see in front of me is a weak one. One that has lost her bite. You did not save me, I would have saved myself. Are your feelings for my brother so little that you would try to get along with me? Disgusting.” His face twisted as if his tongue touched rotting meat.

“Elm would be disappointed in you.”

Those words shattered the facade he had put on. His face fell, and his crossed hands, soon turned to shaking fists.

“Never say my brother’s name!” His cool gone, replaced with the cries of a younger brother who loved his older brother too much. “A mongrel like you, should have their tongue removed for uttering his name like that! You ruined him! My brother was the strongest and best of all of us!”

She remembered the words of Elm when seeing this scene.

He’s my little brother. He may be a brat, but I love him. Elm had told her with the most radiant smile while they sat together on the bench, enjoying the the peacefulness of that day.

He was still a spoiled brat. His temper tantrum proved that.

“For someone that loved his brother, you show it in a weird way.” Yoru said, her throat tight.

Flames blazed alive and he wore it like a cloak. He gave her a murderous look, and a flame sword manifested in his hand.

“Don’t you ever question my love for my brother,” he spat at her hatefully.

For so long she didn’t want to ask this. She wanted her hatred to stay at its peak, sharpened and ready to cut him through. It was why she never questioned why he killed him, but that he did kill Elm.

A brother like him that loved Elm so much, her curiosity finally got the better of her, and she asked the question that had floated in her mind since that day she heard the news secondhand.

“Why did you kill him then? What happened on that day?”

To that, Cedar’s face went blank. He looked at her as if she had asked the dumbest question in the world.

“Because he was no longer perfect.”

She didn’t need to worry. Her hatred and desire to kill him reached a peak she did not know she had. No matter what she would kill this man. Make him suffer a fate worse than death.

“I can see it in your eyes, you wish to kill me,” Cedar said.

Her shadow beneath her feet bubbled like a witch’s cauldron.

“I do,” she said, holding herself back. “But not right now.”

The Prince shook his head, and glared at her. His anger rekindled by what she said. “I told my brother what kind of woman you are. That you weren’t one, but a beast. A beast has no pride but the only purpose is run through their base instinct. You wish to survive so much, that you would throw away your drive to kill me like a bone you got tired of? Do you wish for my help that much, mongrel?”

Of course, she didn’t want to. This wasn’t about surviving. Despite how much she desired to kill him, she had another duty to uphold. But she would break the promise that she made to Kenichi while she rested between the lines of life and death in the shadow.

She met his eyes with her bloodied black ones.

“I do it to defy Aria and the curse she placed on me,” she whispered in a harsh tone.

Cedar considered her answer, rubbing his chin, taking deep breaths until his anger abated.

“So, you’ve decided to drop your revenge upon me, for another revenge. A revenge on Fate itself. Fine, I suppose I can be magnanimous for my brother’s pet. We will not join hands, instead, you will grovel in front of me like the dog you are. If you do that, I can accept it. I can assist you with your little fit.”

Pride meant nothing to her. She fell to her knees and pressed her head against the floor. Cedar looked mildly shocked by the display, and a dark anger swirled within those eyes of his.

“Disgusting,” he said, disappointed.

She didn’t care. She would do this while hiding her fangs and claws. She would grovel, and lick his boots if needed to. She did so while repeating the one vow she would never break. The one she made in front of Elm’s tombstone.

She would kill this man.

#

Within the endless white expanse between the twin Gates made of stone, Kagami watched the events unfold absently. He watched as the Prince, inside the same body as him, succeed where he had failed.

There was no strength coming out of him. Kagami could not complain, he had no right to. This was what he had accepted.

This was no longer his story.