I awoke quite suddenly to blood and fire and immediately rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding being stabbed in the throat. Well-honed instincts kept me rolling. There was a sharp drop, a jolt of pain, as I fell off the altar and hit the stone floor. Hot liquid splattered over my face as I reached for my sword and…found nothing. Wait, what?

Glancing to the side, my sword was…oh. No arm. That explained it. I rolled a bit further and reached with my right. This time, my fingers closed around the hilt.

(wait what, holy shit back up, no arm?)

Promptly, I used my newly reclaimed sword to parry the chakram that had just sliced off my left arm, sending it flying off somewhere into the flaming ruins of the city.

(the what)

Well, it’d probably show back up again soon, but I had a more immediate issue to deal with. Mainly, the screaming maniac in my face, trying to put more holes in me.

(more holes?)

Strangely, I thought I could almost hear words. As metal clashed against metal and my feet skidded backwards from the force, I realized that they were. He was talking to me. At the top of his lungs, but still. Semi-coherent conversation.

“I’ll kill you!” he howled with inhuman fervor. “I’ll flay you alive! I’ll carve your ribs from your spine and rip your heart out from the back! You think I won’t?!”

Alright, less conversation and more death threat.

(do i even know him?)

Of course I did. My own brother, screaming maniac though he might have been at the moment, was indubitably my brother.

(wasn’t i an only child?)

…That was right. I was an only chil – argh, right through the shoulder. My hand spasmed and dropped my sword.

Well, shit. Backed against a literal wall. Not the end of the world, but –

The Dark Nocturne leaned in, eyes bright with mad lucidity, pinning me there like an insect. “What have you to say now, brother?”

(wait, brother?)

Words came, unbidden, and thoughtlessly I let them spill from my mouth.

“Your brother,” I said, “is dead.”

And the moment I said it I knew it was true. I knew it like I knew how to count and read, like some fundamental fact of my existence whose origins had long been forgotten. It was because –

“All that remains is a ghost.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

This was also true, but definitely not the right thing to say, as the glow of magic quite literally lit his eyes up, brighter than before. I avoided the imminent explosion by kicking him hard enough in the chest to launch myself backwards, through the wall.

(actually, what happened to my everything?)

While the cloud of dust covered me from sight, I drew my sword to me once more –

(what is with this sword summoning)

– and contemptuously swatted the returning chakram away again.

(how the fuck)

He really needed new tricks, even if close-quarters combat was one of his weak points. The only reason he’d managed to take off my arm before was –

(why am i so casual about losing an arm?! i'm missing a whole fucking arm!)

– because I’d been distracted, trying to █████████ – ah, and now-

(…this isn’t my body)

-he was back-

(…which means…)

-in my face-

(what happened)

-again. Possibly madder-

(why am i here)

-than before, which-

(who am i)

-was impressive-

(what am i)

-yet-

(what are we)

-concerning.

(what happened to me)

NO TIME FOR THAT, IF I DIDN’T FOCUS RIGHT NOW THERE WOULDN’T BE ANY – SPEAR! – ANY REASON TO PANIC EVER AGAIN.

(i could focus and panic at the same time)

NO I ABSOLUTELY – ROOF TILES?! – COULD NOT.

(…)

Finally, I could think. No, no time to think. Just react, react, react. Parry, dodge, parry, feint, feint, parry, go for the thr-

-batted aside like a fly by the retaliatory blow. Stone gave way before I did once again, putting me through several buildings of varying conditions. I coughed ash out of my lungs and filled them with more smoke.

Smoke, and the smell of mouthwatering meat. It seemed that when the city started burning, not everyone escaped.

(delicious)

I would have gagged, but the sick feeling in my stomach was quashed with disturbingly familiar ease and a clinical observation that I’d need protein to regenerate.

(i need meat to what)

Once more, I pulled my sword to my hand and leapt back into the fray.

----------------------------------------

The city of Myrrh burned as two demigods clashed. Whoever was still in the city was doubtlessly dead or wishing they were. So many horrible ways to go, for people who can’t break through stone like cardboard.

Fortunately for me, I was not one of them. Unfortunately for me, I was one of the two demigods, and I was not the one winning. I’d managed to delay the inevitable much longer than expected of someone who’d never been in a fight before –

(laughable thought, that the White Star had never been in a fight before)

– but things were always bound to end this way.

I spat out blood and dust with what little saliva was left in my mouth and wished bitterly for some water to rinse the taste away. Through the smoke, his hazy figure approached, well aware that I was at the end of my strength. I watched him, propped up against the rubble that used to be a house, resigned yet panicking. Fear of the final ending gripped me, mixed with a boiling resentment that it would end like this. I…

(don’t want to)

…Yet what could I do, but sit here and wait.

I took another labored breath (smoke, meat, blood), throat raw, and felt its kiss.

…Yes. There was one last thing I could try. Since I’d awoken, it’d been there. A delicate tether strung too-tight across my throat and coiled tightly around my heart. If I strained just the barest inch too hard, I’d snap it. If I pulled, I’d do more than that.

The same gut feeling that had carried me through the fight multiple exchanges of lightning-quick blows without dying told me it was a bad idea. A horrible idea. One that I’d regret immensely.

But I was out of other options. He was here, past the curtain of smoke, steps crunching over debris. This was it; the incoming blow would be the last.

He had no words left for me. His arm drew back. I didn’t want to die. I couldn’t afford to die. So as the Dark Nocturne closed in and I slowly bled my life out from a thousand cuts, I pulled on that tether as hard as I could.

Something tore.

And I brought the both of us, screaming, down into the dark.