Kita dizzily rises to her feet, squirming and clutching the knife wound in her stomach as Chevo watches her with an entertained grin on his face. The wound has already started healing but she can't let this bastard hurt her again- She can't use her magic when she regenerates and this douchebag loves to abuse the fact. Kita didn't even know that she couldn't until he did it.

She takes a step back, concerned about what else he might know but he simply walks forward. No closer, no farther… but, maintaining distance.

I don't like this!

Kita’s first instinct is to run but she can barely walk without limping in pain.

Fuck.

“You still haven't apologized,” Chevo says. “You just keep trying to get away with your evil, huh?” He slightly jolts forward, startling Kita and causing her to stumble and fall to the floor.

“The soulless reap consequences too, Kita,” He chuckles as he starts walking again.

Kita can feel the wound healing quicker now- maybe a light jog. Still not enough, but this has given her an idea. She clutches her wound tighter, covering it entirely with the palm of her hand.

“Even when they're undeserved?” Kita responds.

“Undeserved?” Chevo chuckles, “Undeserved?”

“I didn't kill him,” She lets out a deep sigh. “It honestly caught me by surprise too… Totally sounds like something I’d do,”

“What?” Chevo asks sternly.

“Oh yeah, Caity did it. Right under your nose,”

Chevo stares at her blankly but with an undertone of rage, as though he’s thinking. Before long, he smiles, “I should have known,” He starts laughing.

Kita starts fake laughing along with him, masking her discomfort because she’s unsure of what's going through his head.

“The two of you are clever, huh?” He says.

“Well it wasn't part of the plan,” Kita stammers.

“I don't know why I’d think you’d pull something like that off on your own,”

“What’s that supposed to-”

“I really thought it would be wrong of me to kill her for not killing Reiku,” He puts his hand on his chin,

“But this is why that decision never felt right,”

“What-”

“She almost got away with it, huh,” He crouches in front of Kita, looking at her with a calm fury that has her scooting backwards. “I know what I must do,"

Chevo slowly draws his weapon from its holster and points the barrel at Kita’s forehead. With her hand still clutching where the stab wound was, she stares at Chevo as he lines up his shot.

“I’ll kill her,” He says. “And leave you to share my burden,”

As Chevo cocks back the hammer of his gun, a satisfied grin spreads on his face- One that pisses Kita off. This prick really thinks he has the upper hand. Kita feels beneath her hand, knowing that the stab wound healed before Chevo even raised his gun. She thought she might learn something from indulging him and hearing what he has to say but goddamn, he's just annoying. Why would I ever follow this guy? He must be a shell of his former self.

In a sudden flurry, Kita launches from her feet- pushing the gun to the side with her available arm and momentarily stunning Chevo. In the same motion, She places a hand on his chest before casting a spell.

Consu-

Before she can finish the spell, Chevo uses a second blade to slash the palm of Kita’s hand, sending a sharp pain up her arm.

“Fuck!” She yells as she steps away from Chevo and looks at the finger-sized incision slowly sealing on her hand.

“Clever,” Chevo chuckles. “You almost had me,”

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He jolts forward and slashes his knife at Kita’s neck, barely missing when she leans away from the strike. Chevo maintains his pressure with another slash to her chest, and Kita parries before counter-attacking with a punch to Chevo’s stomach.

It hits, and Kita slips behind him as he stumbles past, taking a deep breath. Kita glances at her hand to see the wound has healed and she raises her hand to cast the spell again.

But Chevo’s recovered, and Kita barely avoids getting her hand cut again when he turns to attack.

Too close! Kita worries as she remembers the edge Chevo has on her- She can't let him neutralize her magic.

“Still trying to protect her?” Chevo asks, “Love is quite a powerful motivator,”

“Shut up,” Kita says, clenching her fist.

“Or is it merely the desire to love?” he chuckles, “A cheap imitation that can only be performed by the soulless,”

Push, Kita sends a large burst of air hurtling at Chevo- with a panicked expression, he dives to the side, getting his entire body out of the way before rolling back up to his feet. As he faces Kita, another burst crashes into his chest and sends him toppling over as he crashes into fleeing civilians.

Kita approaches him as he gets up on one knee, gasping for air whilst holding his chest- but before he even fully recovers, he fires a shot from his hip, this grazes Kita's cheek as her eyes widen in shock. She immediately raises her shield before a few more rounds accumulate within her defence.

Chevo lets out a few more coughs before standing to his feet and holstering his weapon. “You don't hit as hard as you used to,” He chuckles as he wipes away a few droplets of blood beside his mouth. “You lack a certain… conviction,”

“Shut up,” Kita grunts as she punches the backside of her shield, firing the five rounds that caught in her shield back at Chevo.

He dives to the floor, but a loud cry informs Kita that one of them hit. She tries to capitalize on this by charging at Chevo to consume his soul before he can react. As she approaches, she sees that a round connected with his shoulder, and as she darts towards him she begins casting the spell.

Consum-

BANG.

The loud crackle of gunfire erupts as she feels a sudden burst of blood ejects from her chest and mouth. Her entire body goes numb as the world around her shifts the floor nearer.

“Kita!” She hears Jan’s voice scream out from a distance.

Her body hits the floor with a thud that sends a heavy pain to rattle inside her and moments after, she sees a pair of footsteps running towards Chevo, a silhouetted figure with long, red hair and a weapon much longer than Kita has seen before strapped to her back. The figure begins tending his injury as Kita watches in confusion, wondering how she ended up on the floor.

As she looks down to her chest, the source of her pain. She sees a gaping wound that nearly reveals her heartbeat underneath the torn flesh and bone.

Fuck! Kita panics at the sight as she coughs up more blood.

“We need to get her out of here,” Reiku yells as he runs towards her. As she watches him with hazy vision, she feels a chilling breeze brush against her face. The same wind sends a sharp pain in Kita’s injury as she feels the air flowing sharply through her.

She slowly turns her head in the direction of the breeze, seeing an alleyway that exposes the edge of the city, where the river crawls along the horizon like an artery. As her eyes struggle to focus, she slowly notices the fog, expanding over the water and darkening the lower parts of the sky.

The myst.

As Kita watches the myst consume the distance, she feels her entire body strain as Reiku lifts her up.

“Ahh!” Kita yells as her body twitches.

“No time for pain,” Reiku says before he starts running with her in his arms. “Get to Level Zero!” He yells.

“We won't make it,” Ms Eeve says with Jan and the other black-eyed child holding her hands.

“Then what do you propose?” Reiku asks in frustration, definitely not in the mood for Ms Eeve’s shenanigans.

To his surprise, however, Ms Eeve kicks open the door to a nearby hostel and leads the kids inside. Reiku follows suit, along with many others who begin forcing their way into storefronts and homes along Level One.

“This bullet wound is larger than any I’ve seen,” Reiku says as he lumps Kita on a nearby table and examines her wound. “It will take her a while to recover,”

He then tears the sleeve of his shirt off before stuffing it into the wound- Kita screams in pain as he does, silencing all of the citizens hiding together in the packed-out hostel.

Amongst Kita’s piercing screams, those hiding out watch the windows with worried eyes as the whole city darkens. Like the shadow of a colloidal beast, the myst engulfs the entire city until there is nothing in sight but the greyish, brown grains of death amongst the occasion flash of blood-red lightning.

As Reiku finishes plugging Kita’s wound, she passes out. And lies silent as Reiku whites his blood-stained hands on his shirt and looks out the window along with the others.

Slowly, the rise of screaming returns. However, it isn't Kita. There are more screams of agony and suffering than just one. All those who couldn't find refuge in time bellow for help with low groans of breathlessness. The myst kills from the inside and out. Deteriorating each of its victims as they cannot avoid breathing it in. Before long, they begin to burn, as the myst eats away at their organs like a venomous toxin, whilst doing the same to their skin and eyes. Like smoke from a fire, the burning of the myst releases a thick black smoke from the skin and mouth of its prey until it completely dissipates.

Reiku watches in horror as the sound of death slowly begins to fade to the roaring winds of the myst, beating against the hostel. The black smoke of each victim floats towards the horizon, travelling deeper into the myst.

“Did that-” Ms Eeve stutters as Reiku turns to see her jittering in fear. Her eyes fixed on the window as the myst continues its relentless pursuit, actively knocking against the refuge. “Did the myst consume their souls?”