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The first child appeared asleep among roots.
Subaru saw him before daring to breathe.
He was one of the little ones from the village, curled up on himself, with dirty clothes, cheeks stained with dirt and his chest rising and falling in a sleep too deep to be natural. Rem reached his side in a blink. She knelt, checked pulse, breathing, pupils, then looked around with the lamp raised.
"He's alive."
Subaru felt his legs almost fail him.
"Thank you… thank you…"
Link said nothing.
He was a few steps back, still, with Luci almost completely off on his shoulder. The forest smelled bad. Not of fresh blood, not yet. It smelled of wet fur, stirred earth, crushed leaves and that dark note that got under his teeth. His fingers opened and closed once. The kagunes, under his back, wanted to come out.
He didn't let them.
Not yet.
They found the second child shortly after, leaning against a stone. Then the third. Then Petra, with a broken ribbon between her fingers. Subaru ran toward her before Rem could stop him, fell to his knees and almost broke when he saw that she was breathing.
"Petra… good, you're okay…"
Rem checked each one quickly. There were no serious wounds. They were breathing. They were cursed, exhausted, but alive. The villagers, called by the signals Rem had left on the path, wouldn't take too long if they didn't deviate. That was the good part.
The bad part came with the count.
"One is missing," said Subaru.
The phrase hung in the air.
Rem turned toward him.
"Are you sure?"
Subaru swallowed. He looked at the children, one by one. The names. The faces. The absurd conversations of the afternoon. The crown of leaves. The pockets full of stones. The girl who had been with the puppy.
"Meili."
Rem hardened her gaze.
"The girl who brought the puppy."
"Yes."
Link raised his head.
That name didn't tell him the same as Subaru, but the trail did. There was a weaker thread, moving away from the group. Deeper. Closer to the thick smell of the creatures.
"I'll find her."
Subaru turned toward him sharply.
"No."
Rem also stood up.
"Link, wait."
Link was already advancing.
"You stay with Rem and the children."
"Not even as a joke!"
"Subaru."
The way he said his name stopped him.
It wasn't a loud threat. It wasn't an argument. It was a dry, heavy order, coming from a Link different from the one who fought with fireflies or mocked Ram. The boy barely turned his face. His eyes were still human, but something in them was already tensing from within.
"If the children wake up or if something arrives here, Rem needs hands. You are those hands. I am the one who can follow the trail."
Subaru clenched his teeth.
"Don't do something stupid."
"I already did today's."
"That's not funny."
"I wasn't trying to be."
Rem took a step toward him.
"Link, if you separate, there will be no immediate support."
"I know."
"Your mana is still not recovered."
"I'm not going to use magic."
Luci spun restlessly on his shoulder.
Rem looked at him with a seriousness that weighed on him more than any bag from the village.
"Then come back."
Link held that gaze for a second.
"With the girl."
And he went deeper among the trees.
The forest received him with humidity and shadows.
Link advanced without a lamp. Luci shone little, barely enough to mark a pale line on the ground. He didn't need more. His nose was enough. His ears too. Every small crack opened like a door. Every broken leaf said something. The girl's trail was thin, mixed with fear, mud and that animal smell that surrounded everything.
Then he found her.
Meili was lying face down next to a fallen trunk, small, motionless, with dirty hair stuck to her face. Link reached her side in a second, knelt and turned her carefully.
She was breathing.
"I've got you," he murmured.
He lifted her in his arms.
The forest growled.
It wasn't one creature.
It was many.
The eyes appeared first. Low. Yellow. Reddish. Multiple pairs opening between the bushes, behind the trunks, over moss-covered rocks. Demonbeasts. Wolgarms. Some small, others the size of large dogs, all with the same dirty smell of curse, fur and hunger.
Link held the girl against his chest with one arm.
With the other, he let his hand drop.
"No."
The first Wolgarm jumped.
A kagune came out of Link's back like a red whip.
He didn't push it.
He didn't move it away.
He pierced it.
The creature screamed once before crashing against a tree, split from chest to spine. The second attacked from the left. Link turned his body without letting go of Meili and another kagune ripped its head off with a dry blow. The third tried to bite his leg. Link stepped on its skull against the ground with a force that sank earth, bone and roots in the same crunch.
The others hesitated.
Link didn't.
This time there was no emotional chain holding his hands. He wasn't in front of Rem or Ram. He wasn't trying to save other people's feelings. They weren't people. They weren't children. They weren't someone he could look at later and ask for forgiveness.
They were teeth between him and a girl.
His eyes changed.
The kakugan lit up on both sides, red and black, and four kagunes unfolded on his back with a wet, living sound. Luci moved away by instinct, floating higher like a scared spark. The air around Link seemed to compress. His senses opened until it hurt.
The Wolgarms attacked.
Link responded.
One fell without a jaw. Another was crushed against a rock. Two tried to surround him and died before completing the arc, cut by kagunes that moved like flexible blades. One jumped toward Meili and Link caught it with his bare hand by the neck, squeezed and threw it against another three with such force that the impact made them roll among broken branches.
The earth under his boots started to stain.
Link breathed slowly.
The hole under his ribs moved.
He ignored it.
"Back," he said, although the creatures didn't understand words.
The Wolgarms took a step back.
Then something bigger moved among them.
It wasn't huge yet. Not like a final beast. But it was different. A Wolgarm without hair on part of its body, with a sickly appearance and eyes that were too intelligent. The same smell as the puppy. The same root of everything. The creature lowered its back, opened its mouth and under its paws a magic circle the color of earth appeared.
Link saw it.
He didn't understand the formula.
He did understand the intention.
The ground trembled.
Behind him, footsteps arrived breaking through the underbrush.
"Link!"
Subaru.
Rem.
Bad timing.
The circle shone with more force.
Link turned.
Subaru was coming too far ahead, borrowed sword in hand, his breathing broken. Rem was by his side, Morning Star ready, prepared to throw herself toward the beast that was conjuring. In canon, maybe Subaru would have been the one to throw himself. Maybe he would have pushed Rem. Maybe he would have taken the hit, or would have used that brave stupidity of his to turn weakness into opportunity.
But Link was there.
And Link was faster.
The earth attack exploded from the ground.
A row of rocky stakes rose like jaws.
Link released a kagune toward Subaru and pushed him violently to the side. Subaru rolled among leaves with a muffled scream. At the same time, Link closed the distance toward Rem, caught her against his chest with one arm and spun on himself.
"Link—!"
She didn't finish.
The four kagunes closed around both of them.
Not like whips.
Like a cage.
Like red ribs.
The earth struck.
The stakes impacted against the kagune with a dry, brutal crash. One pierced one of the outer layers and opened red flesh, splashing dark blood on the ground. Another hit Link's side and tore a low sound of pain from him, more rage than scream. Rem was trapped against him, protected by his body and by those living extensions that trembled under the pressure of the attack.
The world filled with dust.
Subaru, from the ground, raised his head with eyes wide in horror.
"LINK! REM!"
The kagune opened.
Link was still standing.
He was bleeding from the side. A piece of stone had pierced part of his jacket. The wound started to close before Rem could process it. The blood returned inward as if the body rejected the idea of being broken.
Rem was unharmed.
She was too close to him.
Her cheek almost touched his chest. Her hands were tense on the Morning Star, but she hadn't received the attack. Link released her slowly, just enough for her to move.
"Are you okay?"
Rem looked at him.
For the first time since they entered the forest, her face lost its exact composure.
"Link…"
"Are you okay?"
"Yes."
"Good."
Then he turned.
The bald Wolgarm was still there.
The others started moving again, encouraged by the blood, by the pause, by the presence of three prey instead of one. Subaru stood up as best he could, panting. Rem took a step forward, the weapon in hand, her breathing different.
Link advanced.
He didn't wait for an order.
The first Wolgarm that jumped died divided in two. The second received a kagune blow that slammed it against another tree with such force that the wood cracked. The third tried to reach Subaru. Link didn't see it with his eyes; he heard it, smelled it, felt it. A kagune shot backward and pinned it to the ground before Subaru could raise the sword.
Subaru froze.
"Thanks… I guess."
"Don't get close."
"I wasn't trying!"
Rem also attacked.
Her Morning Star roared through the dust, bursting the ground, destroying bodies, opening space. The coordination wasn't perfect, but it was brutal. Link cut the advances, Rem destroyed groups, Subaru moved behind trying not to get in the way and protecting Meili when Link finally left her next to him.
"Take her with the others!" ordered Link.
"And you two?"
"Subaru!"
That shout was enough.
Subaru carried Meili as best he could, retreating. He didn't flee completely. He couldn't. His body didn't obey him enough to abandon Rem and Link in the middle of the forest. But he moved away enough to get the girl out of the first circle of death.
The Wolgarms didn't stop coming.
There were too many.
Even with Link destroying them without mercy, even with Rem crushing several at once, the forest seemed to keep spitting bodies. Claws, teeth, eyes, growls. One bit Link's kagune and was dragged toward him to receive a punch that sank its snout. Another reached his shoulder and tore flesh. Link caught it with his mouth open in rage, shoved his fingers down its throat and slammed it against the ground.
He didn't hold back.
The forest learned that.
The creatures too.
But the number mattered. Not because they could kill him easily. But because Subaru was there. Because Rem was there. Because there was an unconscious girl a few meters away. Because every second Link took to destroy one beast was a second another could surround, jump, bite, curse.
Rem understood.
Her breathing changed.
Link felt it before seeing it.
"Rem."
She didn't respond.
She was looking at the Wolgarms. Not at Subaru. Not at Link. At the creatures that surrounded the forest like a dirty tide. Her fingers tightened on the Morning Star chain. Her shoulder lowered slightly. The fallen lamp near a root illuminated one side of her face, and in that profile Link saw something ancient open behind her blue eye.
Subaru, with Meili in his arms, also saw it.
"Rem…"
The maid took a step forward.
The air around her changed.
It wasn't explosive at first. It was pressure. A rise of mana, clean and violent, different from Link's. Older. Sharper. Sadder. The forest seemed to recognize it too, because several Wolgarms retreated with their ears pinned to their skulls.
Rem lowered her head.
Her voice came out low, almost without emotion.
"Rem will eliminate them all."
Link extended a hand toward her, not knowing whether to stop her or accompany her.
"Rem, wait."
She raised her face.
And then it appeared.
A white horn emerged from her forehead, unique, bright under the broken light of the lamp and of Luci, marking her face with a fierce beauty that had nothing human.
Subaru stopped breathing.
Link too.
Rem opened her blue eye, now lit by something that went beyond duty.
The entire forest kept silence.