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Rem breathed as if she had just remembered she had lungs.
It wasn't enough to bring her back completely.
Link knew it in the same instant his forehead rested against hers. The white horn was still there, shining, beautiful and terrible, a line of moonlight born from flesh that turned her face into something ancient. Her blue eye had stopped burning with that completely empty fury, but it was still far away. Too far. The Morning Star's chain lay on the ground, but her fingers were still near the handle. Her shoulders trembled, not from cold or normal exhaustion, but from an internal pressure that seemed to want to split her from the inside.
The forest didn't wait for Rem to decide who she was.
The Wolgarms moved again.
A group of three launched themselves from the left, using the trunks as cover. Another circled from behind, searching for Subaru and Ram. Two of the broken-horn Mabestias that Link had dragged there responded before he ordered anything. They collided with their former companions in a mass of claws, fangs, and growls. One died instantly, its throat torn open by the bite of a free Wolgarm. The other managed to drag its enemy to the ground and hold it there long enough for a kagune to descend like a red spear.
Link didn't look.
His gaze was on Rem.
"Stay with me," he said quietly.
Rem blinked.
The sentence touched something, but not enough.
Her hand suddenly closed around the chain.
Link felt the movement before he saw it. The Morning Star rose from the ground with a metallic roar. It wasn't aimed at the Wolgarms. It was aimed at him. Not out of conscious hatred, not out of rejection, but because anything nearby was a threat while the horn continued to command more than her mind.
The blow would have pulverized a man's head.
Link received it with a kagune.
The iron ball sank into the red flesh, tearing it almost in half. The pain shot up his back like fire. The regeneration started immediately, but the impact made him step back. Rem pulled the chain, trying to recover the weapon. Link let her recover it. He couldn't turn this into a contest of strength against her. If he held her too tightly, if he cornered her, if he forced her, he would only be speaking the same language as the frenzy.
"Fine," he murmured, with someone else's blood and his own drying in his throat. "Then let's talk the hard way."
Rem attacked.
The second blow came low, straight at his legs. Link jumped backward and the iron ball passed, breaking roots, lifting damp earth and pieces of rock. A Wolgarm took advantage of the movement to jump toward Rem's side. Link extended a kagune without taking his eyes off her and split the animal in mid-air. The blood fell on both of them. Rem didn't even flinch.
"They're not the ones," said Link. "It's me. Look at me."
Rem spun the chain over her shoulder and threw it again.
This time Link didn't block with a kagune. He raised his left forearm and let the weapon hit him fully.
The bone broke.
The iron ball sank flesh and bandage, bending the arm at an impossible angle. Subaru screamed something from behind. Ram did too, perhaps an order, perhaps an insult, perhaps his name. Link didn't pay attention to them. The pain was clear, bright, almost useful. The fingers of his left hand went numb for an instant. Then the flesh began to move. The bone realigned with a wet crunch under the skin. Tendons, muscle, vessels, everything rebuilt itself while he held Rem's gaze.
"I'll accept that too."
Rem gasped.
Not from exhaustion.
From something trying to break through the fog.
Link took a step toward her.
"Whatever you're carrying, give it to me."
The Morning Star trembled in her hand.
Behind them, Subaru stood up as best he could. His face was pale, his breathing heavy, one hand pressed against his side. Ram was on her knees, trying to stand, too weak to get up quickly, but not destroyed enough to stop looking at her sister. The hollow had become a field of bodies. Dead Wolgarms, broken Wolgarms, subdued Wolgarms and free Wolgarms fighting among themselves under the trees. The smell of curse mixed with Goa smoke, blood, and torn mana.
"Link…" Subaru coughed. "You can't reason with her like this."
"I'm not reasoning."
Rem moved again.
This time it was she who closed the distance.
She was faster than seemed possible for someone wounded. The horn gave her a strength that burned her body to keep her standing. Her fist hit Link in the abdomen. He felt the air leave his lungs. Another blow, this time to the chest. One more to the jaw. His head snapped to the side. Blood came out of his mouth.
Link laughed.
Not at her.
At himself.
"You hit harder when you're not trying to be polite."
Rem raised her hand for another blow.
Link caught her by the wrist.
The movement was gentle.
The force, not.
The ground under his boots sank when she tried to free herself. He didn't squeeze until it hurt. He just held her. The difference was fine, but to him it mattered. A Wolgarm jumped toward his back. One of his kagunes impaled it and threw it against two others. Another free Mabestia tried to get past toward Ram; one of the subdued ones intervened and received the bite in the neck. Link raised a second kagune and finished off the attacker before the broken-horn one died completely.
"I don't know what happened to you," said Link, still holding Rem's wrist. "I don't know what happened to Ram. I don't know what that horn means to you. I don't know what guilt is eating you from the inside."
Rem's blue eye trembled.
Ram opened hers from the ground.
Subaru held his breath.
"And I'm not going to pretend I know," he continued. "I'm not going to give you a nice speech about a story you didn't tell me. I'm not that arrogant."
Rem tried to free herself again.
Link let her.
She stepped back, confused by the lack of resistance. The Morning Star rose again. Her fingers trembled.
"But I do know this," he said. "You're hating yourself so much that you're letting the hatred decide for you. And I'm not going to allow that."
Rem clenched her teeth.
"Rem…" her voice came out broken, hoarse, barely human. "Rem must…"
She didn't finish.
A Wolgarm jumped on her from the right. Link didn't use a kagune. He moved with his whole body, caught it by the throat with his right hand and slammed it against the ground. Then he lifted it again and smashed it against a stone. Once. Twice. Three times. The beast stopped moving. Link threw it away without looking.
"No."
Rem looked at him.
Link took another step toward her.
"Rem must… pay."
The word fell like a knife.
Link felt something inside him grow cold.
Subaru closed his eyes.
Ram said nothing, but her face changed. Not surprise. Known pain.
Rem lowered her head. Her white horn shone brighter, as if the confession had fed the same wound.
"Rem must… compensate. Rem must… protect. Rem must… be useful. Rem must…"
The chain of her weapon dragged across the ground.
"Rem must be necessary."
Link took another step toward her.
"Then look at me."
She didn't.
"Rem."
The name sounded firmer.
She raised her face.
"I need you alive."
The sentence hit her.
It didn't heal her.
But it hit her.
Rem blinked. For a second, her eye saw something more than enemies. She saw Link, covered in blood, with both eyes turned into kakugan, complete horns under the night, kagunes open behind his back like a monster's crown. She saw him wounded and regenerating, tired and standing, full of a violence that was nevertheless contained in front of her with an almost absurd care.
"Not useful," he said. "Not perfect. Not as a shield. Not as a weapon. Alive."
Rem breathed with difficulty.
A group of free Wolgarms gathered behind her.
Ram shouted:
"Rem!"
The Morning Star moved on instinct. Rem turned and destroyed the first one. Link was already with her, not in front, not behind, but beside her. His kagunes cut the flanks while she crushed the center. For an instant, both moved together without thinking. She, still half lost. He, too aware of every centimeter between his body and hers. A beast tried to bite Rem's horn. Link tore its head off with one hand. Another launched itself at her leg. Rem crushed it before the teeth closed.
Subaru saw the coordination and felt a knot in his throat.
It wasn't clean. It wasn't elegant.
But it was real.
"Ram," Subaru murmured, dragging himself toward her. "What do we do?"
Ram clenched her teeth.
"If Rem doesn't come back completely, she'll die exhausted. If Link keeps taking everything for her, maybe he will too."
"That doesn't answer."
"Barusu wants impossible answers."
"Always."
Ram raised her gaze toward her sister.
"The horn."
Subaru looked at her.
"What?"
"A strong blow to the horn can bring her out of that state."
Subaru opened his eyes.
"You want us to hit her horn?"
"I want her to live."
Ram's sentence had no adornments.
Subaru looked at Link and Rem.
Link had said he didn't know the story. Subaru didn't know it completely either, not as she remembered it, not as Ram lived it, but he understood enough. Hitting the horn wasn't just a tactical maneuver. It was touching the symbol of everything Rem was and everything she believed she owed. If Link did it wrong, he could hurt her more than physically. If he didn't do it, the forest would kill her.
"Link!" Subaru shouted. "The horn! You have to hit her horn to bring her back!"
Link heard.
He didn't respond.
Rem also heard.
Her face hardened again, as if that word had closed the cracks opened by Link's voice.
Horn.
Her hand tightened on the chain again.
"No," said Rem.
The voice was clearer.
Not healthy.
Clear.
"Rem can still fight."
Link looked at her.
"No one said you can't."
"Rem can kill more."
"I know."
"Rem can protect."
"I know."
"Then Rem must—"
"No."
He interrupted her with brutal calm.
Rem froze.
Link approached until he was less than a step away. The Wolgarms surrounding the clearing hesitated. Some retreated from the pressure coming from his horns. Others growled, pushed by the pack, by the curse, by their own hunger. Link ignored everyone for a second.
"If you need to hate yourself, hate yourself in my arms. If you need to blame yourself, scream it at me. If you need to believe that everything bad is your fault, give it to me. I'll carry it."
Rem opened her eye.
"You… don't understand."
"No."
The word was quick.
Honest.
"I don't understand. But I don't need to understand everything to stay."
Rem trembled.
Link raised a hand and placed it on her chest, right above her heart. He didn't push. He didn't trap her. He just left his palm there, against the fabric stained with blood and mud.
"Give me your guilt."
Rem shook her head.
"No."
"Give it to me."
"No."
"Your hatred."
"No."
"Your shame."
"No."
"Your fear."
She clenched her teeth.
"No."
"Your pain."
Rem looked at him with rage, desperation, and something that looked too much like a plea.
"Why?"
Link didn't smile.
"Because I love you."
The forest didn't stop.
But Subaru did.
Ram did too.
Rem stopped breathing.
Link held her gaze without hiding.
"I'm not telling you so you'll answer me. I'm not telling you so you'll believe me. I'm not telling you so you'll stop hating yourself because I say so. I'm telling you because it's the only thing I have clear right now."
A Wolgarm jumped toward them.
A kagune split it without looking.
"I love you. And if your head only knows how to turn everything into debt, then make me the debtor. If your heart needs to punish someone, punish me. If you feel you must pay for existing, charge me. But don't go. Don't die. Don't turn into a broken tool so others can live one more day."
Rem opened her mouth.
No word came out.
The white horn shone with violence. The pressure of her mana rose again, as if the frenzy tried to crush the conversation before it ended. The Morning Star rose by reflex. Link didn't block. Subaru screamed. Ram tried to stand up. The iron ball hit Link in the side.
It tore off his right arm.
The blow was so brutal that the limb was sent flying toward the trees, spinning between blood and fabric. Subaru went white. Ram opened her eye. Rem, even out of herself, froze at the sight.
Link stepped back half a pace.
Only half.
The blood came out in a dark red gush.
Then it stopped.
The stump bubbled. Flesh, bone, and muscle began to form with obscene speed. First an incomplete skeleton, then tendons, then muscle mass, then skin. The fingers reappeared flexing as if trying to remember their shape. In less time than it would take a human to scream, Link had an arm again.
He raised it slowly.
He opened and closed his hand.
He looked at Rem.
"I accept that too."
Rem dropped the chain.
This time for real.
The Morning Star fell to the ground.
Her body trembled so much it seemed about to break. The white horn was still there, but its light flickered. Link walked toward her.
Each step seemed heavier.
Subaru tried to say something, but his voice didn't come out. Ram didn't speak either. The hollow smelled of blue ash, old blood, and hot earth. The dead boss Wolgarm lay behind, destroyed. The curses in Subaru's body didn't disappear all at once, but the mortal pull weakened like strings cut from several ends.
Link arrived in front of Rem.
She raised her gaze.
Her eyes were full of tears that still hadn't fallen.
"Rem… failed," she whispered.
The sentence barely existed.
Link crouched in front of her.
He didn't have the strength for big speeches.
But he still had a voice.
"Then fail with me."
Rem trembled.
"Rem… made everyone…"
"With me."
"Rem couldn't protect—"
"With me."
"Rem doesn't deserve—"
Link hugged her.
Not hard. Not as a shield this time. Not as a cage. He just hugged her, with his body covered in blood, ash, and exhaustion, letting his forehead rest next to hers without touching the horn.
"With me," he repeated. "All of that. Carry it with me."
Rem's white horn began to lose its brightness.
Her Morning Star was forgotten on the earth.
Subaru closed his eyes and let his head fall against Ram's shoulder.
Ram looked at her sister, then at Link, with an expression impossible to name.
Rem didn't respond with words.
She just clung to Link's bloodstained clothes as if, for the first time in a long time, someone wasn't trying to take her guilt away by force, but to hold it with her until it stopped crushing her.
And under the silence of the forest scorched by blue fire, the white horn slowly disappeared.