Luna's POV
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Elsewhere
The clash with the Chimera had turned the forest into a battlefield of fire and ruin. Trees smoldered, their branches bowing beneath tongues of flame, while ash drifted like black snowflakes through the choking air. The sun hung indifferent above, climbing its slow path toward the zenith, its brilliance lost against the inferno below.
The monster's serpent-tail lashed with startling precision, striking toward the girls' blind spot. Its leonine head bellowed, vomiting a cone of fire that swept across the clearing they had drawn it into. The ground itself seemed to sizzle beneath its fury.
"I'll open the act. You close it," Alpha said. Her hands tightened around the claymore's hilt. Sweat traced crooked lines down her soot-streaked face, stinging her eyes, but her stance remained steady, defiant.
Slash. Her blade whistled through the smoke and struck toward the goat's head—only for the beast's paw, massive and unrelenting, to swat her aside as though she were no more than a ragdoll. The earth shook where her body hit the ground, a dull thud swallowed by the crackle of fire.
"Anytime you're ready," Alpha hissed through clenched teeth. She pushed herself upright with a grunt, rolling clear as another surge of fire scorched the dirt where she'd fallen. Her breaths came ragged now, sharp as broken glass in her lungs. Even so, she darted back into the fray, circling behind the beast, eyes locked on the thrashing serpent-tail.
Slash. Her blade struck true, cutting deep, and blood sprayed in a scarlet arc. But victory's taste soured instantly—the Chimera's claw raked her across the torso, carving a savage wound that sent her staggering.
"Ahhh!" Her cry was raw, guttural, swallowed by the roar of the flames.
"Shit. I don't know spells," Omega muttered. Panic flared in her chest, coiling like a snake. Her knees buckled, hands pressing against them as though she might hold herself upright through sheer will. Sweat matted her hair, poured down her face, and blurred her vision.
Then—something else took hold of her. Her mouth moved, but the words were not her own. Her voice carried the weight of judgment, alien and eternal:
I have seen your origin. I have borne witness to your voyage. Like a star that must burn out, so must a life. End.
סוף (Sof).
The world recoiled. Leaves froze mid-drift, suspended in air. The flames shrank, their furious dance dwindling to meek, dying embers. The Chimera… ceased. No wound, no shriek, no resistance—only absence. A space where once there was being. Death the world recognized, an ending the world accepted.
Its body slumped to the earth with a final thump, steaming and motionless.
Omega stumbled toward Alpha. Her comrade lay sprawled on the scorched grass, her lips pale, her body trembling in shallow gasps. Blood drenched the soil, seeping into every root and blade of green, staining them the same crimson shade.
"That looks… alarming," Omega murmured, lowering herself beside her. Her breath came unsteady, though her expression wore the stillness of a pond at dusk. "I'll get Mésos. She can—"
"She won't make it." Alpha's voice was thin, ragged, but her smile lingered faintly, stubborn. "You should know an end when you see one. Mortals… so fragile."
She coughed, her body jerking with the motion, a froth of blood bubbling at her lips.
"Do you think Luna will be alright?" she whispered hoarsely. "She's had such a rough beginning…"
Omega was silent. Her gaze lingered on Alpha, her face drained of its usual color. At last, her reply came, even and quiet: "I cannot see her culmination—or her end. But she will endure."
Alpha chuckled weakly, though the sound dissolved into another cough. "This has been… interesting. Almost makes me understand Corruption." Her lips twisted, thoughtful even as her strength waned. "Huh. I've been meaning to ask—what's your reality's devil like?"
Omega's face remained a mask, unreadable. "Static. The fiend of incompleteness. Always forcing the play to continue, no matter how tattered the act. Forever demanding the game stretch on."
Alpha's eyes half-closed, their light dimming. "…Do you think the Axon will be alright?"
Omega's voice dropped to a whisper. "I cannot see much of anything—not even her end. But she will endure. She is with Luna. Or Luna is with her. Perhaps they are beginning to blur the line of self."
"…Death is a first experience," Alpha murmured, her smile faint but still there. "Or is this just dying?" Her gaze drifted. Her voice faltered. "See you."
Her eyes glazed. Her chest stilled. She was gone.
Omega sat in silence, the fire crackling faintly around her. At last, she reached out with trembling fingers to close Alpha's eyes. She leaned back against the charred trunk of a tree, her own strength ebbing away.
"Huh," she whispered into the smoke. "So this is what it means for a journey to break—an incomplete path that almost feels… good." Her eyes closed, heavy with exhaustion.
A little farther off
A figure lingered among the trees, hidden in shadow yet unmistakable in presence. They wore dark green motley, their body draped in mismatched patterns, and upon their face sat a fox mask frozen in a perpetual grin.
Balanced effortlessly on the branch of a half-burned oak, they swayed gently, as though the chaos beneath were no more than a lullaby. The air smelled of smoke and wildflowers both, a strange and jarring mingling.
Softly, almost childlike, they sang to themselves:
Hoppe, Hoppe, Reiter,
Wenn er fällt, dann schreit er.
Fällt er in den Graben,
Fressen ihn die Raben.
Fällt er in den Sumpf,
Macht der Reiter plumps!
When the last word fell into silence, they tilted their head, as though listening for an answer from the ruins below. None came.
"Well," they said at last, their voice sing-song and airy, "we should head back."
They leapt lightly from the tree, landing without a sound. "This has been… quite the entertainment." Their gloved hands smoothed down the folds of their motley, and the grin of their mask caught the dying light.