Star:
I cut myself that day. With Teddy and Asha.
The day was hotter than normal. I could still feel the sweat trailing down the inside of my shirt. The cicadaflies singing. Felt like yesterday.
Not sure why… Like a Choco Bar calling my name.
Except.
It wasn't the name that was given to me.
I saw the trembling lips of a dying man in the snow utter something. But I couldn't hear what he said.
I just read his lips.
…
I fucking hate bugs.
**Star's location**
The sensation of blood rushing surged through her skin. Like the feeling of injection of a drug of some kind.
Star's eyes rolled to the back of her skull as a familiar feeling came, shooting her head upward.
And she welcomed it like a long forgotten friend.
In an instant, her leg grew back, regenerating into a purple, demon-like limb. She whipped her head forward, fangs bared, and eyes white as snow.
Snow.
Just like that day…
Without warning, the dying man appeared again in her mind. Snow fell over him, burying him like a departure.
She looked at his eyes, then, and only saw a reflection of her younger self.
A memory.
But one she did not remember.
Before she knew it, she had bolted forward toward Velm, who had barely registered her coming. And when she arrived, Star bore a claw that shattered his torso to nonexistence.
Only Velm's head and his lower body remained, but no blood came.
Silver had then begun to etch, mending himself back together. A liquid metal.
"Wonderful!" his head uttered as his torso had reformed from below. "So this is what turning is like!"
Star roared. She had no sense of awareness, aside from the fact that she was moving, and that forgotten memory had kept replaying in her head.
"I've always wanted to see this! But you're the only other halfbreed I've encountered since my arrival in the human realm…"
Star's arms erupted bone spikes as she slammed them onto the ground, swinging endlessly to Velm as he effortlessly dodged her. Studying her, all the while.
"I see! So it occurs after natural regeneration has engaged, even one limb will do the trick, it seems!" he hopped backward a good distance as Star continued to close in. "Ah… it's such a shame then…" He rose from his landing, keeping his eyes closed the whole time, letting Star catch up. "That I cannot be cut."
She arrived in less than a second, appearing before him like a wild animal.
He kept his head lowered, spreading his arms wide and revealing his blue eyes again as she came, saying, "Yes. Do your worst, Demon Blight!"
Once Star was within striking distance, she swung endlessly upon Velm, her slashes and impales strode off his body as silver liquid splashed, regenerated, reformed, one after another.
"Yes… More… More!" he crooned.
And then finally…
She rose an arm, and a massive spike bone mess emerged, shadowing him.
Star bellowed as she dropped the ungodly thing, sounding off a loud splat upon its descent onto Velm.
Silver liquid splashed in place of crimson. And once again, they found each other, reforming him to completion like none of it happened.
When he was back together, Velm yawned.
"You don't have Tantra, do you?" he asked the deranged Star.
She only snarled in response, feet away, arms dangling as she rotated to face him.
"Shame. That would have been the only other solution for me… However…" Velm recalled a memory of a man he fought some time ago. Red hair. Orange eyes. An X scar across his face… "I nearly died that day. And for some reason, his power didn't awaken me."
He stood there, holding his morphing hand up to the light as he observed it, basking in his own inevitability. "You see, Demon Blight… I am a halfbreed, too. Half Demon, half human. Just like you."
Star growled as if her real response had been trapped in her head. For right now, she was a passenger in her own body.
"But the problem is," Velm went on as his hand had finished reforming. "My magic is Full-Body Mercury. And it's precisely because of this blessing—curse… that I cannot turn. Tis the curse of a Full-Body magic user…"
Velm made a solemn expression as Star roared, sending a screeching soundwave across the arena.
The Silverthorns covered their ears from the rumble, some even bled. But Velm remained. It was as if he had deflected the noise with his silver.
In a flash, he sent two silver blades from his hands that surfed over the ground.
It reached Star faster than she could comprehend, and when it did…
She grunted as they passed, keeping her whited-out eyes toward Velm, and roared.
But just as she moved, both her arms sliced clean off.
Finally, her reaction had shifted to herself, arms falling from the biceps down to the ground, spraying blood as she dismantled.
"I wish to see more, Demon Blight. Show me," Velm calmly commanded.
The inside of Star's head pulsed like a wild headache. Her head canting upward in agony as she shuddered her already whited-out eyes.
And then, there he was again…
Stella…
Then another memory of when she had first met Greed and Asura in that forest.
She recalled their smiles. Their banter. Their easygoingness.
And then she recalled when Greed had given her her first Choco Bar, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
Stella.
That voice again.
And then the man dying on the ground in the snow.
She waited for more, and there was.
But when the man spoke again, it was inaudible.
Who the fuck are you? She thought to herself. My name's not Stella!
Her arms regenerated instantly. Purple, like her leg. Like that time when Henza had cut her. Like the first time before all of that…
The time when she had done it herself… out of curiosity.
Star:
Teddy and Asha looked at me in horror. Honestly… I didn't get why.
When I looked down, my right hand held a bone knife. And my other had been amputated.
What did I do this for?
For what reason?
I ran across the clearing of our abode. Teddy and Asha did their best to contain me.
And quite frankly, this was the first that I remembered it this clearly.
It was the first time I had actually given them trouble.
I thought they'd kick me out after that. But it only made them embrace me tighter. Teddy especially.
Don't cut yourself again, Teddy said. And try not to get cut moving forward. Got it?
I nodded eagerly. Wanting only to please him. To receive his praise.
You promise?
I promise!
If not turning would make him happy. I was willing.
Though… why did I want to cut myself in the first place?
**Present**
We'll call her Star. She recalled Greed saying the first night they met.
That's right.
Star's mouth trembled as she continued to look at the fluttering light from above, with her at the center of it.
"That's my fucking name," she uttered gutturally.
She blasted the ground when she bolted.
Velm's blue eyes widened in violent anticipation.
And as Star arrived, the force had sent him flying into a crowd of Silverthorns, making them scatter upon his crashlanding.
Velm sat in the crater that he made with a few Silverthorns out cold around him.
"She managed to push me back? Very good!" he said, laughing as he rose, crumbs of dirt falling and skittering at his feet.
He bolted back to her, obliterating the bleachers and the unconscious Silverthorns, making an array of blades from his arms, and clashing with Star as she blocked with hers in turn.
She pushed back, their arms extended, exposing them both, and sent a volley of bone spikes from her chest, skewering Velm.
He laughed, welcoming it. Even going so far as to push the bone spikes further into himself.
He then morphed his body to surge through the attack, past her, and over to the other side. When he was fully through, he ignited his silver ooze that had made contact with Star's limbs, shoulder, and parts of her torso.
She erupted, bursting liquid silver with a sickening sound, and fell to the ground.
But just as she had…
Velm had also erupted bone spikes throughout his body, eradicating as well.
Like clockwork, Star regenerated, and Velm reformed. A short pause in the moment of combat.
They then dashed in a circular motion, their speed creating a tornado in this large circus tent, making the place inhabitable for the Silverthorns as they exited one after another; some had even been caught in the wild rage.
Because of Star's Boneshifting ability, she was able to lighten the density of her own bones while keeping a solid frame, so as to not make herself brittle. Doing so increased her speeds beyond what the human body could handle. However, because she was half Demon, her body was able to withstand the bane of her harsh movements, even if she were to accidentally shatter a bone in the process. Though the skill was technical, she had learned to do this innately. It was also something she was completely unaware of.
Regardless, this skill made Star the second fastest Black Wolf next to Brand. But despite that, it seemed that Velm could keep up with her ramifications.
Their tornado nearly blew away the tent as they clashed within from angles unseen.
Clash after clash created shockwaves and bursts from random sections, obliterating the place to near unrecognizability.
Velm flew back after a strike, catching himself against a beam with silver tentacles as he spun twice before facing back to his opponent.
Star came quicker than a blink, shattering the beam, causing him to leap elsewhere.
He grew silver wings, maneuvering around the tent.
As he soared, a random Silverthorn had gotten in the way. He dismembered himself to avoid him, morphing back just after he passed. But before the Silverthorn could comprehend anything, he disintegrated instantaneously by an unknown force that followed. Star's pink hair and horns were the last thing he saw.
By this point, the circus tent was engulfed by the wind, ripping to a plethora of large shards and pieces dancing in the sky, exposing, at last, the gray skies and mountainous fields it once rested on.
Star had emerged at the center, rippling bone off her skin, spine flaring spikes from behind. And then with one step, she engulfed the field in a sea of bone spikes.
Silverthorns bellowed in agony one after another, while Velm avoided them, still flying about.
Her bone spikes are reaching further up than before… Is her magic enhancing each time she regenerates? He observed, soaring above before finding a place to perch. I'm envious!
Velm dared to rest atop a large, protruded bone flange, crouching atop it as he balanced elegantly, hand sign already in place, and chanted,
"Full-Body Mercury Magic: Soul Subsistence."
By instinct, Star's magic had invaded Velm's structural anatomy like before, attempting to erupt him once again, but his bones merely rippled, and he remained.
Velm then rose to a stand. "Full-Body magic users typically don't have any offensive incantations due to their diversity in spells that don't require them. And the ones we do have, are usually counter spells—like this one. You won't be surging bone spikes through me again. Not in this fight."
Before him, Star had become something monstrous. The bone sea she had summoned had merged back with her body, perforating her like some painful crucifixion as she dangled her bare feet off the ground.
She grunted agonizingly as she sent a rupture of bones like a wave onto Velm.
It was so massive, it shadowed beyond him.
He glowered at it, and slowly brought his stance to a forward lean.
His hands gestured to his side as if he were about to pull out an unforeseen blade. Mercury formed, following the blueprints of his imagination.
And a silver long sword flowed into existence beside him.
"I'll admit one thing," he uttered as he waited, letting the tsunami of bones come nearer. "Halfbreed to halfbreed… I'm quite jealous of you."
Just as the wave was feet away, he unsheathed his silver blade, faster than the eyes could follow.
"Full-Body Mercury Magic…"
The tsunami halted in place for a moment before shattering into millions of pieces.
Velm had disappeared. Reappearing behind Star in the sky, who was still displayed like some sacrifice to the Keeper.
By the time of his passing, his blade was already more than sheathed back into its silver scabbard.
And right at its clink, he spoke,
"… Kiku-Ichimonji."
In an instant, Star had been consumed in an endless void of slashes from all directions.
Arms. Legs. Torso. Continuously amputating as she continuously regenerated. Her body massacred infinitely, regardless of restructuring multiple times.
She stared blankly at the gray skies. Ironically, becoming more self-aware the more she was dismantled.
The attacks scourged, but her expression remained—for the first time—solemn.
Teddy…
Slice after slice after slice.
Sorry… I keep breaking my promise.
She closed her eyes. Consciousness arriving. Mind easing. As a newfound peace established itself within her among the storm of slashes.
I think… I really am dying this time…
And then the man in the snow appeared in the forefront of her thoughts.
For the last time.
***
**Years ago**
The snow was harsh in these woodlands. Harsher than any human realm could ever handle.
A Demon rift lingered open. Like a black hole that spat rather than absorbed.
On the other side, a revelatory land could barely be seen, ever fading as a man with horns like a crown fell to his knees, and then his face in the freezing white, having just passed through.
A young girl had cocooned herself within his arms. Her hair was pink, with similar horns—dark gray like the foreshadow of an omen.
She squeezed herself out, bruised and dirtied, but not like him.
Eventually the snow began to match the pain he endured up till now.
Seeping. Staining. On the once forever white.
The girl weakly pushed against him, again and again, as if doing so would somehow cause him to rise.
"Dad! Get up! Get up, dad!"
He stayed.
The only movements were the flutters from his clothes whipping from the deathly cold winds.
"Dad!" she cried as the sounds of guttural roars grew ever closer from the other side of the rift feet away from them.
"Stella…" the man spoke at last.
She responded, "Dad! Get up, they're coming! They're—"
"Stella."
She listened as she took in the last words uttered by him. Her father.
Words that would remain. Had she chosen to remember…
"I never want to see your disgusting face ever again." He looked more like some Demon than the 'man' he had once appeared to be. His facial features contorted, becoming more monstrous as he said with tears streaming down his face, "Get lost, you worthless, bane of my existence!"
The girl, Stella, could not believe what she was hearing.
Here in his last moments. Her father had chosen to disgrace her.
Her face became blank as halted tears formed from her eyes. Fangs grew. And her eyes became a white rage.
The snow crunched under her bare feet as she began striking him.
"Fuck you! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!"
Pound after pound, but he remained. Like a boulder at last being swallowed by the roaring cold.
She fell to her knees as she continued to punch weakly. Her tears streaming like endless rivers.
"Why… Why would you say that?" The winds howled, as did she. "WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT!? WHY!?"
With frozen tears and what could have been mistaken for a smile, his soul left the human realm as soon as he had entered it.
Stella faced the snow below her with widened eyes. Their once white-filled-rage was gone, and replaced by their natural green hue.
Run Stella.
The girl thought she heard amidst her shock.
She thought it was her father before her, but all that she saw was his corpse.
"Who are… you?" she asked. But there was no one to answer.
She rose to her feet, hearing the sounds of the horrid bellows from beyond the rift, and obeyed the unknown voice in her head.
Stella looked one last time to the man—Demon's face, trying to recall who he was. But the thought never came.
Run.
At last, she left. Disappearing into the darkness of the woodlands, where even the snow became lost.
As the Demons neared the rift from the other side, the corpse of her Demon father erupted, engulfing the place in a sea of black spikes.
Splatters and cries of agony sounded as the spikes surged from between the human and the Demon realm. Never closing the rift, but forever encasing it. Leaving no way of entering or exiting from either side.
Stella ran, and ran. And she never looked back.
***
**Present**
The peace that Star had found could be seen clearly upon her face.
Her eyes were less green than they had been. Gleaming a faded color from a sun that never came to these parts of the Mountain jurisdiction.
Velm landed, withdrawing his silver wings and long sword.
He strolled ever so slowly toward Star, who was merely facing upward to the gray skies.
When he arrived, he knelt. A solemn expression overtaking him now, rather than the pompous, studious one from earlier.
"Sorry," he spoke. "I get so flustered when I see someone who has so easily what I spend most of my life achieving. But I suppose, I shouldn't have been surprised… Daughter of the Demon Blight, Stella."
When he beheld her, he fixated on her dim green eyes.
"Our parents fought endlessly, didn't they? Families verses families. Spoils of war. Rightful titles… Things that mean nothing here in the human realm." He faced upward and stared at the same sky as she. "And ironically, when we came to this one, it was the same here. No matter the race, we are all such utter fools."
Then like a serpent's kiss, he spat, "Our worlds deserve to be swallowed whole. And who better to deliver that judgement than a Sin?" He looked back at her. "This is why I follow Wrath. For he will be the one to do it."
He stared at her for a long while. Neither blinked.
The only thing left of Star… was her head.
"Rest easy, Demon Blight… Or mayhap you prefer your new name. Star, was it? 'Queen of Mayhem?'" He rose and began walking away. "I shall remember you. An example of what I would have been. Reward and consequence."
He walked off. Making yards between them.
And then Star's lip twitched.