The fire had burned down to embers. A faint orange glow clung to the hollow, shadows stretching long across the forest floor. Shiba sat with her back to a tree, her sword at her side, eyes heavy but alert. Every flicker of the flame made her think of Aurelys, of fire licking up stone walls, of her family's faces turned to ash.
Aiko hummed, as she always did, the sound soft, almost cheerful. She sat cross-legged, twirling a twig between her fingers, lost in some melody no one else could hear. Vio leaned against a log nearby, head tipped back, eyes closed — but Shiba knew he wasn't sleeping. The man saw too much.
Then it came.
A sound. Not the crackle of firewood. Something heavier. A deliberate step.
"You."
The word cut the night in half.
From the dark edge of the trees, she emerged.
Lillia.
Her leather armor was torn, stained with old blood, her moss-green hair wild, tangled like vines after a storm. Her red eyes glowed like coals in the shadows. And in her voice there was nothing but venom.
"You killed her," she whispered, lips trembling, as if saying the words poisoned her. "My sister… Andra."
The name stabbed like a knife. Shiba's mind reeled — the rebel she had torn apart with her lightning, a face lost in the frenzy, nothing more than another body in the storm. She hadn't known. She hadn't cared. And now Lillia's grief was a dagger pointed straight at her throat.
"You killed my blood," Lillia screamed, her voice breaking into a raw shriek, "and now I'll kill you for it!"
She lunged.
Steel rang. Shiba barely managed to bring her greatsword up to meet the twin daggers. Sparks burst as metal ground against metal. Lillia's strikes came fast, furious — a storm of slashes and feints, her movements as quick and merciless as a serpent.
Shiba countered with brute force, her greatsword smashing through the flurries, each swing a thunderclap of strength. She forced Lillia back a step, then another, carving great arcs that split the earth. But the rogue was too quick, darting inside her guard, slicing shallow cuts across Shiba's arms and thighs.
Aiko gasped, fumbling for her bow, but her hands trembled. Vio rose, staff in hand, his calm face tight with unease.
Shiba gritted her teeth, forcing herself to breathe steady. Wait. Don't waste it. Hold it back. When she thinks she has you, then unleash it. The storm hummed within her chest, waiting.
The duel raged. The forest filled with the crash of steel, the hiss of blades cutting air. Shiba slammed her sword down, forcing Lillia to roll aside. She pivoted, swung wide — only to meet empty air. Lillia was already behind her, daggers scraping against her armor. Shiba staggered, blood running hot down her side.
She raised her sword high. Lightning flickered along the steel, arcs of white-blue light snapping across its edge. This was it. She would end it here.
But the storm betrayed her.
The light sputtered, died. The sword went heavy in her hands. No crack of thunder, no surge of lightning. Nothing.
Her eyes widened. "No—"
Lillia's lips curved into a smile. "I knew it."
She lifted her hand.
The black rose tattoo on her skin writhed. The petals bled outward, dark ink crawling across her flesh like living veins. Thorned vines burst from the mark, twisting up her arm, coiling over her chest, her neck, her legs. They spread like a plague, crawling, writhing, until her whole body was wrapped in shadows of roses and thorns.
The air itself grew heavy. Murder filled the clearing like a suffocating fog. The fire flickered and shrank, its light choked by the aura pouring off her.
Shiba staggered back. Even she, drenched in blood and thunder, felt her chest seize under that killing presence.
Aiko's bow slipped from her hands. Her humming died. For once, her smile faltered.Vio's eyes sharpened, his usual laziness gone. He whispered low, almost to himself: "Ah. So that's what you really are."
Lillia's red eyes gleamed, framed by the crawling black thorns. Her daggers shimmered with the same venomous power. She looked like death in bloom.
"You don't deserve the power you waste," she hissed. "You don't deserve to breathe. You'll choke on thorns — as Andra burned in your lightning."
The sisters and Vio ran.
Branches whipped against their faces as they split, each bolting in a different direction in blind panic. Aiko to the left, Vio to the right. And Shiba — straight ahead, into the trees.
But Lillia followed her, only her.
Their blades clashed again and again in the dark forest. Shiba swung with all her might, her greatsword howling through the air. But Lillia's movements were faster, sharper, her daggers like fangs tearing at every gap in Shiba's guard. Thorned power coiled around her arms, every strike hitting harder, cutting deeper.
Shiba's chest ached. She called for the storm, but it stayed locked inside her, chained. Her power would not answer.
Lillia pressed harder, her voice breaking with grief and rage. "For my sister! For every drop of blood you spilled!"
A dagger cut Shiba's cheek. Another tore across her shoulder. Her armor was shredded, her body bleeding. She swung desperately, but each strike grew slower, weaker.
And then Lillia broke through.
She caught Shiba's greatsword with both daggers, forced it wide, and slid inside her guard. Her eyes glowed crimson, her body coiled with thorns.
"For Andra."
The dagger sank deep.
Shiba gasped, the forest spinning around her. Her greatsword slipped from her grip, clattering against the earth. She staggered, vision swimming, darkness closing in.
The last thing she saw was Lillia's face — twisted with hate, but shadowed by grief, her body a garden of dead roses.
Then everything fell silent.