Lune stared into the café window, her face going pale. At first glance, there was nothing there. But when Vayne focused on it, he saw something he wished he never saw. Something impossibly tall stood in the middle of the street behind them. Its body was half hidden by the mist, thin and stretched, with limbs far too long for its frame. The posture of this entity was crooked like it had been folded incorrectly. The skin on it was sick, dead white, almost glowing under the streetlights.
The most terrifying part was its head. It had no eyes. There was a huge, black, split-open mouth that tore across almost the entire head from one side to the other.
For one second, it stood frozen in the reflection, its long arms hanging at its sides. Then its mouth opened wider, stretching into something almost like a smile, with no teeth at all—nothing inside but pale gums.
The entity's head tilted slightly. It stared into the window, toward their reflections. It had no eyes, but they knew instinctively that it had noticed them watching.
"Vayne—"
Vayne's eyes sharpened. The entity lunged at the two closing their distance at an alarmingly fast rate.
His hand shot out grabbing the back of Lune's sleeve and yanked her sideways with him.
THOOM—
The entity crashed into the window. The entire pane exploded inward with a violent burst of glass. Shards scattered across the sidewalk and café floor.
Lune hit the pavement beside Vayne with a gasp. Vayne was able to land on one hand, twisting his body before his shoulder could take the full impact. His feet scraped against the ground, but he was able to stay balanced enough to push himself back up.
Behind them glass rained down in tiny pieces and shards. Vayne's eyes moved down to a shard lying near his hand. In the small jagged reflection, the entity was there.
It was bent halfway through the broken window, one long arm braced against the floor. Its head tilted at an unnatural angle, its mouth stretched into an empty smile.
Lune pushed herself up beside him, one hand planted against the pavement. Her breathing was unsteady, but her eyes had already locked onto the shard.
The entity's head twitched toward them. Then its arm moved.
Vayne grabbed the back of Lune's collar and yanked her down. A long white arm swept over them. Its fingers closed around the empty space where Lune's neck had been a moment earlier. She hit the pavement again with a sharp breath.
Vayne was getting ready to move again. Then Lune turned her head toward him. Even with fear still in her eyes, her expression flattened.
"Could you stop throwing me around like a sack?"
Vayne's gaze stayed on the shard near his hand.
"You were definitely about to get hit."
The entity's arm dragged back across the broken café floor.
SCRRRRK.
Vayne got ready and grabbed Lune's sleeve.
"Get your hands off me, Vayne."
Vayne's fingers stayed on her sleeve for half a second longer. Then he let go. Lune pushed herself up, brushing broken glass from her arm with a sharp, irritated motion.
"I can move on my own."
"You were slow."
Her eyes narrowed.
"I was getting up."
For a second, Lune looked like she might actually hit him.
Lune's expression calmed down. Her breathing became steady. Her hand snapped outward towards the café table.
Toward the cup that remained hot and steaming, even after what felt like hours trapped here. The cup rattled against the metal surface.
THOOM—
Vayne's eyes snapped towards the glass shard. The entity was getting ready to rush at them.
Lune's fingers curled.
"Aqua, flow."
The steam above the cup twisted violently. The coffee inside trembled, rippling in uneven circles. Then something clear began to pull free from the dark liquid.
It was water.
Thin, scalding strands rose from the cup, separating from the darker remains beneath. The coffee thickened as the H₂O left it, turning heavy and almost muddy at the bottom.
Lune's arm shook almost immediately. Her teeth pressed together. The entity lunged. her fingers snapped inward.
The thin strands of water compressed all at once, pulled tight into a narrow, trembling point in front of her palm. Steam hissed around it. The pressure built for less than a second.
Then she fired.
The scalding water shot forward like a needle. It struck the entity mid-lunge.
SSSSHHHHH—
The impact didn't stop it completely, but it knocked its upper body sideways. In the shard's reflection, its pale frame twisted left, one long arm thrown off course as steam burst across its face.
Vayne moved at the same time. He didn't wait to see whether Lune's attack worked. The instant the entity's path shifted, he kicked off the pavement and jumped hard to the side, clearing the space where its hand swept through a heartbeat later.
The entity's fingers closed on empty air. Its distorted body flickered in the trembling shard near the ground as it stumbled left, one long hand scraping against the café wall while steam curled from its mouth.
An awful sound slipped out of its mouth. It wasn't a scream, but a broken, uneven cry, like something imitating pain without understanding it.
"Hhhuuuhh—aaAAh... hhnn..."
Lune didn't stop. Her hand stayed raised, fingers bent like she was holding something invisible in place. The water that had splashed across the entity's face trembled before it could fully scatter. Droplets hung in the air, steaming faintly, then jerked back together into a thin, unstable stream.
The stream compressed again. Vayne's eyes shifted toward her hand for half a second. The amount of water was smaller now.
Lune fired again.
SSSSHHHHH—
The pressurized line struck the entity's head a second time. Its pale body lurched in the shard's reflection, mouth pulling open wider as the sound coming out of it twisted higher.
"Hhh—aaAAh—"
It tried to move forward. Lune shot it again.
Then again.
Each blast forced its body to shift just slightly off course. Not enough to throw it back. Not enough to truly stop it. But enough to ruin the angle of its reach every time it tried to close the distance.
The entity rushed towards Vayne.
Lune tried to compress the water one more time, but the stream trembled weakly. Most of it had already turned to steam. Her fingers shook harder now.
The next shot came out thinner.
SSSHH—
It struck the entity's face, but barely moved it. In the shard's reflection, the entity's pale body kept coming, one long arm already reaching for Vayne.
He kicked off the pavement and dashed sideways, low enough that his hand nearly brushed the ground. The entity's fingers swept through the space where his neck had been.
He grabbed a long shard of glass near his foot. His fingers closed around the sharp edge as he moved, the broken piece catching the entity's pale reflection for half a second.
The first entity had tried to take his senses. This one kept reaching for their throats, their sleeves, their wrists. Every movement was a grab. Every attack ended in restraint. Even the city itself had cracked, shattered, and folded around them without leaving anything more than shallow marks. He hasn't bled yet, even after he crashed into a concrete wall that broke.
Nothing here was trying to kill them. Vayne's eyes lowered to the shard in his hand. If the Veil Zone wasn't letting anything hurt them—
The entity turned too fast. Its arm swept toward him again. Vayne twisted away from the grab and drove the shard into his palm.
CRK.
The glass snapped. It didn't pierce him. In fact it didn't even cut him. The sharp point broke apart against his skin like it had struck stone, scattering in dull pieces across the pavement.
Vayne looked at his hand. His expression was empty. But his eyes had sharpened.
So that was it.
He had figured out how to get out of here.