Chapter 25 - Fight Back

The world narrowed to a single point—her face.

Rozeree.

Her name echoed in Daglan's skull like a pulse. Louder than the clash of steel, louder than the screams around them. His heart was a snared animal thrashing against the cage of his ribs. The chaos blurred, leaving only the unbearable clarity of her presence.

She was different. Sharper. Stronger. A predator. Her hair, once soft black threads, now tangled and streaked with grime and dried blood. Scars mapped across her face and body. But it was her eyes that caught him. Hollow where warmth used to live. Twin voids swallowing him whole. His knees almost buckled under the weight of it.

She's alive.

The visionis system glitched.

Error codes flickered like faint embers, blinking red against her augmented vision: UNKNOWN VARIABLE. 

His name didn't surface immediately. It came slowly, dragged from the rusted corners of her mind. His face was older, carved with time and grief. But the eyes—those storm-colored eyes—were the same. They split through her like shrapnel.

Daglan.

Her body didn't move, it wouldn't move. The pistol in her hand no longer steady. Metics recalibrated around this new anomaly. She felt something brittle crack. A ghost of warmth, too faint to name, buried beneath layers of metal and blood.

The question never reached her lips. There was no room for questions anymore. Why are you here? 

Daglan's heart screamed at him to run to her. Close the impossible distance. But his feet remained rooted. His fingers trembled. Not from exhaustion or fear, but from something worse.

Hope.

She's right there.

But she wasn't. Not really. This was someone else. Carved from the same shape but filled with something dark and unrecognizable.

"Rozeree..."

Her name on his tongue was wrong. It tasted like ash in the air, like something dead trying to be resurrected. The logical part of her mind screamed to pull the trigger, to end the anomaly and move on.

But her finger wouldn't tighten.

Why won't you die already?

The thought flared, ugly and sharp.

Her grip tightened. Not on the gun.

He took a step forward.

One heartbeat. Two.

Her hand snapped forward with violent precision, an involuntary motion that felt more machine than muscle. The barrel aligned perfectly with his center mass– the anomaly, the glitch, the ghost that wouldn't stay buried.

"Stop. Dont come any closer." Her voice cracked like static through gritted teeth. The glitches in her metic vision intensified, error messages cascading across her field of view. UNKNOWN VARIABLE. UNKNOWN VARIABLE. UNKNOWN VARIABLE. Heat surged through her cybernetics, an electric current that felt like a bio-injector mainlined straight to her core.

"We're going to become ascendants!"

"We could go exploring after our duties. Maybe we'll find some new Yokai tracks!"

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!"

"Rozeree it's me!" Daglan's voice broke, tears welling in his eyes. His chest felt like it was collapsing, ribs crushing inward around his thundering heart. Systematic scars mapped a journey of pain across her skin. What did they do to you? Those scars... they're too intentional. She won't shoot me... she can't... right?

"Daglan…what's going on?"

"There's nothing left for you here." 

"It's over, Rozeree. Let's go help the hunters back in."

"Thats not my NAME!" Her finger contracted around the trigger.

The gunshot cracked through the air like thunder. Fire bloomed across Daglan's stomach, his feet stumbling backward. Did she...? She actually... Warmth spread across his shirt, pain following in its wake like a delayed explosion.

Rozeree could barely process the scene through her malfunctioning vision. 

Error signals overwhelmed her. 

Her body temperature swung wildly between freezing and burning. 

The ringing in her ears was like a grenade had detonated inside her skull.

"Life's hard. Deal with it. You want to leave? Get stronger."

"Rise and shine, Rozeree! Silvas is cooking up a storm!"

"I AM KOSHU! THE WORLD BREAKER!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Her breath became increasingly ragged. Her world spinning. Reality warped between razor-sharp fragments of memory and raw, bleeding emotion.

"You know, Koshu's proud of you both."

"Come on, Rozeree! It's a beautiful day."

She felt a crack. A tear. 

"Rozeree."

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" She screamed. A sound beyond pain. Beyond reason. A primal rupture that tore through everything she was, everything she had been.

Then.

Everything stopped.

The world shattered into a million pieces.

Rozeree screamed. She screamed until her lungs collapsed. She screamed until her throat ripped and tore. She screamed until fire erupted from her mouth.

Silence.

Complete.

Absolute.

Before Daglan's mind could comprehend the danger, his body moved. Each step forward was a testament to his determination, his side burning with unspoken pain. She's still my sister. She's still Rozeree.

Her screams pierced him deeper than any wound, reopening old scars of loss and helplessness. The knights around them became ghosts, irrelevant to the only reality that mattered: his broken sister.

When he reached her, he didn't hesitate.

His arms became a desperate sanctuary. He pulled Rozeree against him, not just holding her, but clinging to her - as if his embrace could somehow piece her fractured self back together. His face pressed into her neck, feeling every tremor, every broken breath.

Tears fell silently. Uncontrollable. Raw.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, each word a ragged sob. "I'm so sorry. I should have protected you. I should have saved you from Vilrux. I failed you."

His grip tightened - part protective embrace, part plea for forgiveness, part desperate attempt to anchor her to reality.

The world splintered around her, reality fracturing like broken glass. Voices ricocheted through her skull, a cacophony of whispers and screams.

"What's it going to be, Rozeree?"

"You didn't come all this way to quit, did you?"

"Nothing to say? They told me you were called the Mute, but I didn't think it was literal."

Her consciousness spiraled down into darkness, each thought dissolving into static.

Bury it! Kill it! YOU ARE THE MUTE! 

"DAGLAN!" Kento's desperate cry pierced the chaos as Daglan was yanked backwards. Thunder cracked through smoke and flame. Another gunshot tore through the space Daglan had occupied heartbeats before. No… No!

When Daglan looked into her eyes.

He found absolute emptiness. Twin black holes that seemed to pull at his soul, threatening to devour any trace of his sister. These weren't the eyes of Rozeree. They were the eyes of someone hollowed out and reanimated. A puppet wearing his sister's face. She… She was really going to kill me… 

Her gaze drifted over him like he was nothing but air, focused on some point beyond him, some reality where he didn't exist at all. The smile that broke across her face wasn't human—it was a predator's grin, all teeth and cruel intent.

Thats right. He's weak. You're strong. End this anomaly. Her weapon rose with mechanical precision, aimed at the center of the glitch.

"I'm the strong one." The words slithered out between her teeth as she dropped to one knee. "I am the Mute." Her finger squeezed the trigger again and again. Gun pivoting to track their movement. "Die."

Daglan and Kento threw themselves aside as bullets shredded the air.

"Daglan, I thought that was your sister?!" Kento's voice cracked with disbelief and terror as they scrambled for cover.

"Rozeree, please stop!" Daglan's plea ripped from his throat, raw and desperate. "Let's talk, please!" Her response came back as twisted, maniacal laughter. 

The air crackled with gunfire as Rozeree stalked forward, each shot precise despite her continually fracturing state. 

Bullets tore through the battlefield, ripping through knights as well. Armor split, flesh burst, and screams erupted. A few knights staggered back, confusion flashing across their visors before survival instincts took over.

"She's lost it!" one of them shouted. "She's attacking at random!"

The others hesitated for only a second before turning and running for their lives.

"FIGHT BACK!" she screamed, her voice hoarse with fury and laughter. "Stop being so fucking WEAK!"

Daglan rolled behind a fallen chunk of concrete, his blood leaving dark streaks across the rubble. "Kento, we can't—"

"She's trying to kill us!" Kento cut in, desperation edging his voice. "That's not your sister! We need to fight back!"

The words hit harder than any bullet. Rozeree's next shot punched through the concrete inches from Daglan's head, sending fragments slicing across his cheek.

"Come on," she snarled. Her body moved with lethal grace, pure, predatory violence.

"You're weak!" Another shot. Another step closer. "You're all WEAK!"

That's it. Show them how weak they are. Kill them all. You are the strong one.

"Rozeree..." Daglan's voice cracked. There! 

Her laughter tore through the smoke-filled air as she vaulted over their cover, boots slamming into Kento's chest and sending him tumbling. She swung her gun toward Daglan's head— but he was gone. 

A force slammed into her like a speeding car.

Her vision went black.

Daglan's voice tore through the void, raw and thunderous.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" His knuckles were already red, but he didn't stop. He put everything into the next punch—the grief, the rage, the unbearable loss. The skin ripped from his knuckles, blood splattering across the alleyway as he made contact with her jaw. "WHERE IS MY SISTER?!"

Daglan's threw another punch, but this time Rozeree was ready.

Her arm snapped up like a steel piston, locking around his wrist with crushing force. Even winded, even bleeding, her grip was iron.

Then—she twisted.

Daglan barely had time to process before his body left the ground. 

The world spun.

Then—

Stone exploded as he slammed into the alley wall, pain detonating in his ribs. His vision blurred at the edges, his throat filled with blood. But he forced himself to roll before she could follow up.

It was hard to breath. Every muscle screamed. His body wasn't moving the way it should. His reflexes were slowing, lagging, like the exhaustion was catching up all at once. He could still see every angle, sense every shift, but his body wasn't reacting fast enough.

She's tired too. She's been fighting all night just like we have.

Rozeree's shoulders rose and fell with deep, measured breaths. Blood dripped from fresh wounds—Kento's knives had found their mark. One buried in her thigh, another lodged in her shoulder. Her metic systems flickered—targeting glitches running across her gaze, micro-adjustments delayed by just a fraction of a second.

Not much.

But enough.

Daglan lunged.

Rozeree moved to dodge, but her balance was off—she was fast, but not fast enough. His fist drove into her gut, the impact sending a ripple through her reinforced frame.

She staggered—

Then lunged right back.

Her knee snapped up. Too slow! The blow caught his ribs—already battered, already screaming—and his vision blurred white-hot.

Pain.

But he couldn't stop.

He wove back, ducking under a wild swing. Rozeree was slower now, but she still hit harder than anything he'd felt before. If she landed one clean shot—

Gunfire cracked the air.

Daglan saw the shot coming. His perception flared, feeding him everything—the angle, the speed, the precise path of the bullet through the smoky alley. He twisted, just barely slipping past the round.

Another shot.

This one grazed his shoulder. Heat flared under his skin.

His feet wobbled.

Rozeree stumbled, her arm shaking, the gun dipping lower between shots.

She could barley stand. Her targeting systems were off. Her vision was fading.

Laughter began to bubble from deep inside the void once again. "I am the MUTE! I AM STRONG!"

She grit her teeth, raising the gun again. Her eyes flickered, scanning, recalibrating..

Another blade plunged into her elbow, just beneath the raw wound in her shoulder. Pain ripped through her arm like a live wire, nerves screaming before going silent. The limb dropped uselessly to her side, throwing off her stance, her movements suddenly uneven.

Then her head snapped toward Kento. A sickening smile ripping across her face.

Daglan saw it coming—saw the split-second calculation in her eyes, the way her weight shifted, lining up the shot—

"Kento!" His voice ripped from his throat.

Too late. The gun fired. Kento ran—he dodged the first shot— 

A wet gasp. A staggered step.

Kento collapsed.

"Kento!" Daglan surged forward, catching him before he hit the ground.

Blood. Too much blood.

Kento forced a weak smile, but it barely reached his eyes. "Dag… that one… wasn't great, huh?"

"You're gonna be fine." Daglan pressed a hand against the wound. Kento screamed, his whole body jerking under the pressure.

"C'mon, man, I just fixed those ribs," Kento wheezed. His breaths were coming too fast.

"Shut up and stay awake," Daglan snapped, voice breaking.

"Trying," Kento slurred, his eyelids fluttering.

No. No, no, no.

Daglan pressed harder. "Don't you dare close your eyes!"

A shadow loomed over them.

Rozeree smiled.

Not a smirk. Not hesitation. A predator's grin, all teeth and amusement. She raised her pistol, lining up the shot.

Daglan moved.

Rozeree's body twisted, recalibrating mid-motion, eyes flickering with targeting glitches. The gun wavered, her fingers twitching.

She's slowing down.

A chance.

He lunged.

Rozeree snapped back into focus at the last second, bringing her knee up like a hammer. Daglan barely dodged—pain exploded through his ribs as the impact clipped his side, sending him stumbling.

She followed, relentless, swinging her pistol like a club. The metal cracked against his jaw, stars bursting in his vision. He hit the ground hard, blood filling his mouth.

Faster. She's still faster.

Rozeree loomed over him, breathing hard but smiling. The barrel of her pistol lowered—aiming at his head.

"Finally got you," she whispered, tilting her head. The amusement in her voice was sickening.

No. Not like this.

Daglan's hand shot out, grabbing the knife still lodged in her leg. He twisted—hard.

Rozeree screamed. Her grip faltered. The gun dipped—just enough.

Daglan drove his elbow into her gut, forcing her back, then sprang up with everything he had left.

"ROZEREE!" His fist cocked back, channeling every ounce of desperation and fury into his knuckles.

His fist connected. Right under her ribs.

The impact wasn't just force—it was everything.

Every bruise. Every wound. Every memory of the sister he'd lost.

The force lifted Rozeree clean off her feet.

She hung suspended, mouth open in a silent gasp. Her eyes met his—angry, pain, recognition.

The ground rushed up to meet her. The crack of her body against pavement echoed off the alley walls. She bounced once, limbs splayed like a broken doll, before settling into terrible stillness. Her pistol spun away into shadow, the metallic scrape a whispered eulogy.

Daglan staggered backward, each step uncertain. Blood pounded in his ears. The world tilted and swayed, threatening to pull him under. His sister lay motionless on the ground—the sister he'd sworn to protect, the sister he'd just struck down.

Did I…?

Then—a twitch.

Rozeree's hand jerked, fingers scraping against the ground, trying to push herself up.

She's still—

Before she could rise, her body seized violently. A sharp, ragged inhale. Her eyes flickered—error messages flashing faster, faster—

Then—nothing.

Her arms buckled. "Daglan…" Her body slumped, motionless.

Silence descended like a burial shroud. Thick. Suffocating.

"Rozeree… I… KENTO!"

Daglan's instincts prickled, the weight of unseen eyes pressed against his skull. His battered body screamed for rest, but his gut twisted and writhed in fear. He wasn't alone. Beyond the smoke and ruin, standing just at the edge of shadow. 

Someone was waiting. 

Watching. 

A slow, deliberate clap echoed through the alleyway. Daglan's stomach dropped.