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The forest did not swallow him.
It tried to.
The barrier was left behind with a slight tremor, an invisible pressure brushing against his skin as if the world had run a cold hand across the back of his neck. Link did not reduce his speed. The ground sank under his boots, the roots creaked when he stepped on them, and the low branches snapped against his kagunes before reaching his face. Luci followed him as best she could, a pale spark among green and black shadows, blinking with a mute desperation that found no answer in him.
Link only smelled.
The entire forest was a map made of old blood, humidity, animal hair, broken sap, disturbed earth, curses, and fear. Too many layers. Too many mixed trails. The children had passed through there. Subaru too. Ram. Rem. Wolgarms. An entire pack. Rem's scent was the hardest to follow because it was covered by Mabestia blood, mud, released mana, and the hot fury of her horn. But it was still there. Blue, clean at the bottom, pierced by iron, pain, and a suicidal decision.
Link ran toward that.
He didn't think about Beatrice. He didn't think about Subaru doubling over behind him, nor about Ram, nor about the village, nor about the sleeping children. He also didn't think about what he had done the night before. Thinking about that would have opened a door he didn't have time to close. He had bitten Mabestia flesh. He had felt how his body responded. He had felt the wild relief, the recovery, the heat of cells rebuilding themselves, the mana moving again through routes he didn't understand. He remembered the taste too well.
And that was a problem for later.
Now only Rem existed.
A shadow leaped from the left.
Link did not stop.
The Wolgarm emerged from between two trunks with its jaws open, aiming for his neck. Before it could complete the jump, a kagune caught it by the belly and slammed it to the ground. It wasn't a blow to push it away. It was a blow to break. The animal's spine cracked under the impact. Another kagune came down like a spear and pierced its chest. The creature twisted, clawed at the earth, opened its mouth to growl.
Link stepped on its head.
He didn't look back.
He kept running.
Another appeared in front, bigger, with a wrinkled snout and a dark horn shining above its nose. Link grabbed it by the neck with one hand when it jumped, used its own momentum to spin it in the air, and smashed it against a trunk. The tree creaked. The animal did too. Hot blood splattered Link's sleeve. The smell hit his tongue before it even touched it. His stomach contracted.
No.
Not now.
The third attack came from above. A Wolgarm launched itself from a branch, claws open, body under the moon like a black stain. Link raised a kagune and cut it in mid-descent. The blood fell on his shoulder, his neck, and part of his mouth. He pressed his lips until it hurt. The regeneration closed the cut immediately.
Not now.
But the forest wasn't going to give him time to pretend humanity.
The growls multiplied around him. Link's movement, the blood of his first prey, the mana his horns absorbed without rest, and Luci's tiny light had attracted more. Eyes appeared between the trunks. One, two, five, ten. A small pack, perhaps separated from the main group, perhaps left behind to intercept intruders. Link stopped dead in a narrow clearing covered with roots.
The Wolgarms surrounded him.
He lowered his head.
His complete horns glowed with a dull red at the tips. The double kakugan turned the forest into lines of movement, heat, smell, and threat. The four kagunes opened behind his back, tense, wet, alive. Luci hid behind his shoulder, reduced to a trembling point.
The first Wolgarm growled.
Link smiled without humor.
"You're in my way."
The pack attacked.
The response was a massacre.
A kagune swept the front legs of two creatures and lifted them off the ground; another pierced them before they fell. Link advanced, he did not retreat. A Wolgarm bit his left arm. He let it do so, closed his fingers around the animal's horn, and pulled downward with such force that its head smashed against his knee. The horn did not break. The skull did. The beast fell limp.
Another jumped toward his back. A kagune bent at an impossible angle, caught it by the throat, and slammed it against the ground once, twice, three times, until it stopped moving. Link spun on himself, pierced a fourth through the belly, used its body as a mace against two more, and then released the corpse with contempt.
The blood covered him again.
Now it did enter his mouth.
The taste lit a red light behind his eyes.
The kagunes pulsed.
The fatigue that still remained in his muscles receded as if someone had opened a floodgate. His body celebrated before his mind could feel ashamed. The RC cells awakened with a joyful hunger, devouring the resource the blood brought. The mana too. Not cleanly, not as Puck would have explained it, not as Beatrice would have tolerated it, but in an animal way: absorb, convert, burn, use.
Link swallowed involuntarily.
He closed his eyes.
For a second, he didn't hear the forest.
He heard his own heart.
Then a Mabestia jumped on him.
The impact threw him against a tree. The teeth approached his face. Link opened his eyes, grabbed the creature's snout with both hands, and felt the horn under his fingers. The animal pushed, growling, trying to tear out his throat. Link squeezed.
First the base cracked.
The Wolgarm shrieked.
Link did not let go.
He twisted his wrist.
The horn broke.
The sound was dry, small, almost ridiculous compared to the noise of bodies being destroyed around him. But the effect was immediate. The Mabestia collapsed on him as if its soul's center had been ripped out. It didn't die. It remained trembling, with tense legs, eyes open, bloody snout. Link pushed it off and stood up, waiting for it to attack again.
It didn't.
The Wolgarm lowered its head.
Link remained still.
The clearing was still full of growls. Other creatures moved around, undecided. But that one didn't. That one, with the broken horn, blood running down its snout, and rapid breathing, remained in front of him as if waiting for an order that neither of them fully understood.
Luci glowed nervously.
Link looked at the piece of horn in his hand.
Then he looked at the Mabestia.
"What…?"
A Wolgarm attacked from his right.
The broken-horn creature moved before Link.
It launched itself against its own pack.
Both animals collided among the roots, rolled, growled, bit. Link observed for half a second, not out of doubt, but out of brutal understanding. The broken-horn Mabestia wasn't fleeing. It wasn't confused. It was defending him. Or attacking what attacked him. There was no affection in that. There was no beautiful loyalty. It was uglier, more basic, more useful. As if by breaking its horn, something in the axis of its obedience had bent toward him.
Link slowly opened his hand and let the horn fragment fall to the ground.
The next Wolgarm jumped.
Link received it with a different smile.
This time he didn't go for the neck.
He went for the horn.
The first attempt was clumsy. The creature twisted, tore his side with its claws, and almost bit his face. Link held it with two kagunes, immobilized its front legs, and slammed its snout against a stone until the horn cracked. Then he ripped it off. The Mabestia shrieked, fell, and trembled.
And it stayed still.
"On your knees," murmured Link.
He didn't know if it would understand.
The creature lowered its body.
Link felt something inside him open with terrible clarity.
It wasn't just a way to kill.
It was a way to use the forest against itself.
The other Wolgarms attacked en masse.
Too late.
Link sank among them like a blade.
He didn't try to kill them all. Not at first. Those that threw themselves at his throat or at Luci, he destroyed. Those he could catch alive, he broke their horns. He used kagunes like hooks, hands like pincers, knees like hammers. The blood fell down his face, entered his lips, his nose, his eyes. His body absorbed it as if horror were fuel. The wounds closed. The fatigue retreated. The mana rose, not to the purity of a trained mage, but to the pressure of a beast with too many ways to channel it.
One by one, the Wolgarms fell.
Not all dead.
Some alive.
Some broken.
Some obedient.
When the clearing was left without immediate attacks, Link was standing in the middle of seven broken-horn Mabestias. Three more lay dead, too destroyed to obey anything. Others had fled, but not very far. The obedient ones breathed around him, low, tense, with heads tilted and eyes full of something that wasn't will.
Link looked at them.
The forest, for the first time since he entered, seemed to hesitate.
"Rem," he said.
The Mabestias did not react.
Link closed his eyes and smelled.
The trail was still there, but it was weak. Too many bodies. Too much blood. Too much magic. Too much of himself dirtying the air. He needed more noses. More paws. More eyes.
He looked at the creatures.
"Search."
Nothing.
He clicked his tongue.
"Blue hair. Blood. Horn. Rem."
One of the Mabestias lifted its snout.
Another did the same.
Link didn't know if they understood the word, the smell stuck to his clothes, or the obsession that escaped through his voice. It didn't matter. Two began to move toward the interior of the forest, sniffing. The others waited. Link pointed with a kagune.
"All of you."
The small pack dispersed.
Luci spun around Link with a stronger light.
"Don't look at me like that," he said, even though the spirit had no eyes. "It works."
Luci blinked.
"Yes, it's horrible. It also works."
The forest moved again.
More Wolgarms arrived, attracted by the noise.
Link received them with the cruel patience of someone who had already learned the trick. Some died immediately. Others lost their horns. With each new creature subdued, the search expanded. Broken Mabestias smelled trees, stones, trails, dried blood. Some fought against those that were still free. Others came and went, guiding him with low growls or head movements. Link didn't pet them. He didn't name them. He didn't pretend they were companions. They were tools ripped from the enemy. They were teeth that now bit in another direction.
Link's pack grew.
Five.
Nine.
Twelve.
Fifteen.
Not all were strong. Not all survived the next clash. Some fell fighting the untamed ones. Others dragged themselves with wounds, still obedient, still useful. The ground behind Link was marked by blood, footprints, and broken horn fragments. Each piece stepped on was a new denial of the forest.
Link followed the trail.
He didn't run as much as before. Now he hunted.
Rem's scent appeared again on a broken branch, on a rock with blood, on a line of earth crushed by the Morning Star. Ram's too. More recent. Cleaner. Subaru. Sweat, fear, curse, stubbornness. Link growled under his breath. They had entered too. Of course they had entered. Subaru wouldn't stay behind even if his body was falling apart. Ram wouldn't wait if her sister was in danger.
Idiots.
All of them.
He accelerated.
The subdued Mabestias ran around him like a multiple shadow. Some moved ahead. Others stayed on the flanks. Two big ones cleared the way, attacking any free Wolgarm that emerged from the bushes. Link finished them off or broke horns depending on the usefulness of the moment. His kagunes, stained and fed, moved with a cruelty more precise than the night before. There was no longer the clumsiness of a novice. There was instinct honed by necessity.
At one point, the forest opened toward a rocky elevation.
A cliff.
Not very high for someone with a common human body, but enough for a careless fall to break legs, neck, or fate. From above, the terrain descended toward a wide hollow surrounded by trees. Down there, the battle raged.
Link stopped at the edge.
And he saw Rem.
The world stopped making noise.
She was down below, in the middle of an area destroyed by blows, blood, and lifted earth. Her white horn was still visible, but its light was no longer clean. There were wounds on her body, cuts on her arms, legs, shoulders. The Morning Star hung from her hand, still capable of killing, but her posture looked broken by fatigue and curse poison. In front of her were Wolgarms. Around her, more. Ram was nearby, using wind to open spaces, pale, with her breathing already forced. Subaru was there too, staggering, sword in hand, body too weak for the place where he insisted on being.
Link saw Subaru interpose himself in front of a creature.
He saw Ram shout something at him.
He saw Rem turn as if she didn't fully recognize those trying to save her.
The smell hit him all at once.
Rem was alive.
Rem was on the edge.
Link's kakugan narrowed.
The subdued Mabestias crouched behind him, uneasy at the larger pack below. Luci floated beside his face, bright with fear. Link raised a hand. The obedient creatures stayed still.
Below, a group of free Wolgarms began moving toward Ram and Subaru, trying to flank them while Rem was contained from the front. Another group circled from the left. One of the big ones, with an intact horn, prepared a direct jump toward Rem's back.
Link spoke without raising his voice too much.
"Kill those you can."
The subdued Mabestias growled.
"Break the rest."
The first broken-horn Wolgarm jumped over the edge.
Then another.
And another.
The small pack descended down the rocks like an avalanche of obedient shadows. Some rolled, others supported themselves on ledges, others fell badly and kept going anyway. Below, the free Wolgarms raised their heads in confusion upon seeing their own attacking them from above.
Link chose the biggest of the subdued ones, a beast with a wide back, strong legs, and a bloody snout from the broken horn. The animal crouched without being asked. Link mounted its back, driving two kagunes into the sides like anchors so he wouldn't fall.
Luci clung to his shoulder.
"Hold on," murmured Link.
He didn't know if he was saying it to the spirit or to himself.
The Mabestia jumped.
The descent was madness.
Rock, wind, branches, blood, moon. The creature descended the cliff with violent claw strikes, slipping at times, recovering by pure strength. Link leaned forward, the horns absorbing mana from the air, the kagunes open on both sides. One brushed a rock and split it. Another extended toward the void to correct the angle. Below, Rem raised her gaze.
For a second, their eyes met.
She didn't recognize him.
Or perhaps she did.
It didn't matter yet.
Link extended his kagunes.
The fire mana responded.
"Goa."
He didn't launch it from his hand.
He launched it from the red flesh.
Small spheres of fire formed at the tips of two kagunes, then in four, then in several smaller branches that shouldn't be functioning as magical conduits and yet did because Link didn't ask permission from his own body. The first fireballs shot downward, one after another, with a brutal rhythm, imprecise at first, then faster and faster.
Goa.
Goa.
Goa.
The small explosions hit among the free Wolgarms. One creature emerged wrapped in flames and collided with another. A second received the impact on its back and fell rolling. The third dodged a ball, only to be pierced by a kagune when Link passed over it. The air filled with fire, smoke, and shrieks.
Subaru raised his head from below.
"What the hell—!?"
Ram looked toward the cliff with her eye wide open.
"That's not—"
The Mabestia carrying Link landed between two Wolgarms, crushing one under its paws and knocking down the other with the impact. Link jumped from its back before it stopped. Three kagunes attacked in different directions. The fourth kept firing Goa like a crimson machine gun, each projectile small but enough to disorder, burn, break formations. The fire wasn't elegant. It wasn't clean magic. It was channeled violence.
A free Mabestia jumped toward Subaru.
A subdued one intercepted it in mid-air.
Both fell rolling.
Subaru stepped back, almost falling.
"Link!? Are those Wolgarms with you!?"
"Later."
"No, 'later' doesn't cover this!"
Ram used wind to cut down a Wolgarm trying to circle her. Her gaze passed from the broken-horn beasts to Link, then to Rem. She understood part of it. Not all. There was no time for all.
"Barusu, don't get close to the broken-horn beasts."
"I wasn't planning on hugging them!"
Link advanced toward Rem.
Each of his steps was a declaration of war against the forest. The subdued Mabestias attacked around him, colliding with their former companions, opening a breach. The free ones reacted with rage and confusion. Some tried to kill Link. He destroyed them. Others tried to reach Rem. He intercepted them. A few tried to flee toward the trees. The subdued ones chased them.
Rem turned toward him.
The white horn was still there.
The Morning Star rose.
"Rem," said Link.
The chain shot out.
Link barely dodged it. The iron ball hit the ground where he had been and opened a crack. The wave of earth dirtied his boots. He didn't attack. A Wolgarm took advantage of that pause to launch itself toward Rem's back. Link fired a Goa from a kagune without looking at it. The fireball hit the animal in mid-jump and sent it burning against a trunk.
"Rem."
She pulled the chain and attacked again.
Link raised two kagunes. The Morning Star collided with them, sinking into the red flesh. The pain rose like real fire. Link clenched his teeth. His kagunes wrapped around the iron ball, not to take it away, but to slow the movement. Rem pulled with Oni strength. The earth under Link's feet dragged. He drove two more kagunes into the ground.
"Look at me."
Rem growled.
It wasn't a word. It wasn't her completely.
Subaru took a step forward.
"Rem! It's us! We're here now!"
Ram extended her hand to stop him.
"Barusu, no."
"But—!"
"No."
Ram wasn't looking at Subaru.
She was looking at Link.
Perhaps she understood that that place, that instant, that rope between Rem and madness couldn't be pulled by Subaru this time. Subaru had arrived too weak, too loaded with curses, too close to being the reason Rem had condemned herself. Link was bathed in blood, with his own horns, with monster eyes, and a broken pack at his back. It was horrible.
Perhaps that was why he could approach.
Rem released one hand from the chain and launched herself at him with her fist.
Link received the blow in the chest.
The force sank the air out of him and made him step back half a pace. He didn't fall. He looked down at her from above, blood running down his jaw, kagunes tense, kakugan shining.
"You told me that if I got dizzy, I should let you know."
Rem hit him again.
Link received the second blow on the shoulder. Something cracked. It healed.
"You told me not to use magic."
The Morning Star moved again, but he still held it with the kagunes.
"I didn't obey that part."
Rem tried to kick him. Link barely turned, let the blow graze his leg, and used a kagune to push away a Wolgarm that got too close. A subdued Mabestia protected his flank, biting another by the neck. The field was chaos around them, but Link kept his gaze on Rem.
"You made me carry bags."
Rem breathed with fury.
The blue eye moved.
Barely.
"You told me that disasters can also need company."
The chain trembled.
Subaru held his breath.
Ram lowered her hand a little.
Rem opened her mouth, but only a low, broken sound came out, unable to become a response. Her horn was still shining. The violence was still there. The duty was still biting her from within.
A large Wolgarm, one of the few intact ones, emerged from behind a rock and launched itself directly at her. Rem didn't see it. Link did. He could have killed it. He could have pierced it. Instead, a kagune caught it by the snout, another by the neck, and his hands closed around the horn.
The animal shrieked.
Link held it in front of Rem, almost like a brutal mirror.
"Look."
He broke the horn.
The beast collapsed between them, trembling, alive, obedient, broken.
Rem looked at it.
Her breathing changed.
Not much.
But it changed.
Link dropped the broken horn to the ground.
"You don't have to break yourself to obey an order no one gave you."
The sentence came out low.
Lower than the noise of the battle.
But Rem heard it.
The blue eye blinked.
Subaru brought a hand to his chest. Ram didn't move.
Link took a step toward her.
"You don't have to kill the entire forest alone so that Subaru can live."
Another step.
"You don't have to be anyone's weapon."
Another.
"You don't have to pay with your body every time the world asks for blood."
Rem clenched her teeth.
The Morning Star lowered a little.
It didn't fall.
But it lowered.
Link brought a hand closer.
Slow.
Not out of fear of her. Out of respect for what was trying to return.
"Rem."
The name didn't sound like an order.
It sounded like an anchor.
Rem trembled.
The white horn shone one more time, fierce, beautiful, painful. Her eye fixed on Link, on his horns, on his blood, on his kagunes, on the broken beasts obeying around them. Perhaps she saw a monster. Perhaps she saw someone as lost as she was. Perhaps she saw the idiot from the stream saying he wanted to save the afternoon for when it was needed.
Link's hand touched her cheek.
Rem did not attack.
The forest roared around them.
The Mabestias kept dying. The subdued ones kept attacking. Ram and Subaru kept holding the line as best they could. But for a second, in the middle of fire, blood, and curses, Rem stopped moving.
Link rested his forehead against hers, careful not to clash his horn with hers.
"Come back."
The word came out broken.
Not like a spell.
Not like a strategy.
Like a plea.
Rem closed her eyes.
The Morning Star's chain fell to the ground with a heavy sound.
Subaru let out the breath he had been holding.
Ram closed her fist in front of her chest.
Link did not pull away.
Not yet.
Because the forest wasn't finished.
Because the remaining Wolgarms were still surrounding them.
Because the curses were still in Subaru.
Because Rem's horn was still shining, though less.
Because Link had blood in his mouth, fire in his kagunes, and a broken pack waiting for orders.
But Rem had heard.
And for the first time since they found her under the moon, her breathing sounded human.