The walls around them twisted like a dungeon carved by madness, mossed, metallic, and shifting. The maze never ended.
Novva exhaled sharply. "We're getting nowhere."
Kenzo gave a tired chuckle. "Relax. We'll find a way. This place can't go on forever."
"We've passed the same torch on the wall three times," Novva snapped. "We're walking in circles."
"Then we circle until someone finds us." He shrugged. "Maybe Kurai. Or Anna."
Novva looked down. "I hope they're okay…"
A voice echoed from the shadows, oily and cruel.
"You're next."
Novva's eyes widened. "What—?"
"NOVVA, GET DOWN!" Kenzo shouted.
A blur emerged from the dark. A blade slashed across Novva's back. She stumbled, choking on pain.
Kenzo caught her, glaring up. "Who the hell are you?!"
The man stepped forward, holding a limp body by the hair.
"I'm Eita," he grinned. "Your final opponent. And this?" He dropped the body like trash. "This one belongs to you, I think."
Kenzo's blood ran cold. "Anna…? What the fuck did you do to her?!"
"She surrendered. I didn't make her do anything… yet."
Novva, wincing through the wound, asked, "If he has Anna… then where's Kurai?"
Eita smirked. "Oh, the useless one? I killed him."
Kenzo's fists clenched. "You're lying."
"Killed him before he could even touch me. Couldn't protect himself, let alone her." He scoffed. "They said he'd be a problem. What a joke."
Novva's eyes darkened to black. "Don't you dare talk about them like that."
She summoned her scythe, a curved, mid-length blade of pure shadow... and lunged. Eita parried with ease, dropping Anna to the floor like dead weight.
"Kurai fought with one hand," Novva snarled. "And still lasted. You never even noticed."
"One hand? Funny, he looked whole to me," Eita replied.
Novva stepped back, jaw clenched. "Of course you didn't see. You're a fucking clown."
"You cared about him," Eita sneered. "That'll make this more fun."
She glared. "Kenzo. Take Anna. Now."
Kenzo didn't argue. He scooped her up and backed off.
Novva rotated her scythe and slammed it into the ground.
"Bakkuzon."
A thick black circle rippled outward beneath her feet.
"Kenzo, don't move. Not even a step. And you..-" she pointed the blade at Eita. "-I dare you to move."
Eita laughed. "This little barrier? Please."
He shifted forward.
And screamed.
His foot landed outside the circle, and was instantly sliced clean off.
"WHAT?! I—YOU DIDN'T EVEN MOVE!" Eita clutched his stump, staggering. "MY FOOT?!"
Novva's eyes gleamed. "The fun's begun."
"Is this some speed trick?!" he shouted. "How are you doing this?!"
Novva didn't blink. "Why ask questions you can't understand?"
Eita started laughing again, louder, crazier. "YOU THINK YOU TRAPPED ME?! THIS IS MY DOMAIN! I KNOW EVERY INCH OF THIS PLACE! YOU'RE THE ONE TRAPPED, NOT ME!"
Novva grinned. "So you made this place? That means if I kill you, we're free. Perfect."
"If you can kill me."
Eita vanished.
"Heh…?" Novva's eyes darted. "My circle… didn't trigger?"
Eita's voice whispered behind her. "That's because I never moved."
Then pain. A deep slash across her stomach.
"AGH-" She coughed blood. "How…?!"
"I told you," Eita whispered, reappearing. "You're mine."
Novva staggered, blood dripping from her wounds.
Another cut. Her arm. Then her leg. Then across her cheek.
Her knees buckled.
The circle dissolved.
Eita emerged, whole again. "No one can kill me here. Not in my domain."
He raised his hand. "Time to die."
Novva wheezed but smirked. "You… feeling a little dizzy?"
Eita blinked.
Then swayed.
"…what…?"
"You're poisoned," she whispered, standing tall again. "And you're dead meat."
Novva raised her scythe, walking toward him with murderous calm.
She brought the blade to his throat.
But then-
"NOVVA, NO!"
Kenzo's voice cut through the air. He was sweating. Shaking. But his blade was held to Anna's throat.
"If you move even an inch toward Eita, I'll kill her."
Novva froze.
"…Kenzo?"
His hand trembled. "Drop the scythe. Now."
"…You're with them?"
"You're not allowed to ask questions. Drop it."
Tears welled in her eyes. "Kenzo… how could you?"
Her fingers tightened on the scythe.
"DROP IT!"
She bit her lip.
And dropped the weapon.
Eita stepped forward and smashed the hilt of his sword across her temple.
Darkness.
Novva opened her eyes slowly.
She was tied upright in a massive, cathedral-like courtroom. The air tasted sterile. The walls were obsidian, smooth and reflective, with no visible windows. Above her, a throne sat high atop a mountain of stairs. Upon it, a man cloaked in gold and void. His eyes were closed, but his voice thundered without sound.
"Now… you are put to judge."
She looked to her side.
Anna was bound as well, silently crying, her face pale with terror.
To the left of the throne stood Eita, smiling, smug.
To the right stood Kenzo.
Novva's throat closed. "What… is this…?"
Anna whimpered, "Kenzo, please… tell me this isn't real…"
Kenzo didn't meet her eyes. "Don't speak over Tamashini."
Novva's voice cracked. "So it's real… You betrayed us."
The figure on the throne - Tamashini - finally opened his eyes. They shone like endless pits of sky.
"You two have been brought to judgment. You have two paths:
Serve me in the higher ranks, as tools of my will.
Or die."
Novva's fists clenched against the ropes. "I'd rather rot."
Tamashini nodded. "Then the trial is over. You are sentenced to death."
Anna screamed, sobbing uncontrollably. "NO — PLEASE — ANYTHING BUT THAT! PLEASE DON'T —"
Kenzo turned away as if her cries were static.
"PLEASE, NOVVA, I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
Novva was crying now too, biting her lip until it bled.
"Ahmya," Tamashini said, "I grant you the honor."
Kenzo stepped forward.
Sword drawn.
"I'm sorry."
He raised the blade, no emotion in his voice.
And then-
BOOM.
One of the courtroom walls exploded inward in a blast of shrapnel and dust. Wind howled in. Light cracked through.
Kenzo staggered back, sword flying from his grip.
From the smoke-
A voice.
Low. Cold. Kurai.
"You're so fucking pathetic."
Eita spun, shocked. "Heh?! You-"
Kurai stepped into the courtroom, shirt torn, blood dripping from his nose, his eyes hollow.
But alive.
More than alive, furious.
Kenzo backed away, breath stuck in his throat.
Kurai's gaze didn't waver.
He walked past the ruined wall, stepping over the broken pieces like they were nothing. His body trembled with every step, not from weakness, from control. Rage suppressed beneath a thin, cracking surface.
Anna gasped, "Kurai…?"
Kurai looked at her once.
Just once.
Then turned to face the throne.
"So you're the one behind this circus."
Tamashini didn't blink. "You are not welcome here, fragment."
Kurai raised his middle finger.
"Sucks to be you."