Finishing the meal and resting for a few minutes, Alice abruptly stands up and pays the bill.
"That's enough resting. Let's go. We already wasted time here."
Arthur gets up right after, huffing as he drags the chair behind him.
"I'm still full. If I puke, it's all your fault."
"If you puke, don't expect me to clean it. I'm your accomplice, not your babysitter."
Alice grabs him by the collar and pushes him forward. Arthur grumbles under his breath, but obeys.
They walk through the streets, entering less crowded avenues, with little concentration of people, lit only by the weak glow of streetlights and a few forgotten billboards. Nothing decadent… just a part of the city that Neon hadn't fully absorbed like the downtown area. A kind of "noble slum." A less striking contrast than comparing Vallum to Lowden.
"Where are we staying? I mean… not that I'm charging you."
Arthur asks, his hand resting on the back of his neck as he tries not to pressure Alice. His curiosity was identical to that of a child discovering a new world.
"We're staying at a house I have here. Did you forget I said I live around here? Just don't expect luxury. And stop bombarding me with questions."
---
They walk, walk, walk… until they reach a completely deserted street. The silence is almost suffocating, broken only by the sound of boots touching the ground and their own breathing.
"Are you sure this is the only way? It doesn't look very… nice."
"What is it? Scared, princess?" Alice provokes, without exaggeration, in her usual dry tone.
"I'm here to guarantee our safety. Relax." Arthur sighs, trying to soften his expression. Still, the uneasiness remains.
… ...
Knock. Knock.
Seconds… no. Minutes pass. The silence begins to cause Arthur physical discomfort. Alice notices and changes her approach.
"Haa… look, when we get there, we can play something. Or I don't know… I can teach you a few moves."
She gives him a light slap on the shoulder, a friendly gesture, though hesitant.
"Was that supposed to calm me down? …okay, I admit it. Almost worked."
Alice rolls her eyes and pulls her hand back, visibly annoyed.
"Next time, I'll let you sink on your own. And wipe that sour look off your face."
She turns to keep walking.
fshhh… tup.
The sound echoes before they even see it.
A figure stands in the middle of the path.
"…Huh?"
Arthur tilts his head, staring at the person — or thing. The body was covered by a dark cloak; the face hidden beneath a hood, leaving only the mouth visible. Motionless. Watching them.
Instinctively, Alice brings her hand to the hilt of her katana. Her eyes never leave the figure.
glk…
She swallows dryly, blinking intermittently — the reflex of someone who sleeps with one eye open.
"Can you let us pass? It's not a good idea to hang around this part of Vallum at this time of night…"
…
Silence.
"Alice… I think we'd better turn ba—"
Arthur whispers, but is interrupted.
The figure raises an arm. The cloak slides back, revealing pale skin marked by thick, irregular scars.
The arm remains suspended for a few moments. Then the lips move, the hand closes — leaving only the index finger pointing at Arthur.
"Him."
The voice is feminine. Low. Almost a metallic whisper, like someone speaking very close to a microphone.
Arthur panics.
It was the same situation as before. Always the same. A strange figure. A demand. And Alice… always Alice.
He steps back, feet dragging on the ground, fists clenching.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
Alice hisses, looking at him over her shoulder before facing the figure again.
Arthur stares at her with trembling eyes. Doubt and the anger of past betrayal rise again.
The night wind blows against his body — an instinctive warning to run. But running meant dying. Staying… maybe another betrayal.
A double-edged knife.
Arthur remains frozen, the internal conflict gluing his feet to the ground.
Alice grits her teeth.
"Come on... I don't need two worries right now. Try not to do anything stupid," she thinks to herself.
...
"I'll... repeat just one more time. I. Want. Him."
"I'm not going to do what you want. So why don't you turn around and… we pretend none of this ever happened?"
She replies, her lips pressed into a calm, controlled smile… even though her entire body was tense.
"This is not a negotiation. Last chance."
"I'm not getting paid for this, sorry. Maybe another day."
Alice's hand tightens around the katana's hilt. The smile disappears.
The silence that follows is sharp, as if you could hear blood running through veins and hearts pounding.
...
"...Then so be it."
!
The figure advances in the blink of an eye.
Alice reacts.
The katana's trigger is pressed. A fluid spin. A direct strike, aiming for the opponent's arm.
But—
KRRSH!!
Something tears from the inside out.
Alice's blade collides with something beneath the cloak.
She goes on alert, kicking the figure with her heel, using the momentum of the kick to push herself away.
"Don't leave my side, Arthur! And don't get in the way!"
RRASH!
The figure rips the sleeve of the cloak, revealing a… blade attached to her arm? No… it seemed to have come out from inside her own body.
With a single movement—
KRRSHK!
A large hackbeil is pulled out of flesh. The fissure it came from bled… severed tendons, broken bones, fat and muscles exposed… all reconnecting and sealing again into a perfect line. Almost surgical.
Arthur watches in horror, his vision blurring as something rises in his throat.
He vomits.
That image in his head carried a completely distorted meaning: a reminder that he too is the same as the figure in front of him.
That fear… that anguish and hopelessness rise again, everything returning like a derailed train crashing into a gas station. The fear of being a thing.
"Tks… shit. We won't have peace from them, not even here. Damn HU…"
Alice steps back two paces, stepping into the puddle of vomit beneath her boots, and positions herself in front of Arthur, her body angled between him and the figure.
Alice doesn't take her eyes off the opponent for a single second, but she doesn't stop there.
The figure throws the torn fabric.
Alice deflects its trajectory with the blade of her katana, revealing a pure metal club that embeds itself into the ground.
That steals her attention for a few milliseconds… enough to lose sight of the figure.
"It's useless, it's useless, it's useless…"
Arthur falls into hysteria.
Alice looks up, down, forward, and to the sides. Her forehead sweats as she tries to visualize the slightest suspicious movement in the environment.
...
vsshh—!
Alice's instinct explodes.
She turns.
The figure was behind Arthur, her hand outstretched to grab him.
Alice switches places with him in a reflex. The katana enters and leaves the sheath in a single motion.
SHIN!!
A diagonal cut hits the opponent's body, tracing a clean line from her abdomen to her trapezius.
The creature growls, but doesn't fall.
She raises the arm holding the cleaver and brings it down at once toward Alice's neck. Alice dodges by turning sideways, receiving only a cut on the shoulder that tears off a small piece.
But it doesn't stop there.
The figure was hunched after the cleaver strike, and Alice takes advantage of it.
...
"Seraphim Null… burn to cinders."
The blade darkens. Gray fluids run through the mechanism.
SHIN!!
The next impact burns.
The blade's edge meets the opponent's spine, but doesn't split it in half. Before it could, the figure generates several crossed blades from within her spine, blocking the passage.
"YOU BITCH! URGH, THIS HURTS! WHY DON'T YOU JUST DISAPPEAR?!"
The figure screams and spits, pain audible in the clatter of her lips. She raises her arm and, from her elbow, generates a curved blade and swings to wrap around Alice and cut her in half from behind.
But Alice reacts.
She pulls the katana back, cutting the muscles regenerating around it, the tissues trying to envelop the blade.
Before being pierced, she leaps over the figure's attack, slicing only the tendon in her foot.
"Urgh!!!"
Alice grunts, landing a few meters away from her opponent, her knees hitting the ground as her shoulder and tendon bleed.
The creature rises… her body leaning forward, supported by a spine almost cut in half. Her regeneration was lagging… and burning…
"What… what did you do? I CAN'T REGENERATE FAST! YOU SLUT!"
The creature tries to advance toward Alice, but her body is unbalanced by the weight.
"It'll take a while for you to regenerate… your cells are scorched right now."
She says, sweating as she loses blood.
When Alice spoke those words, she activated a mechanism inside her Seraphim Null that caused the plates composing the blade to begin vibrating and creating friction so that when it cut something, that thing burned as if it were on fire.
She turns to Arthur, who stared fixedly at the ground… not really seeing the asphalt. His eyes empty.
"Urgh… aaah… ngh…"
Alice struggles to stand, walking to Arthur and shaking him.
"Hey, Arthur, wake up! We need to run!"
She says firmly.
"Stop spacing out, kid!"
"Aaah…? That voice…"
He thinks.
"It's Alice… she's calling me… but this fog is muffling her voice…"
... ...
"ARTHUR!"
— !!!
Arthur snaps out of the trance, eyes widening in shock.
"URGH… just wait… I'll regenerate… and I'll make sure to shatter every bone in your body!!!"
The figure says, like a vow. Her body was reconnecting little by little; the sight of tissues rejoining is stomach-churning.
It was regeneration in stages.
"We can't run, Alice… She'll regenerate and keep coming after us."
Arthur murmurs, grabbing Alice's arm and supporting her on his shoulder.
"I know… we don't have many options…"
She thinks… and thinks…
Tick… Tock…
That's what echoed in her mind as she searched for a solution.
"I HATE THIS… I'LL PAY YOU BACK IN KIND, AND THEN I'LL TAKE THAT BRAT!!!"
The creature screams in hysteria, her body almost fully reconnected.
...
"Wait for the right moment."
Alice tells Arthur as she steps forward and covers the hilt of her Seraphim Null with the sweaty palm of her hand.
"Hey, are you crazy? You're going to end up dying!"
Arthur shouts, but before he can pull Alice back…
She advances.
The figure's regeneration completes at the same instant she lunges forward, screaming. The creature extends her palm, and from it ejects the tip of a spear.
"One…"
Alice thinks, lowering her body and sliding under the attack. Even so, the blade grazes her forehead, opening a shallow cut.
The enemy doesn't stop. She leaps into the air and molds a blade on her own shin, spinning her body in a full 360° arc. The strike comes straight for Alice's shoulder line.
CLANG!
Alice raises Seraphim in time, blocking the impact. The weight of the attack reverberates through her arms, pressing her body downward, almost forcing her to her knees.
"Two…"
She slides the blade along the point of contact and drags it in a clean cut across the enemy's waist, opening her flesh midair.
"ARGH!!! SU—"
"Three."
Alice doesn't allow continuation. She moves in a flash behind the creature and locks her neck in a chokehold, trapping the enemy's arms behind her own head.
Seraphim tightens the hold, serving as a lock.
A suicidal move.
"W-WHAT? LET ME GO! ARE YOU CRAZY?! I'LL KILL YOU RIGHT HERE!!!"
The creature thrashes violently, trying to reach Alice's face to tear it apart.
"Arthur, now! Knock her out!"
The boy approaches in quick — and hesitant — steps. He stops before the two of them. The enemy foams with rage while Alice tightens the choke even more.
Arthur clenches his fists, raising them.
He knew what he had to do. But everything in that moment… everything since he woke up in that world… made even the simplest action feel impossible.
Blades erupt from the enemy's back.
The steel pierces Alice's abdomen and remains lodged in her flesh. Blood pours out immediately, abundant, like an open faucet.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DO IT NOW, ARTHUR!!!"
Alice screams. Her eyes shut from the pain, but her arms tighten the hold even more. She refuses to let go.
"YES! JUST A LITTLE MORE! JUST KEEP WATCHING! SOON SHE DIES AND I CAPTURE YOU—"
KRAK!
Arthur delivers a heavy, precise blow straight to the enemy's face.
The impact shatters her jaw with a dry crack, and the shock is enough to knock her out instantly.
... ...
Alice releases the body and shoves it forward. The creature falls face-first onto the icy asphalt.
The pressure of the blades ceases, but blood continues to soak the cold ground of Vallum.
Arthur drops to his knees in front of her. His hands tremble, stained red. His wide eyes lift to Alice, waiting for the usual scolding… or some acidic joke.
But he finds only short breaths and clenched teeth.
"You… are you okay? That wound…"
His gaze drops to the cut in her abdomen. Guilt and shame invade him like a virus.
"It's superficial… I can take it."
Alice coughs. A thread of blood slips from the corner of her mouth.
"We… still need to get home…"
She tries to stand, one hand pressing her stomach, the other seeking support on her knee. Her body trembles, fighting not to give in to the sea of pain.
"O-oh… okay, let's go. But… and that thing? Do we take her? It'd be better to keep her restrained."
Alice stares at the body stretched on the ground. Her brow furrows.
"Bring her."
Arthur nods and hoists the unconscious enemy over his shoulder.
...
They move on in silence.
Each of Alice's steps drags. Blood slips between her fingers as she holds the wound. Her body begs for rest.
Arthur, in turn, feels small.
He doubted her from the start. Thought of ambushes, lies. And now she walked wounded… because of him.
For the first time, he feels ungrateful.
---
After minutes of painful, anguishing walking, they reach the house.
As soon as they enter, Alice locks the door and slides an iron bar between two supports.
Arthur throws the enemy to the floor with brutality. Then he yanks off the hood.
It's a girl with short, silvery hair. A raised scar runs from her jaw to the corner of her lips.
He forces her eyes open:
The right is wine-red. The left… completely black — iris, pupil — with a grayish sclera. Like the eye of some spectral being.
Alice steps in front of him and tosses down thick, heavy chains.
"Tie her."
...
Arthur binds arms and legs tightly, tightening every joint.
"Alice, you… need treatment. Let me help. I… I don't have experience, but…"
Compensation.
"Relax, kid. I'm fine. I just need to sleep a bit and—"
She staggers.
Her expression changes. Her eyes roll back. Her voice fades…
Alice falls.
"Alice?!"
Arthur rushes over, kneeling beside her. He checks her pulse with his fingers. She was alive, but unconscious from massive blood loss.
He digs his nails into his own hands. Resentment and guilt crush his chest.
He carries her to the sofa and starts rummaging through the house.
"Shit, shit, shit… hurry! Where is this crap?!"
He shouts desperately, his clumsy hands knocking objects out of drawers and off tables.
A kit.
Cloth, alcohol, needle, old surgical thread. It was what there was; he couldn't complain in this situation.
tap tap! HFF! tap tap!
He runs back.
"It's okay… calm down… I can do this… cauterize, then stitch…"
He soaks the cloth in alcohol and presses it against the wound. Holds it there for long minutes until the bleeding slows. Then he throws the cloth away and looks for the needle he had dropped.
"Where is this shit, damn it, I left it right here!"
He gropes the floor. Something pricks his finger.
The needle.
"Great… now… calm…"
He threads the needle, his hands shaking as he brings it close to the skin.
"Calm… I can't see…"
He leans closer. Anxiety blurs his vision.
...
For a few seconds, he just stares at the wound.
"Haaa… Haaa…"
With a firm — and brutal — motion, he pierces the skin.
Tch… shrr…k. Tch… shrr…k.
He keeps forcing the tip through the tissue, passing over the wide, deep cut.
"Please… work…"
His stomach churns. His fingers touch flesh and fluids from the wound.
"Urk… don't die… please… I… I need someone with me in this world… I need…"
He holds back the nausea rising in his throat as tears spill. Losing someone right away in a world like this was soul-crushing. The only pillar of survival he had known, even in the form of betrayal, was enough to give him the slightest foundation.
Voices echo in his mind.
"They're going to kill us!" "Leave!"
...
"Arthur!"
"Why… why can't I remember anything except that damn voice?"
--- ---
The procedure ends.
Irregular. Imperfect.
But enough.
His body is drenched in sweat, and his hands tremble with Alice's blood on them. All he does now is take her in his arms while looking for a bedroom.
When he gets there, he lays her on the mattress that molds to Alice's shape. Her expression is calm, strangely serene… as if that was all she wanted in that moment… time to rest.
He tucks the girl's hair behind her ears and covers her with a blanket.
"I… I'll take care of that girl. Just… don't die, okay? Please…"
It's all he asks of her, even though she can't hear.
He returns to the living room, seeing the chained girl lying on the floor. Her calm breathing makes it clear she had recovered and was merely still unconscious.
Rage boils inside Arthur as he looks at her… rage for hurting the only pillar he has in this world, and rage for making him feel that anguish and fear inside himself again.
He grabs her by the chain around her neck and pulls, looking for a place to restrain her. He sees a basement.
Without thinking. Without hesitating.
The girl rolls down the stairs.
After that, the boy doesn't sleep… doesn't eat. He stays alert so that… this time… nothing happens without him reacting.
...
Are you trying to make up for your incompetence, Arthur?