Shiori curled her fingers in as she raised her hands to perform an attack spell. They were no longer human-looking fingers. Instead, they stretched into sharp, claw-like tips that caught the light as she moved them.
The invisible strands she had been controlling became visible, trailing from the base of her fingers and wrapping around her wrists. They wound up her arms in messy loops until they disappeared into her kimono gown sleeves.
Ren drew the Pact Blade to an optimal attack position. The weapon's weight no longer slowed him, so his movements were natural, infused with Pact energy that traveled through both him and the blade as they were part of the same body.
Shiori moved her fingers in disorganized patterns, and with them, the strings lit up each time in response. Ren could now hear them vibrate in the air. He sensed she was building toward something.
He moved in closer and attempted to drive his blade through those strings, but just as he was about to commit his strike, the ground shuddered under him.
It was another explosion that had hit, this one spreading wider and shaking more of the structure than before. Ren's balance faltered for a moment, throwing his movement off. The blade dipped longer than he had intended it to.
"Fuck! Of all the times.... this could have happened..." he cursed to himself.
He tried to recover, but he already knew the strike was lost. Shiori had the advantage now.
Shiori pulled the threads faster this time, then curled her fingers and extended them like blades. Her whole body turned with the motion as she lunged at Ren before he had a chance to recover.
And then, everything seemed to stretch out, as if he was watching it in slow motion. It was the Pact running through him, maximizing his speed to the point of allowing him to anticipate strikes more efficiently.
His focus went directly to the glint of those sharp claws. His muscles tensed in preparation for the impact, while his mind calculated whether he could twist out of the way or if the only option available at that point was to take the hit and counter in one single moment.
But no. At this range, there was no avoiding it.
And then, without warning, a shadow slid behind where Shiori stood. Ren saw only a vague outline at first, and by the time his eyes made any sense of it, the movement was already happening.
A wide blade thrusted in through Shiori's back until it emerged on the other side of her body. The impact pushed her forward a step, as she gasped from the impact. Some of the threads snapped as they touched the edge of the sword.
Ren stood frozen, watching it all unfold from a few paces away. Whoever this person was, he hadn't seen him coming. He hadn't even noticed the man's presence at all as he crossed half the valley.
Shiori's head tilted slightly, but no sound came out of her beyond the gasp.
The blade that held her was enormous, yet it moved as though its weight meant nothing to the one wielding it. Its surface was covered with symbols aligned in strange patterns, which darkened in the areas where Shiori's blood touched them.
Then, Ren saw cracks spreading from where the blade had struck. They multiplied quickly, branching outward with a crackling sound as if her body was no longer organic, but something made of stone. Her skin broke apart and then turned to ash, which slowly, almost elegantly, lifted into the air until nothing was left.
It was the same as with the maze. Shiori broke apart in exactly the same way. And it did make sense, as she and the maze had been deeply connected.
In the end, this seemed to have been one of the trials the Sanctum had in store for its dwellers, even if a twisted one at that. The seemingly innocent little girl they had encountered had, in fact, been the mastermind behind it. The one thread corrupting everything around.
Ren still had unanswered questions about what Shiori had been, but the one thing that was clear in that moment was that for now, he could just rest.
A few moments passed during which the stillness almost felt louder than any sound.
Ren's attention moved onto the figure behind where Shiori had stood. Wrapped head to toe in layered bandages, the man's outline was narrow at the waist and broad at the shoulders. He wore a dark kimono that fell to his boots.
As the tension ended, the blade in his hands lowered until its tip rested on the ground. Where Shiori had stood only moments before, a bracelet remained with thin chains ending in flower-shaped ornaments. They stood spread in a disorganized way on the floor. It must have slipped from her arm as her body turned to ash and vanished. The man bent down and gathered it without a word.
Kagami appeared at Ren's side, looking straight at the newcomer. She didn't address him in any way, but was visibly unsettled by his presence there. She didn't trust him.
The stranger turned away, showing no interest in either Ren nor Kagami. He headed toward the nearest corridor out front, tucking the recovered charm inside a pocket.
Ren's grip tightened on the Pact Blade as the man walked away. The impulse to let him go fought against the sharper urge to stop him. Any answers to any of his questions had been so vague from the moment he set foot in this place, so watching the only other living being, apart from Kagami, leave without a word was not something he felt right.
"Hey!" Ren called.
But the bandaged man didn't stop until Ren dashed ahead, cutting him off. The stranger pivoted suddenly, raising his blade and holding it at the height of Ren's chest. He said nothing, but the message was clear.
Don't come any closer.
Ren halted. He met the man's gaze, or what little of it was visible through the narrow gap in the wrappings. He had clear blue but piercing eyes.
"Who are you?" Ren asked, sizing him up and trying to gather any information he could from what he was seeing in front of him.
Still, the man seemed determined not to answer. After a few moments of silence though, the man lowered his weapon and slid it back into the sheath strapped across his back.
He then reached for his left hand, slowly unwrapping a strip of bandage. The fabric came away easily, and as it did, Ren saw that the skin underneath was burnt deep to the bone. Ren couldn't help but wonder how someone with a body like that was even standing, let alone walking. As he finished unwrapping, the man then stepped forward and extended the strip toward Ren.
Kagami's ears tilted forward.
"Careful, Ren. Whatever he is, he has the same aura as Shiori did."
Ren looked at her briefly, weighing her words, then returned his attention to the man.
The man didn't waver despite Kagami's words. It was as if he hadn't heard them at all or chose to ignore them completely.
He took it. The fabric felt unremarkable, just a piece of bandage. There was nothing to it that felt visibly unusual. He turned it over once in his fingers, scanning for markings, threads, or stains. Nothing.
When he looked up again, the man's shape was already breaking apart into a black mist of sorts. It drifted upward until there was only the faintest trace of it left, then even that was gone.