The silence after the last loop is deafening. Hine lies on the cold ground of the endless plain, her body trembling but her mind sharper than it has ever been. The air hums with that familiar, suffocating tension, and she knows before she even opens her eyes that Ronova is there. Watching. Waiting.
"Up," Ronova commands, her voice smooth and sharp, like a blade sliding out of its sheath.
Hine's fingers curl against the dirt, nails scraping rock. Her body aches from the last loop, her soul stretched thin from the countless resets that blur together. For a moment, she stays down, eyes closed, breath steady. The old Hine would have scrambled to her feet, desperate to obey. But now, there is something colder in her veins, something solid that refuses to bow.
"I said, up," Ronova repeats, stepping closer. The ground trembles with her presence, the weight of her dominion pressing on every blade of grass, every shadow, every breath.
Slowly, Hine lifts her head, meeting Ronova's gaze. Her voice is hoarse, but steady. "Make me."
For the first time in what feels like eternity, silence stretches between them. Ronova tilts her head, her silver eyes glinting in the dim light of the looping horizon. Then she smiles. It is not kind.
"You think you have grown strong enough to defy me," she says, and the air chills with her words. "How naive."
Hine drags herself to her feet, ignoring the protest of her muscles. "No," she says. "Not naive. Tired."
Ronova studies her, and for the first time, her expression flickers with something other than cruel amusement. But it is gone in an instant, replaced with cold rage. The Ruler of Death lifts her hand, and shadows coil around her fingers like serpents.
"Then let me remind you what it means to challenge death."
The world cracks.
The ground beneath Hine's feet shatters into a void, a bottomless abyss pulling her down. She falls, weightless and screaming, until her body hits a surface that should not exist. The pain is blinding, but she bites it down. The loops have taught her pain. Pain no longer surprises her.
Ronova's voice echoes all around her, cold and omnipresent. "You think strength will save you? Every mortal clings to that illusion until they break."
"I am not breaking," Hine says through gritted teeth, forcing herself upright even as her limbs shake.
"You will," Ronova hisses, and the void reshapes itself into a forest of twisted bones and black fog. From the shadows, familiar figures emerge. People Hine has lost. Faces that still haunt her. They look at her with hollow eyes, accusing, silent.
Her chest tightens, but this time, the fear does not freeze her. She steps forward. "You think I do not know what you are doing? You want me to drown in this. You want me to beg."
Ronova materializes in front of her, towering, radiant and terrible. "Begging is the first step to understanding, little mortal."
"Then I will never understand," Hine says, her voice steady even as the fog coils around her ankles like chains. She lifts her chin. "You can kill me. You can drag me through a thousand loops. But I will not give you what you want."
Ronova's eyes flash with fury. The shadows lash out, slamming into Hine and sending her sprawling. Her ribs ache, her breath comes ragged, but she pushes herself up again. Blood drips from the corner of her mouth, staining the cracked earth beneath her.
"Enough," Ronova growls, her voice echoing like thunder. The weight of her power crushes the air, pressing against Hine's lungs, daring her to collapse. "You are nothing. A speck of dust pretending to matter."
Hine staggers forward, her vision swimming, but her voice is unshaken. "Then why are you trying so hard to break me?"
The question lands like a strike, sharp and unexpected. Ronova freezes, her expression unreadable. The silence between them grows heavy, and for the first time, Hine senses something beneath the surface of the Ruler of Death's rage. Something almost… human.
"You do not understand," Ronova says finally, her voice quieter but no less sharp. "This is not cruelty. This is inevitability. You cannot defy the laws written into the fabric of existence."
"I can try," Hine says, and her words carry a quiet fire that makes even the shadows hesitate.
Ronova watches her, her silver eyes gleaming with something sharp, something dangerous. Then, with a flick of her wrist, the void collapses. The bone forest crumbles into nothingness, the black fog disperses, and the endless plain returns. The silence is deafening.
"You think you are strong now," Ronova says, her voice cold once more. "But strength without understanding will destroy you."
Hine breathes heavily, every muscle in her body screaming in protest, but she does not look away. "Then teach me," she says. "If breaking me is all you want, then I will fight you until the end. But if there is more, then show me. Stop hiding behind your torment."
For the first time, Ronova looks almost startled. Her gaze lingers on Hine, assessing, calculating. Then, slowly, her expression hardens again.
"You are walking a path that will consume you," she says. "Do not mistake my patience for mercy."
With a ripple of power, Ronova vanishes, leaving Hine alone in the empty plain. The silence stretches on, but it is different now. Not empty. Charged. Waiting.
Hine sinks to her knees, her body trembling with exhaustion, but her mind is clear. She can feel it in her chest, that quiet, burning ember that refuses to be snuffed out. She knows this is not the end. Ronova will come again, and the loops will not stop. But something inside her has shifted.
She is no longer the same girl who entered this endless torment, trembling and desperate for escape. She is something sharper now. Something that can cut through the suffocating darkness, even if it is only a sliver of light.
As she closes her eyes, she hears it again, faint but certain. Mavuika's voice, soft as a whisper, threading through the quiet.
"Forward, Hine. Always forward."
Her eyes snap open. The horizon stretches endlessly before her, as it always does, but for the first time, she does not feel trapped by it. She feels challenged.
And Hine has never been one to back down from a challenge.