Death Denied

Ren hunched forward with a gasp and looked up to her with his tired grey eyes.

Then—

Stillness

His feet steadied beneath him, pressing deeper into the thick grass. His breath, once ragged and uneven, slowed into a steady rhythm. The trembling in his fingers ceased. The fog in his mind lifted. His eyes narrowed, and in that moment, something shifted.

A resonance in the space around him.

Nocstella's gaze flicked, just briefly.

Ren surged forward.

His body tore across the glade, his hood flying off from the speed. Nocstella had remained motionless, head tilted slightly. His sword came up in a rising arc, aimed for her midsection.

She moved just as the blade neared her, a fluid blur of shadow and silk. Her hand snapped up with divine grace and caught the flat of his sword. The moment her fingertips grazed the metal, a force like thunder cracked outward.

Ren's sword shattered from her palm.

Shards flew like broken light across the field.

The impact sent Ren stumbling backward—yet he didn't stall. He adjusted mid-stumble and charged again, this time bare-handed. Fingers curled into a fist, blood already slick down his knuckles from the backlash of her touch. He ducked beneath a lashing tendril of shadow, twisted his hips, and swung wide into her jaw.

Crack

Nocstella staggered back, not by her choice. Her head snapped to the side, pitch black hair splaying across her face. Her body tensed—not in pain, but in pure disbelief.

Though the impact only pushed her back one step, it was enough to prove one thing:

She could be touched.

Ren stood still, panting, staring at his fist like it wasn't his.

"I hit her," He breathed. "I actually—"

She straightened slowly, eyes locked to his.

One pale hand drifted up to caress her face. Her fingertips pressed lightly where his knuckles had landed. A faint line of red drew across her cheekbone.

"Fascinating," She whispered. "You...touched me."

Ren didn't answer; his mind was spinning with questions.

"I suspected it may be true, but now I'm certain." Her voice grew quiet, almost reverent.

A faint smear of crimson welled at the corner of her mouth. She wiped it with her thumb, looked at the blood curiously, then lifted her gaze back to him.

"You're a respondent..."

Ren didn't understand.

"I should have known," Nocstella said, studying Ren more deeply. "The dissonance. The refusal...The rejection of death itself. But...you shouldn't be whole. Even 'they' lose something each time they return. Bodies weaken. Eyes lose color. And their minds—oh, their minds crack like mirrors under weight."

She looked at him now like he was a mistake the world shouldn't have made.

"How..." Nocstella's voice cracked with a mixture of accusation and awe. "When...did you awaken it? Without me knowing?"

She began to pace slowly, circling him like a viper closing in on prey.

"It doesn't matter that you've struck me. Or that your body remains intact after every death." Her voice dropped into a tone colder than the void. "You may respond to death, but you are not immune to it."

Nocstella suddenly stopped moving, turning directly toward Ren.

"No matter, Respondent or not, you are still Hollow acting as if you still exist." Her gaze was no longer motherly and gentle, but something fed up and tired. "This—whatever this is—you are stalling. Nothing more. Even 'they' fade away over time."

She took one step forward, her fingers curling at her sides.

"You still believe there's a you in there, don't you? That you're still that boy named Ren. That you survived death all those times with any repercussions?"

Ren's jaw clenched in anger.

"You think Eva's voice will bring you back if you fall. That your soul still resides within...And worst of all," She leaned in just slightly. "You still believe your mother would be proud of you."

Her words broke him, and something cracked behind Ren's eyes.

Ren launched himself forward again with raw aggression. Tendrils shot out, jagged and fast—shadows like blades whistling through the air—but Ren tore straight through them. He slid beneath a scything tendril, grabbed it at its base, and tore it clean off. Another wrapped around his arm, yet he immediately ripped through it with raw force.

Ren closed the distance, and Nocstella lifted a hand to strike.

Too late

A right cross crashed into her jaw.

Then a left hook right into her ribs.

Nocstella stumbled back from the impact, shadows dwelling underneath her.

Ren wouldn't let her settle, dashing in at her again. Punch after punch, his fists were becoming raw and slick with blood—his or hers, he couldn't tell anymore.

"You think I'm like them!?" Ren shouted between blows. "You think I'll forget?!"

Nocstella raised both arms to shield her face—veins of shadow webbing out from her forearms—but Ren broke through the defense with a vicious punch to her cheek.

Nocstella stumbled back across the glade, stumbling as her balance gave out.

But before she could fall—

"You think I'm fake?!" Ren shouted, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back toward him. "You think I'm hollow?!"

Crack

A right hook straight into her temple.

And then she did fall, hitting the ground hard.

Ren dropped down on top of her, straddling her waist.

His fists rained down like a storm.

One

"Every part of me—"

Two

"that broke—"

Three

"I'm still here!"

She raised a palm to defend against Ren's relentless attacks, but he swatted it aside and landed another series of punches across her jaw, her head snapping to the side.

Fracturing her nose.

Bruising her skin.

Busting her lip.

She tried to form a tendril, but Ren shattered it before it could finish weaving.

Nocstella looked up at him, gasping in pure anger, and something inside cracked—

All of her defenses were breaking beneath him. Her composure, her 'power', her divinity.

And for the first time since she existed, Nocstella knew fear.

Her arms flailed, too weak to defend, and her body went completely limp.

Then—

She wheezed out a whisper, so soft it barely reached his ears.

"C-Caedros…"

Ren's arm paused mid-swing.

She coughed up blood, her voice raw and desperate.

"Please...lend me m-more of your...power."