The smoke slowly thinned inside the abandoned building.
What had once been a small office complex was now half-swallowed by nature. Moss crawled up cracked concrete walls. Thick roots had burst through the floor tiles, lifting them like broken teeth. A tree had grown straight through the roof, its branches stretching toward the open sky.
In the centre of it all, the black-haired woman who was carrying Ren suddenly released him from her arms.
Her fingers slipped from his arm.
"Gh…!"
She staggered back one step, then another, before collapsing heavily onto the moss-covered floor. Blood spread beneath her, dark and thick, seeping between broken tiles.
Ren stood frozen.
"…What?"
His breathing was heavy because he felt affected by so kind of a smoke. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he stared at her unmoving body. Surprise flashed across his face, followed quickly by confusion, then anger.
"No… no way…" Ren muttered.
The woman who had appeared out of the smoke when he thought they were winning back in the Valkyrie Fang headquarters.
The faceless woman.
The one who had hunted him again and again.
She was on the ground. Bleeding. Wheezing like every breath might be her last.
Ren clenched his fists.
"They really pushed you this far…" he whispered, teeth grinding. "To think even soone like you could end up like this."
He had always believed she was untouchable. A monster hiding behind countless faces. Soone who always had control.
Yet now she lay there, broken.
Ren's gaze shifted back to her.
Earlier, she had worn Lan Jia's face. Cold eyes. Familiar features. But now that disguise was gone.
The woman before him had black hair, soaked with sweat and blood. Her face was thin, sharp, unfamiliar. Her chest barely rose as she struggled to breathe.
"Hah… hng…"
A weak sound escaped her lips.
Ren swallowed.
"…You're dying," he said quietly.
He took a step closer.
Then another.
He squatted beside her, close enough to see how pale she was. Her lips trembled. Blood stained the side of her mouth.
"Who… are you?" Ren asked. "Why do you keep following ?"
There was no response.
Only her uneven breathing.
Ren frowned.
The longer he looked at her, the worse his head felt.
"…Tch."
He pressed a hand to his temple.
A dull pain was growing. A pressure. Like sothing was trying to force its way out.
"Why… do I feel like this?" he muttered.
Images flickered at the edge of his mind. Blurred. Incomplete. A mory struggling to surface.
But sothing blocked it.
"No…" Ren whispered. "Not now."
His eyes hardened.
This was his chance.
"She's weak," he said to himself. "This is it."
Ren stood up and looked around.
The building was filled with debris. Broken furniture. Fallen bricks. Chunks of concrete torn free by roots and ti.
Then he saw it.
A massive block of brick and concrete is lying near a collapsed wall.
Ren walked over.
"No hesitation," he muttered. "End it."
He bent down, grabbed the block with both hands, and lifted.
The brick rose effortlessly.
Ren blinked.
"…Huh."
He looked at his hands.
"Since when… was I this strong?"
Any normal man would have struggled. Even so won hunters would need effort.
Yet Ren held it like it weighed nothing.
"…Right," he said quietly. "Strength points."
He let out a bitter laugh.
"At this rate… I might even be stronger than Nina."
Ren turned back toward the woman.
He raised the block above his head.
"This ends now," he said coldly.
The woman didn't move.
Didn't beg.
Didn't speak.
Ren took a breath and prepared to bring it down.
Then he stopped.
"…Wait."
Sothing caught his eye.
On the woman's face, there was a faint, clear line. Almost invisible, but unmistakable.
A seam.
"…A mask?" Ren muttered.
His brows furrowed.
"So that's it," he said. "Another face."
He hesitated.
Curiosity crept in, unwelco and dangerous.
"…Who are you really?"
Ren slowly lowered the brick.
It hit the floor with a dull thud.
He squatted down again, heart beating faster than he liked.
"This is stupid," he whispered. "I should just finish it."
Yet his hand moved on its own.
He reached out and carefully grabbed the edge of the line on her face.
His fingers trembled.
"…Don't tell ," he muttered. "You're still hiding."
His heartbeat grew louder in his ears.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
"…Is this a bad idea?" Ren whispered.
For a mont, nothing happened.
Then Ren pulled.
The mask peeled away smoothly. It was a disgusting thing because she was wearing a peeled of skin of another woman, but sothing unexpected happened.
"…!"
Ren's eyes widened.
The black hair began to change.
Slowly, like ink bleeding into water, it turned red.
The woman's face shifted. Her sharp features softened. Her cheekbones changed. Her jawline beca gentler, more familiar.
Her body followed. Her form beca more mature, more womanly.
Ren stumbled back.
"What the…?"
His foot caught on rubble, and he nearly fell.
"No," he said quickly. "No, no, no."
He stared.
The woman lying there was beautiful. Slightly mature. Her red hair spilt across the moss like flas dulled by blood.
Her clothes were torn, revealing her body from her breast to her abdon, bruised, but unmistakable.
Ren's hands shook.
"…There's no way," he whispered.
His breath ca out unevenly.
"There's just no way."
The woman didn't wake.
She lay there unconscious, vulnerable, breathing weakly.
Ren backed away another step.
"…What are you doing here?" he muttered. "Why… why do you have this face?"
His mind reeled.
Then the word slipped from his lips.
"…Mother?"
The world shattered.
A flood of mories burst through the wall in his mind.
A gentle voice calling his na.
"Ren, don't run so fast."
Warm hands brushing his hair.
A woman is laughing softly as she returns from her work.
"Your father made a nice dinner."
A red-haired woman was smiling down at him.
The screech of tires.
Glass shattering.
A blinding flash.
Screams.
Darkness.
Ren gasped.
"No…!"
His head snapped up as the mories continued.
A hospital hallway.
Cold white lights.
Doctors are shaking their heads.
A small hand was clutching his sleeve.
"Ren… it'll be okay."
Then another woman.
Different eyes. Sharper. Empathetic.
Misa.
"I'll take care of you from now on."
The mories faded.
Ren staggered, barely keeping his balance.
"…No," he whispered. "This isn't real."
He turned back to the woman on the floor.
"…This has to be another mask," he said desperately.
He rushed forward and grabbed her face again.
"There has to be another one," he muttered. "You're not her. You can't be."
He searched for the seam.
Pulled at her skin.
Nothing ca off.
"…What?"
He tried again.
Nothing.
Ren froze.
"…There's no mask," he whispered.
Slowly, the truth settled like a weight crushing his chest.
The woman lying there.
The faceless woman.
The monster that had chased him across blood and chaos.
"…Arakawa i," Ren said softly.
His voice broke.
"…My mother."
The building was silent except for her weak breathing.
Ren dropped to his knees.
"…You're supposed to be dead," he whispered. "I saw it. I rember it."
His hands clenched into fists.
"…Then what does this make everything?" he muttered.
He looked at her battered body.
"…Why were you wearing all those faces?"
"…Why were you following ?"
His vision blurred.
"…Why didn't you say anything?"
The woman did not answer.
She lay there, bleeding, unconscious, on the verge of death.
Ren reached out but stopped just short of touching her.
"…This can't be happening," he whispered. "You shouldn't exist...this is a trick!"
***
iling's eyes narrowed. She twisted her wrist, and another set of golden threads surged upward, compressed by Imperial Qi into spinning spears.
"Imperial Art - Severing!"
The spears shot forward.
Gu Ma flicked the feather again.
The spears also fell limp, splashing harmlessly to the floor.
"Useless. Useless. Useless," Gu Ma repeated, her voice echoing as she waved the feather as it annoyed her. "You're really trying hard, aren't you?"
iling gritted her teeth. "Don't speak! It's unpleasant."
Golden light flared around her body. Her hair lifted as pressure rolled outward, cracking the moss-covered walls.
"Imperial Qi. Dragon Coil!"
Threads erupted again, wrapping around Gu Ma from every direction, tightening like a divine cage.
Gu Ma laughed.
"Interesting," she said, raising the feather straight up. "Isn't it interesting how this thing landed in my hand of all people?"
The cage unravelled.
The threads turned dull and faded away.
iling staggered back half a step, shock clear on her face.
"Don't you think this is fate?" Gu Ma continued, her smile wide and bright. "A signal that I will be the one to change history and not you, Lan trash."
iling roared and charged.
She punched forward, Imperial Qi exploding from her fist like a cannon. Then another strike. Then, a sweeping kick reinforced with golden scales of light.
Each attack was erased.
Pulse after pulse spread from the feather, clean and absolute.
"Useless!"
"Useless!"
"Still useless!"
Gu Ma's voice grew louder, sharper.
iling's breathing turned ragged, but she did not stop.
"I won't accept this!" iling shouted. "You betrayed us!"
She slamd both palms into the ground.
"Imperial Domain. Dragon's Wrath!"
The entire chamber trembled. Pillars cracked. Water was forced outward as a massive surge of golden pressure erupted beneath Gu Ma's feet.
For the first ti, Gu Ma's smile twitched.
Then it vanished.
Her eyes turned cold as she realised iling was trying to crush her.
"Enough," she snapped. "You little brat."
The angel feather shone.
Not softly.
Blindingly.
White light flooded the chamber, swallowing gold whole. A violent pulse exploded outward, raw and divine.
iling quickly ford a shield of golden threads in front of her.
Her body was smashed through stone and tal alike. The ruined building shattered as she was launched upward, breaking through the ceiling in a storm of debris.
Below, silence returned.
Gu Ma lowered the feather slowly.
"I won't stop," she muttered, staring up at the hole in the sky. "Everything that happened here happened for a reason."
She closed her fingers around the glowing feather.
"This power landed on for a reason."
Behind her, the crucified angel's wings twitched once.
As if she felt sothing coming...sothing far more dangerous than an angel.
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