For a Heart to Stop Beating

Claws charged toward him, aiming at his face.

Not yet…

A kick hit the gargoyle-like creature right in the face, sending it straight into the dirt ground—the impact making the earth crack.

From four directions, more monsters came. Coming at him with their fangs, their spiked tails, their multiple limbs.

With the long dagger, Yuushin blocked the flying one while sinking his elbow into the face of another, and hitting the other two lower in the ground with one kick—sending one colliding into the other.

…not yet.

Emanating from his entire body, the golden glow kept flowing brighter and stronger the more he fought. Trying to find openings to run and create distance every chance he had, searching for higher grounds so he could have a better vision of his surroundings and the upcoming waves, Yuushin never stopped moving.

I can’t stop fighting yet.

Not yet.

At one point, Retsugo Yuushin had exhausted his body to such an extent, he thought his body would crumble to dust. That the pain would get so unbearable, his heart would cease its beating solely to cease the pain.

He was way past that point.

…has it been days?

Weeks?

He couldn’t tell. It felt like years.

From the moment Yuushin opened his eyes in that place—a place where the sky had no sun or moon, but rather seemed to be made of melted clouds that kept moving with their own ominous glow. Clouds that at times were red and blue, at others violet and green.

Yet they never stopped moving.

And the monsters, as soon as they spotted him—the second the first creature caught a whiff of his scent, and another got a taste of his blood…

They never stopped coming.

I should be dead… I know I should be dead.

How much blood I lost? How many bites I have? How many cuts?

Yuushin hadn’t bothered to start counting, not when he knew that ‘knowing’ wouldn’t make a difference in that case.

He tried to run, the first few moments. Didn’t take too long for him to realize there was no place where he could run to. No matter which direction he went, Yuushin was stuck in an endless space. Like a desert made of rocks and dirt.

In his left hand, the dagger shone with a white light—reacting to his own Soma. Yuushin clenched his jaw.

Jay…

“I was told this dagger is special, so maybe it will help.”

Did Jay know exactly how that dagger would help? Or had the man left it all to fate?

Does it even matter at this point?

No, it didn’t.

Because at that point, Yuushin felt so numb, his body so past its limits, the young man knew for a fact that the second he stopped moving, he would collapse.

And those creatures would finally have him.

Not yet...

I can still keep going. I can survive this.

From behind, a black skinned ogre started running, its roar echoing the bloodlust in its crimson eyes. A creature that was even taller than the hobgoblin the man first encountered.

Yuushin sent more Soma to his legs, the energy flowing through his channels. After the monster got in range he jumped, higher than he ever could, sinking the dagger’s blade into the ogre’s shoulder.

As he did, Soma flew to his upper body, and when Yuushin used the dagger to pull himself higher, he twisted and wrapped his legs around the monster’s neck—pulling the weapon back on the process.

Soma flowed back to his tights, forelegs, and feet.

*SNAP*

The ogre fell to the ground, face-first, making the ground shake and tremble as a cloud of dirt rose in the air.

Guess I can kill these quick now…

How many had he faced to get here, tho? Could he even recall the first times he killed those ogres, and which of his wounds had been caused by them? Yuushin spared a quick glance at the glowing dagger, a blend of bitterness and gratitude spreading in his mouth.

If not for that weapon, he would be dead.

The man woke up with the dagger lying at his side, and from the moment he picked it up, Yuushin could tell.

This dagger makes it easier.

It helps me to manipulate Soma.

At first, it was similar to the first time Yuushin used the energy, yet still not as easily. The monsters took their fair share of bites and scratches of him, since they always came in big numbers. But the more Yuushin kept using it, the more he forced his body to remember the warmth of that spark—making it spread across his muscles and veins…

I got quite used to this, huh? Perhaps I am a natural.

Yuushin wanted to laugh and cry. He wanted to obliterate every single one of those monsters and let himself be consumed by them, down to the last bite. He wanted to curse the entire world and beg for salvation.

…

No.

Not yet.

I won’t give up just yet.

But how much longer could he last? The spark that should only bring him warmth had long started to scorch and burn him from the inside out. And while his body kept heating up at first, now it felt ice cold. Yuushin couldn’t tell if the things he felt running down his face and back were blood or sweat.

He just kept fighting.

*WHACK*

*CRACK*

Monster after monster, with the cursed movement he had been forced to memorize even in his sleep, Yuushin kept striking and blocking and dodging and kicking and hitting. Again and again and again.

Ogres. Imps. Salamanders.

Monsters that resembled wolves, lions, serpents.

Some that flew, some that crawled, some that dig.

Without giving him time to catch his breath, without giving him time to rest, without giving him time to think.

One after another, those monsters kept coming.

And the person who sent me here…

Was Jay.

Was Yuushin disappointed? Was he angered? The second he woke up in this place and realized Jay betrayed him, did Yuushin feel anger?

…

I won’t think about this now. Now, I need to survive.

Using his palm, he struck a creature right in the chest—sending it meters ahead to crash against a stone wall. Before they even collided, Yuushin was blocking two others with his legs and arm, striking one in the neck and the other with the head with the dagger.

I can’t die yet.

But how much more could he last? As the Soma within him grew hotter and fiercer, numbing most of his senses, Yuushin could tell with almost certainty—it wasn’t much more.

*chiriiin chirin*

A faint sound of chimes reached his ears. A sound that was soft and light.

Then, a glow.

As Yuushin shifted his gaze, a ripple started to appear midair. Something that twisted and teared the space as a gentle intruder, making itself wider and grander as the seconds stretched.

Something that resembled the portal that brought him here.

But where would this take me…?

At that point, Yuushin didn’t care where.

Because the only worse thing that could happen to him was death, and if he stayed there, Yuushin would die anyway.

With a sprint, dodging and sliding past monsters, the young man ran toward the new open fissure. One that had a gentle violet glow. And when he got close enough—

He jumped.

There was no flare. No twisted and warped sounds. Only a buzzing in his ears, and the pain in his eyes as Yuushin got blinded by the sudden light. Yet if there was one thing the man noticed right after was how it didn’t take him four steps to fall into someone’s arms.

And when his eyes finally adjusted to the new environment, he lost his breath.

Holding him with a strong yet warm grip, someone he had first seen in a dream.

“Human from a world in the Beyond; Retsugo Yuushin.”

Someone he had been ordered to kill. Someone whose voice he couldn’t forget.

“Your heart still beats thanks to me. So now, you must repay me with your own hands.”

The one who, according to the Arch Bishop, was the last ruler of the demon kin.

Yuushin’s heart started racing, warmth spreading across his face as those lilac eyes pierced his own with fierceness and determination, her voice unshaken and reverberating as she spoke.

“You will help me save my home.”