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For an instant, no one breathed.
The presence of the newcomer fell over the alley as if the world had suddenly remembered there was an authority greater than fear. The air was still full of dust, splinters, and metallic smell; the Loot House creaked behind them, half-open from the previous blows, its old walls mutilated by ice, steel, stray bullets, and that monstrous force Link had unleashed without understanding it. And yet, all that chaos seemed to retreat when Reinhard van Astrea placed one foot between the assassin and the wounded.
Subaru, who still held Rom's club with both hands, did not know whether to feel relief, shame, or the urge to collapse. The weapon weighed on him as if he were trying to lift an entire beam, his fingers were numb, his legs trembled, and the mere fact that he was still standing felt like a mockery of logic. He had seen Elsa move like a shadow and Link become something that no cheap fantasy book would have allowed him to process calmly. He had seen blood, ice, fire from impossible weapons, and three red tentacles tearing the warehouse apart as if the wood were wet paper. Even so, facing Reinhard's red hair and that serene posture, Subaru felt for the first time that whole night that perhaps fate was not laughing at them with bloodstained teeth.
Elsa felt it too.
The assassin did not retreat immediately, but her smile changed. It was no longer the expression of a predator strolling among wounded prey. It was something finer, more alert, hungrier. Her amethyst eyes traveled over Reinhard from his boots to the hilt of the sword at his waist, and the amusement that appeared on her face held no relief at all. It was the face of someone who had just found a death worth trying.
"Well, well..." Elsa murmured, slowly spinning one of her kukris between her fingers. "What a generous night. First a boy who bleeds and stands up again like a creature from a dark tale, then a spirit, a half-elf, a giant, a stubborn thief... and now you. If I keep receiving gifts, I'll start thinking someone up there appreciates me."
Reinhard did not allow himself to be provoked. His gaze passed for a moment over Subaru, Emilia, Rom, and finally Link. Seeing the Latino unconscious on the ground, his clothes torn around the waist and remnants of dark blood drying beneath his body, his blue eyes narrowed slightly. The red tentacles had begun losing their shape from the instant Link lost consciousness; they slowly contracted toward his back like exhausted muscles, sinking beneath the skin with small spasms that would have made someone less saturated with horror than Subaru vomit. The horns, still visible on his forehead, seemed duller, as if the force that had pushed them outward was fading. Link was breathing. That was the only important thing. He was breathing, though his body looked as if it had waged war against itself and won through pure stubbornness.
Felt appeared behind Reinhard, panting, hands on her knees. She had run as if death were stepping on her heels, and perhaps that was exactly what had happened. Her face was pale, her blonde hair stuck to her forehead with sweat, and her red eyes desperately searched first for Rom and then for Link. When she saw the old giant wounded but alive, part of her expression broke. When she saw Link lying among dirt and blood, her breath caught in her throat.
"You..." Felt clenched her teeth, not knowing who to direct her rage at. "Idiot! I told you I didn't need you to tear yourself apart for me!"
Subaru turned toward her with a nervous laugh that sounded horrible even to him.
"I don't think he can hear your customer service complaints right now, but I'm sure that when he wakes up, he'll find some very Latin and rude way to answer you."
"I'm not joking!"
"Neither am I," Subaru replied, his voice trembling. "Believe me, if joking were enough to fix this, I would've saved the world three times already."
Reinhard lifted one hand without taking his eyes off Elsa, and the gesture was enough to cut off the argument before it could grow.
"Subaru, please take Mr. Rom out of the combat line. And if you can, move the unconscious boy away as well. Stay with the silver-haired young lady after that. I'll handle her."
Subaru swallowed. The club almost fell from his hands.
"Understood. Although, just to be clear, when you say 'I'll handle her,' you mean the kind of 'I'll handle her' that doesn't end with us turned into an abstract painting, right?"
Reinhard smiled faintly, without looking back.
"I'll do everything I can to make sure that's the case."
"That sounds much less reassuring than I'd expect from a legendary hero, but I'll take anything that keeps us breathing."
Rom grunted from the ground, trying to get up on his own. The wound in his arm and the cuts on his leg prevented him from moving normally, but the old man had the pride of a wall. Subaru approached him with the club dragging behind and tried to help him, though the difference in size made it look like a child trying to carry a wardrobe. Felt ran to Rom without asking permission, grabbing him from the other side with poorly disguised desperation. Together, they managed to move him a few meters, enough to take him out of the direct line between Reinhard and Elsa.
Emilia knelt beside Link. Her face, despite her exhaustion, maintained a soft and painful concentration. Link's transformation had shaken her; it was impossible that it had not. But there was no revulsion in her eyes. There was caution, yes, and a deep question she had no time to ask. She extended one hand near his forehead, without touching the horns at first, as if afraid of hurting him or waking something even he did not seem to control. Link's skin was hot. Not like a normal fever, but like an ember covered in ash. His visible wounds had closed with impossible speed, but his breathing was heavy, irregular, and his body shuddered every time one of those red limbs finished disappearing beneath his back.
"He's alive," Emilia said, looking at Subaru. "But something in his body is completely disordered. I don't know if my magic can help him without understanding what's happening to him."
"At this point, the list of things we don't understand could fill a library," Subaru replied, crouching to take Link under the shoulders. "Link, buddy, if you wake up now and help me move your monstrous ass, I promise not to complain about your insults for at least five minutes."
Link did not respond.
Subaru tried to drag him and nearly broke his back. Even though the transformation had almost completely vanished, Link still weighed more than his build suggested. Felt, after leaving Rom leaning against a piece of wall, ran back and grabbed Link by one arm.
"Move, unconscious idiot," she murmured, pulling with all her strength. "Don't you dare die after making such a big scene."
"What a sweet way to worry," Subaru said, straining to drag Link aside.
"Shut up or I'll kick you."
"Yes, definitely sweetness."
While the wounded were awkwardly moved, Reinhard advanced toward Elsa without drawing his sword. He walked with the same naturalness as someone crossing a quiet street, and that calm was far more intimidating than any shout. Elsa leaned forward, her blades ready, her body prepared to leap. The world seemed to narrow around them.
"I've heard rumors of you," Reinhard said. "The Bowel Hunter. A dangerous person known in the capital, though from what I know, closer to a mercenary than an assassin without purpose. There are many questions I would like to ask you, so I would recommend that you surrender."
Elsa let out a low laugh, almost intimate.
"Surrender? What an inelegant word. Would you ask a hungry beast to step away from a feast just when the table is set?"
"If that beast threatens innocent people, yes."
"Then you are as cruel as you are beautiful."
Elsa's first attack happened so quickly that Subaru barely saw the beginning. The assassin slid toward Reinhard with a slash aimed at his neck, holding nothing back, not testing, not playing. It was a blow that would have cut off any man's head before he could understand he was dead. Reinhard did not draw his sword. He did not even seem to lean to dodge. Subaru felt his soul leave his body as he imagined the blade passing through flesh.
Then Reinhard moved.
It was not a flashy movement. There was no technique full of lights or exaggerated stance. Reinhard planted his foot with absolute precision, the ground beneath his boot cracked with a dry sound, and the kick he launched did not touch Elsa as a normal human leg would. The air itself seemed to become a wall. The shockwave struck the assassin and sent her flying backward, through dust and broken wood, until she crashed into an interior wall of the Loot House. The building, already on the verge of surrender, creaked as if it had just been struck from its foundations.
Subaru opened his mouth.
No sound came out for one second.
"That was a kick," he finally said, in a thin and broken voice. "A kick. The man just kicked the air and the air decided to declare war."
Rom, leaning against the wall, let out a hoarse laugh that turned into a cough.
"Now you understand why some monsters don't need to be locked away. It's enough for them to be called knights."
Felt did not respond. Her eyes were fixed on Reinhard, but her hand still clutched Link's torn sleeve, as if she feared the unconscious idiot would disappear if she let go.
Elsa emerged from the wooden wreckage with an expression that had finally lost part of its control. She wiped blood from the corner of her lips, looked at her red fingers, and then looked at Reinhard with a new shine, almost reverent.
"No, no, that cannot be. What absurd strength... So the rumors weren't exaggerated. Or perhaps they fell short."
"I would prefer that you end this here," Reinhard said.
"Won't you use that sword of yours?" Elsa pointed at the sword on Reinhard's waist with her kukri. "I would like to taste the legendary edge of the Sword Saint lineage."
Reinhard lowered his gaze toward his own weapon and gently shook his head.
"This sword can only be drawn when it must be. If it remains in its sheath, it means this is not the proper moment."
Elsa narrowed her eyes. Her smile returned, but now it had a sharp edge.
"That sounds rather like an insult."
"That was not my intention. Personally, I would have preferred to accept your request."
Reinhard then looked toward the inside of the Loot House. Among broken objects, split boxes, and stolen merchandise covered in dust, there was an old sword leaning against a wall, a two-handed weapon with more rust than glory. With a precise movement of his foot, Reinhard struck the hilt and sent it spinning through the air. He caught it with ease, tested its weight with a slight swing, and placed himself before Elsa as if that scrap were enough to face an assassin who had defeated everyone in the room.
"I'll use this. Do you have any objection?"
Elsa breathed deeply, trembling with excitement.
"None. None at all. Make it worth it."
The second exchange was even more impossible than the first.
Elsa moved around Reinhard, not in a straight line, but at an angle designed to break the enemy's perception. She used the destroyed wall as support, changed height in mid-jump, and fell toward him with the kukri descending from a blind spot. The technique would have been lethal against anyone. Against Reinhard, it was a question he answered before it had finished being asked.
The old sword rose from below.
Subaru saw the clash. He saw it with unbearable clarity, as if fear had granted him better eyes for an instant. Reinhard's rusted blade did not seek Elsa's body, but the exact point where the kukri lost its advantage. The sword struck the curved weapon and cut it from the base with absurd cleanliness. It did not sound like two metals hitting each other. It sounded as if a decision had been made above the laws of the world.
Elsa landed several meters away, holding only the handle of her blade.
The separated part of the kukri was in Reinhard's free hand.
With a movement of his wrist, he threw it toward the wall, where it lodged itself, vibrating.
"Now that you've lost your weapon, I recommend again that you surrender."
Subaru let out a nervous laugh.
"I can't even joke about that. I literally don't have the mental energy to comment. That guy just dismantled Elsa as if he were correcting bad posture."
Emilia, still beside Link, watched with wide eyes. She did not seem surprised that Reinhard was strong; she seemed surprised by how much he still surpassed even that expectation.
Elsa lowered her gaze toward the empty handle, and for the first time, her smile vanished for an entire breath. Then she opened her lips and let the laughter return.
"Elsa Granhiert, known as the Bowel Hunter."
Reinhard straightened the old sword, accepting the formality with almost ceremonial seriousness.
"Reinhard van Astrea, of the Sword Saint lineage."
The air changed.
Subaru felt that Link's weight, Rom's breathing, Felt's trembling hands, the smell of blood and broken wood, all of it was crushed beneath a pressure that did not come from magic or ordinary fear. Reinhard was holding an old sword with both hands, in a low stance, and yet it seemed as if the entire world had been placed within range of that blade. Elsa lowered herself as well, ready for a final clash, her black cloak waving amid the dust.
"Subaru," Emilia said urgently. "Take cover."
"From what?"
There was no answer.
Light filled the Loot House.
Reinhard's blow was not something Subaru could understand as a cut. The sword moved only once, and the space before it was divided as if reality had received a higher order. The ceiling exploded. The walls opened. Light pierced the entire structure, white, fierce, and absolute, erasing all shadows for an instant. Subaru threw himself over Emilia and Rom by pure reflex, extending an arm toward Felt and Link even though he knew his body could not protect everyone. The wind that followed did not blow; it dragged. Stolen objects, pieces of table, bottles, fabrics, coins, dust, fragments of wood, and pieces of ice were torn from the floor and hurled toward the center of the destruction.
Subaru shouted without knowing whether anyone could hear him.
Felt clung to Link's body and lowered her head. One of the last red masses still protruding from the Latino's back moved by reflex, almost shapeless, curving around both of them like a massive rib before completely dissolving under the pressure of the wind. The action was so quick and instinctive that Felt did not even know whether she had imagined it. She only felt that the debris that should have struck her back had been deflected enough not to split her skin.
Rom covered Felt with one enormous arm.
Emilia raised a small ice defense, weak from exhaustion, but enough to keep several fragments from reaching Subaru fully.
And then, just as it had begun, the storm lost strength. The ruins of the Loot House groaned. Objects fell to the floor in a disordered rain. The old sword in Reinhard's hands slowly disintegrated, unable to endure even the memory of the blow it had performed.
Subaru lifted his head, his face covered in dust.
"What do you mean fighting monsters is your specialty?! You are the most well-mannered monster I've ever seen in my life!"
Reinhard, with a few drops of sweat on his forehead, gave him a somewhat embarrassed smile.
"Even I feel a little offended if you put it that way."
"I'd be more offended if my house were the one you just turned into natural ventilation!"
Rom looked at what remained of his warehouse, opened his mouth, closed it, looked back at Reinhard, and finally let out a resigned grunt.
"My merchandise..."
"Old man," Subaru said, still on the floor, "considering we're all still alive, maybe we can leave inventory for later."
"You say that because it wasn't your inventory."
Amid the dust, Elsa was still standing.
Not unharmed. Impossible. Her black cloak was in tatters, her body had cuts, and part of the protection she wore had been shattered under the blow. But she was alive. Her eyes, previously excited, now held a mixture of frustration and respect that made her more dangerous, not less. She understood she could not win. Everyone there understood it at the same time.
Elsa smiled with bloodstained lips.
"What a shame. It seems I have lost."
Reinhard took one step toward her.
"Then please surrender."
"I'm afraid I cannot. There is still an employer I must disappoint in person."
Something shone between her fingers.
Subaru did not see it until too late. It was not an attack aimed at Reinhard. It was an almost invisible line, one last movement launched with the cruel precision of someone who preferred leaving a mark before retreating. Reinhard reacted, but Elsa had already used the dust, the remains of her cloak, and the blind spot created by the destruction to move away toward the opening in the wall. In the blink of an eye, the assassin was leaping toward the rooftops of the slums.
Reinhard moved to chase her.
"No," Emilia said, looking toward Rom and Subaru. "The wounded first."
The order was not authoritarian, but it had a weight that made Reinhard stop. Elsa disappeared among shadows and ruins, leaving behind only the echo of a soft laugh.
The silence that followed was so heavy Subaru almost felt he could lean on it.
"She's gone..." Felt murmured, with bitter rage.
"For now," Reinhard said. "I'm sorry. I should have stopped her."
"You hit her with an attack that turned a warehouse into an architectural memory and she still escaped?" Subaru stood up with effort, trying to recover a clumsy smile. "Great, wonderful, excellent. I love discovering this world has secondary bosses who survive natural disasters with legs."
Reinhard lifted what remained of Rom's club from the ground, perhaps to move it out of the way, but when he did, a section of the weapon slid cleanly and fell with a dull noise. The cut was perfect. Too perfect.
Subaru looked at the club.
Then he looked at his own clothes.
There was a red line across his abdomen.
"Ah," he said with hollow calm. "This doesn't look good. Even I can see what comes next."
The pain arrived before he finished understanding it. His stomach opened from that line with hot violence, and blood burst out as if his body had suddenly remembered it was condemned. Subaru lost his balance. Emilia screamed his name, and the sound pierced him more strongly than the wound.
"Subaru!"
He fell, but he did not feel the impact as he expected. Emilia half-caught him, kneeling beside him while her hands trembled over the wound. Subaru blinked, his vision turning blurry. There was a part of his mind, sick with cycles and death, already expecting the reset. The familiar darkness, the return to the fruit stand, dry throat, the world mocking him again. But it did not come. What came was blue light. Healing magic. Desperate hands trying to keep him in a world that, for once, did not want to expel him yet.
"Don't talk," Emilia said, her voice broken by urgency. "I'm going to close it. Just stay still."
Subaru tried to smile. It was a terrible smile.
"By the way... I still don't know your name."
Emilia went still for an instant. It was absurd to ask that there, with blood soaking her hands and ruins around them. Precisely because of that, the question hurt her. Her violet eyes softened, and Subaru, even half-conscious, thought it was unfair that someone could look so beautiful amid so much destruction.
"Emilia," she answered. "My name is Emilia."
Subaru let out a small sigh.
"Emilia... Much better."
The world tilted sideways, but this time there was no final heat or cutting of the thread. There was exhaustion, pain, and the murmur of magic. Before losing consciousness, he managed to see Felt leaning over Link, shaking him with useless fury.
"Wake up, idiot. You're not getting out of me yelling at you."
Link did not open his eyes. His horns had completely vanished, and the last dark marks around his eyelids were slowly fading. He looked human again, or at least human enough for Felt to cling to that idea. Emilia looked sideways toward him without taking her hands from Subaru's abdomen.
"Reinhard, the other boy too..."
"His external wounds are closed," Reinhard said, kneeling beside Link and carefully checking his breathing. "But his condition is strange. It doesn't seem like common unconsciousness. It's as if his body spent more than it could afford."
"He... transformed," Felt said, almost spitting the words because admitting worry was harder for her than running across half the capital.
Reinhard observed Link seriously, but did not rush to conclusions. Somehow, that made it more unsettling. A normal man would have shouted "demon" or pointed a weapon. Reinhard only looked at him like someone who understood the world kept strange things, and not all of them could be judged by the horror of their appearance.
"We'll take him somewhere safe too," Emilia said, recovering her concentration over Subaru. "If he saved someone here, I won't leave him lying among ruins."
Felt pressed her lips together and did not say thank you. Her eyes did it for her, though in a clumsy and furious way.
The healing took time. The blue glow bathed Emilia's hands, closing Subaru's cut little by little, joining flesh, stopping blood, forcing the body to accept survival that seemed to have been stolen by a hair. When it ended, Subaru was unconscious, pale, breathing with difficulty but alive. Emilia brushed the hair from his forehead, checked once again that he was breathing, and only then allowed her shoulders to fall from exhaustion.
Reinhard stood among the ruins, looking at the place where Elsa had disappeared. The moon was beginning to rise over the slums, white and silent, indifferent to the remains of the battle. The Sword Saint's face remained beautiful and serene, but there was guilt in the way he closed his eyes.
"I should have arrived sooner," he murmured.
"You arrived."
"That is not always enough."
Emilia did not argue. Perhaps because she understood that kind of guilt too well. Perhaps because, looking around, it was impossible not to see everything that had almost been lost. Subaru unconscious. Link lying there with a body that did not seem entirely human. Rom wounded. Felt trembling with rage beside him. Elsa escaped. The insignia still among everyone, as if that small jewel had been the root of an entire night of blood.
Reinhard followed Emilia's gaze to Felt.
The blonde girl was crouched beside Rom, wiping blood from his face with a torn sleeve, trying to look furious instead of scared. The act was not perfect. Her hands trembled. Every so often she looked toward Link, and in her expression there was something she did not know where to put: anger, guilt, confusion, perhaps a concern she preferred to bite rather than admit.
"Felt," Emilia said gently.
"What?" she answered immediately, defensive.
Emilia looked at the insignia Felt still kept close to herself, pressed against her clothes as if the object were treasure, curse, and proof of survival all at once.
"My insignia."
Felt clicked her tongue. For a moment, it seemed as if she was going to argue. The old instinct of the thief was still there, hard, proud, incapable of giving something away for free even after the world had collapsed on top of everyone. But then she looked at Rom, saw the blood, saw the state of the warehouse, saw Subaru unconscious beside the wall and Link breathing with difficulty on the ground. The night had stopped being a business deal long ago.
"Yeah, yeah... I get it," Felt muttered, taking out the insignia. "Take your shiny thing. If this gets me into trouble again, I'm kicking someone."
Emilia extended her hand.
But before her fingers touched the insignia, the red crystal at the center of the dragon glowed.
It was not a simple reflection of the moon or an accidental glimmer. The light was born from within, clear and deep, igniting at the contact with Felt's hand as if the object had recognized something no one there was prepared to name. Felt froze, the insignia between her fingers. Emilia opened her eyes. Rom straightened a little despite the pain, and Reinhard's expression changed.
That change was small, almost imperceptible, but it was enough to alter the entire air of the scene.
"What?" Felt said, looking at the insignia as if it had just betrayed her. "Why is it glowing like that?"
Emilia did not answer. Her face had lost color.
Reinhard took one step toward Felt. He did not do it with violence, but his presence changed. He was no longer only the kind knight who had come to save them. He was the representative of something larger, something Felt did not know but that was already beginning to close around her.
"Felt-sama," Reinhard said.
Felt immediately stepped back.
"Don't call me that."
"I am sorry, but I cannot ignore what just happened."
"Then ignore it. It's not that hard. You look the other way and act like you didn't see anything. Rich people do it all the time."
"This is not something I can resolve by pretending not to see it."
Rom tried to stand, but his injured leg failed, and he had to lean against the wall. His face, usually hard and full of grunts, showed a concern Felt knew far too well.
"Reinhard," Rom said in a low voice. "What does that mean?"
Reinhard did not take his eyes off the insignia.
"It means she must come with me."
Felt took another step back.
"No way."
"I do not intend to harm you."
"Everyone says that before dragging you somewhere."
"There are matters of the kingdom that must be confirmed. That insignia does not react that way with just anyone."
"I don't give a shit about your kingdom."
Emilia closed her eyes, as if those words hurt her for reasons she could not explain there. Subaru, unconscious, could not intervene. Neither could Link. The two outsiders who had shaken the night with their absurd decisions were out of combat, and that made the scene feel even crueler. Felt was alone before a destiny she had not stolen, had not asked for, that had simply shone in her hand.
Reinhard advanced another step.
"Felt, please. Don't make this more difficult."
"More difficult for who?" she spat. "For you? For the pretty girl? For the nobles who are going to get excited because a rock decided to make lights? I'm not going with you. I'm not leaving old Rom like this. I'm not getting into a carriage or a prison or whatever you use to carry away poor people when they suddenly become important."
Rom gritted his teeth.
"Felt..."
"No," she said, without looking at him. "Don't tell me to go. Not you."
The old giant fell silent.
Reinhard did not seem to enjoy it. In fact, his face showed sincere discomfort, a kind of contained sadness, but his feet did not retreat. For him, the insignia's reaction was too great a sign to let pass. There were duties even a kind person could not evade, and that was perhaps the bitterest part of his strength.
"I'm sorry," Reinhard said.
He extended his hand toward Felt.
And then, something moved behind her.
The sound was wet, low, like flesh tensing against the ground.
Felt turned her head just in time to see Link standing up.
It was not a real awakening. His eyes had no focus. His face was pale, covered in sweat and dried blood. His eyelids opened barely, but the whites of his eyes darkened again from the edges, swallowed by that inhuman blackness, while the glowing red returned like an ember fanned by the wind. The horns that had begun to disappear pushed out from his forehead again with incomplete, trembling growth, as if his body no longer had the strength to sustain them but insisted anyway.
"Link..." Felt whispered.
He did not answer.
His breathing came out as a choked growl. One of the red limbs sprouted from the rear of his waist, weaker than before, irregular, covered in dark cracks and spasmodic pulses. Then another emerged, dragging itself over the dirt like a wounded serpent. The third barely managed to form, short and trembling, but all three rose with a single purpose.
Reinhard stopped.
Not out of fear.
Out of surprise.
Link, unconscious, took a staggering step toward Felt. His legs almost gave out. His head was tilted forward, and his body moved as if an invisible string were pulling him from the chest. He did not look at Reinhard with understanding. He did not know who he was. He could not process that this was the man who had just saved them. The only thing his instinct recognized was a simple, brutal image buried deeper than reason: someone was extending a hand toward Felt, and Felt did not want to go.
The kagune attacked.
The longest red limb launched itself at Reinhard with a violent snap, cutting through the air between them. Felt screamed. Rom tried to move and failed. Emilia raised her hand by reflex, though she did not have enough strength for another large spell. Reinhard, instead, simply turned his body.
He did not draw his sword.
He did not even seem to need to.
His left hand caught the trajectory from an impossible angle, not directly grabbing the organic mass, but diverting it with the sheath of his sword and a minimal movement of his arm. The impact made the ground beneath his boots crack. Link's strength, even exhausted, was not something a normal man could receive without being split apart. Reinhard accepted it like someone stopping a door struck by wind, serious, firm, without hatred.
The second limb attacked from below, seeking to wrap around his leg. Reinhard stepped sideways and avoided it with clean precision. The third, weaker, struck the ground before reaching him, unable to sustain its own form.
Link released a growl that sounded more like pain than threat.
"No..." he murmured, without fully opening his eyes. "No... touch..."
Felt felt something close in her throat.
"Idiot..." she said, but this time it did not sound like an insult.
Reinhard looked at Link with a grave expression. He understood, perhaps not everything, but enough. This was not a conscious attack. It was not rebellion. It was not a creature trying to kill out of hunger. It was a destroyed body obeying the last command it had left before shutting down: protect the girl it had decided to protect.
"I am not going to hurt her," Reinhard said quietly, as if Link could understand him in some corner of his unconsciousness. "And I am not going to hurt you either."
Link tried to take another step forward.
His body could not.
The red limb Reinhard had diverted trembled in the air, lost tension, and fell heavily to the ground. The other two contracted, twisting around his back like uprooted roots. The black-and-red eyes flickered, losing intensity. The horns cracked on the surface, not breaking like bone, but dissolving into a kind of reddish shadow that reabsorbed under the skin. The kagune slowly retreated toward his waist, sinking in with weak spasms, as if every centimeter that disappeared robbed him of the last of his energy.
Link fell forward.
Felt lunged by reflex, but Reinhard arrived first and held him by the shoulder to prevent him from hitting his head against the ground. The difference in strength was so obvious it hurt to watch: Link, who minutes ago had destroyed walls with red limbs, was now nothing more than an exhausted body hanging without real consciousness.
"His body has reached its limit," Reinhard said. "This time he truly lost consciousness completely."
Felt clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms.
"Then leave him," she said angrily. "Don't touch him like he's some weird thing."
Reinhard looked at her. He did not answer harshly. He carefully laid Link on a cleared area, away from splinters and broken stones. The gentleness of the gesture did not calm Felt, but it took away her immediate arguments.
"I do not consider him a thing," Reinhard said. "But precisely because I do not consider him a thing, I must admit I cannot pretend what I saw did not happen."
"First me, now him." Felt let out a bitter laugh. "What a wonderful night. Everyone finds reasons to take someone away."
Emilia slowly approached, still exhausted.
"Reinhard, do you really have to do it now?"
The knight looked at Felt, then Rom, then Subaru and Link unconscious. His face showed genuine hesitation. But the insignia was still there, in Felt's hand, silent after having glowed. The fact could not be undone.
"I must take Felt-sama to confirm her relationship with the insignia. As for him"—he looked at Link—"if you decide to take responsibility for his care, I will not interfere now. He is unconscious, wounded in a way I do not understand, and, according to what everyone saw, he fought to protect you. It would not be fair to treat him as a criminal without understanding anything."
Felt gritted her teeth.
"How generous."
"I do not expect you to see it that way."
"Good, because I don't."
Reinhard extended his hand toward her again, this time more slowly, not as a threat but as an inevitability trying not to be cruel. Felt looked at Rom. The old man's eyes were wet with helpless rage, though his face remained hardened. Then she looked at Link, lying on the ground again, without horns, without red eyes, without tentacles, without anything that made him look like the monster that had tried to attack Reinhard by pure instinct. He looked only like an unconscious idiot with ruined clothes and skin far too pale.
"When he wakes up," Felt said, her voice cracking beneath the rage, "tell him he's still an idiot. A huge idiot. The biggest I've ever seen."
Emilia nodded.
"I'll tell him."
Felt swallowed. Then she looked at Subaru, also unconscious beside the wall.
"And tell the other one he's an idiot too."
"I think he already knows that," Emilia replied softly.
Felt did not smile, but for an instant her eyes trembled as if she had been close to it. Then Reinhard took her carefully. She struggled, insulted him, promised to bite his hand and kick his ribs, but none of that changed the result. There was no unnecessary violence in Reinhard, but there was also no room to escape.
Rom said her name in a low voice.
"Felt..."
She did not look back immediately. If she did, perhaps she would not be able to keep her rage in place. When she finally turned her head, her expression was a mixture of fury, fear, and something far too young to carry so much history.
"Don't die, old man," she said. "If I come back and find you dead, I'm going to kill you."
Rom let out a broken laugh that turned into a cough.
"That doesn't make sense, brat."
"You understood me."
Reinhard walked away with her through the remains of the warehouse and the moonlit street. Emilia remained beside Subaru and Link, watching as the night carried Felt away toward a destiny none of them had asked for. The insignia no longer glowed, but its light seemed to have remained marked in everyone's memory.
Subaru slept with Emilia's name freshly learned.
Link slept after having attacked even his savior to protect a girl he barely knew.
Rom remained alive, though his warehouse had been turned into ruins.
Elsa had escaped.
And Felt, the thief of the slums, had just been dragged toward something far larger than a sale, an insignia, or a night of blood.
Above them all, the full moon watched in silence, white and calm, as if the world had not just changed forever.