It was like a swamp, a strange fusion of solid and liquid, that clung to his body and shrouded him in a suffocating silence. Every step felt as if he were wading through tar, his entire form submerged in an endless mire. He could breathe, barely, but each breath burned with effort.
Traversing it was grueling, treacherous, and vile beyond description, but he had no choice. He had to find the damn archer.
So he pressed forward through the layers of darkness that sought to drag him down, forcing his Ki to flare in bursts that ate away at his reserves. He couldn't maintain it for long, but he didn't need to.
'I see you.'
Not through his eyes, but through his ears, through the vibrations that ran up his feet and unto his skin.
I know where you are.
The panicked breathing, the twisted ankle, the thundering heart betraying its rhythm amidst the forest's eerie stillness.
Ethan could see the Archer, desperately retreating, stumbling through the gloom.
But it would not matter.
In a single motion, he caught the wrist.
'Slender...'
He noted.
The bones were fine, the muscles soft beneath his grip, womanly. It was fortunate, for crushing the wrist and dislocating the shoulder required little effort.
A scream tore through the silence as Ethan raised his other hand, seizing her fragile neck while snapping her remaining wrist and wrenching her shoulder from its socket. With a brutal twist of his foot, he shattered her ankles into the snow and commanded.
"Dispel this darkness."
His sword hovered above her chest, its tip resting where her heart should be. He was ready to crush her throat the instant she so much as twitched, ready to drive his blade through fat and bone alike if she dared to resist.
'Quickly...'
His Ki reserves were fading fast. He needed answers before his strength gave out. If not, he would simply kill her.
But would she even understand him? He wasn't certain. Still, if this were a test or an assassination attempt, then surely she'd recognize the Empire's common tongue.
Thankfully, the Huntress understood, at least, partially.
The veil of darkness began to lift, retreating like smoke. The cold swept in once more, biting against his exposed skin. Though the forest remained shadowed, it was no longer drowned in that unnatural black. It had been her spell.
'... Great test.'
He was certain now, it had to be a test. Why else would there be a clearing in the center of this forest, illuminated by such a suspicious light? Could this Huntress be another of his father's agents? It... was strange.
"Who sent you? State your name and affiliation."
When he opened his eyes and looked down, the truth unnerved him.
The Huntress had no face.
At first, he thought it was a shadow, but no, the more he looked, the more wrong it became. There was no muscle definition, no trained body. Her shoulders were narrow, her arms frail, her back unmarked by years of discipline.
Unsuitable for an archer, so how…?
A mask of black metal covered her face, smooth and eyeless, devoid of any opening to see through. Whatever she was, she wasn't human. It was not human.
"Who are you?"
He demanded, tightening his grip around her neck. He was ready to snap it at a moment's notice...
Until he saw it.
"…!"
The metal face split open like a wound, revealing a mouth full of jagged, inhuman teeth, predatory and vile. A tremor of instinct screamed in his mind.
Ethan reacted instantly, twisting her neck with a sharp crack.
But it was too late.
A spike of pain erupted through his chest, hot and suffocating. Blood flooded his throat, warmth spilling from him in thick streams. His own crimson mingled with the Huntress's oozing black ichor, staining the snow beneath them.
He looked down, trembling, to see it, a black spear piercing straight through his heart, rising from the Huntress's shattered body. His Ki flickered, struggling to sustain him, but he knew it was over.
No one survives a wound like that.
The spear dissolved into liquid darkness, and Ethan collapsed onto the frozen ground. His vision dimmed, his strength fading with every breath. Thoughts blurred, his mind scattering like ashes in the wind.
He remembered nothing, not his mother's gentle warmth, not his father's stern affection, not his grandfather's tired laughter, not his home, his title, his legacy.
All that remained was silence, the silent embrace of death.