Renji dragged his feet across the broken ground.
Every step left behind faint gray flakes that fell from his cracked skin. His arms felt heavy, his chest burned with every breath, and the sword in his hand felt like a boulder.
The fight with Yurei—or whatever the Mist had turned her into—had nearly ended him. His body was proof of it. Veins of light glowed faintly beneath the cracks, pulsing slow and weak. One wrong move, one more Respawn, and he knew it: he'd shatter.
But stopping wasn't an option.
He clenched his teeth, forcing his body forward through the ruins. The air here was different—drier, heavier, filled with the taste of ash. The Mist thinned slightly, but the silence was worse than its whispers.
At some point, he realized the ruins around him were changing. Broken towers gave way to endless fields of black sand. The ground was littered with bones, old weapons rusted to dust.
It was a graveyard without end.
Renji stopped, breathing hard. His vision blurred for a second, then sharpened again. That was when he heard it.
A voice. Faint. Human.
"…You shouldn't be here."
Renji turned sharply, sword raised despite the tremble in his arm.
From the dunes of black sand, figures emerged.
They weren't whole. Half of their bodies were human—flesh, bone, weary eyes. But the other half was Mist, drifting like smoke, limbs missing or replaced with fog. Their faces were broken masks of what they once were.
Respawners. Failed ones.
One of them stepped forward, dragging a spear that had lost its tip. His voice was rough, like stone grinding.
"You're late," the half-Mist man said. "We thought you'd break before reaching here."
Renji's grip on his sword tightened. "…What are you?"
The figure gave a hollow laugh. "What you'll become. We all thought we could cheat it. That we could Respawn forever." He spread his half-Mist arm wide, the fog trailing off into the air. "This is what's left of us. Not alive, not dead. Just waiting."
The others murmured, their voices empty. Some cursed. Some begged. Some only wept.
Renji's jaw clenched. "No. That's not me. I won't end up like this."
The half-Mist man tilted his head, his remaining eye narrowing. "Won't? Or can't accept? Look at yourself."
Renji hesitated. He looked down.
His arms were trembling. The cracks on his skin spread deeper, faint trails of light glowing through them. His reflection in the blade was a stranger's—a man already half broken.
The Respawner chuckled again, the sound dry and cruel. "You're closer to us than you think."
Renji forced the thought down, pushing past it with anger. "I don't care what happens to me. I'm finding Yurei. No matter what."
The other half-broken Respawners stirred at that name. Some looked confused. Some terrified. One, a woman whose face was almost entirely Mist, whispered hoarsely:
"…The Bride… she waits at the Veins…"
Renji's eyes snapped to her. "Where?"
The woman lifted a trembling finger, pointing into the horizon. Far ahead, beyond the endless dunes, the land split open. A vast river of ash flowed there, glowing faintly as if fire burned beneath. The air above it shimmered with heat and Mist.
Ash Veins.
Renji's chest tightened. Even from here, he could hear it—the cries. Faint voices rose from the river, Respawners trapped in its current, faces writhing in the gray tide.
The half-Mist man's tone turned sharp. "Don't go there. None of us dare. Once you step onto the Gravepath, there's no turning back. Not even for husks like us."
Renji sheathed his blade slowly, then turned his back on them. His voice was low, steady.
"I don't need to turn back. I only need to keep going."
The broken Respawners watched him in silence. Some pitied him. Some envied him. But none followed.
Renji walked alone, leaving behind their whispers.
The closer he got to the Ash Veins, the heavier the world became. Each step made his cracks burn brighter, each breath cut sharper in his lungs. The air smelled of burnt metal and sorrow.
Finally, he reached the edge.
The Gravepath stretched before him—a narrow strip of black stone running across the river of ash. On both sides, the tide screamed with countless faces, their mouths open in endless agony, their hands reaching upward as if begging for release.
Renji gripped his sword tighter, staring down the path.
This was it.
If Yurei was anywhere, she would be beyond this river.
His chest ached, but his resolve burned stronger.
"…No matter what's left of me," he muttered, stepping onto the Gravepath.
The stone groaned beneath his foot. The river screamed louder. Mist rose high, wrapping around him like a veil.
And then, from the tide of ash, a familiar face reached up.
Renji froze.
It was his own.
enji's body went rigid.
From the river of ash, his own face stared back at him—half-melted, mouth wide in a silent scream. The hand that reached up was his hand, cracked and glowing, fingers clawing at the air as if begging for salvation.
He staggered back a step. His grip on the sword slipped, almost falling from his hand.
"…What the hell…?"
The face's mouth finally moved. Its voice was a warped echo of his own, stretched and broken.
"Renji… join us…"
Dozens more faces emerged from the river, all his. Some old, some young, some twisted in rage, others in despair. Each one spoke in his voice, overlapping into a cacophony that rattled the stone beneath him.
"You already died.""You left her behind.""You're nothing but a husk.""You're us. We're you."
Renji clutched his head, the voices hammering inside his skull. His knees buckled, the cracks across his body glowing hotter with every word. The pain was unbearable, but worse was the doubt crawling into his chest.
Are they right?
He had Respawned so many times. Each death tore a piece away. How many versions of him had fallen into that ash? How many were screaming now, waiting for him to break?
The river surged, and from it rose a colossal figure.
It was him.
A giant husk, towering above the Gravepath, its body stitched together from countless Renjis. Faces covered its skin, arms formed from writhing torsos, its eyes hollow pits burning with gray fire.
Renji's blood ran cold. His own voice rumbled from the monster's maw.
"I am what you've left behind. Every time you Respawned, you fed me. Every death made me stronger."
The giant husk raised an arm, its movement shaking the path. Ash rained down like fire.
Renji gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand. His sword glowed faintly, flickering like a dying flame.
"I don't care what you are," he spat, his voice hoarse but steady. "I'm not done yet. Not until I find her."
The husk roared, the sound a chorus of thousands of Renjis screaming at once. It swung its massive arm down, aiming to crush him.
Renji leapt aside, the impact shattering the path behind him. Stone crumbled into the river, swallowed by faces that clawed and bit at the falling debris.
He sprinted forward, each step sending jolts of pain through his cracked body. The husk's massive hand slammed down again, nearly throwing him off balance.
"Give in!" the voices bellowed. "Die again! Respawn again! Join us!"
Renji roared back, slashing with everything he had. His blade bit into the husk's arm, sparks flying. The monster reeled, but it didn't fall. Instead, dozens of faces peeled off its body and lunged at him, half-formed shadows with his own features.
He cut them down one by one, each kill burning his lungs, each swing widening the cracks in his flesh. His vision swam, but he kept moving.
The husk laughed—a sound like bone grinding.
"You think you can fight yourself? Every swing is pointless. Every breath is borrowed."
Renji spat blood, his voice breaking. "Then I'll keep borrowing until nothing's left!"
The husk slammed both hands into the path, splitting it apart. Renji jumped, landing on a fragment of stone as the Gravepath crumbled beneath him. The river screamed louder, hands clawing up, trying to drag him in.
His heart stuttered. He was running out of time.
He raised his sword high, light bursting from the cracks in his arms. For a moment, it was like he was burning from the inside out.
"This body's already breaking," he growled. "So I'll use what's left to end you."
The husk reached for him, its colossal face twisted into a mockery of his own.
"Then die with me."
Renji launched forward, every muscle tearing, every bone screaming. His sword met the husk's chest in a single desperate strike.
Light erupted.
The husk howled, thousands of voices screaming in unison. Its body split apart, faces tearing free, dissolving into the Mist. The shockwave blasted Renji back, hurling him toward the edge of the Gravepath.
He barely caught himself, sword stabbing into the stone to stop his fall. The river clawed at him, voices still echoing in his skull, but fading.
The husk's massive body collapsed into ash, sinking into the river with one last whisper:
"Next time, there won't be enough of you left to fight."
Renji hung there, panting, every inch of him cracked and glowing. His body felt hollow, weaker than ever.
But the Gravepath still stretched ahead, and beyond it…
He felt her.
Somewhere past this nightmare, Yurei was waiting.
Renji dragged himself up, teeth clenched, and took another step forward.
The river screamed. The Mist trembled.
But he didn't stop.