The words hung in the air for a heartbeat before I realized they weren't words at all, just hunger wearing language.
Across the hollow, she stood—cloth layered like fog that forgot how to move.The not-woman. The witch. Whatever she was.Her faceless children fanned out beside her, wrists twitching where invisible bells might have been.
"Mother is hungry," she said again. Calm. Patient. Like she'd practiced that line a thousand times and never got tired of it.
"Yeah?" I said. "Me too. Hope she likes sarcasm."
My voice didn't shake. Which was nice, because everything else did.My hands, my knees, even the aura film clinging to me like wet plastic.She didn't need to know that.
I exhaled, slow."Alright, Hunt. Let's see what you can do."
Something pulsed faintly in my chest. [Partial Hunt]. My aura leaned forward like it wanted to stalk something and ruin it. That had to be the Defilement side of things.
"Mark the prey," I said quietly, because apparently I narrate now.I pushed a smear of aura forward, hoping a cursed aura projectile might pop out.
Nothing. The air didn't move. My aura stretched, then snapped back like, nope, too far.
"Okay," I muttered. "So we still gotta do the touch thing. Cool. Love that for me."
The children tilted their heads in the same angle, creepy synchronized disappointment.They didn't attack. They watched.
"Fine. You want close-range? We'll do close-range."
I stepped forward, heel pressing into the muddy cross I'd scratched earlier. Home base. Don't lose it.
"Eat," she said again, soft and warm. The air thickened.
"Pass," I said. "Already had trauma for breakfast."
I reached toward the broken thing in front of me—the bell.Bone, woven hair, split like a cracked tooth.Same relic that almost ate me.If the kids and the illusions came from her, this was probably her remote. A piece of her.
I had said I wouldn't touch it.But since when do I listen to past me?That guy made bad calls.
"Let's see how you like feedback."
I stretched my palm over the crack, not touching yet, and let my aura breathe across it.
The split tugged back. A small pulse. Alive."Yeah, that's you," I said. "You've got her stink."
The woman tilted her head to match mine. The children copied her.Perfect sync. I hated it.
"Eat," she said, and the air shivered.
The command pressed against my aura but didn't break through. The film held. Sticky. Creepy. Still gross.I was beginning to appreciate it.
"Alright. Theory time," I said under my breath. "Anchor's part of you. If I mess with the anchor, I mess with you. I am too weak to break you, so I'll defile the anchor and ride the connection. Bypass your body. Bypass your defenses."
I put my palm on the bell.
Cold bit first. Then heat. Then pressure, that same rhythm trying to crawl into me.I met it with my own beat. Off-tempo. Wrong. Mine.Under my breath, I whispered, "Defilement."
Aura grit sank into the crack like sand into a gear.
The bell twitched. The children flinched.Pain rang behind my eyes. Aura cost. Real. Sharp. Heavy.Fine. Take your payment.
You have resonated with [Nestbreaker][Comprehension: 50% → 56%]
"Okay," I whispered. "Good start."
Something connected.A thin line stretched between the bell and her. It pulsed in time with her voice, soft and rhythmic.I followed it with my aura and immediately regretted it.
A bite.Not on my hand. In my rhythm. Felt like getting smacked in the skull with a shovel.
Her aura snapped at me like a leash, trying to drag me into her song.
"Oh hell no," I muttered. "I'm not joining your choir."
I yanked myself off-beat, threw my aura sideways, and did the dumb idea anyway—I pushed back.Instead of pulling the line, I let Defilement spread along it like ink over a string.
The pulse faltered. The rhythm cracked.Her head jerked. The children twitched like marionettes that forgot their cues.
You have resonated with [Nestbreaker][Comprehension: 56% → 61%]
My aura shuddered. Fingers tingled. Cost burned behind my eyes.
"Alright… progress."Every connection taught me something.Defilement didn't only corrode, it resonated.I could feel the enemy's rhythm enough to push it wrong.
That was what Hunt really meant.Understand the pattern, then ruin it.
She drifted closer, cloth rippling like it was under water."Eat," she breathed. The air flexed.
"Later," I said, gripping the bell tighter. "You eat last."
I poured aura into the crack, dug grit deeper, matched her rhythm, flipped it wrong.Backlash hit. Sharp. Cold.The children dropped silent to their knees.The line between us vibrated hot enough to feel through thought.
You have resonated with [Nestbreaker][Comprehension: 61% → 68%]
She froze, then turned that not-face toward me.
Something old stirred behind her voice. Deeper. Hungrier.The real Mother inside the shell.
The line pulsed again. Harder.A second rhythm buried under the first, too big to belong to her.
"Oh… great," I said. "There's a boss above the boss."
The pressure spiked. My aura wanted to fold.
"Not happening," I hissed.
I drove Defilement into the seam binding her to the bell.Grit. Crack. Grind.
The bell screamed without sound. The children clutched their heads. The witch staggered.
You have resonated with [Nestbreaker][Comprehension: 68% → 75% → 81%]
My head pounded. Breath burned. Aura cost rising like a broken meter.Close. So close.
The crack widened.The thread connecting her to it glowed faintly—almost alive.
I could see the rhythm now.Every beat. Every loop. Every repeat.For a second I wasn't seeing it, I was feeling it.And it clicked.
Abilities come from the rune, sure, but they live in the body.The rune etches a circuit. You run aura through that circuit and it becomes a skill.
That was Hunt's true shape.Not killing. Not tracking.Defile, then break in when defenses sag.Take over the circuit. Disrupt the skill. Hijack the flow.
Wait. If I can feel the circuit through resonance…Could I copy it? Force it onto my own brain and run it?
That would be insane.But my hand was already moving.
You have resonated with [Nestbreaker][Comprehension: 81% → 87% → 90% → 100%][Hunt — Full Comprehension]Rune [Nestbreaker] has awakened.
Knowledge slammed through me like a door opening in a storm.
Souls carry runes.You interpret, you awaken, you get an ability.The ability is etched into the brain as intricate weave.Soul essence fuels everything, even basic reinforcement once you start comprehending.The essence of Hunt is fourfold: Defilement, Fray, Usurp, Echoprint.
Right. A lot suddenly made sense.And with the sense came a realization that this is a lossing battle I am fighting.
Ain't no way I could not fully corrupt her aura with this much resonance. No way.Without full Defilement, the other steps would fail on her.
Still… I smiled.Because I didn't need her.
I pushed aura of [Defilement] deeper into our resonated link, masking my real intention while pretending that I am still dead set on my orignal strategy.
The witch moved.The cloth around her shifted like something unspooling from the inside.Her calm cracked. "Eat," she hissed, voice wrong, strained.No distance now. She lunged.
This time, she wasn't toying with me.This time, she meant to kill.
"Too late," I whispered.
Space hiccuped.The world twitched sideways—like reality blinked wrong.
Her fingers closed on air where my neck had been.
I staggered five steps back, knees shaking. The hollow spun.A second blink tried to form—then ripped apart in my head.Too painful. Too costly.I'd wasted most of my aura playing Aizen.
The witch turned sharply, cloth snapping without wind.Her children rose, heads tilting in unison.
Blood trickled from my nose. My grin still found its way out—small, crooked, tired.
"You thought I was trying to defile you through the bell's link," I said, voice rough. "Nah. I knew that wouldn't hold."
I wiped the blood off and grinned anyway.
"I fully Defiled the bell—your anchor—while pretending to chew through your aura."
"Usurp," I hissed, pushing. "Took the weakened circuit through the anchor."
"Fray," I pressed. "Cut your signal from the source."
"Echoprint," I finished, teeth clenched. "Burned the pattern into my own head. Shaky. But mine."
"I stole your thunder."
Her bells rang once, backward.
The hollow shuddered.
Everything went white.
—
I dropped somewhere else in the forest with a splitting headache, aura empty, and a bone-hair bell in my hand that no longer answered to anyone but me.
A laugh slipped out—thin, a little broken."I… did it."