"Mitsuki, why do you wield that broken sword?"

  "Well~ because it is my first sword!! Sure, the handle might be uncomfortable for me to use as it doesn't fit my hand anymore. And a true swordsman can only change their bde when they are too good for their current bde, after all."

  "Then why don't you change?"

  "Haha! Because I have no talent in swordsmanship!"

  Mitsuki knows very well she has no talent in swordsmanship, that is why she practices it. As she knows, if she has a limit, she can never get stronger.

  There was something in the back of her mind warning her that... if she become stronger, something will break through...

  She had followed this warning many times before. And she knows the consequences of her breaking her limit.

  Having no talent in swordsmanship, Mitsuki is a genius with the spear.

  The first time she ever swung a spear, she felt something broken inside of her— that is why she still uses the sword.

  But now...

  Even if it was a poorly constructed weapon, taping Muramasa's Perfection onto a stick, it was still a bde on a stick - a spear, at the end of the day.

  Each time Mitsuki swings it, cutting through the body made of blood, she rapidly improves. Her strike becomes heavier, sharper, and more precise.

  It does not matter if the noises get louder if the wall crumbles.

  As long as Mitsuki ends this pathetic tradition...

  Everything will end here.

  But even if Mitsuki swung her spear, that creature in front of her was inhuman, abnormally so.

  "What is wrong, Mitsuki?", it called out in a familiar voice.

  She deflected the deep red katana, going in for a stab.

  Mitsuki, her mind is broken, and locks are slowly being opened. Her frosty eyes, they do not reflect her ability to bring down the temperature.

  Her eyes, those frosty eyes reflect the height of the bde.

  Mitsuki does not see a ravine, she sees a white void where her bde dances with death.

  Never letting the blood bde touch her, never letting the blood that made her come near. Everything has to be precise, everything has to be perfect.

  They say there are two destinations in the path of the bde. Just in a short amount of time, she had reached one of those paths.

  Void.

  The beginning where there is nothing. And the end where everything ceases to exist. And this is the time to erase someone.

  "Entropy... are you listening?", she asked herself.

  "Yes, I am here...", a sharper tone replied.

  "Why are you talking to yourself, Mitsuki?", the blood creature asked.

  "Entropy, give me our bde."

  She blinked, her eyes briefly changed for a second. Her sclera dyed bck and her iries turned purple, as if reflecting the deep void of the universe itself.

  Swinging her spear, one imbued with the power of Entropy— to speed up the chaos of decay— and to reverse it, reassembling the bde fitting for a Spear Master.

  A spear where everything is bck, inscribed with the purple symbol of the centipede, and white shide paper wrapped around the shaft.

  And the Heavenly Spear of the Giant Centipede was created.

  Along with the swing, the void Mitsuki found herself in was shattered, returning to the ravine— with everything in front sliced in half.

  Muramasa's Perfection, the Sword of Good and Evil. To destroy those who are wicked, to restore the innocent.

  The nd, sliced, now was reformed. The blood creature, unable to hold its shape.

  Fell.

  Mitsuki feels her mind is crumbling... that does not matter. As long as she ends the blood creature... everything will be alright—

  Thud!

  A sudden loud noise snapped her out of her trance.

  'Tch...'

  Mitsuki saw Charlotte, crackling with electricity around her. And those cold and haunting azure eyes...

  "Don't mind me, I'm just here to intervene if things get too out of hand.", she nodded to herself.

  Then a crow nded on her shoulder and gave her a pack of cigarettes. She and the crow began to smoke. It was ridiculous, but that is to be expected of Charlotte

  "Ch-Charlotte? Why are you here?", Mitsuki asked, clenching her spear.

  "Fought a crystal whale, it exploded and here I am.", that was an extremely abridged version and it did not expin anything.

  Then the blood creature paid attention to Charlotte, "Who are you to dare enter the domain of the Okita?"

  Charlotte ignored it, "Be careful, Mitsuki, you can tag me at any time."

  Hearing her words, Mitsuki smiled. There are people who have her back...

  "Alright! You fucking liquid fossil!! I will show you...", her left eye dialed to darkness, ignited with a purple light, "The power of the universe."

  Slowly... the walls began to crack.

  The Void is calling out to her...

  Stepping back to avoid a storm of blood swords, Mitsuki enters her trance once again. Everything becomes white, only she and her opponent exist here...

  Observing her opponent, seeing the dance of bdes from the blood creature, more and more... her void begins to fill.

  Two minds working together. One sees a thousand battles. The other sees a thousand outcomes.

  Analyze and fight.

  That upper ssh leads to a thrust. Those cross bdes are a feint. That cleave opens up for a chance to cerate. Drawing the sword back to increase thrust power. Precise movement for a hook. Overpping ssh to cover each other.

  Nothing can escape her. And nothing matters.

  "Bck Hole... Revolution.", gripping her spear tightly, she performed a single swing.

  And a great portion of the blood was deleted from existence.

  Just one more swing—

  "Okay, I think that's enough angst for today.", someone grabbed her arm before she could swing again.

  "Charlotte...? Why?", Mitsuki widens her eyes, looking at Charlotte. Those eyes, they are cold and calcuted, but that casual smile spoke of confidence.

  "Oh, let me do this before that thing escapes. Bind.", eight silver spears shot out from the coffin, impaling the blood puddle. It tried to move, but the spears restricted its movement.

  "You can't just kill someone, even if that person is basically a skinwalker, there are procedures that need to be followed.", she smiled, taking out another cigarette, "And I have something to tell this skinwalker."

  Mitsuki felt a chill running down her spine, stemming from Charlotte. That aura, it makes Mitsuki hard to breathe... suffocating and paralyzing.

  "Tell me, skinwalker.", she crouched down, staring intensely at the puddle of moving blood, "Why do you want to live so much? To the point of wearing the body of your son?"

  "It is something you can never understand... gaijin."

  Charlotte nodded, "Sure, I don't understand. Because both my parents are dead, my sister is a psychopath, my aunt left for milk, I think I am French, and my adoptive mother is a fucking bitch. I don't have any clue of what family this, family that, following tradition just sound boring to me."

  Taking a small smoke break, Charlotte was about to continue but Mitsuki spoke out.

  "You are French?!", there was a look of surprise.

  The girl shrugged, "maybe? I'm too zy to figure it out. Silvi isn't a Greek surname, not really French either but I found out there is an old woman with the surname Silvi in France. I just thought that was neat."

  Her focus returned to the blood creature.

  "Now, where was I? Right. Seeing how Mitsuki beat the shit out of you, I think it proves how tradition is not good for people. Especially it involves taking over other people's bodies."

  Charlotte was on her side, Mitsuki knows. But there is something about her that makes Mitsuki grip her spear tightly.

  There are two destinations to the path of the bde. Mitsuki who had achieved Void, the state of nothingness.

  And Charlotte, the embodiment of human achievement and power. Who is everything there was, and everything there will be.

  The girl who embodied Infinity.

  Charlotte was dangerous, she already knew that. Her eyes began to dart around the pce, seeing branches and rocks lying around.

  All of them could be weapons...

  "And I must thank you, Mitsuki.", Charlotte spoke her name, snapping her out.

  She does not feel like herself at all.

  "You know, Abigail once asked me if I have a dream. Well, I answered her I have no dream, I took that question quite literally so I got scolded, I think so?", she shrugged, "In any case, watching you beat the shit out of your great-grandmother made me realize what my dream is."

  Electricity began to crackle around her, and it started to rain. Water drenched Charlotte, making her hair fall down and covering her eyes. Now only an ominous smile remains.

  Instinctively, Mitsuki took a few steps back, getting away from Charlotte as fast as possible. Something was coming.

  Pak!

  Charlotte pulled out a silver spear that was imprisoning the blood creature.

  "I don't really understand culture and tradition, for me, they are nothing more than chains that bind people to the past. Sure, there are lessons to be learned from them, but there are way too many unnecessary stuff."

  Lightning fshes above, and thunder begins to roar. The rain falls heavier until the world becomes a sheet of gray.

  "My dream... my Desire is very simple, I want to break the chains of society. The past may be the foundation for the present, but they are in no way capable of dictating the people.", she pced her left hand on her chest, "To be free from the past, to be able to walk forward without the weight of those before."

  Pnting her nce into the ground, Charlotte approached Mitsuki. Each step was silent, creepily so, even with the heavy rainfall.

  "Mitsuki, you are the proof of my dream... and it is quite unfortunate that..."

  'MITSUKI! WATCH OUT!!'

  Using the spear, Mitsuki flung herself backward. She sensed death coming, it was right next to her.

  "...you are my enemy."

  KAKRAKAKOOM!!!!

  A giant bolt of white lightning hit Charlotte, illuminating her for just a second. Mitsuki could only look in shock, as those eyes... sharp and haunting... they bore a purple glow, something so old, so ancient... she could not comprehend it at all.

  "W-Who are you...", Mitsuki stuttered, clenching her spear tightly.

  "Who am I, you ask?"

  Boom!!

  A single step cracked the ground around her, there was an immense power surge, as if the person right in front of her held absolute authority.

  A king...

  "Look at your reflection, mongrel."

  Something from her words forced Mitsuki to look down at the weak stream of water... it was strong, and she could never in any way break from it. But her reflection was even more horrifying.

  Half of her face was cracked, chipping slowly... inside those cracks, Mitsuki saw stars... gaxies... as if what was beyond her human skin was the universe itself.

  "What... is this?", she looked at her left arm, there were simir cracks on it.

  Bam!!

  Before Mitsuki could even process what was going on, she received a punch to the face. Then another punch right in her chest.

  There was no warning, no wind-up. By the time she noticed the attacks, they were already in her face.

  "Kah!!", her legs got swept, making her fall to the ground.

  The Charlotte(?) put a foot on Mitsuki's chest, and another on her right hand, locking her spear.

  "You want to know who I am, right?", she stared down at Mitsuki, the darkness covered up most of her face, with only her glowing purple eyes shining through.

  "I go by many titles, the King of Humanity, the Ruler of the First City. For an ignorant mongrel like you, I shall give you an underserving kindness by giving you my name."

  "Gah!!", Mitsuki felt her ribs cracking under the pressure of the foot.

  "I am Gilgamesh, the First Hero of Humanity."