Mya did not run.

  She tried to, but her body would not comply.

  When she attempted to move forward again, the space past the gate changed. The air compressed violently, crushing down on her chest as though the world had inhaled a breath and forgotten to let it out again. Mya's legs gave out.

  "What… is this…?" she gasped.

  It was not just the physical force of the compressed air; it seeped into her mind as well, pressing down on her thoughts and filling her head with a low, distant hum.

  "Mya…"

  Mya's heart almost stopped; the suffering voice of her older sister was calling to her.

  "No...wait!" "Onee-chan! Where are you?!" she cried, trying to reach out blindly.

  Mya turned around, her breathing catching as she looked at the sealed entrance. No matter how hard she pushed, it would not open, not even an inch, her chest tightened.

  "Nui…?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Mya, still desperate to locate her sister, continued her search, her fear disappearing because her love was for her sisters, contributing, with each step she took forward, becoming more difficult than the last, as though the ground was fighting her.

  "Mya…?" the voice said again, this time weaker.

  "Please, just tell me where you are."

  "…I'm sorry."

  The voice went quiet and the moment went awkward. Mya, still shaken, yelled out for her sister but there was no response. Assad and Taura heard her yell and looked at her direction confused on why she was suddenly yelling out a name. Mya did not care the slightest and kept on calling out for Nui's name but it was still silent.

  Mya shed a tear and what she saw next made her question her life choices. She heard Nui's voice again call out to her, she kept on telling Mya to run away. But Mya did not listen.

  Mya then saw something, hanging from a single rusted hook was a head.

  A young woman's head, her hair long and tangled, streaked with dried blood, her eyes frozen wide open. The same sea-blue eyes as Mya's. Her once beautiful ear-fins were gone, ripped away, leaving only raw, scarred stubs. Her lips were pale, slightly parted, as if she had been calling out to someone in her final moments. Nothing else remained, no body , no voice , just a head, swaying faintly in the still air.

  Mya's eyes widened in shock and terror,her lips quivered and she could not speak a single word anymore. It was almost like her soul was taken out of her because of how pale she was from the shock of seeing Nui's head hanging and swinging normally.

  Small amounts of sweat started to appear on her face, slowly losing herself from seeing her dead sister. Mya could not hold her emotions and screamed out of the top of her lungs. Her eyes filled with tears, memories of her time with Nui slowly came back.

  Those happy days were when she was the little sister and Nui was the older. Everything was normal. Along with Ano and Molly they were a happy sibling family, taken in by the man. Everything was nice, she did not want to see that life over.

  Or so that was what she told herself, one by one she lost the people she loved. First was the man who they saw as a father figure. Only for him to sell them off, then it was Molly who was killed by Assad accidentally and now it's Nui whose head was hanging off a rope, her body nowhere to be seen.

  Assad and Taura heard Mya who was crying her balls out and quickly went to comfort her. They were confused as to why she was crying all of a sudden. Is there something inside the yard of the mansion that made her scared? But that could not be the case as there was nothing inside besides the monster that they just killed.

  Mya could not answer the questions and only cried.

  Assad and Taura stayed with Mya, trying to comfort her, but nothing they said was getting through to her. She was shaking uncontrollably, sobs wracking her body as she clutched at herself as if she was about to fall apart.

  Taura looked up towards the mansion, a sense of unease settling in the pit of his stomach.

  "...What's going on in there?" she muttered.

  The world seemed to be the same as before—simply the same old abandoned mansion standing silently over them. But as they looked closer, that illusion began to break apart.

  Cracks began to appear in the stone walls, as if they were a network of veins.

  The walls began to fade, showing what had been hidden beneath.

  Taura stepped back outside the mansion, breathing in sharply as shapes began to appear. There were too many of them.

  "...Those are...merfolk." Assad said in a barely audible tone.

  Bodies were stacked and scattered inside, and they did not move, nor did they show signs of life from where they were. The sight made Assad's stomach drop, and his eyes widened with shock.

  "So that's why she's crying…" Taura stated.

  "Yea you might be right but...I don't think that's the sole reason she is crying."

  "What do you mean?" Taura asked.

  Assad did not respond and just pointed somewhere. The reason why Mya had been crying the entire time. She had been screaming a name. Both of them looked higher towards the center of the exposed space and something hung there.

  Swaying gently.

  There was a head hanging in the air, moving from side to side as if it had been caught by an invisible current. Taura shivered at the sight, and Assad looked at the hanging head... and then at Mya. The resemblance between the two was uncanny, from the same face shape, to the same sea-blue eyes. There was no doubt that the head that was tied and swinging was her sister.

  Mya's crying got louder, and her body shook violently as she realized the truth. Neither Assad nor Taura said a word; they did not know what to say.

  Mya's wails slowly subsided.

  But they didn't cease completely; her body continued to shake, and her sobs, instead of being smooth and continuous, became staccato hiccups that sliced through the air. She buried her face in Taura's chest, her fingers digging into the fabric of Taura's clothes as if she might come apart at the seams if she relaxed her grip.

  Taura held her tightly in her embrace.

  She didn't say anything for a moment, simply holding her and letting her breathe, letting her be in that place between screaming and silence.

  "It's… it's okay," she whispered.

  Mya's breathing caught again.

  After a moment, she spoke in a small, fractured voice, as if she were afraid of the answer.

  "…What do you think is going on right now?"

  Assad's gaze drifted back to the mansion, the discomfort in his chest knotting tighter. The house loomed there, immobile, but it seemed to weigh more heavily than before, as if something inside had fallen into place.

  "I don't know," he said softly.

  He rubbed a hand over his face, his eyes never leaving the mansion. "I really don't. But whatever is going on in there…it's lethal."

  Within the mansion, Zheng Yan was still laughing.His shoulders were shaking, his head thrown back, his eyes unfocused, as if he had lost all sense of his surroundings.Shuren and Kinzau observed him in silence.

  The space between them was thick, oppressive, and full of something unseen.Shuren's threads were gathered around her, taut but unmoving, as if waiting for a signal she chose not to give.Zheng Yan's laughter slowly began to dwindle, interrupted by irregular gasps.

  "I don't understand you," he whispered.

  Shuren didn't turn to him.

  Kinzau gritted his teeth, his frustration seeping into his tone. "You're standing there as if this is out of your control. As if you're powerless."

  Still, Shuren remained silent.

  "You can prevent this, you have the power to hold him back to cancel the ritual before it's completed."

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  "So tell me," he said. "Why are you quiet?"

  Shuren exhaled slowly. It wasn't a breath of relief, more like resignation. The weight in her chest settled, heavy and final, as she raised her weapon. The barrel was aligned with Zheng Yan, steady despite the chaos twisting through the mansion.

  Zheng Yan was still smiling, still murmuring to something that no longer answered. Shuren didn't hesitate and the shot rang out.The sound cracked through the hall like thunder, sharp and absolute. The moment it echoed, the pressure that had been suffocating the space collapsed as if something unseen had been severed mid-breath.

  Zheng Yan's laughter stopped instantly. He stumbled backward on the steps, balance lost, and tumbled down the stairs, coming to rest at the bottom in an unmoving heap.

  Kinzau stared at Zheng Yan's body for a long moment before letting out a slow breath.

  "…What did I say," he muttered.

  He turned slightly toward Shuren.

  "You had the power, adding your Kensei to the bullet and ended it in one shot."

  "Stopping him does not erase what has already been offered."she said this quietly with her eyes on the body.

  Shuren did not lower the gun. Instead she turned it. The barrel of the gun came to rest against Kinzau's head. The sound of the gun moving was quiet. It had a big effect. The air between them became very tense all of a sudden.

  Shuren said, "You already know what I am going to ask." Her voice was cold and empty without any emotion.

  She told Kinzau "So I think you should start talking if I were you."

  Kinzau did not move. He just stood there for a time staring at Zheng Yan's lifeless body. Then his lips slowly curved up into an unsettling smile.

  "Grief is itself a medicine."Kinzau said softly,

  Shuren's brow furrowed.

  "What?"She asked,

  Kinzau finally turned his eyes toward Shuren.

  He said, "There are bodies in another room."

  Shuren's grip tightened.

  "If you have a loved one," Kinzau said, his tone almost gentle, "then it's in your best interest to go see them."

  Something dark flickered across Shuren's expression. Her voice dropped even lower.

  "…Tell me about Zheng Yan. His role in the Clan of Sin," she said.

  Kinzau's smile didn't fade.

  Shuren's eyes sharpened.

  "What sin?"

  Kinzau met her gaze.

  "The Sin of Lunacy."

  Shuren blinked once.

  "…Sin of Lunacy?" she repeated.

  Kinzau nodded.

  That was all. The gun fired. The sound echoed once through the hall, short, sharp, final. Kinzau's body collapsed where he stood, the smile gone, his words cut off mid-breath. He fell beside the stairs, joining the silence he had helped create.

  Shuren lowered the gun.

  The smell of blood was strong as Shuren stood over the two bodies. It was slippery on the floors, a somber reminder of the finality she had brought.

  The bullets had done their job without hesitation, and their heads drooped abnormally. With a slow, almost casual exhale, she reached into her jacket. Between her fingers, a cigarette materialized.

  The tiny flame flickered against the mansion's dim light as she lit it with purposeful calm. She took a breath, allowing the smoke to curl upward, obscuring the surrounding carnage with a haze.

  It was silent.

  She just stood there for a long time, listening to the gentle crackle of the burning cigarette with her eyes half closed. Despite the death inside its walls, the mansion appeared to be almost unconcerned.

  Then she looked out and saw movement beyond the broken gates. Mya rocked slightly, her face still streaked with tears, and Assad and Taura knelt next to her, holding her close. But she was no longer crying. She clung to whatever solace they could provide, now only sniffling softly.

  Shuren's forehead wrinkled a little.For what reason were they consoling her?

  She watched even though she didn't understand the connection or the bond. Constantly watching. She took a final drag, put the cigarette down, and moved to the door. Taura and Assad saw her right away. Assad's eyes narrowed, clearly worried.

  "What happened there?" His voice was tense as he asked.

  Shuren remained silent.

  With her boots clicking softly on the stone, she walked past them and went to meet Mya. Her eyes were still glistening with the last of the tears, fragile as glass, even though the girl had completely stopped crying.

  With an unreadable expression of cold calculation and faint awareness of the girl's suffering, Shuren knelt slightly to meet her gaze.

  She said, almost to herself, "It's over," but Mya heard her.

  Her cigarette smoke was still slightly present around her, curling like a silent warning: power had gone through these hallways, and now everything else outside was watching, waiting, and responding.

  Still shuddering outside, Shuren's eyes turned to Mya.

  "Have you located your sisters here?" Mya winced as she asked in a cool, almost informal tone.

  Mya couldn't meet Shuren's eyes, so she just looked down without responding.

  Shuren's face was still unreadable. "Then accompany me."

  Mya's eyes widened at the invitation and she froze for a second.

  With a worried expression on his face, Taura took a step forward. "She can't enter there by herself, so hold on!"

  Assad's voice was tense as he moved as though to follow. "Shuren, what's…going on?"

  Shuren interrupted them with a raised hand. "Remain here."

  They paused, their instincts being fought by confusion and anxiety. They paused, though, because of something in her tone. They listened carefully.

  With hesitation, Mya moved in the direction of the mansion. Shuren didn't turn around. She just opened the door and let the girl go ahead of her. The smell of death and blood permeated the heavy air inside. Even with the deaths of Kinzau and Zheng Yan, the mansion somehow seemed darker.

  As Mya entered, her stomach turned, and she looked straight at the two bodies near the stairs. Her hand flew to her mouth as she gagged at the sight. She staggered a little and had to turn her head away. Shuren, meanwhile, maintained her composure, her breathing steady, her eyes keen. Silent as a shadow, she moved past Mya and headed for the other room.

  She paused at the door, turning to Mya with a calculated look.

  “Your sisters may be in here,” she said softly. “Go… say your goodbyes.”

  Mya’s eyes went wide, confusion muddling her features. “W-what…?”

  Shuren’s gaze didn’t falter. “Go. Don’t stop.”

  Shaking, Mya followed her inside. The room was dark, lit only by the faint gray light that still lingered from the previous ritual. Her eyes took a moment to adjust, and what she saw made her stomach turn sick.

  The room was packed with the bodies of merfolk. Mermen and mermaids were strewn about the floor, against the walls, in the corners, and on the furniture. Their faces were contorted in pain, fear, or shock.

  Her breath caught, and she took a step back, her stomach churning with the sheer sight before her. And then her eyes landed on something else on the far wall.

  Her chest constricted, her heart pounding furiously against her ribcage.

  It was her other sister, Nui.

  Her head was suspended from a single hook, her long hair matted and splattered with dried blood. Her eyes, a deep sea blue like Mya’s, were empty and unseeing. Her ear fins were missing, torn away, leaving only bloody stumps. Her lips were pale and slightly ajar, as if she had been trying to speak in her final moments.

  Mya’s legs buckled. She collapsed to her knees, her hands over her face as she screamed, a sound that shook the mansion and reverberated off its walls.

  Shuren observed her in silence, serene and unruffled, as the girl’s anguish washed over the room.