Notori soared low over the city rooftops and alleyways as he searched for something with growing agitation. His jaw was tight, breath shallow with tension, when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He cursed under his breath and pulled it out mid-flight, glancing at the screen. Mike. He sighed, then accepted the call.
“Hey, Mike. You’re already out of the hospital?” he asked, trying to sound lighter than he felt.
“It’s a nice way to start a conversation,” Mike replied, his voice hoarse but edged with familiar sarcasm. “But at least you’re finally picking up your calls on time.”
Notori exhaled deeply, a mix of guilt and relief. “Yeah… I’m sorry, Mike. I know. If I’d answered when you needed me, you wouldn’t have ended up in that damn hospital bed. I messed up.” His voice dropped, more serious now. “But I’m learning. Already paying for it. Which is why we’ve got a much bigger problem.”
There was a pause. “The Death?” Mike asked, tone sharpening.
“I can’t reach her,” Notori said. “I saw her bleed, Mike. She’s already infected. And now she’s just… vanished.”
The silence on the other end was different this time. He could almost hear the tension building.
“At least,” Mike said slowly, “you’re not going against our orders anymore.”
Notori clenched his jaw, the cityscape rushing past beneath him in streaks of light and shadow.
“Yeah,” he muttered, voice low. “Because I see it now—no matter how much of a scumbag or killer she is… she still cares. About this city. Even if she pretends she doesn’t.”
There was a pause on the line—heavy, charged.
“I know her identity,” Mike said abruptly.
Notori froze mid-flight. His breath caught. “What?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Mike added quickly. And with that, the line went dead.
The call ended with a soft beep, but it echoed like a gunshot in Notori’s ears. He stared at the screen, the name Mike fading back to darkness.
Mike knew the face behind the Death’s mask.
Notori hovered in the air, suspended between the rooftops and the open sky. Notori didn’t know if that meant Death had just been saved… or condemned.
***
Lili sat at her sleek black desk, fingers still on the keys as the soft hum of her apartment surrounded her—a space buried high above the city’s chaos, unknown even to the ones who thought they knew everything about her. The glow of her computer screen cast faint shadows over her pale face, but it was the skyline beyond the wide, tinted window that held her gaze. Towering skyscrapers pierced the evening fog, their lights blinking like wary eyes in the distance.
She leaned back slightly. It had been days. Days spent in silence. In hiding. In uncertainty.
The digital feeds she scoured were layered with half-truths, panic, and shifting alliances—updates from the underground she still had access to through encrypted backdoors. But not a single one of them gave her what she really needed: a way back.
Torin would be expecting her by now—expecting answers, results, control. But walking in without something to show would be dangerous. Fatal, even. And she couldn’t say she’d been injured or captured. That would only raise questions she couldn’t afford to answer: What did you tell them? What did they take from you? How did someone like you get caught?
No, weakness was not an option. She needed to rewrite the story before anyone else could write it for her. She needed to bring something back—evidence, leads, blood if necessary. Even a hunted prize to distract them.
Her red eyes flicked back to the screen, the scrolling data reflecting like fire in her pupils.
They think I’ve vanished.
She’d been many things—an assassin, a spy. But now, she had to become a ghost. And ghosts always came back with something worth fearing.
Suddenly, a slow smile curled across Lili’s lips—cold, calculated, and sharp enough. She didn’t need to search for a lead. She already had one—Goran. The traitor. The shapeshifter. The Gifted who had slipped too close, seen too much. He knew her face. He knew where she lived. If she spun it right, if she fed just the right pieces to Torin, she could shape the truth into something far more convenient.
She could say Goran had come for her—an assassination attempt. That he’d tried to eliminate her in secret, to finish what he’d started by infiltrating the organization. But he failed. And in that failure, she had turned the tables.
Lili’s smile widened, vicious and clean. She could claim she tracked him, hunted him, and ended the problem no one else had even known existed. The narrative almost wrote itself.
It would explain the silence. The disappearance. And best of all? It would restore her place, reaffirm her image as the unshakable force.
Lili stood before the mirror in silence looking at her black leather suit. Her gloves slid on concealing hands that still trembled faintly from fever. The full-face mask came last, sealing her identity behind matte black, her eyes the only part of her left visible—twin embers of resolve behind red-tinted lenses.
She pulled open a drawer and retrieved two vials—medicine to dull the pain in her shoulder and another to suppress the fever still trying to drag her back into unconsciousness. The bitter taste coated her tongue as she swallowed them dry.
She stepped out onto the narrow balcony of the high-rise, the night wind biting against her exposed skin. For a breath, she stood there, high above the city she had bled for, hidden from, and ruled in silence. Then her sword rose behind her—silent, gleaming, hovering, awaiting her will. With one step, she launched herself from the balcony…
***
Goran stood by the tall window, hands clasped behind his back, watching the city lights flicker far below like dying stars. The room was still, quiet—too quiet for comfort. He had grown used to silence, but something in the air made the hair on his neck stand on end.
Then—glass shattered.
A violent gust of wind followed the explosion as a black blur tore through the pane. The blade came first—silent, merciless—followed by the figure draped in shadow and leather.
Princess of Death landed with the grace, her long coat billowing as the sword arced back toward Goran in a deadly line.
His eyes widened just in time as he raised an arm—flesh rippling into scales. The sword struck with a metallic clang, skimming his forearm before flying back to hover protectively at Lili’s side.
Goran took a step back, disbelief etched into his expression. “Lili—”
“You don’t get to say my name,” she cut in, her voice a low snarl distorted slightly through the mask. “You lost that right when you started playing both sides.”
“I never meant to—”
“Spare me,” she hissed. “You were my partner. You stood beside me. You looked me in the eye and lied.”
Goran’s jaw clenched, but the guilt in his eyes was undeniable. “I was assigned. You know how it works.”
“Assigned to spy? Assigned to sabotage from the inside?” she demanded, sword shifting forward with the tilt of her head. “Tell me, Goran—how long was I a target?”
He didn’t answer. That silence was answer enough.
Lili stepped closer. “You should’ve killed me when you had the chance.”
“I never wanted you dead.”
“But someone did. And you let them think they could reach me.”
Goran’s scaled hand flexed, defensive. “You wouldn’t understand. What they’re doing—”
“Don’t,” she interrupted coldly. “I understand enough. Enough to know you betrayed me. And now you’re going to give me a reason not to carve the rest of your lies out of your skin.”
Goran exhaled slowly, gaze lowering for the briefest second. And in that second, Lili knew—he still feared her.
In a flash, Goran moved. He burst through the remnants of the shattered window, body shifting midair, scales spreading down his arms and neck as his form twisted and flexed, partially shifting into something faster, something inhuman.
Lili was on him instantly.
Her sword shot forward, slashing across his back as he dove into the night. Sparks of blood flicked across the skyline. But Goran didn’t slow.
The blade spun beside her as she launched from the window. Below, the city opened its maw—rooftops, bridges, alleys, all waiting for the storm to fall.
They clashed again midair.
Goran twisted, claws outstretched, catching the edge of her shoulder. Pain burst down Lili’s arm, but she didn’t falter. Her sword turned, slicing toward his exposed side, only for him to kick off a rooftop ledge and vanish into the maze of the city. Lili trailed him, her red eyes flashing as she followed the heat in his blood.
Down through the alleys they went, crashing through scaffolding, tearing past stunned bystanders. A fire escape buckled under their weight. Goran led her further and further from the apartment, through an old industrial district where the buildings stood like rusted skeletons.
Finally, he landed hard atop an abandoned rail yard warehouse, chest heaving, half-transformed, blood running down his side. He turned, eyes glowing, and roared, “Still following? I thought you’d be smarter than this!”
“I am smarter,” Lili replied, floating down to land opposite him, eyes burning bright. “But you ran. That told me everything I needed to know.”
Her sword dove toward Goran again. But he was ready this time. He sidestepped with inhuman speed, scales shimmering across his arm as he deflected the blow with a clang of metal on hardened skin.
Goran grinned, sharp and cruel. “You’re off.”
Lili’s eyes narrowed behind the mask, but she didn’t speak.
“You’re injured,” he continued, circling her slowly now, the fight momentarily stalled into a dangerous dance. “The sniper shot…” His gaze flicked to her shoulder. “That wound still isn’t healing.”
Lili didn’t flinch, but she didn’t answer either.
“And more than that…” Goran’s grin widened as he read her stance, the faint tension in her legs, the stillness of her upper body. “You never used to stand so still in battle. Not when your blade wasn’t at your side. You used to move with it—like it was part of you.”
Her blade surged back to hover near her shoulder, but he’d already made his move. He lunged—claws outstretched, aiming to break her rhythm, to expose what she was hiding.
Lili met him with a blast of steel and fury, but Goran’s words had done their damage. He knew. She wasn’t at full strength. And now he intended to make her bleed for it.
A blast of fire erupted from the side, roaring through the air and slamming into Goran with searing force. He grunted, forced to leap back as flames licked at his clothes and scorched the floor beneath him. His feet skidded across the concrete as he steadied himself—eyes already snapping upward.
Notori hovered above, flames coiling around his fists, smoke trailing from his boots as he slowly descended.
Goran’s expression twisted with raw hatred.
Notori landed between them with a flare of heat, planting himself like a barrier. “Step back!” he screamed at Goran.
“It’s you who should step back!” Lili shouted, her sword slicing through the air with renewed purpose, flying past Notori’s shoulder toward Goran again.
Notori turned his head slightly, eyes narrowing. “You’re barely standing.”
“And I’m still standing,” she hissed, forcing the sword to arc around for another strike. “That’s all that matters.”
Goran’s grin returned—twisted, entertained. “Looks like the betrayal triangle’s a bit more crowded than before,” he said, body already shifting subtly, muscles twitching, scales rising.
Goran wasn’t just watching them—he was calculating, studying every movement, every breath, every glance between Notori and Lili. And then… something shifted in his expression. A flicker of knowing. He had seen something. And it gave him exactly what he needed.
Goran lunged—not at Notori, who responded with a burst of fire—but past him, ducking low beneath the flames and launching himself straight at Lili.
Notori shouted a warning, but it was too late. Lili’s eyes snapped to Goran as her sword arced back toward her defensively. She shifted its path—but then froze. Something inside her twisted. She gasped.
There was a searing heat that bloomed from her chest and rippled through her limbs. The control she’d clung to snapped, and the sword melted mid-air. Metal turned to liquid in a heartbeat and slashed through the space between her and Goran, strucking him like a lash.
Goran screamed. He hit the pavement hard, writhing, his hand clutching at the scorched mess of flesh across his shoulder and neck. Smoke rose from the wound—whatever that weapon had become, it burned deeper than anything natural.
Lili swayed on her feet, her chest heaving. Her skin shimmered faintly under the mask, her eyes glowing unnaturally bright beneath it.
And then she laughed—low, sharp, almost unhinged. A laugh that didn’t entirely sound like hers. “Finally,” she whispered, almost in awe. Her voice was layered. “Finally I’m free.”
Notori’s face paled. “Death… what the hell did you just unleash?”
Goran groaned on the ground, eyes wide with dawning horror.
The molten mass that had lashed out like a beast reared back, lost its shape, and splattered against the pavement with a hiss. The energy surging through Lili fractured. She stumbled back a few steps, one arm clutching her side, breath ragged and shallow.
The glow behind her mask dimmed.
Notori turned fully toward her now, the heat of battle draining from his posture, replaced by something colder—concern laced with fear.
“Death?” he called out, stepping forward slowly, as if approaching something wild and wounded.
The liquid on the ground trembled… then began to draw itself together, snaking toward Lili. In a heartbeat, it reshaped—solidifying back into the blade, humming with unstable energy, but whole. The sword hovered in the air for a second, waiting.
Then Lili launched toward it, teeth clenched as she leapt onto the blade, her balance off, her body barely obeying and her hands trembled as the weapon carried her up into the sky.
Notori reached a hand forward instinctively, but she was already gone—rising fast, weaving unsteadily between the buildings, fighting to stay upright as the wind clawed at her.
Notori’s expression twisted—torn between instinct and something far more urgent. Whatever he’d just seen in Lili had erased any hesitation he had left. With a burst of heat, he launched into the air, flames curling from his limbs as he tore after her, leaving Goran behind without a second glance.
She didn’t see him coming. Notori struck with just enough force to intercept. Lili cried out as her balance snapped. The blade wavered beneath her before vanishing altogether, and she plummeted.
She hit the ground hard—stone and metal tearing at her back, breath ripped from her lungs as a scream burst from behind her mask.
The pain was immediate. Her vision blurred as she tried to rise, but her limbs refused to answer. Her body felt wrong—too hot, too heavy, trembling under the weight of something she could no longer control.
Notori stepped out of the smoke, his flame-wreathed silhouette shrinking as the fire died down. He approached slowly, hands raised, gaze locked on her like she might vanish—or strike.
“Death,” he said softly, kneeling beside her. “You need help.”
She tried to pull away, but her strength betrayed her. Notori didn’t touch her yet.
“I promised you a cure, didn’t I?” he said, his voice low but steady. “And I keep my word. We finally have something. A start. If you’re still up to it…”
Lili turned her head slightly, her mask cracked at the edge, one red eye barely visible. But she didn’t say no.
He leaned in closer. “And when you’re healed,” he said, “we’ll hunt them down. Every last bastard who did this—to the Gifted… and to you.”
His jaw tightened, eyes scanning her broken form, the way her fingers still twitched like she was trying to fight even now.
“You just need to come with me,” Notori said, his voice low, steady, the fire behind it tempered by something gentler now. “Let me help you stand again. Then we strike back together.”
He crouched beside her, gaze never leaving hers—those dark, gleaming eyes behind the cracked mask, barely holding onto the weight of her own body.
“Do you agree?” he asked, quieter this time. Whatever had taken root inside her, whatever darkness coiled beneath her skin—it didn’t scare him. It only hardened his resolve. “If you do, there will be a price to pay,” he added. “But is it really that bad… if you can stand again? If you can make the ones who did this pay?”
Lili’s gaze faltered. The fury was still there—but buried now beneath exhaustion, pain, and something far more dangerous: uncertainty. Her eyes flickered—red giving way to their natural black, shadowed by fatigue, by the sickness growing inside her.
“I…” she started, voice rough and hoarse, her lips barely forming the sound.
She didn’t know what the price was. Didn’t have the strength to demand the fine print. But the part of her that had survived, couldn’t ignore the offer, no matter how twisted it might become. “I… do.”
Notori’s smirk was faint, but as if a long-expected answer had finally come.
Lili’s body slackened. Her breath slowed, limbs too heavy to lift. The world blurred, and in the final moments before darkness took her, she kept her eyes on him, watching, wondering.
What had she really agreed to? And why did his smile seem like a door quietly closing?
Then the night swallowed her whole…
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