(Let's fuck him up.)
(That's what my king said.)
(So, I laughed and followed him.)
The sky darkened. Hundreds of her crows scream at once, not in terror, but in agony. In rapture. In complete obliteration. That's when she knew it.
(This thing wasn't a God. It was the death of Gods.)
Corvessa was slammed into the ground before she could blink. Her body bent. Bones snapped. The pavement cratered beneath her. Blood painted the cracks, such a beautiful painting.
(Delicious.)
(But-)
(It hurts.)
(It hurts.)
She tried to rise but couldn't, twitching, giggling through the pain.
"Get up, Corvessa!"
(My King's voice!)
(Even through the carnage, he's worried about us. He sees us.)
(He sees me!)
(I'm not alone!)
She stood. They were bloodied. But they were together.
"Fuck…" Rhenvar muttered, his fists clenching. "This fuckers different. Take this-"
Corvessa lunged forward and kisses him, tasting their blood between them. "We have nothing to fear when we're together! Just let me earn your love!"
"Then we need to focus!" Rhenvar smiled. "This thing isn't like the others. It's a fucking walking apocalypse."
(And yet, you won't back down.)
(You won't run from it.)
(My king doesn't fear death.)
(He faces it.)
(He's perfect!)
(Yesyesyes!)
Rhenvar clashed with Calamity, a red giant rippling with raw-like molten power. Every strike from Rhenvar is thunder. Every counter from Calamity is a hurricane of destruction.
They trade blows. Flesh tears. The street evaporates.
Rhenvar tries to pull a sword from its sheath.
"Useless!" Rhenvar let that stupid hero's shiny stick go and throws his fists forward again, raw and burning.
(Oh devils, if this isn't true love I don't know what is.)
(He looks so beautiful covered in blood!)
Corvessa vanishes, appearing behind the beast.
(He's distracted.)
(This is my chance.)
(My kiss.)
(My crow. My-)
(-hand is caught?)
She did not even see the monster move.
His grip around her neck felt like a beautiful shackle.
"Poor little rat," Calamity growls. "Did you think I'd take you lightly?"
He slams her into the ground again. And again. And again. Her limbs stop working. Her breath catches. Blood pools beneath her, fragrant and warm.
(It's-)
(It's-)
(Beautiful.)
"NO!" Rhenvar's voice cracked. A blood tentacle latched on to Corvessa pulled her from the red monster's grasp.
(I feel it, the pull of his blood magic, threading from his heart to mine.)
(He's saving me.)
(He's pouring pieces of himself into my dying body.)
Calamity's fist ripped Rhenvar's jaw off. The jaw snapped back into place.
(He does love me.)
(He saved me!)
Rhenvar pounded Calamity into the ground.
(But I still can't move.)
(I'm still dying.)
Calamity grabbed Rhenvar's arm, ripping it off.
"You remind me of Nightmare." Rhenvar's eyes widened. His arm snapped back into place.
(I don't want to die!)
(Where did that come from?)
(Us.)
(…What?)
(All of us!)
(We love you!)
(The crows.
(My crows. My beautiful.)
(They're crying.)
(Screaming. Begging.)
(Why?)
(I was always meant to die. My life is madness, always hunted.)
(Alone.)
(So why now?)
(Because my king is fighting for me.)
(And I want to fight for him.)
(I want to be seen.)
(He's dying.)
The red monster grows faster. Stronger. Every strike adapts.
Rhenvar slammed the monster into the ground. The ground collapses as Rhenvar jumped on it, mounting the beast. His fists tore through its red skin, revealing its skulled bones.
That same skull met Rhenvar's forehead knocking him away like a ragdoll.
The beast rose from the crater, its face healing from its wounds.
"You're a fun one." Calamity mocked before his large foot stomped on Rhenvar's body.
A blood tentacle lashed Calamity in his eyes.
The beast roared back in pain.
And Rhenvar stood. Vomiting blood.
His arms are broken. Face blooded. Chest heaving. But still-
(He fights.)
(For me.)
That's when she understood.
This isn't a battle.
This is a love letter.
Written on bone and blood.
And he's the ink.
Corvessa rose. On broken limbs. On stolen souls. Her bone scythe glows with cursed runes, dripping violet fire.
"Get away from him," She snarled.
Calamity turns and smirks. "The weak one rises."
She laughed. But it's not madness now. It's clarity.
"You don't get it. You don't get us. You're the weak soul. But we? We own them all because it's in our nature!"
Calamity charged. And she screamed. Her scythe clashes with hands the size of boulders.
And she fights. Even knowing she'll lose. Even knowing it's hopeless.
Because she choose to.
Because he's watching.
Because for the first time in her cursed, putrid life…
She wanted to live.
Fear.
That word doesn't belong to her.
It never has.
"I am the great witch Corvessa! You monster, the weak soul deserves no bow. I tore the truth from the tongues of priests and make them sing lullabies in their own blood. I don't fear. I inspire it."
And yet.
This thing.
Calamity.
He towers above her, horns scraping the sky, a twisted titan of cracked crimson flesh and molten heat. His laugh is thunder, but his fists are worse, they make the world tremble. Her scythe can carve through bone like silk, but against him? It sparked. It screamed.
Then the monster's fist rained from above.
And still, her King, her Rhenvar, rushed between them. Blocking the blow.
"Get back!" Rhenvar rasped, his voice a bloody and hollow. "This thing will kill you; this isn't a normal fight."
Rhenvar's body glows, cracks of blood-magic surging through his veins. The black fire, pure chaos, his own hatred and rage burns in him and engulfed him.
His large bloodied arms grabbed Calamity and pushed against the powerful beast.
But Calamity stopped getting pushed back. He overpowered. Breaking the grapple.
He catches Rhenvar's push, stops it like nothing, and drives a knee into his gut. Rhenvar crashed into the pavement, coughing blood, but he gets back up. Again. And again.
She wanted to laugh.
Because this is what love looks like.
But something inside her twists instead.
Not with joy.
With dread.
"Are you really a Worldeater?" Calamity rumbles, voice vibrating the bones in her ears. "A trembling weakling with cursed blood?"
He stomped down on Rhenvar's head.
Corvessa screamed as she charged with her scythe. A spiral of violet hellfire crashes into his back but finally digging into his skin.
Calamity turned and smiled. "You are strong." Her soul-scythe did not faze him how she wanted.
"No," She whispered. "No, nonono- "
Calamity back hands her. Corvessa's body flung lifelessly in the air. When she hit the ground-
Calamity hovered over her.
"Goodbye, rat."
Before his fist fell, a string of blood grabbed his arm. The shockwave from the miss sent Corvessa tumbling.
Rhenvar, glowing red, horned and half-monstrous, grabs Corvessa's ruined body and runs.
Calamity chased them like a predator.
They smash through a skyscraper and landed in a parking garage that's already collapsing.
She tasted iron and salt.
"I'm healing you," Rhenvar panted, channeling his blood into her. "Don't you die on me, Corvessa."
(He's holding me.)
(Like I'm precious.)
(No one's held me like this since… since, ever.)
(No one dared.)
"…Why?" She croaks. Her sight blurry. Eyes uncontrollably shaking.
"Because you're like me," he said. Voice low and haunting. "Because I see your soul… it's like mine. It's beautiful."
Right then and there. Her heart stopped. She looked at him as if the world gained a new color.
Then he shoves her behind a steel beam and stands, limping, bladeless, body broken but back straight.
"The blood has lasting healing effects, stay still-"
And Calamity lands in front of him with a shockwave that splits the ground in half.
"Viir!"
Nothing.
"Fuck."
Rhenvar charges.
Fists only.
Screaming.
(It's suicide.)
(It's beautiful.)
Every punch Rhenvar lands takes a piece of himself. But he didn't stop. He can't stop. Calamity hurls him through metal boxes, crushes his ribs with a single punch, melts the ground with the sheer weight of his aura.
And still, Rhenvar rises.
Again.
Bleeding.
Burning.
Refusing to break.
But in pain.
"I see it now," Calamity muses, grabbing Rhenvar's throat and lifting him up like a child's doll. "You've eaten a world once before. Killed other Worldeaters and stole their Worldhearts. But you don't use its power. Pathetic."
"I don't need it," Rhenvar smiled, face filled with blood.
Calamity frowns.
Then he slams him into the ground so hard the ground cracks for miles. A shockwave erupts, sending cars flying like toys.
"You're not even worth taking seriously," Calamity says. "You're just a shell. A failure of a Worldeater. You are nothing like us!"
Calamity turned to Corvessa dropping Rhenvar.
(Oh no.)
(No no no no-)
He walked slowly, like he knows she can't move. Like he's savoring the hunt.
"You," he says, crouching. "You smell like death. I like that. But I wonder…"
He grabbed her chin. Tilting her face. "…did you really kill Ultimateman?"
(I turned him into a bone!)
(Idiot!)
She try to bite him. He laughs.
Then a spear of blood erupts through Calamity's chest.
(My King.)
(Even on the edge of death, he's still fighting.)
(Even broken, he's still here, for me!)
"Don't act like I'm unworthy," Rhenvar mocked, yanking the spear out and letting Calamity bleed just a little, "I live for this you bitch ass mother fucker."
Calamity turned, intrigued. "Oh, then show me your power."
They clash again.
Blow for blow.
No magic. No tricks.
Just rage. Willpower. Madness.
Corvessa stared; she never saw anything like it.
(He's not fighting to win.)
(He's fighting to save me.)
Something shattered inside her.
She screamed. Not in joy, not in ecstasy, but in pure, raw want.
"Rhenvar!"
And he turned.
And she saw it.
He was smiling.
Like he's enjoying it.
Like a king who knows he's going to die, and chooses to fight anyway.
Corvessa rises. Shaking. Bleeding. Laughing. And crying.
(I'm not afraid.)
(I'm alive.)
She charged like a wild animal.
Calamity grabbed her, then Rhenvar. Slamming both into the ground. "Just die! Give me your Worldhearts! Give me your power."
Slam.
Slam.
"I see your magic, your blood connected to her. Let's see how long you last before you choose who lives and who dies."
(We're dying, why… Rhenvar… no!)
(Nononono!)
And for the first time, Corvessa's madness flickered.
"Rhenvar," She whispered. "Please… leave me."
He doesn't respond with words.
The beast slammed him to the ground again.
The blood continues to flow and reconnect.
And Corvessa fell in love all over again.
But this time, her love was different. And a whisper escaped her lips.
"Rhenvar, I love you."