Libertas OCT Audition - Hui

“So, dear, any last words?”

“But…you’re dead!”

“Funny, that.” Hui ground her foot more firmly into the man on the ground before driving her knife into his back, twisting it, then pulling it back out. She stayed to watch him bleed out.

Finally, when his pain-filled gasps had subsided, she allowed herself to relax, sinking onto the nearby sofa. It was done at last. She had her revenge. It figured that she’d had to come back from the grave and exact it herself. She smiled humorlessly as she began cleaning her blade of his blood. She did not drink it. She’d had him inside her enough times already.

Just as she finished, his body shifted. Hui jumped to her feet, holding still. He turned over, moaning slightly, and opened his eyes.

“Oh no, you are not coming back,” Hui growled, and slashed her knife across his throat while his soul still struggled to repossess his body. Blood pooled lazily out from his arteries as he went limp again. Hui frowned, because the demons were getting awfully lazy if a soul could escape them so easily.

Then again, had she known it was possible to come back to life from the beginning, it probably would have been much easier. The problem was, how could she make sure he stayed dead? This could only have been temporary.

Right on cue, one of his arms shot up, grabbing her by the throat, dragging her down onto the floor. Hui winced as his grip tightened. What was he trying to do, strangle her? She was dead already. It wasn’t as if she needed to breathe. She jammed her knife repeatedly into his arm, trying to make him let go. Somehow he held on, moving so that he leaned above her. With his free hand he reached for his sword where it had fallen the first time she killed him. She took the opportunity to slash at him. He caught her wrist. Before she could strike with her other arm, he drove his sword through it and into the ground. He sat on her legs, completely pinning her to the floor.

“If you could come back, so can I,” he told her as she lay there. He smiled and reached down, stroking her cheek. “It was sweet of you, to come running right back to me. You missed me, didn’t you?”

Hui spat in his face, enjoying the way his smile vanished. “So did you,” she pointed out.

He didn’t respond, stabbing a knife into each of her hands and ripped his sword out of her arm. The wound sealed itself quickly, flesh rising out to fill the hole. He watched the process before shifting backwards a little, lifting himself just enough to force her legs apart. He positioned the tip of his blade between them. “Pathetic,” he growled. “Killing you was so easy. Killing you again is going to be even easier. I always knew I was better than you. You slept your way to the top, didn’t you? You were always just a whore.”

Hui struck, flipping him off her legs with one strong, desperate movement. She ripped her hands up from the ground until they clutched the hilts of the blades, pulling them out of the ground in one quick motion. He hadn’t spent months as she had, figuring out the limits of her body in its new state. He didn’t know just how fast she—they—could move. He hadn’t yet realized his body could always simply regenerate and therefore keeping it intact was not a priority. Before he could right himself, she plunged both blades, still embedded in her palms, into his eyes.

He screamed, then, and dropped his blade, clawing at her hands. Hui wrenched the blades out and pulled them out of her palms with her mouth. While he scrabbled around, blind while his eyes were regenerating, she grabbed his sword and swung it with all her might at his neck.

His head fell to the ground with a pathetic plop.

His body quivered, then collapsed as well.

“You’re the one who’s pathetic,” she spat, waiting to see if he would come back to life. He didn’t.

Hui sank to the ground beside him as the excitement of the fight wore off. Now he was finally dead. Now what? There was nothing left for her to do in this world. She didn’t want to go back to her assassination contracts. She smiled bitterly. If she’d lived another two years, she could have retired. Though the organization thought she was dead, anyway—she could just slip off and live a normal life now. Except she couldn’t. That was the thing, wasn’t it? She was a monster now. There was no way she could live a normal human life anymore.

“Bastard,” she whispered to the body beside her. She blinked as the world started going blurry around her. She wasn’t crying, was she? She didn’t think she could produce tears anymore in this state.

No, she definitely wasn’t crying. The house and the body grew blurrier around her and simply dissolved, shifting instead to a foggy, red, and barren landscape. Rocks and broken shelters littered the plain all around. Hui jumped up, still holding the sword. This was new. The world didn’t simply change like that, unless a god or demigod was playing tricks.

She whirled around as a loud beeping noise came from behind her. Something bright caught her eye. She walked to investigate.

A…tablet, for lack of a better word, lay on the ground, its face glowing brightly. She picked it up. Characters flashed on the screen.

Find someplace hidden before reading this. There are wild animals and hostile patrols in the area. Be quiet. Be careful. Be safe.

Hui frowned. Some god must be playing an elaborate prank on her. Even so, she took the advice, ducking into a nearby abandoned hut.

Welcome to Eos City. I am sorry you have found yourself here. There is something about this planet that draws people from all worlds, times, and places to drop them here with no warning.

This world was abandoned by its people. We don't know why for sure, but whatever it was, it was sudden. Rainbow distortions we’ve named Warp Storms still plague the planet. If you see one, get underground immediately and pray to the Eos goddesses that you don't turn into one of the Warped.

The Warped were once people like you or I, but the storms changed them into monsters. Avoid them. They will try to kill or change you too.

Just a warning, the sun does not set and the clouds don't clear. Not everyone is trustworthy, but if this message still sends, then there are still good people surviving on this world, whether me or someone else.

I wish you the best of luck. Find safety. We will find you.

-Apollo Stardust, formerly of the Fountain community

Hui read the message twice, before leaning back against the wall. Definitely a god hated her. She held the tablet and sword close, waiting to see what would happen next.