Ren watched the Hollow approach, as if it were in slow motion, then moved slightly to the side, still maintaining the trajectory. The moment it passed him, his arm moved backwards, then thrust forwards with incredible speed and power directly into the creature's gut. His fingers curled like claws, and from within them, a flare formed and burned the creature's insides.
The Hollow shrieked violently and melted to the ground, only to reform a little further back.
Ren looked at his arm and could see smoke, no, energy remnants curling upwards from his skin. He felt his heart pounding hard and blood flowing through every vein inside his body, like an awareness he hadn't known yet. It was just like the night before, in the alley, when he faced the three Hounds and somehow brought them down, three against one.
"What… was that?"
Kagami smiled. "That's the pact responding."
"There's something within me that doesn't feel like mine at all."
"That's because it isn't," she said, hopping down from the ledge. "But it lives in you now."
Ren kept watching the energy swirl upward from his fist, but got careless about the rest.
"You will wanna look behind you," Kagami said with a calm voice, like a teacher showing the student what he'd missed.
With that, she climbed back to her usual spot, making herself comfortable like a spectator waiting for the next round.
Ren turned just in time to see the Hollow charge again. It kept attacking relentlessly, as if drawn to everything that made him alive.
He didn't have much time to think. He attempted to deflect the blows, kept ducking, and used whatever objects he encountered in his path as shields. But as he did, they all got shattered to pieces by surges of dark energy or waves of sheer violent force.
He tried channeling the same energy he had channeled before. He, of course, had no idea how to do that, but relied on the little intuition he might have had. But, no matter how hard he tried, that spark of power from earlier didn't answer him on command. In fact, the more he reached for it, the more it seemed to fade.
The creature shrieked again and its body twisted for a few moments, swirling around a new object being formed. It was a sort of spear made out of metal and mud. It solidified in an instant, targeting Ren, then slid through the air whistling sharply.
But just before it reached him, Ren caught the weapon with both hands, pushing it away from his body. It kept pressing forward, but Ren used all the physical force he could wield in that moment to keep it from plunging into his chest.
The creature let out a ragged sound that might have been an attempt at a laugh. Ren barely had time to process it when the spear suddenly turned to ash in his hands. The confusion of that didn't last very long, as a surge of energy escaped the Hollow's body and engulfed Ren entirely. It was some sort of dark smoke charged with electricity. There was no more light in there, no sound, just the pain of flesh being scorched.
A scream broke from him, trying to withhold the pain.
Then, for a fraction of a moment, he could see Kagami through the muddied layer of the Hollow. She was looking calm at the scene unfolding in front of her, still perched up there on her ledge, unbothered by any of it.
That image twisted something within him. He thought of his brother. Of the years that they had spent surviving places like this, and how they had been treated with a similar sort of coldness. Those memories might have been in the past now, but his anger was very much alive within him. He felt his blood boil as his anger surfaced through each cell in his body. His eyes turned golden.
Then, glyphs formed around the place where the Hollow and Ren stood. They were rectangular shapes circling the space around the two of them. Each one had a different symbol marked on it, each with a separate purpose. Ren could not tell what they meant, but he didn't really care. All he had was the feeling of it. And it was powerful.
Ren fixed his gaze at the center of the darkness and let everything inside him concentrate around it. All his frustration and all his fear went into it. Like wanting to condense all of it into one single particle of space and time and then have it either dissipate into nothingness or destroy the world with it.
His scream echoed through the empty hallways.
From her spot, Kagami's eyes turned completely golden as she watched it all unfold.
The talismans flared until trails of energy burst from them like flames. The Hollow shrieked. It twisted under the fiery pressure and tried to escape, but they had formed a barrier it couldn't cross.
Ren kept watching it burn all the while pushing hard with his mind until there was nothing left of the creature. Not even dust.
At the end of it, he fell to his knees. He stood there, lost for a few moments, taking it all in.
Then, Kagami leapt down gracefully from the ledge and approached him ceremoniously.
"Well done," she said, sitting in front of him.
Ren stared at her for a moment but said nothing. Then he pushed himself to his feet and limped away from the chamber. He'd had enough. He walked slowly up cracked steps and through an abandoned corridor. His ears were still ringing with the Hollow's screams, his eyes still watching it burn, and he just wanted it all to quiet down.
"Stay away from me," Ren said coldly as he noticed with the corner of his eye that Kagami was following close behind.
"You're being dramatic," she replied, though her voice lacked its usual sharpness.
Once outside the Vault's building, he caught on one of the support beams to steady himself and coughed hard. Blood came out of his lungs. Then he took a few more steps until he reached a rusted vent in the vicinity. There, he finally let himself fall. He landed hard against the wall, keeping one hand pressed to the wound on his shoulder.
Kagami was still following him, but careful to maintain a distance which she thought he had earned.
Ren reached into his pocket and pulled out the talisman the old trader had given him hours earlier. It was supposed to be a rare kind of remedy talisman, old-school, in case things went sideways. As he unfolded it, though, he saw it was torn in the middle. It was useless now.
"Wonderful," he mumbled, letting his head fall back against the wall, too tired to curse properly.