A little boy standing in the void.
He was staring at Vanitas. His eyes were filled with a strange mixture of sorrow and anger—an anger directed at Vanitas. The child raised his small hand to point at him...
CRACK!
A deafening clap of thunder tore through the dream's sky.
Vanitas gasped, his eyes flying open, his chest heaving violently. Breathe. Inhale... a slow exhale.
Darkness enveloped the place. He sat up and looked around. The cold wooden cabin was empty and desolate as usual—completely empty, just like the guest sitting within it, and just like the purpose of this existence which seemed to have halted at this very point.
He stood up slowly.
In the opposite corner, Mujin was sleeping on the harsh wooden floor. His chest rose and fell with an undisturbed rhythm, sleeping without a single care in this cursed world.
Vanitas pushed open the heavy wooden door.
A violent rainstorm was battering the mountain. The raindrops were as cold as needles. He ran his thumb over his Aurum ring, pulling out an elegant black umbrella and a pack of cigarettes. Taking shelter beneath the umbrella, he placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it slowly.
He stood watching the water drops strike the dry dirt in front of the cabin. Drop after drop, silently absorbed by the earth.
The dirt is like me, Vanitas thought as he exhaled the gray smoke. When it fills with emptiness, it becomes heavy—a sticky mud useless for anything but hindering progress.
What are you doing, Vanitas?
Three days had passed since they emerged from the maze, and there was no progress in the mission. Mujin wouldn't give him the item, he was sure of that. Yet at the same time, Mujin wouldn't cast him aside for some reason unknown to him. It was a state of total paralysis.
He crushed the half-lit cigarette under his boot, closed the umbrella, and retraced his steps back inside.
Mujin had awakened. He sat cross-legged, a piece of cloth in his hand, cleaning the blade of his wooden sword in silence and with intense focus.
"You woke up early today," Mujin said without lifting his eyes from his wooden sword.
Vanitas didn't reply. He walked with quiet steps until he sat directly across from him. He fixed his cold gaze on the face of the immortal entity.
Mujin stopped wiping the sword. He lowered his hands and raised his black eyes to meet Vanitas's.
Vanitas asked in an emotionless tone, "What is it you want to achieve, Mujin?"
Mujin didn't answer immediately. He continued to stare into the eyes of the young man before him, as if reading an open book. After a few seconds, he spoke in his deep voice:
"The question is not what I want to achieve... but rather, where are you heading, Vanitas Exemplar?"
Vanitas's pupils constricted for a fraction of a second. It's strange that you utter my family name. How do you know it? I don't recall ever telling you.
"Is that what you focused on?" Mujin asked, as if reading the muted question on Vanitas's face.
Mujin slid his sword into its wooden sheath in one swift motion. He rose to his feet with fluid grace. "Let's go. Before the storm ends."
Vanitas remained seated, raising an eyebrow. "Where do you want to go in the middle of this storm?"
Silence. Mujin opened the door and stepped out into the thrashing rain.
"Answer me!" Vanitas raised his voice, but the wind swallowed the words. He was forced to get up and follow him.
Half an hour of continuous walking in the mud and heavy rain.
Vanitas wiped the water from his eyes with difficulty. "We've been walking for half an hour in the middle of this storm. Aren't you going to tell me what we're looking for?"
Mujin stopped suddenly. "Shut your mouth."
Mujin looked left and right, scanning the dark forest with eyes that pierced through the dense rain. Then he turned to Vanitas with a serious look. "Be useful. Hide us... and do it well."
Vanitas sighed in annoyance. Does he think Alchemy, like 'Rei', springs from nothingness? It's not free. I need a price for every card.
Before he could open his mouth to complain, Mujin's hand moved with the speed of light. A sharp, sudden pain stung the back of Vanitas's hand. He looked down to find a deep, long scratch carved into his flesh, blood bleeding profusely from it to mix with the rainwater.
"Damn you!" Vanitas cursed, biting his lip, but he wasted no time. His blood was the price Mujin had forcibly exacted.
He summoned the "Eclipse" card between his bloodstained fingers. The card instantly burned with a cold, black flame. The light refracted, and their presence, sound, and scent vanished entirely from the fabric of the forest.
Vanitas pulled a bandage from his ring and quickly bound his injured hand.
"Now what?" Vanitas whispered.
Mujin grabbed his shoulder and pulled him hard to hide behind the trunk of a giant oak tree.
"It's close," Mujin whispered, his eyes fixed on the empty space ahead. "The scent of your blood drew it. But then it suddenly vanished... so it's confused."
"So it's cautious?"
"And bewildered. And curious to see if you are prey worth the risk, or a trap."
Vanitas furrowed his brows in the concealed darkness. "What are you talking about?"
Mujin exhaled faintly. "This is the problem with the children of Stice. Do I have to explain everything to you? The matter is clear. A storm, and we are hunting. And it's obvious what we're hunting."
Mujin motioned with his head toward an empty spot between the trees.
"It took the bait. It will verify and approach. Any small mistake, and it will flee in less than a second. Here it comes."
Vanitas focused his gaze with all his might. He saw nothing. The forest was completely empty save for the rain and the trees.
Then, in a fraction of a second, he felt as if a fierce battle had occurred and ended before his mind could even process it.
Mujin lunged from behind the tree, attacking the empty air with his sword. But Vanitas sensed that this "air" had dodged the strike with impossible speed. At the exact same moment, with physics-defying agility, Mujin changed the direction of his blade mid-motion and stabbed the void from a completely different angle.
The sound of tearing flesh was accompanied by a heavy thud in the mud. The illusion dissipated.
On the ground appeared the corpse of a terrifying wild boar. It was entirely golden, massive as a boulder. But what truly distinguished it were the glowing blue streaks woven through its golden bristles. "Gullinbursti".
Vanitas remembered what he had read about it. It was said that this boar is born golden, but those blue streaks are carved into its body as a result of its immense speed and friction with the air. It was said that its normal walk couldn't be seen even by the strongest "Rei" swordsmen, let alone when it was running for its life.
But more important than its appearance was how it was killed. Mujin's strike was terrifyingly clean—a single precise slit in the neck to ensure the premium meat wasn't ruined.
Mujin looked at the boar with rare enthusiasm, then sheathed his sword. Before bending down to carry the precious catch, he reached his hand out toward Vanitas, who was still hidden, looking exactly in his direction.
"What?" Vanitas asked, breaking the card's effect to appear out of nowhere.
"I won't let you taste a single piece of it... unless you give me."
Vanitas blinked. "Give you what? I don't have anything of value on me."
"Cigarettes," Mujin said coldly. "I haven't smoked in a long time."
Vanitas searched his ring. He only had two cigarettes left. Supplies were truly running low. He sighed and pulled out the pack. He gave Mujin one, and placed the second between his own lips.
Mujin held the cigarette, and with an incredibly swift flick of his thumb, his skin created friction in a way that generated a thermal spark, lighting the tip of the cigarette in a second. Vanitas watched that movement in silence, then took out his usual metal lighter and lit his own cigarette in his human way.
They stood there in silence.
Vanitas tilted his head toward the sky. The water drops ceased falling on his head. The dense clouds slowly dissipated. The dirt stopped filling with water, officially turning into mud. And the blackness of the night that had shrouded the storm split open, allowing the bright dawn light to pierce the forest.
Vanitas exhaled a thick cloud of smoke from his mouth, watching it mix with the cold mountain air and visibly fade beneath the first rays of the sun.
Perhaps this moment... I will remember it in the future. So he thought, looking at the immortal entity carrying a mythical boar on his shoulder, smoking a cheap cigarette with genuine pleasure.
Excerpt from the book: Mythical Beasts Page: 62
"Gullinbursti is classified as one of the rarest and strangest creatures known to ancient times; it is not merely a wild boar, but an entity draped in pure, blinding gold. What sets this mythical beast apart is its supernatural speed that defies the laws of nature; it is said in lore that the strongest and fastest Rei swordsmen cannot catch even a fleeting glimpse of it as it runs.
Gullinbursti leads a highly mysterious lifestyle. It is an extremely cautious and intelligent creature, not an impulsive or reckless beast as rumored about its kind, but rather it moves with planning and acute awareness. This golden boar does not come out to hunt or be seen except during raging storms; as for where it lives or where it hides during the times when the storms subside, that is an arcane secret known to no one.
The only available information in historical records confirming its existence is that it was indeed hunted in a bygone era, and for this specific reason, narrators were able to document these fragments about it. However, the identity of the brave individual who managed to hunt it has been erased from history, so no one knows exactly who it was. Legends consistently say that the meat of Gullinbursti is the most delicious and exquisite in the entire world, making it the greatest and most elusive catch in history."