S's eyes darted around the pitch black room he found himself in. 

Fortunately, there wasn't all that much to see. It was pitch black, yet somehow bright. Seemingly endless, too. And all there was to see was himself and the recently incredibly terrifying boy(?) in front of him, as if the two of them were floating by themselves in a starless night sky. 

"Gotta say, you did a pretty good job at masking your malicious intent. I figured you'd had other motives, but I didn't expect this." S said.

"Oh, well, I do try." Said the boy, licking some of the blood from his lips.

"Riiight. Anyways, looks like its my turn to ask some questions." Said S, for some reason deciding this situation called for a half-witty quip. "What the hell is this? For that matter, what are you?" 

"Why, this is my Gossip Room, friend!" The boy said, with the same high pitched, childlike voice as before. It was significantly more unnerving this time though, what with the blood dripping from his mouth and the darkness in his eyes. "And I'll be continuing to ask questions, thank you very much! As for me, I'm still the same gossip boy! And in this room, I AM KING, AND I AM DEATH!"

'Ugh, seriously? 'Gossip Room?' S thought to himself. He wasn't a fan of naming one's moves. Thinks it's cheesy. This whole thing felt cheesy.

"Okay, then, 'death." S began, "Mind telling me how to get out of here, or am I gonna have to beat that out of you?"

"DON'T GET SO COCKY, BOY! In this room, I make the rules! And I say that YOU LOSE!"

"Right, well, I'm pretty sure I'm not dead yet, so... What are these rules, exactly?"

"I promise, you'll become most aware of them, in time." The boy said with a grin. 

'Well, I don't feel any different. I can still move just fine... This place doesn't smell like an illusion, either... What the heck is he talking about? He doesn't smell like he's bluffing, but...'

S decided he'd just have to figure it out later. He didn't like to think too hard about things like this. "Alright." He said, stretching, "What do you wanna know?"

"I am a merciful king. I shall grant you an opportunity to answer my questions before you face judgment. Tell me. Where is this so-called 'Beyes', the dark magic user?"

"What do you want with him? What does he have to do with this?" 

"I just want to ask him a few questions, of course!"

"About what?"

"I'll be honest. I'm a novice when it comes to this dark magic stuff. I only found out about it by accident, if you can believe that! But I need more. MORE!"

S's nose twitched. "Look, kid, I don't think he'll be able to help you. You probably know more than he does."

"Oh, I don't care, my dear S! If he cant give me any more power, I'll just HARVEST IT FROM HIM!"

'Sheesh, that's edgy.' "I take it he doesn't walk away from being... Harvested... alive, does he?"

"Oh, believe me." The boy said, producing a blood soaked dagger from his oversized sleeve, "We barely did."

S recoiled as the stench from the blood reached his nose. It was clear that this wasn't human blood, but the blood of something truly terrible. He wasn't sure if that made it better or worse.

"We?" S asked.

"I only gained this power from being harvested, myself!" The boy said, his bloodlust thick enough to cut, "I've felt no greater pain in my life! Today's mad beasts, they sure are something, aren't they? It was my hatred that kept me alive. I couldn't let myself die yet. Not until I've killed them. So I bit back. I feasted. Come to think of it, I might've died somewhere along the way, myself. But that's not important. Now, the beast and I, we are one."

"What? A-are you trying to tell me that you're... Part mad beast?"

The boy grinned widely, revealing fangs coated and dripping with blood.

"Jeez..." S said, instinctually stepping backwards. 

"NOW..." The boy said with an animalistic snarl. "YOU'RE GOING TO TELL ME WHERE THAT BOY IS, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO SCREAM IT!" He said as he put the blade in his mouth and charged at S on all fours.

"To be honest, I've got no idea where he is, but I don't think I'd be telling you if I did." S said as he leapt over the boy.

"OH, BUT I THINK YOU WILL!" The boy said as he flipped and gave chase once more. Whether or not anyone could understand what he said with the dagger in his mouth is up to interpretation.

The ground under the boy seemed to swell and burst outward, propelling him towards S as he wildly swung his blade, raining speckles of blood upon the ground.

S could do little more than raise his arms to block as he tried to step away. The blade gashed deeply into his right arm, wetting the blade anew as the flesh immediately around the wound began to burn. 

"AAAAAAH. GEEZ, that stings!" Said S as the clutched the wound.

"What's the matter, mister? Aren't you gonna fight back?"

"Currently trying to figure out how to do that. Whew, that's-"

"Begun to understand the rules of this room, have you? That's right! It's USELESS TO FIGHT! YOU'RE POWERLESS HERE!"

"What the hell are you-"

And then S stopped.

He realized something. 

He didn't feel any different. 

Could it be because there wasn't anything that changed? Or, more accurately,

Could it be that the condition was already changed?

"Is... Is the condition that I cant use magic?" 

"FINALLY REALIZED, HAVE YOU? INDEED! THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO HERE! YOUR STRUGGLES ARE MEANINGLESS!"

S stood blank faced for a moment.

Ordinarily, this would be an incredibly powerful, groundbreaking technique. Stopping the primal force that is magic itself WITH magic? Unheard of. And powerful. Assuming he can still use magic just fine, it's almost a surefire win. Hell, even if he can't, his natural (or perhaps unnatural) speed and strength are far above that of the average human. Without magic to close the physical gap, he'd be nigh unstoppable. 

Against almost literally anyone else in the world. 

"Damn, you're one unlucky little bastard." S said, through heavy breath. 

"What? What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Nothin'. Just keep attacking me."

"I can't wait to wipe that stupid smile off your face." Said the boy, once again charging towards S in a torrent of blood.

S put his hand to his mouth.

'Oh, would you look at that.'

S thought to himself and the blade cut across his chest, 

'I am smiling, aren't I?'

S couldn't help but keel over in pain as the flesh around the wound began to burn, much like the one before it.

'That's a lot of blood.' S thought.

"READY TO TALK, OR AM I NOT YET DONE BREAKING YOU?" The boy said.

'It's strange that he talks after every strike.' S thought.

A gash deep gash to the shoulder. A bit of saliva fell into the wound.

"LACK THE ENERGY TO DEFEND, DO YOU?"

'That's not all my blood, is it?' S thought.

"STIL BREATHING?" The boy said. Though his words were confident, his voice was shaky.

'Ah, I get it.' S thought. 'He can't keep this up for long, can he?'

A bell curve cut deep into his thigh.

'I could just wait him out.' S thought. 'This probably hurts him about as much as it hurts me.'

"H-HEY, C'MON, SAY SOMETHING!"

'Better yet, I could talk. He's not going to kill me. And it's not really Beyes he wants, either.' S thought, recalling their earlier dialogue. 'He's got an axe to grind. I can't imagine it'd be too hard to figure out what that is, either.'

Another gash to the chest, creating a cross with the other wound. 

'I'm well aware that'd be far easier. It's probably the moral action, too.' 

"JUST DO ANYTHING, PLEASE!"

'But...'

A cut up across his face, the heat forcing his eyes shut.

'I don't know if it's because of Catface... The past few days... Or the beast's blood now inside me...'

"P-PLEASE! AT LEAST MOVE SOMETHING-"

'BUT I JUST REALLY WANT TO HURT THIS KID!' S Thought to himself, as he stood up with his lips in a grin and his teeth clenched.

"Y-YOURE UP! GOOD!" Said the boy, panting. "NOW... THIS ONE'S GONNA HURT!"

'Can't see... No matter. Check this one out, Grigor...'

"LEFT!" S shouted, shooting out his left arm. 

"HOW THE HE- GRK-!"

S, after grasping the boy by the neck and launching his good leg at his head, knocking him to the floor.

"RIGHT, I HATE TO BREAK IT TO YA, KID, BUT IT'S NOT MAGIC THAT MAKES ME POWERFUL." S said.

"H-HO-ACK!" The boy said, coughing heavily. "THEN HOW-"

"YOU'LL BECOME MOST AWARE, IN TIME!"

"OH, TO HELL WITH YOU!"

What followed was what would have been, if only anyone else was around to see it, the most visually impressive stalemate between two violently insane young boys in history. Two boys, in an endless pitch black void, with nothing on their minds other than doing harm onto the other. The boy in the trench coat leaping on all fours at blistering speeds at the boy in the tan robe, who used his body to deflect each attack and throw him to the ground with his eyes closed. All the while both of them are dripping in their own and each others' blood

Believe me. It was cool as hell.

But nobody saw it, so it doesn't matter.

"ABOVE!"

"AHK-!"

"LOW!"

"ERG-!"

"AHK- RRRRRIIIIIIIIIGHT!"

The boy flew comically across the void, like a light, bloody softball. The force from the blow knocked his blade out of his mouth.

S ran after him, tearing a pouch off of his belt and ripping the top off with his teeth as he poured it into his mouth.

"BAHK- HAAAH..." The boy began, disoriented and breathless after the attack. "IF... IF YOU THINK I NEED THAT KNIFE TO KILL YOU, YOU'RE DEEEEEAAAAD WRONG!" The boy's teeth and nails seemed to grow as he said this, as a hint of red began to pulsate in his iris. He could feel his bestial blood boiling. More than usual, anyway. His existence was generally pretty painful.

S leapt at the boy, keeping him on the ground, as the boy's claws dug into S's shoulder. 

And then S opened his mouth.

And lo, what poured forth was sand.

S, forcing his eyes open as much as he could, and placed his hands upon the sand.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH, FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- OF COURSE IT WAS SAND- AAAHK- MY EYES!" The boy shrieked in pain.

And the black void around them began to crack.

S paused and looked around. His grin began to gradually fade away from his face.

"Can't keep up your concentration like that, can you?"

The boy was too busy writhing to respond. 

S stood with heavy breath, as the void around them crumbled.

And once again, they were standing in The Adjective Noun. 

The two of them did little more than pant heavily for some time, as blood began to pool on the floor beneath them.

. . .

Eventually, S knelt down beside the boy. He could tell that, despite everything, the boy was bleeding even more than he was. It was clear to him that he wasn't experienced in the field of magic or combat. The boy had overexerted himself quite a bit. If he was lucky, he would pass out soon. If he wasn't lucky... He'd have died a long time ago, S realized, as he looked down at the boy's gentle smile.

'Like my brother, isn't he...' S thought to himself.

He also found himself smiling. Not grinning with murderous intent like before, but a genuine, happy smile.

"Right, now, before you pass out from blood loss and the guards come, mind if I ask you a question?" S said.

"S...Sure." The boy said, weakly, with a cough.

"Earlier, you said you wanted to kill someone... Who? Who drove you to this?"

"How much do you know-" Cough. "About 'The Cat?" The boy said.

And then he passed out. With a smile on his face.

And S chuckled, sadly.

"How did I know you were gonna say that..." He said.

S sighed. He knew that, mechanically, this boy, with his power, had the best chance of doing it. Catface's magical ability was unparalleled. Far, far above man or beast. Far above anything, S thought to himself.

Without it, she might actually be vulnerable. She might be able to bleed, like a human or an animal would. Maybe she could even be beaten. 

"Still..." S whispered. "You... Will never win." He said, sadly, to the sleeping child. "Not against her."

He didn't know why he said it. All he knew is that he knew it.

And that was all he had to say.

"Right, anyone mind grabbing the-" S shouted to the many, very terrified people all around him in the densely packed fast food restaurant, before he noticed that there was already a pack of traumatized guards nearby. "Oh, you're already here. Dee-lightful. Mind grabbing a healer, too? I'm pretty sure I'm also gonna pass out." S concluded, rubbing sand into his wounds.