Thirty-One Days to Die

She had made a mistake.

Her golden eyes remained fixed on him.

Her talons flexed against the ruined nest. The air around her still trembled with the force of her wind blade.

She had cut him.

She had seen his arm fall.

Yet now—

He stood before her, whole.

The golden haze still flickered around him, not fading, but growing, as though the storm had not wounded him, but fed him.

Her magic had never failed before.

When she struck, things broke. Things ended.

But not this.

This was no longer a battle for dominance.

This was something else.

Something wrong.

He did not run.

He did not hide.

He simply walked, moving with the slow, methodical grace of something untouched by fear.

Straight toward her last chick.

Her wings snapped open.

The sky itself seemed to pulse with her fury.

There was no time to think, no time to strategize—only the need to stop him.

She moved.

Too late.

Reich raised his hand.

The chick sensed him. It whimpered, trembling, its oversized beak snapping uselessly at the air.

Then—

Crack.

The sound should not exist.

A horrible, wet crunch.

A scream of agony, raw and piercing.

A sound that should never have come from her nest.

Her vision went red.

The storm inside her broke.

She struck.

The sky bent to her will, the winds twisting into a spiraling force of destruction.

This was not a measured attack. This was not calculated.

This was rage, sharpened into a weapon so vast it swallowed the air itself.

She did not use talons.

She did not use claws.

She used the wind.

A storm of blades, a force that could flay flesh from bone, tear apart mountains.

Nothing should survive this.

The air roared as the nest collapsed, splinters flying, the sky screaming alongside her.

For a moment, she thought it was over.

For a moment, she thought she had erased him.

And then—

He moved.

Not away.

Not in fear.

Through the chaos.

Through the storm.

Through her.

Her talons gouged deep into the ruined nest.

She turned—where was he?

Then, she saw him.

Standing. Waiting. Watching.

And smiling.

A slow, knowing grin.

The wind still howled. The sky still raged.

And yet—he did not break.

Her golden eyes locked onto him.

Her rage consumed her.

She attacked again.

This time, she did not just summon the wind.

She tore it from the sky.

Razor-sharp currents twisted and coiled around her, surging into blades of pure destruction, each one capable of slicing through stone.

She did not stop.

She would not stop.

She would tear him apart.

Her magic screamed through the air, carving through everything in its path.

And yet—

He moved.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Her attacks tore through the nest, through the air—but not through him.

She struck, but the storm obeyed him too.

No.

It wasn't the wind itself.

It was how he moved.

Her magic made him stronger.

The Moment She Realizes

Every time she lashed out, he dodged closer to her last chick.

She could kill him.

She could end this.

But she could not destroy the nest.

And now, she knew—

That was exactly what he wanted.

She could have obliterated him already.

She could have crushed him under the full force of her magic.

But she hadn't.

She wouldn't.

Because the last of her young was still alive.

And he knew.

She saw it in his eyes.

The cold, calculated patience.

He was not just fighting her.

He was using her.

This could not be.

It was madness.

After a while she pinned him down.

Her talons slammed into his body, crushing him beneath her full weight.

Bones shattered. Organs ruptured. His breath stopped.

This was absolute.

This was final.

This was what happened when prey defied her sky.

And then—

Golden light.

Again.

Her eyes widened.

The wounds vanished.

His body knitted itself back together, bones snapping into place, flesh reforming as if nothing had ever happened.

As if her power meant nothing.

She reared back, confusion overriding fury.

Reich grinned through the blood.

"Do it again."

Her talons lashed out, instinct roaring back into control.

She tore across his chest, claws slicing deep—a wound that should have ended him.

Blood sprayed.

He did not fall.

He just got stronger.

The storm around her twisted.

Her mind caught up to her rage.

And this time, she felt something cold settle into her bones.

This was wrong.

The little creature should have died.

It should have stopped moving.

But it was still there.

Still breathing.

Still…

Smiling.

It made her flinch and for the first time she hesitated.

And in that second—

Reich moved.

He leaped onto her beak.

His foot slammed against her nostril, gripping for balance.

She thrashed, her head shaking violently, trying to throw him off.

He didn't let go.

BOOM.

She slammed her beak into the nest, trying to crush him.

Wood exploded around them.

But he let the pain fuel him.

She tried again—faster, harder.

She would end this.

She tried to bite him in half.

Her beak snapped shut.

And then—

He stopped her.

He caught her beak with both hands.

He held it open.

She froze.

This was not possible.

This was not prey.

"Big mouth," he said. "Let's see if you can still use it."

And then he stomped on her lower beak.

Something cracked.

Pain shot through her skull.

Teeth—snapped, shattered, broken.

She screeched in agony, flinging him off, wings flaring wide.

But as she rose, as she tried to call the wind, to bend the sky back to her will—

Nothing listened.

The storm no longer obeyed her.

The sky was no longer hers.

And she was losing.

She needed to escape.

The thought had never existed before.

She had ruled the sky for years.

She had never fled. Never hesitated.

But now—she wanted to run.

She tried to lift off, wings snapping open, the air bending to her desperate will—

And then—

Pain.

Something latched onto her wing.

Fingers.

Digging into the muscle.

Holding her down.

The little creature was holding her down.

No.

She screamed, trying to shake him off.

And then—

Agony.

Teeth.

Tearing.

A horrible, wet rip.

Something was missing.

Her mind caught up a second too late.

A piece of her wing was gone.

She stumbled, the nest beneath her suddenly feeling too small.

He had ripped into her.

He had torn her apart with his teeth.

She screeched, the pain screaming through her body.

"How does it feel?"

His voice slithered through the chaos.

She turned her head, wild, frantic, eyes burning—

And he was chewing.

Chewing.

Swallowing.

A piece of her.

Her entire body seized.

This was not a battle anymore.

This was something worse.

Her wings trembled.

Her vision blurred.

She wasn't a ruler anymore.

She was just another broken thing in this nest.

No.

No.

No.

She still had one last strike.

She lunged.

Her beak snapped like a guillotine, aiming to crush him in one final, desperate move.

A killing blow.

A ruler's judgment.

She missed.

He was already in the air.

Leaping over her.

Landing on her back.

Her body jerked, twisted, flapped.

It was useless.

Something wrapped around her throat.

Arms.

Tight. Unyielding.

Squeezing.

She thrashed.

She clawed.

She tried to fly.

But she couldn't lift off.

Her body convulsed.

Her wings beat against the nest, desperate, frantic.

She could feel the wind—but it no longer obeyed her.

She was not in control anymore.

Her body froze.

Her breath shuddered.

Her golden eyes—once burning with fury—

Now burned with horror.

But still, her body refused to accept it.

Her wings twitched.

Her claws scraped against the ruined wood.

Her instincts screamed at her.

Move. Strike. Kill. Survive.

She tried to flap her wings again.

Nothing.

She tried to summon the wind.

Nothing.

The sky—her sky—was silent.

The wind no longer listened.

She had no more power left.

She had no more choices left.

She had nothing left.

One last thrash.

A desperate, twitching jerk of her body.

A final, ragged gasp.

A final, fleeting instinct—

Escape. Fly. Fight. Do something. Anything.

Nothing.

Reich's grip tightened.

She felt the pressure build, the force closing around her throat like iron.

Her breath hitched.

Her lungs burned.

She had never struggled to breathe before.

She had never been helpless before.

Now—

She was helpless.

The fight left her wings first.

Then her claws.

Then her chest.

Until all that remained was her beating heart, thudding weakly, uselessly.

Her golden eyes dimmed.

Not in rage.

Not in hate.

But in fear.

"Now you understand."

His voice slithered through the silence, cold and final.

She wanted to deny it.

She wanted to scream.

But all she could do—

Was listen.

CRACK.

The sound of her throat crushing echoed through the silent forest.

Her body collapsed.

She fell.

Her golden eyes stared at nothing.

She didn't get up.

○●○

The silence pressed against his ears.

The sky, once howling with wind, was still.

The nest, once a battlefield, was ruined.

And the Queen of the Sky—

Was dead.

Reich exhaled, slow and steady, rolling his shoulders as the last traces of pain faded.

His hands still trembled. His body still burned.

He looked down at her.

At what was left.

He had won.

Berserk deactivated.

And then—

His body betrayed him.

The pain wasn't instant.

It was worse.

For the first second, there was only silence. Like the world itself had stopped.

Then—

Agony.

His breath hitched—then stopped.

Something inside him collapsed.

Something important.

His muscles twisted like they were being torn apart.

His organs ruptured.

His blood burned.

And then—

it all began to pour out.

His mouth filled with it first—a wet, choking rush of crimson.

Then his nose.

Then his ears.

Then his eyes.

Then—everywhere.

Blood seeped from his fingernails.

From his pores.

It poured out of him in thick, relentless waves, soaking the shattered wood beneath him.

His veins felt like they were on fire.

His bones felt like they were liquefying inside his body.

His heart stopped.

He dropped to his knees.

His fingers dug into the ruined nest, struggling to hold on to something—anything—before the pain ripped him apart.

This was what should have killed him.

This was why no one used Berserk and lived.

Because the moment the rage ended—

So did the body.

But Reich could not die.

So he felt everything.

His breath finally tore from his throat in a ragged, gurgling scream.

It didn't stop.

It wouldn't stop.

The pain didn't fade.

His body was eating itself alive.

Burning.

Breaking.

Rebuilding.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Too much.

His vision blurred.

His legs buckled.

His mind fought to stay conscious—to hold on.

But the pain was too much.

It swallowed him whole.

Everything went dark.

The wind whispered through the ruined nest.

The sky, once a battleground, stretched quiet and endless.

Blood soaked the splintered wood.

The Queen of the Sky lay dead.

And beside her, motionless—

Reich.

[AN] Reich survived. But at what cost?

The mother bird ruled this part of the land, an apex predator. But by the end, she wasn't just dead—she was broken.

And Reich? He won. He's still alive.

But the moment Berserk ended, his body tore itself apart.

Who would have taught.

If you have any questions please ask them here, I'll try answering all of them

Additionally, a review , a stone or a collection would be nice as well.

👁 See you in the next chapter.