On that same night as Kai and his friend ran across the suburbs, escaping from getting scolded more by Valory, the latter then crying afterward in Lily's arms; something else was happening in another part of the city.
At that night, no matter where you were, be it in the suburbs or the very center, a cold breeze swept the streets. It left a salty scent in the air, which left the citizens thinking whether it would rain soon. In general, that week had a very strange weather; it was threatening to rain for a long while now after the last rainy night they had, but the rain never came.
Maybe it was waiting for something... or someone. Though both were very unreasonable excuses, nothing but superstition of those who couldn't find a better reason for that.
Anyway, those summer nights were being very cold as of late. It was raining often, though in the last few days the rain stopped to come and was lurking around the city, sending those gusts of cold wind as a warning that it was still there, ready to come.
While for some it was the typical smell of upcoming rain, for others it was the scent of death and danger. Or, at least, for a single person in particular.
'The scent of death, huh?' the man covered with a gray overcoat sat on the edge of the building that he was on top, playing with a dagger between his fingers. The gray overcoat that fell to the length of his knees looked more like a cloak because it also had a hood covering his head, hiding his face in the darkness.
'I think that I am just getting paranoid here. After all, for a soldier into the enemy's territory, every different scent is the scent of death; every different noise is the sound of death; every strange feeling is a bad omen.'
The man sighed. He was getting tired already. He didn't think that things would be like that after searching for his brother for just two days, but it looked like he was unprepared for how hard that journey would be.
He instinctively looked for a pendant hanging in his neck, but he didn't find anything.
"Oh... I nearly forgot..." he muttered to himself with a sad expression as he tightly clenched his fist in the place where his pedant should be hanging.
'There is no comfort for me anymore. I nearly forgot my position here, to be honest. Maybe it's a habit... a habit that I need to get rid of as quickly as possible. I don't have time to be sad about my decisions...'
He tried not to think much about the day when he left his home and his comrades to go in a selfish search for his brother, though it seemed almost impossible to find him and return alive. It had been just two days ago since he had done it. He needed to admit to himself that it hurt a lot to take that decision, but he did what should be done for the sake of his race.
'Many won't understand me and will think that my reasons are purely selfish, but that isn't true... I know that he can save our race from extinction. I know that HE can be a turn on the tables in this war. If I didn't believe in it from the deepest bottom of my heart, I wouldn't be here, risking my life in enemy territory. I know that my brother will make this reckless movement worthwhile.'
"If it was Valory going away, what would you do Mark?" he remembered what Lily asked.
'Man, I was so childish at that moment. I can't even believe it,' he thought as he rubbed his face. 'So childish that I want to go back in time and fix what I said. I guess that it is in my nature, though. I am not a perfect person, after all.'
Mark got up, taking off the dust from his clothes and looking around. Now wasn't the time to be rambling about life. Instead, he should continue his search. He knew that, at some point, he would find more clues about his brother, all the while protecting him from the Paladins.
Nonetheless, flashes of the night he left that building kept coming into his mind regardless of his resolution of concentrating on what he was doing at the moment.
"You are saying that you are going away to protect us, but who will defend our home if something happens?" the first voice showing up was of the person he admired the most.
"Aren't you just being selfish because you still hold a grudge about the past?" the smart pointing of his friend echoed in his mind.
"YOU, little bastard! You are the most irresponsible demon I ever saw in front of me for asking such idiocy! Things are like they are nowadays because we want to protect our race, and I won't let you change anything without my approval due to this fact. If not for this deal that we had decades ago, things would be very different for our race!" anger raised in his chest as that scolding passed across his mind, also as the disappointment in the face of that man.
"Stop trying to fight against destiny, Mark! We all know what you are capable of, but... don't you think that you are going too far with this?" his body shivered once he remembered that hoarse voice of his other friend, making him wonder about his limits and weaknesses.
"Your ambition is your biggest flaw, Mark, though it is your most impressive strong point as well. Maybe you wouldn't be so powerful if not for this trait," his heart trembled as his mind rambled about the statement he heard when looking at her gentle eyes.
"I understand you, Mark. I am not as strong as you are, but I understand the burden of being the strongest, the only one able to do certain things that others can't do at all," a sweet voice whispered in his ears as he remembered a certain person's rose and soft lips so close to his ears while saying so.
"Remember one thing, Mark: a soldier that gets out of the trench and runs mindlessly into enemy territory is a dead soldier that can't change anything. Be sure that you are really the monster that they think you are, otherwise, you will end up turning into this old quote that they always tell to the novices," finally, the voice of the person that he admired showed up again, but this time giving him a shock of reality.
It hurt him a lot to remember those things. Each of those words had a bit of truth behind them; some were entirely just the reality striking him on his forehead.
'Anyway, I never was the type of person to let reality take me down. Not reality, nor anything else that may come. That's just how ambitious I am, that's just how huge is my greed. I will show them that I am able to do it... I will show to my beloved Valory that the words she said so sweetly to me as she claimed to understand my reasons weren't in vain.'
While gritting his teeth, Mark left that spot and began to walk slowly on top of the building's roof as he put his hands into the pockets of his overcoat, feeling the cold breeze freezing his fingers.
Just as he got to the edge of that building, he stopped to walk suddenly. Looking at the horizon while frowning hard.
"Show up already. I bet that you know already that I noticed your approach," he said in a stern voice.
A strong gust of gelid wind came bursting from his right side, blowing his overcoat and making his hood tremble.
"I couldn't expect anything less from a demon like you. I wasn't counting on my luck nor skill to stay unnoticed for a long time, but just enough to get near you and look clearly at your face."
"Look at my face?" Mark replied with a funny voice. "You have some strange desires, huh, Sir Paladin... I thought that your race was all about chastity and this sort of stuff. Are you implying that you swing that way?"
Mark turned to him slowly as he said so, a sarcastic smile on his face that could only be noticed because it was being illuminated by the red glow of his eyes. His face was still hidden in the darkness, though.
"Haha... No wonder they said that you had this bad sense of humor, nearing childish," the Paladin said with disdain and wrath as a white longbow with details in golden began to form in his hand.
"I like to bother my enemies," Mark explained as he turned to him slightly, a back and red scythe appearing floating before him. "It's funny to see how all of them get shaken by some irony!" he exclaimed as he grabbed the scythe in middle-air and took a fighting stance.
His enemy gave a step forward, pulling the string of his bow and nocking an arrow there. The arrow, differently from the bow, was common. It wasn't part of his Soul Mirror.
"I will say it just one time, demon: go away while you can. Don't look behind. There is nothing here in these lands that belong to you!"
"Too bad, Paladin. It seems that, in the end, it was here that I lost something a long time ago and I am not willing to let go!"
This way, the demon stomped the ground and crossed the extension of that building's roof in a matter of seconds, starting his fight against that paladin.