The brutish winds died down and the dust had finally settled after what had felt like a pause in time, all that was left was the eerie silence of chaos, Pix's ear rang as blood spilled from them, he looked up at the now gray skies, `a cracked smiled grew on his face. 'I guess this is as far as I go', he thought. The rain began to pour, washing away the sharp pain he felt coursing through his entire being, Pix turned his head to the side only to find his scythe, the symbol of his strength and heritage, broken, the part of the blade buried in the ground reflecting back to him his equally broken body.
"sh….shit", he said, his voice weakened and hollow, as if he were grasping for air,
" guess…. Guess, I…really….Lost", he continued, coughing and wheezing.
Slumped over his back resting on a rugged slab of stone, Barak's consciousness faded in and out, he could feel the cold drops of rain hitting his body, the water running off into his cuts and bruises, washing them clean, he looked up his gaze falling onto his defeated opponent, though he wasn't in any better of a state than him, he felt exhausted, labored, depleted, the exhaustion that filled his mind, brought with it the unpleasant memories back to the forefront of it. His eyes closed and opened again, this time in front of him stood a familiar face, Zarin, covered in blood, one eye hanging by a string, half of his face crushed, one arm nearly cut clean off, burn marks all over his body, and a gaping stab wound through his heart with darkened singed markings all around it,
"you all did this", the voice played in his mind, "we were brothers, comrades, and you betrayed me, a heart for a heart, a soul for a soul",
"you could've said no", Zarin's disembodied voice rang in his head like church bells being rung right next to your ears, "all of you could have",
Barak jolted awake, Krio knelt next to him, he could see his mouth moving, but he heard no words, behind Krio was where she stood, Barak did not know her, but he knew that that was no human, no mortal being, she stood there fiery red hair swaying in the wind seemingly unaffected by the rain, and a blank white mask with only the eyes showing, and her eyes, sharp, like blades cutting through flesh, a white raven landed on her shoulder, and spoke.
"Shall it be you or I, that he will beckon to, shall it be you or I to claim his soul, Arma Areia", the white raven said.
"Barak", Krio's voice cut through the silence, pulling Barak's attention to him for a split second, he glanced behind krio and no one was there,
"I thought you died", Krio said, examining Barak's wounds, "this is going to hurt",
"what is", barak questioned, he followed Krio's eyes towards his own chest, a large slash had been made through it, and to one end was the broken end of pix's scythe sticking out of his chest,
"hold on", Krio said, placing his hand around the broken blade, upon touching it, his hand began to burn, the blade was still hot to the touch, "brace your self", Barak summoned what little strength he had left to brace for the pain, Krio yanked back dislodging the blade, A small spurt of blood as the blad was freed from his chest,
"give it back to him", barak said, looking krio directly in his eyes and then looking at Pix, Krio gave a slight nod, getting up from next to barak, he began to march over to Pix, who still laid there, conscious, but not moving.
Infront of Krio, a man in a purple mask appeared, Krio readied his scythe but the strange man barely acknowledged his prescence, the look in his eyes at that short glance, and krio could tell, he barely regarded him as a small inconvenience, an annoyance really, the bulk of his attention laid on the ground at his feet,
" you pillars sure are making me work hard today", Kazak said, he knelt to on knee, examining Pix's body and the extent of his injuries, his head shot up staring across at barak, "I see no need to attack you, you are much worse for wear than you seem", Kazak said, this time his voice coming from next to Barak. He stood up, appearing next to Pix once again, "now I'm not a medic or a doctor, but lets see, multiple broken ribs, severe burns, divine energy exhaustion and overusing that natural blessing of yours, so mental exhaustion also, oh not to mention the concussion you might have", he said shooting a look at Krio this time, finally acknowledging his existence, he let out a defeated sigh, "I'll have to take you to see mistress korsana later, she'll have someone to heal you up", with that the two began to sink into the ground completely disappearing.
Krio helped barak to his feet, taking a short walk up the hill of the crater that His and pix's final clash created, at the top of the hill he was met with his sword, lighting coursing and crackling through it, Barak smiled, next to him Krio dropped to his knees, his breathing heavy, soon multiple wounds began appearing all over his body again,
"don't go dying on me now", barak said, looking at krio directly in his eyes,
"....", krio whispered something,
"what did you say", as barak leaned in closer,
"put your hand on the mask", krio said softly,
"okay", barak replied, as he placed his hands on the mask,
a feint glow appeared from barak's hand and the mask, as barak felt a small bit of his Divine energy leave his body and enter the mask, as he looked at krio's wounds they began to slowly close up, at least partially,
"thank you", krio said to barak, his voice only a bit stronger now, barak just gave him a soft smile, Barak dropped down next to him, taking a seat on the ground, fortunately, that last attack left their section of the battlefield clear, though the sound of fighting roared on in the back ground. Krio took a look over at Barak, staring at the wound on his chest as it closed slowly, Barak noticed him and laughed,
"yeah, holding my sword does that sometimes, it's probably one of the reasons why I've been able to fight the way I do", Barak said laughing at what he could only imagine was krio's shocked face underneath that mask,
"you four are an enigma, you aren't easy for me to understand, unlike my master", Krio said, Barak wasn't sure, but he had a feeling Krio was smiling under his mask.
"well, once all of this is over, you, amon and yumi, fuck it even Zack can come visit our island, it'll explain a lot about us", barak said, getting back on his feet, he held out his hand towards Krio, helping him up from the ground.
"Luckily, for me, I still have more fighting to do for the day", Barak said, his gaze fixated on the Outer wall of the Dracht Capital, "I hope Amon and Yumi left Aluric with some in him, cause I'm itching for a rematch",
"Grif rym'ora tu jon, Astro Ora (grant strength to him, Astro Ora)", Krio said, placing his hand on the top of Barak's back,
"was that elvish", Barak asked,
"I learnt it while I was staying in flanesa, I only said a small prayer", krio said,
"well let's hope it works", barak said, sheathing his sword, he made his way towards the Capital's walls, and the battalion of soldiers that camped in front of it.
somewhere else on the battle field
Polaris spurred from his deep thoughts, Swinging his sword, barely blocking the blades that flew at his head, Aux circled around him looking for the slightest hints of an opening, his movements were graceful and silent, like a twisted dancer who loved to kill people. It had been sometime that Polaris and Aux had become locked in this stalemate, aux would circle, finding a small crack in Polaris' defense, Polaris would adapt and block, barely missing Aux with his own counter attack, and then the dance would start over again, however, slowly, the monotony of this battle caused Polaris' mind to drift to other thoughts.
"you are meant to serve and kill, that is all, in service to our goddess you shall devote yourself", Zaraar's voice rang in his head, 'it's you, you're the one who made me into this, this monster, everyone else has been good to me, held out hope for me, but, because of you I can't help it, I can't help but feel the need to kill', Polaris thought to himself.
Again, another volley of blades, Polaris held out his hand towards them, forming a thick layer of ice in front of him to stop Aux's attack, a blade curved itself around the ice wall, but Polaris expected it, he jumped away, landing a few feet back, Polaris sunk back into his thoughts,
"I only brought out what laid dormant inside you, your actual father, my brother, he was a killer, the perfect righteous soldier, he slayed and slaughtered our enemies, in the name of our clan and our goddess", Zaraar's voice said to him, it was something he heard him say time and time again, 'he was born to be a natural killer because his father was one', ' there was nothing else he could ever be, his hands will, and shall always be soaked in the blood of others', Polaris thought. Polaris' eyes were dull, cold, uninterested in the fight in front of him, he had more pressing matters he needed answers for,
"am i enough to stand next to the others ?, Lev is out here trying too be a force for good, a hero, Rak found himself people other than us he can trust and shelters orphaned kids, Aster though he's still an enforcer, is one hell of a craftsman so he has something else to look forward to besides fighting, all I have is my sword and my training, all I do is travel and kill those I deem enemies or bad, but who am I to judge", Polaris thought, the icy barrier melted away, revealing two more blades of darkness heading his way.
' while we were all enforcers, our official clan records says that Levant had the most victories in battle, a total number of 18 victories, though they really were executions, when in reality because of that bastard zaraar, unofficially I probably have three times that amount' Polaris thought to himself, as his mind drifted back to an unpleasant memory
a few years ago
" I can't believe these guys are the ones who stole from our vault", Barak said, standing over a mangled corpse,
" I know right, these were the guys that were hanging out close to the village every night", Levant stated,
"if we had known we could've gotten rid of them right there", barak replied,
"oh well we know now and because of what they did the elders ordered us to get rid of them", Aster chimed in,
" by the way where is Pol ?", Aster asked,
" he's probably off somewhere sulking by himself, when he's ready he will come back", Levant stated,
"wait, wait, wait, it wasn't our idea to rob the vault, someone on the inside told us to, they told us they would cut us in on whatever they made off of the items", the man dragging himself across the ground pleaded,
"shhh, shhhh, they'll hear you", Polaris, said, putting a single finger over his masked covered mouth,
"this isn't because you tried to steal from us, three weeks ago, you, your mother and your wife, defected from the congregation of the church of junorra here on arteva, the church has already made both your mother and your wife repent, now it is your turn", Polaris stated, pulling out a small dagger,
"wait, what do you mean repent, what have you done to the…..", the man asked, but before he could finish, Polaris sank the blade into his throat,
the next morning broke, and the boys were back home, Polaris knelt on both knees in front of Zaraar,
"well done Polaris, I'm sure once the body is found with junorra's symbol carved into him and the fact that he was chained to a tree, that will deter any more dissenters from leaving the congregation", zaraar, said standing above Polaris, as his cold eyes looked down on to him,
"now take the pill I provided and leave", Zaraar said,
back in to the present
Polaris shook his head, trying to rid himself of that memory, he was shaken by what he had done, but, now wasn't the time to be worried about that, Aux was charging at him full speed, as he came into reach of Polaris he slashed at him, Polaris barely managing to dodge the attack, or so he thought, as the dark blade extended, giving Polaris, a razor thin cut across his chest, Polaris finished jumping back, trying to create distance between him and Aux as he tried to gather his thoughts,
"I see, you're finally awake", Aux said, stopping in his tracks,
"I was never asleep, simply bored", Polaris replied,
" there are two reasons why you currently won't win against me", Aux began to explain, pointing his blade at Polaris,
"one you're distracted, I can tell, your body is here, but, your mind is somewhere else", Aux explained,
"two, you fight in a way that isn't suited to you, I could tell that from the night I raided the rebel base, you start to attack the vital points, places that if you land a strong enough attack, will definitely kill a person, but then you switch where you target, your fighting styles are conflicted", Aux finishes explaining,
"so why are you telling me this in the middle of a battlefield, to someone who is your opponent no less", Polaris questioned, Aux,
"its simple, I have my pride as an assassin, and seeing someone hold back their honed assassination skills, feels disrespectful, look around you at where you are, a battlefield, everyone on both sides are laying down there lives, and here you are trying not to kill someone with techniques that were meant for that very same thing, you're either extremely arrogant or very naïve, but, to me it's okay to embrace that darkness that is inside you, I recognize it within you to me its like meeting a kindred spirit, so embrace that darkness and make yourself whole", Aux lectured to Polaris,
As Aux dashed forward to Polaris,' yes embrace the darkness, it all people like me have anyways', he thought to himself,
as his mid flashes to his past, to when he first held a knife, and felt he warmth of another creatures blood, to when he first saw a mans life leave his eyes,
"hmmph, you might be right", Polaris states, as he too dashes forward to Aux,
the two clash in the middle, but, Polaris heavier weapon, pushes back Aux, sending him flying through the air, Polaris rushes him down, swinging his sword and aiming for Aux's neck, but He is met by Aux's dark blade, the force of the blow sending aux flying once more in another direction, this time along the ground,
As aux tumbles over the dirt, he regains his composure, using the momentum from Polaris attack, he pushes, himself off of the ground, and into the air, as three dark blades appear in each hand, Aux launches them in Polaris' direction,
"fuck, he is good", Polaris, said, jumping to the side, trying his best to avoid, the incoming blades, but, he was a second to slow, as the last blade, pierces through the flesh of his leg, going in one side and coming out the other, sticking into the ground behind him, as the dark blade, disappears in a small mist,
a burning pain, began to flow through Polaris' entire leg, as blood began to pour out of the wound, staining the ground with his blood, as blood seeped into his white pants, Polaris knelt there on the ground, clutching his wound with one hand, though Aux gave him no time to breathe, appearing above him, with his blades at the ready,
"guess I don't have much of a choice but to use it", Polaris said smiling to himself,
As his hands began to turn an icy blueish color, and his eyes began glowing, he could feel his Divine energy grow as he activated the technique, in Polaris mind he was standing chest height in a body of water,
"UNHOLY WRATH: CETO-NU", Polaris shouted, with the appearance of multiple sharp shards of ice appearing in front of him, Aux knew he couldn't dodge all of them, as the icicle shards launched at him, pushing him back off of Polaris, cutting him, all over his body, some piercing straight through parts of his body,
Aux landed, quite a ways away from, Polaris, as he narrowly escaped that attack with his life intact, he smiled to himself,
"i see you're starting to accept it", Aux said, planting his feet firmly into the ground as several blades rose up out of his shadow,
Aux rushed forward towards, Polaris launching several of the shadow blades at him, as he circled around Polaris,
Polaris thinking quick on his feet, sticks his sword in the ground causing a cluster of icicle spikes to shoot out of the ground stopping the shadow blades,
Polaris, gritted his teeth as he froze the surrounding area of the wound on his leg, as a burning sensation once again shot through his leg,
As he stood once more readying himself for the final part of this battle