SPLASH!

That was the sound of the spraying blood as it rushed out the body of its headless victim.

The young man looked on as the kneeling body fell to the ground, breathing heavily as he let out a sigh of relief.

'That should be the last of them.' He let out a sly smile almost lewd in nature.

He had really almost lost his life this time.

Seeing that he had got rid of the last of them he felt no rush, taking a seat on the cold temple floors to address the gaping wound in his torso.

It seemed he had picked up a habit of getting stabbed, as he easily covered the wounds using what remained of his jacket.

The eyes of the youth were glowing. Taking a breath he stood up, oblivious to the pile of bodies on the temple floors.

Well maybe oblivious was the wrong way to put it. He was the cause afterall.

His eyes didn't see them. Maybe to him their dead bodies were no less natural than the moss that dug into the crevices of the walls...

The young man looked down towards his chest. He was almost certain this thing in his chest…

He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for this.

Getting back on track, he moved towards the altar placed in the middle of the hall.

It had several connecting pillars that rotated around the main monument—runes of various kinds syncing with their sequence.

If one wasn't careful, they would find the pillars slamming into their body, causing severe injury.

But he didn't seem to notice, moving forward faster, and as he did, those pillars cracked and shattered, the surrounding runes fading.

This was the last trial in this place. It was one of the mind, a final test of conviction.

It measured your steps. The more erratic your steps the more likely you were to be crushed beneath its pillars.

The centre monument lit up, gaining its own runes.

On top of it lay a complex spherical mass comprising those very runes, but he had long since met the requirements.

His hands glided over the spherical mass, an unnatural efficiency brought to life as he recalled the order of signs and gestures.

His fingers moved with such dexterity, they seemed to reach the limits of what was humanly possible.

With every tap, the monument released a rune of its own, matching his pace and moving the runes where needed.

He was bleeding and his face was all but covered in the spray of blood from earlier, but that didn't seem to move him, his mind falling into a deeper focus as time passed.

By the end of it, he was practically holding back a cackle, revealing teeth that were also covered in blood, evidence of the savage nature of his win.

Usually, he had a mask on but unfortunately, it seemed he had lost it during this venture, but all that wouldn't matter soon enough.

As if on cue the strange spherical mass finally reacted, opening up in a flower-shaped vortex to reveal some rather ordinary objects.

'Is this all?' The young man frowned but didn't have much time to debate his grievances as the ground began to shake.

He moved with speed, stashing them in his pockets before leaving directly.

Or at least he planned to until he felt a weak tug at his joggers.

'Hmm?' His mind went into high alert.

He stopped in his tracks, his heart skipped a beat, but his face did nothing to show it.

He looked down at the body that had half its skull bashed in.

Well, it was a body to him, but the man was clearly still alive. For now.

"Reaper... Y...you. Wil..di..e a sorrow...full... dea" The youth whose alias was Reaper simply stood there waiting for the man to finish his words.

But seeing that he was already dead, he kicked off the hand resuming his efforts to escape.

In his eyes, there was no guilt, no remorse, just amusement.

…

"Truly annoying." He looked at his surroundings which revealed the starless night sky, then back at the Runic Wall which was starting to collapse on itself.

From the Wall, he could 'see' faint whispers of the fading temple. Despite how many times he's seen such scenes, they never ceased to amaze him.

Of course it wasn't lost on him, that only he could see this 'Wall.'

A Frosted Temple. It truly was beautiful. Pillars of white, which held up the skies, surrounded the outer structure.

The whole temple was made up of a blue marble-like material that blended well into the night.

'What's up with those old assholes, building elaborate crap like this? Ptchu.' He spat on the ground, grinding it with his food.

He didn't really get it but his aunt always did it whenever she was angry.

'Aunt Lilia...' He couldn't help but reminisce.

'Sigh.' Everything just seemed intent on pissing him off these days.

His clothes? Tattered! His mask? Gone!

It was then it hit him.

"My Arch Blacks!" He took off his shoes, only to find holes in basically every point possible.

His face turned from sour to helpless. These were the only pair of shoes he had for crying out loud.

Not to mention they were limited edition! What happened to the promised increased durability?

He truly wasn't over reacting. He had spent a fortune on these constructs.

'Sigh.' Seeing as crying over it wouldn't resolve anything, he shook his head turning his focus to other things.

"Reaper huh..." He rubbed his nose. 'Nice ring to it.'

He didn't know when or how the title came about, but at some point, everyone started to refer to him, or rather, his persona, as 'Reaper.'

It had been 10 years since he took on this persona. He would be turning 19 this year.

He remembered that day like the back of his hand, the day his world crumbled before his eyes.

Just like this fading Wall, the falling figure of that man seemed to replay itself vividly in his mind, his eyes pulsing.

Whenever his heartbeat went out of control, his eyes would pulse like this, the world shattering into digestible pieces. For him to 'see.'

But it wasn't beautiful to him. If anything it reminded him of the insignificance of everything.

It made the world seem more like lines of probabilities than actual Chaos.

He couldn't see the beauty of such a thing... He only saw variables.

The clouds rumbled, letting down a small stream of water, in the form of rain.

He chuckled. But his eyes didn't laugh with him. With that he turned away, slow and steady, using the trees as support where needed.

Unknown to him, a pair of eyes watched, as they had always watched him.

…

Making it back to the Motel where he stayed he couldn't help but sigh. He always stayed in these cheap rundown places that lacked any sort of aesthetics.

Where were the garden flowers? Pot plants? Fake grass whose only purpose was aesthetics?

He shook his head.

Of course, he would never dare speak these words in front of the lady who owned the place.

Whoever said money was easy to make, was a con man if nothing else.

But the again when he spent all his money on overpriced gear what could he say?

He didn't even manage to get anything he could sell from that shack of a temple.

Where were the offerings? Food? There weren't even any weapons lying around.

He shook his head pushing open the front entrance. A bell rang earning him a look from the lady behind the counter.

Then as if she had practiced it a million times before, she directly ignored him.

"If you're gonna come in here half dead every time, maybe I should just kill you myself."

"What do you think?" The woman finally looked at him with a smile, but he felt none of the warmth, a chill running down his spine.

Why did it feel like she could read his thoughts?

In truth, he complained but this woman was letting him stay here for free. So when he said he was low on money it was more accurate to say he had no money at all.

'Sigh, to think this day would come.' He couldn't help but mourn silently as he recalled his luxurious past.

"Maki, spare the kid." A gruff-looking old man walked in, a cloth wiping down his hands.

"Oh? So you're offering to clean the bloody walls then?!" Maki snorted

Seeing the old man, Reaper breathed out a breath of relief. "Hello Old Rock."

"Good to see you're alive kid. You can take the room out back."

The man named Old Rock gave him a deep look and then said, "She's glad to see you too."

"Glad to see him my ass. Say that again when he actually pays for a room." Maki snorted.

"..." Reaper stared at the two of them. His thoughts were known only to himself. In the end, he sighed, going directly to 'his' room.

As they watched his figure vanish through the corridors, Old Rock finally spoke up. "You could be a little less harsh on the kid you know."

"Tch. Didn't you see the look on his face? He's leaving soon. The last thing he needs is some pointless sentiments." Maki scoffed.

"This world is far too cruel for him to be worried about others. Much less a dead old pair like us."

"..." Old Rock was stunned into silence. Then let out a sigh of his own.

Her words jolted memories of the past before he forcibly suppressed them, shaking his head with a chuckle.

Maki didn't say anything in reply, and soon enough Old Rock went back in. "Catch you in the morning."