Arylos lifted himself back up to his feet, cursing himself for leaving his sword behind, as he squared up against his assailant. This fight was not going to be easy; three thousand years of anger, frustration, and hatred will have to be sorted out in this single moment.

And yet Arylos had no idea how.

“Get the fuck back!” he ordered the crowd, trying to keep them out of the way, trying to clear the path between him and his attacker.

The people ran as the attacker came at Arylos with blinding speed, bringing a flurry of slashes across his torso, blocking vital hits with his arms. Arylos waited for an opening before sliding his foot behind the man’s leading foot, knocking him off of his balance and slamming him into the ground with a shockwave punch to the face.

Before the dust could clear, the man spun around and locked his legs around Arylos’s neck and pulled him to the ground in a somersault and tried bringing his sword down onto Arylos’s neck, yet the Titan dodged out of the way just in time as the man’s sword struck the ground. Arylos took his chance and struck the man’s Adam's apple, knocking it into his windpipe. Arylos brought his elbow down onto the suffocating man’s upper spine, knocking him to the dirt and snapping his spine.

Arylos’s domination was short lived as the man’s arm twisted around and his sword cut Arylos through the chest, puncturing a lung but was on the other side from where his heart was.

Arylos kicked himself off the sword as the attacker’s limbs twisted and he crawled on all fours like an animal and lunged forward with his sword as Arylos rolled out of the way. Arylos sucked in air, but saw that there were still people standing too close and right behind the man.

Arylos cussed in an unfamiliar tongue and heel-kicked the man’s head into the ground. With him down, Arylos jumped up and stomped on the man’s head, spraying blood on the ground and on his boots.

As always, the man was a step ahead, his arm twisting backwards and grabbing Arylos’s foot and twisted, dislocating his ankle and sending the Titan down to the ground in a howl.

The man lifted his shattered face from the ground and looked to Arylos, licking his shattered teeth like a vile creature as his broken teeth fell from his jaw. Arylos found an opening and sucked in air and kicked hard with his intact foot, sending the man flying backwards and out of the crowd.

Arylos groaned as he rolled over, holding onto his injured foot and trying to move it back into position. It finally snapped into place in a solid crack and Arylos jumped back up to his feet, waiting for his attacker to get back up. Behind him, he could hear the marching of metal greaves coming his way. He turned and saw a squadron of district guards coming towards him, armed to the teeth with swords and spears.

Arylos waved them down and ran towards them. “Get these fucking people out of here!” he ordered the guards. “The longer they are here, the more in danger they are! Seal off the district for all I care!”

“Yes, sir!” one of the guards responded as the soldiers began guiding people away from the area. Arylos turned and saw the man slowly come back up to his feet, his body stitching itself back together like it was made of thread and his face coming back together like a grotesque puzzle.

“How noble of you,” the man mocked with his shattered jaw. “Keeping the people out of the way won’t save them. I will burn this world down if I must stop you.”

“Only one of the two of us is capable of that, Reyz,” Arylos responded, calling out the man by name. “And you are nothing but a lost boy who is arrogant of what he has become.”

The man’s face pieced itself back together and the man lowered his hood, revealing a face that shook Arylos to his core; a spitting image of himself with fair skin, silver hair, and green eyes.

“I know what I have become,” Reyz spat back. “And that is a weapon destined to destroy you.”

“Get in line,” Arylos responded, feeling the wound in his chest heal over as he stretched his arms and popped his shoulders. “Tougher girls than you have tried to kill me and failed.”

Reyz snarled and his legs launched him forward with Arylos catching the blade with his forearm and taking the deep cut as he kicked Reyz in the gut with enough force to rupture organs. Reyz stepped back and howled as he brought his sword across, aiming for Arylos’s neck, but Arylos blocked it again with his injured forearm and made a return strike to Reyz’s ear. Reyz howled in pain and brought his sword down and prepared to run Arylos through but Arylos sidestepped him, locking his sword arms in place and snapping his arms, making the inhuman attacker drop the sword.

Arylos then made three solid punches on the man’s jugular, rupturing the blood vessel and causing serious internal bleeding before letting him go and heel-kicking Reyz in the back, knocking the man to the ground. Arylos took a breath as he calculated how much damage he did to Reyz and planned his next move.

Reyz groaned as his arms snapped back into place and ran towards Arylos, lining up one good punch but was caught by Arylos.

However Reyz’s hand twisted suddenly and violently in an unnatural direction, fracturing Arylos’s wrist, resulting in him letting go of the man while howling in pain. Reyz then lifted Arylos’s broken hand out of the way and made a series of blows to the Titan’s stomach before kicking him away and to the ground. Arylos rolled on the ground and tried getting back up as Reyz’s hand straightened itself and he quickly picked up his sword and ran it through Arylos’s back and out his stomach, causing Arylos to vomit black blood.

“You’ve gotten predictable,” Reyz mocked as he twisted his sword. “So I’ll let you choose. Would you rather I cut out your heart or cut off your head?”

Arylos took a moment, trying to plan his next move when one came to him. He rolled sideways and his shoulder blade tore open as his stone wing burst forth and stabbed Reyz in the groin with the stone and metal feathers, causing the man to gasp in pain.

“How about I cut off your manhood, boy?” Arylos snarled as the feathers of his wing opened and closed quickly, slicing Reyz’s body open and torso nearly in half and the man’s sundered body fell to the ground, spilling blood all over the road.

Arylos quickly moved away and tried to reach for the sword in his back, but couldn’t reach in a way to take it out. As his black wing retreated back under his torn skin, Arylos cursed in realisation that he is now impaled and won’t be able to heal properly.

Arylos took a deep breath and slowly ran through the streets, limping and leaning against buildings as he went as black blood poured from his gut. He needed to get away; lure Reyz away from the city, away from anyone who could get involved, but grew furious as he remembered he’s in the damn centre of the city. He looked up to try and get his bearings, but the sun was in midday now, making it difficult for him to accurately judge his orientation. His vision blurred from exhaustion, making it hard for him to find landmarks and sense north.

But he needed to get away.

He pushed through the pain, running through the streets, taking alleyways as he could to avoid curious civilians, leaving a trail of blood in his path. He eventually rested against the front wall of a shop, trying to catch his breath. One of the shopkeepers, a young man who looked just old enough to find himself a girl, stared at him in fear of his wounds and his appearance.

“Hey, give me a hand here and pull this out,” he asked while gesturing to the sword.

The young man shook his head and whimpered in fear as he backpedalled away. And then Arylos saw it; he saw him.

“Get away!” he yelled at the young man.

A shadow of a man reached out and grabbed the young man’s head and slammed it into a stone wall next to him, crushing it like a melon as Arylos howled and the bystanders screamed and ran.

“You didn’t have to kill him!” Arylos shouted, standing up on his feet while fighting back his emotions. “He was innocent! He was running away!”

“Yes, he was innocent,” Reyz hissed while licking the blood off of his hand. “And now his death is on you. You were the one who dragged him into this.”

“This is between you and me!” Arylos howled, clenching his fist.

Reyz snarled and licked his lips. “Do not forget that each death here is your fault. You are the cause of all of their suffering. All of my suffering.”

Arylos lost control and ran towards Reyz, extending his nails into long claws and slicing Reyz’s side open while Reyz grabbed the Titan’s hair and pulled back, snapping Arylos’s back over his knee and sending Arylos to the ground in a broken mess.

Reyz took deep breaths as he approached the unmoving body of his adversary, watching for any other motion. Yet the body remained still, silent as the grave. Reyz snarled and backed away from the body.

“I know you’re still alive, Arylos,” he teased, ensuring he remained distant from his body. “You can’t fool me by playing dead. I know what you look like when you die.”

Arylos remained unmoving on the ground, his body showing no signs of life.

Reyz looked around and saw some more people running. He rushed towards a small girl and held her tight and his hand on her trachea as the girl screamed.

“Come on, Arylos!” Reyz howled. “Get up! If you do not, this precious little girl here will lose her ability to scream for you!”

Reyz watched the broken body closely, trying to find any possible movement. He watched for even an erroneous twitch of his hair. He watched for any possible movement.

He was left unaware that the ground broke open beneath his feet, pulling him into the ground and crushing his pelvis between the shattered earth.

Arylos jumped up and rolled towards Reyz, taking the girl into his arms. Reyz took his chance and pulled his sword out of Arylos’s back, causing Arylos to crash into a building while groaning in pain, holding the girl as tight as he could.

Arylos relaxed his grip and saw the girl was crying and a gash on her arm was bleeding profusely, likely from when Reyz pulled his sword out. Arylos quickly tore a strip of fabric from his shirt and tied it around the girl’s arm to staunch the bleeding. In the corner of his eye, he saw Reyz pull himself free from his trap and run towards Arylos with sword in hand.

Arylos turned his back to Reyz, taking the whole length of the slash across his back in an attempt to spare the girl. The Titan shuddered under the pain but pushed the girl away as he turned around and caught Reyz’s sword hand by the wrist before he could follow up and pushed with all of his strength, forcing distance between Reyz and the girl.

“Leave them out of this, Nerseis,” Arylos growled.

“Do not call me that!” Reyz roared and brought down his sword with all of his strength, cutting through Arylos’s torso and throwing him off to the side like refuse. “You have no right to call me by that name!” he continued his screaming, approaching Arylos with his sword drawn.

Good, now he’s pissed, Arylos thought while holding his shoulder to his body. Now he’ll focus on me.

Iris closed another one of Arylos’s old books and set it on the torotsu table across from the sofa, its warm blanket now removed for the spring. It had been a week, and she still had not heard from Arylos.

She rolled over on the couch, kicking her legs in boredom and impatience while squealing. This is too much. It’s been too quiet and she still has heard nothing. Arylos would have said something by now, sent a letter at least. She lifted herself off of the sofa with her hair in its usual mess.

Screw this, she resolved herself and jumped up from the sofa and went to her room and ripped her lounge clothes off. She reached for her armour and began strapping it on and the scabbard that carried Helion on her back. She then tied her hair back into a quick ponytail as she went back downstairs, running down the steps and quickly throwing on her boots in the foyer.

As she opened the front door, she saw a crowd of people screaming and running away from something. She looked towards the east where they were running from and saw little, but she could hear booming sounds and demonic howls in the air.

Her legs got the best of her as she sprinted full force towards the commotion, ready to stand and fight.