Iris felt fear grip her heart as she watched Arylos lunge towards the creature of metal and twisted form, howling a roar that echoed off of the chamber walls. She had seen him wear many faces yet this one was of fear and hatred. She saw from the look in his frenzied eyes that he was willing to die if it meant killing this creature.

“What the hell is that?” Iris asked, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I have no idea but I don’t have a mind to find out,” Sentarus responded while letting go of Frygga. “We need to get out of here, now!”

“I’m not leaving Arylos behind!” Iris called out as she stood her ground.

“I have to agree with the king on this one,” Garris responded while examining the fight. “That thing is beyond any of our skill to handle; at the very least we need to get out of his way.

“Fuck off!” Iris howled as she ran out of the room, building white and blue flames around herself. Even without her sword, she would still be useful.

Enigma kicked Arylos to the side and turned to face Iris, letting out a clicking noise from its throat. “Human tainted by Templarian blood,” Enigma growled. It then jumped on all fours and began running towards Iris.

Iris prepared herself as she saw her vision slowly turn black and everything around her gained a silver outline as time slowed until Enigma was frozen in its forward advance towards her. She ran to the side and prepared to strike Enigma from behind.

But then she saw its head turn towards her, its purple eyes shining through the haze of grey and silver.

She felt her heart stop as she realised what was happening but Enigma moved faster, lifting its twisted arm and bringing it down towards Iris, narrowly missing her. In her dodge, she fell to the ground and rolled away as time continued its forward advance. She corrected herself and looked behind her and saw the horrid creature running towards her; Baldr’s face now twisted nearly beyond recognition as it unhinged its jaw wide.

At the last second, Arylos jumped in front of her and caught the monster, digging his feet into the ground as he resisted against its strength.

“G-Get the fuck out of here!” Arylos shouted, bringing as much of his strength as he could against the monster.

“Protection is your weakness Titan,” Enigma growled as what was once Baldr’s tongue elongated as a metal appendage that hung from its mouth like a snake.

Arylos gritted his teeth as he howled, pushing against the monster. “Protecting them is what gives me strength,” he growled as he headbutted Enigma following up with several repeated strikes to the torso, knocking away Enigma’s followup strikes like he was batting a fly yet each strike carried a shockwave. The Titan then knocked Enigma sideways and while his guard was down kicked Enigma’s knee, splitting it until the leg held on by mere threads of muscle and copper wires.

Enigma howled as it limped backwards, trying to recuperate itself. Arylos growled and turned towards Iris for a moment. “Why are you still here? Get out!” he commanded while pulling off his shirt.

“I want to help you,” Iris returned, getting back up to her feet.

“This is my fight, not yours; you can help me by getting out of danger,” Arylos shouted while stretching his arms with a punching motion as if reloading them.

Iris bit back her frustration as she swallowed her anger. “You said that about–”

“This is not Reyz!” Arylos shouted while gripping Iris’s wrist tightly. “This is a creature I alone must fight; anyone else will die!”

“I don’t want to run,” Iris returned while trying to break free from his grip.

“And I don’t want to lose you!” Arylos roared, the sound echoing off the walls and frightening Iris. She looked into his eyes, now with split pupils and full of rage and anguish.

“Now get out,” Arylos growled as he threw her hand away, watching her intently as she could only return his stare as she fought with her heart. “Go!” Arylos howled once more, scaring Iris and she turned away and ran. As she ran, she choked on her emotions, trying to contain tears as she ran for the door with the others out into the hall and Sentarus slammed it shut behind them.

Arylos growled and turned to face the monster Baldr had become. He smiled, now able to let loose now that Iris was out of the way as his tattoos glowed a brilliant orange. He ran towards Enigma as four black wings burst from his back and he was cloaked in a wreath of flames as he jumped and brought his fist down on Enigma’s head. The force slammed the monster into the stone floor, leaving a broken crater where it landed as red and blue blood splattered and Baldr’s face was broken, exposing a face of silver and purple metal.

Arylos brought down another strike and split Enigma’s head in half. The monster had enough and grabbed Arylos’s head in its hand and threw him to the wall, leaving Arylos in a crater of his own. Arylos laughed as he pulled himself from the wall, realising that the pain brought joy.

“Finally, an opponent that I can actually fight,” Arylos growled with an ominous laughter.

Enigma growled and ripped its broken leg off as a new one made of metal built itself at the stump, allowing Enigma to stand up. Arylos watched as more metal built a mask over Baldr’s flesh face, the mask bearing six burning purple eyes that were no longer made of flesh. The mask bore three nostrils and no mouth and thick locks of braided black hair rose from the scalp.

Arylos scoffed, recognising his old enemy. “Enough of the pretence? I like it,” he growled while cracking his knuckles.

Enigma roared and looked around. It then quickly turned and ran towards the door. Arylos snorted and pulled back with his hand as an invisible force pulled at Enigma. It snarled as it resisted the Titanic magic, digging metal claws into stone to resist. Arylos drew on as much of his strength as he could, using his full force.

Then he felt muscle fibres in his arm start to burn and snap apart.

Arylos remembered his limits as he loosened his grip and ran towards Enigma and grabbed it by its locks of hair and pulled backwards while kicking into its back, fracturing the spine with a disgusting crack and bending parts of the metal plating. Enigma retaliated by rolling sideways and kicking Arylos in the sternum and roared as it lunged at him and Arylos struck Enigma in the face, denting the metal mask that had formed.

The two creatures exchanged thunderous blows repeatedly, neither unable to gain the upper hand on the other. They danced a vicious dance as each strike found their target as the two inhumans shrugged off each destructive strike and Arylos knew he would never be able to just give up.

Both monsters knew that only one of them could leave this chamber, and they could not let it be the other.

Arylos broke away from his furious duel with the monster as both creatures took panting breaths, trying to regain their strength. Arylos felt tired, but he was far from beaten. If anything, his fight with the original Baldr was more dangerous.

“Are you going to keep wasting my time, Enigma?” Arylos shouted while rolling his shoulder to pop it. “I have things I have to do today, so if you’re going to kill me; just make it quick.”

Enigma growled and ran towards Arylos once more, Arylos sidestepping its attack and striking the elbow, splitting it. As the Titan reeled for another strike, he was blocked by one of Enigma’s many arms and caught in the gut by another. Arylos held onto the creature’s metal arm and glanced behind him, catching his eyes on Sentarus’s sword. The sword obeyed the commands of the Titan as it was picked up by an unseen hand and brought to Arylos with blinding speed. He gripped the hilt and ran it through Enigma’s chest.

The creature howled and pulled away before following up with a kick to Arylos’s knee, the Titan howling as the joint fractured and he was sent to the ground, dropping the sword once more. Arylos recovered quickly as Enigma leapt forward to ensnare the Titan but was met with a sea of searing flames from Arylos’s mouth. Enigma screeched as the flames burnt flesh as well as metal, hot enough that the metal armour started turning red.

Arylos knew he was in a tight spot as he was running out of breath. He had a thought come to him as he snapped his knee in position and cut the stream of flames while rolling backwards to get away from the screaming monster.

Arylos took another inhale, remembering a foreign tongue. “Sorkei zot’r gjoh!” he roared as his breath turned white and carried a terrible cold. The cold air reacted violently with Enigma’s metal armour, causing it to creak and fracture in violent explosions as it howled in fury.

Arylos took his chance running towards the creature and using his wings to give him a boost. He picked up Sentarus’s sword and swung wildly at the creature, his rage blinding him as his only desire was to destroy the monster, to end this nightmare. Each strike carried a scream from Arylos that chilled blood as his anger knew no limits, each strike denting the sword as the creature howled as parts of its metal body were hacked away.

Arylos saw nothing, he heard nothing, he felt nothing. He was overcome by an intense anger fueled by vengeance as hot tears streamed down his face. He knew nothing but anger, forgetting all about Kaiyumi, Nageki, Iris, everything.

He remembered that the sole reason he lives is to kill these monsters.

Arylos roared one last time as he ran the sword through Enigma’s mouth and into its skull, silencing the creature as it froze. Sparks spat from holes in its body and Arylos could hear the hum and whir of its heart. He bit his lip until it drew blood and ran the sword deeper; metal scraping against metal until the sword came out the other side of the monster’s head. Enigma twitched, clutching at the sword with broken hands yet found no strength to remove it.

Arylos took pleasure in hearing the creature squirm and cling to life as he could hear the machinery in its body twitch. He enjoyed the death rattle, drinking the pleasure of his victory. He twisted the blade and he could feel something in the base of its neck pop and Enigma ceased moving, its purple eyes fading to black and the hum of the creature’s life force faded away until Arylos heard the silence of the chamber and his own breath echoing within it.

Arylos pulled the sword out and the once Templarian corpse fell to the ground in a solid thud of metal against stone as sparks jumped out of the hole in the back of the neck. Arylos ground his teeth and growled, disgusted by the now dead creature. Angry at what Baldr had become.

The Titan took slow breaths, trying to steady his spinning head. He felt a hole in him, a pain he hadn’t felt for a while. He remembered this sensation, this bloodlust. A part of him enjoyed it. This drive for battle, this love of conquest. He enjoyed slaughtering Enigma, feeling a passion come over him that he had not felt for a while.

He fell to his knees, next to the broken machine as he threw away the damaged sword. His breath was more animalistic, carrying a growl and a fanged smile. He could not take his eyes off of Enigma’s corpse. He didn’t care anymore and a part of him wished another ancient machine would fight him, still feeling a passion for war in his frozen heart.

But when he reached for his face, he felt tears. Why? He wondered why he was crying at all? Is this not what he wanted? What he had always wanted? He wanted to eliminate these cursed monsters from every possible plane of existence and he was allowed once more to indulge in this war. So why would he ever cry?

He felt a sharp and tight embrace take a hold of him. An embrace so tight and warm that it brought him back to reality. He smelled her. He looked over and saw a young woman with brown hair hold him tight, disregarding the six wings on his back. This woman’s touch was warm, loving, sweet, and gentle.

Oh, that’s why, he remembered as he returned the embrace, remembering why he cried. Why he needed to fight.