Realisation and Determination

From the shadows, the armor's clangs echoed through the hallway. With each step and clap, the figure in question left the shadows behind, revealing someone with the height around Tony’s chest. A person with a petite body and was lightly equipped with a black steel armor that reflected Tony’s flickering fire as he watched from the nearby entrance. Sitting on the chilly chair, his cheek itched by the tattered black scarf, although it was more like a cloak with a hoodie but had the size of a scarf. It was dragged along the icy and ashy floor, passing him and the smokes towards the beast laying quietly in rest.

The fragrance of roses that was left behind soothed his mind, eliminating the thick smell of blood and coal. He gazed at the somewhat lightly armored black knight, guessing that it was a girl, even though she passed him with her head shrouded in the tattered cloak. Watching her from the side, his tightened chest eased from the anxiousness with her presence, even though he knew she was the cause of the beast and also the one who had been tormenting Rin without her knowing. Yet still, he felt as if he had known her for a long time as if he had finally returned home to one of his family members.

At her moment of arrival near the beast, she clicked her tongue and then shrugged with her black armored gauntlets to the air. It was followed by a stomp with her slender leg onto the head with two large horns growing outwards.

She sighed, tried to roll it around with her black armored boots that reached her knees, she then muttered, “First my grunt…”. The head of the beast crackled, giving Tony shudders, even though the creature had a big hole through its head, the creature was still known to have a strong armor added with bones as hard as steel.

“Now my dear puppy I raised for a decade? Makes me wonder why I even lent them my puppy…” she muttered, cloak facing towards Tony as she raised her knee. Stomping the head, shattering the skull, turning it into a thick pancake as the juice squirted to her nearby surroundings and even onto herself.

Yeah, you lent them the puppy that ripped them apart… But still… Is it not your pet?

With her arms trembling, shoe grinding the meat, she muttered, “How… How dare you, you who should be one of our kin?”

Gazing at the cruel scene of the dead creature, he shuddered, At least that’s not me… He thought, gathering mana in preparation for another battle as he sat there silent, watching the girl who toyed with the lifeless body of the creature as she was drenched in blood.

Removing her feet from the gushy mess, she kicked the weightless pancake towards the wall. On impact it gave out a squishy sound as it glided slowly to the floor, leaving a trail of blood.

“Hey?” She called out, turning her head towards him, revealing her wide eyes with the magic circles that glew brightly blood red, the eyes covered by a fraction of her chestnut colored hair.

Those eyes! It's just like that dude at the great wall, but... He didn't give me this kind of feeling...

With a wretched smile, she asked “How about replacing my pet?”.

Finishing her sentence, she turned around and walked towards Tony. Tony who stood on his feet, melting the chair into a puddle of water that reflected her glowing eyes as he walked backwards towards the hallway where she came from. It was not that he was afraid, but there was something warm in his chest, something that eased his throbbing heart even though her actions only followed cruelty. Something he certainly did not expect. But he knew that if a battle would start that puddle will be his savior.

“Where are you going?” She asked, tilting her head, smiling with that devilish smile. Stepping over the puddle of water that evaporated into steam together with the surrounding permafrost as she closed in on him.

Touching a wall behind his back, he felt around with his palm on the cold surface, glancing behind at the wall that was once the hallway, tears fell from his inside as his tactical trap had failed. Turning his gaze back at the girl, he asked "What happens if I become your pet?"

The girl who now raised her hands out for a hug, answered, “I’ll take care of you, play with you, snuggle with you. You won’t have to worry about any outsiders… None will enter my domain and none will leave unless I wish for it”

Are you saying that the others has escaped? Though, you are so weird...

Smiling once again from the silent response, she licked her glossy lips and hugged herself, wriggling her body around she muttered, “I want a new toy...”

Hair raising, he started to somewhat feel creeped out. Not because of her smile, her sentence or when she extinguished her gauntlets with magic to bite her finger until she bleed, but because she did it with blood smeared all over her. Giving him the sense of not being able to predict her course of action.

Sighing, he recalled why he was here in the first place. “It’s nice to know that you need a new toy… But, why are you following us? And what’s up with those Royal Eyes?”

Smiling, she tilted her head, pointing to her eyes she asked, “Oh these? I don’t know why everyone call them Royal Eyes, after all… They were never called the Royal Eyes in the first place, you know? But why are you asking questions? Come! Lets go home… The place where we the bearers belong...”

She stretched a hand towards him, the hands he shoved away, “What? No, why?”

“Why? Don’t you have the eyes too?” she asked, sharpening her eyes, trying to gaze into his very soul.

“Ah, I can feel it, the presence… The power that binds us together, yet you are not bound entirely… It makes me wonder how you got out of the shackles… ”

“Is… Is this why I feel so strange?”

“Are you curious?” She asked, cheeks burning as she dashed towards him, gazing into his black iris face to face, she rested on his chest with her arms.

Her fragrance of roses, her pale oval face and long eyelashes that grew in an arch that followed the slight curve of her round eyes. Her tiny and slightly open natural lips, the up turned nose and finally her natural curved eyebrows, everything that uttered the word innocence. Yet, from her actions it told otherwise. How one born with such features turned this crazy, he will never know. Though, this was the first time ever since 9 years ago that he had taken a closer detail on someone’s face.

Was it because she were forceful and bold? Avoiding her glowing eyes, he felt ashamed. Thinking about it, was it because everything that filled his mind was, how to get back? Back to his own world? Never did he try to get to know others background, their goals, full names and even facial expressions?

Hell, I never told them my full name either and I could only remember the smiles from my apprentice, but what of the other parts? Was 9 years far too long to be alone?

She grabbed the back of his head, pulled him towards her chest that had extinguished itself from the black armor. The small chest that cushioned his cheeks with softness, sharing her warmth and natural fragrance. His mind got filled with echoes, echoes of her throbbing heart that send waves of soothing pulses.

“Can you hear it? I don’t know why… But it is as if I have found my eternal… As if you are one of the true bearers.” she whispered to his ear, swinging his heart left and right.

Shoving her away, face burning and mind wavering, he gazed at her lips, the lips that catched his eyes even though he tried to look elsewhere. Is this what you call first love? No… no no no… I’ve just met her and she’s also crazy! Besides, I’m not here to talk… I’m here to end it… I just need more information first!

“Wh...”

With wide eyes he gazed upon her closed eyelids and freckles he could not see from afar. Silenced from speaking, her smooth lips covered his own, locking them in place as she held his head tightly. Not with her soft hands that glued his wrist onto the wall, but with her dark magic that he could not sense in time.

Trying to set himself free, her warm tongue eventually entered his domain. Her chest rested onto his, sharing her throbbing heart that sent electric currents to his skin. Steam rose from Tony’s hair, the taste of her drool swirled around his tongue, building up the warm liquid, she eventually pulled away with the saliva that shined as it connected their lips like a bridge, eventually falling apart with the distance.

Staring at her red eyes, she swallowed what both had accumulated and licked the remaining around her lips. Sliding her fingers from his chest towards his stomach, she whispered to his ears, “I know your wavering heart... I can see how you feel… I can see how confused your mind are… But all you have to do is... “

She opened his fist into a palm and held it near her burning cheeks, “Pick me… I’ll do anything for you.”

She is dangerous, she is dangerous, she is dangerous! Women is so scary! I can't understand them! He thought, speechless as he could not understand what had just happened. His brain was at the edge of frying, he could not understand what the girl at front of him was thinking or what she had in plan for next. However he did know that he had to make the resolve, he had to decide what he wanted to do.

Avoiding her eyes, he recalled that he did not train for all those 9 years for nought. 9 years alone in one island, learning magic, their speech and writing, knowledge, training with magical dummies and honing his own body to adapt to the way of the sword. He did it to get back to his own world, the world where he can finally find peace in his mind, not to get someone to love him or seduce him.

Gazing into his soul her answer was told, leaving her without facial expression as she backed away to the middle of the room and covered herself in the darkness. The armor reappeared on her vital parts as she stood there waiting with her hand holding the skull shaped hilt of a large two handed sword. The thick weapon was twice the length of her own, swirling with a dark aura of skulls as it rested on the floor beside her, drinking the blood that covered her body.

One might be thinking about how she could handle the weight, but since it is made out of mana, there was none to begin with unless she gave it one. Kinda makes the weapon a cheat against shorter weapons.

“You won’t be leaving this place… Not without my permission… Unless ofcourse… You become mine”

Gulping down the remaining saliva that was left from his and her’s, he walked forward, hand stretched out to his side as a blade of azure blue flames burned as bright as his determination.

“I might be confused to what had just taken place, but if I need to use force to get through, I will use force…”

“Ah, that determination, that burning feeling inside of you…! it makes me want you more…“, She dashed forward, bent her knees and from left to right she swung the blade. Leaving a trail black mist as it slashed towards the receiving Tony.

Receiving the blade covered in mist, his eyebrows raised as the mist dispersed without a blade. Glancing at the bent down girl with black static charges around her arm, he shuddered from her point blank finger gun.

She smiled with her head tilted, the lightning from her fingertips send Tony flying onto a wall and then stomach first into the ashy floor. Rolling to a broken pillar away from her vision, he sat there trembling, Shit… If I didn’t have my cloak and my barrier in time… “CRUSH!”.

Cold steel sent shivers to his neck, shuddering as the girl’s two hander nearly chopped his head off. Standing up he ran around the pillar, moving near smoking bookcases he swung his blade upwards towards the smiling girl. Scattering the ashes on the floor into a cloud of smoke, blinding her vision as he prepared his mighty spear.

About to throw his blazing Gae Bolg, a kick on his side sent him gliding towards a wall. Coughing, the shrieking steel scraping on the floor grew louder in his ears. As she swung it downwards he pushed himself to the side with a gust of wind, barely joining the cracks on the floor, he stood up and swung his arm. Sending a crescent of azure blue flames, she dispersed it with a dark barrier. Dashing forward yet again, he clenched his fist and punched the air. Barely scratching her cheeks, she was catapulted to the side by a large fist of stone from the wall.

Comboing the blow with a stomp on the ground, another fist sent her upwards to the ceiling. As she hovered to the air, revealing her silky chestnut hair from her hoodie, he gathered mana on his palm, creating a blazing rod, he threw the Gae bolg through the stomach of the girl. The girl that dispersed into a mist, kicked Tony from his behind and sent him flying yet again, sliding head first towards a pillar.

He stood up, darting his eyes around to follow the zig zagging girl that left a trail of red neon from her eyes and black static shocks on the ground with each step. He swung his leg sideways, sending a crescent of water that was blocked by her large sword. However, the water formed a layer of permafrost, building towards her gauntlets and ate away her movement.

Dispersing the weapon and gauntlet, a gust of wind send shivers to her spine. She crouched down and formed a dark barrier, trying to block the spear that pierced through, cutting the hair near the side of her ears. Her eyes welled up with tears, she stood up with open palm towards him, sending a beam of dark matter that followed his fluttering red cloak. Crumbling the remains of the broken pillars, the floor and ceiling, following the magician that used his wind boots to dodge around.

Eventually mid air he threw his spear once again, causing her to sidestep and disperse a mist of darkness, covering the battlefield from his sight. He got down on his feet and sent a gust of wind to reveal her from her hiding, but with eyes wide, he had made a mistake. She threw her large sword between his eyes, shattering the wall behind him, she dashed into close quarters, sending heavy blows from her gauntlets into his lungs and then a final uppercut probably followed by a roundhouse kick. But missed with the second. He had fallen onto his knees, trying to inhale for air as he had lost his breath.

Grabbing his ashy shirt, she held him above the air weightlessly. As his steamy vapor breath covered her nose, she gave him a gentle peck and then smiled. Forming a dagger in her hand, she stabbed him in his lower abdomen, soaking it with blood that grew larger as she twisted the dagger around.

A scream echoed throughout the hallways, a scream he would never forget.