Eos falls unconscious at a lethal moment...
The killing blow is dealt...
Or so it should've been...
A tiger bathed in shadows slams into the unbalanced flank of the swinging Abyssal Guardian, knocking the latter off balance enough that its scything swing pierces stone instead of flesh. The crystallized appendage sparks across the ground as it tumbles with a beast half its size some meters away; the tiger keeps the Guardian occupied while Trinity dashes out of a shadow into the moonlight as a portion of the church collapses, bathing her and this unconscious woman in its celestial glow. Trinity's so intense that she's talking aloud and reasoning with herself over her actions, trying to understand why her body is moving on its own.
"I can't take this Guardian down by myself and Aerin's occupied with the rift; I need you to fucking get up!" Trinity curses, shielding her face from a rushing shockwave of Abyssal Energy pouring from the confines of the church. It looks like she's staring into The Abyss itself, spilling out the doors of the church, and Aerin dashed into that!? "I pray you know what you're doing, Aerin..." she silently wishes, then turns her attention to the unresponsive woman dressed in black, hoisting them up into a princess carry to safety; Remnants are naturally stronger than regular humans, even without Anima augmentation. Carrying another person was effortless for her.
She ignores the growls and impacts of combat behind her until she safely puts this strange woman in a corner across the street from the church. Once Trinity settles the woman, she dashes out into the street again, jumping in a supernatural leap, sending her an easy fifty feet into the air over all of the obstacles and debris below her, and giving her clear sight of her fighting familiar and its adversary; it's do or die time now. As Trinity plummets with gaining momentum like a falling comet toward the courtyard, she clasps her hands together and cocks them back high over her head, a potent mass of darkness-aspect Anima burning to life. Her eye discharges energy, chasing after her plummeting body.
Nightmare Spear...
A spear of black shadow energy breaks the sound barrier on release and pierces the Abyssal Guardian with such force that it pins its chest cavity to the ground. The tangible arrow's recoil sends Trinity backward into a vaulting recovery even higher into the air, where she's already preparing a second attack; she's not done! She stretches her arms out at her sides, palms open and fingers curling around new masses of potent shadow-aspect Anima that she brings to her lips and inhales. There's one thing on her mind when staring down her pinned adversary.
"Let's see if you fear the Dark..."
Shadow Fire...
Trinity spits forth a pure black mass of shadow energy that whooshes like fire through the air, but gives no light, nor heat. It's a moving, writhing void that mimics the consistency and behavior of roaring flames but is something far more unnatural and shouldn't exist. It slams into the backside of the half-crystallized Abyssal Guardian with the physical force of a car, crushing the creature underneath before exploding into an inferno of flames swirling several meters wide into a dome. It nearly overtook the church and swallowed the courtyard. The shadow energy turns the battlefield into an endless abyss of darkness, different from the Abyssal Rift. The moonlight can't pierce its darkness until it all dissipates.
Trinity lands with her Midnight Owl atop a nearby building, stumbling to a knee and holding her head in discomfort afterward. Using her powers to such extremes is taking its toll on her. "I can't keep this up much longer. Ugh..." she groans, but shakes it off and inhales, dashing toward the battlefield again where her attack remnants have faded away. There's no time to complain, she's got to make sure her target's dead. And as she jumps into the unscathed by fire courtyard, her features flash with mild irritation.
"Damn, not dead yet are we?" Trinity scoffs while smirking, almost like this is funny. She can easily tell her attack did extensive damage to her adversary, as she's watching it flail about like something in the middle of a nightmare. The physical weight of her shadows crushed most of the crystal armor, protecting it save for some around the chest and its right arm, but it's the flailing that makes her smile. It raises a question she'll have on her mind for as long as she lives...
What could intimidate the Denizens of the Abyss?
Trinity glances toward the church when a small explosion of energy throws Aerin outside into a rolling tumble to his feet nearby; his eyes stay locked on the doors, though. Wait, where's his sword? And why is he bleeding and beaten up? All of these questions combine in an ominous atmospheric pressure that presses on all of them, even the injured Abyssal Guardian, which breaks down into raw energy that siphons back into the church. Trinity's eyes widen in confusion and horror, then she looks at Aerin again and asks in an eerie tone; she's genuinely frightened...
Then everything goes silent, and those lashing whips of Abyssal Energy and shockwaves vanish, as if the Abyssal Rift suddenly closed and went away.
If only that were the case...
"Aerin... what did you do?" Trinity quietly asks when everything falls quiet, sweat dripping off her brow as her hands start shaking; it's like the Abyss is repaying her for taunting it. Was this the definition of Karma? She doesn't ask her question until she makes eye contact with Aerin, and her heart nearly freezes upon seeing his guilt-ridden expression and sinks into her stomach upon hearing his words.
"I failed..."
They're going to die.
Somewhere else...
"If your Reaper ever betrays your trust, kill them."
...Who told her that?
"But, before you kill them, ask yourself if you'd do the same in their position..."
"For you are their Reflection...:
Who is that voice? She can't make out a gender...
"Don't fail like Kayda did..."
... Who is Kayda?
Danger!
DANGER!
AERIN IS IN DANGER!
Eos snaps awake like a startled leopard, quickly hops to her feet, and dashes toward the courtyard seconds after a magnificently destructive banging noise echoes out, paying no attention to where and why she was moved. She needs to save her Reaper; that's her sole duty. The pupils in her crimson eyes slowly thinned, giving her once hollow and beautiful features the appearance of a vicious demoness coming to life. As she runs, her footsteps leave a miasma that decays whatever it touches, be it concrete or flesh; the residue of Death itself. An ominous fog trails after her rushing figure, struggling to keep up with her increasing speed toward the courtyard; she can find Aerin on instinct.
As Eos lunges into the fray as an Angel of Death, her scythe manifests mid-swing at the Abyssal Knight about to cleave Aerin in half.
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When the Guardian fails to stop the advance of Death...
It falls to the Knight as the last line of defense...
Death shall not pass.
Eos's scythe tears into a raised crystal greatsword used in defense by the much larger Knight, failing to budge it. But where her physical strength fails against the stalwart defense of the heavily armored Abyss Knight standing ten feet tall, the trailing taste of Death dancing with her form and attacks forces the Knight into a retreat. It jumps back with surprising grace despite its strength and size, landing with a heavy thud that rattles the ground beneath them all and crumbles another portion of the church behind them. It idly hoists its greatsword atop a broad shoulder, those hollow eyes peering through a fully crystallized face, the only remnant of a face it had.
Eos stands tall and stalwart against her adversary, her features again elegantly hollow and empty, yet sharp and piercing. Her crimson eyes glow in the dark shadows of the last remnants of the church as she points her scythe at the Knight from across the courtyard. Those animalistic pupils remain despite her calmer features, yet there's a darkness around her eyes, like she's about to cry despite the coldness in her words.
"I will not fail like she did..."
Aerin didn't hear her; he's too focused on rushing to Trinity's aid...
"Hey!" the bloody and injured Remnant dashes to a slide near the halfway-conscious woman's side; he's hurt worse than she is, but she's too exhausted to do much more than mumble a response. Her Shadow Familiars are gone, and she can't use that power anymore, per her warning earlier. Aerin needs to get her somewhere safe, because Trinity can't fight anymore. As he moves to pick her up, though, his pale eyes glance back at the scythe-wielding woman standing off against an Abyssal Knight that crushed him and Trinity in a two-on-one. She can't beat that thing!
"What are you doing!?" Aerin barks at Eos while struggling to lift Trinity in his arms; he's that tired. Sheer adrenaline and willpower are the only things keeping him going at this point. Eos glances over her shoulder at him with an indifferent expression to his wounds. She speaks in a matching tone. It's a response that shakes Aerin to his core. A phrase he's heard many times in his dreams...
"Don't fear the Abyss..."
"Because the Abyss fears you, and only you..."
Bringers of Death to all things, God, mortal, and conceptual...
Aerin feels something shift in his head, like an epiphany upon seeing Eos speak those words...
A rush of Anima surges into his flesh and spirit, healing his wounds and revitalizing his stamina...
She's healing him?
No...
He's healing himself.
Aerin's body surges with Anima energy so potent he feels like he's about to burst; it seeps into every cut, bruise, and gash across his form from head to toe, removing them like they never existed. From the Brink of Death, Reapers forever dance the line. They will not perish as long as Thanatos exists.
The Abyssal Knight witnesses Aerin's resurrection from Death and howls; it's absolutely ENRAGED! The crystal creature raises that giant greatsword high above its head in an instant before angrily smashing it into the ground in a temper tantrum. Every impact sends tremors for blocks beyond the battleground. The wailing roars of malice coming from its mouthless face are a terrible amalgamation of snarls and deep baritone groans. Aerin can't help watching the creature for a few seconds in sheer curiosity; why is is to pissed off? He blinks away those thoughts when Eos rushes in for an attack, gently placing Trinity back down before following her without thinking; there's no time to be thinking anyway. His instincts tell him Trinity is safe where she is.
He needs to get his sword. The Knight disarmed him before blasting him out of the church.
It's still in there...
"I'm going for my sword! Can you hold him off!?" Aerin calls out to the woman he's struggling to keep pace with; she's the fastest Remnant he's ever seen up close. Eos doesn't respond and merely lunges at the angry Knight with such force that Aerin feels the recoil of the wind. He briefly watches the two engage in a savage melee exchange, a sight akin to a wolf baiting a bear into attacks, only Eos wasn't as weak as a wolf. The Knight swings a greatsword capable of cleaving buildings in two toward Eos and misses when she effortlessly uses her greater agility to side-step. The Knight's sword hits the ground with so much momentum it gets stuck, the Knight tries hoisting it out with immense strength, an effortless task...
If it wasn't for the giant scythe wreathed in a strange magic that's not hers...
"Cleave."
Eos's scythe carves into the Knight's armored right side, starting at the tip and hooking under its ribs and exiting out the other side. It's all a seamless motion that happens faster than the whistling wind accompanying the sharpness of her scythe blade. If Aerin had blinked, he'd have missed it. There's a follow-up pause, like reality itself is still catching up to what's happened, and the Knight hasn't realized it's been cut yet. And then, the visage of the Knight fractures, like glass, and splits into two, the crystallized remains of armor protecting the Knight that made it invulnerable to most attacks, and the weakness: the energy silhouette that Aerin tried cutting into earlier. He stands there in sheer shock and awe, eyes wide in astonishment; how did she do that!? What's more interesting, though...
Why'd he feel his energy go away?
Who is this woman?
"Sword!" Eos says in the loudest voice she's had all night, her tone commanding, cold, and stern; it snaps Aerin out of his daze. He nods and dashes toward the church again, his eyes squinting till he sees it stabbed into the stone at the far end of the main area. The gaping hole in the ceiling bathes him in moonlight as he dashes across the empty area; the Abyssal Rift is gone. Aerin managed to cleanse that, but he failed to stop the Knight from escaping. If it stays in this world for too long...
"Tch!" Aerin sucks his teeth and picks up speed, snatching his sword when he runs past it toward the wall to rebound leap from it back toward the entrance. The tuning-fork shape of the blade glistening in the moonlight. He hits the ground near the door with a rolling run back toward his feet, those pale-colored eyes locking onto Eos, viciously assaulting the ethereal energy of that Knight. It's much harder to hit without the armor on; even Eos is struggling to catch it with her weapon. She slices at the air toward the evading shade, her blade wreathed in Death-aspect Anima that fires from her weapon in a slicing arc of magic, cutting through several blocks of stone. She only needs to get three consecutive slashes within six seconds...
She's out of time...
The soul separation wears off, and the shade is instantly pulled back into its crystallized armor with an almost gleeful cackle. Eos sucks her teeth, but keeps a calm visage, merely bracing her scythe against her back again, preparing for another round. Aerin rushes to her side, sword raised and at the ready; they're running out of time.
"If we don't kill this thing soon, it's going to tear open another rift..." Aerin says to Eos, who speaks without looking his way; her words are sharp, while his are cautious.
"It is your fear of the Abyss that allowed the Knight to emerge," Eos reminds him, now glancing his way with an eerie glow to her predatory eyes, but her scythe remains ready for retaliation. "If you do not act like the Reaper you are, this Knight will kill us both," she coldly admits, her eyes showing that she's not lying; she can't do this by herself. Aerin feels another shift in his mind at Eos's next words, like her comment switches his fight response to full throttle. Eos is right; if he doesn't fight till his last breath, he's going to die. He doesn't want to die...
That damned monster isn't going to kill him...
"That sword is the key. Use it to bring Death to the wicked," Eos says, and Aerin obeys.
Aerin tenses his hands around his weapon, his eyes fixated on it. His Anima surges through the aether-sensitive metal in a blindingly bright display like lashing flames of blue and white, then condenses into the weapon, transforming it entirely. The Abyssal Knight immediately rushes to attack, but Eos has already anticipated that; she rushes to engage, forcing the Knight to back off and focus on her for the few seconds needed for Aerin's new weapon to manifest.
A fiendish-looking black greatsword with archaic engravings burning with a strange energy.
The Greatsword of Thanatos...
Now Aerin knows why the Abyss Guardian recognized his sword...
"Let's go!" Aerin grunts, his rejuvenated strength allowing him to effortlessly run while carrying that greatsword with one hand; he rushes directly for the distracted Abyssal Knight while it's deflecting Eos's scythe swings. She sees him coming and backs off well before the Knight does, and when the Knight finally sees him, it's too late. Aerin shatters the ground beneath his boots when he lunges with all his strength; a wolf giving its all in one final assault. He swings in a large arc with all the monstrous strength he can muster, his blade slamming into the armored side of the Knight in tandem with one of the most vicious roars he's ever given in his life.
"FUCK YOU!"
Aerin's greatsword hits with so much force that it destroys the crystal armor of a Knight that's tanked almost everything else up to this point. He cleaves through the entire Knight in one swing, shade silhouette and all. The bisected creature's armor clangs against the ground, while the shade's two halves fail to effortlessly fuse back together, cursed by the Blade of Death. Eos acts in the following instant, and with blinding speed reaps both halves with effortlessly and viciously elegant swings of her scythe. She's back at Aerin's side like an appearing ghost when he recovers from his swing, his greatsword already gone. The red-eyed woman flourishes her scythe in her left hand without looking before flicking her wrist and dispersing it like dust in the wind. The two take a few seconds to recover themselves before speaking; it's over.
The city falls peaceful again...
"That is more like it," Eos commends without much emotion in her words, but there's a hint of positivity; she's glad he's safe. "Remember that feeling," she warns, her words more ominous. Aerin eyes her and straightens up, exhaling some in relief before nodding in silence. There's so much he needs to ask not only her, but Cyril. However, all of that will have to wait; he needs to check on Trinity.
"We'll talk more later; help me with Trinity," Aerin nods over to where the woman who saved his life lies unconscious, nestled safely from the final impact area. It's at that moment he immediately senses a change in Eos's vibe, and the look in her eyes confirms it. Her following words make his heart skip, and his eyes widen.
"I'll help you kill her, yes."
Aerin dreads what's to come...
To be continued! Next Chapter: A Clash of Wills...
A/N: Well, that's chapter 5. If I haven't piqued your interest in the slightest by this point, I've failed as a writer. Feel free to give me a bad rating; it's deserved. I do ask for feedback on what made you give the rating, though. Please be civil, too. That doesn't mean I'll listen to your advice, though (if I personally think it's ridiculous). But at least you get to negative rate me either way.
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