The soft sound of waves lapping at the crystalline shore did little to sooth Lightning, despite the way they almost reminded her of Bhodum. She had not seen her enemy in days. Days. It had been the longest their battle had gone uninterrupted, and though it had at first been a grateful reprieve, it had quickly turned into paranoia. Lightning scoured the ruined city, searching for the dark warrior whose patterns she knew so well, fearing what he could possibly be planning. Sword ever at the ready, Lightning crept soundlessly through the abandoned alleys and streets, peeking wherever she thought he might be hiding.
Only hours later did she find him. Lightning had all but given up and had slackened her form, walking half-heartedly along the beach. Ethereal crystals, too small to see plainly, shone in the fine sand, and the chaotic water endlessly caressed the land as if waiting for it to become a part of the sea, as well.
The warrior soon came to a structure that looked like it could have been a beach house once upon a time. She would have taken little notice had it not been for the sound she heard emanating from within, the sound that sent an incomparable shiver down her spine. She had not thought to hear such a sound here, where there was no one but the two warriors and their summoned armies. But the sound was all too clear.
Creeping as quietly as her armor would allow, Lightning edged to the doorway, which stood slightly ajar. Peering through, slightly widening the crack, Lightning witnessed something that distressed her far more than any battle thus far had.
Caius Ballad was inside, the interior of the house having been thoroughly destroyed, wreckage strewn everywhere in haphazard piles. His sword lay discarded a few feet away from where he knelt, shoulders shaking.
The sound was coming from him. He was weeping, far more intensely than Lightning had ever seen before. There had been a few other times when she had found him tearstained on the beach, but soon afterward his eyes would harden and he would lunge at her, their brutal fight commencing once more. But this time was different. It was more than simple tears—the man was wracked with heaving sobs, as if something within him had truly shattered, leaving behind an unstable shell.
Suddenly, he lunged for his blade, and Lightning leapt back in shock, guessing that he had sensed her presence. However, he didn't so much as turn in her direction; instead, he cleaved a gaping hole in the ground with a vicious cry.
"I do not... wish to see this any longer!" he cried, swinging his blade like a madman. He stood huffing and puffing for a few moments longer, but his rage ended just as quickly as it had begun. He leaned weakly on his monstrous blade, looking utterly spent.
Then, pulling it from the ground slowly, he examined it as if it were a new sight. Even from her distance, Lightning could see his eyes glinting madly as he raised the blade, and before she could even move, she witnessed him thrust it through his own chest. Gasping audibly, Lightning stumbled backwards, feeling ill.
Despite the countless times she had tried to impale him upon the end of her own blade, the sight of his whole display had deeply unsettled her, though she could not place exactly why. Perhaps it was the sight of her enemy displaying such abominable insanity. Perhaps the glimpse into his grief made her feel as though she had seen something she certainly should not have. And perhaps it was because she suddenly felt her heart be gripped with such pity that she felt she could not turn her sword against him any time soon.
She thoughtlessly burst through the door, seeing him lying prone on the ground, skewered on his own abomination of a weapon. His stillness was all but unknown, and yet the fact that he himself had been responsible for it led Lightning to remove the weapon from his body, kneeling beside him as if in a dream. Before she could think of what she was doing, she took her enemy's face in her hands, feeling some strange mixture of emotion and illness. Though she was certain he would awaken again and likely turn on her immediately, something possessed her enough to pull him into her arms, waiting as the chaos appeared to mend his wounds.
Before she could let go, before she could run away, Caius stirred, still in her arms. He opened his eyes slowly, looking up at her, his face taking a moment to register recognition. He looked more exhausted than she had ever seen him. An expression of melancholy sadness spread across his face, and rather than leaping away from her, he shut his eyes once more, lying his head back in her arms. Lightning could not move for fear and confusion, nor could she speak.
"I do not wish to fight today, warrior goddess," he said, his voice ragged and loose. He still had not moved.
"I... alright," said Lightning awkwardly and uneasily. She didn't know what to do with her arms, still wrapped around the man she called enemy. For the moment, their reality felt suspended, this odd moment separate entirely from the rest of their existence. She wondered if Caius felt so, as well.
Letting her body take control of her mind, Lightning lifted Caius slightly, and he felt vulnerable, more so than he had ever been. Had she wished, she believed she could have rent him into pieces without resistance. But to do so then felt unacceptable, as if the two had reached a strange sort of momentary truce.
Caius rested his head on her shoulder like a lost child, and the feeling of his weight was entirely alien to Lightning. And yet still she could not move. Uncertainly, as though she feared it would set him off, she rested her own head on his, breathing in the scent of his hair. He smelled like the sea.
Lightning did not know for how long they sat in their aberrant display of peace. It was longer than she had intended, certainly, but somehow she could not complain. The respite was not what she would ever have imagined, but it was a respite all the same, despite its oddity.
Eventually, the two began to disentangle themselves, and Caius stood, facing away from her. "You may leave, Lightning," he said, his voice flat. Lightning nodded, though she then realized that he could not see her.
"Caius?" she said hesitantly, still on edge. He made a noise of acknowledgement, and she took a breath. "Caius, I'm... I'm sorry." Lightning could not precisely name what she was sorry for, but after witnessing him shattering like that, she couldn't help but feel so. He was her enemy, yes, and she would have to continue fighting him, but she could not shake the irrefutable pity she felt.
Caius still didn't move. "You may go," he repeated, his voice softer than before.
"Right," said Lightning, and as she stepped silently out the door, she realized that she could still feel the ghost of him in her arms.
The next day, the war itself continued as if nothing had ever happened. The clang of metal, the crunch of bones, and the taste of blood once again filled the air as if the previous day's bizarre reprieve had never happened. But for Lightning herself, deep in her heart of hearts, something had undoubtedly changed. As her sword locked with Caius's, catching in one of its various prongs, and as she looked directly into the violet eyes that stared back with such immutable resolve, she realized that there would be no escape from him. Even by the slim chance that she and her sister could defeat him, Lightning knew that his haunting expression would stay with her, that every wound they had inflicted on one another would remain. And she knew most of all that the feeling of his body in her arms would never quite leave her skin.