16 - ENDURE

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Sylvain

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I was never much of a brawler. I felt enough fists as a kid that throwing them as an adult left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I'm not going to win this with my fists. I lack the training to fight a dagger unarmed. Maybe Felix could do it, but I know I can't. And eventually my speed will falter and that knife will end up between my ribs or across my throat.

I could run. But I will be DAMNED if I turn tail and let this demon live to keep torturing and killing!

"Your friends will have torn each other apart limb from limb by now," he taunts me.

"You tried twice to get Felix and I to hurt each other with your poison and neither time it worked. I'm surprised you still have any faith in it," I say.

"One of the things I learned from my experiments is that it has limits, especially on someone like you who has no history of psychosis. But your king?" Sterling laughs. "It takes very little to snap his mind and unleash the beast he hides."

Dread steals over me at the truth of his words and the realization that on a good day Felix can barely win a fight against Dimitri. Tired and distraught as he is right now… he doesn't stand a chance.

Taking advantage of my distraction, Sterling teleports beside me and the tip of his knife catches my arm as I dodge away a fraction of a second too slow.

Trust Felix, I tell myself. He won't be so easily beaten, even in his weakened state.

Returning my full focus to the moment, I circle Sterling, studying his movements. The intervals between his teleport spells are lengthening. He can't keep them up forever, can he? I think Lysithea said something to that effect once. You can only cast them so many times before the strain on your body exhausts you.

Whatever this thing is, it's not human, but it has human limits. Its arm is still broken and it still feels pain.

This is how I win. I endure. I outlast it.

Drawing healing magic to my palm, I clamp it over the wound on my arm and grit my teeth as the skin knits back together. Sterling strikes while I cast the spell, but I duck beneath his swing and fall back. He chases after me, lured in by the temptation of gaining ground. Without using his teleport spell, he attacks. But facing him head on gives me the opportunity for a counterattack.

As he steps within reach, I dodge and strike, slamming my fist into his chest. He teleports away immediately, a bit winded but unharmed. I shake my hand, my fingers bruised. I think I hurt myself more than him. Goddamnit! I don't know how to throw a fucking punch.

Again Sterling teleports behind me and manages to slice his blade across my side. Again I heal the cut and run out of reach.

"Damn you!" he growls, panting for breath. "Just die already!"

I laugh, my own breath racing and heart pounding from the exertion. "Is that all you've got?"

Once more we repeat our dance.

Twice.

Three times.

My body is on fire with the pain of healing spells. Sterling is grunting with rage every time he attacks and swearing foully.

Four.

Five.

I don't know how much longer I can do this. My healing spells are waning, my body is protesting each movement and push of magic.

I clench my teeth and stare back at Sterling furiously. He is swaying unsteadily, his image flickering to reveal the demon underneath. Finally the disguise breaks altogether, the exertion of magic that holds it together likely running out. His true form reveals itself - a human-like body but with facial features that are twisted and unnatural. His skin is ash-white and his eyes dark, surrounded by symbols tattooed in black ink.

"Who are you?" I ask. "Tell me that much at least before I die."

"We are the ones who slither in the dark," he says with a breathless, guttural laugh. "And one day we will walk your land and rebuild it once the heaps of your corpses rot into the ground and the rivers of your blood dry into the dirt."

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Felix

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Clear-headed once more, I rack my brain to try to think of how we find Sylvain.

"How far can a teleport spell go?" I ask Dimitri.

But he is still on his knees, arms wrapped around himself, his whole body trembling.

"Dimitri! Get up! We have to go after them!" I snap. "We don't have any time to waste."

He doesn't respond and when I put my hand on his shoulder and give it a gentle shake he flinches and closes his eyes.

"Snap out of it! We're safe now. Come on!"

"Go before I hurt you," he murmurs.

"You're not going to hurt me. Stop being dramatic. Get up!"

He exhales a long breath and covers his face with his hands. "I can't be sure."

"I'm sure," I reply, kneeling down in front of him. "Look at me. Dima, look at me!"

He lifts his face from his hands and gives me a tortured look.

"I'm sure," I repeat.

"You should not be."

"Well, I am."

"Why?" he asks.

"Because I know you. I saw you destroy yourself until it seemed like there was nothing left of the man I knew. But then I watched as you came back stronger. You used to be one crazy motherfucker, Dima. But not anymore. I believe that absolutely and I thought you left behind all that wretched self-loathing enough to believe it too. So get up! Sylvain needs us."

"I could have killed you. I nearly did," he says.

"I know. Now are you going to make up for it by helping me or not?"

I hold out my hand and he takes it, getting to his feet.

"Look, I've gone a little mad myself this past year. I think I understand now what could twist a person to be so lost like you were. Of course, I didn't turn into a raging boar and rampage around the countryside for five years. But I felt my sanity slipping. And if it can happen to me because of nothing but boredom, I think I understand how it could happen to you with all the dark shit you went through," I say. I struggle for words for a moment then add, "I don't hate you anymore. I haven't for quite some time. So stop fucking hating yourself and pull yourself together, alright?"

He nods and I see strength and assurance return to his manner.

"Teleport spells can only go a mile at the farthest. They will be close by," he says. "Sterling wouldn't have taken Sylvain back into the city, not if he meant to kill him. He would have gone farther north."

"What do we do with Morcliff? We can't leave him here."

"We cannot set foot in that house again for a while," Dimitri replies. "Let us bar the door and leave him. We will have to come back for him. He certainly isn't escaping. We bound him too tightly."

"Fine."

I run back to the house, slowly my steps warily as I approach. Taking a deep breath, I hold it as I approach the door, shutting it quickly and dragging one of the chairs on the porch to block it.

After I return to Dimitri, the two of us set out northwards. There is a fence and a copse of trees behind the house and we bolt past them, out into the rolling hills and open fields. My steps falter as I walk and I have to fight to not stumble and fall. But I force my shaking legs to keep running and my body, pushed far past its limit, to push further still.

I make it about half a mile before I trip over a marmot burrow. Throwing my hands out to stop my fall, I manage to land on my hands and knees, but the impact still staggers me a bit, my head feeling faint.

"Felix!" Dimitri says, taking my arm and pulling me to my feet. "What's wrong? Are you injured?"

"No, I'm just-" I cut off the sentence with a growl of frustration and yank my arm out of Dimitri's grip.

"I believe in you with more certainty than I believe in anything else. And I love you with everything in me."

Sylvain's words echo through my mind and I start running again.

You're not dying before me, Sylvain. I won't allow it. I will run until I drop dead to find you.

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Sylvain

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The demon has stopped teleporting altogether, but he doesn't flee. Perhaps his kind will kill him if he returns defeated without tying up the loose ends of his experiment and silencing the witnesses. Or perhaps he is just as stubborn a bastard as me.

We cease our circling, both of us heaving for breath and glaring each other down, twenty feet of distance between us that feels uncrossable.

My magic is all but exhausted and if he lands another hit on me, I might not be able to heal it. Maybe I should just run and live another day. Felix will kill me if I die here.

As soon as the thought enters my mind, I push it away forcefully. Absolutely not. I won't break my promise to Felix and die before him, but neither will I back down and allow this thing to get away so it can return with reinforcements and kill us in our sleep.

I will just win. I have no other choice.

An idea occurs to me, but I realize that it bears a distinct risk, for instead of falling for it the demon could just choose to flee.

I eye him analytically, searching his expression and body language. No, I don't think he will. He hasn't given up yet. He thinks he can wear me down and he is willing to bear the fight to finally get the drop on me. If I run, he will follow.

The demon stands up a little straighter and his image shimmers then the disguise of Sterling's body returns. His magic is regenerating. If he has the energy to cast one last teleport spell…

Putting a hand on my waist, I lean over slightly and exaggerate my heaving breaths to look even more exhausted than I am. I look up at him with a defeated expression and, through clenched teeth, I say, "Fuck you. When you come back to finish us off, I'll be ready. Don't think you can catch us slipping."

Sterling laughs hoarsely but before he can reply, I turn and bolt towards the nearby hill, forcing my legs to run as fast as they can. I hear Sterling curse in frustration and before I make it more than a stone's throw away, I stumble and fall to the ground.

I stay down as if the wind has been knocked from my lungs, but my whole body tenses in preparation. Each time he casts the teleport spell there is an almost imperceptible noise like a rush of wind. I didn't notice it until the fifth or sixth time he used it.

I hold my breath and listen. For a second I hear only the muffled thud of footsteps in the sand then-

whoosh

Pushing myself off the ground, I see him materialize beside me and I hurl myself at him, tackling him to the ground. I try to grab his arm as he stabs the dagger at me but I can't get to it in time. My only choice is to seize the blade of the weapon in my hand. I feel it bite into my hand, slicing through my flesh and hitting bone. But better my hand than my heart.

With a yell of pain, I wrench the blade from him and throw it to the side. Clamping my bloodied hands on his wrists, I grapple desperately with him, drawing on every last reserve of strength I have.

He thrashes against my grip, his face flickering wildly between Sterling's and his own and strangled sounds of anger punctuating his gasping breaths. For one terrifying moment, he starts to get the upper hand on me, then I double down and wrestle him into control until he is pinned to the ground underneath me.

Now! Do it, Sylvain. No mercy!

My hands move to his throat and I throttle him ruthlessly, holding nothing back. The time has passed to try to knock him out and incapacitate him. Now he just needs to die.

But I have never killed a man with my bare hands before. Despite all the battles I have fought, I was never caught without a weapon and there was always someone to have my back should things go south. It is a brutal thing - so much slower and uglier than a stab to the heart with a lance.

Expressions of agony contort his face and he tries to pry my hands away but lack of oxygen is weakening him and he cannot overcome my panic-fueled grip. I squeeze harder, watching as he chokes and flails and his eyes stare frantically and pleadingly up at the sky, begging for rescue that doesn't come.

It is an eternity before his thrashing slows to dying twitches then stills altogether. He sags limply against the ground, his features resting into those of the demon once more, all traces of humanity gone.

Keeping one hand clenched tight around his throat, I feel for his heartbeat with the other until I am sure he is dead. Finally I release my grip and lean back, inhaling a deep breath and exhaling slowly.

I try to cast a healing spell on my mangled hand but I only have the energy to seal it halfway. It is enough to slow the bleeding, though.

For several minutes, I sit on top of the body, waiting carefully for any signs of life returning to the corpse. Who knows what these demons are capable of. Then once I am fairly sure he is gone for good, I get to my feet. I stand over him, staring down at his bloodied, deathly pale face, my stomach twisting with nausea.

The sound of a voice in the distance startles me and I turn around and see two figures rounding the bend of the hill. I know instantly from the tall silhouette that one of them is Dimitri and my heart leaps with the realization that he is still alive.

Then I hear Felix's voice scream my name furiously and all rational thought slips away from my mind as I am flooded with a feeling of relief and joy so intense it aches. I didn't think I had the energy to run, but my legs move of their own accord, stumbling and racing across the field towards him.

In a moment, we reach each other and Felix tackles me, knocking me back and staggering me to my knees. He clings to me so frantically I can barely breathe, but I hold him even tighter, burying my face in his neck as tears come to my eyes.

Too overwhelmed to know what to say, I just whisper, "I love you."

A choked noise somewhere between a growl and a sob comes from Felix and he pulls back to grab my face in my hands and kiss me roughly. He doesn't stop until I am so out of breath I am worried I might pass out. When he finally lets go of my face, I laugh nervously and catch my breath.

I glance up and see Dimitri watching us with wide eyes and a slightly uncomfortable look on his face.

Felix turns around and glares at him. "What?" he demands.

"Nothing, I just-" he stammers, then recovers his composure and says, "I'm glad to see you alive, Sylvain."

He looks past me at the demon's body on the ground and asks, "You managed to kill him then?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"What was he?" I ask.

"I do not know for certain. But his kind have been behind many of the darkest tragedies in Fódlan. We know very little of them but Byleth and I have been trying to investigate as best we can," Dimitri says grimly. "But come, even here in an empty field I am hesitant to discuss these matters. Let's get you home so you can recover, then we will speak of this again. In spite of our victory today, I fear this could be the first strike in what could be another war."