The burning blade hit against a solid force as he went after Kaeya. The ice between them that existed in swirling waves may have protected him, but he could feel it chip away as the fire bit into it. Diluc struck at him again and he could see Kaeya wince at the force of it, a lot of the ice around him misting into nothingness.
"Diluc, stop!"
"It's not Kaeya." That was all he was saying as he struck again and again until the frosty shield was gone. His blade met another after that, cold steel replacing frozen water as the noise clanged out around them.
Kaeya had never been the stronger, even when they were kids. He saw the effort the man had to put into keeping Diluc's much larger and heavier sword away from his flesh. In a moment that battle ended, Kaeya letting his blade slip harmlessly to the side as the much thinner sword struck at him.
Without his coat, Diluc noticed he lost a lot of ways to stop such an attack. The material held no magical properties or special traits, but it was thickly woven and it did serve it's purpose along with a few more. Kaeya's sword cut into his side as Diluc tried to sidestep, the mountain incline a horrible place to fight as he felt his boots slip before there was solid ground beneath him.
"What's this? Don't want to hurt your brother, do you?" Kaeya's visible eye narrowed. "Not that we are anymore, are we? According to father's last wishes we are, though everything went to you and I believe before you left I saw some notice to disown me or something of the like. As I don't share your name I'm sure nothing became of it. I'm glad you got everything you ever wanted."
"Shut up!" Something seethed and hurt at that comment, though Diluc wasn't sure what it was. Kaeya didn't typically bring up these types of conversations with him, though he had hinted a few in passing, to irritate more than hurt. He'd never been so blatant about this topic before. "He was my father."
"And mine as well." Bile and hatred were laced into the words, Kaeya wasting no time in trying to attack him. While he had his footing back and his great-sword no longer preoccupied, he defended each strike with a shift of the large blade or a sidestep down the incline, hoping to get to more level ground.
It was hard to bite back his words. Jean was there though and there were things Kaeya had told him in confidence. He had yet to share them with anyone else and was still debating himself over what to do with the knowledge. If Kaeya should be killed for his crimes or exiled, he'd be the one to do it. He'd be the one to decide.
He said nothing, holding back the attacks and watching this newly changed Kaeya before him. It occurred to him in moments that his only focus seemed to be on him. Even as he moved and left Jean vulnerable, Kaeya only had eyes for him -
Eyes that spoke volumes of hatred Kaeya had never shown towards him, even in the fights they'd had. Over the years Kaeya fought back his own anger with smiles, and that day that he had attacked him out of anger, he had fought back with nothing but a strong will and goal that seemed to fuel him past the need for smiles or hatred.
Even when they were kids, besides being upset about something, anger was not a weapon in Kaeya's arsenal.
Something had added it.
Their swords clashed a few more times and a voice somewhere in his mind was telling him he was wrong. This fight was wrong and should be stopped. As much as Kaeya spoke to him in words that only they would know, this wasn't Kaeya.
Being an enemy however left Diluc little resort than to slash back at him, trying to keep his blade to less vulnerable parts of the body. Being faster, Kaeya avoided every one and Diluc was left to defend himself. He wanted to attack, lash out with his anger, but at these close quarters he'd end up burning the both of them badly before either would go down.
"What's the matter? Is Master Diluc afraid to attack here?" Briefly, to wave his hand around, the ice user ceased trying to murder him. "You can't burn anything down. Or is it something else? Something deeper? Maybe someone like you can care about something more than yourself for once in your life. Kill me if you can. I will kill you if you won't. Know that."
Diluc's grip tightened again with anger and he felt the flames crawl up the sword. If he was going to fight, he was going to fight.
Wasting no further time, Diluc held nothing back as his sword rang out, hitting steal and ground, Kaeya not needing to retreat as much as any other opponent would when he could simply, with the step of the wind, appear to his side or behind him with the speed he possessed.
"Diluc! Kaeya! Stop it! Kaeya, whatever is going on, whatever you think, it's temporary! Albedo said he could make something to stop it! Think! I know you don't want this!"
Jean shouted, Diluc noticing she had gotten a lot closer and the flames around him, that Kaeya was subverting to the sides, had kept her from interfering. He was fine with that as more flames licked further, past the blade, and he had to do his best not to scream out when the heat was able to get through parts of his gloves. He didn't wear them for show though, and they kept any serious damage off his skin.
Kaeya didn't hesitate any more than he, if anything attacking faster and with more force. Ice started to form around him in a way that Diluc's flames were, both of them neutralizing themselves out on one another. The cold washed over his skin, searing him, Diluc having to partially close his eyes as they did.
There was more strikes, most of which he was sure no outsider could witness. The fog they were creating was too thick, and Kaeya's movements too fast. Minutes weren't the same outside of battle as they were inside. Diluc was getting tired. His muscles were strong but the sword wasn't weightless and the terrain wasn't forgiving as they stumbled along it.
Kaeya was able to slip under his guard, his attacks wide, and Diluc felt something hard hit him in the gut. Again, had he had his jacket, things like this wouldn't hurt quite so much. In the next second his sword was struck, but from inward, pushing it out of his grasp instead of knocking it aside.
An arcing flash of white streaked like lightening before Diluc let out a scream he hadn't intended, a hand going to his face. There was blood running freely between his fingers, pain starting from somewhere in his hairline, just missing his eye, to somewhere below his chin. He could even feel a bit of the blood, freezing as it met the outside air, somewhere on his chest from that same swipe.
"Kaeya, stop it!" There was no fire to stop her now and Jean stood between them, her sword out. "Get a hold of yourself! It's Diluc!"
Pain was nothing. After the attack Diluc released the pressure and reaffirmed his hold on his sword. He had to blink more than a few times to keep the blood out of his eye but he could fight. Jean shoved him back when he tried to pass her. Her eyes were cold as they turned to him. "You stop it too."
Kaeya took a step back, closing his eye a moment as the strange ice around him reformed. He opened his eye and stared Jean down. "I don't want to hurt you but Diluc and I need to settle something. Stand aside or I'll cut you down."
Jean stood her ground, shoulders small and strong under his over-sized coat.
Diluc was having none of that, getting up and grabbing her shoulder before pulling her backwards. He watched her try and move her feet to keep herself standing but there was no balance to find as she hit the floor. "Stay out of this Jean."
"Diluc, he's not himself. You can tell he's not himself. Albedo said there was a way to stop this. If Kaeya wanted to fight you he could have done it long before now. Please, stop."
Part of him understood that and the rage there faded away. He took up his stance in front of her even so, watching Kaeya take up his stance as well. "He's an enemy right now. Nothing you say will change that."
"Now?" Against his dark skin his eye shined like a beacon. "Haven't I always been your enemy? Looking back, even then, wasn't I your enemy as well? Isn't this exactly what you were afraid I'd do?" The smile was so twisted he could see some of his back teeth. "And here I am doing it. Kill me, Diluc. If you can."
No more time was wasted on pleasantries or Jean. Both attacked at once, Diluc going for a head on strike while having to shift to block Kaeya. He could do both if he moved the hilt a certain way. Growing up with him, he had learned the way Kaeya moved, seen him improve and switched up the way he fought him based on the changes he saw when he had returned to Mondstadt.
They were far too even but that only came to how much damage they could both do and of what kind.
While Kaeya was fast, he could do nothing to block some of the hard shots Diluc took. He was sure he'd gotten his shoulder at least in passing and there was a large cut after one of the strikes to his leg that bled freely.
In return, Diluc was strong but slow. Due to the injury near his eye he had issues seeing to the left. Kaeya had his life to compensate for impaired vision while Diluc had never tried. Several times the ice user was able to strike at his weaker side, a cut going up his arm as well as another just below his ribs that went in a few inches before he'd been able to back up.
Kaeya was able to get in far more strikes and, as they continued to fight, didn't seem to be tiring as much as Diluc was.
The flames flickered briefly around them before they went out. Diluc took a few deep breaths as his air misted in front of him. He looked down to see that most of his shoes as well as a good deal of his pants had frost along them.
Kaeya wasn't as forgiving as he had been in any fight he'd seen him in. Diluc blocked as he kicked out at him, hard, knocking him down before a knee was forced into his ribs and Diluc had to choke on a breath as he failed at raising his sword and heard it fall to the floor. Kaeya put force on the ground, holding part of the side of his hair in place, as the other man's sword hovered to strike above his nose.
"You lose."
Diluc spun, using the ground as leverage to knee Kaeya in the side, shoving him back. Kaeya responded on instinct, shoving his sword out at where he was in general, no longer able to aim.
It was good enough as it slipped a few inches between his ribs, Diluc having to wince and hold his hand over the injury. It had hurt and the world around him was starting to stop his breath. It was too cold. Only now did he notice he couldn't see more than a few feet to either side
Kaeya was back beside him, shoving his knee back into his ribs as he forced him over, the sword back though this time in front of his mouth. Diluc felt it prick his lips as he pulled them back, Kaeya forcing the blade into his mouth. He stopped before it did more than pass his teeth.
"Okay, now you lose. Really Diluc, what was that for? Did you just want to get in an attack before you died? You know, you look lovely covered in frost. Feel it burning into you? Isn't it amazing? It's far better than fire. Now, any last- well, I suppose I can't give you last words if I don't remove the sword. Removing it would have you trying to kick me again. What to do with you…"
"Kaeya! Please! What can I say to get you to listen? Diluc, hang in there! I'm trying to get past but…" Jean reached out her hand and, even with the glove, Diluc watched it frost over to the point it was almost ice before she had to pull it back. "Please, hang in there. I'll get you."
Would she? It seemed an impossibly. Diluc closed his eyes, upset, angry, and mostly full of self pity as he knew Kaeya would be the one to end his life. Of all those who had tried, the damned fool of a knight would be the one to do it. "enh enh ee." The blade was cool on his tongue as he tried to speak the words, hating sounding like a fool to do it.
"What was that?" Kaeya tipped his head. "I'm afraid I couldn't understand you." The sword dropped an inch and Diluc made some sort of noise as it cut into the roof of his mouth in the back, blood running down his throat while he tried to cough and ended up swallowing it. "Say that again."
"You won. Kaeya, you won! Stop it!"
Briefly Kaeya glanced at her before watching him like some damned god the guy always saw himself as. Diluc did his best to keep swallowing so he wouldn't choke, blood falling down his cheeks. "I don't win until you're dead."
Forgetting his sword, Diluc moved and grabbed Kaeya's by the blade to try and ward off further damaged. He was able to cut just a small bit of his glove and hand with the force he used to free himself, spitting to the side and doing his best to throw Kaeya off of him. He was angry but he was weary of fighting so long and every part of him felt frozen, not moving in the ways he was telling it to.
"You damned-" Kaeya didn't care to finish the statement, having been trying to free his sword from his grasp before just punching him in the face. There was already blood coating half his face and he felt some run from his nose now as he reached up, catching Kaeya's hand as he tried to do it a second time. That newly glowing eye glared down at him, Diluc in no position to glare back as he tried not to be sick and appear the drunk himself.
The words burned something inside of him far more than the outside as he tried to keep from passing out, the world around him far too cold. "Fine Kaeya, you win."
The force pushing against him all but vanished, Diluc doing his best to keep his eyes on the crazed man. Confusion and indecision were clear as the pressure on his chest eased up. "You never let me win."
"It's not like I let you." Diluc spit out some more blood, knowing that cut was going to be more of a pain than the one that was likely the reason he was bordering unconscious. "You beat me, fair and square."
Kaeya's arm twitched, his sword still in his hand as he let it fall to the side. Diluc wasn't going to let him have free reign of that anymore. There was a faint look of disgust on his face before it became hard to see. The ice condensed far more strongly against him when he wasn't moving, even through the thick boots he wore. He knew it would be death to pass out here, but there didn't seem to be much choice unless he was let up and got to a fire of some sort. He could make his own but there was nothing to burn beside him.
"Don't you dare fall asleep." Kaeya jerked him up by his shirt, his breath warm as it was close to his face. There was a small surprise there when he smelled no alcohol on it. He would have thought if the knights had been drinking, Kaeya was unlikely to refuse.
The command though was one he could not follow. Even if it were in his nature to listen to a word Kaeya said, it would be impossible. His eyes closed and his breath shook, letting Diluc know just how at it's limit his body was. He refused to let up his grip on the sword but even that slackened.
"Kaeya, please! Let me help him! I know you don't really want Diluc to die! Please!"
The temperature dropped so sharply that, half one with the ice already, Diluc felt it burn like nothing he had felt before. A sharp inhalation of breath at the pain only made it worsen and his eyes hurt even behind the lids. It felt like even the liquid inside of them was freezing.
There was harsh noises and he was sure he heard Jean saying something but it was lost to him within a semi-conscious realm of agony and swirling frost. It could have been minutes or hours before the slightest relief came and his eyes blinked back open.
Jean was above him, a streak of blood somewhere on the side of her neck from a wound his injured eyes couldn't make out. The color was all that caught his attention.
"Hang in there. I can't heal as fast as my sister."
Jean was doing nothing but making him colder as a fresh breeze flowed around him. He sat up, wincing, and tried to look around. "Where is he?"
"Over there."
Jean sounded worried and Diluc did his best to look in the direction she had. He could make out Kaeya only because of his dark skin in the frozen wilderness. He had his hands folded in front of himself in some meditation pose as he stood. Around him icicles stuck up from the ground in jagged peeks a few feet high.
As quiet as it was, the sound of his voice must have alerted the ice user out of his trance. He stared at him a few moments, as if something concerned him, before dropping the decorum and smiling. "Let us see how this plays out." Then he fell to the ground, hard, as if some invisible force had struck him. Had the ice on the ground been closer or facing inward, the snow would have been covered with blood.
All three waited in silence before Kaeya slowly got up, Diluc searching the snow next to him until the thinner, smaller blade was in his hand and at his side. He'd rather have his own but he'd take any weapon as opposed to none.
Kaeya stood, looking at them as if they had been the ones who had attacked him. There was a lot of blinking and that strange look Kaeya now acquired seemed more unnatural on him somehow. "Diluc? Jean? What happened?"
The words held no tint of the dark undertones of before, nor the melodious echo. That did not mean he was willing to let his guard down while he was still so injured. The fact that he could feel Jean shaking beside him, trying her best to fend off the cold herself, left him little thought she was holding up as well as she was trying to pretend she was. He wasn't letting his guard down with both of them so weak. "You tell us."
"You know you're bleeding, right? And you have… my…" His hand falling beside him to feel the empty sheath where his sword would be, Kaeya's visible, bright blue eye widened. "What… what happened?" it sounded as if he was the one having issues breathing.
"Kaeya, please, calm down. Albedo's going to get an antidote for you. You weren't yourself. Are you… alright now?"
Kaeya controlled his breathing to where he wasn't gasping but it was easy to see the too deep and too quick rising of his chest. It wasn't as if his clothing did anything to mask it. "I think so… but I don't remember anything other than walking along the path. Did I…."
Diluc shifted, doing his best to have his hair hide his new and rather ugly wound he could still feel breathing. It left half his vision impaired, though it wasn't the best even before. "Let's go. You're not getting your sword back yet." He had to spit out some blood from speaking, not wanting to swallow it anymore. Albedo hadn't given them a time frame and he wasn't too sure the man wasn't in his right state of mind still to be making anything complicated.
Instead of walking towards them, Kaeya took a few steps back.
Diluc tipped his head up. He didn't have much in him to start up an argument with him. He was scarcely putting one foot in front of the other. "Get over yourself and follow us. You're going first."
"I'm trying." The words were strained as Kaeya held himself close, his eye closed and looking like he was in pain again. There was a faint light that held no light, darkness with a hint of purple and a color that hurt to look at, some strange twisted absence of color that he'd never seen before. "It hurts. Get away from me."
The ice user was going backwards, and Mondstadt was back there. With Jean and him here, there was very little that could stand up to and assault from Kaeya. If he lost it again…
"Kaeya, so help me if you kill me I'll make sure you never live this down." Diluc dropped the sword somewhere beside his own before taking long, faster steps towards Kaeya than the ice user could take going backwards and downhill at the same time. He grabbed him up by the coat and had his face inches from his own. "Focus. I'm not getting in some stupid fight with you again. You're going to listen to me. We're going to go up this mountain and if I have to drag you up it, so be it. I doubt it's much further. You are not going to go crazy again and whatever this taint is, you're going to ignore it. You've beaten me. Me. And you've done it without this evil. It's pointless that you have it right now and that means it should be easy enough to overcome it. It's not power, not at least power you don't already have. Ignore it and get ahead of us." He roughly moved, shoving him forward. Kaeya tripped before getting his feet and staring at him.
"Well, get going."
"But Diluc-"
"Fine." Diluc took a few steps, grabbing onto his coat and dragging him up the path.
He could hear Jean over to the side collecting their weapons as he moved past her, Kaeya doing his best not to fall with how he had him held.
"Alright! Alright! Jeez, stop it! You look like hell as it is. If I did that to you, I'm at least not going to be the reason you die! Slow down before you give yourself a heart attack or something."
Diluc didn't slow, more fed by the words than he was concerned. He made it a good bit up the stairs, dragging along Kaeya while the other tried not to be dead weight. The camp wasn't terribly far off but his breathing was harsh, his lungs burned, and his vision was mostly snow by the time he got there. Releasing Kaeya, he inadvertently release his grasp on the world shifting beneath him.
Falling hard on his side, Diluc let in and out a few breaths that let him know he was alive, the pain giving him no second thoughts on that fact. Kaeya's hands were there, moving across his face briefly as his fingers pushed threads of hair away before they were on his arm, rubbing him.
The heavy coat feel over him and he caught the scent of flowers as a wind threw the hair back out of place.
"He's freezing."
"I know." Jean's voice held far too much worry in it. It always did. "Get one of the torches and bring it closer. I'll replace it myself if you have to break the stand."
"I…" Kaeya didn't continue
Whatever happened, it was as good as silent to him. Time passed, he didn't recall any warmth coming to him. Jean's wind was gone and he couldn't sense their bodies near him. Were they? Was he really dying?
Diluc didn't know. In that empty nothingness in the frozen snow, all he knew was one thing.
It was dark, it was cold, and he was scared.