The Man In Black
He was covered with a black wrapped cape, his face hidden behind a hood. In the shadow of his figure was the sheath of a katana.
Here the earth was black as if a burning fire had burned its surface, yet his steps left no sound, no trace. He was like a deceased man, walking in the Valley of Death.
He was tired. Tired of fleeing... Of fighting... Of leaving a battlefield for another...
When will they meet again ? When will they separate ? Each meeting only reinforced the certainty that they were all hiding from themselves.
The Four were losing.
A crack made him raise his head. Around him encircled the sinister masses of trees dead since hundreds of years. Trunks with bark blackened by the curse of the place, leafless branches, forming a hand with innumerable fingers stretched towards heaven as a last attempt to retain a life that was already fading away forever.
He stopped before one of those monuments of life now extinct, but still standing. A similarity to the being that he was himself : without heart beating, but always there, as if to better remind all the horrors of the past.
He put his hand on the rough bark for a few moments and closed his eyes, his head lowered.
— Requiem...
At this word, the tree was delivered from his condemnation. His roots detached from his trunk and he fell majestically, his body shrinking into a cloud of dark ashes even before touching the ground.
Then the nearest tree also yielded, and a third collapsed. And then a fourth, and a fifth. It was soon all the forest who was traversed by a mist of liberating darkness.
In the midst of total darkness, he found a feeling of peace. A relief at the idea of having delivered a brother from an unbearable duty. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and the mist suddenly dissipated, taking by surprise the rot that raged here below. Abominations devoid of all foundations, of all emotions. A grotesque imitation of its true aspect...
The Grimms. The Nightmare of Men.
But not his.
Three monstrous Death Stalkers blocked his way. But around him, in the rising smoke, he could hear the rumblings of tens, hundreds of Grimms. A sane man would have already gave in to the sirens of madness while waiting for an inevitable death. But for the being who stood in the midst of this horde of death, the number was out of place. Only counted the message left behind the fangs and the rage to kill.
She just wanted to make him understand that she had found him. That to flee would never succeed. That she would always catch up with him...
But she could not understand... May her hordes of monsters destroy the cities of Men, may Remnant be plunged into chaos and blood if that was her will !
But as inexorable as Time is, as certain as Death is, as thin as hope is, they will stand up to stop her.
The Grimms took little time to encircle their prey, but the object of their lust for destruction was an incomparable entity, more overwhelming than gravity, more terrifying than the end of all things.
He put his hand to his sword, slowly, smoothly. He had no hesitation, no fear, when it drew of his sheath a red like blood blade...
PS : Hi, it's Dein !
Hope you'll enjoy my fanfic ! By the way, I'm French so if you found some mistakes in the lines, please let me know ! Thanks in advance !
Also, I will release the translated chapters more or less one week after the publication of the one in my original language. See you !