Chapter 12:
Red...the red blood that had stained the blades around the room seemed to have been there for a thousand years...and it never bothered him...blood never bothered him...but why? Why was the fresh new blood that stained his floor tearing him up inside...why? The child that lay beneath his feet...this child who he'd run his blade through...and now was also covered in his blood...why? Why did it hurt so much...?
Satoshi laid on his side on the floor bleeding out from his puncture wound from the sword that had entered his back and pierced through his right lung. Guilt? Was this guilt he felt? Looking down at the child who held the most beautiful blue eyes, once radiant blue eyes that were now closed...maybe forever...it's not possible! How could he be feeling guilt? He wasn't even human...he was a guardian...the child had to die! He...he had to die...didn't he?
He looked back over at the blade, the executioner's weapon of choice, covered in once living and sweet blood...that was now turning duller as the child's life faded. Why did he falter at the last second? He could have pierced his heart! He could have ended his life and moved on to the others...why? If only he would have gone only a little more to the left and sliced through that beating heart with ease and ended the threat to his own selfish existence...but he couldn't...even now he couldn't bring the blade down upon the child's soft skin...he 't.
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"Give it up boy! There's nothing left in this world for you!" The sorcerer yelled holding his newly bleeding arm; his exhaustion was great...but not as great as his opponent's.
Satoshi was breathing heavily, he was exhausted and having trouble keeping up with the sorcerer, "You're wrong!" He shouted and raised his blade to the sorcerer again, "My will to live comes from my will to protect! Isn't yours the same?" Satoshi demanded and locked bladed with the sorcerer again.
The same? They were the same? Their will to live...was to protect...but what could a human be fighting so hard to protect?
"Tell me human! What's worth dying for?" The sorcerer growled and threw Satoshi backwards and onto the floor, "Tell me, don't you want to save your world? Be noble, be a hero, and die for your world?" He asked walking over to the tired boy he'd thrown harshly to the floor.
"There...there is no world worth dying for..." Satoshi said lowing his head, then quickly glaring at the sorcerer and jumping to his feet sword in hand, "WITHOUT DAISUKE!"
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For the one you love, would...would he have had the courage to die for the one he loved? Would he have died...for his only light in the world...as well? Would his love have died for him?
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"Hah! And does your dear Daisuke of yours return your love? Face it boy...unless the feeling is mutual, then you'll have died in vein!" The sorcerer screamed and slashed Satoshi across the chest with his sword making about a half an inch deep wound stretching from Satoshi's collarbone down to his right side.
Satoshi fell down to one knee and was supporting himself on his sword that he had dug into the ground beside him. He was quiet for some time with his head down and panting, it seemed as though he had admitted defeat...his breathing calmed...his blood still dripping slowly onto the floor...and he didn't move at all even with his enemy approaching.
As the sorcerer approached he could clearly see...a tear. A stream of tears was falling from the young boy's face. He stood behind the boy and raised his blade with the tip pointing down at the young man's back, clearly over the heart.
Tears...why was he crying? Humans only cried when they were sad...but...he clearly remembered the doomed boy's voice...not as one of sadness or pain...but...one of calmness...calmness and acceptance.
"...Daisuke doesn't have to return my feelings..." Satoshi said with no emotion in his voice, "...Because I will always love him..."
The sorcerer's mind had stopped; time itself had stopped for him... He played these words over and over again in his head. He would be willing to give his life up for someone who wouldn't return his feelings? But before he could stop himself, he felt his arms bring the blade down upon the kneeling boy from behind! He had to stop this... he couldn't do it!
At the last minute...he had sparred Satoshi Hiwatari's life...he had moved his blade down to the right of his heart, and ran his blade through the young man's right lung. Blood was everywhere, it covered the sorcerer and his blade, the floor, but most horrifyingly...his hands...his hands were forever stained with the blood of another...his other half...his light.
As Satoshi fell to the ground, the sorcerer saw himself falling with him...his heart sank. All was silent...the smell of fresh blood filled the room, it made him sick...Sick that it was his blade, his hands that were slowly draining the life from this child...his own light no less! A void that was left in his heart due to his inhumanity...was now filled...with guilt.
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He continued to stare down at Satoshi, his breath becoming more labored by the second...soon they would cease forever...soon he will be dead...
The sorcerer clenched his fists and slammed his eyes shut, "Damn me...Damn me to hell and back for this..." He growled and dropped down to the dying young man on the floor. He placed his hands over the large hole in his back and began to chant a spell.
But he was weak...he was so weak and exhausted, this human he was trying to kill and now trying to save had wore him down so much...by killing his light he suffered in his strength...his energy fading faster and faster... would he have enough? If this young man died now...the guilt in his heart would never go away.
He tried with all of his remaining strength and just as it was about to give out, he felt like warm hands...soft and forgiving hands were wrapping around him. A warm embrace from behind were holding him...suddenly he felt calmed...and renewed. He reopened his eyes and all of the wounds on the young man on the floor in front of him were gone! His breathing had leveled, though his eyes were still closed, he was alive!
"I...I did it...?" The sorcerer asked aloud confused and tired.
"No...we did it..." Came a voice from behind. The warm embrace was still around him.
"Adel..." He asked recognizing the voice and turning his head around to catch a glimpse of the red haired sorcerer still locked in his warm and gentle embrace from behind.
He chuckled a bit and smiled at the sorcerer he was holding, "You know...Zanus...for the past century that we've known each other...this is the first time you've ever failed in your mission..." Adel replied with a smile.
"Hmph...don't get use to it...Heh...what am I saying...because they're still alive...the world for us will end..." Zanus replied feeling...not as bad about it as he expected.
"Really...and how do you know Daisuke's still alive?" Adel asked laying his head on Zanus then nuzzling the blue haired sorcerer's neck softly.
"Come now...I know you to well..." Zanus replied leaning back more so on the red haired sorcerer, "I was planning on killing this boy...then killing to other one myself...and the two spirits..."
"..." Adel sat quiet a moment, "Still not letting me get blood on my hands?" He asked with calmly.
"Hmph...I have plenty on mine...you don't need to carry that burden...you have enough nightmares to deal with..." Zanus replied feeling pain inside from not being able to release the one person of this world he cared for most of his suffering.
"Zanus...I always thought...that when you cared about someone..." Adel replied pulling Zanus closer to him and a tear falling from his face, "You help them carry their burdens...so they won't be alone..."
Zanus was surprised at this comment and turned his face to see Adel's. Maybe...the person he did love...did return his feelings...He laughed to himself at this.
He would have gladly died for Adel...he wouldn't have had a second thought...his job was to protect the seal holding the evil of the paining and..."Adel..."
The red haired sorcerer looked up at him drying the tears from his eyes magically.
"He and I...we are the same..." Zanus replied looking back down at the still unconscious Satoshi, "I wish I had realized that sooner..." He said lowing his head and sighing heavily, "And now...both of our worlds...will be destroyed...all because...Heh...I share a human heart...with him..."
"..." Adel laid his head back down on Zanus's back and smiled, "You know...we can still save one of them...and send the boys and the spirits back to the world of the light..."
Zanus's eyes widened then closed, "But...then for that...one of us..." He began, and then felt the warmth behind him shift and he felt Adel's finger on his lips stopping the rest of his sentence.
"Shhh..." Adel said with a smile, "Don't worry...I can accept that..."
Zanus sat there in silence starring at his beloved sorcerer...the only joy he'd ever known in his life! He was willing to pay the ultimate price to save a world they had never had the pleasure to step foot upon, and save four total strangers from a tragic and painful fate...just like...that boy was willing to give his own life...to save another's...
"Just promise me one thing..." Adel asked and grabbed Zanus's hand gently, "Promise me...that you won't stain your hands with anymore blood..."
Zanus sat in silence looking upon the other for some sort of sign or hint of sadness, unwillingness, or doubt about what he was about to do...be he knew that there would be none. He lowered his head in silence then whispered the only words he could say to those sweet wine colored eyes. He held his hand tightly and a tear fell from his face, "I...promise..."
Note from the Author:
Sniffles Okay I admit...I was crying a bit reading this over...TT sniffles But now we're coming into the final chapters of this story! Back to Dark and Krad next chapter! So please stay with me! Thank you for reading and sending me reviews! Bows I LOVE YOU ALL!!!