Belated disclaimer: This chapter will primarily focus over gradually darker themes and issues. Its purpose here is more to leave questions before things can be cleared up. With that said, please enjoy.
…You, cruel Cain
"҂҂҂" There was a rhythmic ado somewhere far behind him. And something else as well. But not too noteworthy.
Less important, something to dismiss. A measly noise of clinking right by the bedside.
A passing annoyance to look over. It wasn't important.
How was it called…?
Subaru was asleep, that much he was certain about after his head hit the pillow to catch the last express off to la-la-land. Any later than that and he might've still been caught lounging by the window, burning away the time until he'd earn whatever good graces for rest.
"҂҂҂" From the corner of his headrest, a dark shade of green, half-hidden beneath the carriage made bed's rim, prowled away. In its path accompanied by a clinking of teeth.
However, ominous as it was, it was easily overwritten by the encroaching tinkle somewhere behind. How odd! There was a great deal of difficulty to express a contoured opinion of that specific thing.
Sleep was a finicky deal.
Sleep too much and you wake up feeling like a notorious drunkard that kissed the closest moat by the road.
Sleep too little and that isn't pleasant either for reasons that don't need mention.
A weight progressively made imprints in the bed's mattress beside his right hand.
Those are typical issues one might get fed up with or encounter should they prove to favor a night owl's schedule. And that certainly was the case Subaru experienced for a while day in and day out some good time ago.
So, what was it called again?
"҂҂҂" A prickling sensation, like needles, like bee stings swarmed about. Prickling at the skin with the intent to burrow. That sensation vied for notice, invading Subaru's fingertips. The clinking became muffled.
But the steady racket set behind felt more demanding to acknowledge. He couldn't care less about his closer source of discomfort.
That phenomenon when you can't move, stuck in place, sound asleep. Peaceful and secure, until it somehow dawns on you to be awake.
Trying to adjust in bed didn't work.
Getting himself to sit up was downright the closest thing he'd come to dreaming by now once realizing how impossible it was.
And opening his eyes, was a no-go. Strange, once becoming aware that he still managed to 'see' around the dark carriage. A forgery, recreated vaguely by his imagination after the real space he occupied, he was sure.
And as expected from the previous attempts at action, forcing any sound from his throat beyond what should have been the rhythm of his breath was just as useless.
Of course, he could still hear and feel. Smell and see. And above all: think!
"҂҂҂" His nails felt pressed, squeezed, against the phalanges. Comparable in theory to attempt at forcing by sheer grip-strength juice from an unripe apple. Soft crunches soon made their appearance to support that image.
The clinking remained muffled.
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
And what did it matter when compared to what approached behind? It would've been reasonable to dismiss those worries when knowing a solid wood wall kissed the couch's back.
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
But that sound didn't come off as abiding to such mundane obstructions.
Steadily filtering through all the stages of initial panic, the phenomenon lost the foreign mystery after constant exposure to it. No, it wasn't so strange. It was familiar, in truth.
Exactly, episodes like this weren't anything novel!
So then why did Subaru struggle with all his might to search for and desperately grip a hand he begged to be present beside him?
What was the worth is seeking that heartwarming bundle of pink he recently began to hardly define?
"Be…h-!" That would've been the sound of eureka, were it possible for Subaru to form sounds as he was now. Alas, he only managed a soft exhale.
This wasn't real! Simple. It was just all a nightmare! Or rather, a sleep paralysis. Nothing of actual danger to it.
Nothing short of an illusion born of his insufficiently oxygenated brain once waking too soon before his body. It may feel genuine to the real deal, sure, but ultimately it was just a phantom.
And so, Subaru was half a mind at ease with whatever fever dream this moment would offer, assured he'd just brush it aside later as nothing more than vague ideas and ominous sensations that come in package with night blights like these.
That was always the premise he'd tried to follow through.
Yet, it proved to be thoroughly more challenging in recent months without the little ray of sunshine that would always save him.
As if in response to that specific solution of 'realizing' meant to escape this night's circus, the noises which serenaded him grew stronger.
Almost like a show of spite to his desire of escape. It became so surreal that it was difficult to call them hallucinations and not reality.
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
His fingers now began to burn with an invading pain. Something dour being no doubt the cause of the repeated smashing of his flesh, Subaru deduced it to attempt at injuring more and more of his extremity until he would lose feeling in it.
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
Fluttering; batting with vigor; that which clued on the greatest danger became more defined.
This noise was so overwhelming that the previously muffled and unacknowledgeable clinking was all but forgotten.
"҂҂҂҂҂"
It didn't instill dread by its virtue of quality.
No, this kind of fuss should only associate to harmful ideas. As it wasn't amounting to something as expectedly nightmarish as the rattling of chains, per say.
Not since it was nothing more or less than the fuzzy and delicate swish of feathers behind his ear.
…
And the realization of the sound was what frightened Subaru.
…
Hearing the agitating noise of feathers behind surged a need to jump out of the bed. But he couldn't move.
The idea of feathers further inspired the association for something that possess them; that idea further panicked Subaru! He could feel himself sweating like if ill.
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
The notion of wings entered his mind without resistance. Provoking now a deep sense of disgust from having resorted to that concept.
'Observing' little about the sable room surrounding him beyond the moonlit couch and tuft of green fiddling beside his right hand, made him unwillingly recount all the synonyms he could for this encompassing dark.
It was dark. Very dark.
And thinking of dark, he thought of black. Thinking of black, he thought of Schwarz.
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
The wings fluttered!
They had to be schwarz; an impenetrable opaque!
They had to be; they had to be!
The wings!
Hearing them incessantly, Subaru was afraid! He was afraid! Afraid of them drawing any closer! Afraid of the truth they herald, afraid of what it meant, afraid of what it wanted, afraid of what it already did! The things to come!
Schwarz wings. Something so easily definable under one utterance.
"Fl-…"
His herculean effort made in panic almost succeeded to shatter through his paralysis bound lips and scream the name of who he feared was here in person! Alive, in flesh and blood, ready to greet him the moment his true vision opened! Ready to reveal nothing but a mocking reflection of accusation.
His black finger, pointed at him!
His simpering mouth, in a knowing smile!
His unforgiving eyes, burning not a way through, but in him!
His echoing heart, beating lesser all the closer to him!
Until…
"Hmm…"
…
…
Subaru ripped his attention elsewhere.
Anywhere else.
And that anything else, was the pathetic writhing by his right.
The meek disturbing noise left ignored since his struggle's start earned a bit of attention as a way of distraction.
'Looking' down along his right arm, wishing to continue and ignore the rising pain that threatened to smash his hand, Subaru trailed his form to meet what begged for his attention incessantly.
"Hmn…Nmm…" His hand burned. It felt like kept within a furnace. Sensitive like his nerves were exposed. No, it bled, that was why it felt so hot. His blood coated every finger and sunk back inside the ripped flesh just to seep out again like an artesian fountain.
His right hand, in the sable carriage, was every bit as black as the day infected with cursed blood.
Wearily 'looking', as there was no better term to describe his sense that functioned, Subaru took in the details that fell beneath the tuft of murky green set by his bedside.
Ghost white hands pressed carefully over the mattress held his arm in place with a twisted sense of delicate reverence.
Deep black robes bunched, folded and pooled around the skeletal silhouette.
Wrinkled skin that bagged at corners; eyelids grossly reddened to first assume the use of makeup framed manic grey eyes; pallid and withered complexion reserved for only the deceased.
And most noticeable, a set of teeth, revealed in all their macabre gleam as the cheeks, and even gums, almost peeled away to produce an everlasting smile.
Those teeth were the same clicking teeth used to bite each one of Subaru's fingers.
"Hmn-A-ah~" A weary and raspy sigh came from the figure. It carried emotion not of displeasure or annoyance. It sounded pleased. Rejoiceful that it happened to be observed, the figure mimicked first its lips to move before its shrill voice arose.
"What…what-what-what-what is thiiiis?" Holding with a hand the maimed fingers of Subaru, the figure unnaturally moved to stand, not unlike a doll on strings. "Mm-hm, yes… Indeed~. Indeed. Indeed-indeed-indeed!" It howled the more it repeated itself. "Here I am, at long last accounted and beheld! After I, for all this time, having endeavored to earn your attention. Noticed but unacknowledged for my effort by you… you-you-you-you! Noticed, merely as excuuuuse from other issues!"
Dropping Subaru's bloodied hand and hunching towards his bedridden self, it threatened to seize his neck. "Such ignorance! Such denial! Such uncaring attitude! Miserable-miserable-miserable! Aaaahh…" The figure's ghostly white fingers pointed at Subaru. "Only you! Only you, you, you, Master! Only you, Master could be-" The intensity and oppression of its voice stopped. A smiled pulled sinisterly the sagged flesh of his cheeks.
"Only you ~could be this ~slothful, Master~."
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
"It's not go~od you know?"
With a clenched fist, the phantom struck the cannibalized hand of Subaru before executing the same vicious treatment to its very own extremity, sinking its teeth in every digit. "To know! To know everything that's to beee! To know and be aware! To be aware and ignore! Ignore what must be seen! You-you-you-you, Master, hiding and running! Even though you know! You must know! You do know! You have made to know! So you do know!"
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
Biting one digit after the other, smearing blood over its face, while clenching Subaru's red coated hand close to heart, the thing trembled. "How you ignore and pay no heed! So terrible, terrible, Master! Sleeping on the truth and knowledge exclusive only to your awareness, procrastinating until the last hour when it's too-too-too late! Ghhhh! Late-late-late-late! To procrastinate so-so much! Knowing what must be done, yet too refuse! Hiding! Running! Letting pass by! With so many lies! Why?! Why-why-why-why?! Master! Why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why-why?— —Why don't you accept?"
It bent horrifically at the waist towards the ground to perfectly look Subaru in the 'eyes', sideways with the bed. "How very slothful of you, Ma~ster." It almost sang with disgusting glee before the phantom's shredded hand lazily reached to him.
Time felt slowed, almost stagnant. The flutter rioted behind Subaru. "҂҂҂҂҂҂"
The spectre, disproving the reality of having departed from the living world, inched its cadaveric limb closer to Subaru's paralyzed body. The phantom drowned its scraping voice with welling tears in the deluge of ado released by schwarz wings.
"҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂҂"
…
…
...
...
"-? —p! U— an— ov—r! Get a grip!"
The throaty whisper, intent to be a 'discrete' scream, scraped against Subaru's eardrums. His vison returned to the same place he fled from.
No phantom there to rattle him, but a red head asshole he halfheartedly began appreciating to wake him.
And… eugh… That soul repugnant smell he came to loathe! Waking up made Subaru aware of the newly acquired room-freshener. It was so annoying! By itself it wasn't all bad, but recent memories associated it to something repulsive.
So, the waft of alcohol made Subaru's skin lose some color, or whatever healthy tints he had nowadays, and cringe his face into something resembling the consequence of french-kissing a shit-stained-lemon.
"Bg-gh… Mhg—hk! Hell are you doin'—with that?!" Expectedly angered by the pervasive scent of cheap and stomach rotting booze, Subaru blearily worked up his wits to stand and function again like normal.
"Ei! Fuck you barking about; keep it low. …It worked, 'in't it?" Bitterly remarked the deputy commander whilst capping the canteen and lightly flicking it somewhere in the dark where Subaru lost sight of it.
"Why keep it anymore?" Asking after moving his almost rigid body with no small amount of effort from his short-time place of rest, Subaru nodded towards the general direction the canteen was hurled.
"I have my own trinkets to keep, you got yours." Mulling in thought on his cheek, the Astrea rolled his eyes and spoke with a mellow and assured tone. "Thick-headed-bastard, don't go drawing conclusions." Uncaringly replying, the older knight got up from his crouch and carefully treaded in the dark carriage until a thud sounded in the opposite direction.
No doubt, the man having plopped back in his seat, Subaru presumed.
Struggling to adjust to the dark, Subaru looked over most of the space and inadvertently noticed the pearly moonlight shining inside the few things he could see. Among those said things counting loose cloaks, backpacks, and trinkets set for travel; all of them emanating an underline scent of a tropical forest. Beyond the window, no still image could be made of the steady stars. And thinking about it now, Subaru did feel a little jittery for no good reason. He was suffering from a progressively dying body, not a condition with a surplus of energy.
And so, with a little elbow grease and stretch of the neck, Subaru could confidently conclude the carriage was still in motion.
"Surprised?"
Raising an eyebrow and looking in the opposite end of the carriage, Subaru could begin taking notice of the sitting Heinkel. Said man fixed him with a ghostly stare. That, or the night made things difficult to interpret. Heinkel's arms sprawled across the couch's backrests, and with a leg resting over his other, Subaru understood this guy wasn't planning any time soon to sleep.
"On an early departure?" Unaware of the time, Subaru believed the sunrise wasn't far away from appearing, and he likely subscribed to the rooster morning schedule.
"Try extended drive. We're already in the duchy. Sleep stop's useless and all when a village away. Should be about entering the main domain from the vineyards…" Heinkel dispassionately clicked his teeth as he looked out the window, unknowingly making Subaru's spine freeze over at his action. "Don't get your hopes up, Captain. You're lucky if you got 3 hours in."
As soon as theorized, Subaru's expectations on time and rest were proven wrong.
"Oh!" Sarcastically smiling, Subaru tried moving his toes and fingers, testing for their response. And moreover, carefully examined his right hand. …No marks on it meant all was as good as it could be.
"And you? Decided to adopt the night owl's lifestyle?"
"Decided to keep watch, arsehole…" Heinkel lightly rose his voice all the while widening his eyes. "Ya would'a better wanted me ta leave you to your own?"
"I didn't ask you to pull an all-nighter, just to stand by in case I make a racket." Retorted Subaru with a displeased tone.
"Ooww, how adorable! Little kid doesn't wanna inconvenience poor me." Heinkel even tried his best at pulling what he probably thought to be an 'adorable' child-like look to mock Subaru. But in the dark environment, he looked nothing less than the next best thing used to describe a children's story monster. "Bah, I got my own things to sort, tough-guy. Don't lose anymore sleep over it." In the end, Heinkel brushed away the needless worry. "Ya'll end up looking even more horrendous."
"I'm touched." Snorted Subaru after taking an inhale more forcibly. While Heinkel prattled on with his masked sensibilities, the black-haired knight decided to change out of his light nightwear. It turned out that putting boots on was apparently an Olympic sport, in terms of effort. He could remember the last time needing this much air for a break was after a typical exercise outside the Miload domain.
Well, those times because they were more pleasant to remember than the recent ones.
Not bothering with more thick clothing so to spare himself the pain, the young man settled for sporting only the flimsy shirt of Heinkel's once young knight outfit. Better to endure a little cold than instigate his miserable condition further. That and moving his wooden limbs anymore than necessary now gave him the sensations of thrashing in a pit of his own sweat.
Disgusting… Subaru began doubting any shower in the world would get him to compensate for the sensations this illness 'spoiled' him with.
"Gonna talk about it?" Heinkel grumbled whilst mocking disinterest. With a palm, the Royal Knight Commander lightly played a dull tune against his knee.
"…"
"I'm just saying: It'd be wise to maybe discuss matters if they're enough to lose sleep over." Capturing Subaru's fleeting look, Heinkel elaborated. "Do me a favor and spare me the shame. Ain't it enough already I'm indebted to you?"
"From where that conclusion? Last I checked, we only had a solid talk and you magically set yourself on the right path." Cheekily speaking back, Subaru trailed off with an open smile. More than pleased to deny Heinkel by joking with their formal status in Lugnica.
"Listen, smart-ass, ever since I've seen your shady ass, I've come to know you always know something." Yet Heinkel spewed back without a shade of hesitance, simply shrugging off whatever Subaru said. Perhaps he was already getting used to it. "It doesn't take a strategist to see yer full of sheit. Just look in a mirror when ya say all's fine, you cunt."
"Maybe it's just my head full of dumb leads, how about that? You yourself were a pretty controversial topic not that long ago. Enough to mull about it, too."
"Glad to know I'm so popular." The man grimaced at a corner of his mouth. "But you know… those gotta be some really nasty 'dumb leads' you've got in that noggin. 'You know; you know; you know'? What do you know so bad, ey?"
With a victorious smile, the elite member of Lugniac's martial order settled himself better in the seat to lean forward.
"Oh, and, no, it's not the first time you've been sleep talking. Case you were wondering."
"…"
The reaction Subaru would like to claim he'd give in that moment would've maybe fit the lines of 'Piss off' or 'Better not blackmail me about who I talked off' or 'But admit I'm right about Julius being an ass-stuck prick, right?'. But for the life of him, his dry mouth could not utter anything.
Loosing more color, of whatever there was left, from his visage, Subaru looked nearly the universal image of a ghost. His sunken cheeks, uncared hair and wizened stare, were the perfect touches to show what a cadaver of a man he was. A completely ill and dying bastard one would expect to see in the most heinous criminals that tend to slither away at the story's end. At least, that was what Subaru saw it as.
"…"
"Really? Nothing? …Fess up, ya brick-headed cunt. Otherwise, ya risk one day for not only the street-girl to suspect you."
"Not gonna ease up on Felt even a little, are you?" Subaru awkwardly grimaced at the cold attitude held towards Felt. "You know, Reinhard cares a whole bunch for that 'street-girl'. Besides, at least have the decency to not shit talk that ankle-biter of a sister in my face."
"Don't change the subject." Heinkel thinned his lips and exhaled deeply. "Say… ya usually keep your business on the national level. What's so bad now to make you look more crap than usual. –not like there's hope for better in your case though." Ended the man mercilessly at the end with a snide remark.
"First off, thanks for the assessment. I can already smell the personal wisdom from it." Smiled Subaru with a sour expression. "And for the previous one, I don't remember being in a contest with the Sage Council." Uncaringly, Subaru flicked off with a finger and propped his hand beneath an arm to look through the window.
"Then maybe Dunkelkenn did a bigger number on your head than you let on." Intentionally prodding Subaru with that selection of words, Heinkel made sure he got all the attention necessary for what he'll say next. "But here, I'll be a prime role model example and coax you through it."
"…" The irony wasn't lost on either of them with that quip.
"From the Whale till now, tell me something important you did that's not at least of national interest?"
"…" Subaru remained quiet and fought hard not to look back at the speaker.
"Exactly." The man punctuated to his unanswered question. "So:" With a huff, Heinkel got off the couch and slowly treaded towards the carriage's center. Letting an arm grab a wall for support, the knight leaned closer and grimaced an ugly expression that almost hinted at him saying something out of good intentions.
Subaru would exclaim this with a laugh, would he not be in such a shitty situation. Heinkel, this fuck, speaking out of concern? He really had to go back to Vollachia now! Whatever he was exposed to in its environments had to have been a stellar drug to make him hallucinate this!
"What's the plan now?"
And Subaru felt his mind grow infested with white noise. Or no, that wasn't enough to fully define what he experienced. Better yet, he could feel the static often associated to that analog image. A passing wave of bristling chills stung him wide awake. Apparently, this was serious.
What was he just asked?
"Come on… useless now to go against it. So, what's the big threat?" Heinkel was fully convinced he was cooking something up, perhaps in accordance to Subaru's behavior.
"Not gonna try and deter me? You were annoyingly vocal earlier today." Subaru was at an impasse. Something didn't add up.
"Took a page out of your book, Captain." With a withering stare and a voice coated thick with a meaningful undertone, Heinkel proved Subaru's suspicions right to some degree. "If you can't beat them…"
"Forget I asked."
"Then be like them, no? How about I join in on this great secret?" And Heinkel, in a very roundabout way recalled on something Subaru had once compromised back in Vollachia. Something that to this very day was an unquestionable atrocity he committed.
This type of saying. Like agreeing to be as something you go against.
How Subaru came to curse that saying. How he came to curse that decision…
"Speak like that again…" His voice hoarsely began rising and his eyes cruelly looked at Heinkel as if he were still the notorious waste of life first met in Priestella. And staring back in his muddled azure irises, Subaru again saw the pathetic black mirror living like a jeer towards him in the red-headed man.
"Ah, see… now's more like Captain." With an equally laden air, the Astrea family-head quietly muttered as he shuffled to plop beside the black-haired companion. That spite didn't go over his head.
"…"
"…"
It seemed like the mood soured greatly.
Whatever complicated way Heinkel tried again to tackle the demons of Subaru's last choices did not yield good results. If anything, it only left something like an unspoken distance between them.
"…"
"…"
"I'll only prattle just speculations. The most you can do is try to keep it in mind and be cautious. But, in rest… you know my terms." Speaking with reluctance and a detectable revulsion, Subaru held and scratched his chin as usually he'd do when thinking.
With this admission in the dark carriage, complemented by a dull thrum of solid wheels scratching the earth and with unnamed equipment tinkling off in the corners, Subaru mad it clear the only topic left for discussion was business.
Nothing else outside it.
The memories of the past were left again, untouched.
"Yeah… You drilled us with 'em every corner." Morosely spoke the Commander. Heinkel felt like his teeth began to peel off from the nuances this old agreement started to gain.
"Then repeat them." Dispassionately guided Subaru without deeming to see Heinkel's pained appeal. "Liars like us need strict guidelines…"
"…Do what you say…"
"Mhm."
"And ask no questions…" Huffed Heinkel at the end, as if fully letting go of any leverage he could have possessed against Subaru in this moment. For reasons only the knight knew personally, those terms became steadily unpleasant.
"Alright. If we're all fine and dandy now:" Subaru stretched his back and left a palm to linger over his aching shoulder. "What you should have in focus regarding the Royal Selection, is patterns you see in the candidates' progress. Their past included. You're high and mighty in the internal affairs, no? With your position, there's plenty sources to be informed… so keep an eye out on commonality between the candidates. For reference, it tends to stick like a sore thumb."
"Commonalities…?" Furtively looking at Subaru, Heinkel bit his lips and lightly grimaced. No questions, he agreed. At first, this kind of condition required by Subaru seemed pretty useless and stupid. Something more like 'leave me and I'll leave you' thing that worked nicely to keep everyone's concerns unburdened.
But in time… it quickly became vexing. And now, it started to become a regretful deed.
"Right. I'll try and keep in mind."
"And one more thing:" Subaru raised a finger and cleared his voice. "Reinhard, as complicated as it stands now, still admires you –I'll shut up about what I think personally of that. Rein, still takes your word with a great deal of consideration."
"…You keep walking on my nerves…" Heinkel lightly retorted with a progressively frowning mien.
"So, if he ever nears confronting Lust, or Felt is in the vicinity to the archbishop: Make sure he flees and Felt's in tow with him. Do whatever, make sure they stay far away."
"Not that I don't agree with the sentiment." Heinkel's jaw stiffened and relaxed from the ominous wave he felt coursing down his spine. "I'd want to see my so-Reinhard away from that thing as much as you. But give me a hand here… Why talk about this now?" The man worriedly thinned his lips and pinched his temple.
To Heinkel's confused self, Subaru turned with a displeased look as if silently judging him for running his mouth. The younger knight's face was a far cry from what he'd normally sport. And all this talk of looming things… it gave Heinkel the chills.
Never say stories of old demons visiting to discuss the future were a thing of fantasies. It just felt this unsettling.
"It's only a guess. But keep in mind curses and blessings tend to 'bicker' in their ways. …Trust I don't want to see a live experiment of either Felt or Rein exposed to the Dragon's Blood." Reproachfully, Subaru gave a barebones explanation to his secretive commands. Much alike to how a cook reluctantly gives up a piece of meat to a begging cat. His tone raspy from the punished throat (or punished everything by how the mana poisoning started to act) didn't do any compliments to his cold cooperation.
"…"
"…"
"Look kid… About what I'm trying to tell you. Here, I—"
!
But before Heinkel could finish his thoughts, a cry of fear ripped through the peaceful ride in the night.
A young man's voice, one easily recognizable to both Subaru and Heinkel, tore in panic through the air to reach them only too late to do anything.
"Subaru! Father! Duck, we're u—!"
—
—
—
And the film cut abruptly.
A sudden weight smashed into the carriage's side and gravity momentarily became a thing of imagination.
Time moved like in panels made of surreal paintings. Choppy and viscous.
The sound bleared for seconds worth in a cacophony before it disappeared like if never existed.
The pearly moonlight shined like a gliding lantern through the tumbling window to illuminate the surroundings no different to a spirit. …No, it wasn't the window that 'tumbled', it was the entire structure, along with the occupants. What it appeared as was an impression.
Clothes and equipment floated around like fish in water.
And Subaru last saw fragments, splinters of wood the shape of rotten feathers, aiming his way in the impact.
The shrapnel laid their vicious kiss on him. And next thing he knew, he was given that elusive blessing for rest he so often lamented.
A wailing shriek echoed through the sky.
Sharp cries pierced though his skull.
Such an abominable howl of agony, it resembled an ocean liner being split in two! A deluge of metal scratching against itself so mercilessly it brought any listener's ears to bleed.
!
A humid smack thrummed along his earth planted head. His left-hand flopping away to smack the muddy ground and get a grip.
Bleary sighted, his eyes opened to see blurred layers of light. Not unlike a fogged set of lenses emerged in water to filter his image.
A distant ringing in his ears, perhaps seeping blood, warmed his ripped cartilage as the wailing continued in the skies.
The earth rumbled.
A shower of fine debris slipped by and over him like leaking sand.
Splotches of vibrant color wavered randomly in his field of view.
The smell of ash stung his nostrils, chasing off the miasma of iron clinging to his body.
His mental faculties returned as slowly as he blinked. Awareness over danger and clarity in his sight returned steadily.
Subaru blinked with blood dripping in his eyes.
With a sharp inhale, his paralyzing body cramped in pain to the collection of wounds he was decorated with.
Adrenaline never had a chance to hit him, at least not a chance before he was hit by whatever happened.
…
"—! GhK! Hmpf! Hhmhh…!" Gurgles of wordless effort ripped from his throat, stained red along his lips.
Through cracked sight, a little way in the mud, lit by pools of burning wood around, a bundle of something small laid limp on the cold soil for him to notice. A tuft of gold to crown their head. A bunched thing of black and golden cloth. …A small figure.
Someone definitely familiar.
In the distance, unintelligible cries sounded.
"—Hk! —Ghhkhhg! —!" Exhaling vapid steam, and emanating faint mist from his seared back, Subaru extended his left again. Sinking it in the mud like a hook. And dragged against the ground.
Prone, his left arm fervently smacked again in the soil! Drips of mud splashing in his eyes at the hit. And dragged himself again.
"—…—…—Hhhgg…! Hhhff…!" Sucking the blood off his teeth, and staggering pathetically, his ruptured torso scraped against the clay, trailing a red carpet in his wake.
His right arm limply sunk in the ground as he crawled, like a crutch to support a yet dead thing. Subaru's ears rang again! A fear flooding him when the howl tore the skies.
"Haaah-haaah-haaaaah! —!" Breathing with desperation, disbelieving himself to live, and too flooded by the moment, a newfound moisture began poisoning his vision.
Subaru struggled to see. His sight flashed from narrow to wide like playing with a horse's glasses.
His body trembled and his heart mindlessly made havoc without rhythm in his flayed chest.
His face carried a burgundy luster, glistening crimson from the splotches of burning wood beside. Rivulets of blood traveled down his brow to his cheeks and jaw. A miserable face paint mixed with dirt, oozing of bitter humiliation only he associated.
He was closer.
He was closer to… to… the fallen bundle.
It was clearer.
A tuft of blonde. Clothed with black threads… an… an adventurer's sense of style… it… it— Red, red… red droplets on… her face. No eyes to see. They were closed. Good, good, no major wounds then.
But red.
Yes, red.
He was sure to know who it was.
Subaru could be certain he knew her.
"—! Hhkgg! Mhhmm! F—Fe-l!" His brain, steeped in fear smashed thought after thought in panic.
Everything that happened.
So suddenly.
Was it intentional?
Was it planned?
Was it all a sign?! It had to be connected!
To that dreadful thing! Yes, yes, YES! It had to be!
Accursed creature haunting him! He knew something was wrong with that nightmare! It was a premonition, right it was!
"Gh-k! Hghghh…—N—Noo-ooOOO!" Tore a yell from his drowning throat. Blood gushing like a deluge of coagulated infection from his lips.
A sorrow burning him. His back emanated mist like a putout torch in the morning, his torso flayed and impaled, his feet unfeeling, his right arm dislocated, only his left remaining responsive.
His head burned, and ardent shards of coal felt like piercing his skull from the temples.
"▅▅▅■■▅▅▅▅▅▅■■■"
The unbearable wailing divided the heavens!
And Subaru, with unspoken emotions, craned his neck in his crawl to see.
The White Whale(?), flew above him.
Its bloody corpse floating off in waves above like an animal in its death throes.
"▅▅▅■■▅▅▅▅▅▅■■■"
Its unholy roars echoing with a past misery inside his skull only.
…
Subaru looked back towards the girl left in the mud.
And made to crawl again towards her.
The White Whale(?) cried and cried, with howls of agony and rage, begging to be seen. Its cadaveric specter, impaled, cut, flayed, smashed, gouged, and burning swayed in the clear skies above.
With morbid dedication watching Subaru in his miserable efforts. Like a vengeful presence gleeful of his hardship. Here only to pester him. …Or something more foretelling laid in its presence?
Its resurrected echo haunted Subaru in his hellish crawl. A demanding presence keeping him awake and functioning.
"F-El—GHHgff-Fe-l!" Forced Subaru something of a close noise to the girl's identity.
Steps in the mud echoed around him. Humid steps slowly advancing his way. An otherworldly pressure in their gate, like nothing from the world of the living.
"You… oi, you!" It ruefully, but annoyingly called out.
It was so sonorous, with a rude quality, something said as if demanding from others to despise the speaker. It was so annoying! So, revolting!
"Oi! You, don't go lookin' off, you. Keep yer head fixed, you!"
But he could overlook the tone after seeing his naturally wild appeal. A flicker of recognition sinking in his conscious, Subaru staggered.
"Next time try an' do it yerself, you. Advised 's much, 'n ya try ta fuck off?"
Reid(?) grumbled and spat after plopping his hands on his waist, an ugly grimace on his wild likeness.
…
Subaru broke in his slow advancement. His head falling against the soil to jack his upper body up however little. His left arm sluggishly returning closer to his center, and grabbing hold of the dislocated shoulder.
"—Hhfff-hhgfhh..! Hhmmgg! GhHHKAAAAAAAAAAAA!" A new scream forced itself from his red foaming mouth, as he applied feeble pressure to socket the bone in. Such a weak strain that it only exacerbated his issue would result in this.
Past his teeth, crimson bubbles seeped and dripped on the ground. He became lightheaded and further agitated by the specter's words.
"FUCKIN' WORTHLESS CUNT! YA NEED EVERYONE TA DO EVERYTHIN' FER YA! SAY IT! SAY IT AND I'LL GET OFF MA TOOMB JUST TA NANNY YER SHEIT ASS! SAY IF YA WANT ME TO!"
Reid's(?) phantom rushed to him and knelt beside, yelling down his ear, spittle flowing about as he roared in his unclear vision.
No breath or air reached Subaru from the figment of imagination. Nothing palpable from the illusion but shame and regret. A sense of deep lamentation, just too great of a shame. Such a fitting sense for such a deplorable self. His thoughts stopped being understandable and fully surrendered trying to reason the hallucinations existence.
"SAY AND A'LL DO ALL FER YE! HAH?! LIKE IT THAT WAY?! JUST SIT DA FUCK AWAY AND DO NUTHIN! WORTHLESS FISH! NO-NO, FISH! NO LITTLE FISH! YER A FACKIN TADPOLE 'THOUGHT EVEN A TAIL TA SWIM!"
"▅▅▅■■▅▅▅▅▅▅■■■"
The White Whale(?) howled above him, parting the clouds like the waters in would were it to inhabit an ocean.
…
Subaru listened in. He listened in close.
And again, he crutched his upper body against his neck, his cracked forehead planted in the mud to do so, and dropped his weight over his right shoulder!
*!*
"GhhkgkkhAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
A visceral crack popped at his drop!
And the socket filled with bone again, leaving his nerve endings raw but responsive.
"EI! BETTER now… ain't it…?" Staying knelt on one knee and removing his eyepatch, Reid(?) stared without expression or aim at Subaru's prone figure as he began again to crawl away. A frozen painting of an unexacting phantom here only from Subaru's twisted sense of perception.
…
Subaru rose his upper body on his elbows, and clawed at the earth in front, dragging himself closer to Felt.
…
"Go, go, Master! Get up, get up!" A sweet voice filled with overwhelming exuberance suddenly shouted from his other side.
"Master's invincible! No one better, mhm, yup!" A complete polar opposite to his last presence of company.
"Shaula knows better, yup! Come on Master, come on, mhm, yup!" Shaula's(?) undefined hallucination; a kind guilt; joyously ran at him to call. A strange sense of encouragement he should wish forgotten was there in her words. Words too lively, and too fooling for him to believe as unreal.
An impossible sight.
She was not as persistent of a dream. Her existence, no more than a butterflies lifespan.
"Up, up, Master! Shaula waited for too long to wait anymore now, mhm, mhm! Get up and move! Don't laze about anymore!"
…
*!*
Breathing in with greed, Subaru's field of view cleared and widened to a better degree. His blood-filled sight, tinted faint red, left many things still opaque. But it was a good improvement overall.
Trying to move his legs, Subaru was shot with a stabbing pain! Searing slags, a mix of metal and jagged splinters, rested firmly in his flesh like piercing thorns from a rose bush.
It was easy to conclude his legs were invalid for this.
Either way, from wounds or the mana illness. They were bound sooner or later to be compromised.
He just felt that way.
…
Clenching his jaw, his teeth pressing against themselves, Subaru's nose filled with the scent of iron and ozone.
A repulsive reaction molded his tortured mien to an agonizing expression.
Subaru's right hand moved to his hip. Struggling for but a second, his fingers coiled around what he searched.
A black shape was wrenched free from its holster, and whipped towards a particularly stout segment of carriage debris.
The whip's end wrapped around what must've been an axle, the broken wood still firm from its reinforcements, and Subaru's flayed hands gripped the flexible weapon, yet unclear in the night and in his muddled view.
With a great deal of effort to pull himself with slashed palms, Natsuki slid along the humid earth and approached Felt's paralyzed form.
…
…
…
At a few arms' length away, so close her face was almost fully illuminated. In the night's chaotic racket, Subaru hefted himself again. Pulling on the slick and scaly weapon. …The cold, cold weapon. Dragging himself closer.
Chips of scales peeled off the whip. He was almost there.
Subaru smelled something outside the ordinary. A drying scent of sterile substance blanked his head to pause.
He could almost shake Felt awake.
But looking down, he loosened his grip. The 'whip' furled itself free and twisted back in his hands with a mind of its own.
A black, no, too void to be so simply described. A sable body. One so deep in contrasted in the night.
With shields of keratin so tightly knit, air could not bypass.
With a thrumming pulse sent along its length like a ticking bomb to signal life beneath the unholy shape.
Seeping a sterile smell of medicine, in fact, more potent! Yes, more numbing. Something that alarmed imminent danger.
It smelled of venom.
In Subaru's hands, coiled in itself and poised to strike, two beady, glowing, orange eyes stared from atop its sable, horned, head!
A serpent! Not a whip, but a withering viper hissed at him and raged in a storm of twisting flesh! Constrict his hands and crawling up his arms, revealing ivory-white fangs folded in its maw extending out, dripping venom!
"GH-HAAAAAH!" Subaru bellowed reflexively and hurled his hands away with clumsy motions. Whatever it was, false or real, useful or not, was flung away in the dark, among the wrecked remains of the carriages behind.
He remained empty handed.
"!" Drawing breath after breath, afraid his heart would simply stop from shock, Subaru stumbled off his place. Falling from his knees back on his torso.
Gulping down a wad of blood and bile, he clawed away at the soil again, reaching Felt.
…
"Disgusting."
The scorching remark burned though the air down his charred back.
"Even more repulsive than before. Tis an achievement unto itself. How deplorable!"
Subaru's insides felt like paste, churned in smoldering tar. His fingers grew cold and began sounding off like twigs creaking in the autumn. His sight, smeared red and black, drew closer to Felt.
"Tis what thou deserve. Crawl over nothing, alike the hypocrite who art!"
Clacks of heels against spread splinters sounded closer to his ears.
"To forego mineself's divine direction is to forgo the meager life you hold. Truly, a harrowing sight."
A black heeled shoe, ran by red designs fell before his face, halting him in place.
"…"
And looking upward: the burning stare of Priscilla(?) gouged through his being, seeking his soul.
"Spineless. Even now…"
Her disapproving tone, filled with anger sounded off in his head once her phantom grimaced his way.
"…H-Hmmfh!"
Subaru breathed passed grit teeth vapors of wasting heat like a ground dragon pulling an unmovable weight, and slung his arms forward, trying to grasp beyond the specter.
"No. …Better yet, follow through so. Thy repulsive self, acts accordingly. Unchanged, thee holds no merit to embrace mine wisdom. …fret all alone. Despair all alone. Move all alone. Thou art not savable."
Priscilla(?) mercilessly tore at him with condemning words, twisted from another person's speech long ago.
Her demanding presence walked off ahead, uncaring to his misery, content to watch him drag himself down the bloodstained gully towards Felt's motionless body.
"Deplorable…" Priscilla(?) would not shut up though as the rest. Active beyond this hallucination's reason to exist, her illusion still viciously judged him.
"The girl is better off dying than tarnished by your act of 'goodness'."
…
At long last! Face to face with Felt, Subaru bit back a chocked wail as he bent upwards, propping himself on his knees. The numerous foreign bodies scraping inside his mangled flesh danced like snakes coiling round their nest. A brain scratching sensation of invasion nestled in Subaru's extensive library of experiences.
"F-fe-lt! Felt… Felt!" Staining red the girl before him, Subaru shook the girl by her frail shoulders. The delicate existence within his reach limply moving in response. No sensation to touch, and no sign of breathing in the night.
"Hg-haaah-" Sparing an arm to swat aside mud and blood from his eyes, or at least, the majority of what blocked his sense, Subaru bit back his unbearable need to scream in rage.
He… he, he… Subaru looked all around.
So out of it and disassociated with his environment, he paid no mind to what hectic things were happening beyond his reach.
He… he just needed to find a perpetrator.
Just, just something.
Anything to focus over.
"F-Felt?!" Gathering closer the girl, Subaru lightly slapped without any true feeling in his palm her soft cheek.
Cold dread washed his veins instead of blood. A mangling contortion of emotions poisoned his judgement, seeing nothing around to make sense of.
"Felt!"
Subaru cried with a shattered voice to the girl. Feverishly rocking back and forth with her close, and incapable to think, truly working under a miracle to even be conscious. Subaru muttered whatever worked at the moment to wake the girl.
"Felt! Felt! FELT! Fe-…!"
His gaze froze over Felt(?).
Hollow sounds whispered from his stiff lips. Subaru's fingers trailed lightly a single tress of Felt's(?) hair. …Now that he looked closer…
With the light from the right angle…
That golden color… too transparent.
And, slowly looking back at her peaceful expression, a sinister knot pulled inside him.
Huffing off breaths like a dying man, Subaru pulled softly the girl in his arms closer to a light source. Inching himself just enough to let a few rays from the surrounding piles of burning wood reach the shape he held.
Looking closer now… Those weren't black clothes of a familiar style. They merely resembled that idea due to the night's obscurity.
In fact, her clothes were white! And their model…
And… her hair… was far lengthier, too long to be tied in a simple ponytail.
"…"
…
"Well done…" Flinching in his attempt to look at the illusion, Subaru hoarsely began hyperventilating. "Once more, you prove how much a failure you are. Next time, try and save an archbishop, yes? Ah… Not novel, is it so?"
Priscilla's(?) scornful words and crimson eyes stared him down, stripping him of flesh and seeing what hid inside this carrion named Natsuki Subaru.
"Mayhap, next time thee will even outdo thy own failure with a grander one! …Perhaps, save the Witch, next time?" With a cruel scowl, Priscilla(?) approached and bent to reach his face.
With a knowing flicker in her bloody irises, she glanced at what lay in Subaru's arms.
"Y-y…why yo-u…?"
Louis, breathing lightly, innocently blinked her eyes open. A wonderous sapphire staring back, without an ounce of ill desire harbored towards him. A relieved expression beginning to bloom on her dirtied mien. And an elated air washed off of her.
"Why…? Why… you?"
But Subaru only questioned, through tear burdened eyes, and saddening visage.
"…?" Louis knowing no better, she simply conformed to whatever basic principle she thought to be right. She wasn't exactly stupid, as unfortunate as Subaru wished to believe her. …Not even that to belittle her.
No, for whatever reason, the mute girl was intelligent enough to act according to the situation.
And because of whatever reasons she followed, her dainty hand reached out to rest against his tainted cheek. A sick version of warpaint set over his intrepid likeness, gently rubbed away by a twisted image of innocence.
"WHY YOU?!"
Screamed Subaru down at the thing! The thing!
This creature!
This… this; why did this manage to escape?! Why was she free of her sentence!?
Why did he struggle for her?! OUT OF EVERYONE he could possibly lay his eyes on in this disaster! Why her? Why this thing and no one else to see firsthand!? Why did it have to be this thing?
Why this creature?
"YOU! YOU! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO LIVE?!" Abruptly, Subaru's arms went slack and the little girl harshly fell to smash against the ground! A yelp escaping her lungs at the impact. Such a pitiful sound that it further enraged Subaru for making him even a shred of sympathy!
"WHY!? WHY YOU!?"
Subaru screamed.
Subaru yelled out among the wreckage like he did no different in Vollachia during his 'days of victory'.
…
"No better than that man, no-" Priscilla's(?) cruel phantom drew close to him, speaking by his ear, then right before his face.
"No better than that monster. …Birds of a feather, flock together." Subaru smashed his teeth together and tensed his body so harrowingly, that every fragment tore deeper inside, like an ant colony tunneling beneath his flesh. The same words said then, said now by Priscilla, meant something so different. "Abel found his brother well enough. …You, cruel Cain." Priscilla's(?) severe and sorrowful voice reached him down to the void of his soul.
"…I…I-I DIND'T KNOW!" Trying to howl back in the demon's face, Subaru only chocked a course and mild denial. A shallow bellow in comparison to what he tried roaring.
"You didn't know…?" Repeated weakly and bitterly Priscilla(?).
"…" Subaru struggled and clenched his eyes shut tight. Indifferent to whatever the small girl beside tried doing to shake him back to sanity.
Louis patted him, shook him, called him with raspy noises, all for nothing.
"You didn't know you helped that thing? That thing already judged to pay by mineself." Priscilla(?) called out again to Subaru.
Her alabaster hand, unblemished by any marks, so perfect that it was not earthly, reached out to him.
"Thee, didn't know better from aiding that murderer…? That lowly dog?" And impossibly, Priscilla(?) placed her cold, cold, palm against his blood marred face. A touch, so cold, that it burned. "Thee didn't know…" And her head shook from left to right disapprovingly, left speechless to his pathetic excuse. Washing him in blame and shame. And catching his flowing tears with frostbiting fingers as a hellish image of kindness.
Or was it just him, reacting as he should have?
Those very same motions. Something awfully unbelievable from someone so harsh as her(?), repeated as when he was left a cursed child, now returned to reprimand him.
"How can thou be so spineless? …To seek excuse?" Priscilla(?) asked astounded. A torture in itself, to make this perfect illusion be so shocked of him. To make someone so assured and unmovable, stunned at his deeds.
"What have thee dealt? Made brothers with the Devil?" Subaru clenched his tattered fists tight in a slag of blood. "Became his Ahab of a Captain? Marched over all the bones pointed at?" Subaru leaned on his knees, digging shallow trenches in the mud with the shrapnel piercing his body. "Willingly became a Cain thyself…?" Subaru left vapid mist hiss by his teeth like a mindless serpent, and bent his head skyward, leaving the faint lights around glisten against his red slicked face.
"Blamed everyone? Yet acted all the same for what thine confronted…" Priscilla(?) grasped his head and shook him back to stare in her mortified eyes. "Ate sins, blamed everyone, denied mineself's judgment with right and wrong of thine approval and walked as thou sought fit?"
Her impossible grasp, tugged his head, and hit Subaru's bleeding forehead against her unblemished one. Looking dead though this mirage, Prisca stared back!
"Built up another's legend… made devil of thyself, worthless doing so… and left?" Priscilla's(?) mirage moved her hand and stuck in Subaru's red marred hair. A pool of black drinking in the night, stained red as if by the spirit's will to break somehow all boundaries. "Thee nodded. Spoke yes. And acted exemplary. …Only for mineself to be put at ease over lies." The appearance thinned her lips and exhaled no air for him to sense.
"…You, disappoint me-"
Subaru hitched his breath.
Lost in a prison of his own making.
"-Natsuki Subaru."
It let go of him.
Her harsh vision went away like petals in the wind as his head flung down, not unlike a puppet cut of strings. And he was left seeing her, in this current wreckage, this blissful archbishop, with concern wrongly possessed by her cerulean eyes.
…
"I… I didn't…! I know. I know…! It wasn't-I did everything! It wasn't-" Aimlessly arguing with nothing and no one but himself. Subaru struck at Subaru's own soul.
Personal demons, living only in him alone. A conflict so deep and intimate, nestled so impossibly far, that no one, but Natsuki could confront. Only him; only his. Just his; all alone. All for him; only him. No one else'; Dedicated just for him. Separated from anything else; Divided from all else.
"It's…" Tears fell down his crimson face. "It's all you…" Raising his head to speak hollow words, the adult moved to meet the child he parted with. "All your fault…"
No, not Louis.
Not her.
Subaru spoke rasp and calm words, with a rueful tone and observed with understanding eyes. He came off as recognizing the true fault in everything.
…
This new apparition. This ever-present phantom he never managed to kill.
Subaru looked at the little boy standing where Priscilla stood. The true reason everything was so wrong!
An image, meant to mean innocence he once greedily held so, so, close. An unwillingness to let go of pure white dream. A desire to maintain this sloth of admittance. Something weighing… That now haunted him like a murdered victim.
The echo of his sloth, in image of purity. A principle let go to reach farther. And resulting in sin wrought virtues even now felt miserable.
"It's all you…" Subaru repeated candidly. A dispassionate behavior in contrast to his earlier thrashing. Perhaps left lifeless after this much exhaustion. "You, at fault."
"…It's ok." The little boy nodded with teary eyes, but strong expression.
"…I always hated you…" Subaru mumbled with crystal clarity into the night, like a madman seeing ghosts.
"I know-" A meek reply escaped the boy.
"It's all your fault." Subaru condemned the apparition. A merciful mirage where he could pour all his honest hatred. A willing vessel, for his unquenching wrath. …The ideal target, for all his loathing. The perpetrator to blame.
…He already felt lighter.
"I know." The little boy tearfully nodded, without sign of resistance. A compliant attitude, of a guilty person.
"Why… Why you?" Returned with an ironic passion, Subaru's question aimed to Louis, spoken again to its rightful destination. "Why did you have to live?" Accused Subaru nothing but himself. Now free to finally say it without any restraint.
"It's ok." The little boy nodded. "You can blame me." And broke in wails of hurt, bawling his eyes before his current self. An illusion without meaning, just like the image it assumed.
And Subaru vindictively smirked, a cruel and bloody smile towards the innocent mirage.
Only he had this right.
Only he could delight in this cruelty.
Only Subaru could be this cruel. And get away with it.
And anyone else that might think something about this? Well, if there were any who might somehow find him in the wrong for this: They could just stand aside and cry their hearts out for all it was worth.
What he did, was right.
…
…
…
Minerva could turn in her grave as much as she wanted.
Because Minerva was right.
Against Subaru's feverish blood and cold skin, Louis frantically panicked and cried!
Her delicate hands repeatedly touching him, shacking him, hugging him, all for nothing. No response, and no sign of reaction to anything outside his glazed over eyes.
Subaru crumpled from his knees. And the blonde cascade in the shape of a girl struggled to keep at least his head on something other than the mud bellow them.
Louis cried and wailed! Am arm waving in spite at empty air. A look around for anything of help.
Louis cried.
And Subaru's feverish form smiled.
His vindictive simper, lovingly maintained even when suffering in a maimed body. He certainly reached a long-awaited moment. As far as he saw it.
"Whh-haaah-haaaaa! Hgghhhff! Hhhff!" Sniffling and crying, Louis buckled forward and back to no avail as she cradled Subaru's head. A great fear numbed her slowly, and only panic fueled her decisions. "L-L-Lo-Lo-s lo—e!" Her clumsy attempt at speech coming off as gibberish, helped with nothing.
…
…
…
"Subaru! Subaru!"
Off from the side of wrecked carriages, and wildly thrashing Ground Dragons, Reinhard ran towards the most horrifying sight he found in this event.
"No, you idiot! Stay with the others, ya can do that easy! I got it over here." Bellowed a command his way so sternly it froze him over.
Reinhard met with terrified eyes the limping silhouette of his father, stained red across half his face, with his knight sword held close.
"Father, you- with Grandfather, please regroup-" Reinhard, ignorant to the orders barked his way, ran to reach Heinkel. Only stopped by the free hand of his father the moment he reached him. The man would not accept the shoulder offered to lean on.
"Ya feckin deaf? Move! Keep the members close in unit, I've got the rest!" Heinkel roughly clamped his hand over Reinhard's shirt, staining him red down the neck.
"Father, demi-beasts aren't witchbeasts to coral. Let me find Subaru and y-"
"I order you!"
Reinhard widened his eyes and slackened his jaw. A confounded expression painting his likeness.
"I'm the one in charge. I'm the one to lead! You…" Heinkel hesitated. "You follow my orders… No questions asked." And fixed his son with a stern look, letting go of his clenched uniform.
"…" Reinhard remained stuck, undecided. Found in such a conflict of order and necessity. He was petrified to a motionless statue.
"Don't waste time! Hold father's back, and he'll have yours. Move!" With a demanding tone, so sonorous that it spread across the field, Reinhard backed off uncertainly. A mortifying hesitance in his gait before taking off at inhuman speeds to no doubt fulfill his objective and return to his original mission.
…
"Don't fuckin' dare ta pull another close call on me…" Mumbled Heinkel aimlessly as he looked over the slopes, grounding himself firmly before moving towards a point he could swear he spotted movement.
"AND YE! YE, FUCK RIGHT OFF!"
Viciously, the Commander turned to his right on the one perfectly working heel and slashed at a hulking form lunging his way!
*!*
"Seriously… the hell are these things…?" Heinkel observed with disgust the Moloch made of crystalline skin and disproportionate limbs. It fell limply at his feet, bisected from neck to pelvis in his rush, leaking a vile substance for blood to dampen the ground.
"How much to bet the brat knows it…?" Murmuring as he peered around, Heinkel overheard a soul damning scream, and his eyes contracted to pinpricks in apprehension.
"Fucking hell!"
Without much said after, the man clumsily leapt over a torn wooden wall and vaulted off several debris. In his sight, he could make out the shape of two figures.