How long does it take for sins to be forgiven?
There's no concrete answer. How long it takes or even if it can be forgiven depends on the crime itself.
What's more important than that is how others think of it.
You can't be forgiven if others won't accept that. Unless everyone in the world agrees that you've done enough, then is that really repentance?
That path to being forgiven is long and uncertain, it takes the traveller to places they never could've even imagined.
That was why Josh now found himself dodging around claw swipes from a Volvidon.
In the opening after it finished attacking he slashed at it while stepping away, giving an opening for Frost to pounce at it. The first attack missed, but the fanged beast was knocked away by a tail swing.
Before it hit the ground again, the Volvidon rolled itself into a ball and bounced off the wall.
It landed and started to roll towards Josh, before being knocked out of it by a fireball.
Alicia fired at it from atop Ayano's back. She jumped off and kept firing, while Ayano charged in and hit it with a tail swipe before it could get back up.
The fanged beast was knocked away again but had no time to recover as it was already being attacked by a Kecha Wacha.
Demi slashed at it repeatedly, while Terrence fired arrow after arrow at it.
The red-shelled monster broke away from Demi and tried rolling at Terrence, but was slapped out of this.
It managed to stop himself from being knocked away too far and got back up to see Zino, just before she roared, surrounding herself with lightning.
The Volvidon waited for this to stop and then tried to jump in for an attack, but was blocked by a shield. Alexandra attacked its chest, pushing it back slightly.
Zino flipped over to attack it, while Alexandra continued to attack with less flashy moves while advancing.
The two attacked in unison, until Zino took a second to charge and knocked the monster into the air with a tail flip. Alexandra was then also launched, stabbing at the Volvidon in mid-air. It barely had time to fight back before she used their momentum to drive it back into the ground.
Alexandra was knocked away, but her target didn't get back up. They seemed to have won.
They all relaxed and lowered their guards. Terrence was the closest, so he reached it first and pulled out his hunting knife to start carving.
Then, the Volvidon got back up. Time slowed to a halt.
Alexandra was still getting back up. Zino was over with her. Alicia had put away her gun and was walking closer. Ayano was waiting a short distance away. Demi was also too far away. Josh and Frost tried to approach, but they weren't quick enough.
Terrence's brain was unable to register the change in time to dodge.
"I can't reach him-!" Josh thought.
It slashed. The strike was far stronger than normal. Perhaps out of the desperation of its final moments.
This cleaved through Terrence's armour and cut his chest. A moment later, Frost hit it with a blast of ice wind, preventing the Volvidon from attacking again. He followed this up by pouncing forwards and slamming it into the ground with his right paw.
The monster stopped moving, for good this time. That wasn't really anyone's concern though.
"Hey, Terrence! You still with us!?" Josh asked, while picking him off the ground.
Demi landed nearby as quickly as possible, the others gathered around.
This tension was dissolved by Terrence casually opening his eyes.
"Mm? Yeah I'm good."
"...Dude, you just got slashed across the chest." Alicia pointed out.
"Yeah, I noticed. But really, it's not that deep. It's fine, I'm used to it by now."
"...Don't get used to it."
"I can't help it when it keeps happening. Gunner armour really is weak, huh? I've gotta get it repaired now."
"I get your point but… at least rest for a while or something."
"Sure."
The group was mostly silent on the way back.
When they finally arrived back at town, Alexandra finally spoke her mind.
"I'm sorry. You got injured because my attack wasn't good enough. It was all because I wasn't strong enough. I-"
"Hey, don't be ridiculous." Josh interrupted. "It's on the monster, not you."
"I guess, but still, it wouldn't have been a threat if I'd dealt with it."
"It's fine, you just gotta improve it for next time. I don't think Terrence cares much, right?"
"No, I'm not really mad or anything. It just happened, that's about it."
"See? It's fine."
"...I guess… Thanks. I've gotta avoid beating myself up like that."
"Yeah, there's no real point to stuff like that, so yeah, it's best avoided. Anyways, I'll be off, got some stuff to do."
Josh walked away and turned a corner. He glanced around before taking a deep breath.
He crashed onto the ground, curled into a ball.
"God, I'm such garbage."
He cut off the outside world from his senses, focusing only on his thoughts.
"He got injured all cause of me. If I was better, I could've saved him. What's the point in this if I fuck up at helping others?"
As mentioned before, no one knows when sins can be forgiven. However one undeniable thing about them is that unless the one who committed them forgives themselves, they'll never be resolved.
Murder wasn't something so petty it could just be forgotten about by him learning to like himself again, but that refusal to ever even consider going easy on himself fuelled that self-hatred.
"Why am I even here. This is pointless. This won't solve anything. So why can't I move?"
As usual, he thought back to his previous attempts to save people.
"You can't help deliver justice like that, Joshua." Isaac told him.
Joshua sighed.
"I just can't get the flames to show up. How do you do it?"
"I'm not sure myself. I just think about how I want to deliver justice and the flames appear. That's all there is to it."
"Yeah, but even when I think that, it's not happening."
"Well, it's fine. I'll just have to do it alone."
Isaac walked off, leaving Joshua alone in frustration.
A while later, he found himself hitting a block of wood with a stick to deal with that frustration.
"I need to follow Isaac. There's no point if I can't. I've gotta save everyone, just like him."
The noise of repeated striking punctuated these thoughts, but ultimately nothing was changing.
"His flames. I need something like that. Something that can just destroy whatever he tells me to. Like this block right here. I need to break through it. I have to follow him."
He paused for a second, feeling something change.
Another swing.
The block split in half.
The feeling returned to normal.
"...Huh."
Josh caught up to Isaac.
"Hey. I've worked out how I can be useful."
"So you got the flames?"
"Nah, it's this."
He raised his blade into the air, having the aura gather around it, before bringing it back down and hitting a nearby tree. The tree fell apart.
"With this, I can destroy anything we need to. I'll become your grim reaper."
"That's good. Now that you're on my side, we can finally achieve our goal. We'll destroy all those worthless hunters, tragedies like ours can be avoided. Let's save this world from repetition."
The two made their way around the world, delivering justice as they felt was necessary.
Along their path, they encountered other aura users.
A fighter who couldn't stand anyone slow.
A blacksmith who wanted his weapons to find proper owners.
A sniper with a grudge against hunters.
An inventor who needed test subjects.
A guild knight who wanted the useless hunters gone.
All of them were united with the common purpose of delivering justice to improve the world. The knight had access to records on other hunters, making their search for criminals much quicker.
Josh quickly lost count of how many were killed. But, he never once regretted it. He believed he was right. The lives lost didn't matter, since Isaac said they were worthless. By removing them from the picture, he could save people.
It was only looking back after it was over that he realised how ridiculous all of this was. That left him with just regret, but this time he didn't have anyone who could guide him into ignoring the feeling of emptiness.
This left him here, lamenting everything.
"I'm the only one left, huh? I already know this… but it's hard with you gone, Isaac."
More faces appeared in his mind.
Issac, William, Dan.
They were all gone.
He was here all alone.
"Is there actually a point in this? Everyone else has already left, but I'm still here."
He glanced at the scythe he'd been left with.
"Maybe I should just-"
His thoughts were interrupted by a blast of wind disarming him.
"O-oh. Frost. Yo. What's up? ...How long were you there?"
The Barioth didn't move any closer, just nodded to the left, waiting for Josh to follow.
They wandered for a while, all the way out of the city.
Frost stopped in a completely empty field.
"So, like… why are we here?"
Frost didn't respond.
Josh ended up sitting down, thinking some more.
"Hey, why are you even putting up with me?"
Frost reacted with some surprise.
"I mean… our first encounter was a fight, but I only won that cause of aura. And I spent all that time wandering around for vengance… only to lose it the moment I got near."
He looked upwards at the sky.
"Now I don't even have that anymore. Fighting without is tough, y'know? I can't do anything. So then… why are you still following me? I haven't got any of that impressive strength that made you join me so you might as well just ditch me, right?"
Another pause.
"It's better if you just leave me behind. I mean, it's not really like I'm gonna exist for much longer, right?"
As Josh finished this Frost analysed him for a little while.
An awkward silence played out.
Josh waited for him to leave.
There was no point in this anymore.
It'd be for the best this way.
Then he could just disappear.
Sure, he hadn't repented, but in the end was there really a point to that?
If he could never fulfil his redemption, then he might as well get things over with.
Frost paused.
A few seconds passed.
Josh watched. He then saw his companion pounce straight at him, ready to attack.
His brain took a second to process this, leaving him no time to dodge. Frost slammed into him, knocking him away.
"Eh?" He thought "Ah, I see. So that's it. I've disappointed him, now that I'm trying to seperate us."
Frost waited for him to land and then started running forwards.
"I guess it makes sense to him to kill me. After all, we're strangers now."
Frost drew closer, advancing slowly.
"Yup, this ending makes sense. So… why am I resisting it?"
Without him even controlling it, he rolled to dodge Frost trying to crush his head into the ground.
Frost processed this and roared at him, signalling the start of the fight.
Josh tried to attack first, but was dodged with a side step. Frost then took this opening to charge into him, knocking him back. Josh stopped himself before going too far and struck back with an attack of his own.
Frost created a blast of icy wind, chilling their surroundings.
Josh recalled their first encounter, the air feeling the exact same as it surrounded him.
Frost dashed behind him, covered by the ice. He spun around and swung at where he felt an attack coming from, but missed. Frost struck him a second later.
As he was knocked away, Frost tried going for the same tactic opponent. This time his guess wasn't wrong. The Barioth cried out in pain. He wasn't done. More attacks followed. Frost then retaliated by hitting Josh with his tail.
Josh brought his scythe down, connecting with Frost's side. Frost bit him in response. Josh stabbed at him. Frost created another blast of wind, knocking them both away.
Josh tried to follow up immediately with a slash, but missed as Frost jumped away. The wyvern quickly stepped around him, before using his entire body weight to knock him away with a shoulder slam. Josh was knocked back, but managed to remain standing.
He saw the red eyes of the frozen knight quickly close the distance between them. There was no time to dodge, so he swung first, catching his opponent off guard. More swings, until Frost managed to avoid one and jump away from him.
The two continued to hack away at each other as the wind howled around them. The storm only seemed to grow heavier.
They could barely even see each other, but they knew exactly where the other was.
Josh felt his body freeze over. He was injured countless times. Yet even still, his body wouldn't let him fall.
Both of them stopped fighting for a minute. They breathed slowly and stared the other down.
Frost was the first to collapse. Josh followed.
The snowstorm that was raging around them subsided, leaving only the small pieces of snow slowly drifting to the ground around them. Neither of them could move anymore, so they just stared at the once-again visible sky.
"Hey, Frost. You listening?"
Frost responded with a weak grunt.
"Ok. I think I get what you're tryna say. So, got it."
Frost didn't seem convinced.
"What? I really got it. For whatever unfortunate reason of bad taste, you happen to care about me, so I can't just part ways with you. And I mean, it really doesn't make sense, considering that I'm terrible and not strong anymore and-"
Frost poked him with all the force he had left.
"...Fine, I'll stop. But I'm not gonna change my mind, okay? But don't worry, I'm not gonna try leaving or something."
Frost didn't hit him this time, so that response seemed fine.
"I don't feel okay, but I'm just gonna keep going anyways. Until I've done enough. Even if I don't know what that point of enough is. If I can't have worth from following him, I'll just have worth by being your companion."
His thoughts continued.
"At the very least, let's just leave all that stuff about justice buried. They're not needed anymore."
Back at Dundorma, a man sat in his room alone.
His right hand held a knife, his left hand was empty.
He studied the knife closely. Then focused.
A second later an identical knife materialised in his left hand.
He almost let the excitement get ahead of itself, before analysing it closer. The blade still felt off, it was probably at the wrong angle.
The imperfect knife disappeared again.
"Looks like I've still got a ways to go." Joseph sighed, before going back to focusing on learning to use these abilities.
TO BE CONTINUED