"… or strike me down with the Sword of Aeons, and you will become as powerful as Jack dreamt of being!"
The portal whirled restlessly as it waited, yet nothing was tossed into its maelstrom of violent colors. The dark clad Hero just stood there mutely. After many motionless moments passed by without change, the portal conceded that it was no longer needed and promptly vanished. This left the Hero standing by the stone pedestal in a silent room; alone save for the freshly dead corpse at his feet.
If his sister still had eyes he would have knelt beside her to close them. As it was, she was blind and that left him with nothing to do but numbly observe the graying cloth on her face. The long, bleeding gash crossing her torso looked absolutely disgusting to him and his glared at the sword in his hands with unconcealed contempt. In return it sang to him blithely in satisfaction, his sister's blood still sliding from its blade.
He couldn't bring himself to drop it even then, when his overwhelming hatred for the sword nearly caused him to stumble. Bile rose in his throat and he looked away from that pale, lifeless body on the floor.
"I'm so sorry, Theresa." He murmured, and he still couldn't bring himself to look at her.
The Hero sheathed the Sword of Aeons on his back and left the chamber.
-:-:-
"You hold the mighty Sword of Aeons…" she whispered, awestruck, and stared audaciously at the gleaming black blade on the Hero's back.
He smiled grimly at her, face showing the obvious signs of a hard life. He nodded at her briefly and continued his trek through the rebuilt town of Oakvale. The merry chatting of the townsfolk, for the most part, breezed past his ears. He caught the barest snippets of their gossip, their ordinary lives, and ignored it as he walked towards the pad that would take him to the Guild. He could have used his seal from the memorial garden to get there, but he felt like a walk.
The Hero suppressed a smirk at this train of thought, denying even in his own mind that it was for the sake of irritating Briar and the elderly Guild Master. Regardless, he slowed himself to a leisurely pace and paused in places to greet some of the people who waved to him. It took him at least ten minutes to finally get to the pad and make his way to the Map Room.
-:-:-
"It's about time you got here!" she murmured dryly.
The Hero felt a smile twitch at the corner of his lips at her greeting before returning his full attention to Scythe. He couldn't say that it was a surprise that things were picking up again, though he honestly couldn't fathom how it could get bad again after a single year. The image of Scythe flickered dangerously as he was caught off guard by a skeletal foe. There really was no need for the concern that Briar was showing; that enemy would be dead in a matter of minutes.
With a sigh the Hero resigned himself to another quest briefing. Maybe he'd benefit from a good fight, which he hadn't had in awhile. He heard Briar make a comment about hitting the books before she turned her head somewhat to look at him.
"Whatever you did to get the Sword of Aeons, I'm glad you did it."
Having walked away immediately after she said it, Briar never saw the tenseness that suddenly made itself known to his body. The Hero ran a glowed hand through his hair as the sword on his back pulsed as though it agreed with her. Old hatred for the blade resurfaced as he remembered the blood that it had happily consumed. Following this was a feeling of morbid amusement that he would later be disturbed at himself for.
Briar had no idea what he had done.
(AN: Another one from me so early in the morning. My other one-shot for the Hero was light-aligned, this one was for my in-between-aligned that leaned towards bad in the end.)