Ishiki gulped hard, forcing the words through a locked throat. "I saw them both sacrificing a girl..." He hesitated. "They sacrificed her in front of that stone they gave me."
The shinobi tried to speak but only managed a wet cough.
"Don't think about it?" Ishiki's voice cracked like something brittle finally breaking. "How the hell am I supposed to not think about it?"
For a long moment, the forest held its breath. Blood dripped from the obsidian spear's black edge to the roots below in quiet taps.
Then the shinobi broke the silence with his ever same, flat and monotone voice. "You think i can be killed just like that?"
Ishiki gritted his teeth and jumped back, trying to gain some distance from the shinobi.
THUD!
Something fell on the ground just besides where Ishiki had been standing. But as soon as he saw what it was, Ishiki's heart almost stopped beating.
It was a human hand... his hand.
'No... no way... when did he?'
He slowly looked down, gasping and his face twisted as he realized that he was missing his right arm. Severed with a perfect cut, so precise to keep the blood loss at minimum.
Even when he had lost a limb... there was no pain. It was as if, his nerves were frozen.
"I don't suppose you stabbed me for that reason alone?" The shinobi spoke as he turned around. His eyes, as cold as ever fell over Ishiki and he sighed. "How did you know? Or was this just based on your instincts?"
With casual precision that made the act somehow worse, the man in complete black wrapped his fingers around the obsidian spearhead protruding from his chest and pulled the entire length of the weapon through his own body.
The sound the weapon made sliding through meat and bone, would haunt Ishiki's nightmares for years. If he survived to have nightmares.
Blood rushed as soon as the spear was completely out...
Ishiki's face was twisted with horror, 'Crazy... this bastard is Insane. I need to run!'
He turned around and tried to run back towards the broken temple.
PEIRCE!
Suddenly he fell to the ground, face-first. Unbearable pain shot from his left leg. He looked back with wide eyes and found the same obsidian spear pinning his thigh to the earth.
'Damn it... damn it all to hell!'
"I was told to bring you alive... loosing a limb or two won't be a problem i guess." The shinobi said as he walked toward Ishiki who was lying down, with a face that was almost on the verge of flooding with tears.
The shinobi removed the mask and the cloth hiding his head, revealing features that would've been handsome if they weren't currently attached to someone trying to kill him. A face adorned by long black hair and a lone scar running horizontally under his lips.
Unsheathing his sword he aimed it at Ishiki's other leg. "Now tell me, why did you attack me?"
'Cough!' the shinobi coughed up some blood and clenched his jaw. He was human after all...
"The Emperor's army..." Ishiki managed a grin. "It doesn't exist, does it? I am not so stupid to be following you for a month and not noticing that we are heading towards the mountains. What kind of army will settle in mountains?"
The shinobi's eyes narrowed, he froze for a second and then he retreated his sword... and laughed. His laugh echoed through the once silent forest.
'He's... laughing? Why the hell is he laughing?'
Ishiki was genuinely surprised. After everything—this was the first real emotion the man had shown. Which meant Ishiki's guess had been right.
Which meant everything was worse than he'd thought.
"Indeed," the shinobi said. His expression darkened. "There is no army."
"Then why?" Ishiki gasped, tasting dirt and desperation. "Where are you taking me? For what?"
The shinobi looked at him, his expression changing to that of anger and frustration. Then he took careful steps towards him.
Ishiki dragged himself backward, nails raking through leaf litter, refusing to just lie there and accept whatever came next.
Even though he knew escape was impossible. He knew and still moved. Because stillness felt too much like surrender.
Gritting his teeth hard enough, Ishiki wrapped his remaining hand around the spear shaft buried in his leg.
And pulled.
The scream that tore from his throat scattered sleeping birds into the slowly brightening sky. Pain turned the world white. But his hand didn't stop pulling until the obsidian slid free in a gush of hot blood.
With a pained, twisted expression, he forced himself upright using the spear as a crutch. Legs trembling
By now the shinobi was already just a few inches away from him. Clenching his jaw, he asked again.
"I want answers!"
He finally spoke and the words left Ishiki speechless. "You will be sacrificed. You will help cleanse the corruption from the whole Empire." He dropped to one knee. Blood streamed from chest wound and mouth in twin rivers, dark and thick.
He was getting weaker.
Ishiki lunged with everything left in his battered body. Removing the spear from its supporting role sent fresh agony screaming through his impaled leg, but none of that mattered. Nothing mattered actually.
The shinobi deflected at the last second, turning the thrust aside with minimal effort. his balance faltered.
'Crap... this is not good.'
Somehow Ishiki managed not to fall, driving the spearpoint into a tree trunk for support. Bark crunched and split. Sap bled sweet and slow.
"I need to do my duty... i need to protect the Empire." The shinobi stood up muttering those words and kicked Ishiki in the abdomen, a few of his ribs, he felt might have broken, but he was still alive.
At least he'd gained distance from the man.
'He's insane... how is he still moving with a hole through his chest?'
The shinobi took three steps forward, then swayed like a tree in high wind. His hand slapped against rough bark for support. His eyes were slowly turning blood red. He bent and vomited a mouthful of thick, dark blood onto the roots.
"What... what did you do to me brat?"
Ishiki struggled upright, using the spear and pure stubborn spite as his only supports. Looked at the man with a smile that felt half-insane. "I'm not foolish enough to think a spear alone would kill you."
The shinobi glared with eyes that promised creative violence. "I am immune to most poisons—"
"That's not poison," Ishiki interrupted softly. "It's demon blood."
The shinobi's eyes widened with unadulterated shock. "How... how do you know?"
"I saw it... back at the castle one of those crimson attackers accidently swallowed a little blood from the demon it had killed. Probably didn't even realized he did." Ishiki gulped, horror evident on his face.
"Then that man screamed and fell trying to claw at his own self. His hands turned green and then his entire body. And then he fell dead in mere seconds, but you are still standing for some reason."
'Stubborn jackass.'
The shinobi's expression changed to one of despair—the kind of expression reserved for realizing you've already lost. "You... you vile creature!" He spat the words. "The Emperor was wise in choosing you as the sacrifice."
He looked down at his hands with dawning horror. The fingertips had already turned leaf-green.
He then looked at Ishiki's trembling form trying to run away and broke into a sprint, unsheathing both his blades.
The shinobi appeared in front of Ishiki in the space between heartbeats, but his face was now flustered with a desperate look.
'Screw it!'
"Stop!" he shouted. "Your life can save millions! Your sacrifice will bring peace to this Empire!"
Ishiki's expression twisted into something ugly. "What nonsense. I don't believe in any of that crap."
The shinobi turned into a feral almost loosing his composure and lunged at him, Ishiki tried to step back but fell to the ground.
'goddamn it... not good, not good.'
He kicked the shinobi who was considerably weakened, as the human blood tried to fight the corrupt demon blood.
Dawn broke over the horizon. Golden light flooded through branches, bathing the forest in surreal beauty.
In that newfound illumination, Ishiki watched the shinobi screaming and clawing at his own skin—trying desperately to tear the corruption out from the inside, fingernails leaving bloody furrows down his arms.
Suddenly he looked at him with completely red eyes... devoid of any senses and lunged at him throwing the swords to the side.
'Shit!' Ishiki paled even more and rolled sideways barely saving himself.
The Shinobi slammed into a tree and staggered a few steps back, screaming and protesting against the corruption taking over.
Ishiki scrambled with his broken body toward the discarded weapons, dragging himself through leaves and dirt. But before his fingers could close around metal, the corrupted shinobi was already upon him.
Ishiki's pupils shrank to pinpoints. The man above him wasn't a man anymore, now with terrifying maw like that of an actual demonic creature.
'Damn it!'
They collided and tumbled through undergrowth in a desperate tangle of limbs. He found the shorter kodachi's hilt by blind luck.
He thrust upward with everything he had left. The blade sank deep into the shinobi's chest where a heart should still be beating.
The creature didn't even flinch.
Ishiki shivered. 'why doesn't this bastard die...'
He kicked with both legs, or tried to, the injured one barely responding. The corrupted shinobi flew backward, hit a tree, and convulsed violently. His screams had fully devolved into something that belonged to demons.
But he still stood up, the sword still in his chest.
Ishiki grimaced, eyes burning with unshed tears, completely out of breath and teetering on the edge of consciousness.
'Screw this. Screw everything. Just die. Please just die, you stubborn bastard.'
Then something unexpected happened.
The shinobi staggered toward Ishiki on legs that barely remembered how to work. Raised one trembling hand. Wrapped corrupted fingers around the kodachi's hilt.
And pulled it free in a sucking sound that echoed through the clearing.
He raised the blade to his own throat and drew a single, clean line.
Blood erupted like a crimson fountain, spraying hot across Ishiki's face and chest.
The body pitched forward, falling against him with the weight of all its broken promises and duty. Slid down slowly, painting Ishiki's legs red as it collapsed.
"I need—to—protect—"
The forest swallowed the rest in merciful silence, leaving Ishiki frozen in utter disbelief.
[You have slain an Elite Shinobi]
[You have received 10,000 Data Fragments]
Ishiki didn't even care about them now... he was trembling, looking at his hands painted crimson with blood.
Suddenly the voice of the system announced something more profound in his mind.
[Congratulations Player, your trail is Over]
A grin split his face, wide and arrogant, but...
He didn't feel victorious.
He didn't feel triumphant.
He felt awake. Painfully, impossibly awake.
A broken laugh escaped his lips, but died down too soon.
If the system kept its promises—this would be the last sunrise he'd see in this blood-soaked forest.