The sky's redness fell upon the earth like spilled blood, then was clad in pure blackness as if the storm had announced its birth.
Below,Ronny stood atop the rubble, breathing lightly, dust still flying from the edges of his fist. He bent down, picked up Edgar's sword from the ground, and examined it for a moment before saying in a low, hoarse voice:
"I'll borrow this for a while..."
Then he turned slowly.
Before him,just steps away, the wild Knight stood in majestic silence, his white horns reflecting the storm's lightning, his black sword dripping with impatient sharpness, dragged behind him in a continuous metallic sound.
Silence ruled the moment, and only the air spoke—whistling between the rocks and rubble, whispering its expectations of the coming fight.
But the truth was clear:it would not be a fair fight.
(Fshshshkhkhkhkh...)
The sound of the wind intensified,then—Boooom!—in a fleeting moment, the wild Knight surged from his spot like a dark flash, his sword cleaving the air toward Ronny at a speed that nearly broke sound itself.
Ronny saw only a black shadow before feeling the tremendous impact—Boooooom!—his body flew as if it were a small stone,crashing to the ground kilometers away, tumbling amidst dust and stones.
The Knight stood there, over Edgar's body lying on the ground, looking at him with cold eyes that did not belong to a human, and said in a coarse voice that pierced to the bone:
"Get up...I will give you a chance to survive and defend yourself. If you do not... you will become part of this world's dust."
The Knight raised his black sword toward the sky, lightning reflecting off its edge in a fleeting flash.
He began to count,his voice's echo striking the air:
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
Edgar showed no will to survive, his eyes half-closed, his blood flowing into the soil.
But before the sword could fall upon his neck,a whistle sounded in the wind—Fshshsh!—
And another sword pierced the void from afar,Ronny's sword, embedding itself with immense force directly into the Knight's head.
(Boooosh!)
It entered through the front of his skull and exited from the back before he fell to the ground,in a scene that nearly froze the very air.
Ronny advanced slowly, his features confident, his chest rising with premature victory.
"Hah,the beast has fallen..." he muttered, smiling skeptically.
But the earth could not bear it for long.
(Taktak...)
The sound of bones rebuilding themselves and skin tissues intertwining anew.
The Knight raised his head again—the sword still piercing his skull.
Ronny froze in place,cold sweat trickling down his neck, as the Knight pulled the sword from his head with terrifying slowness, extracting it as one would pull a spear from an undying corpse.
Then he lifted his gaze toward him,with steady steps, each step producing a harsh metallic sound—Tag… tag… tag…
He raised the sword, then threw it toward the sky in a massive spin, leaping after it, the air exploding beneath him—Booooooom!—He kicked it with his foot in a blow that sent him flying like an arrow,but Ronny controlled the earth itself, made it rise with him, and raised a huge rocky shield that blocked the attack with a deafening sound—Craaaaaaash!
But the truth was harsh.
The wild Knight was no ordinary knight.
He was anImmortal Knight.
Unyielding,unkillable.
His wounds healed before the eye could see them,and his head, if severed, would return to its place in a blink.
Simply—he was invincible.
Ronny realized this. He gripped the earth with all his remaining strength, making it coil around the Knight's feet like chains of mud and iron.
Then he surged forward with all his muscles,his punches shaking the place—
Boosh!
Boom!
Daaaaaaaaan!
But it was useless;the Knight did not flinch.
Ronny had lost.
The wild Knight took one step closer to him, then grabbed him by the neck with one hand.
Silence fell,only the whistle of the wind remained.
The massive Ronny,two meters tall, hung in the air like a child.
The Knight slowly pressed with his fingers,Ronny's face turned red, his veins bulged, and his eyes faded behind his eyelids.
(Craaaaak...)
The sound of pressure was like a stone breaking inside flesh.
Then darkness.
Minutes passed.
The place grew calm.
Until a young man's voice shouted from afar—
"Sir!Sir, are you alright?!"
Ronny opened his eyes with difficulty, breathing like one just emerged from the grave.
He raised his head and saw before him a blond youth,his eyes red like embers, sitting beside him wearing that terrifying armor, extending a hand to him saying urgently:
"There's someone else...over there, we must help him!"
Ronny sat up slowly, placing a hand on his pain-heavy head, watching the young Knight before him who hadn't moved yet.
He stammered:
"Who...are you? And where are we?"
Ronny turned and saw Rat sitting beside him, patting his arm trying to wake him, his eyes wide with worry.
"What happened...?"asked Rat in a faint voice.
Rat looked around confusedly and said in a cold voice:
"No...I don't remember anything... Weren't we in the prison?"
And at that moment, behind them in the spot where Rat had been sitting moments before, and with the same nonchalant manner, someone was sitting in silence.
Wearing astrange purple outfit, his hair flowing onto the ground, his fingers toying with a small stone, playing with it as fate plays with the destinies of men.
His face was calm,emotionless, but the shadows coiling around him said more than his mouth could utter.
It was Alexander.
Sitting there in absolute silence,watching them from afar, a faint smile cracking his face.
No one knew if he was the one who saved them..or if he was the one who had summoned them to this hell.