The scarred boy drew a long breath to answer, when suddenly Rem dropped to his knees and threw up on the ground.
Everyone in the tunnel went still, staring at Rem. Whatever they expected from an unblooded — a fanatic believer, someone who took other lives as easily as they breathed, it clearly wasn't this.
Valdo and the scarred boy looked at Rem for a long moment, each with a different emotion behind it. Then, at the same moment, they turned towards each other.
"I've just watched you two slaughter your own comrades in cold blood," the scarred boy said slowly, " and now, you still want me to accept your peace offer? Do i look crazy to you?"
Valdos jaw tightened. He'd known from the start that killing those two might not buy them any goodwill, if anything, it was just as likely to alienate the people standing in front of him. He did it anyway — maybe out of a sense if duty, or hatred. He wasn't sure which...
Normally, in situations like this, Valdo would have stayed quiet, but the person who usually did the talking was on his knees, throwing up on the ground, and lost somewhere in his own head.
He look over at Rem and walked towards him, while talking.
"Those two never intended to let any of you live. To the unblooded, it doesn't matter whether it's a monster or a human, they only want to see the blood flow. After killing you lot, they'd have kept at it until it ended in two ways — Either they would die down here or make it back up, rejoining the war."
Standing infront of Rem, he lightly kicked woman's corpse. "This one told you herself she'd have killed everyone."
"Killing them was the only way forward for both of us," Valdo went on. "Lastly, warmongers are forbidden from killing their own brothers and sisters in arms. There's no real punishment, but most zealots don't cross that line, as long as they are not forced to." He took a deep breath. "The bodies on the ground should be enough for you to know that we are not like the rest."
The brown-haired boy studied him for a long moment, then glanced past him to where Rem was, and he gripped the sword harder. "Tch. So you still want this truce? You haven't given me a reason to believe you yet."
Something in the boys chest screamed at him not to cross Valdo. No matter what. He kept a flat face throughout the whole exchage but he wanted to get away from the bastards infront of him, the sooner the better. He looked over at Rem again, and his nerves settled a little— at least, for the time being one of them couldn't fight.
He looked back at his wounded friend, watching him struggle to hold his sword steady with one hand, the other pressed to his side where he'd been wounded. he let out a long breath and lowered his blade.
That's when his wounded friend talked.
"Don't worry about me, Doran," the wounded boy managed, struggling with every word. "You can leave me behind, just don't help them."
"Enough Bruinn, I've made my decision. They are leaving with us, these tunnels are not safe."
The scarred boy, whose name was Doran looked over at Valdo and said, " fine, but keep a minimum of ten steps between us."
"Fine with me." Valdo answered back.
Rem had no strength left in his legs. He'd assumed that killing a person would be easier than this, but the sound of the woman's neck breaking, the sight of her body folding to the ground afterward, had drained something out of him. He barely followed the conversation, catching only inaudible murmurs — but when he heard the swords being sheathed, some strength returned to him and felt himself being hauled upright.
He looked over his shoulder and saw Valdo.
"Valdo?"
"Yes, I'm here Roeselle." a short pause, then he voice came again, laced with concern "Are you alright?"
"I don't know..." Rem admitted.
"..." Valdo said nothing in return. He'd never had to console Roeselle before — never had a reason to. He'd seen him in far worse shape than this, and whenever he'd asked, the answer had always been the same, I'm fine.
Rem kept one arm slung over Valdo's shoulder as they started moving in silence. Without it, he wasn't sure his legs would have carried him at all.
***
Valdo kept a close eye on the group ahead of them as they walked. Doran led at the front, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Behind him, Bruinn — the injured one, was helped by another memeber of the group, and the fourth walked at the very back.
Despite the agreement, Valdo still didn't trust the truce. Both sides were too wary of each other for that.
That was when he noticed the fourth boy, the one walking in front of them, had drawn his sword and was sprinting forward, toward his own comrades.
for a heartbeat Valdo panicked, he thought they were being ambushed by monsters. Then something registered and he screamed.
"CAREFUL, BEHIND YOU!"
But he was too late, the blade went straight through Bruinn's chest.
Bruinn looked down at the steel sticking out from his own body, blood dripping down the tip. He opened his mouth to speak, and a spray of blood came out instead, running down his chin.
Doran spun around, staring at his friend for one second before he broke into a run, screaming.
"BRUINN!!!"
Valdo was already moving. He drove the attacker to the ground, pinning him face-first into the ground, and the boy fought back with an inhuman strength —writhing, snarling against valdos hold.
"ROESELLE, SNAP OUT OF IT ALREADY AND HELP ME!"
Rem looked from Bruinn's collapsed body to the boy thrashing under Valdo, and found himself already running toward them. He stumbled along the way, nearly falling twice before he reached them.
Even together, they could barely hold the boy still, until Valdo struck him at the base of the skull, and the fight went out of him all at once.
They stood, both out of breath, and made their way to where Doran knelt with Bruinn cradled against him. Rem understood, that if things had gone differently — if Valdo hadn't been there — this could just as easily have been him on the ground instead.
Bruinn's eyes found Doran's face. He said while coughting out blood " I'm sorry, Doran." he managed, barely a whisper. "Tell her...I'..m ss...rry...." The rest dissolved into a wet cought, blood spilling over his lips.
"Stop talking already!" Doran's voice cracked, "You'll tell her yourself. We're close to the crossing, we're almost out o—"
Bruinn was already gone before he finished the sentance. His body went limp, eyes staring at nothing.
then it happened again.
The second boy, the one who'd been helping Bruinn walk, lunged for Doran, sword raised, the same madness burning behind his eyes.
This time Rem and Valdo were already braced for it. They intercepted him together, and Valdo ended it again with a single blow that dropped the boy unconscious.
Doran's eyes sharpened, the shock disappearing from his eyes. He rose with his sword in hand.
"Any idea what's attacking us?" His voice came out flat, empty of anything but focus.
"None," Valdo said. "Feels like some kind of mind attack."
Rem suddenly felt the hair on his arms rise, as if a blade had just gone past his neck.
That was when the world around him began to slow, he recognized the sensation immediately. It began with a sudden, dizzying clarity — his thoughts colliding at incredible speed — and then, one by one, they began sinking. As if something was trying to drown his own thoughts beneath theirs.
He did the only thing he could think of, and slammed his forehead into the flat part of his sword.
Pain cracked white behind his eyes, and the foreign pressure broke with it. His thoughts snapping back into place. He straightened, alert, blood dripping down his forehead, waiting for whatever had tried to posses him to try again.
but it never did.
The three of them — Rem, Valdo, and Doran drew together without needing to discuss it, backs to each other, and waited in silence.
***
Somewhere else, in a different tunnel, a lone warrior carried a corpse though the dark.
The body was slung over one shoulder, bobbing with every measured step the warrior took, as if here were a machine instead of a living thing.
He reached the end of the tunnel, and the passage opened into daylight and the shape of a settlement rising infront of him. Close-packed stone houses and thin, crooked towers, crowded together like the chambers of some vast ant colony built by hands instead of mandibles.
He crossed through it carrying the body on his shoulder. Twice a distant detonation rolled up from somewhere far below, and each time the ground shuddered and a gust of compressed air stopped him mid-step.
He stopped at a house near the settlements edge and dropped the corpse he was carrying. Bodies lay scattered around its entrance, blood pooled beneath them. The warrior stepped through the pools without a care and made his way inside.
The house was completely empty on the inside, lit only by what light found its way through the windows — except in one corner, where something huddled low in the dark.
the warrior made his way to the stange shape and stood before it, completely motionless, awaiting its orders.
Then it began to rise. It kept rising past two meters, past three, until the house itself proved too small to hold it upright, forcing it to bend at the back just to stay inside. It looked human in shape, but every proportion was wrong: its arms hung down past its knees, sharp teeth jutted from its mouth, and a strip of white cloth was tied over the place where its eyes should have been.
The monster Grabbed the warrior's shoulders and hoisted him into the air. As he was raised, the warrior remained motionless, not offering a shred of resistance. The monster's maw slowly opened, the lower jaw stretching impossibly low, tearing open all the way to its breastbone.
then it clamped shut with a deafening, wet crack. The brutal snap swallowed the warriors head, neck and chest — leaving nothing behind but a gaping hole in their place.
Thick cords of crimson blood rushed down the monster's chin, splashing onto the ground beneath it in a heavy, rhythmic patter.