The girl nodded awkwardly, though with a certain degree of appreciation. Her throat felt so dry from the use of her voice that it'd become strictly impossible to keep talking that way.

People . . . put me . . . She looked around her and lifted her hands to indicate the dark world in which she lived. . . . here.

Her voice gave way to hesitation, and she furrowed her brow in thought. The girl was having a difficult time explaining this. She lined a mental lexicon in her head, all the various definitions and vocabulary stacked together, and soon she had the only explanation of "why:"

To save someone.

But she looked confused, as if she didn't agree or didn't understand. Indeed, there was likely much of her situation that she didn't understand--and every reason, then, to be afraid. Afraid of anything. Afraid of everything. Regard any and every living, breathing thing as a threat to her very being. She'd every reason and right, perhaps, because . . .

I cannot leave.

. . . in this darkness, she truly was trapped, and hadn't the faintest idea why. The philosophy and justification of it all still eluded her.

"To...save someone?" He didn't see how putting anyone here would save anyone, but he didn't have any reason to doubt her. But regardless of the reason, it seemed pretty horrible to trap someone in a place like this. "Even for a reason like that, you don't deserve this..."

That was probably the "he" she'd mentioned earlier, he figured.

"Well...why don't we look for a way out? We got in here, we have to be able to get out somehow." He didn't have much else in the way of options at the moment, it seemed. But perhaps even though he felt rather handicapped in this perpetual darkness, together they'd be able to accomplish with neither could alone.

The girl stared at the surface darkness. Gravity weighed upon her features. On top of the vague fear still prevalent in her, there was noticeable regret.

. . . I am the only trapped.

She did not say if she felt it was deserved or not. The truth was, she didn't understand. There was a vague feeling of regret there, perhaps even some semblance of guilt, but she didn't understand it. Why would she feel guilty? What had she done that was so different than the animals of the world? What sin had she committed by being higher on the food chain?

Again, she looked up to Eld.

You are here because I brought you. Do you want . . . sent back?

Truthfully, she had only mild qualms against it. Eld wasn't showing her aggression, and though she was afraid that he would, and continuously tried to remain prepared for that inevitability, she had a sudden and unexplained hope that this "promise" deal, assuming she stayed true to it, would ensure that he'd stay just like this: kind.

Eld looked at her in mild surprise; so, she had brought him here herself. Why had she done that if she'd been afraid of him? He wasn't sure, but at least that meant he could get out.

"Yes. The person I'm with is probably having a conniption right about now." The way things were going, he knew Etsu was probably very worried that he suddenly disappeared.

"But...will you be okay here alone?" Eld too felt vaguely guilty, though he had no reason to be. Being trapped in a place like this would have been bad enough; it would have been doubly so if he was alone.

The girl was as ready to send Eld away as much as she was ready to cut off her own arm. In this lonesome darkness, he was quickly becoming a welcome guest. She nodded to him, though. The girl had no true idea about how this worked, or if she'd be stuck here forever, but she had an idea. Before, she'd spoken to him, and she recognized stops and pauses. Perhaps he heard her, but merely disregarded her? Perhaps he thought he was crazy for hearing such a nonsense disembodied voice. Now, maybe, he'd hear her. Now, maybe, he'd speak to her.

Perhaps . . . we will speak again.

Slowly, she pulled herself up. The girl straightened her posture and stood in a way that, provided the right clothing, she might have appeared elegant and regal. She held out her hand to Eld. The claws on her knuckles were fortunately withdrawn, and now set back in opposite direction, running up, towards her arm, but too short to reach her wrist.

I will return you.

"Yeah...it's good to know I'm not crazy," he replied with a smile. He wasn't entirely sure if he'd be able to talk back to her, but there was no harm in trying.

He walked up to her and gently took her hand; she was a brave girl, already having gotten over her fear of him, or at least enough so that she could interact with him without flinching away. He hoped they could figure out a way to get her out of here, but he didn't say anything yet, not wanting to give her false hope; he didn't know enough yet about her or her circumstance to know if it was possible or not.

Plus, he didn't exactly have time. He needed to get back to Etsu, reach Hillcrest, and find Remmy--and hopefully get back to Galaens without further incident...

As Eld approached the girl to take her hand, everything began to change. The world around him brightened significantly with each step toward her. The lighter specks of darkness brightened. Blackness turned to slate. Slate turned to gray. Sectors of gray merged and brightened. Spots and specks whitened throughout the darkness, filled the void with light--until at long last, he had her hand.

Except there was no hand; there was no girl; there was no darkness. There was only the dust at Eld's feet. The dust-ridden landscape. It stretched for miles, endlessly so. Beneath the layer of dust and ash were cracks in the ever-gray earth, and above it, a sea of gray awaited Eld.

It would be familiar to him. Homely. A fog-ridden land devoid of gray, but it seemed to differ in geology. The dust and ash upon the earth, it all fell from the sky. The black ash rained from the heavens, though the fog was too thick about him to find a cloud or a source at all. He would, however, feel a presence almost immediately upon comprehending his surroundings. It was close. Dreadfully close. And terrifyingly strong.

Behind him.


He wasn't a terribly tall young man by any right, perhaps even Eld's height. Perhaps even a fraction of an inch shorter. His clothes were gray, but ridden with duality. Halved. It was as if he wore two pairs of shirts and two pairs of shorts, but only half of one and the other, all stitched together, yet so natural. They were gray, the short sleeved half and long sleeved half, the slacks and the jeans. They were merely different shades of gray. The dark haired man, as youthful as Eld, regarded Eld with a disconcerting stare, hollow yet knowing. Knowing too much. The left side of his face was covered in a mask, perfectly halved to display the right side, and bland--hiding only the contours of his face with a smooth metal, leaving only a red screen where his eye should be.

Everything stopped. Everything pause. All things were interrupted and there was a deafening silence of minds. Sound filled this world, yet Eld's mind would venture into blankness at the sight of this man.

"You are not supposed to be here," declared the man, his voice monotonous but young, no doubt the same age as Eld himself, but run ragged and rasp with apathy.

The darkness brightened, but not to the dirt road surrounded by forest that he expected. It was a place even more dreary than the one he left, a lifeless place of gray. But the scenery wasn't important; what was was the overwhelming presence he felt, coming from behind him.

He whipped around, only to see an unusual looking boy around his own age. "Who are-" He stopped short, his voice abruptly changing to one of recognition. "-you! What are you-wait-where...what...?"

Two separate, conflicting memories assaulted his mind: one a world where he grew up in Hillcrest, and the man before him was one of a group that was hostile towards him; the other a world where he was visiting it for the for first time, and this man was entirely foreign.

An intense pain pierced his mind, as his brain tried to reconcile two irreconcilable sets of facts. He instinctively clutched his head. "W-Who am I?!"

"You . . ." the young man intoned.

And then, there was a third set of memories. Or perhaps it was all the same. The second set of memories communed with the first and became something new. Something extraordinary. Two sets of memories converged and suggested with the vagueness of missing pieces the completed timeline of sixteen hours.

In those memories, Eld was not his name. Eld was a boy that grew up in Hillcrest, that died in Hillcrest like everyone else, that miraculously lived despite all logical conclusions. In those memories, he had red hair. He was taller. Stronger. Older. More experienced. Faster in mind and body. He was so ridden with guilt that it took his entire being to carry a calm and comforting smile, but as the anchor to his friends' reality, he needed to. He understood his position and did absolutely everything he could for those close to him, and included in those was this man before Eld, staring so deep into Eld's frame that he might have watched his very soul transpire before his eyes.

In those memories, there was a girl of darkness, trapped within his scythe. There was a blind man by his side. There was a fragile, yet indestructible lover. And there was their King.

In those memories, he had no name. No true name. He'd only the darkness kept concealed in the corners of his heart and the will to carry on in spite of it. But people still called him something:

". . . are not the hero of this story . . ."

Attis.

"Eldridge Tsukimono."

---

"E-Er-rd-kun, pr-reeeeeaaaase!" Etsu shouted as loud as she could. She shook Eld by the arm again, but it was no good. He wasn't budging. He was still there, standing, facing Illorex, a look of confusion, disappointment, and hurt spread across his face.

He'd been like this the entire time, but until now, until they were stopped by Illorex, he had the will to follow her. Fog covered the land and precipitation bereaved them from above, but in the coldest of senses. Snow piled on the trees and the path they once could see, the path that would have led them to Galaens. They stood in the midst of a blizzard, ten minutes from Hillcrest, hours from Galaens, stopped short by the man named Illorex standing between them and escape.

So she did the only sensible thing available to her.

Illorex was a threat, and Eld wasn't moving to allow them to escape the threat. If they couldn't evade the threat, they'd just have to eliminate it. With her naginata held in both hands, both near the base of the pole, Etsu slid between Eld and Illorex. With all the strength she could muster, the probational Reaper shoved the tip of her weapon towards Illorex's gut. She'd every intent to kill the man and no qualms with the idea to count. In the context of "kill or be killed," there was no room for conscience.

Had her weapon not stopped short, she'd have succeeded. It nearly grazed the middle button of Illorex's shirt when he finally set his eyes upon her. The blade stopped. Still in the air, practically weightless, the weapon held by Etsu Hikane moved no further.

Stress filled the girl's muscles--her arms especially. Etsu vocalized her strain as she dug her feet into the ground and forced her hands forward. She attempted to use every ounce of strength she had to push the naginata forward. She was so close to disemboweling Illorex, she couldn't justify giving up for some unexplained power.

Unfortunately, the naginata did not progress. It did not inch forward, nor inch back. Rather, it rammed back with horsepower. The blunt end careened into Etsu's stomach, kicked her back by half a dozen's feet, and illicited a pained cry, muffled by airlessness, before she fell to her knees and clutched her stomach.

He felt as though he was slowly emerging from a dream...or perhaps a nightmare. Cold sweat covered his brow, chilled further by the cool winter air. He almost didn't recognize his surroundings, with all the fog and snow; it looked like an entirely different place from yesterday. He had no idea how he got here or what exactly was happening, but he didn't have time to ask.

"Etsu!" He ran up to her and caught her as she was knocked back, holding her by the shoulders and helping her stay on her feet. He glared at Illorex, but refrained from attacking; he was beginning to realize something...

"You...you're different from the others..." Illorex was the only one whose presence he could tell was different from a normal person's. Furthermore, even though he seemed to be tremendously powerful, he didn't try and take the scythe by force. "What is it you want? And..."

He hesitated to ask it, but he knew that whatever he just woke up from wasn't an ordinary dream. "Who is Attis?"

Caught by Eld, Etsu let out a cough and sputter. She let go of her naginata and clutched her stomach. Eld became the only thing keeping her standing. The agony she felt in her stomach was worse than the time Sarah punched her in the gut. This was centralized, and though it hadn't broken open any old scars, it did leave her nearly paralyzed with pain.

Illorex stared at Eld. His expression didn't change. It never changed. Illorex was as visibly apathetic as they came. Even someone as cold as Toushikyo displayed semblances of emotion. Illorex did not even express distaste or loathing, not in any physical sense. More often than not, it took him time to decide on a response, but not this time. This time, Illorex spoke as if he were capable of experiencing whims.

"My friend," responded the monotonous Illorex.

Though his voice carried no tone, nor suggestion of feeling, the very fact that a man like Illorex could, with so little thought, attribute another individual as close--as a friend--denoted more than enough kinship to fight for. His goal, too, differed tremendously from what Eld knew of the Memories thus far--and he used almost no time at all to think about it. Only a second elapsed before he spoke:

"And I want him back."

Illorex lifted his right hand. His palm was open, but it faced the ground. His fingers pushed out, and the tips of his fingers all pointed in Eld's direction at once.

Kageko almost immediately spoke to Eld. The scythe was behind his back and safe, but when she spoke, she was frantic and shouting: Master, RUN!!

Can't! was the only response he could manage to Kageko. Etsu was still stunned from the attack, and abandoning her to be hit by whatever Illorex was doing was not an option.

He grabbed Etsu and dove to the side; he wasn't sure what Illorex was actually doing, so he could only hope that movement would be enough to avoid whatever he was doing.

"What does that have to do with me?!" he'd shout if he managed to avoid the attack. It was clear to him that he was somehow connected to this Attis person, but he still didn't know in what way.

The movement on Eld's part was well timed. He grabbed Etsu and pushed her out of the way with himself. Etsu hit the snow covered earth with Eld landing next to her. It was luck; perhaps even more than that. Without Kageko's intervention, they might have been caught up in . . .

Just as Eld landed, there was a light. It filled the path all at once, accompanying a deafening roar. It was blinding. Deafening. It would make their bodies feel like broken paper weights. Useless. Paralyzed. The whole world around them shook more violently than Gestahl ever mustered. Etsu shut her eyes tightly. She was still in pain, but she clung to Eld as if anticipating the very last moment of her life. She was too hurt to move quickly, and it was all too late anyways. By the time they saw the light, it was too late to do anything about it. The sudden onset of pressure would have made their legs useless, anyways . . .

Debris struck them in quick, uncontrolled succession. The rattling of the earth continued. Branches fell. Dust fell. Rocks hit them. Chunks of dirt struck by their sides and rained upon the path. Dust and debris filled the path for miles all at once. The blindness in their eyes would fade, and when they'd finally open their eyes, they'd discover exactly what happened:

Illorex had obliterated everything in his path. A dug-out, torn and tattered by raw spiritual power alone, carved its way into a path, stretching out from the front of his person and into the forest. The scar of the earth stretched and widened as it progressed from his person, dug deeper and wider with each foot. It tore from the path, infiltrated the forest, and removed insurmountable numbers of trees--not uprooted from the earth. Merely gone. Destroyed. Torn to shreds by the same power wielded by Tsukimono and Hikane.

It was the same power, but so . . . concentrated. Pure. Torrents of power all held back within a compartment, squeezed and compacted until ready to burst, and permitted escape only once, and only an ounce of it.

Eld's voice was blocked out by the sound of it all; the world was still settling around them, and the ground was still trembling--if he even said anything at all under the circumstances.

Slowly, Illorex began towards the downed figures of Eld and Etsu. The paralyzing amount of Qi possessed by the man had barely diminished at all. Not in any sort of noticeable way . . .

For a moment Eld could only stare at the space they'd just been occupied, and the space beyond it. It was nothing short of total obliteration; Eld could sense Illorex's Qi, but having no sense of his own he always assumed he was powerful in the same way he'd been told he was himself.

But he'd been wrong, terribly wrong. There was no comparison. Even with all his power as a Fragment, he didn't even come close to this kind of spiritual strength. There was no fighting something like that; to do so was suicide.

Fortunately, Eldridge Tsukimono was not a person that let fear paralyze him. He wasted little time in standing up, scooping up Etsu in his arms as he did. There was no time to try and be polite about it--he took her and ran. He couldn't head into the village and risk them getting hurt, and trying to get by Illorex down the road wasn't an option, so he took the only path before him: diving into the woods.

He didn't worry about a path or a destination; all he could think about was putting as much distance between them and Illorex as possible.

Etsu and Eld were intimidated by Illorex the first time they met him personally, back then on the hill. They wondered then if they had any reason to be--and it turned out they were right. Etsu was so scarcely paralyzed by fear. She'd fought before. She'd taken a life before. But Illorex personally scared the ever living hell out of her. The raw power he had at his fingertips, and how that amount of destructive force barely even tapped into his personal reserves of spiritual energy . . . it was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. If that was a minute fraction, what would have happened if he let it all out at once . . .?

The probational Reaper thought it was the end when she saw him walking for them. All she could do was stare. The closer he came, the more her heart felt like collapsing in on itself. Unable to tap into spiritual energy herself, and lacking any more than the average human, Illorex was especially paralyzing for her. He might have been able to force her into fainting just by standing by her person--or perhaps even killed her, had he exuded more force around him.

But this was not to be the end. Eld was in time again. He scooped her up and darted through the trees. Illorex continued to walk for them, but over the course of a minute's time, Eld completely outpaced him. Illorex did not run for them. After a point, he stopped walking, and took to deciding on his approach.

It was the perfect opportunity to escape him.