I was out, temporarily free from the chains of the mansion at least. It hadn’t been too much time since I had left, so it may have been too early to say Zidane had noticed- or not. But probability was weighing more on the side that he didn’t because I had aroused zero suspicions.
I got off at a random area, deciding to see if I could learn more about the map, the infrastructure and people. And since I was in the slums, known for its heavy violence, I kept my gun ready to pull out, positioning it on the front of my belt as I constantly rested my hand on it. Walking through the tight roads, away from the main canal, I saw that it split up into tiny versions of itself, with boats going down in single file. In this city, it seemed that boats had really replaced all forms of other transportation. And what really stuck out to me was how there wasn’t just one singular canal.
Whenever the ground dipped, there was a slight drop in the water, sort of like a waterfall. And just above that, the main canal split into two other routes, essentially running over it. So we had one canal below, and two canals above. Looking up, I saw numerous boats flowing down it with another few below my feet. The infrastructure really fascinated me.
But I didn’t let that fascination eat into me just yet, because there were still unknown variables on the table. It seemed that something was out there, ready to kill Sylvia and her entire group. Which was none of my concern but the main issue was if the problem came toward me. If it then targeted Nora’s mansion, then I would be caught in the cross fire too. There were benefits to that as well as drawbacks. With the benefit being that I could escape in the chaos, but the drawback being whatever it was, would not let me escape.
And that thing was powerful. It instantly slaughtered Sylvia and Rhyno who were both strong. So Zidane would stand no chance against it either since he was on their level.
And other than just walking around carelessly, I needed to retrieve my RPG from Lorenzo too so after looking around the city for a bit, I would do just that. As long as Zidane didn’t intervene.
“Oi!” I heard a shout come from behind.
Another fight? Maybe staying around here was not the best move after-
“Oi! Look at me when I’m speaking to you!”
I felt the rough hands of a man pull onto my collar, forcing me to turn back as he held onto my arm with the other.
Shit. What? What is it now?
A man with messy, blonde hair stared into my soul. His clothes were ragged, his trousers looked old. He looked like any other person around here. But why was he singling me out-
His eyes.
His eyes were transfixed onto me and I wasn’t foolish enough to ignore such an expression. He looked furious. No… they looked murderous.
I instantly reached for my gun, till I felt my back break as he grabbed on both my arms, slamming me into a wall behind. My head battered against the clay as it rebounded back. And before I could even fight back, the man slipped the gun out of my holster and dashed it into the canal behind.
What? What the fu-
He glared at me with a predator's gaze.
“You’re fucking doing it again. You’re FUCKING DOING IT AGAIN!!! YOU NEVER FUCKING LEARN!”
His voice seemed to make the whole street grow quiet. “Huh? What? What do you me-”
The man slumped my face with a heavy blow, dropping me to the ground as he relentlessly began to kick me.
“You! Fucking! Piece! Of! Shit!” He shouted with every kick.
What the fuck? What the fuck what the fuck?!!
I tried to cage myself with my arms to stop his blows, but the man did not stop. Until he knelt down to my level, pulling my hair while blood slithered out my nose and mouth. He held my face up, making me look back at him.
“Fucking die,” and without a moment to process it, the man pulled out a dagger and stabbed me. And stabbed me again. And again
Again.
Again.
Again.
And again.
He furiously bisected me as I watched my own blood jump onto his ghastly face. I looked closely into his eyes. I examined his face. I remembered everything about him.
The pain didn’t fade, it grew with every stab. My life was fading out. Slowly, slowly darkening my vision.
Fuck. Fuck. Why? How? Not again. Why?
Zidane… where are you?
I died.
Part Two
I stood before Nora again.
How many fucking times did I have to do this? How many fucking times did I have to stand before this woman?!
“Axure, are you okay?”
The same line. The same line every single time.
I briefly shook my head like I had a cold, and relaxed my nerves.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just got a little headache.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry about that. It may be all the sudden events catching up to you. If you would like, I can call for a healer-”
“No. No, it’s fine. I’ll be fine. Thanks for the money anyway. I’m going to head off to my room.”
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“Very well. Relax yourself.”
I quickly turned around and left, going straight for the garden because this life, I had no time to waste. I remembered him. I remembered how he looked, everything. I needed to look for him. He knew.
He fucking knew.
He fucking knew.
He recognised my gun. He clocked it. It couldn’t have been a coincidence. No, there was a possibility it could have been. But his reaction said it all. He noticed the danger of the gun and immediately threw it away.
But why? Why did he kill me?
No. No, no wait. What if he’s the killer from Sylvia’s mansion? Wait. If that’s the case, does that mean he recognised me?
I followed the same procedure, climbing out of the gates as I ran toward the boats.
No no, pause. Pause. There’s two possibilities. This man was from earth, just like me. Or even worse, he was the killer from Syvlia’s mansion and already knew my face.
And…
Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I sat on the boat, with my face nested in my hands. For my line of thought presented me with the worst theory.
That means this killer has already associated me with the royal family in their head.
I had to find him. This time, with the gun hidden away so maybe it wouldn’t trigger him and I could mainly converse with him. But what did he mean I was doing it again? What?!
I got off near the same area I had gone before, and I was on high alert with my surroundings, so much I had forgotten that I was trying to see how good Zidane’s surveillance was. And from my last life, I had concluded that he wasn’t following me.
But now there was a greater issue at hand.
The blonde man seemed to react to my gun, so if I hid it, would he still react? And if he didn’t, then I could maybe converse with him
But worse, if he instantly came for me, it may have just increased the probability that he was Sylvia’s killer and had associated me with them already. I had to get to the bottom of this. Fast. Especially since I knew where his general location was.
Scurrying around the streets, peering into every corner, I still couldn’t find him. I gulped, keeping my hand off the gun's handle for I didn’t want him to see me first and draw conclusions. I was drawing nearer to the wall, coming near a huge tower embedded in it, stretching far out to the sky, quite a bit higher than the walls themselves. And I noticed something rather peculiar at the same time. For the closer I had gotten to this tower, the quieter it had got.
It was less busy, the rowdieness had begun to dissipate but in my favour, this emptiness heavily worked for me because walking before me, I spotted the blonde haired man. Wearing a leather brown jacket, tattered and ripped with worn out trousers and brown boots. I decided to tail him. I darted my eyes around the area, making sure nothing else was around me or that no one was following me. I had possibly found him in a different location just because I had left the mansion earlier in a rush.
I watched him closely. Closer, and closer.
Until he stood still.
“Aghhh, what next?!” The man grunted to himself as he looked up at the walls. Slowly turning around, he kept his eyes sunken to the floor, nesting his hands in the coat pockets.
“Agh. Fucking stupid people everywhere,” the man continued to rant to which he suddenly looked up, noticing me.
I stayed calm and still, continuing to walk forward as if I hadn’t noticed the man. But as I kept my eyes glued to the ground, I felt the footsteps from him grow heavier, then faster until before I could make a move, he grabbed me by the neck, throwing me into a group of barrels. I crashed into them as they rolled away.
“You… youuuu! YOUU!”
The man charged at me, “YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!”
Before he could launch another kick, I rolled out of the way, scrambling to my feet. I squared off with the man, facing each other as if we were in a duel. “I don’t understand?! What do you want?!” I shouted back, touching the back of my head feeling a little blood.
“What do I want?” The man let out a villainous chuckle, “I want you to fucking die.”
He pulled out a razor sharp dagger, gripping it tight.
I thought it was over.
I didn’t have time to draw my gun.
But something came.
Something.
Something I could not understand or perceive.
It was the devils reincarnate.
The man’s head, just a split second ago fixated on me, suddenly was twisted to his back as I heard his bones shatter. But it didn’t just happen out of nowhere. There was something behind him.
A shadow.
Blackened.
No figure.
No arms. No eyes.
No hands, no feet.
Nothing.
Just a dark void arching behind him.
The man was dead.
His lifeless body dropped to the ground.
And I was next.
It came closer to me. Hunting me. Preying on me.
I fell back, falling over one of the rolling barrels as I scrambled to pull my gun out. “Get away! Get away!”
My hands shook as I held the gun. I shot once. Nothing. It just went right through.
I shot again. Again. Again. Again and again.
Nothing. I desperately pulled the trigger with my shaking hands only to hear the useless clicks as the demon came closer.
“Get away! GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM ME!”
I violently kicked at the air, trying to move back as I looked around at the passing people. I looked behind the shadow, noticing a woman walking over to the dead man's body, completely ignoring the indescribable figure making it’s way to me.
“I’m sorry.I’m sorryI’m sorryI’m sorryI’m sorryI’m sorry.,”
The voice was distorted. The voice made no sense. The pitch was off. The pitch kept changing. I couldn’t fucking understand.
“I’m sorry.I’m sorryI’m sorryI’m sorryI’m sorryI’m sorry.”
“What?! WHAT!?” I exclaimed when suddenly the thing charged at me. And for the tiniest moment, I saw something humane but inhumane at the same time. One singular eye as if it were gouged out with tiny, purple pupils, shining like a pearl. But something broke my attention for a split second.
The screech of a woman kneeling down before the lifeless man’s body. With my heart fallen to my feet, I instantly looked back at the thing.
But it wasn’t there anymore.
I desperately looked around me.
Nothing. It was gone. Gone. Vanished.
I looked back up at the sight before me, a woman with a bun, looking out to me with watered eyes as she screamed, “That man! That man!”
Huh?
Rocks suddenly zipped past my face, taking some of my skin with it when a tall man appeared before me in monstrous fashion. Below his feet, a small crater had formed just from his impact like a missile and he looked down at the dead body. And then looked at me.
White skin, blue eyes, dark blue hair, gold around his body and a blue cape. Wearing something on his back that brought back nightmares. A huge scythe, but not just any scythe, no.
At the top, resided three huge blades with electric blue streaks running through it. The man looked at me for a second and uttered one gut wrenching phrase.
Wait. He thinks-
“Justice shall be served.”
I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t do anything.
All I could do was watch the world roll over in slow motion, seeing my own headless body standing on the street.
My vision went black.
And
I died.