Crimson

The crimson moon was getting lower with every passing moment, its ghostly glow radiating brightly upon the quiet battlefield as the soft mountain breeze brushed against the trees.
Sterix was still lying down, eyes closed as he tried to concentrate on recovering his energy. But no matter what he did, nothing seemed to work, so he just lay there, waiting for his strength to come back naturally.
It was unusually quiet for a place where a war had just ended, but Sterix never gave it much thought to investigate what might be happening. He believed that if something was wrong, the others would take care of it. They were heroes, after all. Even so, Sterix knew how tired everyone was after the fighting. Everyone had given it their all just to survive and reduce the enemies' numbers, but he couldn't help but feel a little guilty about the other knights' deaths. Not that it was his fault, but he knew some of the knights, and they had been counting on them to save everyone. Yet, even with that simple task as heroes, they had still failed to protect everyone.
“Damn it,” he cursed under his breath. At this point, there was nothing they could do about it.
Concurrently, a man arrived at the field, approaching Elinous and the others at a steady pace, a sword with a cracked blade in hand.
From the looks of the sword, its blade had at one time been long, but after countless clashes, it broke in half. The remaining blade was covered in cracks that ran across the steel like shattering glass.
Elinous and the others were sitting on rocks, still waiting for their bodies to recover a bit.
“Hmm?” Lree muttered, looking confused as he watched the figure approaching. The others hadn't noticed the newcomer yet.
“What's wrong?” Flora asked.
“How did Sterix get over there? Wasn't he down there?” The others followed his gaze, looking at the figure with the sword.
“Yes, he was—” Flora tried to explain, but he stopped after looking clearly at the figure. It was apparently Sterix—only he wasn't out of shape, and there wasn't a single bruise on him.
Flora became more confused than anyone because he knew how bad Sterix had looked. Sterix had looked almost like a corpse lying beside corpses when he last saw him, and yet, now he looked like he hadn't even been involved in the battle against the rot.
“What's going on here?” he murmured, though not loudly, as the others didn't seem to notice that he had said anything.
A soft smile appeared on Elinous's face as she stood up, looking at Sterix, relieved that he was okay. Earlier, when Flora told her Sterix was fine, she had doubted him a little. But now that Sterix was right in front of her, all her doubt towards Flora vanished in an instant.
Sterix came to a halt a few feet from the others, smiling softly and trying to reassure everyone that everything was fine. Also, he stopped because everyone else was looking at him like they were seeing a ghost—except for Elinous, who approached him.
“I thought you died,” she said as a cloud of tears began to take shape in her eyes.
“Elinous,” Drizzle muttered.
He knew how Elinous felt about Sterix, and hearing her voice once she uttered those words, he knew that she really meant it. Elinous always seemed to show more affection towards Sterix than anyone else. Though, this was just how he viewed her, because Elinous never seemed to open up when talking to somebody else.
Sterix channeled his mana into the hand that held the broken sword before dark blue flames began to swallow the blade. A heartbeat later, the flames crackled like faint lightning, though the lightning wasn't the same hue as the flame; it was rather purple, a color that blended with the crimson light.
“...What's the matter?” Elinous asked when she stood in front of him, watching the flames spread, forming a long sword made up of fire and lightning.
Sterix was still smiling, but something was just wrong with him. The color of his flames was wrong, and his presence alone carried the dangerously familiar aura of a person who kills without even batting an eye.
“That's not him,” Flora pointed out after studying him.
“What did you say?” Drizzle followed, trying to understand Flora's words. The man before them was clearly Sterix, starting with the element and the appearance, so he was just confused
“That's not Sterix. It's somebody else.”
“I don't understand.” Lree glanced at Flora. He wanted to know, just like Drizzle, though he had been confused since Sterix appeared from that direction instead of his original position.
The flames from Sterix began glowing brighter. And a moment later, the blade made its way into Elinous's stomach before piercing through her back.
Seeing the blade, Drizzle and Lree quickly came to understand that Flora was right about the person in front of them not being the one they knew, but an imposter.
“Bastard!” Drizzle snapped.
He swiftly moved forward without a plan. Though in this situation he didn't need one, because if he was too late, the bastard was going to kill Elinous.
Flora clenched his sword, trying to follow Drizzle's lead, but the weapon felt heavier than he remembered, or his hands were just too weak at the moment for him to even lift anything.
"Why now!"
He forced himself to lift it, but he could only manage to drag it.
Sterix slowly pulled the glowing blade out from Elinous's stomach.
"...Sterix, but why?"
Elinous coughed up blood, the crimson blending perfectly with the crimson from the moon.
Sterix didn't reply.
Before the sword completely came out, Sterix forcefully shifted it to Elinous's flank, cutting cleanly through her right side as the blade's flames quickly began to spread, burning Elinous little by little.
“I'm going to kill you!” Drizzle didn't stop, forcing his legs to move despite being tired
“Insect,” Sterix finally said. His voice sounded like a mix of his original voice and someone else entirely, like a woman, and Elinous seemed to recognize who it belonged to.
He then released a shockwave of electricity that traveled at an impossible speed, striking Drizzle and sending him to his knees as he screamed in agony.
Elinous tried to talk, but she ended up coughing blood every time a single word tried to escape her mouth. Until finally, she managed to produce words: “...It's you—” Though the words themselves didn't amount to much, she tried mentioning the name of this imposter, but her coughing interrupted her.
Sterix let out a breath like he was holding in a laugh.
The radiance from the blade crackled before vanishing; at the same time, Elinous fell to her knees before her body dropped to the ground. Nonetheless, the spreading flames didn't stop.
A jagged ice crystal flew towards Sterix, but in mid-motion, Sterix grabbed it and crushed it before it could melt from the flames covering his hand.
His gaze locked onto Lree for a brief moment, then shifted, landing on Flora, who clenched his teeth and wore a complicated expression. Yet, Sterix's gaze didn't stop there; it continued, finally locking on Drizzle, who slowly pushed himself up while visible purple electric currents crackled from his body.