VI — Byleck

“Hey Senpai,”

“Yeah?”

“I was just wondering if I could use this technique.”

“The Eternal One Sole?”

“Yes!”

“No, Roger.”

“Eh?! But why?”

“That technique drains part of your life force if you use it. Don’t ever use it until there’s no way out…”

“Ok fine, Senpai.”

Ellen remembered the full conversation she had with Roger. She had warned him that he must not use the technique because it drains his own life force. She didn’t want any of them to sacrifice their lives to protect her. She especially didn’t want Roger, who had been a big ball of nature’s raw force, to save her in dire times of need. Roger knew Ellen wouldn’t allow him to use the technique when she was around, but he laid down on the ground, as Ellen approached him, her face streaking with tears as she held his disheveled, pale body.

“You,” she tried to start without crying. The tears refused to stop. “You idiot…”

Roger was unresponsive. He was breathing, but he couldn’t say another word. Ellen cradled him tightly and kissed his forehead, wishing he would come back to her. Sam could only watch from a few inches as Ellen hugged Roger’s limp body, devastated from seeing him fall from his healthy state. She was inconsolable.

The darkness could not wait. A maniacal laugh.

Sam finally turned his attention to Byleck, who was maniacally laughing as the rest of the haze dissipated. He only had one arrow remaining in his quiver, himself sighing, thinking he had packed enough to fight Byleck.

He still put on a defensive stance, putting himself in front of Ellen and Roger. As Ellen broke from her trance, she looked up and saw Sam standing there, his whole body covered in a mush of crimson, grime, and some blood he had sustained while taking damage from some wolves. His heart was beating in a frenzy, as Byleck scanned what his “old friend” was trying to do.

“Sammy,” Byleck started. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

“Get back,” Sam demanded, his voice shaky. Now he thought he had lost Roger, his voice became more venomous, more aggressive. His lower tone seemed to get even lower, as if he was commanding a whole platoon.

Byleck screamed. “Sammy! I don’t understand! Why would you protect them and not me?! I thought we had something going on, you know? I thought we could conquer anything in our lives! I thought we could be more than just—”

“Byleck.”

Byleck was taken aback. Sam had become silently aggressive, his voice cracking as he said his name. Sam was catatonic, unsure what to do now. All he knew is that he had to protect the innocents who got more karmic injustice than what they had bargained for.

“Leave, now.” Sam said, softer this time.

Byleck’s expression became blank and unnoticeable as he hung his head down.

“Shut up…”

“You caused so many people to get hurt, you deserve—”

“I SAID SHUT UP!!!”

Shadows came for Sam before he knew it as he failed to dodge and was thrown through several tents by the shadows, himself being unable to recover as he dropped both his quiver and bow. He flew towards another tent and crashed through, breaking the tent, and some of his ribs. Sam had known Byleck had become more powerful, but this was beyond anything Sam could predict. As he laid down, coughing out a generous amount of blood on the floor of the destroyed tent, he thought of one thing that could have powered Byleck.

Spite.

He tried to warn Ellen, reaching for her hand with his own arm, but he could only crawl to where his bow was. Using a rock as support, he painfully slowly rose up to take the last arrow from his quiver and reached for Diana’s bow. He coughed blood all the way through and his visions became blurry.

With Sam incapacitated, Byleck turned his attention to Ellen. The woman, he thought, had poisoned Sam’s delusions.

“You.”

Byleck pointed at her.

“You did this.”

Ellen, whose face was still streaked with tears and who was still cradling Roger, felt the strength leave her body. This is how she was going to die. She couldn’t keep it together. She couldn’t fight back. She realized that, though she did have magic herself, she couldn’t fight the force of pure darkness that was practically leaking within Byleck.

She knew it was impossible.

But she thought of Sam, who was in the rubble nearby.

She thought about how he, despite what she had told him, still ventured out into the wilderness. She thought about how she found him under the debris of a ruined village. She thought, for a second, perhaps someone could save them.

Sam found the shadows creep towards Ellen’s location as he tried to stand.

“Ellen…!”

———————————————

The next few seconds were a quick flash. Sam couldn’t figure out what exactly had transpired during that time, but it felt like time had paused, or slowed down. He thought about what his sister had told him: a short memory of when he still suffered from “shaky bow”. His aim was all over the place, trembling every time he tried to hit a target. Diana tapped him on the shoulder and leaned towards his ear.

“Remember what I told you.”

Sam had recalled it, time and time again—to keep steady and to breathe.

But he had forgotten why exactly he needed to do so.

Byleck’s shadows seem to have slowed significantly as Sam closed his eyes, letting some cosmic force control his movements. He had already stood up, still in immense pain. His whole body screamed for him to stop, but he could not, for the life of himself. His consciousness threatened to wane and dissipate due to the weight that he had been carrying himself, but Sam let the forces handle him.

He drew his bow, with the last arrow in his quiver, and aimed directly at Byleck.

He didn’t do this himself. Sam’s surrendering pose had given enough time for him to fully remember why he needed to feel steady. He had bought himself a few moments to figure out what it meant to breathe and focus.

As if Diana herself was guiding him, he slowly stretched it slightly upwards, remaining in the line of sight of Byleck and a terrified Ellen.

Ellen had braced for impact.

Steady.

Byleck went in for the kill.

Breathe.

The gale winds slowed down.

Steady.

Diana gently touched his bow, the same way that she did when she saw Sam scared and trembling.

Breathe.

He remembered what Diana had told him as she lay dying on her bedside.

“The arrow,” she began.

Sam opened his eyes, locking onto and marking Byleck.

“… follows a calm heart.”

He shot.

Ellen continued to brace for impact to an attack. An attack that she knew would have been the end of her and Roger. An attack that would have killed her chances to do more good for people who have been harmed.

An attack that, ultimately, never came.

Slowly, the negative mana dissipated from inches closer to Ellen as she turned to look for what had changed their sealed fate. Her heart was pounding, and her mind was too frantic, but her eyes see nothing but the truth still. And what she saw blew her away, nearly dropping Roger’s body as she gasped with one hand on her mouth.

In a stance that would amuse Diana and impress others, Sam drew his final arrow.

Ellen turned around once more and saw another sight that will never lie to her.

Byleck in his disheveled state, wearing what was once a clean bespoke suit, had been stained crimson. His expression was readable from afar, one of pure shock, as he saw what had pierced through his skin. His panting form now more erratic as his pierced heart tried to beat normally, but to no avail.

He looked up and saw Sam’s stance from his blurred periphery.

Byleck fell to his knees.

“I…”

He gasped, blood flowing down in the purest of crimson he had seen before. He never once thought he would see it flowing down, albeit gently, from himself. He found himself gasping while trying to laugh, his expression becoming a mixture of tears and laughter—the irony that had befallen him after becoming a cold-blooded killer for the empire.

“I knew it was gonna be you, Sammy…”

Sam didn’t respond. Perhaps it was simply because he was hurting too much himself, or perhaps he didn’t want Byleck the satisfaction of a final monologue. Byleck knew of this, if it was the case: which surprised him a little bit since he had thought Sam to be the bookish type.

Still he stared down on the ground, blood pouring from his chest.

“You finally came through, Sammy.”

And with that came his final breath.

———————————————

Sam should have passed out from all the excessive pain he had been receiving since he was flung through several tents. He should have been struggling to stand. He should have not been able to keep his stance for that long. He should have never been able to shoot with that amount of damage he sustained.

His body defied all of them, for now.

He couldn’t think of Ellen’s response. He couldn’t think of what Kat would say to him. He couldn’t think of what the townspeople would do or even how he could help them after all of this.

At that time, he only thought of Byleck.

How he used to be so innocent.

He was so playful.

“Sammy!”

He recalled him being the annoying scout. What he hadn’t recalled, until now, was how Byleck managed to bring Sam away from inevitable darkness.

“What’s wrong, Sammy? You look tired. For someone so young.”

Sam blinked himself awake. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“Ehh, thinking…? Aren’t kids our age supposed to be having fun?”

“Byleck,” Sam started. “We are knights of the empress’ command. I don’t think we have time—”

“I believe we do!” Byleck had cut him off that time. Sam remembered Byleck specifically clasping his hands together, wrapping his own hands around Sam’s, his cool hands soothing Sam. Maybe Byleck had also been soothed by his warmth.

“Why?”

Byleck giggled. “Isn’t it obvious?”

He removed his hands from Sam and struck a pose.

“It’s because we’re heroes!”

Sam saw the sight and thought it was ridiculous; he even laughed at Byleck to tease him, because he was so earnest.

Now he had none left.

He was simply gone.

“I’m sorry, Byleck.”

Sam shed a single tear from his eye, and felt his exhaustion get the better of him as he collapsed, dropping his bow and quiver next to him.

That day, when he closed his eyes, he dreamt of Byleck. He dreamt of what could have been.

And in his mind an image of him in the present drinking ale alongside Byleck in his bespoke outfit, laughing and having fun.

Sam smiled.