Chapter 7- It feels like a dark void in eternal rain

-“.....”

He hears a voice, so lovely, so nostalgic and so very sad indulge in hope. The voice is singing, commanding him to wake up and asking, why does he fight? When he thinks about it after all the suffering....he remembers.

-“W.....you...fi....?”, sings the beautiful one and he responds in thought.

“In order to overcome any storm, like the one that overtook me”, he says in a shallow and regretful manner.

-“Wh..uo....ght?”, continues the song a bit more clearer.

-” Because even though he reminded me how weak I was, deep in my heart I want to surpass him”, he replies in panic, trembling within his soul, yet burning admiration of a young boy can be heard in this reply, as he is thinking of the masked one.

-” Why do you fight?”, he is able to hear much better now as he feels warm. This warmth starts to spread through this lonely dark and cold void.

-” Because I want to make her smile like she did for me when dark cold rain became my word!”, a voice of conviction echoes through his mind as he slowly wakes up. “ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”, he wakes screaming as joy and confusion is heard through the park and confused faces with the exception of Maira is seen. He keeps trying to grasp for air, as he starts laughing in joy, but the stops as he feels a warmth he knows very well is on top of him. As his vision is much clearer now, he sees his beloved bride that is feeling like her warmth is growing weaker. “Ah..?”, he is confused as he sees the girl he loves with wings, jet black wings like she was a fallen angel and fall from heaven as a punishment. Her beautiful silky black hair is now white and fluffy like a cloud. He stares in confusion as a winged girl that feels quite cold is laying on top of him, motionless. Breathless. Liveless. But that is wrong....after all, that would mean that she is dead. She cannot be dead, that is utterly ridiculous, he starts to smile and shake her up. “Um...ha...ha...ha, Alcetis, is about to be night. I know you want to sleep, but we are in the park, you are going to catch a cold, come on wake up, `` he says in a very soothing and spoiling like low tone. He shakes her up, as the shaking is becoming gradually more violent and his voice sound distressful. A few footsteps stops him, as he gives lifeless yet blood curling stare. “ What?”, he commands like some sort of of vulgar authority.

-”This is unpleasant, and I hate to be the one to point out the huge elephant in the room or rather wolf, but I am still here,'' says the wolf in a very unpleasant and unmotivated manner like he is about to do something very distasteful.

-“So?”, in a short and a very razor sharp reply Icaros assumes a very irritated tone.

-”haaa.....I hate this type of situation, they are really unpleasant. Listen kid...um....I need the girl’s corpse, you see-’ as the wolf continues he is interrupted.

-“ The fuck you said!?”, say Icaros with an irritated, murderous and confused look. Enkidu is also incredibly surprising.

-” Well, of course you will be angry after what happened but I need her cor-”, the wolf has cut off his sentence yet again.

-”You fucking asshole! Stop....stop saying that word!”, with all his strength, with a lot of force of his diaphragm and lungs and all the oxygen he is breathing right now he let out his voice like an explosion, even his throat seems so hurt that some blood has been spit as he was screaming. Everybody is confused, especially the Wolf. The canine finally gets it.

-” Hey I know you just woke up...but you cannot tell she di-”, the wolf in a very condescending tone is cut once again.

-’”What the hell! I thought I told you to shut the hell up!”, says with rage Icaros. Enkidu looks at Maira for confirmation.

-”It's true, this song is very powerful. It drains the user of all stamina, mana and life force after all you are making a soldier to be capable of fighting a dragon if that is something possible. “ Says Maira in a low whisper so Icaros does not hear her. She yet does not know what to say or do in this situation, Enkidu gets the hint, and silent tears for his friends spread through his eyes making ways through his cheeks.

-” Stop escaping from reality! She sacrificed herself for you! She saved you, she is dead because you are incredibly weak, yet you are ignoring her effort as you ignore reality in front of you!?”, scream the wolf annoyed and irritated by Icaros' attitude.

-”Then...she...is dead?”, weakly, and despairful he sounds. The Wolf is still irritated at his attitude, but he nods. Icaros starts crying as tears act like violent rivers threatening to drown him. The Wolf looks annoyed as he thinks he is never used to such situations. But he remembers the fate of his clan so he moves forwards as he is about to take candy from a baby. He moves in a quick dash as he tries to penetrate them both. He moves his hand like a scythe, makes a quick turn, he is so confident, that he thinks it is finally over.

-” You were indeed fast for only a full fledged wolf”, says a young man carrying Alcetis, as he has beautiful black hair that seems like pitch black, no more black than darkness itself. Nay, this is a different kind of darkness, is like staring at the abyss itself. His eyes are like a much opaque golden color but it feels the same way. His skin color is also a bit darker than what originally it was. He is on the opposite side where the wolf is standing, with no wounds and with an authoritative and heavy tone from his words and body language. Everybody is frozen, unable to grasp what happened. As the boy walks, his footsteps echo through the unbearable silence in the park. The boy comes closer to Enkidu and says, “Could you take care of her for me,'' stated the boy with a painfully sad tone like he is about to rip his heart out to end it all but yet the tone is so so calm and soothing. Enkidu, still in shock receives the corpse of his dead friend with disbelief as the boy walks towards the wolf through unbearable silence as the boy’s footsteps keep echoing through the park.

-”Who the heck are you!?”, screams confused and with desperate tone the old dog.

-” Huh? Did you not see what I did? I did the same thing I have been doing to you to evade your attacks...”, said with a confused yet painfully sad with soothingly calm voice, the long black haired youth.

-”B-bbbut, you....oh....your hair is black? I see your white hair change into black and your skin gets darker, it must be because Alcetis finished the song and you have become a special warrior. But the change happened so fast it looks like a new person came out of nowhere carrying her...said with bewilderment and high pitch tone the rabbit but soon she realized who she was talking to. The long black haired youth tilted his head a bit with his index finger at his chin, then open his eyes, made a sound of ‘oh’, as he slammed a ball shape fist in one hand into an open wide palm as his body language told everybody he finally understood the confusion, yet his eyes seem cold and dead. The wolf was flabbergasted and surprised.

-” Then you are really alive!? Yes, you are okay...ha...ha....hahahaha!”, Enkidu was slowly screaming with laughter with a mixture of joy and pain for his friend who had come back at the price of another friend. The young long-haired youth smiled exhausted, and decided to look at the source of his seething and quite wrath. It was quiet but everybody could feel it. It was supposed to be night now in the park, yet this wrath felt like they put a fireplace in the park. A wrath so quiet yet you can feel it slowly approaching you.

-”You are right it's my fault, but it's yours too my moon howling furball. That is why we must both pay with our lives.” it was supposed to be a soothing and calming tone but even though that was like it sounded like, it could have felt authoritative like a cruel order from a stubborn dictator. It made everyone flinch, even birds flinch at mid-flight causing them to crash at the floor. It made even a certain red-haired beauty flinch in her hiding spot.

~

-”AAh!....That was scary! I almost fell from a hiding spot....I knew he had this weird calm rage thing....but who knew it was so scary.....why is he like that, even though he is so young?”, said the red witch, blushing a bit wanting to know more in this new development in the story.

~

As the wolf was flinching and slowly he was walking away backwards and the youth slowly coming closer to him. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him, to not get any closer. Was this some sort of ability to intimate? Something he gained as an E-soldier? He would be incorrect, it's something that was marked from him every since that storm. That storm never left, it still rages on, a force of nature that reminds man that is still man. Everybody without realising it is inhaling and exhaling a tad faster and on guard, while listening to the echoing of the footsteps of the black haired youth. This youth launches himself at the wolf which the old mutt decides to throw another scythe like claws at the black haired youth. As his claws almost reach the black haired youth’s stomach, the pained looked bridegroom just swiftly arches back while positioning his weight on one leg as he lets the swipe pass him, then he hugs the beasts arm, the beasts sees this and takes a chunk of bite. Blood comes out as the beast is in pain since he bited a bit of his own arm. At the moment of the bite he just unhug, duck, watch the beast bite itself, and as he was bending his kness while ducking, he full jumps forward at the wolf’s belly button with a headbutt, as the beast is just in shock, he jumps once more and this time to get close to wolf’s shoulders, which he locks with his hands to get a closer view of the wolf’s neck and takes a bite of it, then he flips backwards as he kicks the old man in the chin and the old so called king falls on his back. The Wolf is in pain while making wheezing noises as his neck regenerates. The youth grabs pieces of the broken sword of Enkidu.

-” You bastard!”, in a wheezing furious tone screams the Wolf as he stands up. His eyes opened wide as he tries to evade a slash at his eyes but slips through a piece of meat that his assailant spit out in the next step backwards the wolf was going to take his his left foot and then gets nailed on his right foot with a nail and a hammer at surprising speed with the left hand holding hammer and the left foot letting already the nail between his toes. He screams once again but this time his claws reach his assailant, a scratch but yet still a scratch.

-”You are the angry one here? I am the one who should be angry, you taste disgusting. Old age sure is scary.”, in the same tone as his last one the young man resonates in a calm way that gives you shivers. “ Hmm, I see....it's kind of hard to fully grasp this given I did not pay that much attention to Alcetis. Is not that I did not believe what she said, after all meeting ‘him’ is proof enough but, I naively thought I would no longer despair in the remaining days of my life. But in the end it is like putting points to certain skills, like some rpg...right? So you put most of them in your fangs and claws. You make them more durable, after all, if you cannot use your main weapons before you regenerate you are in trouble and also you have to penetrate through your opponent, what if he wears tough armor? Also, you put a lot of magic penetration, after all this scratch is not healing....interesting....”. The young man calmly analysed. He thought this wolf must not have a lot of “points” to put into whatever he wanted so he decided to make his main weapons stronger. Well it is wise if you have so few to spare. The young man was seeing with a bit of glee, the wolf having trouble taking the nail out of his right foot. Because of his claws he was having trouble taking out, and when he put his foot out of the ground he could see how awkward he walked. He would have to take out with a lot of force and hurt himself to take that nail out. For some reason his regeneration could not take out the nail. It was frustrating. Also his hyde might not be the strongest but a mere nail would not penetrate his hide so easily, yet this nail did. The wolf saw the delight of the young man but it was still strange, this was a great opportunity to attack and this young man might appear as a great sadist, but although calm, his fury was so intense, it would feel like a cold gust would penetrate your very bones, so why? Why would he not attack? Then it clicked him.

-” You....you are trying to see if my claws affect me too?”, he says while shivering. He might have tried to hide this but the revived young lad seems to already know the Wolf can regenerate really fast, and if he takes the nail, it would not bother him no longer. So there is no reason at this moment to continue with such a problem during battle. So why not use his claws and take it out?

-” Just because you have a weapon, it does not mean it cannot be used against you. Even animals that use poison can die by poison. Having a higher tolerance does not mean immunity. Your claws will make your regeneration slow down severely like the scratch in my chest. Your arm is not healing either. And I have a lot of ideas right now.”, it was a smile yet it was so terrifying, even his friends were having goosebumps. Even a certain peeping witch whose joy was a great story no matter what, she was thinking it was a bad idea to remain here. The Wolf at the moment grit his teeth and pull out the nail and throw it while dancing and zig sagging. The malicious looking young man caught the nail with his teeth, and narrowly while keeping his smile that showed contagious lethargy of liking life was dodging the attacks of the wolf, he was having scratches of his narrow dodges. One scratch may be nothing, but accumulated scratches, means more bleeding, and more annoyance to move, thus making for a good shot for prey. This was Wolf's plan but....

-”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH”, scrambled the Wolf while grabbing his right hand with his left while blood was dropping like a tiny water fountain. A few seconds later he throws a kick so strong like he just kicked a large rock to a soccer goal area. Our young lad easily dodges this as he uses his feet to jump left diagonally backwards, and while in midair curves into a ball and goes more left and lands a few meters away from the injured old wolf. His forced mocking smile shows pure lethargy yet he is so active as he picks the cut out hand of the Wolf. The Wolf is so angry his vein of his face might pop out but at the same time he does not want to come closer to the youth. Little by little the lump is regenerating from his wrist. The way he sliced was so brutal yet so fast and skillful like an experienced butcher, He stab, and twisted and then calmly just slice off. A skillful yet sadistic and cruel cut. The youth’s friends are paralysed with shock from what is happening but also incredibly exhausted, after all they have so many injuries and the stress of not fighting has finally reached them. But most of all their stamina has gone downhill with so much forceful movement. Therefore they can only watch in terrifying surprises two E soldiers fight. Or more like how cruel and sadistic is their friend. Also worried about his mental health....if there is any right now.

-”I want to keep playing but I got bored of you, that is why annoying discipline is waiting for you.” He keeps moving while the echoes are getting louder from the exhibit he sits like in a meditation event. He raises his arm horizontally to his shoulder, and orders the canine around, “Here...eat”, as if he was giving alms to a poor child. The Wolf’s head veins pop to the point they just burst, his breathing is irregular and rage can be felt in each exhale and inhale.

“ What a generous young pup! Do not mind if I do!”, his wrist finally healed, he puts himself in a running position like a wolf about to dash at his prey. His growl can be heard loudly. He knows the young pup is setting a trap, but this young lad has been playing with the former king’s pride, no way he is going to refuse. So it's a bet, will his dash and bite be faster or he falls in the trap? Only the beast’s growl can be heard as he prepares to bite his opponent’s arm off. With his powerful jaws he could negate the regeneration of the young lad’s arm, leaving him with one arm. The pup’s fighting style seems to need all four of his limbs to fight. ‘Even if he had a songstress of a much better caliber, he is too inexperienced, I shall take this victory from such a disrespectful child!’ is what the wolf was thinking, while preparing to make his dash, a dash so fast, Icaros would not be able to see it. Both stare down at each other locking their eyes at each other, soon they would just become isolated with only each other and their breaths sync with one another. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. The same pace, the same vigor and the same volume of their exhaling and inhaling match each other. In most situations most would think this only happens with couples when they go in their lala mode but it also happens in situations like this. When there are individuals that have some much motivation at killing each other to a point they devote all their time, effort and focus all their senses in ripping each other apart. In contrast best bunny girl and best swordsman are gasping for air for the sudden tension. It's so overwhelming that forget a knife, a chainsaw would have difficulty cutting down. They want to help but the bloodlust is so overwhelming. They want to help but they might make it worse. They want to help but they are so exhausted and wounded and do not have such high speed of regeneration like these devoted guys that are giving so much devotion at ending each other's lives. And then with one last breath, everything became so silent and then a crack on the floor that the wolf appeared and the sound of rupture was heard behind Icaros. ‘You arm is mine, boy!’, is what echo in the hubris of the Wolf’s mind.