Plup. Plup. Plup.
A hollow scene.
An open space.
The tree's were gone.
Plup. Plup. Plup.
The sky rained red.
Two remained.
A monster, crowned in red mist, and a boy the world refused to touch.
Hiss!
The ground hissed, as rot dripped from Yorant's edges.
I'm sure if it could be heard... Mael's Fang would humming a soft hymn in the boy's grasp.
Plup. Plup. Plup.
They stared at each-other.
The blood dripping from the boy's nose and ears had dried; however, his skin was drained by its flow.
The stature of the monster in-front of him, seemed to eclipse through the dust.
Woooh!
Cold.
A chill of air passed through, almost as if the Veil had finally remembered, the figures were stored in its grasp.
It was time.
Whether the boy was conscious of what was transpiring...
Whether he knew he was fighting the very thing he feared...
Didn't matter.
Plup. Plup. Plup.
Only one would live.
That was a given.
A guarantee.
"What is your name, boy?"
A rasp voice cut through the haze.
No answer.
Hiss!
Nothing given.
Nothing shown... apart from that faint, slow breath that shouldn't have existed.
Drenn's mask dipped, his head lowering through the fog.
A low hiss had risen from Yorant's edge, eager.
"Then you'll vanish. Nameless."
Short.
Simple.
A verdict.
Plup. Plup. Plup.
The second act was starting.
It's h----
RIPPLE!
The boy vanished before the rain could grace his damp hair any longer.
One second he was there, the next...
VOOOSH!
As if synchronised, the tall figure opposite him seemed to shimmer and glow, before converging in flash of red light.
The same light, seemingly spreading a crimson mist.
One that lingered with the dust already scattered all around.
Fast.
Two streaks.
One grey.
One red.
SHAAAH! SHHOOHH!
The air was carved, as the two blades swung...
SHHKK--
The sound of collision paused.
Where sparks should've scattered... the light shuddered and froze, like the air refused to carry it.
Red veins seemingly split through the pale air, hissing, as silence devoured them...
RIPPLE!
VOOOSH!
Dust scattered in trails as the pair vanished once more.
The world couldn't tell which appeared out first....
SHAHHH!! SHHOOOH!!
Each strike bled into the next.
The boy's blade moved without thought.
The man's moved, without pause.
The dust that fell from the air, was cut apart before it could scatter further.
RIPPLE!
Each step erased the sound of the last.
VOOOSH!
Each clash painted the air with the sound of negation and chaos.
SHHAAHH!
The Fang bit.
SHOOHHH!
Whilst the Devil screamed.
Both were submerged in a struggle for sound as the area in between blurred...
VOOOOSH!
A flicker--
Grey flashed.
Red followed.
Plup. Plup. Plup.
Again.
Again.
The air folded around them.
Streaks of red converged around Yorant, as it attempted to pierce that void the Fang had bordered of...
RIPPLE!
The air lagged, a figment of the boy's appearance being shone under the torrent of red, before he disintegrated.
Behind.
Yorant's tail swung round, whipping its axis over.
It was too slow.
No...
Just in time, the Fang had yet to bite.
Wrong.
It already had.
SHAAHH!
The sound of steel meeting flesh seemed to distort, as the air around the boy displaced.
The world had yet to realise the monster had been struck.
Only the pinch of pain in his chest, affirmed the Fang's bite.
Hiss!
The Devil hissed, yet its Master had yet to offer a reply.
He had one ready.
Crk!
His adjacent hand groaned.
Soft.
Yet harsh.
The blood answered his call.
Streaks of red unfurled from his claws, carving the air in spirals.
They didn't rush towards that void, like previous.
Around.
All around.
A circle was drawn...
No.
Grown.
A ring that pulsed like a living trap.
Hiss!
Was it the hiss of Yorant? Or the hiss of boiling essence that threaded through the stillness?
The ring didn't bind the boy. It hunted him.
Spinning wider, faster... until every breath of space reeked, belonging to the crimson essence.
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm....
VOOOSH!
Then, a blur came.
The masked man burst from the ring's rim like a shard of rage, the devil in tow.
He carved a red wake behind him.
The next moments were chaos.
SHOOOOHH!!
Each strike crashing forward, hammered against the quiet that cloaked the boy in protection.
SHHK----
The light shuddered and froze under that hypnotic boiling ring.
The world had yet to acknowledge the boy's place.
An anomaly.
SHOOOH!! SHOOOOHH!!
The devil sang.
Its edges pushed deeper against the void, sharpening its harm.
There was nowhere to run.
The boy couldn't move freely; the ring seemed to close with every breath.
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm....
Each droplet that splashed near, hissing... but then dying as it came.
The silence eating it whole.
SHHK----
Another clash.
Red pushed through the void, its tendrils swarming around the light grey.
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm....
The circle pulsed.
Vibrating a beat that mimicked a heart.
A sickly sound.
Closer.
SHKKK---
The monster was tall, very much so.
His agility didn't convey that fact.
The stillness in the boy's eyes, still seemed unperturbed.
Almost eerily so...
SHOOOOHHH!!!
The devil screamed.
Grey shimmered across the boy's form.
Yorant rained down.
His wrist turned, barely.
The impact met silence, then scattered.
Grey cradled over the red, the hissing swallowed whole.
The strike that should've carved him, only tore through the air.
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm....
The circle closed further, the red splashing closer and closer to the void.
RIPPLE!
The air distorted...
The boy appeared in the air.
Yorant sprung upwards, its edges crooked against the dark air.
Wait...
RIPPLE!
The distortion of air had suddenly doubled.
For an instant... two Riven's existed.
The one suspended in the air. The other, a blur to the Devil's right.
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm....
The circle hummed in the ambience, as the man's mask tilted. Those ember slits flicked towards the distortion to the side...
Too late.
The blade was already pulled before time could notice.
SHAAAHHHH!
The world was carved, as a Fang bit into the monster's side.
Flesh split.
Both distortions dissolved, as quick as they came.
Whichever was real, was still undecided.
The pair separated.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Yorant hissed.
The sight of murky blood leaking from its wielder...
Hiss!
Unforgivable.
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm....
The circle vibrated loud, a heartbeat that wasn't its own.
If you focused on that sound... you would've missed it.
That faint hum.
The soft, golden glow from the medallion at the monster's neck.
The tiny movements cascading beneath the man's pale skin.
Little hands crawling from the edges of the wound, clutching, pulling. Stitching the torn flesh back together.
Healing.
It was healing.
The gash at his side was already sealed.
The faint pinch across his chest he'd suffered earlier?
Already gone.
No wounds.
No scars.
There was no memory left behind.
The gold at his throat dimmed.
The monster stood whole again.
"Have you realised now?"
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm...
A silence spread, under the shrinking of the circle.
Then---
THUM!
The sound came not from the Devil, Yorant.
It came not from circle.
It came not from the man standing; Drenn.
It hadn't even come from the world around.
The boy staggered.
His breath caught, his shoulders trembling once before stilling.
The air seemed to warp... dipping and rising, as if the unknown was inhaling...
Blood traced thin rivers from his nose, ears, and the corner of his eyes...
Each drop hit the ground, loud.
Tsshh... Tsshh...
The noise shouldn't have existed.
It wasn't a drop, just a hiss, as the air burned around him.
Plup. Plup. Plup.
The blood rain pattered, mixing with his own essence.
But still;
Whatever the boy was going through...
Whatever phenomenon...
Whatever zone...
It was rejecting him.
Or was it the world itself?
His body was too human for this... unnerving distortion that plagued his figure.
Every muscle riddled through his frame, screamed... though no sound escaped him.
Still, he looked up.
A thin line of blood trickling from his eye.
His gaze wavered.
Focus.
Rejection.
Vrrrmmm... Vrrmmmm...
It flickered between both.
But it rested on the medallion.
The dance had just started.