Xerxes stared down at the child in Orpheus' arms.
She trembled uncontrollably, her fingers clutched weakly at his sleeve. The girl's grey eyes were unfocused and glassy with terror. Each gasp sounded like it could be her last. And then he heard it, a soft mutter that was repetitive, "Help me...help me."
Slowly, Xerxes lifted his gaze and peered at Orpheus.
His expression darkened as fury bled into his voice, "You really are the sickest of men, aren't you, Orpheus?"
Orpheus put a hand over his mouth and chuckled. It was as if he'd heard something genuinely amusing.
"No," Orpheus replied with a steady calm in his voice. "A man is not sick. Illness hasn't struck a man. What you are witnessing is ambition, Xerxes. In its purest, most unadulterated form."
He pointed a finger directly at him, "What difference is there in our characters, Xerxes. You killed me."
Orpheus took a moment to correct himself, "Actually, you killed an innocent," he reaffirmed with his voice dripping with dread.
The words landed like a blade that twisted in his gut.
"I didn't kill for an unjust cause," Xerxes snapped back, his voice edged with denial. "I killed because-"
"Unjust?" Orpheus cut in, "Death is death, Xerxes. You are simply too naive and too stubborn to accept that truth."
He continued, "So what separates you and I? A man kills for a cause that is deemed just. And so do you."
Xerxes felt the grip on his blade falter for the briefest moment.
The comparison was making him sick, but Orpheus saw things in black and white. All he saw were outcomes. It was the way he was. Callous and Calculating.
Rage surged in Xerxes.
"Don't give me that shit! Xerxes retorted. "I'm not like you, and I'll never be like you."
Orpheus stopped. Then slowly, he removed the blindfold and crushed the black ribbon in his fist. When he opened his eyes, Xerxes' breath shuddered.
There was nothing there.
No pupils. No sclera. Only a hollow pit.
"The difference is that I have accepted who I am."
His empty gaze fixed on Xerxes with unnerving precision. It was as if he could see him against all odds.
"I forced myself to stop seeing other paths. You, however, cling desperately to your ideals. You cling to that thing you love, rambling on about 'justice', is it? But how can you see such a world, how can you persist with fruitless dreams?"
He sighed, "You act like this 'justice' or as the Gem'rafh say 'conviction', will save you."
Xerxes' teeth ground together. He didn't want to hear another word.
Something surged through his body. Anger, adrenaline, resolve? He couldn't tell.
Nevertheless, he knew he had to move. Instinctively, mana channelled to his brain, and wind pulsed outward in a controlled wave as he darted forward.
Orpheus fought with his legs. Xerxes knew that, so he moved in an arc, refusing to give Orpheus a stable footing.
Then, Xerxes felt it, the instincts of Krosha'Kar rising within him. It was timing, and Xerxes seized the moment.
Mana coiled around his limbs as he advanced towards Orpheus.
His fist engulfed in flames that were fuelled by the howling winds, and then he struck his fist into Orpheus' ribs with unrestrained force.
Despite the attack, Orpheus was quick to react. But with increased senses, Xerxes could handle it.
He could predict his next move before it struck and where it would land, just like before.
Or at least he thought he could.
Like a vicious whip, Orpheus' steel-capped boots came gliding across the air, connecting with Xerxes' jaw.
The pain thrashed through his entire body, sending him skidding violently through the snow. His body slammed hard as his vision blurred for a moment.
Orpheus began walking towards him.
"You can end this," Orpheus said, his voice echoing strangely in his mind.
Xerxes dragged himself upright, leaning heavily on his blade as blood spilt from his mouth. "I know," he spat. "I know I can."
Then, Xerxes engaged Orpheus again. They exchanged a countless number of blows, but it was clear that Orpheus was the dominant combatant.
Xerxes once again collided with the ground until he came to a stop.
Orpheus had also stopped in his tracks and tilted his head. "No. You can't defeat me, but you can still save them."
He stopped and flung the cursed god's body across the snow. She crashed down between them.
"You can save Lilith."
She lay there, her wheat blonde hair matted with blood, as was her olive skin.
"A man is willing to stop this," Orpheus said. "All you must do is stop fighting. Walk away and take the cursed god. In exchange, you can give me the giants and Moonshard."
Xerxes froze for a moment as his mind raced with questions.
What? How does this even benefit him... he'll be missing the components he needs unless he somehow got to Airi and Thornfum...
Shaking his head, Xerxes eliminated that thought and chose to believe that his friends would be okay.
Having her with us helps, but can I simply save one person over all these others?
Xerxes' head turned, and he witnessed the Gem'rafh struggling, bleeding and dying.
If he accepted, they would all perish. Whether it be from the creatures or from Orpheus himself.
But if Orpheus has the cursed god and her soul fragment, then how many more would die?
Orpheus looked at Xerxes with a confused expression, "What is stopping you? You've known them for mere days. If you leave now, what difference does it make to your life? Such idiocy"
Xerxes exhaled slowly.
Orpheus' words weren't going to invoke a reaction, and Xerxes made sure of that.
Whatever it was, Orpheus wouldn't simply go along with such a disadvantageous deal.
"Idiocy?" He repeated, whilst rising from the ground.
"You ask me these questions, and isn't the answer obvious?" He asked.
Orpheus couldn't seem to grasp what he was getting at.
"These games you play, you think they'll break me," he muttered. "You think you're all so knowledgeable, but I can feel it."
He looked directly at Orpheus, his eyes narrowing. "It seemed that this 'idiocy' was able to make you irritated. I was able to get Airi and Thornfum far from here, and that terrifies you."
His grip tightened around his blade.
"What separates us, you ask?" Xerxes questioned rhetorically, whilst activating four soul fragments at once.
His mana howled with unrestrained might.
"It's my humanity."
Orpheus' expression twisted.
"I recognised it in the slave you took over. In his final moments, he clung to it, so when you see what I do."
Xerxes allowed Orpheus to reminisce on the eclipse tournament that he had spectated.
"When you see my body being battered, my world being shattered and everything else that has happened to me.
Xerxes' voice rose, unfiltered.
"It's because I've clung to what makes me human, and I know, I'm not perfect."
A smile started forming on Xerxes' face.
"Even if the world doesn't care for my ideals, I'll keep using my strength to protect others so it's recognised." He said confidently, whilst thinking of the first time he found Aya, alone in that forest without anyone to help.
Xerxes took a step forward.
"I cling to hope." He added, hoping his friends would eventually arrive.
Xerxes' body brimmed with more power, "I cling to justice. No matter what's destined for us, you will meet your end, Orpheus."
He burst through the snow, a drum of sound being left behind. As he raised his blade, a flame roared, reinforcing his vigour.
"Do you understand!" Xerxes' voice echoed, with the mana vibrating his voice.
Orpheus didn't have time to react. Xerxes' blade came soaring across like an eagle's strike.
Xerxes cleaved a deep gash that ran from his right shoulder down to his torso, then, the flames reprecussed, igniting Orpheus in a ball of flame that sent him hurling across the battlefield.
Xerxes didn't stop there; it was the person he was, and when he saw struggle, he would stop it.
I need to save the Gem'rafh, they need me.
His eyes scanned the battlefield, looking for those at a disadvantage, injured or weak. Then, with the same intensity, he rushed over.
All the giants saw through blurred vision, and fear was a young man, brimming with flames, taking on a hoard of creatures whilst battling Orpheus.
Xerxes roared, "Cinderstride!" Placing his palms together, pillars of flames arose from the ground all around the giants, not one, not two, but a dozen, then he ordered the Gem'rafh, "CLOSE YOUR EYES NOW!"
They all did, and the pillars shone with blinding flames that made the creatures snarl and quiver from the blindness
In the next moment, Xerxes raced between the creatures, cutting them down with an unrelenting pressure.
The Gem'rafh were able to exploit the creature's blindness and attack with ferocity, giving them the advantage.
Once they were safe, Xerxes leapt into the air and, utilising the residual flames from the pillars, his eyes scanned for Orpheus.
"Damn it, where has he—"
Suddenly, a pressure weighed down on him, a murderous wave of malice engulfed Xerxes, making him tense for a singular moment.
Then, without sound, without any visible shift, Orpheus was there.
His black, silky glove was before Xerxes' face, and glancing over at him, the boy saw a face marred by insatiable terror.
Xerxes' jaw clenched, feeling the weight of the mana radiating from Orpheus' palm.
He wasn't simply threatening Xerxes... he was making a statement about the difference in their power.
Then, with the tap of his fingers, a boom exploded from Orpheus' palm.
Xerxes was met with a devastating wave of earth that descended on him point-blank in a starburst pattern that expanded and expanded endlessly.
An onslaught of spiking earth punched through Xerxes' flesh repeatedly, throwing him to the ground with soaring speed, like a meteor.
But it wasn't over.
As soon as Xerxes crashed with bone-shattering speed, Orpheus was as precise as possible, appearing there, and as his body ricocheted from the ground upward, Orpheus was ready.
His leg drew back for a cataclysmic kick. The moment his boot connected with Xerxes' midsection, the world shuddered.
A cacophony of cracks and booms emerged as a result, and Xerxes vanished into a streak, hundreds of metres long, and collided with the foot of the Mons Mountain.
Xerxes' back impacted the mountains with tremendous force, and a splintered web of fissures raced up the mountain like lightning in reverse, making it spew out dust and rock.
Some of the loose rock fell upon Xerxes, but it didn't wake him up to anything.
His body was writhing in pain. No, not pain, pain wasn't even a word that described what was going through his body.
His ears rang, and his vision was hazy-tinged with red at the edges.
He tried to draw in breath, but it felt like he was drowning. Blood was slowly filling his lungs.
Xerxes' thoughts were scattered, though there was one dominant thought above all.
Is this all I can do... will I die here? Without saving the Gem'rafh, without seeing Lilith safe, without seeing all of them one more time?
His head slowly descended as he looked down at his body. He wanted to move, but the state he was in... it was nearly impossible.
"I can't let it end here," Xerxes said through whispers.
But what could he do? Orpheus was walking, and the most terrifying thing was that he was simply watching. The insidious serenity never left him.
"As you lie there and die, tell a man, Xerxes. Say how you 'cling' to that humanity," he ordered.
Orpheus' voice rose. "Your faith disgusts me. You want to know what faith brought a man? It gave nothing, so when you're dying, how do you expect to speak them!"
Xerxes shook his head, but the movement was so subtle that Orpheus didn't pick up on it.
"There isn't any divine intervention, Xerxes! If having faith has brought you so far, then it must be cruel, because in the end..."
He arrived, towering above Xerxes' feeble frame. "...It led you to me."
Xerxes' head lowered as more blood was being lost. Orpheus' words came out muddled, and the breath of life was slowly fading.
Orpheus raised his hand, the rotating form of a spike appearing, aiming towards Xerxes' heart.
The hiss of it rotated in Xerxes' ears.
And then it shot down, impaling Xerxes straight in his chest.
But that was only what Orpheus thought happened.
In the next moment, Xerxes appeared behind Orpheus, the orc soul fragment flaring in its awakened and final form.
Xerxes activated its trait, 'The Daring Dance', a period where Xerxes' mana would be uncontrolled and all pain he was experiencing would be nullified.
Using his teeth to apply more pressure on his mana suppressant bandages, Xerxes pulled them backwards with as much force as he could muster, and once they were tight enough, he replicated something that defied nature.
Back then, Xerxes didn't know what happened.
But in the fray of the moment, when his mana was flaring, he had hit Yves with an attack that actually managed to catch the tyrant off guard.
Soon, Xerxes understood what had happened that day.
His mana didn't filter correctly through his manicule system, and what was released as a result was raw, unfiltered mana.
"Magical rejection!" Xerxes roared, swarming Orpheus in a field of treachery.