Blood, Steel and Ego

Heaven is for the dead

Crash!

Raiya flew through the temple's front doors and tumbled over the ground. She righted herself eventually, skidding to a slow halt dramatically, but not before grunting and yowling as she bounced a few times. When she dusted herself off, she was shocked to see Silas standing up straight, not even leaning on his sword, and looking out over the land below him. Instead of bunching and gathering around his wound, Silas's Id seemed to flow, ebbing and pulsing through him, and leaking a soft, misty fog out of the cut in his chest.

"Woah... you look better..." She said, dashing over and getting a look at him

He was still pale, and slowly, blood still leaked out of his side. His breathing was better and more consistent, but there was still an undertone of strain hidden behind it. His eyes were narrowed and focused, staring down at Yoshinobus's garden, hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Yeah... maybe a little. I guess Xenia was never a good teacher..." he passed his gaze to the dust on her clothes and the unkempt spots of fur around her neck, then frowned

"Yadao wasn't feeling cooperative..."

The knight hissed under his breath "...Damnit..."

"But... he says that if we take a life here, then he'll let us leave," Raiya leaned against a nearby tree and sighed "It's a long shot, but I reckon maybe we could try killing Yoshinobu's spirits, then make a run for it. We've already seen he's not quite the pursuing type..."

"And let him live?"

"Obviously NOT! We'll call back everyone we can and take him out later. Look, I don't like it, but if we make for a retreat now, then we've got... a chance,"

"...no..." Silas said, soul burning through his irises

"No?!"

"...he knows this is the end. I'm sure he'd like nothing more than to go out in a blaze of glory against a few dozen exorcists. And even if we could run, that means he still won..."

The tigress sighed and turned her eyes down "Yeah..."

"Raiya... I don't WANT him to win..."

Teeth bared, Silas brought a gauntlet to his face and bit down on the side of his index finger. A vein bulged in the side of his head, and he practically growled with malice.

"...I'm a knight for fucks sake..." His voice sounded tinny, bouncing off the steel "It's my job to kill revenants, it's my duty to smite evil...I won't have it! I won't let him die in satisfaction! Evil needs to suffer! It needs to be stamped out with vigour and hate!" Silas pointed to the graves behind him "No names! No records! Just bodies! Cut-up, distorted and disfigured bodies are all this creature leaves behind, and we're gonna give him time to get his affairs in order before we knock on his door again?! I won't! I won't make a compromise like that!"

Silas marched to Raiya, already breathless from his rant, and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"All he wants is one last bout with a swordsman, then, he'll accept his fate... but I just can't bear the thought of him dying happy. I won't allow it!"

The eye contact was unbearable for a moment, like looking at the whole world from high in the sky. So far away and so much information that nothing could be read. His arms felt heavy on her shoulders, worn and strained from the unbearable weight that kept him down, and yet, they were strong. His eyes were like planets, so heavy and so huge they had their own gravitational pull. She understood now. Raiya was ablaze, and everything that hurt her added fuel to the fire, but Silas? He was like the earth itself, holding mountains on his back and walking anyway. He cracked and faltered and wheezed and fell, but no matter how much weight kept him down, he had no choice but to keep the horizon in the same place.