In the desert area covered with various weapons and overflowing with antimagic, a rather strange cadence of sounds, echoing one after the other, disrupted the persisting silence.
Heavy breathing was followed by muffled grunts with the interdiary being the collision of two bodies.
The source of these misleading sounds turned out to be the one masquerading as the Dark Lord who was currently being pumled by the Battle God of the Warrior Wheel.
Pinned down with nowhere to run, Alex suffered a rain of blows doled out by an unforgiving Aiden.
It continued for almost three minutes before it finally ca to an end with Aiden’s fists covered in torn flesh, blood, and what looked to be shards of broken teeth while Alex’s face was in severe need of reconstruction.
Spitting out blood mixed with spittle, flesh, and broken teeth, Alex muttered. "Satisfied?"
"Not yet," Aiden replied before punching Alex again. "You still have that annoying smugness about you."
"... What can I say?... I’m just naturally smug."
Aiden dropped another punch causing Alex to chuckle while groaning in pain.
"The fact that you punch hard enough to hurt but not enough to knock out is diabolical." He comnted in faint amusent amidst trendous hurt.
Aiden sighed. "You are a madman."
"What’d I do?"
"Few would be able to handle such humiliation calmly."
"As long as I’m not dead, anything goes. There’s always going to be a second chance."
"Is that a threat?"
Alex managed a smirk, no matter how crooked it looked. "What do you think?"
Yet another punch followed, causing Alex to nearly black out.
"Ugh... I should really stop talking." He muttered softly causing Aiden to chuckle.
"You really are sothing else."
"Is that code for I’m going to stop hitting you now?"
Shrugging, Aiden replied. "Perhaps."
"Great, get off then."
Aiden obliged the request, moving to lie on the desert floor beside Alex.
Despite the seemingly scorching sight, it was quite cold to the touch.
Letting out a groan as he checked to see if his limbs were still functional, Alex inquired. "So did you only bring here to beat the crap out of ?"
"Do you think I have an ulterior motive?"
"It would really make feel a lot better about what just happened."
Chuckling yet again, Aiden comnted. "I guess you’ll have to wait and see."
Alex glanced at Aiden, the urge to puml the Family Head rising in his heart though he was quick to simr down.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, he remarked. "I guess it’s ti for my third question."
"Indeed it is."
Nodding slightly as Alex could swear he was bleeding sowhere up there, he muttered. "How do I get you to release Ana from her Vow?"
"You don’t have to do anything."
"You can’t be serious."
"I have decided to let her go." Aiden calmly remarked.
Alex raised a brow... or at least it felt like he did.
His face wasn’t really in the best shape to be sure about the movents it could perform.
"Why?"
"Shouldn’t you be happy?"
"Hardly. It’s suspicious. What’s the catch?"
Aiden chuckled. "Because I want to bet on you."
"You want to bet on ?"
"Indeed."
"The Dark Lord who is ant to lead the Night Kindred to Paradise and the crazy guy traveling around getting his hands on the Branches of the Absolute... you want to bet on ?"
Aiden chuckled. "You don’t really believe the prophecy about the Dark Lord, do you?"
"Don’t you?... I an, aren’t your ancestors the ones that brought an end to the Dark Ages."
"The Dark Ages ca to an end soti before my ancestors arrived. By the ti they ca ashore, they arrived in a land that was struggling to move on from the Dark Ages which was why they were able to do what they did, driving the Night Kindred to the Eastern Highlands."
"I’ve never heard that part of the story."
"It’s hidden because it reduces the impact my ancestors had on the recovery of Ra’as from the Night Kindred."
"Ah, so it’s like that."
"Indeed. Beastn, the remaining kingdoms of n and my ancestors. They all worked together to drive back a weakened Night Kindred who no longer had the boons granted by the Dark Ages. It was also helpful that the Hyenas were a bunch of cowardly scum." Aiden recounted calmly while Alex listened.
"Regardless, your words do not discount the prophecy of the Dark Lord."
"I know, I just felt like talking," Aiden remarked before bursting into a hearty laughter.
Once again, the urge to puml arose before simring down yet again.
Regaining his composure, Aiden remarked with a smile. "You have no plans of living up to the title of Dark Lord, that much I can tell."
"People change."
"They do... but as I’ve said, your presence is rely another in the vastness encompassing our world. We are ants amongst giants and you, my friend, would just be a slightly bigger ant were you to truly take up the mantle of Dark Lord."
"You speak in parables, but as I understand it, you believe that our actions are inconsequential in the face of existences far beyond our ken. Am I right?"
"You are," Aiden replied with a nod, his expression turning slightly lancholic as he muttered. "Just like those before, we are dood to suffer the sa fate."
"You speak of the Cycles?"
"You know about them?"
"Ana told ." Alex frankly replied, earning a casual glance from Aiden.
"I see."
Turning away, Aiden stared at the sky above as he remarked. "The Warrior Wheel in so ways, is just like the Abyss Wheel."
"What do you an?"
"We do not fit into the grand sche of things. As the Abyss Wheel is chaotic, shifting between black and white, the Warrior Wheel is a dull gray, lacking both inclinations."
"What are you getting at?"
"Because of our unique origin, it allows us to be aware of things we cannot share with others. It allows us to see truths that would effectively end the world sooner should we dare to utter them. It ensures we remain as spectators, watching the world slowly inch towards its end."
Taking a deep breath, Aiden then inquired in a sowhat lancholic tone. "So in such a situation, Alexander Regulus, what do you think we should do to preserve ourselves?"
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