Rip And Tears

"Now, I only lack your head."

Julian eyes glowed ominously with power in the darkness of the warehouse, the red in them becoming redder and the blue bluer, as he ripped out his bloodied and torn out shirt.

Eyeing Elsa almost already regenerated left arm. Julian imbued his stolen dagger with destruction power, finding them surprisingly very conductible to magic.

Seeing the assassin pull out a new blade, Julian met eyes with Elsa like two apex predators fighting over territory. Warriness and acknowledgement of each other cababilities could be seen in each other gaze.

As sickening as the though was, Julian knew that in a twisted way. The cold killer before him could be considered his first teacher.

Because willingly or not, each bits of her experience in fighting and in killing that she demonstrated during this fight was slowly being analysed and integrated to Julian's skills.

Pulling even more mana into his body, Julian's felt himself reaching a limit as his muscle teared up and his skin cracked and bursted in a mist of blood.

A hum could be heard in the air from the magic emanating from his body as his body was coated in blood mist.

Wholly ingnoring the injuries, as he could not feel pain. Julian exhaled deeply and took a stance again, this time with a weapon.

Both opponent knew, that this fight would be one of endurance.

Both combattant knew, that this fight was one where the victor would be decided by who had the better immortality.

—————

*DRIP*

A drop of blood falling to the ground, the fight resumed in a flash as Elsa took the first move again. Stomping and breaking the wooden floor of the building as she kicked with monstrous strength the countless shards and small debris resulting of it toward Julian.

There was so much of it that Julian couldn't see the assassin anymore. His eyes only flashed in answer as he picked up a nearby stool and threw it at supersonic speed at Elsa previous location, blowing away most of the cloud of debris.

*TAK*

The sound of something being embeded in wood was all Julian needed to know as a dozen throwing knives closed on him from the front.

*TING*

Waving his dagger and his destruction coated hand, Julian deflected all of them but one who was hiding and following directly behind another one.

Julian body froze up for a fraction of a second the time for the extremelly powerful poison entering his system to be destroyed.

But a fraction of a second was all that was needed in this sort of fight.

Appearing behind Julian, Elsa stabbed and stuck one of her dagger in his spine as she next aimed for the brain.

But she was surprised as Julian whole body glowed amber for a moment and dodged her attack by ducking at the last moment.

Not only did Julian duck, but he also leaned his palms against the ground and using them as pivot he, in a surprising show of flexibility, lifted one of his leg to kick his would be killer in the chin.

*CRACK*

Sending Elsa flying through the air and breaking her jaw and possibly her skull, Julian pulled out both the throwing knife and the blade in his back as he threw the former at Elsa left eye as a distraction.

Now with two daggers infused with destruction power, profiting from her blocking the knife, Julian crouched and leaped the woman. Stabbing her in the head with both knives and sending them both collide with a wall with his jump.

The warehouse shaking for a moment from the impact, Julian applied more force and pierced even deeper into her skull, pinning her to the wall. To afterward rip both of her arms out so that she couldn't retaliate.

Going all out, he flooded her form with destruction power. Making her body vanish little by little.

But it was at this time that a cloak suddenly appeared from nowhere around Elsa and absorbed all the current destruction power on her form before vanishing again.

Julian want to do it again but was blown off Elsa's body and tumbling accross the floor by two well placed kicks first on his shin making him knee and then his face.

Standing up, Julian saw as Elsa arms regrew and pulled herself out of the wall, not even bothering with the daggers stuck in her head.

An expression of pure rage mixed with some regret was pasted on the assassin newly regenerated face.

"I WILL SLICE YOU TO BITS AND THROW THEM INTO A FIRE IF I HAVE TO!" She took out another pair of daggers.

"Yeah, same to you." Julian spat out some blood.

It was Julian's turn to be surprised this time as he had thought Elsa previous speed her cap.

But he was apparently wrong, as the next instant. He had two daggers sticking out of his body, one in his heart and the other in his kindney. And the next, two new ones locked the joint in his shoulders in place.

And it was at that precise time that Julian decided he had enough.

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

*CLANG* X4

Flooding his body with a massive amount of mana, a shockwave emanated from his body, ejecting all the weapons out of it and pushing Elsa away.

Julian rapidly found gaping holes popping out here and there on his frame and his internal organs failling one by one. His eyes even exploded from the sheer stress all that mana was putting on them.

His skin lighting up in an orange light like some god, Julian only brought his eyes back and locked himself in an alive state.

Meeting eyes with Elsa wide ones, Julian watched almost in slow motion as Elsa turned around in a fleeting attempt to flee in a speed he couldn't even perceive before.

—————

Elsa wasn't good at magic, in fact, she was quite horrible at it.

But even she could sense when the mana in the air was downright tangible. When you got the feeling to be in water so much it was dense.

At first she thought her foe to be some rookie knight prodigy with Divine blessings she wasn't aware of. After all, there were many that were still unrecorded.

But as the fight progressed she thought she could actually be fighting against a strange authority, as improbable as it was. The kid stank a little bit of the witch after all.

But no, now she realized. What he was using since the beginning to strengthen himself was pure, unaltered mana. An astromical amount that his body should have already exploded countless times under.

It was simply impossible for an human to have so much.

It was useless to try fighting someone enhanced by so much.

Even if her instinct told her that it was also useless to flee, it wasn't the first time she was stuck in a seemingly helpless situation. She had to take her chance.

Maybe his body would finally explode under the pressure before he got to her. So she had to make each seconds count.

But just as she took her first step, she collided with something unmovable.

Lifting her head, she was met by the familiar sight of one of the most beautiful pair of eyes she encountered in her life.

She particularly liked the red in the center, it made her think of magnificient ruby red bowels. A color she unfortunately never had the chance to see. And probably never will.

As she saw the thing... Julian raise his fist toward the heaven. She couldn't help but think about how she lived her life.

...

There was really nothing to say, she should have brought her killing daggers. Or just not have taken a job from a clown.

—————

*BOOOOOOOM*

As Julian striked down, the building exploded due to the resulting blast of air of his blow.

Bit of the wodden furniture, walls and roof raining around him. Julian raised his bloodied fist and punched again at the squirming, unrecognizable piece of flesh under him.

*BOOOOOOOM*

And again.

*BOOOOOOOM*

And again.

*BOOOOOOOM*

A tremor resounding at every one of his punch, Julian didn't stop until what was under him was but mere paste plastered on blood soaked dirt.

For good mesure, Julian used destruction magic on the remain and turned them to dust.

Breathing roughly and gazing at the now uncovered night sky for a few moments.

In all means, Julian should have been happy. After all, his first true hurdle, and he had triumphed.

But he wasn't, as it didn't felt like a win .

He was just exhausted.

Looking vaguely around at the ruin of what was once a house to someone, something shining on Elsa last location grabbed his attention.

Picking it up and inspecting it, Julian had the illogical urge to crush the item.

It was an emblem, with the crest of an eagle and a sparkling crimson jewel embedded in its center.

Still lightly lighting up his surrounding in an amber glow. Julian kept the emblem in the end and headed toward a nearby pile of debris and proceeded to clean it up one piece of rubble at a time.

What awaited Julian under that pile was the ghostly sight of two cold body.

There was a small one, of a young girl with blond hair. And there was a large one, of a greying old man, his pale as a sheet body littered by scars.

Julian didn't knew these two. They were total strangers. So, it was par of the course for feelings to not come into play. Even more when it came to his umempathic self.

But then, why did he felt his heart tighten at the clear sign of the little girl dragging her own body to the giant side, her fingers barely grazing one of his arms?

Using for a last time his magic, Julian tried restauring their bodies to a presentable state. And failed... As the changes he wanted to make were both too far back into the past, and because his DxD magic reserve was running dry.

Not bothering about his own physical state that was way worse than the corpses behind him.

Julian sat on the ground, letting the fresh night breeze dry the blood on him and wash away the putrid stench of death.

Gazing blankly at the horizon, Julian just closed his eyes after a while.

He thought he was ready for that. For all of that...

It seemed he was afraid of death after all. It seemed that he merely wasn't afraid about his own, nor about the one prevailing over it.

This world...

This world wasn't good for his mental health.

—————

~ A minute later

"Julian!? You're alive!? I'm so glad!"

Julian opened his eyes to the sound of a familiar voice. Just in time to see an out of breath half-elf girl running right toward him, almost tripping on the way.

She slowed down gradually before stopping completely, covering her mouth with her hand and her eyes widening. "Wha - What happened...?"

Indeed, Julian was looking quite worse for wear. In fact, he was quite monstruous looking.

Covered in blood from head to toe, with holes of various size everywhere on his body. Only him mysteriously glowing in a dim orange light let him keep a minimum of dignity, and he was looking more like a fancy lightbulb than anything.

It was a wonder she directly could assume his motionless form as being alive.

But just as Julian was going to answer, Emilia shook her head and threw herself at his side and summoned a ball of water and applied it to his wound.

"Stay still, I'm going to heal you."

Julian joked. "I thought you couldn't heal people?"

She bit her lips. "Puck said I that I should keep my cards to myself and not show them to anybody."

"Wise advice, from such a plush looking animal."

"It's not working. Why is it not working?" Emilia panicked.

Julian stayed silent as someone else answered. "Because this man, from what I can see. Is already dead."

A man with red hair and blue eyes, walking in slowly from the same direction as Emilia, was the one who answered.

The man clenched his jaw in an almost imperceptible way as he took in the sight of the battlefield and the two bodies behind Julian. "His body has no vitality left. But yet, this amber aura somehow seem to maintain him 'alive'."

Emilia froze for a bit at these words but in the end just pushed herself harder, sweat appearing on her brows and a thread of blood trickling down from her lips.

Julian put his bloody, dirty hand atop Emilia pristine one as she was trying to heal a beant hole in the place of his heart and lowered them. "Stop it. It's useless..."

...

"I'm already dead."

Tears dropped to the ground as delicate shoulders shaked.

Julian, despite it all. Smiled, even if it was a bit strained. "Why are you crying? It's not even been a day since we met."

Emilia only answer to that was even more tears being shed. "Then... why did you take the blow for me?"

Before Julian had the time to think about it. Emilia added, crying even more. "It's all my fault, I should have done as you said and fled directly. Maybe then I would have been there on time. I knew I shouldn't have implicated unrelated people in the Throne fight. If I had, Maybe then..."

Julian didn't let her continue, as he put something into her hand and cut her off firmly. "Maybe don't matter. I pride myself in knowing many things, but I know deep within myself that I don't truly know about them. But maybe, that I know. And trust me..."

Gazing into Emilia's misty purple eyes, Julian could see his own reflection deep within them. "In the end, they don't matter."

Wiping her own tears, Emilia's seemed to calm down a bit. "You say that. But it still hurt you know?"

"You hurting? I don't see you riddled with so many holes that you lost half your body mass."

Despite the crude joke and the absurd situation, Emilia laughed before she caught herself and flinched. "How can you be so calm? Doesn't not hurt?"

"No, I feel nothing. Don't forget where pain originate from. With all your nerves fried, pain but a mere bad memory. You really should try someday, help with back pain."

"Isn't that unhealthy?"

"Of course it is, but you think I'm like this because of choice?" Spoiler, he kinda was.

Tears still dripping occasionally, a sort of peace descended upon the duo as both stayed silent for a bit.

"If I could take your place, I would." Emilia suddenly looked at Julian and said out of the blue, her face tranquil.

Julian scrutinized her, frowning hard. What she said had much more meaning than her simple sentence showed on the surface.

She would cast her hopes, dreams and goals to take his place. Someone who could be considered an acquaintance at most.

Nobody could possibly lie in front of him, long ago. He had to weave daily between all sort of liars. Cunning ones and unskilled ones. Those who lied as naturally as they breathed, their lies indistinguishable from the truth. Old people who had lied all their lifes.

Normally, he would have call out on such an outrageous claim. But he couldn't, because of who he was against.

Simply because what she said wasn't a lie.

When he was made aware of that, Julian face relaxed. In fact, he even began to chuckle, the chuckle changing into a full blown laugh and ending with Julian wheezing. If his tear duct would have worked, he would surely have shed a tear or two.

Emilia was perplexed, and for some reason, she was feeling quite a embarassed. "Wha - What's so funny? I mean, how could you possibly laugh this situation?"

Taking an unnecessary breath to calm himself, Julian stopped laughing. "Nothing, I just realized how much this world don't deserve you. Nor does this kingdom do."

Emilia's only answer was to tilt her head in confusion.

The orange glow suddenly flickered before dimming to mere ambers, not even lighting up Julian's entire body.

Just as Emilia was on the verge of a panic attack again, Julian made a move uncharacteristic of himself and patted her head.

"I don't think I can say everything yet, but I'll take a chance."

Julian stopped his patting to stand up and dust himself of and proceeded to look at the sky and its countless stars.

"You may not believe me. But death isn't the same for me than it is for other. As such, I don't know exactly when, and how. But one day, I'll be back. To help you realize your dreams. Because I decided so."

Julian gazed back at Emilia. As oposed to the dying ember of his life, his eyes shone like a fire was just lit within them. "I promise."

Turning back without another word. Julian started walking toward a neariest alley, leaving an astonished and frozen Emilia behind.

Tapping his temple, Julian smiled. "Ah right, almost forget. I know you're still here somewhere and that you can hear me Reinhard Van Astrea. I want to tell you something."

Looking around him, he could indeed not see the man. He should have distanced himself to leave them some privacy, even with the pressing affaire of the Bowel Hunter striking. But he was surely still around, it was his duty to protect a royal candidate after all.

"The thief of Emilia's token, Felt. Blond hair, red eyes, pretty young. As you can see, she's one of the four victims of this last assassination of Elsa Granhiert."

Pausing for a bit, Julian let his words sink in. "I'll not say how exactly I am in possesion of such knowledge. But some blood of her found itself on Emilia's emblem previously, and the jewel started to shine."

Pausing again, he shrugged. "I'm pretty sure she was the fifth royal candidate, that you failed to find in time. That you failed to protect..."

"I don't even know how you could not sense me even with all the mana I was releasing."

"Anyway, you can use whatever methods you want to confirm my words. You'll still see that only the truth unfortunately await you at the end."

"I thought the strongest knight was as the rumors said. A being driven by justice and honor. The strongest sword saint of all time they said. But despite your strength, you failed us all in this case. In this very same capital everybody think you the protector of."

"Personally, I forgive you. Because I understand, No matter all the title you have. In the end, you are still human. And humans make mistake."

"But my forgiveness has a price..."

Julian stopped in his track for a bit as he arrived at the entrance of the alley, purposefully ignoring the voice desperately telling him to wait.

"You are a knight, right? Then fill your knightly duty and plead Allegence to Emilia. She's the only one who truly deserve to be put on the Throne anyway. I don't care what sort of political sheneanigans would arise from it. And I hardly think you care either. Show me that your honor is truly worth something... I believe you will do the right thing... Strongest of knight."

A dark look passed upon Julian's face as he whispered. "Also, you'll not have to only deal with a rampaging fire spirit if I find her dead."

With that, Julian stepped into the alley. His body bursting into a black and red fire. Vanishing in a mere second.