Chapter 11

(Mc pov)

*bumpbump.

'What was that, just now?' Thinking as the large amount of spiritual pressure hit my body, it actually felt warm. Unlike most attacks where i didn't feel anything from there swords, it was a strange feeling.

Falling back on the ground, i looked up at harribel and mila. Seeing them breathing heavy, there swords in my stomach. There face a mess as they tried to get themselves together.

"My lady, we, we, did it." Mila said, looking down at my face with a smirk, then over at harribel who had a complicated expression, then slowly down to me again.

'There is no growth with out pain, look at you.' Thinking i closed my eye, blood coming from my mouth. Feeling the moon shine down on me as I smiled. I couldn't really explain it.

"My lady, he is too dangerous to, to keep alive. I will deal with it." Mila who looked at my face, shook her head not understanding. Raising her sword, bringing it down to where my heart was.

"My, lady?" Mila said, her arm shaking as she looked at her sword. Seeing it was blocked by Harribel. Who still had a strained look on her face.

"Mila, enough. Let me deal with this, I want you to recover and go check on the area around us." Harribel said, without looking away from me.

They both stood there, Mila was confused. They had done it, unlike the happiness she thought her lady would feel, she actually felt concern in Harribel's actions. Harribel stopped her and wanted her to leave her alone with this monster.

"My lady, even like this I doubt it will keep him down. I don't want to leave you if he plans to act out agai.." Mila wanted to say, not giving up. Still worried if I actually would just go down so easily not after what he did to them.

"Mila rose! It will be fine. Just, just do as I asked please. I will be fine." Harribel said, with a strange expression she pushed her sword into my stomach again, to show it was in her control. Even if I made no noise from the sword.

"Yes, my lady." Mila heard Harribel's voice crack, not understanding still but didn't press her lady about it. They were both tired, checking the area for other enemies was the right thing to do. From the battle, it would bring unwanted guest to prey on them while they were in a weaker state.

Mila looked at her armor and sword, then to Harribel who had changed to. Seeing the yellow spiritual pressure coming off her as she stared at me. Turning her head to the moon, she looked back one more time before walking away.

Harribel watched, seeing Mila move out of sight, watching me open my eye a little to look at her beautiful green eyes. Shaking my head I closed it again. Pulling her sword as she slowly fell beside me, sitting in the sand next to me as she watched me for any movement.

"Why are you just laying there?" Harribel asked, putting her head down.

"What do you mean? It is my defeat." I opened my mouth slowly, feeling Harribel's words were different.

"That is not enough, to bring you down. You act as if I did not see. Right as our last attacks were going to clash. You didn't defend yourself, letting go of your sword." Harribel thought back, in the moment she shot out. Remembering as she looked forward with resolve, only for her eyes to opened seeing me let them attack me.

"In the end, you won. Does it matter how you did so?" I said, I didn't think she would have seen it but it changed nothing.

"It does, tell me. Why? Why do all this?" Harribel asked, looking up to the moon.

"Must there be something behind it? You could.." I tried to speak being cut off.

"From the beginning of our fight, you could have killed Mila or me many times yet you didn't. Through the fight I felt no danger, it was, it was like you just wanted to push us. The only feeling I felt, was in the end, a feeling I would not expect in a place like this or from a person who wished to kill me or mila. A feeling of happiness, so why?" Harribel looked down at me, seeing me turn my head to her.

"You are truly observant, didn't I tell you already. I wished to free you of a faulty root." Smiling at her, I watched her turn her face away. Then back to me with a even more complicated look in her eyes.

"Then why? Did you not kill Mila." Harribel asked, even if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"When did I say I wanted to kill her? I only wanted to strengthen the root. Did you see her, not just her both of you in the end. You stood your ground together, even facing the impossible. With all your strength put together to stop me, you no longer tried to carry it alone, you relied on the power of each other that is what a group is. Neither of you alone had the power, yet you still faced it, this time not as two separately but as one." I said, honestly I could heal but this was my main reason for being here. Harribel always tried to carry the world on her back, when she didn't need to and now she wouldn't have to.

"What is the point in all this, to help us grow through sacrificing yourself? You don't even know me? Coming to this world of hell for this." Harribel asked, more questions racked her mind as she thought about this strange man.

"You know you ask a lot of questions, I can't really blame you. So I'll tell you this, you wanted to know why I'm here in las noches. I saw something in my mind, a female hollow. She sat amongst a sea of sand all by herself, speaking to her self. It went something like this I think, 'No world exist without sacrifices, do we not realize this, this sea of blood, covered in ashes, we refer to this hell, as the world.' A strange saying from a lonely hollow." Smiling at her, I turned my head back to the sky.

"How did you.." Harribel wanted to ask but only saw me smile more.

"What a strange hollow, to think that she could think this much. Even more so that she wanted to carry this idea with her alone. Wishing to not sacrifice others for her own strength, but to save them and grow stronger together. I understand the saying but, there is a flaw. You see, sacrifice is born, from our want to protect something, are want to realize something and grasp it with our own two hands. We often disrespect one's sacrifice by only seeing it as that, that they died with out reason but, that Is the very reason it exist. While we try so hard to protect everyone we care about, we lose sight of what it actually means. It is not about who we lose or even if we lose ourselves, it is the reason for that sacrifice. And finding what it is, truly worth sacrificing everything for." I said, I often thought about this question. The sacrifices I made in my passed life, people who tried to stop me just to be killed by me. I thought of it as foolish, thinking them crazy for them dying with out reason instead of running away. But I couldn't see, to them that person was worth everything even there own life. It was me, who was truly the fool.

"The reason, for there sacrifice.." Harribel spoke back my words, taking them in and thinking.

"Take the girl Mila, even knowing she could die. That she could not win, even as I pressed her with power that she once couldn't overcome. She still did so, she fought against her fear. Because, to her, your life was worth more then her own. She would give up everything, even her very being to protect what is important to her. You." I thought, Looking over at a large stone.

Mila rose sat in the shadows, listening to every word. Putting her head down as she thought on the words I said, biting her lip from how true they rang. They often try to prevent this but if it came down to it, she would die if it meant protecting Harribel as she walked off into the darkness of the shadows.

"All this, to tell me this? Why not just say this and talk to me." Harribel asked, watching the sand blow.

"Because there is no growth, with out pain. You had to overcome your fear on your own. By pushing past what you could handle, to break your thinking down and reform it in a new light. And for the last reason, you see this world as hell? Yet you never truly took in its beauty. Look around you, away from the sounds of screams and the endless dark, how can a world like this, this hell. Have a moon that shines with such beauty." I said looking up to the moon, so close shining down on everything with its gentle glow.

'The beauty of this world?' Harribel looked all around her, seeing the moon like shine down on everything. Taking in the sand and the cold wind, seeing the shadows dance as the moon looked even closer. A gust of wind blowing her hair as her eyes opened.

"You truly, have no idea, what hell is.. I have seen it. Oh, how I wish, it was this beautiful." Closing my eyes, I smiled and let sleep take me.