Ray heard voices, while he forced open his eyes, he was in another crater, this time even deeper, than the one Sierra sphere of energy made, his head was pounding, while his ears were ringing he could barely make out the other sounds.

Ray sat up, and took a look at his body, mostly everything on the front side of his body was burned up. His shirt in tatters, his bare chest had scorching marks, and blood stains, he looked at his hands, which were shaking, his mark, quickly fading.

Pieces of Ray mask were falling off, he took off his hoodie, exposing his hair to the dust around him. The mask still was able to cover his face, he saw blood falling from his arms. Red, and black little droplets were coming out of his left arm.

{Damn, it took mostly everything I had to cover myself in time. She actually killed herself, trying to take me down… What a waste, you just gave false hope to your knights, I am still not done.}

Ray tried to stand, but collapsed on his knees, his whole body was in pain from the blast, the dust was settling in. Ray forces himself to stand. As he stood he kept struggling to get out of the crater, Ray tried jumping, but his legs could barely stand up right.

{I can’t stay here, if the other knights managed to trap me here, then it's all over, I already killed Sierra, Sierra?}

Ray took another look at his surroundings trying to find anything that belonged to Sierra, but he couldn't find anything, beside the huge blood spatter that surrounded the crater.

{After all that, the only thing we have to remember you by is the blood you left behind, what a waste you called yourself a knight, yet you couldn’t even stop me. What would the people who depend on you say?}

Ray tried again, forcing himself on his legs, while he was wobbling he focused, so he could barely stand straight, he was at the edge that was above him.

{Just one good jump, after that I can start running. I can’t fight anymore, if I let any knight attack me, even an unblessed knight will manage to kill me.}

Ray bends his knees, and jumps towards the ledge of the crater, he manages to catch his hand over the ledge, the smoke still covering the whole clearing of the church. Ray collapsed on his knees again.

{Dammit, get up, get up.}

Ray stood up, but the cloud of smoke was covering every direction. Ray didn’t know what area he was facing, he was hunching over, trying his best not to fall again. The smoke was finally clearing up, when Ray started hearing yelling.

“Someone came out of the crater, everyone get your weapons ready!” A familiar voice spoke out.

{Dammit, they saw me, what am I going to do?}

Soon the smoke finally gave out, and Ray was facing in the direction of the collapsed church, a group of knights standing in front of the destroyed building had their swords drawn.

While behind Ray, Brandon stood his sword aiming towards Ray back, Ray did his best he could and stood up straight, the pain from his body was overflowing in his mind, Ray desperately wanted to sit back down, but he ignored those thoughts.

“Where is Sierra?!” Brandon asked, and he was slowly circling Ray, to join the other knights in front of the destroyed church.

“She’s gone, she exploded trying to take me down with her, unfortunately she failed, since I am still standing.” Ray answered him.

“Stop lying to me, what did you do to her!” Brandon demanded.

Ray sighed, as he was rubbing his muscles. He took a few steps from the crater.

“Look inside of it, you’ll see the other walls are covered in her blood, during the explosion everything must have been destroyed, or evaporated, the only thing she left behind was her blood.”

“Is this some kind of sick joke to you?!” Brandon yelled at Ray.

“Will you keep it down, my head is killing me.” Ray complained.

Brandon was standing in front of Ray, most of the knights joined Brandon facing down Ray, Ray put his hand at the back of his head, making sure not to do anything suspicious.

“I know this is a long shot, but I have to ask, cause I think you don’t want any more of your precious knights to die by my hand.” Ray said.

“What are you trying to say?” Brandon asked.

“I’ll be leaving right now, if you or any of your other knights try to attack me, then I have no choice but to kill you.” Ray said.

“You expect us to let you go, just like that, after killing so many, after killing my best friend!” Brandon yelled.

“I’m sorry, but if you don’t want any more unnecessary deaths, then yes, so what will you do?” Ray asked.

Brandon took a look around his surroundings, eyeing the people he knew who were now dead, laying in the ground, deacon Stevan, his knights, and Roger. Brandon looked at the other knights that were by his side, they were waiting for his orders, Brandon took a deep breath before answering Ray.

“We will never forgive you, I’ll gladly risk my life in order to stop you, anyone who feels the same as me get your weapons ready!” Brandon yelled at the crowd.

The knights follow Brandon lead, and they start running towards Ray with their weapons drawn.

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{This, this is it, I can’t, I can’t do it… Why do I feel ok with that?}

Ray felt light headed, his chest tightening, he was taking quick short breaths, he was clutching his left side, where his heart was, the ringing in his ears got even louder, still he felt more relaxed as the crowd of knights approached him.

Ray turned around, but fell on his knees, and hands, he looked behind him the knights were close to him already.

{What am I thinking! Not like this, I have to see her again, I can’t let her down. No I did my best, this isn’t my fault, I’m fine with this-}

Something hit the ground between Ray, and the knights. Ray covered his eyes to shield them from the smoke, when he removed his hand, he saw a figure standing between him, and knights.

The figure was wearing all black clothing, the knights were stopped in their tracks by the mysterious figure.

“Who, who are you?” Ray said.

The figure briefly turned their head to look at Ray, the person was wearing a mask similar to Ray.

{Viola!}

“Get up.” She demanded.

Viola turned to the group of knights standing in front of her, and made a diagonally slicing motion at the ground in front of them.

The ground exploded in front of the knights, sending them falling back, where the ground exploded, was a deep cut to the ground, as if someone took a knife and slash the ground.

“Any of you who crosses that line will die, if you value your life, you’ll stay where you are, that includes you Brandon.” Viola said.

“What are you doing, you can’t do this, I won’t let you get in trouble!” Ray whispered to Viola.

“I said get up!” Viola angrily said.

Ray forced himself to stand one more time, and walk towards Viola, until he was standing next to her, looking down on the knights.

“You completed your mission, I’m taking you back.” Viola said.

“Will he be ok with this?” Ray worriedly said.

“You completed the requirements, that is all, now come on.” Viola said.

{Vincent won’t accept this, Viola is not going to let me be either, if only I didn’t waste my energy like an idiot, if only I was stronger.}

Ray turned to look at the knights, and Brandon, who stood back up, and was holding tightly to his sword, that his hand was turning white.

“I will kill you!” Brandon screamed.

“No matter what, I will survive.”

“I will hunt you down.” Brandon said.

“...It seems you fail after all, Brandon.” Ray said.

Brandon looks at Ray, with a confused look on his face. Ray turns to Viola. Viola grabs Ray by the remaining of his shirt, and puts him underneath her arm.

{Why am I in this position again?}

Viola extended her arm towards the sky, and released a bolt of energy which was traveling at a high speed before exploding in the sky, making a loud noise. Viola shifted Ray into her side, and started jumping through the village, going into the forest, jumping straight into the darkness.

***

Viola was jumping through the forest, at high speeds, while tightly gripping Ray under her arm. Ray was fighting the urge to sleep.

“Why did you send that bolt of energy towards the sky?” Ray asked, ignoring his tiredness.

“It too signals Vincent that we are done, he is going to make up an excuse to head back to the village, and try to find out as much as he can, about what you had done.”

“I thought you were supposed to do that.”

“It is to make sure everything lines up with what I tell him.”

“Does that include what you did?” Ray asked.

“Yes, I will make sure to tell him everything that will happen tonight.” Viola said.

“What will we do now?”

“I’m taking you back to Vincent place, it should still be empty. Though if people are there, then we will head back to my place. We will use the excuse that you were sleeping most of the time during the attack, I will go to where Vincent is, and proclaim loudly how I made you stay at the house to keep you safe.”

“Ok.”

“When we do get there, I will change, and head out, you clean yourself up, it's a good thing you don’t have any major injuries, that will be noticeable in the next few days.”

“I have deep wounds where my heart is?” Ray said.

“Are you ok?” Viola asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, it hurts, but I will heal, do you think I’ll stop bleeding by tomorrow?” Ray asked.

“Most likely, now we should be close, head straight to your bedroom once we are in, and be sure to hide those clothes of yours just in case.” Viola said.

Viola, and Ray arrived at Vincent mansion, Viola put Ray on top of the tree branch, and started running around making sure no one was near the house. She went back to Ray, grabbing him, and headed inside the house.

“Ok, go shower real quick, and go to bed.”

“Ok, thanks for saving me Viola.”

“...” Viola went as fast as she could, and started changing in the other room, while Ray went up to his room to change.

Ray undressed, taking off everything, he took off his mask, and inspected it, only the lower part of the mask had damage. Some pieces have fallen off, but it can easily be fixed.

{I’ll ask Viola if she can fix this for me.}

Ray put down the mask, and was heading to the shower, when he heard the door of the back of the house open, and close. Ray got in the shower, standing under the hot water, he inspected his body.

His arms, and chest had the most damage done towards them, Ray despite the pain, used the hot water, to get rid of the dirt, and blood that were on his body. Ray slowly went over his body, his legs were ok, his hands were still bruised, and bloody, his left hand, and saw a black flower on the backside of his hand.

{Oh right! This is what Master Alencia gave to Eda, and I. But why is it glowing? I have to ask Vincent about it. It looks like about five star-shaped flowers connected to one stem? I wonder why she chose that kind of flower, though I never really seen one like it in real life, I should keep an eye out for it.}

Ray focuses on his upper body, slowly going over the scorch marks Sierra left behind, especially the hole where she almost managed to pierce his heart.

{If only you were a little stronger, or faster. You would still be alive right now.}

Ray cleaned the rest of his body, and stepped out of the shower, and got dressed. He hid his black clothing under his bed. As he jumped to his bed, laying on his back, he wanted to go over the events of the day, but his sleepiness quickly swept over him.