Much of violence was made out to be complicated. The amount of techniques and strategies that were practiced and memorized was endless. Aurelius had come across quite a plethora of them, all their wielders thinking they had reinvented the wheel.

In reality, there was no shortcut to violence. No way to make it more sanitary or efficient. It was all the same thing. Trying to twist it one way or another just created a weakness.

That's why he couldn't help but snort as the so-called elites assailed him in close succession, all just for each of them to die in a blink. They may have thought they had lived with death before, but that changed soon enough. Aurelius had that effect.

The severing of arms, legs, and heads. The puncturing of stomachs, hearts, and lungs. The crushing of knees, ribs, and skulls. Aurelius imagined they had quite a different sound when it was done with his kind of disregard. Each of the greedy bastards died knowing there was a long line before and after them.

There was no point in dressing it up. Violence was as primal as any animal could get. It had an honesty to it. No matter how you did it, it was the same. No point in wasting feelings on it then.

It was combat. It was Aurelius at his core. He had never had any need for special techniques or strategies. He had his instincts. His constitution was optimal. Those whose weren't should've stayed out of his way. Their mistake.

Aurelius was all-seeing, his eyes having widened as he fought in constant motion. He had no focus, only a constant flow of enemies. He revolved in flux. The faint blue glow of essence was everywhere, all of it in existence with the single purpose of killing him.

For him a year ago, it would have been overwhelming. Before that, he would've fainted from the sheer thickness of the malevolent intent in the hall, not to mention the heavy iron scent of blood. But with him now as he was, the challenge was adequate. Just the right amount to make him lose himself in it. For that, a part of him was grateful.

That part was the boy inside. If it had been aware of what was happening, he would've cried and cried until the end of time.

'How could you?' he would have cried.

Aurelius didn't know how he could. He just did. That's how it had been from the very beginning.

He spun and instinct drew his head back right in time to let a glowing blade pass over his eyes instead of into them. Just a split second later, and he would be dead. He hadn't even been conscious of the movement before it happened. It was nothing to dwell over, though. It was probably the 20th such occurrence during the battle, and it had barely begun.

Before he noticed it, he had kicked the man in the stomach so hard his spine seemed to crack. All in the same movement of leaning back. And without getting the time to regain good footing, he was attacked from all directions.

He grabbed the wrist of the one behind him and flipped to the side, twisting the assailant's arm. He grunted and tried lashing out, but Aurelius threw him into another assailant's ball of compression before that could happen. Then he twirled and sliced someone's head in half before using him as a meat shield to rush at an aggressive group that had bothered him from the beginning.

In the same, beams of essence shot through his meat shield, but he had already jumped to the side towards the very middle of the hall and spun in the air, dodging attacks as he shot off a slash full of momentum at the group's leader. There were ten of them in the mercenary group, all with different kinds of demon masks. They formed a tight guard and deflected the slash.

Aurelius had expected as much based on a few earlier encounters, so as soon as he landed, he laid himself flat to avoid attacks and shot off a beam. The beam blew a hole through one of the men before reaching their leader and taking his head clean off. He figured that would lessen their coordination.

The beam continued on its path and almost made it to Gadreel himself before being blocked by his guard. Aurelius cursed. Then he found himself in quite the position, on the ground with raw spikes of essence raining down. He put his hands together into a setup and formed a shield to block the spikes. Then he separated his hands, and the shield became two halves that he used to push his attackers aside. Finally, he launched himself up from the ground.

He was almost surprised to find someone waiting for him in the air with a raging ball of compression. The man wore no mask over his scarred face, his gaunt features and dark eyes on display. More than that, he didn't seem afraid of Aurelius. It wasn't hard to figure out that he had taken an enhancer.

Aurelius met the man head-on. The attack might've seemed simple, but being in the air with a ball of compression could get complicated. Aurelius couldn't afford that and took a gamble in grabbing the man's wrist and pulling him in. Then he materialized a sharp tip at the end of his fingers and shoved his forearms through the man. Before the ball of compression could touch him, the man was dead.

Aurelius materialized a platform under his feet and hung in the air, but let the man drop down below into the swarm of mercenaries. Before a second had passed, he was hit from both sides as a couple bounced at him from the pillars on the sides. They were a pair of women in red clothes, and they had blades as extensions of their arms.

Simultaneously, beams of essence shot at Aurelius from ten different directions, as he was exposed. However, they were waiting for him to drop back down to the ground, so he couldn't do that. Instead, he jumped up and flipped over one of the women, kicking her into the other and sending a slash after them. It bisected one, but he didn't know about the other. He was shot with another beam of essence and made a shield, but was still spun while still in the air. It took effort to regain his equilibrium and prepare to land.

Then his body screamed at him to turn. Behind him, he found another woman in red, this one with a black mask. She had come from the darkness above. Her feet sunk into his stomach and sped up his return to the ground. There was a ferocious emotion to her. Aurelius wondered for an instant if he had just killed someone akin to a sister to her. However, those thoughts didn't reach deep enough to do anything. In his distraction, he wasn't ready to lose his air and hit the unforgiving ground with a gasp. The back of his head took a hit, and he was in a daze for as long as he could afford.

The woman landed on top of him and materialized a spear when his eyes went wide and he put his hands together as if he would shoot off a beam up at her. The woman didn't flinch. She had seen Aurelius' earlier trick. She likely had figured out that beams weren't Aurelius' strength.

This forced Aurelius to improvise while all of the mercenaries dawned on him as well. He twisted and let the spear wound the side of his neck out of necessity. It ripped through the flesh, quite a lot deeper than Aurelius thought it would. No time to regret the move.

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He grabbed the spear and exerted force in his lower body to kick the woman in the back. The woman stumbled over him. The spear disappeared. Aurelius looked up. Too many people. He jumped up to his feet while materializing and went to work with blades.

He got into the mess of mercenaries and counted on what he had counted on for the entire battle: their greed. Everyone wanted to be the one to kill him. It was all a gamble for the right moment to strike. If they weren't all just looking out for themselves, Aurelius probably would've lost already.

As expected, they gave him space to work, backing off instead of swarming him and coming at him one at a time. It was still just a small circle that Aurelius had to constantly spin around in, but he got into the rhythm, and it became a dance.

Turn, dodge, slice, shuffle, block, and again. Working with blades was messy, but it conserved energy, and at that point, he didn't have much. However, it became apparent that he couldn't fight that way for long. He cut off someone's hand that held a ball of essence and shoved the hand at someone else before the ball dissipated. The man flew back, his clothes skin ripping apart at the touch. But in the same, Aurelius had to dodge a couple more strikes and reposition himself, only to receive a cut or two more on his arms or legs.

Someone launched at him foot first in a stupidly courageous kick. The man wore a blue cape with a symbol on it that Aurelius recognized from somewhere. He flew through the air like a beam, but Aurelius managed to sidestep and slice his throat as he went by before crashing into some others. But right after, a gigantic man ran into him from behind with a low roar. Aurelius was pushed, but turned and took hold of the large, gruff Thropian before taking advantage of his momentum and throwing him at the crowd behind him.

Right after, came a smiling man with bloodshot eyes. He was screaming as loud as he could. Another enhanced one. It just didn't stop. He tried to hit Aurelius with compression. Aurelius dodged. He stabbed at Aurelius. Aurelius dodged. Then he smashed the man's nose in with a headbutt. There was a loud crunch before Aurelius felt his calf get cut by another man's blade. He kicked behind him without looking and hit at least someone.

In his distraction, he was slammed from the side. He flew off his feet and tumbled on the ground, but used his momentum to get back on his feet and stabbed a couple more particularly aggressive ones. He avoided strikes while securing an area for himself amid the enemies before taking in the appearance of the one who slammed into him. It was a shirtless sweaty and bloodied man with slick black hair. His face and body were both chiseled and riddled with scars, but no wounds, even though he seemed to have been quite engaged in the battle.

"Everyone in Numen talks about you!" he yelled as he spread his arms while the crowd made way for him to get at Aurelius. "I've been waiting to meet you." Aurelius barely paid attention to the loud idiot's words as he dealt with his enemies in close combat. "You haven't disappointed yet!"

Aurelius was forced to focus when the man rushed at him, obviously on an enhancer. Aurelius, on the other hand, was starting to run low on energy. He rushed at the man as well and met him in hand-to-hand. The man was skilled. Maybe a kind of champion of Numen. Aurelius didn't care. He countered the man's techniques with superior speed and sharp combinations while remaining vigilant of the enemies around him who tried to look for openings.

When Aurelius tried to end it with a stab, he was grabbed. The champion spun him and grabbed him from behind. Aurelius went into a mode of panic and thrashed. He headbutted the man and waited for an opening to escape from his grasp, but the champion didn't try anything, just holding him. He figured he had to break out with pure strength instead of a maneuver and exerted himself, but then one all-in-black assassin flew in and tried to stab him. He twisted and ripped himself half free of the grasp. He kicked the assassin in the head and was about to turn at the champion when a beam flew at him. All the while he saw the red woman in the black mask as well as another assassin rush at him from different sides. He had to dodge, but he didn't know to which side. It was chaos, and finally, he was overwhelmed.

He just did something, twisting himself out of the way while putting the champion in the line of fire. The beam put a hole in him sideways, and Aurelius was free. A blade came at his throat, a spike at his back, and a dozen more opportunists all around, including the one who shot the beam, killing his allies in the process.

His speed was on the brink of exhaustion. He was covered in almost as much sweat as blood, and his breathing had been uneven for longer than he remembered.

He had to prioritize. He materialized a blade and met that of the assassin, hitting it aside. Right after, he turned in a hurry to avoid the spike and rushed at the woman. He stabbed at her but missed. He needed her then and there. She was dangerous. He grabbed her arm. She squealed as he pulled her back. He let the materialization dissipate and compressed before hitting her in the neck. The result wasn't pretty.

He turned, knowing he had wasted too much time on a single individual. He was hit right on the nose so hard his eyes stung. He saw blurry blades and guarded himself, letting his forearms get ripped but avoiding any serious damage. Then he was slammed from behind. He bounced around without spirit, only avoiding compression attacks absolutely.

It was a haze. He tried to regain himself. He was only accumulating damage and couldn't respond. He grunted and tried to lash out, but it was futile. There were too many of them. The horrible image of dying in that dimly lit hall bathed in blood with a backdrop of strikes of lightning. Then he sensed something and turned to the assassin in black robes. There, he saw death.

Then the throbbing in his body seemed to disappear as all his senses reset to orient themselves. Blood filled his mouth. What had happened? He had no idea. The pain on his face erupted. A rageful flame spread from the bridge of his nose that was sliced in the middle.

Aurelius turned with the slash and met a strike of compression. That ball of blue streaks filled with essence magnetized his gaze. Its deliverer was a man with a blue demon mask, and there was a ferociousness behind the strike that made Aurelius see the human behind it. It made him feel like relaxing his body and closing his eyes. What if he just let it happen?

But as it got closer, Aurelius rushed to materialize a shield. The shield burst to pieces on impact, though, and the strike hit him square in the chest. His eyes rolled up on impact.

The next thing he knew was floating in the air, gravity not yet pulling him down. His body shook awake as he twisted in the air to dodge beams. He opened his eyes and found a grand chandelier hanging on top of him. He turned and deflected the beams he couldn't dodge with a shield. Then he materialized a platform to stand on, from which he jumped to the top of the candle chandelier, where he materialized another platform.

He touched his nose, which radiated. He let out a pained sound at the slightest touch. He rubbed his gloved fingers together just to feel how slippery they became. The slice was deep and cut into his right cheekbone as well. It would be his first facial scar. But he couldn't find any care for that matter. Maybe because he didn't see much of a future beyond the castle.

Only at that moment then that the blood on his face was mostly his own. His nose had been bleeding even before the wound, and now it was flooding. He glanced down and was horrified. He'd forgotten the tear on the side of his neck, and now from the whole left side of his neck and downward were just layers and layers of dried blood. He hadn't bled like that in so long; he'd almost forgotten what it felt like to have your life and warmth pump out more and more with every beat of your heart.

Finally, he resulted to it.

The last favor he had asked of Damian before leaving Arkryk was supposed to be just a precaution for much later. 'Where can I get more enhancers in Mircrest?' had been the question. Damian had given him a location in Acelot that Aurelius visited before arriving at the castle.

And so, as he touched his lower back under his overcoat with a hand, he found a leather strap there with exactly three vials. He saw the most maneuverable of the soldiers begin to make their way up the pillars while others shot beams at the chandelier. Aurelius unstrapped a single vial and opened it as he walked onto the edge of the chandelier on self-made platforms. He then looked down at the huge drop to the swarm of soldiers.

He took one slow, tired blink before opening the vial of black substance. With already regretful eyes, he poured it down his throat and felt it fill his body like a replacement for his soul.

All just to let the battle continue.