They stood, feet dipped in blood, encircled by dead bodies, staring at each other. Aurelius' eyes grew red and his face twitched as the shield around his core dissipated and the energy of the enhancer shot through his body. Gadreel observed with an eerie calmness mixed with the slightest hint of intrigue in his soft-devilish smile.

Aurelius acted like the pungent smell didn't bother him, but he was happy for his nose being sliced so badly he didn't smell much of it. Gadreel, on the other hand, breathed out through his mouth and in through his nose.

Blood flowed down Aurelius' throat, and he felt an urge to puke. He resisted. More out of fear than anything. It felt like if he threw up, he would puke out his guts in the process. It would be like being turned inside out. To banish that image, he focused on his red vision.

The image of that relaxed man in this world of pain.

"Do you know why she was sad?" Gadreel asked, a playful intonation in his voice like it was trivia. Aurelius breathed in, pushing his chest out as the second enhancer was consumed. Gadreel tilted his head. "Why she shed a tear," he specified meaninglessly.

"She cared about you," Aurelius muttered deep under his breath, his jaw still in excruciating pain but no more excruciating than the rest of his body.

"Me?" Gadreel acted surprised rather mildly, like he didn't care much even about his very own game. "No."

Aurelius groaned, scratching dried blood off the side of his face. Every touch was tender. "Then why?" he asked because there was nothing else to do. The energy he had was bundled up, yet to be released. He couldn't guess the justification for Gadreel's demeanor. If he was able to be killed, Aurelius could do it whenever he liked, so it didn't matter either way.

Gadreel sighed, gazing down. "I suppose you wouldn't understand." He looked up at Aurelius, his head tilted. "And still you care. While I do not." He shook his head slowly as if marveling at something. "How peculiar is that?"

"I've been called a monster..." Aurelius put his right hand to his eyes, and it came back covered in blood mixed with black substance. He glanced up at Gadreel. "But you... What are you?"

Gadreel took a step forward. The distance was maybe twenty to thirty steps. "This world is a playground where everything is permitted. I was born as a player into this playground." Another step. "I loved the feeling of acting as a player so much that it seems I went too far." Another. "Now I can't shake the feeling that I've transcended this little place." He looked down at his feet as he stepped over a corpse with a demon mask. "Lately, I've started feeling like something akin to a god." He glanced up at Aurelius. "And that is the last thing I want to be."

"You think this is funny?" Aurelius looked down at the man. The closer he came, the smaller he seemed. "Is all of this a game to you? Is it fulfilling to play around with people's lives?"

"A game?" Gadreel sounded insulted. "How could it be a game? This is my life you're talking about."

"What about their lives?" Aurelius waved a hand at all the corpses that lay in piles with not a shred of individuality left.

"Their lives were their lives. They used them as they saw fit. I am only myself. Restricted to myself. I control no one but myself."

Aurelius shook his head, his face twisting painfully. "What is this? Why?" It was senseless. It wasn't that Aurelius couldn't comprehend Gadreel's motives. There was nothing for him to comprehend. No shred of coherent information. "Why? Why?" he whined, shaking his head. "Why?!" he roared so loud the noise swept the hall.

He put a hand to his jaw as he watched Gadreel keep walking ahead without even seeming to hear anything before stopping under ten strides away.

Aurelius had never felt more despair than at that moment, watching the man who stood at the height of his chest. Gadreel was silent in the face of Aurelius' breakdown. He wasn't even slightly amused. Just ponderous, as if he was still watching a battle from the sidelines.

And while Aurelius used all his strength to remain standing while his blood drained into the ever-expanding pool at their feet, Gadreel remained unstained by it all. He was so detached there was almost something divine about him. He was like a true angel, indifferent to the suffering of humans. For some reason, it was Aurelius with his tired mind and slumped posture who felt like the smaller one.

Aurelius tried to think of Gadreel's words to decipher his meaning, but all that he'd said only tortured Aurelius' strained brain. 'An experience in existence that can't be taken away,' he'd said. Gadreel's ideas were like a plague to the mind.

He scrutinized Gadreel. The whole time Aurelius had thought that if he just disposed of all his men, the rest would be easy. Now, something told him that that wouldn't happen. He couldn't just kill Gadreel. Gadreel wasn't a man who just died. Aurelius knew that Gadreel knew that as well just by looking at his absolute confidence.

Gauging the strength of an enemy had become second nature to Aurelius, but Gadreel's strength was unreadable.

Aurelius slumped his shoulders and looked down. Without the slightest sign, he burst into motion. When he looked up, he saw Gadreel's still face. Aurelius was in killing range, and the man hadn't even reacted. He aimed a blade at his chest but stopped.

He lifted the man into the air by the throat. Even after Gadreel had clearly processed the situation, his body stayed limp. It didn't seem like he had any hope of escaping Aurelius.

"Tell me why?" Aurelius snarled and brought the man lower only to put his forehead up against the helpless man's. "TELL ME!"

Gadreel didn't meet his eyes. Looking down at his left hand, the glove of which had been shredded. Gadreel then brought up his hand and grabbed Aurelius' hand softly. Aurelius seethed and was about to put an end to him from impulse when Gadreel opened his mouth.

He tilted his chin up, looking down at Aurelius with apathetic eyes as he whispered, "Because..." At that moment, Aurelius somehow knew what would come out of his mouth, and his heart dropped. "I want to be just like you."

Aurelius' eyes grew unfocused. He felt like his body would melt. At first, he considered that Gadreel was messing with his mind. Somehow he'd read Aurelius' mind and was using anything he could. But it quickly became obvious that Gadreel was honest.

It was the only reasonable explanation there was.

Right as that was clear to Aurelius, he heard Gadreel inhale deeply. He screamed at himself to focus, but when his sight came back to him, it was already too late. Gadreel had opened his eyes, and Aurelius' strength had vanished.

How could he have forgotten the first time he met Gadreel? How the man had disturbed his essence somehow. How?!

It was too late. As soon as Aurelius lost the strength to hold Gadreel up, he got his feet back on the ground and twisted violently. Aurelius tried to snap on reinforcement, but something was blocking him off. Gadreel still had a grasp on his bare left hand.

Then came the impact. Gadreel's left fist on his side felt harder and faster than anything Aurelius had ever experienced. It was the enhanced against the unenhanced, and the reality of it was brutal.

Aurelius wasn't sure if he felt it or heard it first, but before he knew it, half his ribs were broken.

His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he was sent hurtling onto the side and fell on his face into the puddle of blood. The blood entered his mouth. He propped himself up with the arm on his unbroken side and spat. But with the spit came phlegm, and after it came blood. Finally, he threw up.

He may not have thrown up his guts, but it sure felt like it. There was a pressure in his stomach that pushed up and kept pushing until the hot bile streamed through his throat and poured out beneath him.

Once again, he was reminded that no matter how bad it was, it could always get worse. And in all likelihood, it would.

Aurelius expected to be stabbed in the back as he was on his knees but didn't panic. For some reason, the death that had loomed over his head didn't seem that bad at that moment. It was almost desirable.

"You know, our origins aren't that different," Gadreel said, his tone ponderous. Maybe even a little tired. Aurelius could tell he hadn't moved from his spot. "If I'm being honest, I don't think I've ever been as close with anyone as I am with you."

"Shut up," Aurelius said, his voice gurgling.

"I wonder how I ended up like this. How does a human being become what I am?"

"You're not a human." Aurelius gnashed his teeth and made an effort to get back on his feet. "You look like one. But you're not." Aurelius enhanced his body and managed to stand back up despite his crushed ribs. "You lack a single human trait." Aurelius turned to face Gadreel, leaning onto his left leg to alleviate the pressure on his right side. As he looked at the man, he felt something new. He didn't just want to kill him. He wanted to break him down, to hurt him to his very soul. "Your mother should have drowned you as a child."

Gadreel seemed taken aback. Aurelius could feel a modicum of pleasure at that. "I suppose so." Gadreel looked down before meeting Aurelius' eyes gravely. "But I don't have a mother."

"No father either." Aurelius coughed and flexed his joints at the following agony. Then he growled, "If you were my child, I'd kill myself in shame for bringing you into this world."

Gadreel chuckled a little, but his expression didn't change. He put his hands in his pockets and smiled hollowly at the ground. "I wasn't always like this... At least, I think so."

Aurelius narrowed his eyes in confusion. It seemed like Gadreel was enjoying their exchange like it was some kind of friendly talk.

Aurelius limped forward. When it rang, he spat blood and phlegm on Gadreel's face. He reacted by closing his eyes and facing away slightly.

When he opened his eyes again, he chuckled. The chuckle turned into laughter. He wiped the spit off his face. But even after it was gone, he kept wiping. Aurelius looked puzzled. After Gadreel was done wiping his face, he began ruffling his slicked-back hair that had started to unravel long ago so that it fell on his face, almost covering his eyes.

When he was done, it was like a new man was standing before Aurelius. Gadreel's locks of auburn hair were swept in front of his forehead, and his face was lined by a single diagonal scar.

"Truth be told, it would've been best for this world if I was never born."

"Then why won't you die?"

"Because I don't care. I chose myself over the world long ago." Gadreel widened his wicked eyes. "It's safe to say my earliest developmental stages were quite different from yours. But I had an ideal quite like you. And over the years, a description of me arose. The Purest Expression of Human Nature." Gadreel cracked a smile as Aurelius' frown got deeper. "Your father—"

Aurelius had heard enough. Reinforcement snapped on, and he launched at Gadreel. With two enhancers still coursing through his veins, he was, according to his earlier estimations, much more capable than Gadreel. What happened before, Aurelius wouldn't let happen again.

However, Gadreel disappeared from sight, and something hit Aurelius' shin. Aurelius fell forward, and pain shot through him from his ribs as well as his previously accumulated injuries. Only later did he realize Gadreel had predicted his movements and used Aurelius' blind spot caused by his injured right eye.

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As Aurelius struggled to get up, Gadreel was already speaking again. "—who you saw as a hero made your ideal one of pure goodness. I, however, got rid of such inconsequential concepts right from the start. Good and evil are interpretations of reality. There is no objectivity in reality, so I turned to the mind for answers."

"Why do you care?" Aurelius said under his breath. Gadreel stopped to tilt his head and gestured for him to raise his voice. "Why do you care about this?!" Aurelius cried out in his ragged voice. "You could care about others... so why?"

Gadreel took on a serious look, but right as Aurelius expected something to change, he responded, "Don't blame me. I couldn't care about people even if I wanted to."

Aurelius' sliced face twisted, and his red eyes turned wet. He went at Gadreel again, with something resembling a battle cry escaping his lips.

Gadreel moved before him, predicting his moves and somehow baiting him into more predictable moves. Aurelius's movements were sharp when it was no use and sluggish when he needed speed. Gadreel knew exactly how to use his weaknesses.

But even when he had an opportunity, Gadreel didn't counter. When Aurelius managed to break the pattern and almost hit him, Gadreel maneuvered himself to a safe reset or threw Aurelius to the ground.

Every time he fell, Aurelius seethed more and struck out with whatever energy he managed to conjure, and the last bout continued.

All the way through, Gadreel kept talking, his tone fluctuating with the movements.

"The only truth we have is the truth of our minds." He dodged a strike and maneuvered around Aurelius, eluding his sight. "What defines us is not our actions—" Suddenly he was right in front of Aurelius. He grabbed Aurelius and pulled him down with unprecedented strength. "—but our intentions!" he shouted as he headbutted Aurelius.

The impact wasn't the hardest, but it sent a wave of horrid electric pain into Aurelius' brain through his already injured nose.

Aurelius stumbled back but kept himself from falling. Gadreel seemed surprised at his ability. Aurelius made sure to take advantage of the opportunity and lunged at the man. He materialized a blade as an extension of his arm at the last second as he struck out with his left hand.

As expected, Gadreel was going to the right. He was trying to take advantage of Aurelius' blind spot again. However, when Aurelius was about to prepare his reset and follow-up strike, Gadreel was gone from sight.

Then an uppercut caught him. It came from the left. Aurelius tried to grasp Gadreel and wrestle him to the ground in his dazed state. An elbow hit the side of his head right after.

He spun and collapsed again, his brain going numb from the impact. When the blood from the ground splashed up on his face, he came back to his senses and rose again, seething more than ever.

"My intention admittedly is to destroy. It is simply in my nature. But you... even as you slaughter with unseen barbarism, you do it to recreate."

"No, I don't," Aurelius spat before straightening himself.

"Oh, but of course, you've morphed into something much more destructive as of late, so you must be feeling that it's all wrong. But your essence has stayed the same. While I interact with what is, you still express what ought to be." Gadreel took a proper stance for the first time, his gaze growing more intense. "That's one of the reasons why you're the Idea of a Human."

Aurelius huffed before engaging Gadreel once more. No longer any intention to back down. He wouldn't listen to one more word of Gadreel's delusions. The next opportunity he got, he would kill the man without hesitation.

When he made up his mind, his chest filled with rage that looked for an outlet in Gadreel. His body was a broken, plagued thing, but it still moved according to his will. That was all he needed.

For the first time, Gadreel met him in real combat. Neither used blades. Aurelius imagined if he touched something inside Gadreel, he'd contract whatever sickness his mind held.

Aurelius and Gadreel blocked each other's sharp strikes at a standstill for a few exchanges. That was until Gadreel fired a quick three-strike combo. With it, he landed a blow on Aurelius' broken right side. Aurelius' eye flinched at the impact, but nothing more. He absorbed the pain, turned it into energy, and countered.

With a sickening twist, Aurelius sunk his fist into Gadreel's cheek. Gadreel's seemed to almost spin out of control but was in time to defend Aurelius' lethal follow-up.

He spun and kicked. Aurelius ducked and tried to sweep his feet before spinning back up into an acrobatic maneuver. He aimed his heel at Gadreel, who avoided the blow only barely. Gadreel countered, and Aurelius turned the counter into an exchange of blows that made both of them stumble back.

Then they came at each other again. Gadreel spat blood before letting out a sound Aurelius joined him in. Deep, gurgled roars against helplessness and pain resounded as the two pummeled each other. After every grazing blow, they aimed for each other's necks to kill.

They spun in a complex movement before catching each other in the chin with hard and bloodied fists. Both almost lost the strength to stand, dropping to almost a squat before getting back into it.

"Do you feel it?!" Gadreel shouted out in their exchange with his chin covered in blood from his nose and his cheek discolored.

Aurelius did feel it. The second enhancer may have been all that kept him from collapsing and dying on the spot, but he still had an insatiable hunger.

He ignored the pain and went on like it was his last day alive, enjoying the joy of violence to the fullest with no more shame, the purest and deepest feelings spurring from his soul of souls.

He burned with rage, which made every hit of pain he caused Gadreel euphoric. It jolted him. His desire to kill Gadreel was the most visceral thing he'd ever felt, and he jumped at every opportunity.

He abused his own body with sharp movements that ripped at his profusely bleeding wounds. All in an effort to batter Gadreel's nose flat.

Aurelius managed to grab Gadreel's wrist and drew him into an elbow to the face. As the man was rocked and protected his neck, Aurelius hit him in the eyes and ribs before kicking him in the chest. The man went down for the first time in eternity and was stained in the pool of blood.

Aurelius roared, materializing a spear above his head and striking down. It was only for an instant, but he could see Gadreel's eyes widen like an animal's before slaughter.

However, Gadreel struck the spear and moved to the side. The spear dug into the ground, and Gadreel kicked up. His feet pushed into Aurelius' chest with sudden force and launched him back.

Aurelius managed to skid to a stop at a distance and watched as Gadreel jumped up to his feet. It was a stark reminder of how fresh his body still was compared to Aurelius'.

"Hmm... I believe that's the first time I've almost died," Gadreel said, stretching his neck.

Aurelius looked down at him wordlessly.

"Death is such a peculiar thing." Gadreel gave Aurelius a wry smile. "What is beauty to you, Son of Ares? The word is thrown around a lot. It has power to it when it provokes an image that is deep in the brain. However, it loses its meaning when the word is used so much it starts to provoke only the boring image of itself in written form."

Cade's face was the first thing that came to mind. The way she smiled at him. Aurelius shook his head. "You would never understand..."

Gadreel began walking towards Aurelius. "Don't tell me that you're like all the rest of them. You must know."

Aurelius frowned and looked for a way to put it into words. He had done it once in his notebook. It was something he had once known so closely. "It is..." It came back to him as he stared past Gadreel into a forgotten time. "Beauty is something that is significant by nature, existing in a moment that seems to last forever."

Gadreel smiled. "Good. I'm of roughly the same opinion. And as beauty is akin to the provoking of significance in an infinite moment, death is its pinnacle." Gadreel stopped five steps away and stared at Aurelius through his eyelids. "Death is the most significant event in life. It happens so fast, yet it defines your entire being."

"You're wrong. You're a monster, but you'll die just like a man."

"Oh, no. Death rewrites one's past to fit a mold in which a narrative is manufactured. That is all history is, though as we live now, there is no narrative. It is all chaos, but in the end, I was always a man like everybody else. Just like your father."

Aurelius let out a growl as he closed the distance and struck. Gadreel moved differently once more. Aurelius spun, hit, and kicked, but Gadreel was like a tide. Elusive but omnipresent and inexhaustible.

Aurelius felt his borrowed energy fade. As he was assailed by Gadreel, he prepared for a final strike. Even as Gadreel struck his wounds, he didn't counter. He defended and tried to get a hold of Gadreel's movements. But he didn't even fight like a normal human being. Aurelius had killed stronger men in seconds, but Gadreel was shapeless. And while his frame wasn't large, his movements had a certain kind of torque to them. It was as if his every movement was calculated for maximum momentum when he finally struck in Aurelius' most acute areas.

But when Aurelius had established a solid pattern for himself, he struck out. Gadreel was caught off-guard as Aurelius grabbed him by his neck. Gadreel hurried to grip his forearms as he lifted him into the air quickly before going to smash him into the ground. It was a battle of whether Aurelius would finish him faster than Gadreel could mess with his essence.

But Gadreel didn't do it. He didn't even seem to try. Instead, he shifted his gravity somehow in Aurelius' grip. Then he threw his legs over Aurelius' arm and tried to break it. Aurelius screamed at the twist on his elbow and hurried to smash the man on the ground.

But as Gadreel was about to hit the ground, he maneuvered and kicked Aurelius off balance somehow before twisting harder, forcing him to roll. Aurelius lost his sense of direction for just a moment as he rolled, but when he stopped, he found himself on his knees with Gadreel holding him in some kind of elaborate lock position.

Aurelius tried to rip himself free but felt only a pang of pain from his left arm. It was loose, broken. Then his ankle was stepped on and his right arm squeezed somehow from behind. He wagered he would've been able to get it free if his right side hadn't been broken.

Suddenly his head was jerked back. He glared up and found Gadreel's gleaming gaze underscored by a bloody grin. Gadreel pressed a hand against his forehead. Aurelius' control over his essence wavered. He pushed against the interference but was rendered powerless in his complete exhaustion. In the end, he felt that despite all his efforts, it was all exactly as Gadreel had wanted it. All he could do was watch as Gadreel brought a hand over his eyes and an impossibly sharp blade shimmered into existence.

It was then that Aurelius realized what was going to happen and that he'd never known fear before. True fear. Skin tingling, bones trembling, the brain screaming at itself. The body did everything it could all at once but was helpless. Aurelius' breath rattled in his broken ribcage, and above, he noticed Gadreel's do the same. Their breaths went into a terrifying synchrony as the blade lowered towards Aurelius' eyeball.

Aurelius shut his eyes tight and found himself praying. His mouth moved in whispers despite his jaw injury. "Cade, Cade, please, Cade, please... Save me..."

The cold blade dug in, driving its way straight to Aurelius' skull. Aurelius' eyes and mouth snapped wide. He gasped at the pain, thinking for a moment that the blade would go all the way through into his brain. He was almost relieved when it began making its way down.

It sounded like someone on the other side of the castle hall was screaming. A horrible, gurgled sound as the man choked on his own blood in the process.

Aurelius fought for control of his essence all the way. The blade went diagonally down. Over his already sliced nose and to his cheek. When his essence wouldn't obey, he tried to wrangle his way out. He tried to move his limp left arm, but all of it was hopeless.

Aurelius coughed up, and for a moment the scream in the distance stopped. Tears welled up in his red eyes. They felt like acid and blurred his vision.

When the blade finally lifted, Aurelius made his final push. As if Gadreel was mocking him, he broke the interference on his essence and broke the lock. He twisted and elbowed Gadreel before launching himself forward to flee.

Only a few steps in, his strength faded, and he collapsed onto his knees and slumped his posture, staring at the ground as tainted blood poured down from his face.

"Aurelius," Gadreel called out. Aurelius shook at his voice and turned to look at the man, standing above him. "I thought you should know, Kendrick of Lundkirk has nullified the treaty. The Zalfarian War has begun once more."

Aurelius' jaw fell loose. He went completely and absolutely numb. Then he looked up above, a single thought mellowing on his broken mind, 'Why am I here?'

He put his hands over his face before slowly sliding them down. A weak wail escaped his lips, metamorphosing into a primal scream. He dug his hands into the bloody ground. The stone was crushed in his grasp as he raged. He turned to look at Gadreel, who had taken a few steps back.

Aurelius swallowed the blood swirling in his throat and stood up with an inhuman effort.

"I will say, Aurelius, I have never been more correct about a human being as I have about you," Gadreel said, taking his hands from behind his back. "But I wonder, do you, yourself, know why you fight?"

Aurelius glared at the man and then down at his feet before a single, seething whisper. "You killed Balgair."

He raised his gaze to gauge Gadreel's reaction. Aurelius froze at the sight of Gadreel's furrowed brows. "Who?"

Every bit of Aurelius trembled with rage. The joints in his right hand tightened. Streaks and materialized essence spurred into existence without intention, and for a moment he felt the essence around him vibrate.

Gadreel guffawed, leaning forward with unseen intensity. "Can you grasp it?!"

Aurelius' face twitched with concentration, but he couldn't feel it. That world rejected him, and the air around him settled. He gritted his teeth and reached behind him with his right hand.

Gadreel seemed almost puzzled. Soon his face dropped, as in Aurelius' hand was a vial. Aurelius uncapped it and glanced at Gadreel but saw something else. All around there were those he loved looking at him with disapproving eyes. Aurelius almost froze but swept them away and drank.

This time, he felt nothing. What was left in the vial, he tucked back. Suddenly his core tightened with pressure that seemed almost to make him implode. The world became soft under his feet and trembled at his existence.

Gadreel looked on with his mouth open. When he blinked, Aurelius moved. When he opened his eyes, which were still fixed on where Aurelius used to be, Aurelius was already in front of him.

Gadreel's eyes jumped to Aurelius, seeming to take in every detail, from his freezing blue eyes to his regal golden matted in blood. With a twist too instantaneous to be brutal, Aurelius put a hand into Gadreel's chest.

Gadreel shook once but seemed almost like he hadn't noticed that he had died. He just looked at Aurelius with some unreadable emotion.

Finally, he looked down, and blood dribbled from between his thin lips. He blinked. Aurelius searched with his numb hands before grasping something that seemed to pulse and ripped it out.

Aurelius turned at the neck to look at his right hand ambiguously as the odd organ kept pumping blood with no body. Gadreel looked at it as well, tilting his head. Right after, his legs held him up no more, and he crashed down like the small giant he was.

Aurelius looked down at the man with gleaming eyes as he grew numb evermore. All his sensations seemed to flee his body one by one until they were all gone.

Suddenly something zapped in him, and his spine seemed to disappear. He went limp and slammed onto the ground. He couldn't feel anything but only saw as his body convulsed. It was a foreign feeling. Like an ending to a nightmare in another's body.

His mouth began to foam, and he kept convulsing, the heart in his heart still pumping, thinking there was still a chance. Only then did it dawn on him that he would never be anything more than he was. His last wish would have been for Cade to be there at that moment. He would have liked to see her one last time.

In that cold place, Aurelius' eyes grew terrified like a little child's. Deep inside, he found that he was willing to do anything to feel warm again. It was almost tearfully funny for him, at that moment, to realize he was much like that heart right in front of his eyes.