Slash!

Sqlch—

Slash!

Sounds of torn flesh and metal against bone echoed in the quiet room as Hope's shield hammered into the hound's flank.

A thick bloody aroma spread in the air as Hope started to rummage his hand through the hound's warm innards. Silk blood slicked over his sleeves as he worked his way through the flesh before pulling out three orbs of dim light one by one.

"Urk!"

Hope hunched over.

"Huff…huff…huff." He panted, grimacing as his movements blossomed pain in his joints and muscles.

'Come on dammit...' Hope thought as he squeezed each orb.

The soul shards shattered between his fingers, each cracking like glass as its fragments then faded from existence. Their essence vaporized into the air, lingering for a moment before being sucked into his chest.

"Sigh...."

But before the coolness settled into his core, Hope stood up.

He had to get moving.

Step. Step. Step.

Hope walked towards the gaped ceiling in the corner of the room where the hole's black mouth waited above to swallow him whole. The place where the hound had emerged.

However, he paused and looked back at the Awakened who laid in the same place. He was like a broken doll on the floor, the mask and hood still covering his features like a forbidden secret.

'Hmm...'

Hope was slightly tempted to take the mask off and see what face hid underneath but…

"Prince?! Hey- Where are you?!"

The other damn Awakened was close by.

'And finally able to find his way in the right place. Tsk.'

Hope shook his head and took a deep breath before climbing on a metal cart, the ceramic fragments and dirt shifting under his feet as he gripped onto the ceiling's edge just as the rush of steps rushed into the first floor. Jolts of pain sent through his arm as he reached and grabbed, forcing him to grit his teeth and fight back a groan. His muscles spasmed, but he forced his body to pull himself through in time before the steps raced into the room.

"Prince!?"

Hope squeezed his eyes shut.

Rolling onto his back letting out a long quiet sigh.

'Is his name really fucking Prince…?' Hope thought as he swallowed back another groan.

That's...strange. Something told him he would've been more surprised if he saw the Awakened's face. But Hope dismissed that thought.

The voice continued beneath him, rising in an expected panic volume as he checked on the Awakened's condition. What happened? What is this beast? Why did you go out alone? Why did you jump out of the glass dome? And he continued that for some time, at least to the point where Hope could feel his left sleeve harden with blood before hearing the companion pick up the slumbering Awakened and making his way down the stairs and out the building.

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At least that went smoothly. 'Out of sight, out of mind' as they would say.

'Let's hope we don't see them again.' Hope nonchalantly thought as his eyes remained closed.

Any energy he lastly pretended to armor himself with was all waned, the aches and pangs fully returning with a vengeance that he had disregarded for too long. His left arm was swollen from where the hound bit and his shoulder felt twisted and torn and soaked with blood. Even the muscles strained down his back from when he was constantly flown around like a ragged sack.

'Dammit…' Hope thought as he curled himself on the floor, cradling his shoulder as the heat from his wounds battled against the cold. The space around almost feeling more like the outside than inside.

'Didn't think I'd experience this soon…'

It took a while for him to recover back in the wasteland. Would he have to spend another long night just the same?

Hope grunted as he shifted to a more comfortable position on his other side, the darkness fading slightly behind his eyelids.

Hope paused as he sensed an unexpected light.

Then slowly opened his eyes.

There he found himself in some sort of attic or storage room where remnants of boxes rooted themselves around, scratches scored across the floor, and black lines whipped along the walls. It all somehow looked...familiar? No it couldn't have.

Hope quickly shook his head.

He shouldn't expand on that thought.

But deep in the blackness of the corner of the room was where Hope laid, the low roof shielding him from the night. However, there was another broken hole in its middle that led to the outside, traces of the demon's force of entry.

And...the night was shining even brighter than before. A silvery light filtered through the roof and bathed down one spot in its stark pool. Hope recalled how back in the street, the clouds had parted enough for the Awakened's blade to gleam like silver.

If so, had the sky really torn its veil to shed more of its hidden moonlight? Huh. Was it even strange to think this sort of question?

In a way, it was not. Knowing that there have been wars across the earth, an event known as nuclear winter came to pass because of it. The sky shed its ashes for years without end. A coldness that trapped itself under the firmament. And even as the air started to clear some of it the past several years, clouds stretched endlessly across the horizon with few stabs in its layers for people to glimpse at the long-hidden bright blue sky or the speckled stars.

But the moon was barely spoken of nowadays. Always masking itself, forced behind fogged curtains. The sun a more conversive topic of its dawn rays and desired warmth, whereas the moon was not wanted as much.

Of course, it was rumored that some other regions did not suffer from this problem. But, if the sky continued to show itself like tonight, then maybe it hinted that the weather would return to normal soon one day. Whatever 'normal' was.

!!!

"Erk!"

Pain shot through Hope again like a bullet.

The silence was broken by his short of breath and grunts, but of course, the accompanied constant whisperings of medley voices in his mind.

Right. Last time he was in this sort of predicament he tapped into his memories.

"..."

Should he try—

'No.' Hope thought.

No he didn't want to go back. Not again.

The past was the past.

There was no need to relive old memories. He did not have a desire to see his family again only to be reminded that they'd all but forgotten him. Well, he supposed the situation wouldn't be too different anyways with their relationship in the past years.

'The only memory I'm keen on looking into is the damn Memory I got.'

Hope thought as he summoned the runes. The familiar ethereal lines weaved across his eyes filling line after line after line as he forcefully pulled himself up into a sitting position.

Memory: [Pearls of the Moon]

Memory Rank: Awakened

Memory Tier: III

Memory Type: Charm

Hope blinked at the list.

'Charm?' Hope thought.

Huh. Just how many other types were there?

Hope frowned as he looked forward absentmindedly around the room from the thought, the space strangely looming distant like an echo but he ignored it.

Armored and Weapon he knew, and were obvious to list. But did he know the rest?

!!!

Suddenly, streams of memories flooded his mind with that thought. Waves of voices crashed around like a turbulent storm drowning out any possible sound. He thought he could hear one memory related to his primary thought. But immediately it was swallowed. The voices...started to compete with each other. Again. They snarled and barked, attacking his ears with layers from time throughout his early years—

"Urgh! Wait-"

Hope clutched his head.

Why–

Why were they acting more wild?

As if to answer that thought vaguely, the voices started to bleed images across his eyes. His own home, gray and old as it was, flipped through the years he dwelt there. The attic he was in now…did resemble a bit like it. However, it was abandoned, ruined, destroyed, marked with claws of a beast, and broken above that led to a freedom away from this den. At least at his home, it was properly furnished with intact walls and ceilings, and a window fettered with a screen and curtains.

So why-

"Enough…"

Layered. Restless.

They continued to pile, rising with each second like a cluttered heap they made on their own accord–

"I said enough."