Crusader King-Chapter 149: Two-faced lie(13)

His knee which he had used to bash the head of the female opponent in was quaking, the shin damaged and having been cut by the bone, however it might have happened, that was beyond Cades knowledge of bones and anatomy, but it had happened, be it that he still didn't truly realize what had happened as he was full of adrenaline and more than just ready to continue fighting should the need arise, should another pair of monsters come out from the hole leading into the abyss that he had opened, the hole that he hadn't even really been able to look at up until now.

His hand that he had used to grab the hand of the already half-dead male opponent, the man that had persisted until the end and tried to kill him in despair, throwing everything he had at the Cades that had appeared within the endless darkness, within the trash of the mind, but failed, having to die knowing that his partner, perhaps even a being he loved, was killed in front of him and he was not even able to kill them, the killer, the being that had taken everything.

Nevertheless, in a way they were together again, within each other and closer than ever before, they were mixed after all, nothing but the blood covering his clothes, the blood that now seemed to be quickly fading, his gaze not even paying any attention as it rolled off of his own skin, not caring as it hit the wooden ground and was seemingly absorbed into the nothingness beneath.

Cades, the one who had just fought, picked up the corpse of the man, his wings spread far apart as he had been laying on his back, pushing his hand into the gash he had made within the flesh of the body and lifting it by the bone, feeling as if it was about to break without the help of the muscles to support the bone, but simply threw it away, not caring about the corpse and simply not wishing to see it any more now that he was done, perhaps a tiny resemblance of the Cades that was standing a bit further away, his face still scarred in terror as he watched the lifeless body fall onto the one of the woman with a slight, deep thud, and the other him, his right arm now covered in red goo and small chunks of flesh that had stuck to him and already been loosened by the gash, and began walking towards him.

As the bloodied Cades was walking towards him, rags that had not been there, rags that had begun hanging down despite his clothes being completely fine, remnants of something that Cades could not yet understood, dragging behind him and suddenly vanishing as Cades blinked, both of them, his other self, the one that had just battled, the killer, the being emanating bloodlust even now, a pillar of fear spreading ut from the beacon in the middle, was smiling, widely, his smile filled with excitement, adrenaline, and amusement, something that the real Cades now began to realize had also been atop his own face oh so many times, had been on his face when he had killed all those harpies in the frozen cave, had probably been on his face while fighting Manug, had probably been on his face in the wooden world when he ascended to his current rank.

It terrified him, it was indeed simply horrifying to see how he had looked to the people who had then begun to call him as the demon of the unknown, a name he had always despised, and a name that he had never thought to fit but now began to realize was indeed, at least slightly, fitting in comparison to most other titles that the older demons had wielded when applied to him, apart from perhaps the demon of the skies seeing as the Cades from back then still had his wings, which he still, dearly missed and felt on his back in a searing, clamping pain just as when they had vanished and they had tensed up, resulting in the feeling of always pressuring them, resulting in him still feeling them but never being able to reach them.

Nevertheless his other self, the one covered in blood, the one he simply didn't want to see, to hear, to understand anymore, was walking towards him, not catering to the fear within Cades heart, not caring despite understanding, simply ignoring, simply walking forward, covering the surprisingly far distance between the two that had been widened by what Cades now realized was his other self's intent to keep the weaker Cades, himself, out of the fray, out of the danger, so that he, the one he had claimed to be the better one at reading intent and understanding stuff, would be able to take a glimpse at that horrendous hole that was also causing Cades great anxiety for some reason but didn't really seem to affect the bloodied one at all.

As his mouth opened no sound came out, but Cades noticed something else, he noticed, just for a few seconds, and barely visible as the mouth of his other self opened and closed repeatedly, saying something inaudible with silence covering this place as it was back on that island where he had spent the last few days before this, where he had built his arm.

For a singular moment he noticed to fangs within the mouth, small and thick, strong but not exactly sharp, more so symbolic, as if it was trying to tell him something, screaming something at Cades, screaming at him to do something about the demon in front of him, but vanishing as soon as the mouth closed, and reappearing as soon as it opened, until, finally, he blinked once more, and the teeth, the fangs which might've just been an illusion vanished as if they had never truly been there, and instead he heard something that made his blood freeze over and his hair stand up, his stomach feel scared, and his mind, for some reason, calm and serene.

He heard a sound, he heard a creak as he took a singular step back, he heard how the planks under him moved, and for some reason, he, and most likely his other self as well, knew what was going to happen now, or at least he thought so.