#demoby

“Not for a moment,” Swartz replied bluntly. Ryo found the cold look in his eyes unsettling after how warm they had been to him before. He stepped even closer to the maddened Ryo, his arms crossing in defiance.

Ryo's glare intensified the closer he came. However, this did not stop Swartz, as he came face to face with him, Swartz looking down on him as if he was a disobedient child.

"Ryo, can you tell how weak we are? You can sense it, right? There's a missing piece to the puzzle that is Wisdom."

Ryo's brow furrowed but he looked around at the frightened faces surrounding him. They all quivered like threatened dogs, their tail between their legs and beady eyes wide as they did all they could to avoid his gaze.

“But -”

“Do you think it matters to us whether he sins or not? Do you think we care if he a fouled a woman or a drank too much wine when our lives are at stake? Look at us child.. we are weak. Sinner or not, he can still fight..” Swartz was filled with indescribable passion, a burning fire filling his eyes though salted tears lined them. His hands balled into fists and his jaw clenched in a fierce anger.

With that, Ryo’s grip lessened and the man that was held captive feel to his knees, grasping at his throat, his face purple; fell over himself gasping in the dusty air.

Ryo turned slowly, taking in the trembling bodies of the people that were Wisdom. Their eyes were nothing but strong and shrunk at his gaze. Women were on their knees holding their quivering children close to their own shaking selves. Eyes were wide and mouths gaping at Ryo’s small but forbearing form. Was he really this terrifying? Or were they really this weak?

“Do you see now?” Swartz voice whispered, though Ryo heard it easily. “We need every woman, every child, every spirit here to fight for what is left of us.”

Ryo turned to face Swartz, nodding solemnly, “I understand.” He took a couple of steps towards him, looking up at the taller man, “What do I need to do?

Swarts smiled, leaning down and resting a hand on the boy’s head. “First we need to see who is attacking,” With that he turned around and started walking briskly down the dusty road towards the tower.

Ryo turned to follow the well-built man, his short legs easily matching his stride. The heavy, musky heart of fear filled the air with a dark presence. He didn’t know whether to look at the ground or at the road in front of him, and just continued to shrink inside of his cloak. He never liked being feared - even when people didn’t know his name. However, there was some kind of mystery in this musky air that gave him the feeling that these people knew more about him than he did. Almost like his name was something etched forever in their memories while his own name felt like a solemn thing clouded in a mist of thoughts.

“Don’t let it get to you, kid,” an almost fatherly voice came out of Swartz’ mouth. There was no expression on his face at this point, his eyes just were directed before him as he moved along on the dusty path, “You might not understand it yet - but these people appreciate you, very, very much.”

Ryo glanced up at him, his strangely dark eyes filled with a bit of curiosity.. a feeling absent from the boy's eyes for vastly long time. His gaze quickly returned to the road in front of him, though the stares did not bug him quite as much.

The faraway tower quickly came quicker due to their fast paced stride. Swartz opened the door without half a moment of hesitation, leading to a tall pillar of stairs. Ryo followed, a step behind, but not faltering. They wound up higher and higher in what seemed like countless stairs, higher and higher as if the clouds were at their feet.

Eventually they came to a low arching doorway, made of a white stone pearlier than than a clam’s finest work. It was strange for tower’s highest door, but the elegant golden rim made it all fit together. Swartz opened it without hesitation, blasting out commands and questions almost faster than Ryo could keep up with. The lack of answers Swartz  was receiving was awfully unsettling and eventually he gave up. He walked straight to the edge of the glass surrounded building and immediately froze in his tracks. A small curse passed his lips before Ryo walked up behind him.

The horror.. he saw.. was one that his memories had never captured before.

There  was this thick, crimson color tainting blackened earth outside the looming walls that kept Wisdom safe. Corpses, more than Ryo had ever killed in his present lifetime, laid out on rocks scattered below him. Though he was hundreds of feet from the scene in a secluded room, he could sense the sharp smell of copper than undeniably hung in that air. Though it should have been impossible from his height, he could feel black gazes watching him - studying him as the tore Wisdom’s pure bodies limb from limb right before his eyes. A chaos he had never experienced in his lifetime - full of a unquenchable lust of death for something so weak.

“Why..” was the only word that fell off of Ryo’s lips in that fixated moment.

“Ryo..” Swartz voice was a mix of emotions unextinguishable from each other, “are you ready to do this?”

Ryo looked at Swartz. His jaw was clenched shut and his eyes closed so tightly they could have been sewn together.

Ryo looked back out the glass window at the absolute terror that laid out before his eyes, and without a moment’s hesitation, the words fell off his lips.

“Never have I felt so assured to kill someone.”

Swartz eyes opened, looking out in anguish at what lay before him.