Sylphid's Happiness Revisited

Chapter 15

...

A human with snow-white hair stood in a densely packed forest, a light rain fell from an ever-darkening sky. He held an elf in his arms for what he knew would be the last time. She could hear the sounds of distant trees snapping from the abomination he had to hold off. He had no choice.

He looked down to see the beautiful green eyes of the elf, they would never shed tears in front of him and he knew it. Over the years he had seen many different expressions on their face; joy, laughter, sorrow, grief, and anger, but never such complete despair. They always had a song to play, but not now. They always had been the stronger of them.

He ran his fingers through their green hair, stained with traces of blood from a recent injury. He gave them a warm smile, "Don't worry I'll be with you soon. I'll stop It this time... I have to." He shivered as he spoke. They both knew he was lying.

They backed away, breaking their embrace, staring into each other's eyes for a long second. But he couldn't bear to hold their gaze any longer, knowing what was to come. So instead, he turned to face the young man who stood tall beside them.

The man had flaming red hair, with determined light gray eyes. His spirit bond with Urus always had been stronger than the white-haired human's. His hair was drenched with a mixture of sweat and rain. "Crozzo, promise me to look after the others until I return. It has already claimed so many." The white-haired voice was gravelly from all the shouting in the uncounted battles.

Crozzo sighed, "Argonaut don't speak like that." His voice was heavy with unspoken emotions. Crozzo's legendary blade sat heavily on his shoulder. He turned to the elf, "Let's go Ryulu. We need to cover as much distance as possible."

Ryulu let only a single tear be seen as before they turned away. After a handful of steps, they turned to look back at the lone human, Argonaut gave a gentle, confident smile. "Go... Ryulu. I'll be fine, I promise."

Ryulu gave an obviously false smile. "Argo... I expect you to keep that promise."

.

.

.

Time passed, he only had to wait a dozen minutes. He tapped Jupiter who sat in its sheath. His bonded spirit was angry, which surprised Argonaut a bit. Jupiter had rarely shown any emotions since it became his sword.

Anger-filled lightning seemed to crackle out from the sheath. He placed a hand on its pommel calmly, Argonaut understood why, It was a spirit's natural enemy. It consumed spirits to grow stronger.

It finally arrived, as the wave of an unrecognizable black form shattered the trees in front of him. Argonaut grimaced; It was larger than he remembered. "It must have consumed more of them."

"Be..." a voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere all at once. But it was muffled like it was yelling through water.

Argonaut drew his sword, lightning crackling down the length of its blade. "I... have to hold It back until they can escape. Jupiter... consume as much of my life force as you need. I... don't care how much, so long as they live." He clutched his numb left hand around the hilt, it was abnormally pale as its strength was already damaged from a previous use of the blade.

"Wake... Bell... wake up..." The voice echoed off the landscape.

Argonaut charged as spears of black-scaled tendrils launched toward him. Using the speed he was famous for, he danced around them, swinging Jupiter in a wide arch even as pain lanced through his body.