“IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?” Gylos shouted hoarsely, “You sanctimonious cur. You spit on my offer in my face, and steal that sword which is rightfully mine!”

“When someone takes your world away it’s seldom ever seen again. This sword is not your world, not now, not ever. I want nothing more than to savor the few moments where family actually existed.” Shionus grinded out the last word like an insult.

Gylos snorted, and dismounted ten meters away from his brother. His riders dismounted as well, and formed a semi-circle around the two lightly armored warriors, their own weapons glinting menacingly in the slowly receding light.

“And you, Refinna! I could once say I loved you as a sister, but now all that I wish for is your desecrated form to be fed to the vultures that so remind me of you.” Gylos spat out the words, and drew his own falchion, all the while slowly advancing with his men. “This is where you cease to exist, heretics of the new kin.”

This is the apocalypse of our lives, where our honor is all we need at the end. Shionus relaxed, breathing in the sweet scents of the dusty plains, recognizing the nostalgia for what once was reaching for the tendrils of sentiment that seemed to fray at the slightest touch. Death does not want me to come unwillingly. I have an obligation.

A group of the soldiers closed in on the lone two, and in the resulting melee, Shionus and Refinna seemed to be lost, only to break through, swords cleaving limbs from their owners. The duo emerged covered in blood, but only some of it was theirs. Gylos’ warriors stepped back warily, expecting less resistance to such odds. Refinna grinned, a calm fire burning inside her eyes. She swung her sword in a blurring circle, and with the speed of a bird of prey, cut down two enemies before they had a chance to parry.

“What are you waiting for? There’s two of them and so many of us! Kill them!” Gylos, furious at his men for a failed first attempt, flew at Shionus, and attempted to hit him, to no avail. Shionus smashed down on his sword, numbing all feeling and jarring the falchion from his hand, but not before he was sliced from the side from yet another soldier. Shionus retaliated swiftly, sweeping the man’s legs from under him, and cut his throat wide open, and it emptied him of his inner turbulence.

The two once again met back to back, but this time, they were completely surrounded. Time after time, they gave a blow for every nick, a silencing for every wound. Seconds felt like eternities in such conditions, and immortality was so close, yet so far in this battle. Worlds could fall in ennui and it would be nothing. Life had finally released them. Shionus and Refinna threw their swords into the now jet black sky and embraced, their personal sacrament of purification brought in an absolute sacrifice of final surrender.