Where did it all go wrong?
That was all Horrus could think as he swung his blades to defend himself from the onslaught of creatures, if you could call them that, which surrounded him. A stab through the throat here, and beheading there; but despite his efforts the rotting beasts of shadow continued to try their damndest to tear his throat out. Of course, with the eyes of Destruction on his side he would be able to see every decaying hound or carrion bird or whatever else there was that dared erupt from the vortex of shadow he currently found himself surrounded by before they even formed, but he was still only human. Even he had his limits.
I know when you're sleeping...
"Damn you..." He cursed as he kicked up his leg and brought it down with great force upon the head of another beast as it leaped forward with teeth bared.
Where in the world had Dante achieved such a power? This was no seal, it just couldn't be possible. There could be no way that he could have developed a seal all on his own that allowed him to not only create so much without great strain to his body but also have it all remain so stable for so many minutes. And if this was not all being caused by a seal, then just what was it? Perhaps there was some native somewhere close by, aiding him with their “magic?” No, there was no living being nearby. From what he had observed during his relatively short time on this planet, none of the inhabitants were aware of how to conceal the outward pressure of their souls, or even how to sense that pressure to begin with.
I know the things you're dreaming...
What if... no, it couldn't be. It simply couldn’t. There was simply no way that this was the sheer essence of his soul bleeding freely from his body. And yet, what else could it be? Using a seal was like putting a different kind of faucet to a hose; you can change how it sprays but the water is still just being thrown forward. This... was something else entirely.
I love it when you're weeping...
Horrus let out a cry of pain as a hound managed to evade his steel and sunk its teeth into his left arm. He quickly put the tip of his right sword against its forehead and easily slid the blade in through the skull and back out again.
Even Death can't stop this feeling...
He growled at Dante's mocking words and swung at whatever beast was next in line from their endless wave, but instead of a single killing blow the attack missed the head and only swiped across its chest. It then only took the Demon a moment to fully realize just what had happened. These beasts must have injected him with some sort of poison, an anesthetic of some sort.
But even with him losing all feeling in his left arm...
And I wish you would just give up and die...
Even as more sunk their fangs into his limbs, forcing him to drop to his knees just to maintain some sort of balance... Even as the torrent of thick shadow fell away to once again reveal the battlefield and the one who was forcing him to endure through his current situation...
Even as Dante pulled his sword from the ground and held it close to his face with the tip pointed in Horrus's direction, seeming to caress the blade while blue flames sparked to life around the cold steel, Horrus could feel only one thing.
Now Horrus's eyes could see the indefinite future. Whatever was going to happen, he could see it coming, allowing him the opportunity to act and change it. Such an act was often taxing on his body and could even leave him completely out of breath and lightheaded if he tried to look too far. But at that moment all his eyes could see was darkness. Silent, permanent darkness.
And it filled him with fear.
And I know you will just give up and die...
Horrus watched in horror as the flaming blade cut through the air to pierce his chest and was utterly shocked when he felt... absolutely nothing. He had expected dying in combat to hurt and it honestly felt a little... underwhelming. The darkness that he foresaw was there and surrounding him, but it was nothing compared to the infinite void he had anticipated. No, this wasn't death, this was...
Horrus opened his eyes and once again found himself on his knees in the open field. There, just a stone's throw away, was Dante. Once again he pulled his sword from the ground and lit it. Hadn't this already happened? What was going on?
For a second time, Dante rushed forward to plunge his blade through his former comrade, and for a second time Horrus felt... nothing. All he saw was darkness until he opened his eyes again.
"What's going on?" He questioned, not so much to Dante, but to whatever sadistic force there was that thought it amusing to see him face his demise time and time again.
Perhaps this truly was death? Being forced to suffer through the moment you were beaten again and again and again for all eternity. If this was the truth, then he was going to get real tired of that constant numb feeling real fast.
Again the sword slid through his chest, and again he found himself still kneeling before his better. After all, what could he do? Twisted animals had their teeth in his flesh and all he could do was watch as the one who had once called him brother was to be his executioner.
Perhaps...
"Stop!" He shouted, but it was too late. Again the sword found its way through him and again he opened his eyes. Well, it was worth a shot.
How many times had he been killed so far? Ten, twenty, a hundred times? He had given up counting. A blink, a look, a stab, reset. A blink, a look, a stab, reset. A blink, a look, a stab, reset. How long could this go on before he lost his sanity?
He was a man of level mind of course. However, despite the fact that his entire body felt completely numb, whether it was due to the beasts gnawing on his arms and legs or the fact the he truly was dead, it was all beginning to get just a little bit tedious at this point.
Blink, look, stab, reset.
He was beginning to not even bother opening his eyes to see his new demise coming. A small amount of pressure against his chest every twenty or thirty seconds apart was enough to remind him that he was still trapped.
He was actually finding himself sighing between deaths now. After all, what could he do? He was beaten, forced to his knees. If he dared stand, the blade would still find its way to his chest one way or another. That was how he found himself in this situation to begin with; he dared stand against the status quo and look where that got him.
Blink, look, stab, reset.
No.
Blink, look, stab, reset.
"No!"
Blink, look, stab, reset.
"NO!"
Horrus's eyes snapped open and he grit his teeth as he watched the steel burn. If he was to die, then there was no changing it... But he'd be damned if he didn't die on his own terms!
The sword cut through the air once again, but this time Horrus wanted it. He needed it to come forward. This time, things would be different. This time, change would exist not because the world desired it, but because he demanded it.
The sword came closer and closer. Horrus had been cut down enough times to know just where it would pierce and when it would do so.
"I refuse a future of your making!"
Horrus threw himself forward and watched as the blade slid right between his eyes. Once again his eyes fell shut and what he saw shocked him to his very core. Dante stood just as he had a moment ago. The sword was still plunged halfway through Horrus's skull, and for a moment it felt like the entire world just... stopped.
But none of that mattered. He had finally broken the cycle of repetitious death, but even that almost fell unnoticed to the Demon. To him, something far more important had just happened.
Despite the hollow and numb feeling in his limbs, Horrus forced his arm forward. With sheer will keeping his blades in his hand, he used the momentary shock of Dante’s plan failing to pierce one through the Horseman’s stomach.
Dante stumbled back, his grip on his sword failing and leaving it embedded in Horrus’s skull as he reached down to grab the one in his own body. As his concentration was broken, the shadows that made up his wings, the sickening animals, and even seemed to consume the sun all dissipated slowly.
Horrus struggled to get back onto his feet. His limbs felt like they were on fire as feeling made its way back into them little by little, but Horrus ignored it all. His legs visibly shook under his weight, threatening to collapse but he kept them straight. He forced them straight. He reached up and grabbed Dante’s sword by the blade and pulled it out, tossing it to the ground. An icy sensation filled his skull, but still he made his body move forward, step by step to the one who dared think he could put down Death himself.
Horrus smiled and chuckled quietly, “It’s a miracle, ‘brother…’” Gripping the sword tightly, he plunged it further through Dante’s body, forcing a choked gasp from him. “I can see again!”
The rainbow of colors in Horrus’s eyes danced and spun about, never ceasing in their moment for even a moment as the Horseman of Death flexed his vision to its limit and only ceasing to do so when his senses begged him to stop as the strain became too great
Horrus shoved Dante back, letting him fall off of the sword and onto his back. Dante reached to cover his wound but went still when he felt the cold steel of his former brother’s blade just below his chin
Horrus yanked the blade from Dante's body before shoving him onto his back. He swung his sword through the air to throw off any blood. His smile soon faded and his eyes turned back down to Dante.
"I'd tell you to save your breath, but I know you won't listen."
Dante covered his mouth as he began violently coughing. He looked at his hand and scowled at the blood that was now there before letting his head fall back. "Won't even let a dying man have his last words..."
"Like you'd really listen if I told you to shut your mouth." The burning sensation coursing through Horrus's limbs as he regained feeling in them was painful, but he feigned a calm appearance as he stood above the dying man and slid the sword in his left hand back into its sheath. His eyes fell from Dante’s face to the wound before flicking back up.
“Heal it.”
Dante struggled to lift his head back up and look at the other Horseman, unsure if he had heard him correctly. The look on Horrus’s face seemed to assure him that his mind truly wasn’t playing tricks on him at the moment.
“Go ahead, I’ll wait.” Horrus crossed his arms and admired his weapon a little. “I suppose allowing you a few more moments to speak your last is the very least I can do, considering we worked together for so long.”
Dante glared at Horrus for a few moments, trying to figure out just what the Demon had planned. But the excruciating pain in his gut was telling him to worry about that later, and so Dante took the opportunity to draw a complicated array of lines across his midsection. For years and years, healing Seals were required knowledge amongst the elite of Hellion’s military. It would be common knowledge to every soldier if not for just how taxing it was on the soul and just how long it took to actually learn. Even so, one thing that most teachers would neglect to mention right away was that the healing process would force you to endure the same amount of rushing pain through your body as the moment you were wounded before it would begin to heal. For years it has simply been an unavoidable side effect with no signs of being resolved any time soon.
Dante cried out in pain as the wound slowly began to close. He bit his lip and strained to keep his body still as the burning grew in intensity before slowly subsiding again. He gasped for air as the Seal finished its job, closing his eyes in an effort to relax.
“Now, that first one was for trying to kill me.”
Dante screamed out as Horrus pierced his sword right back through his body in an almost casual fashion. “This one is for all the other times you tried.”
Horrus rested his arm on the underside of the hilt and shifted his weight towards it, leaning on it as if it were a wall or post. Dante had no idea what Horrus was referring to when he said “all the other times” he tried to kill him, but right now he wasn’t much concerned about that as much as he was the fact that there was a sword going through his body once again.
“Go ahead and speak your piece. Tell you what, I’ll close my eyes so that I can pretend to react to whatever it is you have to say.” True to his word, Horrus closed his eyes and awaited whatever insults or such that the Demon had coming to him.
“I hope it was worth it,” Dante spat, harsher than he meant to due to his wound, “Slaughtering us all just… just so your chair’s back could be a little higher…”
Horrus frowned, “You didn’t have to stand in my way.”
“You’re prepared to wipe a species off the map and let a parasite thrive just so you could have your dick stroked by whoever you want!” Dante’s voice was trembling now and his hands tightly gripped the sword that was going through his body to try and pull himself up. “Who’s next? Is Vice to die too?”
“Famine will live so long as he doesn’t-“
“He has a name, god dammit! Vice… Virtus! And you know damn well that he will never stand by and watch… not after what you did to the man he looked up to!” Dante let his head fall back and grit his teeth, trying to fight through the pain. “People don’t like us, Horrus… not even our own! And you chose to kill all the ones who still gave a damn about you… None of us are safe from your pride… Not me, not War, not Vice… not even yourself…”
Horrus’s eyes opened just enough to glare down at the dying Demon. He knew full well who he was referring to.
“Go ahead and finish me off already…” Dante released his grip on the blade and closed his eyes. “I can’t stand looking at you anymore…”
Horrus was silent as he grabbed the sword by the hilt and yanked it out of Dante’s body, forcing a hushed cry from the Demon. He stood over Dante, arm pulled back and sword poised for a quick slash across the throat. At that moment, however, he felt something grab his wrist. An immediate sense of fear rushed through him for a multitude of reasons. The first was simple: the fact that something had managed to sneak up on him.
The second was that he knew, despite his relatively short amount of time in this new world, that none of this land’s inhabitants had discovered how to hide the presence of their souls, let alone even detect them, and yet he could detect no one there save for himself and Dante.
The third clarified his suspicions that it was indeed not a natural inhabitant of the land – at least, to his knowledge – as the grip on his wrist was enough to tell him that it was a human hand.
The fourth thing that concerned him was that the town had gone silent, which likely meant that that the battle was over and, if the hand gripping his wrist was any indication, Madora had not come out on top.
The fifth thing was that, despite all of these things being considered within just a second and the likelihood of Vice being this close to him, he was still alive to be concerned.
Horrus spun around, too taken by the moment to consider using his sight, and what he saw standing there behind him made him wish with all his heart that it really had been Vice with his daggers. There, holding firmly to Horrus’s arm, was a woman just shorter than he. Her hair was jet black like his and came just past her shoulders and but that was where the similarities came to an end. She wore a white coat that was tightly buttoned up to her neck and a pair of similarly colored dress pants. But her attire was a mere afterthought when he saw the empty sockets that were this woman’s eyes. A black void surrounded by red and pink flesh. When he tried to avert his eyes, she grabbed his face and pulled it inches from her own, forcing him to look into the darkness.
And in that darkness he found himself consumed. Horrific imaged burned throughout his vision, throughout his very mind. No matter how he tried, his eyes rejected his demands to close. Visions of corpses, some human and most native, littered the streets he walked. An inferno devoured the crumbling city all around him. Nothing was spared from the hell that followed him as his legs moved him forward despite his furious protests against such. Ahead of him was one soul who dared live in his presence. Large with an ethereal mane, her once pristine white coat was now covered in dust, ash, and blood. At her feet was another like her, only smaller and blue. This one remained still on the ground, a bloody wound covering her chest. The white one trembled with uncontrollable fury and her eyes began to glow until they shined brighter than the sun. The city flames died down as a greater fire sparked to life around her horn, taking away the oxygen that they fed upon. The conflagration surged forward towards him, consuming him just as it had consumed everything he had walked upon. The fire burned away his skin and melted his weapons to boiling puddles. His bones cracked and fractured, but despite it all he still lived. Something kept him alive so that he could endure through the pain and agony of being incinerated. He wasn’t even allowed to scream as he watched flesh, muscle, and bone disintegrate before his very eyes.
And just as quickly as it had all come, he was back. Standing above a bleeding Dante in the open field just outside Ponyville, his body was shaking. He could still feel the fury of the fires that hungered for him and craved to leave not even ashes in their wake. His sword fell to the ground as his shaking hands came before his eyes so that he could be sure they were still there and in one piece. His quickened breaths very slowly began to make their way back to a normal pace but still the feeling of being torched alive filled his senses. He could smell the searing flesh and the cracks and pops of hungry flames echoed in his ears.
Was… Was this the future that he had seen? A fiery, raging hell that would only lead to his end? All this time, had he only been stepping closer and closer to his demise? One could suppose that is simply life; no great general ever took his forces to war thinking he would fail. But still the images haunted him. It all felt so real…
At that moment, he sensed multiple souls slowly moving in all around him. Had he been focusing on his vision more, he probably would have seen it coming much sooner. However, so long as the inhabitants of the world let their souls flare out like they did, even attempting to sneak would be like doing so with a large neon sign above their heads.
One of the souls began rushing towards him at a faster speed than one would move at without good reason. Horrus quickly spun himself around and threw out his leg, catching none other than one of Madora’s changelings right across the face. The sudden change in trajectory sent the changeling straight into the ground. Not dead, but alive enough to remember it should know better.
However, it began to seem like much less of an accident when another came rushing towards him with teeth bore not even a moment later. Of course, it was going to have to try harder than that to catch the Horseman of Death off guard. Horrus threw his fist forward, letting the second changeling collide with it and flip numerous times as momentum sent it further on its new course.
“What is the meaning of this!?” He shouted, not one to take kindly to what appeared to be an ambush from friendly forces.
A large changeling clad in armor – far more than simple fodder like the first two wore – stepped forward from the tree line. “Apologies, commander,” It spoke with a deep, off sync pair of voices. “But our queen left us with very specific orders on what should be done if we were to fail in this battle. For it was your strategies that brought us to this climax,” As it spoke, the numerous amounts of Changelings that were hiding stepped into view, something that likely would have intimidated the Horseman had he not already sensed their presence, “And if we are to fail, then so shall you.”
Horrus glared daggers at the Changeling, not so much because of the race’s betrayal but more so because they actually thought they could win. The elite surged forward at speeds faster than the previous two Changelings had achieved despite being weighed down by more armor. Horrus flexed his vision and feigned a counterattack. Just as the elite came within range of Horrus’s sword it kicked the ground hard and shot into the air while two more flanked from either side. While this tactic may have been enough to best a lesser opponent, Horrus was anything but and knew their plan without even needing to use his eyes much. His left hand grabbed the sheathed weapon behind his back and held the blade at its length just as the Changeling neared, allowing it to simply shishkabob itself on the weapon while the right hand spun the blade around so it was held backwards in his hand and brought it downward to pierce the other Changeling’s skull and pin it to the ground. Horrus’s eyes shot upward to the elite just in time to see it diving down on him. It wasn’t quite fast enough, though, and he swung his left sword like a bat and sent the elite tumbling across the ground before it regained its composure mid-roll.
Horrus looked it in the eyes as he grabbed the impaled Changeling and unceremoniously yanked it off and let it drop to the ground. “Disgusting,” he muttered just loud enough as he glanced down at the blood covering the folded steel. “You’re going to have to try better than that if you want to kill me.”
The Changeling growled, “You insolent little-”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his taunt before a claymore flew through the air like a javelin and went straight through the elite and knocked it right off its cratered hooves. The Changelings, and even Horrus, all went a bit wide eyed as they turned their heads towards where the sword had been thrown from. There, hunched over and clutching his stomach with a hand surrounded by a glow only a Seal could provide, was a still very pissed off looking Dante.
As casually as a person could walk while enduring a searing pain in their midsection, the Horseman of Pestilence stepped forward and pried the sword from the now deceased Changeling elite and moved back to where he previously stood. He shot Horrus a dirty look as he passed by and grumbled, “You bastards talk too much…”
Horrus simply raised an eyebrow at the normally kind spirited man. Sure he had seen the Demon when he was upset by something before, but it usually never lasted quite this long. He shrugged, ‘Perhaps that’s what a near death experience can do to a man.’
“So, Judas, it seems like you’re running out of friends by the minute. Still have some master strategy to secure victory?” Dante straightened himself up, eyeing the Changelings as they shifted uncomfortably after watching their leader fall.
“Of course!” Horrus confidently claimed, “A leader who can’t adapt and plan for every new situation isn’t a leader worth following.”
“Oh yeah? And what might that plan be?” Dante raised his sword towards the horde that surrounded him. They were growing closer and more confidant as the remnants from the assault on the city joined their numbers.
“What do you need my plan for? Can’t you do your scary shadow thing and eat them all or something?”
Dante turned towards Horrus with face looking like the other Demon had just asked dance their way out of the coming battle in some spectacular musical number. “No, I can’t ‘eat them.’ Excuse me for not feeling one hundred percent after being stabbed twice!”
Horrus sighed and shook his head, “And I’m starting to wish I had done it a third time…”
Dante spun about and began taking strides towards the other Demon, “Alright, fuck the Changelings, I’m gonna kill you first!”
Horrus grabbed the sword that had he had used to pin the unfortunate Changeling to the ground earlier and began walking to meet Dante, “Is this really the time to be arguing about this?”
“I honestly don’t care much if I live, just so long as I see your head separated from your body first!”
“Oh please, like you’re really in any condition to be fighting with me right n-” Horrus raised both swords to block Dante’s angry swing. For nearly dying, he certainly wasn’t running short on his reserves of strength.”
“I wouldn’t be in this condition if someone hadn’t decided he was better than the rest of us!” Dante growled as he pushed to break the lock in his favor.
“Well at least you aren’t dead, that must count for something!” Horrus pushed right back, his blades gaining more ground on the other Demon than Dante would have preferred.
“Try telling that to War!”
Meanwhile, the remnants of the Changeling horde had given the two Demons only a tight circle for themselves. Their heads moved from one side to the other as the two went back and forth with each other, both confused by their actions in such a situation as well as none of them wanting to be the first to strike after seeing what these foreign creatures were capable of, even while wounded.
“Well if you would stop throwing a goddamn fit and let me execute my plan, then maybe I can fix that!”
“Already trying to play god, are we?”
“Ugh! This is why we don’t talk! You have no concept of imagination and you think that simply because no one can do a certain thing, then that certain thing is impossible!”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of impossible, you idiot! Besides, not even Destruction was able to achieve bringing back the dead and she was ten times the Seal user that you are!”
“Times change, Pestilence! And with it, so does our potential!” The two were practically just shouting at each other at this point, but this time Horrus pulled away from their interlocking blades and began taking long strides towards the spot where War’s lifeless body lied. He ignored just how close the Changelings had gotten, instead shouting at them to move once he got close enough. The drones, fearing the wrath of these raging Demons, quickly obeyed his demands and gave Horrus a wide berth. Dante followed a short distance before planting his sword in the ground and crossing his arms to await the Horseman’s grand achievement of bringing the dead back to life.
Horrus sheathed one of his swords and pushed the blade of the other into the dirt. Dante watched with skepticism as he began drawing a large circle in the dirt. The shape was about twenty feet in diameter around War’s corpse. Once it was finished and as close to perfect as the Horseman could get it, he stopped for a moment and put his hand to his chin.
“Let’s see… A star is necessary of course, but how many? More than one, that’s for sure… Three might be too many and it wouldn’t do anyone any good if I only killed myself in the process like that. Two should do.” Immediately he began running across the diameter of the circle, pulling his sword with him and drawing the lines that made the five-pointed stars. The nearby crowd simply watched as he ran back and forth, drawing symbols of varying shapes and sizes in the dirt around the body. The entire time Horrus seemed to be muttering to himself, likely debating on which symbols to be used, how large they should be in the grand scheme of the Seal and thus their importance, and of how he should probably be taking more pride in knowing he’ll be the first man to actually break the laws of nature.
“How do you know this will even work?”
Horrus stopped for a moment to look at the other Demon. “You mean you haven’t noticed?” He quickly got back to work, “This world isn’t at all like ours.”
Dante’s eyebrow rose, “Clearly. What’s your point?”
“My point,” Horrus cursed as he had to fix one of the lines, “Is that there have been hundreds of theories on whether or not life exists outside of our world. Now, not only do we know that there is indeed life, but not human life. From what I’ve seen, humans aren’t even some form of myth in their cultures. We simply didn’t exist. Thus, one might be lead to believe that this world doesn’t work the same way ours does. Where we our own form of an ‘afterlife’ where our souls enter a dormant state for an unspecified amount of time, this world must have something different. As such, our souls would presumably be, for a lack of a better term, stupefied by this unfamiliar ‘afterlife’ and be unsure of where to go. From this information, I believe that we still have time to return War’s soul back to his body before it realizes where it needs to go to properly ‘pass on.’”
“That seems like a whole lot of speculation to be risking your soul’s stability over.”
Horrus shrugged, “Great discoveries have been made on less reliable information.
Shortly after, the Seal was finally completed.
Horrus took a breath, feeling slightly winded from the constant running and having to fix any lines that were scuffed or weren’t straight. Sliding his sword back into its sheath, he cracked his knuckles and stood over War’s still frame.
“Well,” he said, “here’s hoping my soul doesn’t get crushed under the pressure.”
“I plan on seeing you dead either way.”
Horrus rolled his eyes and glanced towards Dante, who had not moved at all during the entire drawing of the Seal. “It’s a good thing I’m not doing this for you then.”
Expecting no reply, Horrus tensed his body and pushed his arms downward with his palms flat. The Seal began to glow a bright electric blue and a strong wind began blowing from it, kicking up small amounts of dust. Many of the Changelings became startled by this and quickly took to the air and rushed away, eager to escape the growing source of power. Even Dante found his skeptic attitude beginning to subside from the display.
The Demon threw his arms out, palms now facing inward and slowly raising until they faced outward. His fingertips began to glow the same electric color as the Seal and as they spread apart sparks of what looked like lightening began lashing out chaotically but strangely never going further than the Seal’s border. Horrus’s eyes closed and he spoke softly to himself, “Now where are you…” The lightening soon began surging towards a single spot, converging to one blank space of air. When the bolts collided they exploded into a bright flash. Whatever Changelings that had chosen to remain behind were now stepping back in fear and shielding their eyes before retreating just as the others had, scattering into the nearby forest.
Horrus flinched as the light seemed to be sucked out of him into the growing ball of light in front of him. The light grew brighter and brighter until it was as if Horrus had created some miniature sun before it all suddenly faded away. Dante had pulled his forearm up to cover his eyes, and when he lowered it to see the results he didn’t notice his jaw drop.
There, floating above War’s corpse was his soul. Almost like a twinkling star, it’s rays intensifying and diminishing randomly. Towards the center of the soul was a white hot light that dulled the farther it got from the core. Horrus held his arms out to the soul and it immediately began falling towards his hands as if attracted to him simply because he was the closest living thing. It hovered just above his open palms and remained there as he slipped his hands around it until they were above it. As if handling a balloon that might pop at any moment, he delicately pushed it downward.
The soul came to a halt at War’s chest. Horrus kept one palm against it as the other pulled back. With an open palm, he slammed his hand down and once again there was a bright flash. A shockwave slammed Dante like a truck, forcing him to brace as heavy winds began to pour out from where the other Demon stood and threatened to shove him back. Horrus was effected by it all even from within the Seal, his hair and coat being blown backwards and looking as if he was trying to weather a storm.
Seconds felt like minutes as the soul slowly sunk into the fallen Demon’s body. Finally, after what felt like three hours but was truly only three minutes, the light from the soul faded away as it disappeared behind War’s skin. The glow from the Seal faded and the winds died down. It became eerily silent in the open field as the two simply stood there looking at War’s body.
Suddenly, Horrus’s legs seemed to just give out as the man collapsed. Dante rushed to his side and, as much as he would hate to admit it later, was a bit relieved to see that his heart was still indeed beating. However while he felt relief knowing that Horrus, as questionable as his intentions may have been, had not destroyed himself trying to do the impossible, he didn’t know what to think when he heard War suddenly gasp for air.