The two men flinched, the atmosphere swelling with intensity as the stranger gaped at them with cool eyes, not wavering in fear or turmoil. They were dressed in identical wear. Long black cloak and an ivory cloth that shrouded their head and the lower half of their faces. There was a thorny crown that retained their ivory cloth from lowering from their heads, painful yet feeble looking from the distance they stood from Dante. In addition, there was a highly large and noticeable symbol that settled on the back of their cloaks, a dull golden colour that couldn't of been intriguing to anybody who didn't recognize it
or understood it.
"What makes you think we'd answer you?" one of the men said. His eerie beam was obvious the way his cheeks raised and his eyes squinted together slightly. His partner also smiled, strangely identical to him as the cloth shifted and he raised his hand forward into a
"friendly" gesture,
"Yeah... You shouldn't be associating with that kid anyway. He is dangerous and he's not supposed to be here in the first place." the other man said, there was a comical tone to his voice, similar to the way Nai had spoken when he childishly teased Dante. In-fact, the way they both acted had been similar to the raven-haired youth, noticeable traits in them that could likely be found in him.
"Hey old man! Is everything alri-" a voice called out, directly silenced when it perceived the two characters that aroused before Dante, both jerking around to see who vocaled out. They recognized the voice the moment it broke through the air, jagged and childish. A sense of playfulness that rolled off the character who now gaped at them in angst, almost trembling at the sight of the two men before him,
"Al-Thamen..." Nai breathed, his foot shifting back in the dull alley-way. They had
really screwed up on this mission.
"Keep your eyes on him, and don't make a move until we say,". Yup, the head of the organization was
really going to kill them later on. Unless... They brought Nai back.
Themselves.-BEFORE- He howled in anguish, urged against the grassy earth with his forehead rested firmly in place. His hands clawed at his mane of ebony hair, sweat dampening the outer layer of his skin and causing the loose part of his clothing to embrace his body. Nai had been here for awhile. Panting and crying out in discomfort as the dark
deathly aura lashed out of his body like violent winds. Screaming to leave his essence while he did the same in return. It was forsaken that this curse had been corrupted into his very soul, left to his skin like an enduring scar that was horrible to even look at. It behaved like another person, one that loathed Nai just as much as he loathed it too. Although he had never conversed with this curse personally, he knew it was alive. He knew it was
different and much more
wise than he was. Annoyed of his naive actions yet for some reason protecting him when he could've been killed. Whatever this curse was. It frustrated him and confused him.
"Damn it..." Nai breathed, the lashing of the black aura that flickered out from his back casually died back down, returning to his body as his muscles relaxed and he descended back-first onto the ground gaping up at the starry sky. The trees and nature that once crowded around him were slowly rotting, leaves falling from trees and vanishing before they could even touch the surface of the earth. The once smooth and alluring wood was beginning to sink in-ward into a sickly colour, like the molding of an old piece of bread. Grass flaking away and leaving his body to now rest in nothing but dampened mud that smudged against his healthy pale complexion.
There was nothing now. No howling from the black aura, or the sound of his heavy breathing that seemed to stretch out along the isolated forest just aside from Talonia. And even though, there wasn't a sound, that familiar particle like noise pooled into his senses and caused him to lean up and twist over in the direction he could here them coming from. Rukh. Black and unchanging. They fluttered just by him as though they were urging for him to follow them as they hovered over the lifeless trees and back into the direction of Talonia. His breath was caught in his throat for a moment, but at the same time he
wasn't sure if they were really there. All he could sense was darkness, and the undying feeling that something was going on.
-NOW- "Al-Thamen..." Nai breathed, his foot shifting back in the dull alley-way. He couldn't move, and in more genuine thoughts he didn't want too. His mind played back memories of his child-hood that had been taken away from him. Being cursed. Being lied to. Being used. His fists tightened by his side and he lowered his head, trembling as though he were frightened,
"I felt like somebody had been following me for awhile.. but I should've trusted my instincts rather than thinking it was just the fear that was getting to me." his head casually raised back up, unveiling the shadow from his face as the two men were startled to see the expression that now painted Nai's features. Tears. They were welled up into the corners of his crimson irises that embraced an emotion of pain and anger,
"Surely you don't think I'm going to come with you so easily, right!? You people..! I amused you for the last twenty years of my life! Now... It's your turn to amuse me." the raven-haired youth hollered out to the two, not as childish and teasing as he had been before. His hand reached into the ivory scarf the settled along his shoulders; tugging out the gemmed wand that was already spewing out
what appeared to be
"smoke". This would soon become a battle zone unless
somebody stopped it first.