End to Sins! (Mission- TehDMCmaniac & Abbigail)

Murder. The act of forcefully taking away a living creature's life.
Revolting.
It's very concept is revolting. A meaningless one-sided slaughter. A pointless death caused by unjust actions without any regard of the victims' self. Without a true reason, their existences were suddenly stopped, all their experiences up to that point, their lives, their hopes and their dreams- all erased. As if a lie, all of that is just forgotten.
...Such a meaningless death.
It was simply too cruel, the knight could not comprehend it, nor did he truly want to. Faced with such a scene, he was simply filled with anger and blind desire to make those responsible pay, to ensure that no one has to suffer ever again because of their wrongdoings. Perhaps it was an instinct for him. He truly could not stand seeing cruelty like that, even just seeing the after effects from it angered him.

"*sigh* It's no use getting mad like that now, I suppose. Oh well, might as well..."
Clad in his usual attire, Aegis leaned back on the bench he was sitting on and put his hands behind his head.
"...enjoy the atmosphere." -the cyan-haired mage finished saying as he closed his eyes.
Oblivious to the strange looks he was getting, he disconnected his sight from the world around and took a deep breath. 'It's a nice day.' he thought, or wanted to, but the sound of rustling leaves orchestrated by a gentle breeze prevented him from doing so. Or rather, he was too entranced by the blissful caresses of the winds to be able to. It seems he had chosen a good place for a rendezvous with his unknown partner, considering it was both a nice quiet and windy park as well as just a few blocks away from the location of the mission, the sight of mass murder. Perhaps that was the reason why the knight was the only one there, seeing how one would generally expect there to be quite a few people out on such a nice day, though Aegis wasn't really complaining. He always did prefer it when there were less crowds.

As he sat there blissfully basking in the breeze, the cyan-haired man began feeling drowsy.
'Must be the atmosphere getting to me.' -he thought. Indeed, in stark contrast to the stagnated air within the city caused by the grim events, in that small park no such oppressive feeling existed. As if disconnected from the world, it held a serene calm which seemed oh-so alien to the troubled city.
'Well, I guess I don't have much of a choice, I might as well take a nap to kill time.'
Seeing how there were a couple of hours still until the arranged meeting time, he chose to give in to the growing desire to rest and let go of his senses, though still keeping a certain level of self-awareness typical to all swordsmen. He probably couldn't help it even if he tried to, it's a side effect of training to be a warrior for so many years.
And so as the last remnants of his consciousness began to fade into the land of dreams, Aegis dozed off to the chirping of birds nesting in the nearby trees. Though soon after that, too faded.

Abbigail's reasons for being here were much less noble in stature than the knight's. She felt she needed the experience above anything else, so she had decided to team up with a powerful mage on a high-risk mission. She didn't see the flaw in this logic at all, unfortunately for her, and planned on making it out of this unscathed. She of course cared about what was going on, but her point for going on this mission was to get stronger by stopping the bad guys, not just stopping the bad guys. She wondered briefly what kind of person her partner on this mission would be, but the thoughts slipped out of her mind as she looked curiously around the area, her gazing falling intently on everything around her at least once, as if trying to drink in the information just by staring as hard as they could.

As she approached the rendezvous point in the part, she realized she was almost a full two hours early. She gave an agitated huff as she realized this and simply headed towards where she was supposed to meet up with her super-powerful partner, deciding she'd see if anyone was hanging around that she could chat with. She spotted a strange man sitting on a bench -- cyan hair, not too tall, slender, muscle-toned -- who she paused only for a moment to observe. She bit down on her lip nervously in the moment that she saw him, freezing in place. She didn't know what made her feel like this, and she'd say it was a bad feeling about him; except it wasn't that at all. She actually felt strangely comfortable about approaching him, which for her was strange, but she couldn't put it into words why she felt that way. He just looked so calm and friendly, and even rather attractive, his features suggesting that he was athletic and strong, but still gentle all the same. Abbi quickly shook her head, angry at herself for acting like such a weirdo all the time, and just let out an exasperated sigh as she began walking towards the bench.

Abbigail cleared her throat a bit as she sat down, attempting to wake the man in a polite way, or at least in a way where she could pass it off as an accident. She continued humming a happy little tune after that, dancing in place as she sat on the bench, waiting for the cyan-haired man to say something; she was hoping that he'd be the one to come to her with conversation, as she was terrible at talking to people she found even slightly attractive, which made this particularly difficult for her since he was more than slightly by far. I hope he's nice... She thought to herself as she waited, looking off into the distance and suddenly getting quiet as she realized that this rendezvous point was literally only blocks away from where all the murders happened. This made her anxious to get on with the mission, and for the first time since she had arrived in Era, actually scared to go through with this job. But she was already here, and she had a powerful ally to protect her, where ever he was. She had no idea that she was already sitting next to him, but soon enough she'd find out.

The knight's slumber was peaceful, as always. When he was younger, he was half-famous for his deep sleep, being near-impossible to forcefully interrupt, but as the years passed and he trained more and more, Aegis developed an unfading sense of self-consciousness. It was a perk all skilled swordsmen have regardless of whether they like it or not, or at least those that have gone through the same training as him, though unlike other such people he didn't have the urge to leap out of bed brandishing a sword every time a leaf gets rustled or a twig breaks.

As usual, Aegis wasn't dreaming of anything, so his blank consciousness was simply on standby. It was almost like he was just partially asleep, since he would hear, smell, feel and sense things normally, but would simply not react or think about them. A peaceful, yet weary slumber which could only be interrupted when the knight wants it, something that generally does not happen. Well, it seemed like that day wasn't one of the "general" ones.

"Ahem." -an unfamiliar voice faking a cough.
A low sound of steps.
The barely audible creaking of the bench caused by the new weight placed upon it.
And... the cheerful humming if a girl.
It took him a few moments to comprehend all those clues, but as the seconds passed and his gears started to slowly turn, he realised that there was someone sitting next to him. Aegis slowly lifted his eyelids, revealing the strangely, yet fittingly-coloured pupils hidden behind them. His quickly returning consciousness reminded him of where he was and that he was supposed to be alone there, a fact which contradicts the clear sign of another presence less than a metre away from him. He turned his head to his right. What met his gaze was almost blindingly white.
A girl, perhaps around his age, dressed in what appeared to be pure white, with the exception of a couple of black arm bands and a choker. Her neck-long hair, shaking gently with the breeze, looked like soft snow. Her smooth and gentle skin exhibiting a lighter-than-usual, yet still appealing shade underlined her brilliant and exotic red eyes.
...She was very attractive. So much so, that it took the still drowsy knight off-guard and he simply stared at her for a few moments, hopefully brief enough for her to not notice.

Lightly shaking his head to clear it, the knight leaned slightly away from the bench.
"Ah, my apologies, Miss." -he began saying- "I was distracted for a moment and did not realise you had come, I didn't mean to occupy too much space and bother you."
As he spoke those words, Aegis quickly covered the few centimetres left to the closest end of the bench in an attempt to create some space for the attractive girl.

As she stared off into the distance, Abbi made sure to keep an eye on the man in her peripherals, not out of mistrust, but more out of curiosity to see how he would act. She was pleasantly surprised as she caught him staring for just the briefest of moments, but she smiled and closed her eyes cheerfully, simply giggling a bit in response, deciding to keep it to herself so she could hold on to what little of an ego booster it was. She needed any amount of confidence others could give her as she went forward on the incredibly dangerous job that she had taken, and was now seriously considering backing out of. As she thought about it though, she began to worry heavily on her chances of survival. She was a low level mage, on an S-ranked mission. Sure she had good back up, but what use would she be? And given the power of the mages committing the murders, she'd surely be killed if she wasn't as careful as possible about every single move she made. She had to play her cards perfectly, no flaws what so ever, and even then she'd probably end up getting hurt. Her worries escalated as she contemplated all the horrible ways she could be killed on her upcoming job, her mind drifting away from the nice, attractive young man next to her on the bench, and onto terrible, frightening things she wished she hadn't thought of.

Abbigail began to shake nervously all over now, in a combination of shy nerves from talking to an attractive young man, who seemed very nice at first glance, and the deeper, more primal instinct to run from the danger she was foolishly about to trudge head-first into. This... This is way beyond me... Should I just go? Maybe leave a message saying I couldn't make it? She asked herself, the fear welling up inside her becoming the focus of her attention now. Something was very clearly bothering her by now, as she was shaking and biting her lip, staring out for a hundred miles in that way that frightened people sometimes did; she was worried and scared for her life, which was understandable. It was completely uncharacteristic of her to crumple like this, but at the same time who could really blame her? She was just a D-ranked mage, after all, and this was an S-ranked mission! She was trying desperately now to get over her nerves that welled up faster and faster by the moment, eventually managing to cool them down to the point where she only seemed minorly irked about something -- but it was probably too late, considering how big of an act she had been putting on just a few moments before. With a fake, pained smile she looked to the man, letting out a nervous laugh before speaking. "A-ah~ No reason to apologize, really! You weren't a bother at all.... It's something else that's got my mind right now... I... It's alright." She said in response to Aegis' quick and polite apology, her behavior so far indicating that she was either a loony or on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was now biting on her nails, resting her elbow in the palm of her other hand with her legs crossed, bouncing and jittering frantically, trying her best not to freak out or just leave. After all, her partner was supposed to be good; really good. They'd surely keep her safe, whom ever 'they' were.

Terrified.
It was the sole thought within Aegis' mind.
Sheer terror.
Worry, condensed into fear.
Fear forming pure and undeniable terror.
Overpowering dread, worry for one's life.
She is just shaking with fear.
He did not need his empathy, nor did he need his magic to see that. Shivering, shaking, the girl next to him seemed like she was going break apart. As if her sanity cracking and her reality falling apart, she just remained there, shaking, fearing... internally crying.

Aegis was taken aback. He did not expect something like that to happen, but he understood well enough that the girl was going to die.
It really was simple to see, he had seen it many times before. Men crumbling, their tears dropping down to the ground filled with regret and uncertainty. They know what is to come and they hesitate because they do not want to die, but... they are not allowed to hesitate. It is already known by them and their killer... they are going to die.
And thus they cry.
The victims cry.
They can't do anything, their hope is merely a false flame, one that died long ago. The helplessness of men faced with their own death. The fear in their expression as they looked into the cold cyan eyes of their killer. That same fear was what she felt.
It really was simple to see, he had seen it many times before. Deep into his nightmares, deep into his reality, deep within the point where they both overlap. The fear of inescapable murder... and the fear of being the one that dies.
She looked at him with those fake eyes, lying to herself that she was fine so that she may lie to him as well. She was a stranger to him, as he was to her and yet... she seemed so familiar. She was going to be killed by something out of her control.
Mercilessly.
Pointlessly.
She would soon be killed by a monster. That is why... she was just like them.

"A-ah~ No reason to apologize, really! You weren't a bother at all.... It's something else that's got my mind right now... I... It's alright."
The cyan-haired man just looked at her with a serious expression, one which hid so much more than what could be seen. He closed his eyes, knowing what he had to do. There was no escaping it and there was no desire to do so in the first place.
The man opened his eyes. For a brief moment, they glowed white. What followed was a blink and then a shifted gaze.
"Forgive me."
No warning was spoken, he simply acted. The knight moved closer to the wavering girl and hugged her tightly.
"My name is Aegis Bright. I am your partner for this mission, Abbigail. I..."
A moment of pause.
"...will not let you die. I promise... no, I swear. I will not let that happen."

Simple words were spoken, yet they carried so much meaning. It was not a lie, not a fake promise. He was serious. He swore to her and to himself that he will not let her die, no matter what happens. He had to atone. This was his chance to fight for what he truly believes in.
But even more so than that.
He could not let another suffer and die such a meaningless death. It was too cruel and... he understood that better than anyone else.

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