Behind [Nero]

Motes of subtle dust permeated the twilight that filled the space around the man, drifting through rays of dimming evening sunshine and thus being illuminated briefly before drifting back into the darkness shrouded by the curtains that covered the broad windows of his office space. General Shen Kadokawa sat alone and practically slumped in his chair, his gaze directed upward. The man's eyes were framed by dark circles, his oculi, dejected and disinterested, seemed to stare at nothing in particular, gazing far into an imagined and seemingly endless distance. Sheets of impeccably white paper, some partially and some in their entirety covered in ink, blanketed the solid desk before him, almost entirely unnoticed and unattended to. The young Rune Knight was in no particular mood for paperwork, or, to be precise, in no particular mood for anything else. His mind was adrift, as it tended to be at regular intervals these days. He found it hard to focus on any particular task that required more attention than superficial levels, and, at times like these, when memories overcame him, his brain seemed to simply shut off as he lost himself in the past.

His expression was blank, the emotions that went along with these thoughts drowning out everything else and burying him under a mount of regret, pain, grief, and most severely of all, guilt. At the same time, he knew that he was not, and would never be, entitled to any of these emotions. They were his own fault. All of this was his fault, and even then, he continued to pity himself. He felt disgusting, repulsed by his own impressions. Why was he the one who had survived? Why was he the only one that was still here, despite being the only one who should have died on that damn mountain pass in Pergrande? Why was he alive when he was the one who deserved to die over every other member of his squad?

These questions returned involuntarily, though no matter how many times they asked themselves, no matter how many times his conscience confronted him with them, he couldn't answer them. He would never be able to find an answer to them. He had to accept the facts as they were and that they could never be changed. Bradley, Sherman, and the rest of the Knights he had led to patrol the border region between Bellum and Pergrande had been killed in action, he was reasonably certain of that fact, and it was his own inaction that had caused their deaths at the hand of the armed forces of Pergrande. If he had done something, if he had led them when he needed them most, if he had just gotten over his cowardice and his stupor, maybe, just maybe things would be different now.

Alas, however, no matter how much one wished for it, one could never change the past. He could draw his lessons from it, form the vow that, no matter what happened, he would correct the mistakes he had made in any way he could, but the event itself was set in stone, this fact alone, in all the facets that befell the young Rune Knight, being enough to cast him into a seemingly unending abyss of despair, and whenever he closed his eyes, he saw their faces, casting down their stone-cold gazes of seemingly endless blame and judgement upon him, the image of their lifeless forms, bruised, battered, and quite literally broken still burned into his inner eye.

He found himself truly pathetic.

Yet, unexpectedly interrupted, Shen suddenly found himself jolting up, the brief, albeit forceful knock on the door of his office grabbing his attention and tearing him away from his state of depression. He hadn't been a General in the Rune Knights for long, but he knew that his position came attached with a certain role to fulfill, very definitive expectations that he intended to attend to in full, even if it meant that the by nature shy and reserved young man had to struggle mightily.

"Come in", he thus replied curtly and with an emotionless voice after he had straightened himself up, the door opening without delay in a single, practiced motion. A man entered, no older than Shen, almost certainly younger, his short black hair, which appeared trimmed to a precise length, hidden underneath the cap associated with the standard Rune Knight uniform. On his arm and chest, however, were visible the insignia of his rank. The young man saluted, and Shen returned the gesture. "What can I do for you, Sergeant?", the General inquired, thus prompting the other man to relax his posture, the Sergeant raising a clipboard he had held in his right. "A report, Sir! I was notified that it's urgent". "A report?". Of course, Serilda would be the first stop for reports of a more urgent nature depending on its contents, the Rune Knight General questioning the fact that he would be the first stop for a message of this nature. "Does the Field Marshal know about this?". The Sergeant shook his head. "I was told that this involves you on a ...  more personal level, General. I apologize if this is out of turn, but ... I think you should read it".

Shen raised an eyebrow. Personal? What did the man mean by this, or perhaps more importantly, what kind of personal matter of his could be handled via the Rune Knight command structure? He extended his hand, the other handing him the object he had held firmly in his grasp. Shen took the object, letting his eyes wander across the report written on the paper. At once, his eyes widened in shock, the color draining from his face as the information detailed on this piece of paper slowly sank in. In a state of shock, he looked up, his previously so tired, blank eyes now filled with a glimmer of light. "Are we sure that this is true?". The man looked at Shen, knowingly looking down at the obviously affected General seated at his desk. "Forward Base in Bellum confirmed it, Sir". As soon as those words were spoken, Shen immediately stood, dropping the report onto his desk before making for one of the shelves in the room, a straightsword of distinctly unique design contained in its scabbard resting atop it. "I will be leaving immediately. Notify everyone of my absence". "Understood", the man replied, following up with "Should I order a battalion of Knights to get ready for a rescue operation?". "No-", came back the immediate answer, the General grabbing the sword and fastening it to the belt of his uniform.

"-I will go alone".


The ice-cold winter wind blew past his face from all sides, his red hair waving with every gust. There was little else one could expect from the weather at such altitudes, Shen hovering above the facility at over 3,000 feet. The night was cold and relatively dark. Despite this, his sight, the most developed of his five senses, could make out even small details on the ground. This was undoubtedly some kind of military facility, the tall and undoubtedly impassable concrete walls topped with barbed wire, the guard towers, and the fortress-like construction of this camp made that awfully clear. Not only that, but both the facility grounds and the area housed a number of troops belonging to the Armed Forces of Pergrande Shen had gotten much too familiar with on his last trip to this area. The facility itself seemed more military base than a prison, leaving the young Rune Knight wondering if this was truly the place, but Forward Command had confirmed that the distress signal was originating from deep within one of these structures. Shen drew a deep breath. If there was any hope that any of them were still alive ... then he had no choice but to do this. The man steeled his heart and raised his hand, bringing the inconspicuous wristband on his arm close to his mouth.

"Attention!", he waited a few seconds before repeating the word. "This is General Shen Kadokawa of the Rune Knights of Fiore. I am speaking on the International Distress Channel". Based on the fact that this channel was used, at once, his voice would echo forth from every receiving speaker in a radius of several miles automatically and at the same time. The Pergrandians on the ground would, of course, immediately notice the signal based on the fact that it would be broadcasted to anyone who was listening. "The Rune Knights have learned that the receiving facility, in violation of paragraph 233, section 6 of international law, is used to detain Fiorean citizens illegally. We demand the immediate release of all Fiorean prisoners in the receiving facility at once, I repeat-", his voice continued to ring out steadily, almost rhythmically with the calm rigidity of a man who was determined to do what he had to, "Receiving facility, release all Fiorean prisoners at once". He took a breath, his next words carefully chosen. His brows narrowed. If they wouldn't listen, well, he wasn't gonna ask nicely a third time.

With the hum of electricity, the facility below seemed to begin to buzz with activity like a poked beehive, Pergrande now aware of the man's presence. Searchlights pierced the sky, columns of dense illumination shooting cloudwards before finally finding and settling on the General, who appeared eerily suspended in the air above. Their preparations weren't just limited to lights, however. Shen could see the AA emplacements being manned hastily, several guns being turned by their crews in a direction that could only mean one thing...

Very well. They could have it their way.

His voice echoed forth once more, all emotion drained from it as he spoke in a harsh and unforgivingly matter-of-fact tone. From within his memories of that day, pictures flashed across his mind, men and women falling at the hands of Pergrandean Soldiers. His eyes narrowed, his expression turning sour as his eyes wandered over the implements of warfare that sprung to life on the ground. This time, it would all be different. No, this time, it would be Shen who would take charge. Take charge and deliver payback to Pergrande for what they had done.

"Failure to adhere to this command will be interpreted as an act of war and met with the appropriate response".

A second passed, then another, and another after that. Nothing seemed to happen, the Rune Knight speaking again. "I repeat-", though he didn't manage to finish the echo of his previous statement.

With the accompanying array of flashes from the ground, the air around him would be filled with lead and fire as airburst shells exploded around his position. Infantry, Artillery, and an array of military vehicles all began their operations, the heavy fire from large-caliber anti-air guns being assisted by the resounding, thunderous drum of automatic machine guns. The song of war, sounding just the same as it had a few months ago, had begun to play anew, though this time ... this time things would different.

In a steep dive, Shen let himself fall forward and towards the ground, his form slamming into it with a heavy impact just moments later, a cloud of dust and smoke blown into the atmosphere around him that obscured its insides from the glances of the soldiers that swiftly surrounded the young man who had seemingly fallen out of the sky. One of the Soldiers shouted to the men and women next to him, their shouldered rifles pointing at the cloud of dust. "On umer?" (Is he dead?). One of them shouted back "Ya ne znayu" (I dunno). Another chimed in, "Ya ne vizhu der'ma" (I can't see shit).

Almost as if on command, however, two glowing orbs began to pierce through the mist, golden eyes aglow with magic lighting up with an arcane light. The ground below shook, at first slowly, then the rumble gradually grew and soon trembled with unrestrained magical force, a growl from deep within the earth beginning to rattle the entire base as an unmistakably overwhelming pressure descended on everyone and everything around. The cloud dispersed as the wind was whipped around by the force of the magical energy released by the individual standing in the midst of this Pergrandian military base, drawn sword at the ready.

He would make them pay. All of them.

And no matter what it took, no matter who was still here, if even just the woman was still alive...

...If Finn was still alive...

...He would do everything he could to get her out of here.

---

Post Word Count: 2,108
Personal Word Count Total: 2,108
Thread Word Count Total: 3,185

The golden eyes, an aurous illumination against white suffused with strained lines of crimson, scanned their surroundings at a speed that boggled the mind, oculi darting from individual to individual in an unnatural, almost mechanical shift, identifying targets, assessing them, prioritizing threat levels, the process occurring within the span of a single heartbeat. His body, stirred by a something that was foreign to this form, yet arcane in nature, moved nigh automatically, muscles tensing as they strained underneath the black Rune Knight uniform, propelling the young man into a blur of motion, a shape that diffused in incomprehensible swiftness of movement.

"Strel'ba! Stre-" (Fire!"), one of the officers shouted, at first dumbfounded by the initial confusion, though regaining his composure upon spotting the man he knew was an enemy. After all, the intruder had clearly announced as much, and with the war on the horizon, what difference would it make? Still, he could feel the pressure that permeated the atmosphere here, bore down on anything, and threatened to force him to his knees just by the opponent's mere presence. He wanted to scream, shout in terror, every hair on his body standing on end, every cell in his body telling him to run and abandon all else, a reaction formed out of an evolutionary instinct, primal and animalistic. The only reason he kept his composure was the reflex drilled into him by routine, training that consisted of endless repetition. This man, a mage, no less, was a Fiorean who had come here to take the prisoner. How had they found out? Well, that wasn't important right now. This man, this enemy, he was a mage, and training, conditioning, indoctrination, it all told the man what to do with mages, the only option left to a true Pergrandean dealing with any kind of despicable magic.

He managed to choke out a horrified command, his mind, not used to this manifestation of the arcane in the slightest, was unable to comprehend how a being could fall from the sky and survive the ordeal unscathed, but the thought would never be finished, the impulse never processed. Before he could finish his directive, his throat was torn asunder by cold steel, crimson life essence spewing forth from a grievous wound that would kill in moments. The man's life would end in darkness, the glint of metal and unspecific, adrenaline-dulled pain being the last impressions he would perceive.

Mercilessly and in the span of an instant, the soldiers by Shen's position were thus cut down in a storm of motion, a scattering of blood, weapons limply clutched in a last feeble attempt to alleviate anxiety via automatism. The Rune Knight was swift, brutal, and merciless, and with every movement, with every hypersonic movement the air crackled, was torn asunder by a burning wind that reached ever toward the zenith of imaginable might before falling silent abruptly, yet more crimson staining the frozen ground. The man stopped, looked back onto the dozens of bodies that now littered the space around him with a cold gaze. Had they looked at the Rune Knights with those same eyes on that day? His brows inched closer together. Any semblance of empathy for these creatures was gone. They were no longer human. They had ceased being human in his eyes a while ago. There it was again. That feeling in his chest, the constricting grip of something that wrapped its invisible fingers around his ribs, his torso, his throat. His thoughts were overwhelmed by a rush of something that he could not quite discern, and though he couldn't name this emotion, it drowned out clear consciousness to a degree that was almost entirely mind-numbing. The world was perceived through a veil of darkness that clouded the edges of his vision, drove his awareness into a frigid hyper-focus.

One Pergrandean soldier had managed to gather the last of his wits, wide eyes struggling to comprehend the overwhelming violence that had been forced upon a previously ordinary day. His comrades, people he had spoken with, joked with, laughed with, now lay there, broken, mangled, and unmistakably devoid of life, and it had all happened within the span of one or two seconds. In a sense, he was unknowingly and ironically similar to the man who had done this to the group of Pergranti Soldiers, and the emotion he felt was the same, the onset of uncompromising hatred drowning out the fear, the shell-shock still fresh in his mind. He raised his weapon, a desperate cry laced with the reality of the battlefield escaping his lungs as flashes illuminated the darkness. The barrel of his weapon faced his enemy, ethereal wisps of gunpowder smoke filling the air as, again and again, a projectile was forced from its chamber at supersonic speeds.

A pointless attack, in Shen's eyes. A single action carried him forward, followed by another and then promptly another, his every step executed at a pace that was hard to perceive, hard to even imagine for the average Pergrandean. Every projectile was dodged without effort, their own trajectory not only marked with the man's clairvoyant abilities, but their speed appearing almost comically slow to the General. Within the span of an instant, Shen was upon the man, his form appearing before the uniformed Soldier of Pergrande, a gaze peering at the mage from behind the shade of a pair of combat goggles. Shen returned his own gaze into them, his golden oculi, unblinking and wide open, trembling with the force of the emotion that guided his every move. With a single, supremely fast motion, Shen swung his fist upward, breaking the man's arm with an audible crack and forcing the weapon from his grip, silencing the automatic rifle. Then, with his other hand, the sword was driven through the Pergrandeans torso at an angle, entering from below through the lower left side of the abdomen and emerging from the other side around the man's right-side shoulder blade, blue-ish steel stained by blood and viscera. Beneath his snow-mask, Shen could hear the man choke, then spit, blood being pushed through the throat via crushed lungs, heart, and liver that would render the man dead in only a few passing swift seconds. A mercy too good for a Pergrandean dog, but he had neither the time nor the will to force upon these people the death they deserved.

With a single movement that was defined by violence and malevolence, Shen twisted the weapon before pulling it free from the other's body, the man, previously held up by the Rune Knight's strength, now slumping to the ground like a marionette without strings.

This, however, was but one enemy out of dozens, if not hundreds. The Anti-Aircraft guns, high-caliber and rapid-firing by nature, were readjusted, swung downwards to the ground where the intruder now stood. Heavy machine guns were sighted, found their target. Grenades were readied, automatic weapons shouldered, pointed at the Rune Knight. Killing them off one by one would be too slow, too inefficient. He still hadn't found the person he actually came here for. He had to prioritize, right this instant, if possible. Clearing the area could wait until he could confirm that she was safe.

Then, he heard the commotion, the enhanced senses and processing of his mind perceiving first the shattering of glass followed by the female voice that screamed out in Fiorean. Was that...?

His body again moved almost automatically, his head swinging around towards the source of that desperate clamor. It took only the blink of an eye for him to reach her position, imperceptible slashes of the bladed weapon in his right hand effortlessly carving through the walls that separated the two Rune Knights as his form was pushing through and entering the cell. Dust wirled through the damp, cold air of a space moist with condensation and mold, chunks of reinforced concrete crashing to the ground as he cleared a path, but there was no mistake. Despite the tightness of this cramped room, despite the absence of much light and the dry concrete dust in the air, there was no doubt in his mind that he was staring down at the girl he had been looking for, slumped against a wall in a corner of this broken lockup, even if she looked the part of a prisoner of war.

"Finn?". The question was not necessary, he knew that it was her, but her state still caused the expressed inquiry to burst from his lips in shocked stupor. There were striking differences, indeed, her appearance immediately telling a tale of a long, exhausting time in captivity, the most clear difference being the fact that she was obviously missing a limb. There it was again, the onset of emotion that wirled in his mind like a storm, but there was something else, too. A small ray of hope on a dark sky of despair, a silver lining: She, Finn, one of his former comrades, was still alive, if not in one piece.

There was little time for a happy reunion, however, and indeed, with the changes that Shen had gone through himself, he didn’t even know if she would recognize him immediately, but that mattered little. Both the Rune Knights, General and Soldier alike, were still under attack, a circumstance that Shen intended to change swiftly, his head turning towards the sounds of several approaching Soldiers.

"Stay behind me and take cover", the man commanded with a firm tone, twisting his body towards the entrance to the cell, the attackers, voices shouting forceful words in Pergrandean at one another, approaching swiftly. His hand clutched the hilt of his blade as he spun the weapon backward, his form shifting in an instant to replicate the draw slash-like sword stance used by Midian samurai, a low-crouch before a dash forward into the hallway where the might of this combat stance would be unleashed at once. His body twisted as soon as his feet touched the grey concrete floor anew, attention and the crux of his arcane power focussed entirely on the would-be attackers. Before they even had the chance to react, Shen had moved, drawn the sword, slashed it through the air, arcs of blindingly brilliant lightning searing through the air that separated him from the Pergrandean Soldiers, the acetone-like smell of an electrolytic reaction swiftly joined by that of scorched flesh and burning cloth. The electricity had burned its way through the hallway, filling every corner with flaming plasma and more or less instantly killing every living thing it encountered. It would buy them a little bit of time, at least. Thick, black smoke joining the jumble of particles and smells that lay heavy in the air around them, Shen turned back to Finn, his eyes now examining the girl more closely. She was covered in wounds old and new, that much was obvious, he could smell the blood even before he could see the fresher ones, the most severe one a gunshot had left. There were also the chains she wore around her wrists. Not ordinary ones. He had seen this before, on that day in Pergrande.

"Let's get this off of you first", he pointed at the Oblivium cuffs, and, if she allowed it, would reach out to try and break them with raw strength alone, knowing that magic would be useless against this sort of metal. He'd learned that lesson the hard way, after all. Whether that would work, though, was an entirely different matter, the young man hoping that it'd do the trick and allow Finn, despite obvious exhaustion and physical limitation, a means to defend herself. Regardless of whether or not the cuffs could be broken, he would offer his arm as support without much thought. Unfortunately, he could do little about her wounds or her exhaustion at the moment, but they had to get out of there quickly, or at least get in a somewhat more advantageous position that would give them a moment to gather before fighting their way out.

---

Post Word Count: 2,007
Personal Word Count Total: 4,115
Thread Word Count Total: 6,365

"No, you're not". The answer she received to her statement was iron-clad and definitive. There was no emotion in that voice of his, a monotonous and thoroughly controlled form of speech from the red-haired Rune Knight General, something that, when compared to the Shen Kadokawa that most people knew, was decidedly uncharacteristic. Even as she seemed to regain some of her lost power and he supported her, he seemed cold, distant. His head was turned away from her, and in spite of their situation, it appeared as if the man clad in black refused to look at the now-freed prisoner.

"Doesn't matter. I'm here to bust you out". Slowing him down had no effect on his objective. Now that he had secured the person he had come for, his objective was clear, not just from a tactical, but also a personal standpoint: He would protect Finn, no matter the cost. As the only survivor among his old squad besides himself, he owed it to her. Even if he had to wipe out this entire outpost, something that Pergrande would undoubtedly take as an act of aggression, he would do what it took. This wasn't the same meek, self-conscious weakling from before. The magic that had awoken within the Rune Knight had propelled him beyond something that could be described as confidence. He knew that he had what it took to dispatch all of these hostiles without much effort. The tricky part would be getting the captive out of this situation, something that would take Shen's undivided attention. Still, as much as he tried to focus on the mission, on the objective, there was something that he couldn't rid himself of, an emotion he couldn't shake off. There was such overwhelming shame that he had a hard time even speaking to his fellow Rune Knight. The fact that she seemed thankful, even elated to see him here, the fact that he had freed her from her imprisonment, it changed nothing. How she had to hate him for the state that she was in. It was his own fault, after all. It was his own fault that she had been so horribly wounded. His own fault that Finn had been captured and endured such torture all this time. His own fault that the others had died.

His fault alone.

The grip around his sword tightened, the glow in his eyes flaring up. He had to focus. He had to stay in the present, following the wounded ex-Prisoner out through the shattered remnants of a wall, his eyes shifting to the guard tower that Finn designated. It would make for an at least somewhat defensible position, he had to agree, and before the two could ever think about leaving this place, he had to make sure that they would not be pursued. The Pergrandeans, without a doubt, realized that this had the potential to become an international incident. They would do their utmost to make sure that neither of the Rune Knights would escape alive. Shen would prevent that. His voice rang out again, the monotone still present, though there was a steady certainty in his matter-of-fact way of speech. "Go ahead. I will thin their numbers".

With that, as she made her way to the tower, Shen stayed behind, sword tightly clutched in his grip still, the piercing winds of the storm doing little to veil the surroundings from a fierce, aurous-hued gaze. As if a switch was flipped, his body shifted from one moment to the next. It moved with intensity, direction, and unrelenting determination, like a ruthlessly efficient machine that was controlled by something entirely separate from a human being.

A small number of war machines pierced the noise of the storm, rotating blades keeping aloft armored hulls that bore an array of weapons, searchlights piercing through the darkness to locate the intruder. The Rune Knight General extended his arm, the hand forming a cramped claw that seemed to grasp at nothing before it was closed into a fist. The flying war machines bent, metal screeching as it was crumbled like paper by an unseen force. Then, from one moment to the next, the sky was alight with flame, distinct explosions projecting a flickering orange glow through the night. Wrecked steel and burning kerosine fell to the ground with deafening crashes, setting ablaze a hangar space some distance off from the now destroyed fortification where he and Finn had found themselves.

This, of course, was only the beginning. With the skies cleared, his attention shifted to the ground. There was certainly no shortage of targets here, his eyes once again darting about as his mind processed and prioritized targets. First would be the large-caliber weaponry they had employed in an anti-air role. In an instant, the man's form blurred and vanished, once more moving at hypersonic speeds to attack, Shen setting out to clear a path for the escapee all while keeping an eye on Finn to make sure no harm would befall her.

---

Post Word Count: 834
Personal Word Count Total: 4,949
Thread Word Count Total: 8,252