A Cluster Of Emotions

Deep down though he knew he was being selfish. "They need to run and choose themselves here." Between losing them forever and them dying he preferred the former even if he was left alone. Becoming numb to the pain in his leg he held his head down at the shame he felt. In that moment he was glad he didn't have the ability to speak as he was left alone in the silence of his thoughts. The darkness inside him started to wiggle around inside his body attempting to stop his mind from cracking but the best it could do was hold it together as an evil seeped through the cracks with the help of the aura surrounding this whole place along with Xilo's weak mental frame at the moment.

*Rattle*

"Ah right you're still here."

Hearing the rattling of bones she looked at the Undead Warrior as it lay impaled with a giant spike of ice that actually managed to do a bit of damage. "Still not enough to end it though." Scanning it's body this was the first time she had seen a creature quite like it. "Oh it has a human's soul inside of it still. I wonder if this was the result of one of their crazy experiments?" Trying to transfer souls to stay alive was something that was not many tried nowadays due to all records of it leading to you losing your sense of self and going into a rampage before dying but this one in front of her seemed to have been alive for hundreds of years with small traces of intelligence still left over and into an Astral Beast at that. Finding out the information she wanted she simply waved her hand and watched as it burst into flames, burning instantly.

"Well no matter, Skeletons of the past should stay dead. Fools trying to live forever."

With that she heard the sounds of screaming enter her ears even more vividly before as they were losing their wills. "Lasted longer than I thought." Turning up the flames power a little bit she watched as their faces scrunched up in even more pain as tears forcefully ran down their cheeks. "Good, break more." Seeing Xilo out of the corner of her eye with his head down she was happy with the results so far. Just a little more effort and she was positive they would snap like all the others. Faced with actual death most broke and she pleasantly awaited the moment.

"If you want to give up just let me know, if you can even speak anymore."

Laughing to herself she felt her anger subside a little bit as she heard the crippled girl trying to speak to her.

"Pl...ple."

"Hmm speak up a bit I can't hear you dear."

Turning up her flames power even more she made sure Xilo was listening as she forced his head to face forward. Looking at his slightly lifeless eyes as they trembled she knew he knew what was coming next. "One down now for the second." Looking at the other as watched the crippled girl try to attempt to speak, Althea strangely felt the girl's will break for a second. "Huh? Why does she seem upset?" Not quite understanding it the girl's voice continued to creak out.

"Ple..plea..ase...Bite..me."

Staring the woman who called herself Althea right in her eyes as she firmly announced those words. She had turned her back on Xilo once already but not again. It went further beyond just being alive or loving him with all her heart or wanting to make it up to him, this was simply for herself in that moment. She was telling the world and everyone that would stand before her that she was done backing down. No more running away and this is where she would take her stand even if it killed her.

"If..you think you'll...break us that easily."

"Then you're an idiot."

Hearing Felli chime in she tried to smile as she saw a visceral smile replace the usual cheeky sadistic one Althea carried before. Watching that Xilo felt himself frown as the world went black once more. The darkness was trying to hold back a flood with just a few twigs and it could no longer stop it. Within seconds his mind was flooded with evil thoughts that ran rampage as blades started to spike out of his skin. His face changed back into the same familiar bladed smile as more and more blades pierced his body even against Althea's pressure.

"What do you think you're trying to do?"

Before she could release her anger she caught sight of Xilo's transformation as she appeared in front of him and grabbed a hold of his head. Staring at that long forgotten bladed smile that had creeped her out the first time seeing it she took one of the blades in her hand. "Still had some fight in you it seems." She had thought he was losing hope before but it turned out the power she had long sealed away from him was taking over his body again instead.

"AHHHHHH!"

Hearing his raw shout bounce around the room she cracked one of the blades she had so desperately tried to repair at one point in her life. As long as they weren't broken it was fine she was just trying to get an accurate gauge on things for now. "So he resorted to something like this to stop me. Pathetic." She had faced a lot worse than his current pathetic power now and she wasn't afraid of it. She was only disappointed at how weak it had truly become.

"I hunted you down like a dog with my family once when you were at your strongest Xilo. Do you really think such weak and pathetic power that you don't even know how to control yet can really stop me? You're supposed to be so much greater then this but here you are actually letting it control you. Absolutely pathetic. You aren't the boss of me and you sure as hell won't ever be the boss of those blades with the way you're acting anytime soon. Looks like you really do need my help whether you like it or not."

Cracking blade after blade that was on his body she made sure she kept him in check as his whole body struggled to move and slash at her. With sheer rage and anger he was completely blinded with each swing as she cracked all the blades she could see before punching him in the gut. Letting those blades control him wouldn't do any good in the long run so she needed to stop it as fast as possible. If she wasn't careful he could go back to the way he was long ago and for some reason her body refused to let that happen. She couldn't really remember the days after she had captured Xilo so clearly anymore but she knew one thing.

"I'll never let you rampage alone again, so calm down for me...please."

"AHHHhhhh....!"

"So this is where all the demon I had been sensing was hiding."

hearing a sudden voice that had escaped her senses Althea stopped what she was doing as the word demon registered in her head. No one in this place should have ever been able to know that so whoever was here was someone she had to take seriously. Turning around she put Xilo behind her body as she looked at the old man in slightly normal clothes entering the room. "That symbol..." Looking at the symbol of the sword with a creature pierced on top of it she had flashbacks to the days she was a young girl where she had first seen that symbol. "It's him." Looking at the old man she matched it with the face of the man who had almost killed her back then to now as a rare sense of panic filled her soul.

"It's you...."