Hiding One's True Face

Drawing his blade he condensed all his energy into that sword pull as he pulled it out of his sheathe. The second it was released a burst of Astral Energy exploded around the area as time was shattered into pieces, freezing everything around him as a blade of energy went flying towards the monster with himself behind it creating a large X to attack him with. The Astral Ability he had awoken to over the course of his training was the ability to manipulate time. A very rare ability that only a couple people in history had that the spirit inside of him helped nurture. He couldn't do anything too big with it yet but he was able to shatter time for a fraction of a second, creating a second slash with his deadly speed. One day this technique might turn into hundreds of thousands of slashes but for now this was more than enough.

Feeling his vision pause Xilo looked at the double slash coming for him as he gathered up all the defense he could. "He's right, I need to defend." Slamming all the Ice Energy he could build up into the ground he threw up a giant wall of ice to defend himself as his body pumped with adrenaline. The only thing he could hear was the sound of his heartbeat as it thumped against his chest non stop. He didn't know what just happened but he was prepared for the worse.

"Is this all you got!?"

Slamming into the monster's wall of ice, Zelfin didn't care about it at all as he broke through it with ease. No matter how thick it was it wasn't enough to stop his attack. Crushing the ice, a gust of cold wind blew past his face as the ice shattered into pieces just like time. Seeing Xilo paused up ahead in confusion Zelfin truly hoped he could instil that same fear he felt that day into him. Without stopping for a second he barreled straight into Xilo as two slashes attacked his body ripping through him. One giant X mark slashed into Xilo as he heard a familiar cry..

"hurts doesn't it, The searing pain of time shattering into you and ripping you to the core. No one in the world could withstand such pain, not even you."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

For the first time in a long time Xilo screamed out in pain as he felt his body rip itself into pieces and repair itself. That process repeated itself a couple times before the second slash connected slightly behind it. Blood spilled forth from his chest insistently along with his ribs being broken and impacting on themself. Xilo couldn't even stand straight anymore nor did he even have the energy to cry out. He felt like he had just been cut in half as his body fell backwards nearly snapped in half. Staring up at the spinning sky Xilo saw clouds hover over them as distant shouts filled his ears.

"Dy...ing?"

Barely hovering between life and death Xilo still didn't die even like this and the reason for that was Zelfin. In some intervals he was healing Xilo's body and just barely keeping him alive before breaking him all over again. He didn't want to kill him just yet, that wouldn't accomplish his goal or fulfill his desires. So he was going to torture Xilo until he broke and the monster showed up. If this didn't work then he had other ideas too. He had so much time to think of ways to drag it out of him when he was training so he was prepared. "Come now. Show me your true face. That horrible smile and that horror that left a permanent mark on my soul." Looking down at the bloodied creature underneath him Zelfin couldn't help but be happy.

Watching from the side the four women watched Zelfin's attack as they stayed frozen in place. There were over twenty people there still but none of them made a move to step forward to help, not even the four girls. Tearia was stopping them from getting anywhere near Xilo. If that man was talking about the thing she was thinking about then it was best they left no matter how much it hurt her. She knew from the looks on their faces that Relia and Xelfia had no idea what the man meant by monster and she didn't want them to find out either. If they reacted similarly to her in the past it would probably just break Xilo's mind completely.

"We need to leave now. We can't help Xilo in this fight, it's not our place."

Hearing Tearia's calm voice try to reason with her, Xelfia was getting angry.

"So we're just going to walk away and leave him to die!?"

"No, Xilo can handle this fight but he's just worried about us."

"How is he worried about us, we can handle ourselves!"

Xelfia was shouting at this point, Tearia wasn't making any sense to her.

"....."

Relia watched from the side stuck in the middle of both of them without being able to choose a side. She was usually the mood reader but she knew both of them weren't wrong or correct. In this place she didn't know what decision to make herself and it was killing her. Meanwhile Seli watched from the side as her gaze hardened without saying a word. "Interesting ability he has, the power to manipulate time." She was curious about the figure's hooded monster talk as well. "It seems these two are both very interesting individuals." Fighting back and forth, Xelfia and Tearia couldn't come to any form of agreement.

"I'm going Tearia and you can't stop me."

Shrugging off Tearia's hand, Xelfia had enough of this nonsense.

"Please...Xelfia don't go, not for my sake or your own but for Xilo's."

Hearing the pleading in Tearia's voice, Xelfia stopped as she looked Tearia in the eyes. Staring at the tears that dripped down her cheeks, Xelfia had a world of anger inside her but it deflated upon seeing that. Swallowing her words she calmed down her emotions as best she could as she tried to think about this. She had no idea why Tearia was acting like this at all and along with the monster talk from before she was confused. Tearia clearly knew something that she didn't and refused to talk about it.

"What are you not telling me Tearia, what is it you know that's making you do this."

Unable to say a word, Tearia had no right to reveal something Xilo was trying to hide however if she didn't say anything Xelfia would know anyway. Taking a deep breath Tearia collected herself as she tried to speak only to be interrupted by a voice in the distance. "Huh?" Looking forward she saw a swirl of darkness come to life that could consume anyone's soul just from laying their eyes on it. Twisted malice and hate that threatened to destroy and devour the world in one bite. A walking monster that haunted everyone's nightmares even when they were awake. An Embodiment of hate and anger that expanded in the air silencing the world.

"It's too late..."

""".....?"""

The three women looked at Tearia in confusion as the hooded figure's voice rang out.

"Finally you show your true self."