Standoff

"*PFFT*"

Hearing Free, the girl simply scoffed with a smile on her face.

Seeing her confidence, a sudden thought popped into Free's head.

What if both of us touched crystals?

Sure, it was statistically impossible, but Free had done the impossible countless times in the past few hours already.

Also, it would explain how she had obtained such a luxurious dress. Just like him, she could have received a pair of formal clothing in her dream.

Letting out a sigh, Free tilted his head, suppressed his inward anger, and asked.

"Hey, what are crystals?"

Seemingly scanning the air before her, the girl paused and looked up with a surprised expression.

"You don't even know what an end crystal is? What has been going on in that orphanage school!?"

Gazing up at the pitch-black sky, Free assumed a more serious tone as he answered.

"I'm talking about regular crystals."

"..?"

Immediatly, the girl perked up, her eyes meeting his.

"Free, was it? I wouldn't worry about those. Go on back to the village."

Is she trying to act friendly to lure me back to death in the village!?

As the breeze blew in, blowing back his white silk-collared shirt and revealing his waist, Free rubbed his forehead.

Why was this girl ignoring the elephant in the room?

My clothes!

In no way, shape, or form should someone like Free have been able to obtain such a set of clothing.

Hell, even the village leader is too broke for this!

Both of them had expensive attire, and both of them confidently had received a Blood-red fragment.

Both of them had woken up in the same area.

An idiot would be able to guess that both of them become second-stage Eclipsers.

Taking a step forward, now less than another step away from the girl, Free sighed and said.

"Can you drop the act? You already know I became a second-stage Eclipser. You're clearly just trying to figure out how."

Pausing as his words echoed throughout the unusually dark night, he continued.

"You're a terrible liar, Dawn...was it?"

Not even looking at Free, Dawn tilted her head, a smug smile still hanging on her face, and responded.

"You know, I wonder what'll happen if I kill you, right now."

Closing the distance between the two, Dawn lunged forward, multiple bright light particles gathering in her right palm and slowly grouping together to form the shape of a sword. 

"We're both Blood Dreamers, so I wonder: are we enemies or allies?"

Standing before the attacking Dawn, Free simply raised his palm.

This girl wouldn't kill him, or rather, she couldn't.

As a shining white sword appeared in her palm, Dawn held its iron hilt and surged it vertically forward, right at Free's unmoving Adam's apple.

"*GULP*"

"..."

"..."

A brief moment of awkward silence consumed the two, Dawn's mouth stiffening as she seemed...to hold in a laugh?

As the gulp unwilling left Free's mouth, his body still unmoving, his Adam's apple moved outward, toward the tip of Dawn's surging sword.

Alternatively, Dawn's sword halted less than a centimeter before embedding itself in Free's neck, her eyes locked onto his neck.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Finally, the silence was broken as Free opened his mouth, feeling a tingle of pain as his Adam's apple slightly brushed against the tip of Dawn's sword.

"Can't do that, can you? She would be very angry."

Dawn simply remained silent, sparks dancing in her frozen celestial white-pupils, but her sword did not budge an inch.

Not skipping a moment, Free surged his right hand upward from his waist, right at the middle of the white sword.

Dawn immediatly tried to retract her sword, but caught off guard by Free's words, she could move it slightly backward, creating some distance between the sword's tip and Free's Adam's apple.

The edges of the sword immediatly cut Free's hand, creating long gashes of blood that stretched across his palm like veins.

Locking his hands around the sword, ignoring the burning pain that was nothing compared to yesterday, Free...yanked the weapon toward him, like it was the rope in a game of Tug of War.

If Dawn hadn't been pulling the sword in the opposite direction from the hilt, the sword would have pierced right through his neck.

Instead, because of Dawn, the sword barely halted itself before Free's neck, trembling as the two tugged in opposite directions.

Opening her mouth and vibrating her vocal cords to the point that they almost broke, Dawn screamed so loud that the dirt below the two began vibrating as if an earthquake were occurring.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Despite their differences, Evangel still cared for him. 

Titling his head like a confused animal, Free gazed down at Dawn and calmly said, ignoring his palm slowly going numb.

"So you can't hurt me."

Putting more strenght into his right hand, Free attempted to pull the sword forward, but it did not budge.

Before Dawn could even respond, Free smiled and continued.

"Tell me what a crystal is, or this sword goes through my neck."

With the two at a standstill, the tip of the white sword brushing against Free's neck, Dawn also tilted her head, mirroring Free's movement.

"You know, I can just say you died in an accident."

Leaning his head forward, so that the tip of his nose almost brushed against Dawn's, Free whispered, his onyx-black pupils meeting her white ones.

"You know the only reason I came out here today was her betrayal. I wonder how she'll feel if I end up dying."

Dawn's teeth ground against each other like gears as her body began to tremble, not in fear but anger.

"Aren't you her childhood friend? She's talked about you like you're her world...her reason for living and pressing on. She talked to you and played with you when nobody else did."

"Yet, you're intentionally playing around with her emotions like this. Do you ever care how she feels right now?"

The sword's cold metal tip now directly touching Free's skin, but not moving any further, Dawn continued.

"What about the poor girl, sitting alone in the town's orphanage, waiting for your return with tears in her eyes? What about her!?"