ᴍʏ ᴜɴᴄʟᴀɪᴍᴇᴅ ᴘᴇᴀᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴍɪɴᴅ | ᴛᴇɴᴢᴀɪ & ᴋᴀʟɪ

[Tenzai]

#D69CFF​

I made loving you a blood sport
ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ꜱᴘᴏʀᴛ | ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘ ᴛᴏᴋᴇɴ
↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺

Would you invite me in again?
Let me pay for my arrogance?
Won't you show me your weakness?

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Unclaimed. That was the title the entity bestowed upon the accursed knight in training. Over the origin of his fallen angel blood, Nadir was labeled unworthy to love by those who held the power as matchmaker. No matter how much his hopeful supposed father in law could vouch for him, no matter how much his beloved princess could fall for him, there was only so much he could do against the powers that be which controlled the world. He was nothing more than a flawed cog in the wheel, a soul whose existence was never meant to be.

With a fallen angel as a mother and a human knight as his father, the knight in training had chosen to pursue the same virtues and values as his parents. Even if they were no longer with him to support him, they lived on through the hopes that stirred in his heart; That no matter how poor his upbringing, Nadir would be able to make a difference in this world to make it one that his princess could live proudly in... At least, that's what he had originally thought. While he pursued knighthood underneath the banner of the entity that dictated his fate in spite of the loss of his childhood friend and lover to another prince, what he never would've expected was to be commanded by his superiors to draw his weapon against the same woman that had made him take his first steps as a fledgling knight in the first place. He was given a simple order: To slay the princess.

Regardless of how he might have felt on the matter, Nadir decided to accept the order. Should anyone else have been given the task, he doubted they would've offered the same mercy that he would. In some corrupted way, it would've also helped him make good on the promise he made to her before they departed over ten years ago: That no matter what happened, they will reunite again. At least this way, they would find closure for their tragedy of a story. At least this way, they both would claim their peace of mind.

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[Hey, N. Are sure you could do this? The last knights that were sent to handle her have all gone MIA. If you have any feelings coming into it, I advise you turn around before you hold one of us back.] An icon of his friend speaking in his helmet's visor had stirred the knight from his nostalgic stupor. Nothing he could think would be able to diminish the gravity that was taking the life of the woman he treated as his soulmate. With his blade and pistol on his hip and his rifle in hand, the fallen angel gave his ally a nod. He was far from powerless, taking on many bounties of different monsters before. What difference was this save for his past relationship? [I'll be fine, just worry about yourself.]

Deployed as a team of five knights including himself to take on the dungeon she was supposedly imprisoned in, Nadir found out through briefing that the monstrous his princess had used to protect before was what made her a target. It made him sick to his stomach knowing that he was riding a gunship sent with the purpose of deploying a kill-team in mind, though he understood its purpose; The cold wilds that her dungeon was built in to keep out of the eyes of the public was dangerous; Full of monsters that sought to end any unfortunate enough to come along their path. It had served as a security mechanic, both ensuring that curious wanderers would stay away for the sake of their own safety while adding another layer of imprisonment, preventing those inside from wishing to wander beyond. Though from rumors, the prison that her lover had stashed her in had fallen to unknown hands; Whether that be of an outsider's doing or that of her own had yet to be decided as those who were deployed never came back.

[Landing one hundred meters away from the dungeon. Be safe and be careful.] The pilot aboard had spoken through the comms channel to make the team inside the passenger bay aware of their up and coming descent. [Notify me in advance when you're ready for pickup. The closest landing bay is ten minutes away.] As soon as the ship had brought itself down to land, the door opened, revealing nothing but a cold wall of ice. 'They knew she was weak to cold.' He thought to himself before following his team leader out of the ship. 'How much do they know about her?'

[N, we'll be splitting into two teams. Us three will explore the south face of the dungeon while you and Z handle the north.] A map displayed in his visor of what was known of the dungeon's blueprints. From the looks of it, it was incomplete, as though something about the dungeon had changed since its construction long ago. [Got it. You can leave it to us, Cap.] His friend, Ziogenes, saluted as the three departed in the opposite direction. [Looks like its just me and you, N. Let's get this taken care of quickly. This place is giving me the creeps.]

Upon marching towards the opposite entrance from the one that the other team was set to explore, the two were met with a rusted opening that seemed bombed open by previous teams. [Hey, you ever wonder what took the past teams out?] N shook his head. They weren't privy to the last recordings of past teams. Most likely, whatever they saw or heard was classified, even for other knights that were to be deployed for the task. [You think knowing now would change anything? We have a job to do. Let's handle it.]

With rifles drawn and visors set to recognize heat signatures within the dark, the two pushed inward, refusing to let the dungeon's haunting history sway them from continuing. The pair doubted that they would be granted a ride back should they fail in their mission in the first place anyways so there was little point in turning around. [I'm not leaving without seeing her.] N mumbled into the mic, unaware of the strength of his attachment.

Further in, as they made their way into the darkness of the building, beyond a few corridors and hallways, the sound of rumbling had caught their attention; Its source had seemed to be behind them, following them after the last few turns. [Did you hear that?] Ziogenes was the first to list his concern while N kept moving ahead. [Nothing but hell and halls behind us, Z. We stop now and whatever it is behind us will catch up.] Seeking to avoid conflict before reaching her, N attempted to persuade his ally to no avail. The man's weapon was drawn towards the direction of the hallway corner behind them, his eyes glaring through the infrared scope. [Either we deal with this now or we'll end up getting overwhelmed later.] Taking his position behind a door that led into an abandoned cafeteria, the fallen angel sighed before taking cover opposite of him to avoid grouping.

Within moments, the source of the sound had made its presence known as it turned the corner: A rusted construct that was originally programmed to patrol the halls for any intruders. [A robot.] Its arms were covered in dried blood, suggesting conflict with the past occupants of the building; Though before the others had a chance to check whether it was hostile or not, it charged. [Still think it was worth stopping now?!] The two opened fire at it, only to find their rounds unable to penetrate its reinforced hull. Believing that they lacked the punching power, instead of continuing to waste rounds on the robot, N drew his sword and charged at the mechanical hulk, taking a swing at it with his enchanted weapon in an attempt to disarm it and bring it down.

"Bring it." Blow for blow, they traded until its arm had struck the helmet of the unclaimed knight, knocking it off of his head and leaving him without the protection of before. Given the darkness and the lack of night vision, the next strike was unseen, leading to Nadir being unable to dodge as it sent him through the floor of the complex. [N!] No response. The ground shook as the two were separated from each other. With the damaged structure and a lack of intel or vision, as the fallen angel fell through whatever space existed underneath him, it took a few seconds before he landed in a pool of water with a current that took him downstream. Ice that melted into the dungeon itself had bathed the angel in ice, shocking him for a moment before he regained his consciousness in an unknown part of the dungeon; One that even with his implants, he couldn't decipher due to it being unmapped.

[Z? Captain? Do you read?] All the angel could hear was static with the sounds of gunfire ringing in his ear. Whatever was happening up there, it seemed that his team had made contact with guns drawn. "Shit. They can't hear me." Looking down, he felt around before grabbing his weapon. It felt cracked in the center, though thankfully, it still held a functioning flashlight that was resilient to the water he came from. "Looks like I have to find my way up on my own." Turning on his flashlight, he made stock of his surroundings as well as his wellbeing, smelling the taint of blood on his suit. He was injured; To what end, he didn't know. However, sticking around wouldn't serve any purpose other than to further his demise. He knew he wouldn't be rescued. Not here. Not in a place like this. Attempting to unfurl his wings had come at a terrible cost; as he tried to spread them, he realized that they were too wounded to fly. Wherever the robot must have struck him on his back, it must have directly impacted where his wings were.

"Funny... To think that I could die so close to you." In an attempt to keep his mind focused and his head conscious, he spoke to himself while walking through the empty hallways of the floor below. It felt ironic that he had spent so much time training for this moment only to suffer a fate like this. Though, oddly enough, as he walked, he felt peace. If he died trying to reach her, he felt like he didn't have much to regret other than the fact that if she were still around to begin with, that she would find his corpse instead. However, as he scanned his environment to get a better idea of where he might be, he noticed that he was in a hallway with a tiled floor that led to a single door on the opposite end. It was different from every other room they came across so far. While the top floors of the facility had seemed more like a laboratory meant to house staff and conduct research, this area had seemed to be a closed off section that was meant to house test subjects. Signs around that displayed risk levels were evidence of that conclusion; Wherever he was forced down, it must have been among the deepest areas that any knight reached.

"Well, I guess there's no way but forward." Drawing his sidearm due to his wounds being too great for him to wield any of his primary weapons accordingly, as he attempted to open the door in front of him, it didn't seem to budge. Whatever that locked it must have been controlled on the inside, preventing the knight from coming in. "Hmm..." Raising his pistol towards where he assumed the lock of the door was, he prayed a short prayer for himself and those he fought alongside to the entity above before firing a couple rounds to ensure that whatever prevented him from coming in would be broken enough for him to work through. With the second flash, the door budged, slowly swinging open by itself to reveal someone on the other end. A wave of the flashlight overhead had caused his eyes to grow wide and his heart to sink. In the bottom of this hellscape, there was a familiar face. Blonde strands of hair cut through the darkness as his eyes scanned her form. There was no denying it. It was her.

"V?" Instead of using the name that others called her, unconsciously, N chosen to use the nickname that he gave her during childhood. His voice came out weaker than usual, but given the silence of the dungeon, his acoustics had bounced off the walls of her prison. The bodies of past knights were scattered around, each having been lucky enough to take a glimpse of her before meeting their own end, though unlike them, he wasn't afraid. It was fate that brought them together again.

Her voice was haunting, one that he never thought that he would hear again. His name coming from her lips had felt so right to hear again, despite its monstrous undertones. Her eyes glimmered on the sight of his flashlight at the end of his gun barrel; His armor was the same as the many men and women she rended with her potency. Interestingly, unlike those that came before him and unlike the monsters he faced before, his pistol shook upon seeing her, trembling at the knowledge that he had orders to bring her down. "... I missed you. To think, its been ten years since we last saw each other... Ten years for us to reunite... Like this." It felt like divine irony to have the same organization he fought so hard for to move up the ranks be the same that commanded him to bring her to an end; The very same organization he chose to become a part of to protect her as her bodyguard.

"...Are you disappointed in me?..." No matter how much he could will his arms to aim, there was nothing he felt like he could do to ever direct harm towards her. While the world may have seen her as a monster, to the fallen angel, she was the only one who could understand him; Behind the horrors of her flesh was the innocent soul that he fell in love with in the first place. "... I became a knight, like I promised you." His boot stepped closer, one after another. While there was still the fear that she might strike him like the robot guardian did before, something about the way she looked at him reminded him of the same way she did before when they spent hours together in the darkness of nature. "I came here to save lives, you know?" Noticing her bloodied hands bound together by chains, he pointed his pistol at her. "And I'm sorry things have to end like this... But you deserve better. We deserved better."

A gunshot. Aimed not at her chest nor her head, the round snapped through the cuffs that bound her hands together. While she was able to walk around without it, the sight of seeing his beloved in bondage was something he would never accept. "... Even now, I struggle with following orders. Ha... ha..." The world became a blur as he felt his strength leave his legs. The warmth he once had was leaving him, being frozen away with the blood that spilled from his head and back. "... and I still don't know how to love you right."

"Would you punish me if I told you, I never stopped loving you?" Feeling an arm beside him, the fallen angel leaned against it. It was far from the first time she saw him spilling blood. Fighting monsters to keep her safe before, of both those of species that were familiar and those that weren't, he was often met with the ground after a tough fight, only to wake up in her arms or lap with his wounds tended to. However, this time, it seemed as though it could be at an end. A stroke of misfortune had sapped the vitality of the hopeful knight before he had a chance to even see her again.

"Would you forgive me for trying to forget?" As a part of the promises he made as a child, among them was to always remain honest with his feelings towards her, no matter how much it could hurt. The long nights during shifts, the lonely evenings at taverns, and even the missed birthdays and the lost ceremonies had all served to make N bitter about their circumstances. In the years that passed, he followed the mass media of the princess and her happy marriage with the prince she was destined to be with before her fall, causing his mind and heart to shatter over and over again to see glimpses of her happiness. It was painful to remember and even more so to forget. No amount of alcohol or drug no matter how bitter either could be could ever make him forget the woman that taught him what love was in the first place.

"I wouldn't blame you if you hated me. After all, I became one of them, the people that locked you up here." His armor bore the insignia that those loyal to the entity would adorn on their body. "I was sent here in the first place to kill you... Me and four others. I doubt they would find you if you're holed up here." His mouth grew dry as he felt himself growing weary. Without help, his soul edged on the line to oblivion, beckoning him to give up his last vestiges of vitality in exchange for peace. "... If you do choose to kill me... And I end up like one of the other knights here, can you do me a favor, V?" Opening his eyes weakly, he stared into her own seeing his teary reflection adorn a soft smile, the same he would offer her if she sought his comfort. "Can you... Lie to me and tell me you love me back? Please?"

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And somewhere
Somewhere the atoms stopped fusing
I'm still your favourite regret
You're still my weapon of choosing

And out there
Stuck in a quantum pattern
Tangled with what I never said
You say it doesn't matter​

 

[Kali]

I guess I’ll have to face, that in this awful place
I shouldn’t show a trace of doubt…

NOW PLAYING:
Escapism | Steven Universe​

Life was never meant to be like this for someone like her. She was meant for so much more, but fate does not play fairly. Her life started fairly normally; she grew up happy and in love with a person who accepted her not just for her status, but for her as a living being. Her knight. The one person in this world who would defend her no matter the cost. He proved that to her time and time again growing up, but that all changed when she was matched with another. A crueller man who had no patience for her supposed misgivings and, when faced with the truest parts of her, ruthlessly banished her to a dungeon, far away from home. From him. Her N.

The dungeon was large, but she was forcefully contained on the bottom floor, where the building was its coldest and the room was as small as could be. During the first few weeks of containment, she cried constantly, begging anyone to come and take her away. She was so cold… Most regular people would have died in her condition, but she was far from that. She was so weak in this state, barely able to stand on her own two feet. That was until the first knight came to ‘rescue’ her. She had already lost track of how long she had been down there. Nobody, not even her cruel husband, came to visit or even feed her. When she saw the door crack open, it was the first light and warmth in so long…She called out to the knight, hoping for this nightmare to be over. When the first knight saw her, his resolve wavered, and as she spoke, it was as if all direction given to him was thrown out the window.

The knight took her hand in his, lifting her up to stand and offered to help her escape this accursed place, dagger in hand. This knight reminded her of the man she had once loved, might still love. She was desperate to leave this place, and just with the warmth coming off of the knight, she could feel strength seeping back into her. Just as they turn to walk out of her own personal hell, the door slams shut and a lock is securely put in place. She could faintly hear from the knight's helmet an order. Slay the princess or you will not leave here alive. She gasped, stumbling a few steps away from the knight. He looked conflicted for a few seconds, staring at the door, then turning to her. He gripped the dagger tightly, realising that he wouldn’t last long in this cold abyss. There was only one way he could make it out of here alive.

Slay her.​

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But every time I watch one die
I'm thinking only of the first one
The first one, the first one, the first one, the first one
The first one, the first one, the first one

NOW PLAYING:
Nothing | The Asylum

How long has it been…? How much longer can I stay in this hell before I lose my sanity?​

Vita sat curled up in the corner of the small room she called purgatory. Around her, five bodies were slumped on the floor, each seemingly more mutilated than the last. Dried blood was dotted all over her originally light pink dress, almost creating a strange polka dot pattern. Her hands and feet were also covered in the dark liquid of the men that came to end her, but the blood on her back was purely her own. Three perfectly shaped stab wounds surrounded her chest in scarring, looking almost like the centre of a target. Another deep, jagged wound could be seen near her collarbone on her left side, the first attempt. Vita remembers the first one vividly as that was the closest she had gotten to death's door, but all five were sitting here with her just the same.

OOO
One. “Hello? Is someone there? Are you here to save me?”

Two. “Hello…? Who sent you? I hope you are here to help…”

Three. “... Don’t come any closer. Nobody has to die today. I just want to leave.”

Four. “LET ME OUT.” stab. “LET ME OUT.” stab. “LET ME OUT.” stab. “LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT!!!!” stab. stab. stab. stab. stab. stab. stab-

Five. “...” All that could be heard was the plunge of a dagger through a young knight's throat and his gurgling cries and pleas for mercy.
But nobody came.
OOO​

The smell of decay and rot was intense, but it had been so long that she no longer remembers a world without it. She used to choke and sob from the fumes, but now she can do nothing but stare blankly at the door and hope that the next person to come through would either save her or be forced to suffer a gruesome and long-suffering end. Maybe she was truly a monster. Or maybe she had no other choice. It does not matter. She will make it out of here. Alive. If it’s the last thing she does.

She slowly looked up toward the ceiling, her eyes lidded and a small, crazed smile forming on her face. Noise. Movement. She was unsure how long it had been since the last assassination attempt, but considering the most recent knight still looked relatively human-like, it had to have only been a few months. The freezing conditions of her holding cell made the decomposing process even slower, along with the lack of insects to feast on the decay of the unfortunate men. No matter the length of time, another assassin has been sent. She shakily stood, using the wall and her prop chains to pick herself up, attempting to prepare herself for another altercation. She ripped the dagger that was still plunged in the fifth knight's neck and wiped the dark liquid and dead skin onto the dead man's shirt. She hid the dagger in a small handmade pocket near her hip, making it almost invisible to someone walking into the dim dungeon. Not that it will matter. They’ll be dead on the floor before they notice where the dagger was hidden.

She had not been chained since the first knight, but realised that perhaps seeing a ‘mostly’ defenceless princess would lower the defences of whoever came to see her. Not that it mattered at this point. Anyone who came down here would find her sins lying dead on the floor. Despite that, Vita decided that maybe if she could convince the person to come closer to her, she could conserve her already sapped energy and kill them with one thrust of the slightly rusted knife. She heard a large crash and knew that her performance would start soon. She could no longer play the sweet, innocent princess because she simply wasn’t. She watched the door with clinical eyes, prepared to face her next enemy and perhaps this time be freed from this horror.

She could hear a voice from down the hall, a familiar tone, but too distant and muffled to know who or what it was for sure. She looked down, making sure her weapon was in an easily accessible position and waited.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And if I start to grieve
'Cause it feels you're 'bout to leave
Forgive me, I'm not naive
I've been here before

NOW PLAYING:
Nothing's New | Rio Romeo

​

Nobody had ever had to shoot the door down to get in, but that is what she heard. One, two, three, four, five, six shots and then the door slowly creaked open, allowing the first bit of warmth and light she had felt and seen in months to wash over her like a comforting blanket. She didn’t savor it for long, tensing for what was to most likely be another person's blood on her hands. She put her head down for a moment, hissing softly at the flashlight pointing directly onto her face. It was heaven and hell. She couldn’t handle its shine.

“V?”
Her eyes went wide, a shiver running down her spine. No. No. They couldn’t have. They couldn’t be so cruel. Not him. Not…

“N… Nadir…?”
Her voice held an almost hysterical tone, albeit a bit hoarse from the lack of speaking regularly. The words felt foreign in her mouth as she looked over to where he stood, clearly injured in some capacity, although she didn’t know why. He continued to speak. Ten years. Ten. YEARS. She had been separated from him for only three years before she was brought here. She had been down there for seven years.

“Ten… what-”
Vita flinched and almost cowered as her former lover, confidant, and best friend made his way closer to her, as if drawn magnetically, with a gun gripped in his hands, rambling questions and unbroken promises. She kept her mouth shut, unable to believe that this was reality. That she would have to kill the one person she promised never to harm again. She gazed up at him, blood-red tears streaking down her face and dripping onto her bloodied hands. When he raised his gun, she couldn’t force herself to move, no matter how strongly her instincts told her to. For once, she thought that maybe dying is the right thing to do. If it was him making the killing blow. Instead of closing her eyes, she decided to lock her eyes with his. If these were to be her final moments, she wanted to know happiness just one last time in those eyes.

The gunshot rang in her ears, and while she expected pain to bloom in her chest, she instead heard the crack of metal as the cuffs around her wrists shattered, causing her body to reverberate with the force of the action. She looked down, finding her hands free and quickly looked back up to find N swaying forward, falling to his knees in front of her.

“Would you punish me if I told you, I never stopped loving you?”

Almost instinctively, she pushed herself forward, grabbing him and propping him against her arm. She felt as if she was burning from the warmth of his skin. It had been so long, but she had no time to cherish this buzzing feeling in every inch that was touching him. She felt the slippery blood trailing from his head, down his neck and back, and now it was pooling onto the floor and part of her dress.

"Would you forgive me for trying to forget?"

Vita looked down at Nadir, gently brushing his hair from his face so she could see him clearly, or at least as clearly as she could in the dimly lit room. Nothing else mattered at that moment.

“Please… don’t do this to me…”
She cried, this moment becoming the worst part of her seven years of confinement. She couldn’t lose him. Never him.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me. After all, I became one of them, the people that locked you up here.”

She glanced down at his uniform, recognising the insignia that all of the other knights in the room once wore with pride. She felt nothing towards it. She knew it was an order, and no knight worth his salt refuses an order even if that meant facing certain death. She wonders what people believe happened to the poor men that happened to made their way down here. Not that many people were grieving them. All knights are unclaimed as it allows them to be fully devoted to their duty, to their cause.

“I could never blame you…”
Vita whispered, listening to his almost frenzied statements. Four others? Had all of the other knights had others accompany them? She would most likely never know, not that it changed things. These men were dead, and the others most likely died due to the terrible conditions of this place.

“...If you do choose to kill me… And I end up like one of the other knights here, can you do me a favor, V?”

She could feel his heartbeat slowing as he spoke his last request, her eyes meeting his once again.

“Can you… Lie to me and tell me you love me back? Please?”

Vita stared at him in abject shock and horror, her entire form shaking as she pulled him closer, his head resting on her chest and brokenly whispering in his ear.

“I do. I never stopped.”

She began to sob, holding him close, praying to any deity or god that would listen to spare his life. She no longer cared about her own mortality when his was now on the line. Despite ten years of absence, he was still the centre of her world. She refused to let him die in her arms. This is not how their story will end. Vita gently set his almost limp body down, attempting to avoid any unnecessary pain. She began looting the corpses around her, as she had not touched them since their demise. All of them had packs with a small amount of medical supplies: bandages, alcohol wipes, medical tape, and a small stitching kit in each. She had never stitched wounds before, but she had to hope that stitching clothes was similar. At least it would close the wounds until she could figure out how to get them out of there. If they could get out of there.

She sat back down next to N and slowly but gently removed his armour to better look at the damage to his head and back. She continually checked his pulse as she began wiping the blood from his skin and revealing the size of the wounds. The head wound was very luckily just a flesh wound, so she wiped and bandaged it, hoping that the bleeding would stop soon. As for his back, he had deep slashes in three separate places as well as major damage to one of his wings. She worked methodically, stitching and bandaging each cut, checking that he was still breathing and his heart was still beating periodically. Once she was finished, she sat with her back against the wall and manoeuvred him to where he was sleeping with his head on her lap. While he was in his comatose state, and she was on the verge of sleep as well, she whispered into the heavy silence.

“Please… Don’t leave me...”​

 

[Tenzai]

I have travelled far beyond the path of reason; Take me back to Eden; Take me back to Eden
ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴍᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ᴇᴅᴇɴ | ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘ ᴛᴏᴋᴇɴ
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"I never stopped." His heart was her garden; A world of their creation full of happy memories. Even in the midst of the darkness where they were surrounded by decaying corpses, Princess Vita was made aware of Nadir's smile in the fading glint of the glow that came from his helmet. Despite it being ten years since they last saw each other, it was clear that his memory was not one-sided. She had not forgotten him in the decade since.

Before he had the chance to question what kept her faithful after so long, the sound of sobbing had split his curiosity, causing his focus to turn towards the feeling of her rain on his exposed skin in the rips of his armor. In spite of his end nearing, his soul mustered the strength to reach for her, but only just enough to coil his fingers around hers. She was cool but receptive to his warmth and ginger touch; After seven years of isolation and torment through solitary confinement, his soft affections had brought a brief pause to her eternal torment.

"Don't cry. I made it, V... I finally found you..." With his vision clearing only momentarily, as he found her smudged tears on his visor, he leaned into her embrace, unafraid of the monster that his own kind feared. "The least I deserve is a smile after coming all this way. Please... Please grant me peace in your arms." If she sought to be his end, he doubted that he would be still alive to speak to her.

"I'm sorry that it took me so long... I'm sorry that I couldn't have found you under any other circumstances." Stroking his thumb against her hand, he basked in their proximity, believing her side to be the only piece of heaven in this hell of a nightmare. "But maybe in another life. I'll find you again. Maybe in another, we'll be together living a life that we both wanted." Unable to hold her hand for any longer, his fingers spilled from her grasp, falling to his side as his heartbeat drummed slower and slower. He was running out of time.

His wounds were deep. While the injury he sustained to his head did not reach his skull, the one he received on his back was a different story. Where there was meant to be plating, there was an open gash that ripped through his protective layering, his gaping wound spilling his warmth and his life down onto the frigid dungeon floor. In combination with the trauma he endured on his head, the blood loss was too much for his body to continue remaining conscious for much longer. His eyelids felt like anchors. Her words and presence were beginning to feel distant. "Please… Don't leave me..." As her voice faded away, her fallen angel's consciousness drifted to another life; One that they lived before they were separated ten years ago.

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"Always by your side, V. Up to the bitter end." A pinky promise had sealed their pact in the middle of her father's garden. Away from the prying eyes of nobles and away from the responsibilities that the government wished to instill into the children, a fallen angel orphan and his best friend were hidden in a special place in the brush where even her father struggled to find them. It was a place of confessions, of secrets, and of promises; One that had never left his mind as one of Nadir's bastions of peace. Here, he wouldn't be judged for how he felt or what he was. Here by her side, he felt safe to be free.

"Hey, have you ever wondered what our future would look like?" Without concerns for her father's judgement, her knight to be spoke his honest truth while swinging his wooden blade to train his muscles. Given his fondness for spell blades and her father's preference for his company, he was offered an education and a place to stay in exchange for his loyalty and continued reassurance that he would protect his daughter through thick and thin. "I wonder what our marriage would look like?" Nadir mused. "Then again, I don't think I need anything fancy like a marriage to be happy with you; As long as I'm with you, that's all that matters." Dancing with his blade to practice his lessons on footwork, as he turned around, he gave the sitting princess a genuine smile, finding her beautiful when in the presence of nature outside her stuffy noble lands.

"Oh... Here, let me get that for you- Woah!" Noticing a leaf that got caught in her long, blonde hair, as Nadir had attempted to remove it for her, he tripped on a rock, falling atop of her instead. "Oof- Hey, are you okay?" Concern was the first tone he held in his voice. Regardless of his knowledge on her physical resilience of her monstrous form, he still treated her like a lady all throughout, preferring to love her as though they were both normal rather than bound to the common identity and reputation of their species. "Sorry about that. Looks like I still have need for more practice." Her knight chuckled, only to blush when he realized how close they were face to face.

In truth, he wasn't afraid of thinking about a romance with her. While there may have been other women that were prettier, that were wealthier or more influential than his childhood best friend, there was none better at understanding him and loving him for more than what his biology said he was other than her. She didn't care about his past like the others in her court; All she cared about was whether he was okay and whether he was happy. Smiling as he saw a reflection of his own blush on her cheeks, the young fallen angel gave her a peck on the lips before pulling away with a leaf in his hands. "Got it~"

Eventually rolling to her side, Nadir reached out for V's hand while he looked up at the orange sunset skies of their home world, imagining their adventures in the space beyond. The comic data slates of space knights who braved the galaxy above against threats both eldritch and alien was always something that excited him, and he never felt a better adventuring partner by his side than the girl who knew how to fight as hard as he did. "You ever think that we could find a quiet place where we could just be?"

Nadir questioned. Given the reputation of fallen angels by the entity, he wasn't sure about how well his future would pan out. Still, no matter what it looked like, he couldn't imagine a future with her by his side. "I'd like to take you out to see the stars one day. Just me and you. A ship we could call home and a crew that we could call family too. Somewhere out there; Somewhere that isn't... Here." Upon seeing that the end of the day was approaching, as the stars above became visible through the star's glow, he turned to her as he yawned. Whatever words she mentioned in response were a blur as his world began to fade away after a long day. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to dream, would it?"

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Water droplets. The frigid cold air of the dungeon's internal wind was a reminder that he was still alive; Though interestingly enough, he didn't feel like he was spilling anymore blood. Beside him, he felt the feeling of warm breath on his face... His face. His helmet was gone, placed to the side for her to inspect the scale of his head injury. While a sense of nervousness had come from knowing of the monsters that traversed her dungeon's halls, as he scanned around the area, it seemed as though none dared approach her territory. Their instincts had taught them better than to engage that of which the knights have failed five times before to execute.

'I guess I'm the sixth to fail, huh...?' He looked at himself before noticing a puddle of red on the floor now that his eyes were accustomed to the dark. Bandages in his reflection had suggested that his princess treated him while he was out; The blood on her dress served as better evidence of that fact. "... Thank you, V." Lifting himself from her lap, he felt a sudden influx of pain come from contorting his body upward. His body had far from recovered from his wounds, though at the moment, it seemed as though there would be nothing that would disturb them. The dungeon was a massive complex and he doubted that his allies would have chosen to fall through an unknown gap in the floor to chase after him.

Noticing her lack of support for her head, he adjusted himself to sit right beside her, slowly grabbing her chin to arrange her neck and rest her on his shoulder instead of letting her head hang. "So this was the world you've grown used to, huh?" Scanning around the room, as he imagined what she must've done here, he couldn't help but feel lonely. Scrapes of a tally on a nearby wall must've been her way of counting the days til rescue; At least, until it stopped. She was a princess without a knight to save her; Forever locked in a tower to be treated as a monster. It was no wonder why she turned against the other knights, he couldn't blame her. The only interaction she might've had with anyone else were attempts on her life.

"To think that the entity would've preferred a lonely life for both of us instead of a happy life together. Shame." Slowly running his hand down to her own, as he noticed the lack of a wedding ring on her hand where he expected one, an idea came to mind. Pulling off his gauntlet, he freed his hand from his armor to find a promise ring; The very same he received from her when he pledged to be her knight in the first place.

"I know its not the most romantic of places... But, maybe... If we survive this, I wouldn't mind starting our life again from here." Reaching for her hand, he slid the ring on her wedding ring finger before noticing her shift and stir. "It might be a short life together and maybe I won't see the light of day again," Staring up at the crack he made through the ceiling out of the doorway, he noticed a stream of light from their planet's moon connected to the surface. It was a far way up, but one that gave him a sense of hope; That even in the pits, there was still light in their darkness. "But its a life with you. I'd rather go through hell by your side than be in heaven alone."

Once N made eye contact with his princess again after their long evening asleep, with whatever moonlight her face was able to capture, she seemed to glow. "Morning... Huh, feels strange being able to say that to you again." He chuckled. Even if he lacked the vigor to exhibit any more than a whisper, he still found a little bit of humor in the situation. It felt strange to find more comfort here than he did in his lonely flat back in the floating castle he was deployed to garrison in the first place. Unlike the grey walls and quiet of his home, she was here; She was present and she was by his side. "I'd offer to do more but... I could barely move right now. Though I should thank you, its your fault that I'm still here by your side. Your fault that I kept your ring after all this time."

Nadir took a deep breath, trying to relax to avoid disturbing his sore and wounded flesh any more than he did already. "You look great with it you know? Way better than me... Fancy things like that never looked good on me in the first place." Save for his sword, everything else about his gear was standard issue, passed down by previous knights that were promoted into something better.

"That ring is more deserving for a prince, or in our case, a princess. Keep it. Its yours. All I ask is your company in return for whatever life I have left." Content for the first time in a decade, as he leaned in close to share his warmth with her cold body, the sound of a flickering came through the speaker of his removed helmet. [N, do you read? I should be approaching your position now.] Far beyond the sensitivity of his own ears, the princess was able to pick up two new sounds in her environment. The sounds of what transpired from his helmet and the sounds of footsteps followed by the racking of a rifle coming from nearby.

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I guess it goes to show, does it not?
That we've no idea what we've got
Until we lose it
And no amount of love will keep it around
If we don't choose it​