When they finally stepped out of the flower shop, it was to the desolate streets of the ruined city.
His skin crawled with how uncomfortable the silence truly was. For a city that never rested, such quiet felt abnormal.
He could only guess how Artorias must have felt right now. Was it disorienting for him? Did he feel uncomfortable? To stand in the ruins of a city which had never slept.
Seirios knew he wouldn't find out.
Because the moment they left the shop, his cousin's face had become a mask of ice. No emotion visible anywhere, apart from his eyes, those previously dull spheres had sharpened, gleaming in the dark city.
It was as if life had been brought back to them.
'Does he…does he enjoy fighting?'
It didn't seem to be in character for him, but he was learning a lot about his cousin today, so such a fact wouldn't be too much of a surprise for him.
Pushing those distracting thoughts away, he nodded to his cousin, who gave him a subtle nod back, before vanishing into the shadows a moment later.
Sighing to himself, he focused on what he was meant to be doing.
Unfortunately, his earlier intuition had been correct.
He was being used as bait, solely for the fact that his Impetus Talent granted him practically no blind spots.
Keeping one hand on the pommel of his katana, whilst the other gripped the horn of a deviant spawn, he pushed only three of his senses to their extremes.
His vision cleared of the darkness surrounding him, adapting to it and allowing him the ability to see through it as if it was the day. His ears strained, hearing nothing but silence.
He frowned but didn't let the creepiness of it bother him. Artorias' words from before echoing in his mind.
"It's strange for a terror as intelligent as it is to hunt Ascended as weak as us, if it were anything else, then I would have suggested it was just looking for food. But its nature as a chimera, hints at something else."
The conclusion Artorias had landed on, using that terrifying mind of his, was that it was looking to take their talents for itself.
It was a stretch to believe at first, but the more Artorias spoke, the more he started to believe it.
'He'd make a good politician.' Seirios was starting to consider. So many theories and ideas, yet his cousin had explained them in such a way that it was hard not believing them.
It all started with the initial encounter, how Artorias had noticed the chimera keeping its distance by at least two miles but still being capable of seeing them.
It had been observing them, filling the streets around them with an oppressive air of dread to spook them, to see how they would react, to see if they used their talents.
Artorias had explained to him how it had only initiated its hunt when it had seen his ability to hide in the shadows, how its eyes had crinkled, and it looked almost gleeful.
Seirios wasn't sure how his cousin had been able to find so many emotions hidden behind the chimera's twisted intelligence, but he did have a good point.
If it could hide, then why didn't it?
Seirios had argued that it probably got a kick out of them finding out that it was following them.
Only for Artorias to turn around and mention the mind hex which had initially compelled him to get closer to the chimera.
Like he said, it was a stretch to believe, but Artorias was the planner and Seirios? He was the bait who would get to the bottom of this.
His danger sense, an innate ability all of humanity had developed over a millennium of evolution, began to rapidly expand in size.
On a daily, he would only keep this specific sense active to around twenty-five meters, aiming it around him to create almost a sphere of awareness.
That way, his mind wouldn't get overstimulated with all the abominations he was feeling, and he would still be able to sense any danger before it got too close, giving him plenty of time to react.
Twenty-five meters turned to thirty, then grew to thirty-two, thirty-five, thirty-seven, forty-one, forty-four, forty-nine, fifty-five, sixty-eight…
…He found it.
Seventy-two meters away and burning like a bonfire to his senses.
'Damn it, the bastard was right.'
At the same time, he had become aware of its presence, his body felt two watchful eyes peel over to stare at his back.
It took all his willpower not to flinch or freeze on the spot, gripping the weapons in his hands to try and anchor his goose bump infested body back to reality. His knuckles turned white from his slowly increasing grip, but he kept pushing himself to move.
One slow step at a time.
If he gave any physical indication that he knew he was being watched, the chimera wouldn't hesitate to begin the fight, much sooner than either of them would have liked.
'Honestly, how the hell did Art escape after looking directly into its eyes? Even just the feeling of it leering at me is enough to make me sweat.'
He was truly beginning to both fear and understand his cousin's mental strength.
To be able to meet the terror's eyes and break through both the fear and panic he must have experienced, all whilst under the hex of the abomination truly put into perspective how big of a gap existed between them.
His respect for Artorias grew a little more.
Finally getting to an open junction of the road, he made a show of looking left and right.
Artorias, hidden in the shadows to his right, stepped out. Hidden from the chimeras' eyes, thanks to the building and the angle, he wordlessly waved him over.
Pretending to be confused for a minute more, he finally shrugged his shoulders and turned, walking towards his cousin with a forced calmness he hadn't felt in minutes.
As soon as his body disappeared past the building, he all but ran, his entire body shivering as the eyes following him finally vanished.
"Are you okay?"
"No, I am not!" he whispered, gritting his teeth and uselessly rubbing at his arms, trying desperately to get some heat back into his body.
Talking about killing the chimera had been fine at first. But now that he had experienced its full attention on his body?
The thought of actually slaying it didn't seem so possible anymore.
Especially with the plan they had created.
"Ah, it's quite a terrifying thing, isn't it?"
"You don't say." He grunted back, letting himself stew in his body's misery.
"Will you be able to go through with the plan?" Artorias asked, quiet concern in his tone.
"Do I have a choice?"
Artorias shrugged. "Do you want to live?"
'Touché you frail shit, touché.'
"You were right by the way," he said keeping his senses sharpened onto the still abomination.
"About the inability to hide itself or it wanting to take our talents?"
"Wouldn't the former being correct also mean the latter is too?"
Artorias raised a brow at him.
"What?" he asked offended, already knowing what his cousin was about to point out. "I'm capable of learning some of the fancy words you nobles use."
"Huh, if we survive this, remind me to teach you some."
"Seriously? More work- "
"Well, either way, I guess its time we move on to the actual plan."
Seirios all but growled at the interruption, but before he could snap back with any barbed words, his danger sense flared.
'It's here?'
His reaction was purely instinctual, built from years of only relying on his sight to find and identify any danger.
He looked up and his world froze.
For a suspended second, amber met sapphire in a hypnotic gaze.