It would take him approximately three more days before he arrived in Chiba and finally returned to the Eastern Garrison.
The thought filled him with both excitement and dread.
Excitement, because he would soon be out of this death zone and have the chance to finally relax, and dread, because he knew exactly what would follow when he revealed the information he carried.
Well, there was also another reason why he was dreading getting so close to the Eastern Garrison.
The chimera.
To be exact, his fight with the blasted thing.
He didn't fear it as he knew he should, but he still felt some trepidation for what he knew would be his hardest battle to date.
He pushed through that feeling of nervousness with ease, stepping from one shadow and into another as he moved through the ruined buildings around him.
Soon, their final clash would happen, and he was running out of time.
There was a reason after all, why he had been taking his time to reach Tokyo over the past two weeks, and it wasn't only because of his psychological state.
The chimera was smart, far exceeding the standard spark of intelligence any normal human carried.
But so did, Artorias.
It wasn't a thought born from arrogance or misplaced pride, but cold hard logic and facts. Because he didn't think like the average person did and it was something he had learned to accept from a very young age.
It was something he had embraced entirely in his time spent in the ruins of this crumbling country.
Artorias had always been an observant person, capable of picking up emotions, feelings, even actions before they could ever be made. He adapted and thought quicker than any other person around him.
But…that was only a singular benefit. His mind was a twisted contraption that considered the entire world through a different lens. A lens so vastly tilted that nobody else could relate to.
In a twisted sort of way, they were both reflections of each other.
The chimera had found its intellectual equal, being capable of discovering that same spark of twisted madness in him, that gleamed in its own eyes.
It was a sickening thought, and one that made him wonder if he was somehow born wrong to be seen as an equal to a Terror of all things.
But it was also an invaluable tool, an advantage he had used meticulously over the past weeks to better plan his next steps.
Their first clash may have been a frenzied dance of survival and pain, lacking any true intelligence from either of them, but it had seen enough of how he thought to mark him as a sort of grudging rival.
It was partly the reason why the chimera had left when he had told it too.
Fighting and aiming to kill each other at their best with no distractions to get in the way would make the victory of who ever came out on top feel that much better.
After all, their loathing for each other was very real.
Artorias had taken its eye, and the chimera had taken Seirios' life in exchange.
It wasn't a fair trade in his mind.
But for a creature whose eye couldn't and wouldn't ever heal, an eye it used as an invaluable tool to keep surviving and growing in strength, that was as equal as it could get without outright killing him.
'I'm rambling,' He thought to himself, stewing in the shadows as a pack of three Monsters passed him by in the air.
Right, what he was trying to get at with all of this, was that their minds worked in such a similar way, that he could put himself in its metaphorical shoes and reverse engineer when it was planning to initiate their final battle.
Fighting too close to Chiba and in the territory of the Eastern Garrison would risk the chance of a patrolling Fireteam finding them and interfering. Fighting too far away from Chiba and neither of them would be prepared enough to face the other.
Whilst Artorias had a healing factor he could rely on, the chimera had no such thing, so it would have to naturally wait to get better or risk fighting him whilst injured.
Of course, Artorias could have just used the time provided to him by this knowledge to try and escape to the Eastern Garrison. But the chimera would just come out and challenge him anyways.
It was a Fallen Spawn at the Rank of Terror after all, it was vain, petty and prideful in its own way.
Even if it was still recovering from the damage he had caused in their last battle, it would appear to fight him. If it did, then Artorias would be fighting it with a frail and exhausted body, a lack of experience using his three talents and pure luck.
He couldn't leave such a thing to luck.
So instead, he had prolonged their final confrontation. Using the time instead to fix his frail body, adapt and learn how to wield his new versatility and gain valuable experience fighting against other abominations.
All of this without mentioning what his mental state would have been like when fighting the chimera, for all he knew, the anger in his chest would only bring him closer to his death.
That and because he couldn't in good conscience try to escape without fulfilling Seirios' final request in the realm of the living. It would be too disrespectful of him to do and would only stain his own soul.
Appearing from a shadow on a half-collapsed tower, he turned his head and strained his eyes, enhancing them before tracing the jagged path he had taken through most of Tokyo.
There, in the distance, he could see a familiar gleam of emerald scales that scurried through the darkened streets and stuck to the shadows, the large body moving in a similar fashion to a serpent.
As if sensing he was watching it, the thing twisted its head to look up and met his stare challengingly even from such a farness between them. A crooked grin grew on its face, and its singular remaining eye began to fill with gleeful malice.
Amber met gold for the first time in over two weeks.
Keeping his face as impassive as he could, he pulled his eyes away, relaxing his sight.
Of course, something he had forgotten to mention, was that the chimera hadn't just spent its time relaxing in some quite corner of Japan. It had actively followed his every step, keeping to shadows and avoiding his sight until now.
Hunting him down one city at a time.
It had happened during the first week. At first, he had thought he was just hallucinating, catching stray specks of familiar emerald scales, a morning star going around some corner, and pockets of cloudy gas rising from a few streets away.
All of it had happened within the same day, until he grew tired of his mind playing tricks on him and pushed his danger sense to its absolute limit.
The information overload had been nearly enough to knock him unconscious, but through it, he had gleamed a far too similar loathing he had been feeling himself, aimed directly for where he had been standing.
It had all but confirmed that he was right in his thinking. Even if it was injured, it would still find him and challenge him to a battle before he could get anywhere near Chiba.
The fact that it had kept itself hidden for so long had told him that it hadn't been prepared to face him yet.
Until now, because for the first time since it had begun to hunt him, it had willingly left itself out in the open, knowing he would be looking for it, and wanting Artorias to find it.
It was sending him a message.
I am ready.
"So am I you vile bastard, so am I."
Disappearing into the shadows, he continued with his journey.
It may have seemed delusional of him to fight against something so much stronger than him, but he had contended against it before whilst severely weakened.
Now, he was not only stronger than before, but he was faster, had more tools at his disposal and most importantly, he was prepared.
It may have seemed like the peak of arrogance to assume he would win, to say that he stood even a chance.
But he wouldn't be entering this fight thinking as a living man, but as a dead one, who had been reborn.
Because he had died in these ruined cities.
But he had also been born anew.
Through the suffering, through the pain, through the confusion, through the heartbreak and shattering mind, he had let his past self-die and began to find his true self.
He had survived as if every day would be his last, and he wasn't going to allow the chimera the satisfaction of tearing all of his struggles, all of his hardships, down to nothing.
Against the chimera, the single thing standing between him and his survival, he would fight as if today was a bonus, a second chance that couldn't be wasted.
He would fight as if he was backed into the corner from the very beginning.
He would fight as if this was truly his last battle, with no fear, no hesitation, owning everything to his past struggles.
Artorias would face the chimera with the ferocity of a man who feared death, who had faced death and its empty embrace and now clung desperately for another chance at life.
Because that was who Artorias was.
Someone who feared death, someone who had faced it too many times, and who had lived as if every day would be his last.
He had survived because every day might be his last.
But now he would fight as if his death was truly assured.