Abraxes felt as if hours had passed for him, when in reality, only a few minutes of tense and awkward silence surrounded him. Holding his dead lover in his arms, he wanted to remain there forever, but it seemed that time had run out.
Various hands grabbed at his shoulders, his arms and chest, roughly trying to pull him away. But he held on, digging his knees into the blood-stained mud beneath him and holding onto Keres body tighter.
One of his arms was forced off the body and pulled behind his back and he howled from the pain, his remaining arm desperately holding onto Keres.
"No! No! Get off me, get your filthy hands off me!" he screamed and raged, tugging his arm back with all the force he could muster, only for it to be useless as more and more arms began to grab onto him.
"Get your bloody hands off me!" his other hand was finally forced behind his body, but he could only stare at Keres cold body as it fell to the ground with a small thud, his mind consumed entirely by her.
Abraxes didn't even feel the first fist which struck him in the temple, nor did he feel the second and third strike which impacted his stomach and chest right after.
His breathing came out in short pants as he desperately tried to force his body out of their grip. He wasn't physically strong, but under the influence of his rage filled mind, he was akin to a cornered animal, tapping into a monstrous strength even he didn't know he had.
With a roar, he pushed himself to his feet and lurched forward on unsteady legs. His arms ached from the action, pulsing with pain, but the suddenness of his actions surprised the arms holding him enough that several of them let go of him.
He lunged for Keres' body, desperate to reach her, only to flinch as somebody else tackled him away. His body skipped across the blood-stained ground, his lungs burning from the impact and his vision going blurry for a moment, before he was up again with a low growl.
The man from before, the same one who had dragged him out of his hut and spat on him after mistreating him, stood with his blade in his hands and a stoic expression.
'I'm going to tear his fucking throat out,' he thought with building resentment. Abraxes rushed towards him, his fist cocked and a howl leaving his lips, only for him to crash uselessly against a wall of ice that had suddenly manifested before him.
The ice splintered from his strike but stayed standing.
Wordlessly, he turned from where he stood, an irritated growl reverberating from his throat as if he was more animal than man and glared at a clearly amused Nero standing on his ice platform.
Their eyes met and the Archon chortled mirthfully.
"My friend, you have certainly surprised me. I called you a rat, thinking you were like the rest of these spineless beasts, but no, you're something far more entertaining. All that rage and anger, over the loss of someone you clearly loved," he laughed again, though this time he could recognize it was genuine.
"No, you're not some dirty rodent…I'd call you a lion, but that's quite a mighty beast for someone of your station to resemble, so how about a jackal? Yes, I think that suits you quite well, you're more akin to a jackal, a rabid beast whose been cornered and wronged."
Nero grinned at him, full of sharp pearly teeth. Abraxes moved against all the instincts of his body and glared at the man, willing himself to not look away.
The Archon only laughed at what could only be seen as bravery, or stupidity.
"You have some potential in you, my friend. That fire, oh I would just hate to see it be burned to nothing…so how about we come to a compromise?"
Abraxes stayed quiet, his glare an answer enough.
"A man of few words, I can appreciate it." Nero looked away from him, focusing his attention of the men and women covered in armor around them. "Tell me, all of you, which of you killed the poor jackal's mate?"
The ice blocking his vision dissolved into a puddle of water, as Nero spoke to his Enforcers in a mocking tone, his grin as sharp as any blade Abraxes had ever seen.
Slowly, one by one, every single Enforcer took a single step back, away from the pile of bodies to reveal a singular man he didn't recognize.
"It was me, my lord." The man said, stepping forward with his head held high and his chest puffed out, as if he was proud of the attention he was receiving.
Abraxes glare moved swiftly from Nero and onto the unnamed Enforcer, his mind consumed with murderous thoughts.
Nero laughed again, a single mirthful laugh and he began to clap his hands.
"Gaius! My brave Signifier! I am impressed, you're usually more of a coward, but maybe I was wrong about you, it takes some guts to willingly reveal yourself against such a murderous beast."
The man didn't even seem to care about being thought of as a coward, instead his chest seemed to somehow puff up even more at being labelled brave.
'And they call me a slave,' Abraxes thought with a scowl.
Nero turned back to him then, waving his arm at the Enforcers around them, before cheerfully speaking.
"Pick a weapon, my friend, any singular one of them from my Enforcers and fight him, show me that you are capable of more than just barking and glaring like a rabid dog, entertain me."
The man with Keres blood on his hands began to sweat slightly, his hazelnut eyes widening at the Archon words, as if he hadn't expected Abraxes to be given a weapon in the first place.
'Not just a coward then, but also a bully.'
Abraxes turned away from him and instead stared at the man he had originally intended to murder, a silent request in his eyes as he looked down at the man's weapon.
The Enforcer scowled, a silent 'tsk' leaving his lips before he threw the sword at Abraxes' feet, the blade sticking into the mud with its handle up in the air.
Abraxes didn't say anything to him as the man stormed off, instead keeping his attention on the sword he had just picked up. He gave it a few light swings, something unnatural within his mind clicking into place as he inspected the blade.
It was a short, double-edged sword about half his arm's length and a quarter of the width, with a tapered, pointed end and made entirely out of Celestial Copper.
He frowned as his body subtly shifted again, his arms moving to hold the blade in a specific manner and his body shifting into a unique stance.
Glancing at the lightly sweating man—Gaius—he quickly summoned his runes, looking through them again to see if there was any explanation for the sudden understanding he was gaining from just holding the blade.
His Eidos hummed as he the screen manifested.
[====]
[Name]: [Abraxes Basilus]
[True Name]: [All for One]
[Axion Core]: [Legionnaire]
[Sacral Essence]: [0/500]
[Affinities]: [Assimilation]/[Perception]
[Blessing]: [-]
[Divine Domain]: [-]
[Bloodline]: [-]
[Innate Talent]: [The ability to sense and assimilate Bloodlines, Talents and Affinities through touch]
[I]-[Axion Talent]: [-]
[====]
[Impetus Talent]-[Sentry of Ruin]
[I]: [The ability to perceive the underlying elements of various concepts]
[====]
He stared at the new set of runes, at the name attached to it which hadn't existed before. Abraxes felt a static beginning to build within his ears, a subtle buzzing as the world around him narrowed.
'Sentry of Ruin…that must have been Keres' True Name'
The thought filled him with equal amounts of despair and anger, the emotions turning into one billowing flame as he moved to stare directly at the man across from him.
He felt that same instinctual understanding beginning to unfold the world around him, as he watched the murderer. Abraxes noticed his stance, the way his legs were placed in a specific manner, how his lightly shaking arms held the blade in his hands—a direct replica of Abraxes'.
'A Battle Art,' the thought came unbidden from his mind, the words unfamiliar yet ones he was able to gain some understanding off. Wordlessly, they both moved away from the bodies, standing to the side of the pile and began to circle one another.
He noticed how Gaius' eyes seemed to dart around, how his breathing seemed to quicken at times, almost becoming erratic. He was trained, clearly, but he was inexperienced, and it was becoming clearer by the second.
'I'll learn everything you have to offer me, bastard, then I'm going to murder you like you murdered Keres.' He swore in the privacy of his mind, a vengeful promise as the man suddenly and loudly cleared his throat.
Abraxes watched his Adam's apple physically bob, as he opened his mouth to speak under Nero's amused gaze.
"I am Gaius Cu Lichtum, of House Lichtum…may this battle be fair and just under the gracious eyes of the Empyrean Spirits." He hurriedly spoke, his voice shaking slightly under Abraxes predatory gaze.
Abraxes snorted, a single amused laugh filled with neither humour nor warmth, that echoed around them.
It was as fake as Nero's had been.
"A fair and just battle, do not make me laugh, wretch." He pointed the blade in his hands directly at Gaius, "For what you have stolen from me, I will grind your bones to dust under my boot. I will tear your limbs off one by one and make you choke on your own blood once I rip your throat out with my fangs."
He smiled at the man; a smile filled with murderous intentions. Swinging the blade around him, he fell into an identical stance as Gaius, his legs slightly apart with his dominant foot forward and his back leaning back, both of his bloodied hands placed on the handle of the blade.
"You have taken the only person keeping me sane in this world, and you will bear the consequences of your own actions."
Gaius seemed to sweat a little more, before with a courageous shout, he lunged forward, closing the distance between them.
Abraxes, under the influence of Keres Impetus Talent, moved at the exact same moment, meeting the murderer in a clash of bronze sparks.