金瓶梅第2部

Guild Invictus walked upon a red and gold rug covering the middle of a stone-floor hallway. Displayed upon the walls were paintings of battles from past wars and a dozen empty, stone pedestals.

The statue of a familiar-looking man lay frozen on the floor ahead of Guild Invictus. It was posed as if desperately crawling away. His hand was reached out towards Lone, his expression crying out, begging to be saved.

Wolfbanger whined quietly, "Why's its back look so weird?"

On the statue's back atop its shoulder blades, where the marble would be smooth and polished, it was instead jagged as if something was broken off.

Tycon raised an eyebrow, "It appears to have been an angel statue..."

Nearby, a trail of crumbled and cracked parts of an angel's marble wings were scattered onto the stone beside the rug.

Tycon continued, "And it appears someone-- likely Miss Lulu, tore the angel's wings off, piece by piece until it ceased to move."

Even though the statue wasn't alive, Lone shuddered at the savagery.

"Mister Lone, is something the matter? You look troubled?" Tycon asked.

Lone grimaced. How would he explain it? It didn't make sense... "That statue looks a lot like my old guild leader..."

Tycon nodded quietly. Lone twisted his lips. He had been relaxed for so long in Guild Invictus that he forgot it was Boss Tycon who murdered all the members of the Shadowdark Wolves, save for him. That he was the only survivor was the reason he took on the name the Lone Shadowdark.

And he also seemed to remember that Baron Tycon could turn into a snake? Could he really do that or did he imagine it? A lot of weird things happened that night.

Lone shrugged, "I know it's not him... But there were a lot of things I wanted to say to him that I didn't get to."

The noble swept back his green hair, nonchalantly... "I believe I've mentioned on several occasions that I don't particularly care about your love-life, Mister Lone."

"What? No! That's not what I was talking about!"

"There's no need to be reserved. I don't care about your sexual orientation, as long as it doesn't affect--"

"That's not what it was, Boss! I just... you know. Denman was always strong and I always looked up to him."

It wasn't easy joining the Shadowdark Wolves. Denman was probably the only decent person among them, and even then... the humiliation he endured as a novice adventurer still weighed on his self-esteem.

Even during his time on Saint Guinefort with the Sea Wolves, as grueling and full of yelling and physical violence as it was... at the end of the day, he was able to relax with the instructors. He was able to see that they were human, too (with the exception of Eleven of Seven-- who was still pretty easy to get along with.)

It was a privilege afforded to him by being a part of Guild Invictus. Joining them was one of the best decisions he'd made in his life. But as well as he was doing, he would never forget the tiresome hells he had to endure early in his adventuring career.

Tycon held a palm up, motioning toward the statue, "In that case, go ahead, Mister Lone."

It was a small notion, but it rekindled Lone's pride and confidence. Boss Tycon didn't have to allow him forward-- it was slightly selfish and mostly stupid... but Lone wanted it. He wanted a chance at the closure he never got.

Lone nodded solemnly and grabbed the two wolf-hammers off of his waist. The heavy dark-iron maces felt comfortable in his hands, "I'll take a look."

The little elf girl, Sasha, tugged on Tycon's cloak and hissed something. Lone couldn't understand it-- he really needed to practice his animal-speech. Or snake-speech? Were they the same thing?

Tycon nodded to her, "Mister Lone, the young lady wishes you to be careful. As you may have surmised, the statue is animated and may attack you."

"Tch. Go ahead. You're responsible for your own actions," Wolfbanger added.

Lone walked forward over the red carpet, stepping over the crumbled marble debris. The angel statue remained relatively undamaged, save for the wings broken off of its back.

He cleared his throat.

"Denman... I know it's not really you, but I never really got the chance to say goodbye.

"You were uh... swallowed by the ceiling after... a Warlock cast a spell where hands came out of it. And then it ate you... I'm uh... really not good at explaining this.

"But thank you for taking me in. You were a piece of shite that was not as bad as anyone else I worked with. I didn't really like you, but I didn't want you to die without a corpse."

Lone twisted his lips, "But overall, I'm glad you're dead. And... yeah. I think that's it."

"You suck, Lone!" Wolfbanger yelled from behind.

Tycon jabbed the wolf-boy in the side with a quick punch that caused him to double-over in pain, "Not now, pup."

Lone sighed, "Flame on."

He lifted up his dark-iron wolf-hammer, Moon-Moon. Channeling his mana, the weapon's ruby-colored eyes glowed and the weapon's head lit ablaze in a solemn flame.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is... thank you. I'm doing well now. I hope you're doing okay in the afterlife... but you probably aren't because you're in whatever hell your spirit went to...

"So goodbye."

Lone dropped his body weight, bringing down Moon-Moon with force. In this strike, he sought forgiveness for his weakness-- to be freed from the chains of his past.

The statue raised its left hand to block the strike, the sound of cracking stone reverberating through the hallway. Two of its marble fingers fell onto the rug, broken and useless.

"What the--"

Denman sat up in a kneel and lunged forward, planting a solid punch into Lone's abdomen and quenching his wolf-hammer's flames.

"Mister LONE!!" Tycon yelled, "You were TOLD it was still a threat! Take this seriously or I will have you stand down!"

"No! I can handle it!" Lone had reeled back after the blow to his gut. He could still fight. The punch was strong but his armor reduced the blow to maybe some bruising, "Let me fight!!"

"Then cease your babbling and do so!" the noble growled.

Barza Keith, the Lone Shadowdark had grown ten times stronger than he was in the past. He needed to win. He was determined to win.

He needed to prove to his teammates that he was worthy of being part of Guild Invictus.

And he needed to prove it to himself.

He pointed at the statue with one of his wolf-hammers, "Death to the ENEMIES OF INVICTUS!!"