Chapter 15 – Pregame
“Don’t take another step forward,” Kace warned him, but Dominic didn’t listen.
“Don’t bother,” he said, now only several yards away from them. “Nothing you say will stop me. I’ve been waiting too long for this.”
“For what?” Kace asked, but Dominic didn’t respond with words, just his blade. With his eidolon raised high over his head, he brought it down in slow motion, and then in an instant, he disappeared. Remi snapped to attention, immediately summoning not only her eidolon but her white Sage robes as well. Kace also dropped to all fours and prepared to go into his full Quietus form when his ears perked up.
“He’s not here,” he said, and Remi knew it was the truth.
“Why would he leave us alone?” she asked, but Kace was too busy scanning the environment. Another blood curdling scream echoed through the streets from behind them. Kace and Remi took off running to the source, even as mobs of people began turning back the other way and going in the direction they had come from.
Remi gasped when she saw Aline’s mother under a table—the exact table she had left her at. Her daughter was nowhere to be found and she was grateful for it. Aline’s mother had been sliced into three large pieces and it was obvious from the clean cuts and her seared flesh that it had been Dominic.
“We have to find him,” Remi whispered, putting a hand to her mouth. The way Kace was trembling, he was more furious than she was.
“Hey,” Dominic called from across the street. He was standing on top of a merchant’s rooftop—a cabin with a low rectangular roof. Once Remi faced him in her full Sage garb, he crossed his arms and nodded his head as if he was impressed. “Now, now. This is definitely interesting. I didn’t expect to find a Sage here, though…I don’t recall having any information on you. Died before the Great Collision?”
“No, I was born here on Terra,” she said. “After.”
“Right,” he laughed. “That would make you special though. And I know you’re not that. That’s the reason I passed by you earlier. You and the Quietus weren’t worth my time. You’re not even from this Kingdom.”
“We’re not,” she shouted to him. “But that doesn’t mean you should underestimate us. I won’t allow you to hurt anyone else.”
“So you’re going to stop me?” he asked, pointing the tip of his eidolon towards her. “You have what it takes? I don’t know what you’ve faced so far, but I’m far beyond any of it. Are you ready to cut your journey short?”
“You sure you want this?” Kace asked, and Remi scoffed at the idea of running.
“Yeah I do,” she said, running toward the cabin he was on. She unsheathed her eidolon and with one spinning strike, she sliced through the pillars holding up the roof. Dominic leapt off and onto the dirt floor where Kace was waiting for him. Now in full Quietus form with scythes and all, he leapt towards Dominic, but the Cimmerian Sage easily sidestepped him and hit Kace on the back of the head with the hilt of his eidolon. Kace swiped back at him with his claws but Dominic parried his opponent’s arm away with the surface of his blade. Then he hit Kace on the forehead with the bottom of his hilt once more. Before Kace could respond, Dominic kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying into the restaurant he had eaten at earlier.
Remi reached Dominic and swung toward his legs but he parried the blow easily, forcing her blade to go to the right. Dominic stuck the tip of his eidolon just an inch before Remi’s throat and then changed the trajectory at the last moment, letting her stumble from her already thrown off momentum. She caught herself but Dominic kicked her in the back, sending her face first into the dirt.
“Hmph,” Dominic said as Kace suddenly connected with a punch to his face. Dominic rolled into the dirt and then stayed on his back. Kace shook his head as he approached the Sage’s fallen body, but a shout from above stopped him in his tracks. He looked up to see Tyuin’s guards leaping from the roofs.
“We’ll take it from here,” one of them said to Kace as the others ran over to Dominic. “Good work by the way.”
“I didn’t do a thing,” he growled. Remi came to his side as she wiped dirt from her face.
“You got him?” she asked.
“You tell me,” he asked, pointing to Dominic, his limp body now being lifted up by several guards. “I punched him in the face once. Do you think he would go down from that?”
“No way,” she said, turning to the guard by them. “We didn’t stop him. He’s faking it.”
“Doesn’t look like it to me,” he responded. “But what I do notice is that you broke a very important rule of Tyuin’s.” He turned to Kace. Though no one could see him past the slits in his steel helmet, she was sure it was a disapproving glare. “You turned into a full Quietus. What are we supposed to do now? If anyone has seen you, it will bring down morale, when we need it more than ever after this attack.”
“Sorry,” he said. “But it was either that or watch people die.”
“Well, as you said. You didn’t do anything, so I’m not sure it was worth the risk.”
“Wow,” Remi said as the guard walked off to join his comrades. “That was rude.”
“It’s okay,” Dominic said as his teeth began to lose their edge. His hair popped back into place. “I’m more concerned about what Dominic is doing.”
“Yeah, he’s not unconscious at all. He still feels dangerous.”
“The question is, if we’re going to stick around to see how this all plays out, or if we’re going to move on. We don’t have any allegiance to these people, remember?”
The guard who spoke to them earlier approached them in a jog.
“We’re going to be taking you to Tyuin,” he said. “You have no choice.