Chapter 19: Ch. 18.: Burning Forest

The trees around them burned with thick black smoke. They turned the sky dark with fiery ash and made it significantly harder to breathe.

Despite these rough conditions, Suzuki bore a smile.

"I won."

As he said those words, footsteps approached behind Gabriel. He turned around to see a scared Stevie. Tears ran down the sides of his face.

Gabriel recoiled upon seeing him.

"Stevie?"

The boy coughed violently. He leaned down and picked up a large amount of fiery wood. He grunted in pain as the ash burnt his skin, but he did not let go.

Gabriel dropped his weapon and rushed to help Stevie.

"What are you doing? That will burn your––"

"Get away from me!" Stevie screamed before throwing the ash at him.

Gabriel was dumbfounded. He had no idea why Stevie was crying, nor why he was so angry. If anything, he should be fearful for his life, since Suzuki finally revealed his true colors!

"Get away from him!" Suzuki yelled before unsheathing his sword. "I'm going to defend you!"

Not wasting any time, Suzuki charged the shocked Gabriel. He raised his sword to block the attack, but it was already too late.

Fwoosh!

The azure blade met the steel sword and broke through it, cutting down half of Gabriel's hand. The pain shot through his arm like a lightning strike, completely staggering him.

All he could do was roar out in pain as Suzuki turned around and with a skillful move, impaled Gabriel with his sword.

The azure blade went straight through Gabriel's stomach, lifting him up from the ground.

Gabriel was in utter disbelief as he looked down. He moved his hands onto the blade and tried to lift himself, but that just left him with another wound on his hands.

Not that it mattered much. After Suzuki said a silent prayer, he pushed Gabriel off of his sword, right onto a pile of burning wood.

There was an incredible warm sensation both in his stomach and everywhere around him. Gabriel was too shocked to scream from the pain. Only small groans of disbelief left his mouth when he put his hands onto his wound.

"You saw everything, right?" Suzuki turned to Stevie. "Gabriel tried to kill me and set the forest on fire!"

Gabriel's eyes widened as he heard him say that. He looked at Stevie, who was observing his dying body with disgust.

"He… Help…!"

Gabriel tried to reach out to the boy, but Suzuki stomped on his head.

The world around him turned blurry. The voices became distant and he could only feel a burning pain.

After exchanging words too distant for Gabriel, Stevie left the forest. All that remained was the burning wood around him and Suzuki, whose face he could barely see.

Suzuki crouched before his dying corpse. Though his voice was dull, Gabriel could still understand what he was saying.

"Let's see… What Sigil did you have…"

Suzuki tried to unbutton his clothes, but the fiery ash burned him, forcing his hand to pull away.

"Hmph! Whatever, it's not like I need to fear a dead man. Though I still have my questions. I'm pretty sure Pepon orchestrated most of this."

"Now that I think about it…"

"It all makes sense."

"She saw that you were suspicious of me."

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"She used that to manipulate you into defending her."

"She knew I would try killing you one by one for the extra experience. How smart!"

"But why didn't she help you kill me? After all, I tried killing her."

"Oh, maybe because there is more to this?"

"Maybe… She wants to ally with me?"

"…"

"Smart, very smart. I'll make sure to treat this woman to a nice dinner tonight."

"Maybe even more…"

"I'm pretty sure she is still here, somewhere. So long she stays nearby, she'll gain some of the experience from killing you."

"Oh, and Stevie? I did not plan for him. He just appeared at the right time."

"Who am I kidding! That must have been part of Pepon's plan."

"That woman… She might turn troublesome in the future. But then, I will be unstoppable."

"Well, I can't linger around much longer."

"Tell you what, if I stab this burning wood into your hand, that will look like you bled out from a falling branch."

"Right, and my attacks on you were all done in self-defense."

"In the end, your death won't leave any blood on my hands. But even then, I and Pepon will get the experience for you."

"Did you even feel it? I already stabbed the burning wood into your palm!"

"Well, whatever. It was nice killing you!"

Gabriel's consciousness was still awake, though he could not form any coherent thoughts. All he could do was just lie there and wait for the embrace of death.

He was left alone and the fire spread onto his clothes. The burning trees began to fall around him, burying him in a warm coffin.

The smoke covered the sky. There was just one thing he could still see, a cloud that looked like a human.

That cloud was moving.

It reached down to Gabriel. He could feel the cloud touch his mouth, open it, and pour something right down his throat.

Was this a hallucination caused by his dying brain? Did the clouds really come down to help him?

The cloud emerged above the forest once more and stopped moving. The world around Gabriel turned darker and darker as his consciousness fell.

The last thing he saw was a man rushing to his corpse and grabbing it. He looked familiar, though Gabriel couldn't make out his face. The man threw him onto his back and ran out of the forest.

Then, everything turned dark.

– – –

At 13:32 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon, during the fifth week of the 504th Cycle, Gabriel has passed away.

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