It was the hardest thing he'd ever done.
To keep running.
Because he wanted to turn back. He wanted to give in. He wanted to fall, battered and beaten, fatigued beyond recovery, and allow them the sweetest respite of their lives.
And he wanted that because they did. Because both of them were afraid — afraid that he would slip through the gateway in time, and they would be forced to make a choice neither could stomach. A choice that would define — intertwine — their fates forever.
But all of it would be halted if he simply stayed here… died for them... became the one sacrifice, as the Nameless Sun was to the people of the Forgotten Shore. It might've been hypocritical, or selfish, or damning, but it was easier. So much easier.
Which was exactly why Nico would never allow that to happen . He was cruel, callous, and unkind, and had killed more than his fair share of times, but he had learned one thing: the right thing to do wasn't always right. He had his own ideals, his own dreams, his own motivations, and that didn't make his life less or more important than either of theirs.
But they'd fight for it regardless, so he would too.
Which was why there was no right answer, and there were no regrets.
He'd made his choice to live — to embrace his Flaw and transform the emotions of others into his own — and they had too.
And after battling his way through an endless horde, climbing up the darkest depths of a bottomless spire, being burned by the abandoned sun at its peak, destroying and rebuilding his own Soul Core, losing his arm to the descendant of a god, and fighting down to the haven that could set him free…
…Nico finally saw it: the glowing portal. The second place free of coagulated coral and carved from pristine stone. Glowing runes surrounded the imposing arch, and a well of light escaped its innards.
Contrasting to Shaman's glee were Sunless and Changing Star's horror.
Everything else in the tower was shaking, snaked with cracks and tumbling down from the weight of the Crimson Terror's death, it's lone sun left blazing.
Nico landed on the floor in a heap, missing half of his once imposing, blood-stained silver armor. His chainmail beneath was cut and loose. His chest billowed up and down like an out-of-breath drunk. His hair stuck to his cut and burned face, and his stumpy arm hung limp at his side as he scrambled, once more staggering forward to dodge a debilitating sword swing.
Sloppily pouring the dregs of his Awakened Core's essence into his body, he ran.
He ran as fast as he could.
Both Sunless and Changing Star chased behind him. Their faces were worn with exhaustion, but neither were particularly wounded. Nico, after all, hadn't attacked much. Perhaps the former was a little worse for wear after taking a couple minor explosions to the face, but the latter was wholly uninjured.
Neither could catch him, though. Even when Changing Star infused herself with all her flames, Nico was both faster because of his pseudo-Awakened physique and longer legs. Fifteen seconds later, he skidded into the line of runes and turned around.
Both chasers momentarily held hope. He would have to wait to disappear, and if they all entered the runic gateway at the same time, it would probably shut down.
Then, they saw the light in his eyes noticeably dim, and a strange fog seep from his pores.
Sunless' eyes widened. He opened his mouth to warn Nephis, but the words caught in his throat, and he turned back just in time to see the infallible young woman fall to one knee, her whole body violently twitching.
Her voice came out unsteadily as she collapsed to her hands and gritted out:
"Sunny, go! Stop him! I... I can fight it back..."
He closed his mouth, gritted his teeth, and ran towards the gateway.
'He's weak. I can take him. I just have to… to shadow his technique. The blood blossom is giving me strength, and so is my shadow. Whatever he's doing, he must've had to use part of his augmentation to boost his Devil, or else he would've done it earlier.'
Reaching it within seconds, he swung his midnight shard, reaching for the elusive, intangible feeling that came when he tried to shadow others. Only, he couldn't. His mind didn't intimately know Nico's style like it did Nephis'.
'I'll just have to decipher it in time…'
***
Nico didn't bother evading the attack. Instead, he let the tip of the blade run through his open gauntlet, gripped the hard steel, and ripped the blade away from Sunless' hands. The blade clattered off in the distance as he threw it. Again, Nico tried to catch Sunless with his injured arm, but it simply didn't have enough reach. The smaller boy ducked under and tackled him, bringing both to the ground.
"You…"
Nico growled, then screamed. The tiny stiletto had once again appeared in the boy's hands, and he had plunged it into his side. Blood coated the blade. Nico repeatedly punched Sunless in the head with his injured arm, grabbing the boy's wrist with his other and twisting it away from his weapon.
Sunless simply raised his other arm and the blade appeared in an instant. Nico decided to distance himself, using his legs to push the short boy away.
Five seconds had passed.
Nephis was still writhing, her mind besieged by commands and orders.
Nico wobbled to a stand and coughed wetly. He had no essence left in his cores, and his own blue blood was weeping all over the floor. Everything spun, and his face was beginning to grow pale.
There was no time for fatigue.
The Crimson Spire was collapsing all around them. Chunks of rubble tumbled and shattered off in the distance.
Sunless lunged at him. Nico evaded again and again. The boy chased desperately, eventually cornering him at the circle of runes. With nowhere to run, Nico whipped his leg upward into a roundhouse kick, coordinating with Shaman's mist to obscure the limb from sight by a wide margin.
Caught by surprise, his shorter opponent protected his head with both hands, and a crushing blow landed against the side of his ribs. Bone crunched. He stumbled back. A hoarse cry escaped his lips, and he sloppily swung forward, his hand easily caught and pulled to throw him outside the safe zone.
Nico limped further inside.
Fifteen seconds.
Sunless supported himself with his knees, sputtered, and then... something changed. He appeared firmer. His blade, tossed aside, hummed with potential, and it was as if a well in his soul had been unleashed. Nico's eyes widened unnaturally as the boy shrugged off his broken bones and spun around to attack with renewed fervor once again.
Overwhelmed, Nico had no choice but to back up. Punches flew. Kicks forced him back. Eventually, finding himself at the edge once more, he was out of options. Out of tricks. He made a split-second decision and threw himself to the ground again, wrestling with Sunless right inside the bright arch in an attempt to blind him.
Nephis, in the meantime, couldn't even get up from the ground; plagued by doubt, drunk on mercy, she watched the events of someone else's memories twist her own mind.
The stiletto flashed, plunging into broken flesh. Nico's own arm whipped, reverberating again and again and again. Each young man screamed death itself, but neither faltered.
Then, the exchanges all melded into one discordant symphony of human agony. Large boulders of coral splintered from the roof, crashing down on the stone below and nearly missing them. Nico's muscles strained to hold Sunless back, sheer exhaustion slowing his every movement.
He growled primally as the stiletto sliced into his thigh. Sunless cried as Nico grabbed a shattered piece of hard coral and slammed it into his head. Neither could incapacitate or restrain the other, but time was on only one's side. A mixture of red and blue blood steadily pooled beneath them, and when their vitality finally grew thin, in the end…
…Sunless plunged his blade downward in a brutal attack that would've skewered Nico's remaining arm at the shoulder, and Nico's hand, already having been prepared to hit him away, twitched and fell, it's strength given out.
Twenty-nine seconds. Nephis began to crawl forward.
Nico was impaled. His eyes were shaking, staring at the dark boy above him as his body gradually slowed to a halt. All adrenaline had fled his body. Pain overwhelmed every nerve, muscle, and tendon. Lead settled, immovable, in his veins.
But that was not what Sunless saw. He saw the battered, beaten man, his blade ran through Nico's throat. He saw the blood; he saw the hollow eyes of his vacant stare and the haunted visage of another man, Harper, who he'd also deprived of life.
Beginning to escape the confines of her prison, Nephis groaned and pulled herself to her knees.
Nico's blood hadn't started flowing again, and so Sunless' face contorted into a miserable frown as he gritted his teeth and hastily pulled himself up. Time appeared slow as he reached down to begin dragging Nico out of the runic circle, but before he could even lay another finger on the young man, a vague distortion appeared in the air, and he vanished, leaving behind only his pooled blood and broken opponents.
Sunless' shaking hand grasped nothing. For a moment everything blurred. The floor below was hazy. He only managed to snap back in anguish as his slammed into the ground.
"No!"
And left in the tower, practically free, he had to face the impossible choice he'd dreaded from the very beginning.