An Old Friend: Chapter VIII

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"Well," Archer told himself outloudly, "this surely isn't a view to find flavour at seeing." He was staring at the garden of the castle, which was filled by the countless corpses of soldiers. Do not let the word corpse fool you, there were just torsos which lost their limbs, smacked heads without a neck and ownerless limbs lying around. For Archer, this was not a sight unseen, his life was all about death, after all. But, that didn't mean that those words wouldn't come out of his mouth; "I have seen hell."

He raised his head from looking down on the boddies, and began to move to the entrance of castle as he kept his gaze forward. His blade, which got itself all black from the dark of its sins and which had red lines on itself representing the blood of the blacksmith's wife, was in his left hand as he reached the gate. He did not even need to push it due to the fact that it was broken from its locks.

Inside of the building had the scent of death and its athmosphare was filled with fear and despair of the fallen ones. He ignored the increasing number of corpses and walked through the castle, to the throne room. With every step he had taken, the feeling of disgust and nostalgia spread through his body, his veins, his nerves, his soul, just like at the time when he was among the crowd of city.

As he reached the door, and put his hand on it, a soul-chilling voice came up. It surely was of a man, yet it was Impossible to be sure if it belonged to an human being.

"Welcome, warrior, and come in!" He said as his voice echoed through the building which was all empty but boddies. "Make yourself at home and come in! Since you're the ever first quest I've ever had, I'm afraid you won't be leaving."

Now that his presence was known, Archer knew that it would be useless to try to hide himself, which completely makes the choice of finishing the job silently out of question. Archer slowly pushed the door in front of him and took a few steps inside. The throne room was as big as the garden of his old home in Fuyuki, with lots of wall carpets, chests and a throne with a man on itself. This man had a dark hood which shadowed his face, a shirtless torso which had a crimson tatoo on, and black leg armours which was all black except the red lines on. With a purple spear nearby, he was staring at his company, who had just entered through the door. He sneered and got up, showing off of his huge and muscular body, as revealing his gigantic, spiked tail which shared the same colour as his legs, and took his spear in his hand. 

Archer's eyes were wide-opened due to disbelief, as he identified who that person was. Yet, for him to become such thing, was out of question for sure. His lips distanced slowly as words flew out; "Cu Chulainn..."

"Indeed." The Hound of Chulainn answered. "And who might you be, buddy?" Archer's eyes returned what they used to be, of a dead man, before he replied.

"As expected, you do not remember a man who you have clashed weapons against. Now my pride got injured." Archer said with a joke, realizing that those parts were not of an armour, but parts of his body. "I am not someone who has the luxury to bear a name. I am just a lonely Archer. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Archer?" Cu questioned. "What a weird name to call someone." He said, giving the same response as Fergus, his old friend. "Well, sorry for that, Archer." Cu Chulainn went on, as he waved his hand. "But if I were to list every man I've killed, it surely would be a list too long to read."

"Do I seem like dead to you? You surely have no respect for elder, as it shows." Archer said, which was true. Compared to a man in his twenties, Archer surely was older as decades, as a Guardian.

"Hmph, brave words for an old geezer who is about to die." He told Archer as he pointed his lance, Gae Bolg, at him. "Unless," he kept on as he lovered his spear, "you become a soldier of mine. If you really have survived a clash against me, you indeed are strong. Well, I have become even mightier than before anyway, but you wouldn't be that bad of a soldier, I quess." He finished his words with a laugh, which indeed shaked the ground.

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