Nero pressed forward, driving Gungnir into Garrick's stomach. The blade of the spear sank deep, and he let out a bubbling gasp.

He cruelly stabbed deeper, twisting the shaft even as the blood ran down and onto his own arms.

However, it all wasn't going to matter much as it was all washed away by the rain soon after.

Garrick snarled and punched at Nero's head.

Nero managed to sidestep, but the blow grazed the side of his head still.

Blood streaked down the side of his head due to the wide gash made by the blow, some of it streaming into his ear.

Nero hissed as he pain momentarily took him off balance.

Geor rushed forward alongside Obed again.

Garrick went mad as he pointed against Geor's shield, turning it into a piece of scrap as he tried to pummel the large man.

Obed snuck in between the blows and planted a blade in his chest.

But the blade did not find his heart.

Garrick looked down menacingly.

This time, Obed was not fast enough.

Garrick grabbed an arm of his and squeezed.

Obed yelled out a curse as terrible crunching sounds came from his arm. It was completely shattered.

With a cruel laugh, Garrick lifted him off the ground and then brutally smashed his body into the ground before flinging him away.

Geor charged forward and slammed his body into his midsection.

Garrick placed his right leg forward. Geor couldn't move him by even an inch.

He chuckled, folded his fists together and then smashed them into Geor's back.

A sickening thud rang out through the storm as Geor fell to his knees, blood seeping from his eyes, nose and mouth.

He raised his hand, prepared to deal the finishing blow.

Suddenly, an arrow struck from nowhere, piercing into his eyes.

A spurt of black ichor splattered out of the pierced eyeball as Garrick shrieked in pain.

At the side, Lucy dropped her sister's crossbow to the ground and then drew her weapons.

Beads of water flowed down the edges of the twin blades as she dashed forward, swinging the sharp blades at Garrick.

Unable to see, Garrick was damned to face the merciless onslaught of built up rage.

The blades traveled in a sinister arc, one of the aimed at his neck.

Garrick seemed to sense it just in time as his body tilted abruptly to the side.

Lucy gritted her teeth to try to make distance, but she was caught with a vicious blow that sent her flying all the way into a tree, her back smashing into it and turning it into a pile of splinters.

Just as he pulled the arrow from his eye, Garrick was forced down as a spear stabbed into his chest again.

Nero growled as he stabbed harder, this time, the force of the blow enough to push Garrick down to his knees.

A stream of blood gushed out of Garrick's rotted mouth. But he wasn't finished just yet. With the last of his strength, he brought the greatsword around in a final, desperate strike.

Nero caught the blade on Gungnir's shaft and twisted. The greatsword went flying from Garrick's hands. Before he could react, Nero reversed his grip and drove the spear up through the underside of its jaw.

The point emerged from the top of the creature's skull.

For a long moment, they stood frozen. The creature's single eye was wide, staring at nothing. Then the light in it faded.

Nero wrenched Gungnir free and the creature collapsed.

It hit the ground with a wet thud, and for several seconds, there was only the sound of rain.

Then came a voice. Weak, gurgling, barely audible.

"Obed..."

Nero looked down. The creature was still alive, somehow. Its mouth was moving, black fluid bubbling from its lips.

"Obed... please..."

Across the clearing, Obed sat on the ground motionless, with blood on his face and clothes as he clutched his broken arm.

His face was dark. And yet, there was a bit of sadness seated on his brows.

"Talk to him," Garrick begged in the guttural voice that was no longer human.

With both eyes gone, there was only darkness as death came.

The seconds stretched. The creature's breathing became more labored, more desperate.

Then came the renewed vigor!

"Obed!" Garrick screamed, with genuine terror in that ruined voice. "Obed, you bastard! Say something! Angela! Where are you?! I can't see! It's dark!"

The words dissolved into curses. The bitter recriminations of a dying man.

Silence...

Finally, Garrick turned his face back to Nero. There was no more pleading there. Only hatred and two eye sockets leaking putrid ichor.

"Do it," he rasped. "Finish it, you monster."

Nero raised Gungnir.

"Monster," he said quietly. "Monster, huh..."

Garrick cackled,

"We are no different, you and I. I can see it in your eyes. You'll be like me one day. Just like me. We are the same. We are both monsters! Well?! What are you waiting for?! Do it!"

Nero drove the spear down through Garrick's heart.

Then he twisted, gouging it deeply before pulling it out. Garrick's mangled and still beating heart was pulled out of the chest cavity, leaving nothing behind but a bloodied, gaping hole.

The thing that had been Garrick didn't move again.

Nero stood there in the rain silently.

Garrick's heart slid off of Gungnir and fell into the mud.

The heavy rain had died down to a light drizzle.

The wind was cool and smelled of the earth, or the sky...

He slowly turned to face the others.

Lucy slowly rose from the pile of splintered bark, pain written all over her face. She placed a hand behind her head and found she was bleeding, but not quite profusely.

She cursed and turned her gaze to Nero. Her gaze fell onto the corpse on the ground, swallowed by a puddle of muddy brown water.

It was already shriveling up.

Lucy sighed and averted her eyes before turning around and limping away.

Geor had gone pale as he rose up as well. He dropped what was left of his shield to the ground— it was now more of a ball of beaten steel than anything else.

Nero huffed as he turned his gaze away from them all.

He turned it to his own hands.

"I killed him."

His hands had finally been tainted with the blood of a man.

And to his utter shock, he found that he felt...

Absolutely nothing.

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