OMG LOOK HERE BECAUSE I KNOW FOR SURE PEOPLE WILL MISS THIS UNLESS I MAKE IT BLEATINGLY OBVIOUS!

When their mystical vertigo halted, the paladins stood up and stood their ground.

            “We’re right in the middle of it…” warned Soul.

            “I don’t see anything though…” replied Marie in almost a whisper. The ground was dusty and red, and littered with animal remains, as if at some time ages ago there was once water and life here. How the Shadows could survive this foreboding place was beyond the paladins’ comprehension.

            As far as the eye could see, there was clearly nothing where they were sent, so they decided to scout the area one at a time, letting one stay in the middle while the other searched around the one left behind. When it was Soul’s second time scouting, Marie noticed a strange fluctuating in Soul’s shadow. Concerned, Marie took a quick glance behind her and realized that the idea of either of them having a stretched shadow perpendicular to the sunlight was alarming.

            “Soul!” Marie called, “We’ve been trapped!”

            But something was wrong; Marie just couldn’t get her words out. Her voiceless pleas made the echo of Soul’s boots hurt her ears. At any cost, she needed to get his attention. Marie grabbed her sword and unclipped a latch in its sheath that divided it into two. With all her might, she made deafening clanging noises that quickly got Soul to turn around.

            “What on Earth are you doing?” he asked with a slightly raised brow.

            Maria’s voice remained silent as she pleaded with all her might that Soul would notice what was happening. Soul looked around himself in worry, trying frantically to recognise the problem. Maria’s shadow crept closer and closer to her, eventually crawling up her legs. She was turning into a darker tone and started to freeze up as if she were stark naked on a snowy day. Soul looked at Maria, slipping into a trance, and finally it clicked.

            Soul reached for a pouch and revealed a handful of red dust. Chanting, he tightened his grasp on the dust, a warm aura surrounding him. The shadow was no further than Maria’s hips before Soul exhaled a strong gust of breath, releasing a vermillion light from his grip that tangled in the air like a rope and struck her. The shadow, competing with the light, reluctantly returned to the ground and separated from Maria, causing her to gasp for air.

            “No probs, Mary. Just look out, right? They haven’t left the building yet,” he explained.

            He’s right, Maria thought, it’s only a matter of time before it emerges.

            Both of the paladins stood their ground, clasping their swords. The vermillion glow around Maria was fading, revealing specks of red glitter all over her armour.

            “Sure, just don’t you dare call me-”

            “Mary-!” Soul yelled.

            A crack in the ground expanded into a circle, and a dark figure with long claws came into formation.

            “Shadow!” They exclaimed.

            Soul drew his sword and cut through the air a few times. He charged at the Shadow with his blade behind him, preparing for attack. The Shadow dodged his erratic slicing, jumping over him, only to be split in half by Maria close behind. The Shadow burst into streams of darkness that swirled out into nothingness.

            A flush of relief overcame both of them.

            “That was too close,” Soul puffed.

            “Yeah…” Maria agreed, and turned from Soul,”…And if you ever call me Mary again, I’ll beat the stuffing out of you, Soul,”

            “Whatever Mar-” Maria scowled at Soul, and although he couldn’t see her expression through her helmet, he could feel her negative energy, “Eh, I mean Maria…”

            Her expression became a smile, “That’s more like it,”

            “I guess this is our queue to be more careful,”

            “Something like that. It seems we’ve become rusty over the years,”

            Soul chuckled, “Oh Maria, you make it sound like it was so long ago! How long is a year anyway?”

            Maria paused and took off her helmet, her straight black hair spreading down her back in one full tumble, curling at the ends. Her eyes were a beautiful green and her smooth skin was slightly tanned. She looked down doubtfully, “Honestly Soul… I don’t know….”

            Soul’s heart sank at her expression. He had one true weakness that would plague him in any battle: his ability to feel emotion. All it took was one decent look and Soul felt one hundred times the emotion of his company. The eyes said it all, and he often wondered if it was how he got his name. If anything was certain, it was that he didn’t know how he was born or named nor even remember his own childhood, and that he felt depressed and severely homesick.

            What is a home, anyway?

            “Hey now, don’t do that to me!! You’ll give me a heart attack if you start showing me your face like that again!” he joked – hopefully she would take the facade.

            “Let’s not get facetious, Mr. Libido,” she snarled. Soul felt his mood lift.

            It worked.

 

The sun dipped just above the horizon as they continued their patrol. It was at a dangerous angle to be waiting for an attack from their foes who they know take complete advantage of the shadows. Nevertheless, they had only defeated seven more Shadows – no closer to finding out what their incentive was.

            “It looks like we might need to patrol through the night…” Maria groaned.

            “Probably. Those damned creatures will probably flock at us at night, but,” Soul explained, “we would probably be better off retreating halfway through sundown,”

            “Understood. They’ll be omnipotent at night,”

            Plus, the only minions capable of proper communication are the Darkness. If we wait until night, we’d just be setting up our gravestones, Maria mused, if we could capture one of the Darkness and torture some intel out of them, we could quickly find out what’s been going on. But until then, we’re stuck in the dark, she smirked, There’s no other way… we need to utilise the gold feigning spells…

            “Right, it’s my turn. Take a break, Soul,”

            Maria stood up and assumed her position fifteen paces from Soul to patrol a circular path. Soul sat and looked in every direction that Maria couldn’t, occasionally sipping from the reservoir strapped around his shoulder.

            The sky turned a brilliant orange that blended with the horizon, casting shadows across the few clouds that remained in the barren world. A small gust of wind was picking up around the paladins, kicking up dust clouds that buffeted their armour. Maria fixed her helmet back on to protect her eyes, and while she adjusted the eye guards, a strange shape came into focus.

            “Soul… Hey Soul!” she called.

            Soul got up and turned to Maria, “What’s up?”

            “What is that over there? I can’t make it out, but it doesn’t look like a Shadow or one of the Darkness,”

            Soul raised his hand above his brow, extending his view and protecting his eyes at the sun that directly bombarded them. In the distance, with a little bit of strain, a dark human shape was emerging from behind the heavy dusty gales.

            Maria and Soul assumed their basic battle formation, one next to the other with swords unsheathed in preparation for what was to come.

            The shape finally got close enough to form a weak human wearing a worn out shirt that was soiled by the dust and track pants tied by a thick rope of cotton. His expression was horrifying – as if he would drop and die any moment – with dark widened eyes and a scarred mouth. As he got closer, a fresh cut in his cheek came into view.

            “Oh- Oh my God… Now I’m seeing… mirages…” he muttered, almost inaudibly, “Looks like… I really won’t make it. Oh God…”