Vanguard
The heavens had fallen once again, the pillar of lightning burning the woman's flesh to ridiculous degrees. What once laid before the pummeled warrior was now sent flying away, fizzling and burning to a crisp. But that attack, that powerful attack, she survived it. She most definetely did survive it, but at a great price. Surrounded by molten rock, Vanguard too laid alone to agonize in silence. He had used far too much aether at once, far too much to keep his soul attached fully to his vessel. The sensation he was feeling was akin to having your limbs torn off endlessly, the pain of having your soul slowly tear apart.
His vessel, It barely resembled a body at all, it was more akin to a humanoid blob of melting metal. But he did not weep, he did not show even the slightest trace of the agonizing pain, for he knew that the nameless woman was hurting just as much, a silent wailing of her body begging to survive. To this spectacle, Vanguard had no right to show hurt.
Turning what barely looked like a helmet in order to face the woman, the warrior praised her from the bottom of his heart. Calmly, he said with sincerity "You are a worthy individual. Had we met in other circumstances, perhaps you could have seen the depth of your potential..."
The warrior stood silent. It is not that he had nothing to say, but rather the fact that exerting himself to speak strained him beyond imagination. One could say that every word he uttered stripped him more and more from the realm of the living. But to say so was inaccurate, for Vanguard wasn't alive in the first place. He owed her the respect of his words, no matter how much it was agonizing to speak. Her endeavour deserved that much.
"You know why you lost, nameless child? You made one mistake... just one mistake..." he muttered, his voice growing weaker and weaker. He paused once again, looking up at the darkening sky that rumbled before the two fallen beings. One who's flesh had surpassed the bounds of mortality and one who was stripped from his flesh in order to forget of mortality. Before the two, what could the heavens do but weep?
Both now stood silently under the rain, the warrior inert as if he was the one who had perished from the attack. After a moment, he spoke once again with a sincerely melancholiac voice.
"Looking down on others, you were unable to understand true fear. Had you known fear, you would have never known of loss."
Then, Vanguard slowly rose from the molten crater. An impossible task, one that brought even more pain to him. It wasn't just that his body wasn't supposed to be able to move in the first place, but also because the warrior's's link to his body was slowly fading as well. Each action he performed, every step he took tore his soul further and further. To move like this was utterly impossible, it was something that defied logic. Because as he was, Vanguard was not supposed to move at all.
But it had been so long since the possible had forgotten of Vanguard.
Trough sheer will, he rose before the fallen woman out of respect. Walking towards her lazily, as if he was falling with each step, the warrior now faced her.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" he asked, looking down on her with utmost respect.
