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“Give me that key!”
Hunter’s voice echoed in his head as he shakily held the cord that was looped around the necklace, which was soaking in blue titan blood. Below him was the body of a purple haired witch which he had only met hours earlier, and everything was blurry, but he was pretty sure he had killed her.
He realized what had happened the instant he heard the snap- and he knew there was no turning back.
He clutched onto his staff tighter as he looked away from the body. He had never seen a witch’s dead body before, and he was actively trying to keep it that way. A nagging thought whined at the back of his head though- if he caused this, shouldn’t he take it in?
“What did you do?” asked a black furry creature with a skull for a head. The name was hazy to him right now. Hunter felt his teeth grind against his mouth. “What did you do?”
The creature ran to the body and the names were coming to him and they were like daggers in his head. He’d have a pulsing headache if it wasn’t for the crushing adrenaline that ran through his blood, and he couldn’t look away as the body was rolled over, revealing the horrible condition it was in. The face had been beaten into the ground badly- blood had poured away from the nose and lips, and the eyes stayed close.
Amity was not breathing.
King was shuddering with each passing second before he finally raised his head towards Hunter, looking strangely betrayed. His eyes were red, his small claws were clumped into fists.
“Y-you. I knew you were trouble,” King shakily scraped from his mouth, breathing out a rainbow colored fume from his mouth. “MURDERER!”
Hunter rolled onto the ground as a sudden burst of rainbow energy triggered out in a ring from King’s mouth, the skull cracking with sheer anger. It was all a accident on Hunter’s part- he had no idea how to use a Palisman, he had no idea that releasing a basic spell from the staff would do that to Amity- he hadn’t realized how powerful he actually was with a proper conduit.
He stood to his feet again. Could he pull it off again? Should he? He was in a really bad situation here- against a unfamiliar type of foe, although he recognized the monster before him as something similar to something his uncle had fought before. He seemed to be of good humor- at least, up until this moment.
King jumped towards him, mouth open and Hunter immediately felt a reflex with his staff to hit the demon with it, sending the beast to the ground. He watched as it slammed against the empty lakebed, shivering in the cold and his own nerves.
“I don’t want to do this, but you didn’t give me much of a choice.” Hunter simply replied as he clutched onto the staff and sent off another shot of magical energy.
He felt tears run down his eyes. Why?
He left the two bodies to bleed in the empty lake, running as fast as he could. He kept running and running, his legs feeling as if they were on fire. He couldn’t go back. He kept the key intact with him, nearly crushing it with his hands with how tight of a grip he had over it.
Running.
Running until he was back in the air.
His head throbbed with every single step. His face felt flush with fire, although it was a sickly pale color. He felt something churn in his stomach even stronger than Belos’ lack of approval of him- although he couldn’t quite describe the feeling beyond just a general sense of dread.
He would have to come back to Belos with the key, but he wasn’t prepared for that just yet. He needed to sit down, he needed to-
He needed to convince himself… convince himself of what? That he wasn’t a murderer? The first was a accident, that much he knew. The second was absolutely not- he thought about it and he did it. He flinched terribly but it didn’t matter- he saw the bone split in half across the demon’s skull before he had to turn away.
He patted his ribs and he realized in the moment that there was something there- wet, red, and still trickling out. He was bleeding, bad.
He took a long sigh and just sat down by a pine tree, taking shade under the cover. Maybe he’d be lucky enough to be taken in by the Emperor’s Coven and undergo a full recovery by the Healing Track’s head coven, Panacea. Maybe they would still be looking for that empty lake underground. Maybe Eda would eat all of them in revenge for what happened to Amity and King.
He would let fate decide.
He closed his eyes as he let the blood trickle to the white snow.
The Titan would will whether he lived or died- perhaps this is exactly what Belos needed and he would be rewarded handsomely- or he’d die for his efforts.
Either way sounded good enough. He didn’t feel exactly worthy of the former, but maybe it was his self-loathing kicking in. Or his guilt.
He couldn’t distinguish those two parts of him any more as the world began to go dark.