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It happens again. An encounter. A duel. A beginning and an end. Time crawls onwards once more before it inevitably happens again. Only this time, the end doesn't come as it did in the past. Only now, time is held in stasis. A pause where the countdown to its continuation ticks.
"You have the gall." The words are uttered low and slow, a creep of the madness that simmers beneath the surface, violent and impatient. Blade strides towards Dan Heng, each step emphasising the words spoke.
"It was you who led the charge. It was you who started our debt." More strides forward. More resentment and bitterness slipping through the cracks of barely restrained action. Dan Heng stares. Cold yet calm mirror standing among the wreckage. The appearance may have changed. As with the voice. But those eyes....
They remain the same. Always remain the same. It makes Blade seethe.
"I paid the price for my sins. I was content to accept my punishment. But you.... you prevented that. Your arrogance is why I'm bound to suffer. Held shackled to this body. All because of you."
"I have told you. I am not him." Dan Heng responds, grip tightening on Cloud Piercer with every step Blade takes towards him but yet, never once moving. Not able to move or not wanting to move - a thought he chooses to not dwell on.
The laugh that Blade releases is troubling. A sneer of mocking bloodlust that sends goosebumps forming underneath Dan Heng's soiled clothes. "You think another name and face will blot out the sins of your past."
"The weight of his punishment, I have accepted-"
"You have accepted nothing." Blade's interruption is sharp, piercing. A growl one is only able to produce when the tether between sanity and primal instinct is pulled taut. Dan Heng falls silent. Contemplative.
He finally speaks again, tone far softer and perhaps regretful in the echoes of his words. "What you seek from me, I cannot give you."
"However...." He closes his eyes, shoulders slacking minutely, exhaling so subtly one would miss it. But not Blade. No. Never him. Every breathe. Every twitch of muscle. Every shift of stance, Blade is in tune to them all. Even after countless years, after countless deaths, he could recite from memory as if it was the days when all was well, when there were no regrets to cast a dark shadow over them.
"....though I may no longer be him, I can tell just as well as him that having me pay a debt is not all that you seek from me."
"Oh?" Blade chuckles as he continues forward. "Then tell me what I also seek from you?" He stops before Dan Heng, toe to toe. His voice drops low into a whisper, as if he doesn't want anyone else privy to their exchange.
"That I do not know. But what I do know is that whenever you gaze upon me, beneath the resentment you harbour for him, the anger and hatred." Dan Heng opens his eyes and slowly looks up, cold pale blue eyes meeting fiery red. "I always notice one thing."
Blade's smile never diminishes. But there is change. An imperceptible one. Once cruel, it holds a difference, a contrast. Like cold water sliding upon angry burn. And despite himself, Dan Heng notices it.
"And pray tell, what is that?"
Dan Heng stares. Blade stares right back. The world falls into suspense in which the very air becomes still. Lips fall apart to speak, but do not as if hesitating. But the lingering gaze between two souls that know they're irrevocably bound together gives it all the encouragement it needs. And it falls upon the still air, the suspended time that surrounds them both. A gentle whisper. Conveying the very emotion it utters.
"Relief."