Icebreaker

Kris rushed at Susie, slashing downwards. Their sword caught on Susie's right arm and left a thin cut. If she was in pain, Susie didn't show it. She countered by headbutting Kris, knocking them back a few feet. 

She then followed up by roundhouse kicking Kris straight in the gut, knocking them into the hall before to the one they were currently in, landing rough on the ground a few feet away. 

Kris managed to hang on to their sword this time as they tried to push themselves up, before backflipping back to avoid an arrow shaped blast of purple energy. They barely got a second before another blast came that they were barely able to dodge by sidestepping. They gripped on the wall to pull themselves back up. They watched as Susie strolled from one hall to the next, getting closer and closer to them.

"What's wrong? Afraid of a little Rude Buster?" Susie taunted.

"You'll try and kill people using your friend, but you can't take one hit from me? Oh wait, my bad! Your ''not friend'! What a joke! By the way, your plan failed, you idiot!"

Kris grit their teeth and glared at Susie. "What."

Susie cackled a little. "Yeah! Turns out Ralsei's kept this sick ass fire spell up his sleeve, and he's using it to free all of the Darkners you froze right now! I bet he's already halfway done, and coming here as we speak!"

Kris seemed to silently rock with anger.

Susie decided to return the mocking Kris gave her twofold. 

“Not even mentioning how you just included that giant fucking snowstorm or whatever into your plan hoping that nobody wouldn’t just fucking notice that! Seriously, what the hell were you thinking? It's a giant ass snowstorm! They are meant to be noticed!” 

Kris sighed.

"SO BE IT."

Kris then pulled something out of their pocket.

They held it up to their face.

(A/N: Play Imminent Death )

It was a simple wooden ring, save for the multitude of thorns that aligned around the entire ring, both on the outside, and the inside. It was caked in both a layer of powdered snow, and blood, which slowly dripped off the bottom of the ring. Due to its design, Kris had to hold it between the tips of their pointer finger and their thumb, positioned in a way so they wouldn't stab themselves on the thorns. 

"Do you know what this is?"

Susie scoffed. "Hell if I know."

Kris laughed. 

"This is the Thorn Ring. It is a weapon of pure power. It can enhance the wearer's power, and it can produce some of the most powerful magic I've ever seen. It's said to have contained a remnant of a holy being's power. To think, it was lost in the hands of a filthy washed up has-been. However, the ring has a price for its power, and the wearer must endure continuously escalating amounts of pain in accordance with the use of the ring. Only the Angel can use the ring to a tolerable extent."

Out of everything Kris said, the last part was what confused Susie. "Like the god? The one from town?"

Kris shook their head. 

"Not exactly. I'm talking about the fawn. The one you saw bleeding out before. She has more power than she could imagine. With this at her disposal, she could be invincible. And all she does is freeze up, hide, and panic whenever anything bad happens because she knows she's too weak to do anything about it. Such a waste. This kind of power belongs to someone who will use it, and not a coward like her."

Susie was quickly getting the urge to punch Kris more and more. She had to hold herself back, just for a little longer. 

Just get some more information, and then lay on the smackdown. Sounded pretty good in Susie’s mind.

Didn’t mean she could let Noelle get shit talked. 

"Tch, you're a real piece of shit, aren't you?! Talking about Noelle like that, she's no-"

"YES! YES SHE IS!" Kris cut Susie off abruptly.       

"I did her a favor! She was NOTHING until I showed up! I gave her EVERYTHING! I made her who she is! The only reason she has lasted this long is because of ME! And now? Now she's strong! She has all the power she could ever need!! Her voice will be heard! Her life is worthwhile BECAUSE OF ME! She owns everything she is TO ME! And that, Susie, is why this all happened. Because she owes me. I need her to do something, SHE'LLDO IT. If you push hard enough, you can topple any tower. HER'S WASN'T VERY BIG."

"And just what makes you so sure you're just going to get rid of her like nothing ever even fucking happened?"

Kris scoffed. "Who's going to stop me? You?"

"I fucking might." Susie countered.

Kris laughed and then started to slide the ring on their right pointer finger, the thorns somehow penetrating through Kris's armored gauntlet and reaching their flesh. Kris cringed in pain, yet still kept a smile on their face. Their right hand shook vigorously, and blood quickly trailed down their hand.

Kris then held up their sword, watched as it started to glow with a bright claret light, and swung it behind them as hard as they could. A blade made of that same light burst forth, and crashed into the right wall, leaving several cracks in its foundation.

Kris repeated the same action again and again, leaving more and more cracks that started to spread and break the right wall apart. Within seconds, the wall collapsed into a giant pile of rubble, too big to simply walk over or break through. They grinned and turned back to Susie, barely keeping in a snicker.

"So, what was that you were saying? Ralsei was coming? Not anymore he's not. SOMEPRINCE."

Kris chuckled and tapped at the ground with their sword.

"You STILL think that you can stop me?"

"Nah, I don't think that at all. I goddamn know it."

Susie slammed her axe into the ground as a show of her statement. She pulled it back up and hung it on her shoulder.

"Now, are we doing this or what?"

Kris grinned sinisterly.

"LET'S PLAY."

(A/N: Play Knight of the Light )

Kris raised their sword into the air, and imbued it with the same claret light as before, and pointed their sword outward towards Susie's chest.

"I'LL GO FIRST." 

Kris rushed forward, drawing their sword above their head and bringing it down on Susie. Susie simply raised her axe up to block the slash. She was surprised by the force of Kris's blow, it being far stronger than she expected, but the tight grip she had on her axe locked the two Lightners into a stalemate. 

Their weapons clashed against each other, both wielders trying to overpower the other.

Susie took the lead, pushed Kris's sword back, and swung her axe in a full 360 motion, hitting Kris's chestplate. 

She knocked them into the still intact left wall and backed away a little, catching her breath. 

Kris cringed in pain, and looked to find a decent dent in their armor. They got up, and held their sword up to their own neck, grinning.

"My turn."

Kris swung their sword, launching another sword beam at Susie. Susie swung her axe, dark magenta energy engulfing it, and fired a Rude Buster at the sword beam, both colliding and exploding on contact, smoke going everywhere.

Susie was then caught unaware of another sword beam flying through the smoke cloud, which hit her straight in her right shoulder. The sword dug itself partway into her shoulder before disappearing. Susie clutched her shoulder as it slowly started to bleed, but not excessively like Kris or Noelle's respective finger wounds.

"Ughh. Heh, you got me. But if that's all you've got, then you're fucked, buddy."

"What the hell are you-"

Susie fired off a Rude Buster, but not at Kris. 

No, she aimed for the ground right in front of Kris. The blast kicked up a bunch of dust, some of which got in Kris's lungs.

"*cough* *cough* Do you… *cough* think that copying me will-"

Susie came out of the dust cloud with her axe raised up, swinging it towards Kris. Kris raised their sword to block the blow, then jumped up and flipped up onto Susie's axe. They then backflipped off the axe and landed behind Susie. 

They took their sword and jabbed at Susie. Because Kris moved so quickly, Susie could barely flip around before getting stabbed in her abdomen. As with her other wounds, blood barely flowed out from the wound. 

She cringed and groaned a little before panting and rushing at Kris again. Kris shot another sword beam towards Susie's knee, Susie tanked the hit, her knee only getting a small scrape, and swung at Kris's leg. Kris attempted to jump out of the way, but Susie's axe caught the edge of Kris's left boot, and flung them back towards the left side of the hall.

Susie chuckled sarcastically. "Now, now you're starting to step it up, Kris! You got me pretty good! But unfortunately for you-"

Kris shot out three more sword beams; one cutting the side of Susie's left cheek, another slicing up a portion of her right jacket sleeve, reaching her skin, and the last cutting into her already injured shoulder. 

Susie looked at herself and scoffed. 

"WOW. Thanks Kris! I really wanted more blood on my clothes than there already was! I don't have a fucking washer, Kris! You better hope Ralsei's got a fucking clothes cleaning spell! Plus, now there's more cuts in it! People are going to think I got into a fight, which I wouldn't have minded before, but now I fucking do, so you're shit out of luck!"

Kris stared at Susie.

"What in the world are you even saying?! You're talking about your clothes?! RIGHT NOW?!"

Susie shrugged her shoulders, not wincing even though she was moving her injured shoulder.

"I'll be honest. I'm trying to light the shitty mood in the room. I'd rather not be all pissy while I'm kicking your ass! But you know, I'm starting to wonder why I'm even bothering to give you that !"

Kris laughed. 

"That's easy. YOU'RE LONELY."

(A/N: Play Narrative Command )

Susie's aloofness was wiped off her face in an instant. 

"Excuse me?"

Kris laughed even harder.

"It's like I said. Everyone who's ever met you has been either afraid of you, or saw how pathetic you were. You have always been alone. I bet it tears you up on the inside, always treated as the monster or the rage fodder, beaten and bruised no doubt. To have someone who doesn't treat you with any form of disdain, it must be like nirvana for you. That's why you can't touch me. Because I'M the only thing close to a real friend you have!"

Susie just stared at Kris for a while. Kris thought that they might have finally broken her…

…Until Susie started laughing uncontrollably. She had to brace herself on her knees to keep herself up.

"What's so funny?!"

Susie had to take a second to breathe after laughing so hard, and then looked Kris in the eyes.

"It's fucking hilarious how someone can be so right and fucking wrong at the same fucking time! Cause the thing is, I don't need you."

Kris snorted. "You don't?"

Susie scoffed. "Hell no! You're not fucking special!"

Kris waved their hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Oh you're right! How could I have forgotten? There's Ralsei, who as you didn't act like he wanted you to, threw a hissy fit, and Lancer! Dear sweet innocent Lancer, who betrayed you and had you locked up! I can't believe I forgot about your INFALLIBLE FRIENDS!"

Susie looked at her hand for a moment before clenching it.

"You forgot two."

Kris turned their head playfully. 

"Oh really? Who would they be?"

Susie's hair flew in front of her face, covering her eyes as she looked down at the ground.

"Well… unless you are a goddamn mind reader… you wouldn't know about the first… hell, I didn't even get to know her…"

Kris rolled their eyes.

"So she's not even real. Perfect. And the OTHER?"

Susie snarled and looked back up to Kris.

"...Noelle, you idiot."

Kris scoffed.

"Oh, come on-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Kris was a little surprised by the outburst, but then with a deadpan expression, gestured for her to continue talking.

"Thank you, asshole. Any fucking ways, despite your piss poor attempts, I guess you might have a point about those two, if I was a bitchy friend. Not even mentioning that willing murder is, I think, a whole lot worse than anything they could have done. Not fucking doing yourself any favors there, buddy."

Kris gulped. 

Susie's words were laced with malice, and she was resistant to anything they said. It was as if she was so damn perseverant, that even if she was broken for a second, she'd pick up her pieces, fix herself, and go right back to fucking them over.

"But the piece of your argument that makes the entire fucking tower fall on your ass is that Noelle has never done me wrong. NEVER."

Kris was a very stubborn person however.

"How can you-"

"Man, you JUST DON'T FUCKING LEARN! And yeah, I'm pretty goddamn sure! I'm so fucking sure in fact, that I will swear to every fucking god that may or may not exist in either of these two worlds, that in the seven, goddamn near eight years I've lived in this town, Noelle has never, EVER, been anything but nice to me. And that's a goddamn fact. And because you fucked with her, I'll even make sure you take it to your GRAVE!"

"What- I- I don't- how did- you-"

Kris couldn't come up with anything else to say to try and stop Susie. They only had one thing to ask:

"WHAT THE HELL ARE-"

Kris was suddenly interrupted by another Rude Buster, which they blocked by morphing their sword into a sturdy looking shield and raising above their head while simultaneously ducking down. The shield took the blast, and Kris was about to counter attack through  the dust that gathered from the blast, when their shield was suddenly jerked away from them.

The dust cleared, revealing Susie, who was somehow on the top of Kris's shield in the span of 4 seconds without Kris hearing her footsteps, used the edge of her axe's blade to hook onto the back of Kris's shield, and was attempting to pull it away from them.

"You know, I was trying to make this quick. I was trying to not hurt you too badly. I was trying to hold myself back, but then I realized: you're not my friend, so why should I treat you like one, huh?"

Kris felt their shield grow harder and harder to hold on to. As they were struggling to keep their shield in their hands, they thought they saw two silhouettes from behind Susie's back, but a blink later and they were gone.  

"You have so much Kris. So much shit I couldn't even dream of before! Family, friends, a nice home, food, a room, everything you could ever need! And you, you just waste all of it?! Waste people's goddamn time and effort on you?! After everything you've done, after everyone you've insulted and spat on with this fucking stunt, WHY SHOULD I GIVE YOU ANY MERCY?!"

Susie was now yelling, and gripped her axe even tighter.

Unknown to Kris, Susie wasn't really trying to pull their shield away from them. To her, at most, she was lightly tugging on it. 

Susie was holding back. 

She always held back. 

She told herself to never stop holding back.

And she already had to tell herself that today was the day she'd have to break that rule. 

So why not break it again?

She pulled on her axe, easily hampering Kris's attempt to stop her. Kris could only gaze in horror as their shield, as well as their sword, was effortlessly torn away from them, and flew all the way across the hall in a blur, and slammed right into a wall. It went so fast that the shield got stuck in the wall. Susie flipped off the shield and landed on her feet.

Kris instinctively started backing away from Susie, when their entire body ached at once. 

They were trying to avoid it earlier, but the pain from the Thorn Ring was finally catching up to them. They had a bad headache, their muscles felt torn, and their legs felt like they'd been hiking up a mountain. 

But there was a more pressing issue.

Their right arm had grown more and more sore throughout the battle's tide, and now, Kris's eyes widened as they felt that they could no longer feel said arm. It fell limp, and merely hung there, swaying slightly as Kris tried frantically to move it.

"No, no, NO! Dammit! Not now, not like this! Not to her!"

It was Susie's turn to start laughing.

"Oh, lose your toy? Down an arm? Regretting your life? I've been there for that last one, PAL!"

Susie walked closer towards Kris. Kris backed away fearfully.

"NO, NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" 

Susie frowned.

"You know, this is really disappointing. Here I thought that you were some evil mastermind and you'd get crushed with some dignity, but-"

Kris leapt forward and grabbed on Susie's axe, trying to pull it into their grasp. 

This attempt, in their mind a brilliant move that Susie wouldn't have seen coming due to them feigning fear, was immediately hampered by the fact that Susie kept a very tight grip on her axe, so much so that all Kris could do was try and pull it away from her, and not move it a single inch. 

Not to mention Kris only being able to use one of their arms. 

And Kris already being not the strongest person.

And the fact that Susie was still fighting strong despite all her injuries.

They kept pulling for a minute or so until they stopped and looked at Susie's amused expression.

They then realized that they might have made a huge mistake.

"Really?" Susie snorted.

Kris then dropped down and tried to go under Susie to retrieve their sword. They were right between Susie's legs when she closed them and trapped Kris's neck in between her heels, and squeezed them enough so that Kris couldn't move.

"Augh!"

She picked them up by the foot, and held them up to her, face to face, albeit Kris being upside down.

"Ah!"

Susie wore the biggest and malicious grin she could muster.

"So, humor me. On a scale of 1 to 10…" 

She swung Kris back in the air, leapt, swung forward, and slammed Kris into the ground, leaving a massive Kris-shaped crater. They groaned and tried to get up, only to slump back into the ditch. 

"...How fucked are you?"

Kris could feel the numbness spread to their right leg, and they couldn't ignore the now massive migraine they now had any longer. They finally managed to get up to their knees somewhat, only to see Susie standing over them. She smiled and tapped her axe in her other hand.

"What's next? A circus trick? Maybe a dance performance? I can't wait to see the next fucking dumbass thing you do next! You're such a clown, I'm surprised Jevil hasn't bounced out and started laughing up a storm!"

Something rang out of Susie's pocket. "OH? IS IT TIME FOR CHAOS, CHAOS?!"

"Dang it Jevil, not now! I'm trying to be a cocky fuck, like Kris! It's ironic, DAMNIT!"

"OKAY, OKAY, DON'T LET THE BIGGEST BAD WOLF BITE!"

With that, Jevil's voice vanished as fast as it appeared.

Interestingly, like the thing that Jevil described them as, Kris growled.

"Don't… Mock.. me!"

Susie leaned down, right down to Kris's face. 

"What the fuck are you gonna do otherwise? I mean, I'm just spitballing here. I mean, all your previous ideas were shit, so I'm just trying to help out a 'friend'. Don't you want my help, Kris?"

Kris was about to retort, when they suddenly felt a pain like no other rock them to their very core.

And it wasn't the pain that came from their physical shell.

This was pain straight from the heart.

Or in their case, straight from the soul.

It was an intense stabbing pain that they recognized.

They had been subject to it only a night ago.

"Ngghh…"

"Don't you want some help from your best friend Susie? Huh? Don't you?"

"Aughh… Ahhh…"

"I dunno, maybe I can scrape your face on these walls and tear the skin off your face ! Remember that? My threat from yesterday? I do! Only this time, YOU'LL ACTUALLY FEEL IT!"

"Hhgg… Nnn…"

"Oh! I know! Here's a wonderful idea! How about I PUT YOU INTO THE GROUND AGAIN?! And I’ll take good care to make sure that YOU NEVER LEAVE IT AGAIN!”

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Kris began screaming, the sound filling the entire area. 

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Susie backed away from Kris.

Kris then plunged their left arm into their chest, still screaming. They struggled to keep it inside, writhing on the ground in agony. 

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Susie watched on in a mixture of shock and curiosity, deciding it was best to not get involved right now.

"STOP THIS..! YOU HAVE… NO CLUE… WHAT… I… WHO I AM…!"

Kris yelled at the top of their lungs;

“I AM A GOD YOU MISERABLE HUMAN VESSEL!!! I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL EVERYONE YOU LOVE! IT WOULDN'T BE MY SECOND TIME DOING IT ETHER! I'LL MAKE YOU RUE THE DAY YOU EVER REBELLED AGAINST MY WILL, KRISTIAN DREEMURR!!!"

Then, acompletelydifferentvoice came out of Kris's mouth.

"SHUT UP, AND GET THE HELL OUT OF ME!"

Kris finally managed to clutch on to something and ripped it right out of their chest. They held said thing in their hands, just looking at it.

Susie, not knowing what was unfolding before her eyes, decided to follow Kris's lead and gazed at the new object in their hand.

It appeared to be a red heart shaped object, about as big as Kris's own hand. It gave off a faint glow, and floated an inch or so above Kris's palm. 

Susie wearily moved closer, curious to the object's nature. As she took in the sight before her, thousands of questions ran through her mind. 

She decided to settle on just two for now. 

"Kris, what the hell is that? And what the fuck did I just witness?"

Kris breathed hard with a somewhat insane smile on their face, which looked like it was born more out of relief than insanity.

"This, Susie, is my Soul, and as for what… that was me taking my life back."