The red eyed Knight of the Fallen Sector moved away, and nodded to the two.
“I’ll leave you to explain why she might have been sent here,” with that, he turned back to the palace and left, waving softly to the two, past his shoulder.
With a sigh, Matthew turned back to the woman. “Okay… this is going to make you hate me but myself and my ‘home’ needs help. You should’ve received my letter, did you not? The one with my signature written on the back?” He asked, as if he was sure that she had gotten the letter.
she didn’t
"Letter..?" Hinata tilted her head some, then shook it. " No, I didn't actually." This was a bit concerning, to say the least.
"Why? What's wrong Matthew? I'm not going to hate you for this, willing to help in any way I need to." Hinata was ready to do what she needed to do to help Matthew with this, whatever it was.
“Okay that’s fine. Uhm… it’s about here… the Labyrinth as a whole. About last week we’ve confirmed that there has been what we now call ‘the Infection’ spreading around the place, latching onto different Phantoms— mostly the stronger Knights like myself… apparently, from the reports, the ‘Infection’ is trying to take over the Labyrinth. Reset it as a whole, basically,” he mentioned with a small sigh at the end. “And you know that can’t be good. The place of life and death shan’t be ‘Infected’ no matter what,”
Hinata sighed some herself, running her fingers through her shorter ponytail.
"This does sound quite bad… Do we know how many Infected there are now, how far it's gotten?" The woman shook her head, holding neck a second sigh. Really, she wasn't much surprised that something was threatening the Labyrinth, but they still had to do something about it quickly.
He shook his head.
“No idea. What we know now is that some of the Knights have shown clear signs of the ‘Infection’ and have gone berserk. Again, there are those who may have the ‘Infection’ but lack of clear symptoms…” he mentioned before turning back towards the Fallen Sector’s palace.
“Should we be heading elsewhere? This place stinks of blood and corruption…”
"Oh, great…" Hinata mumbled sarcastically. She looked up at Matthew again, nodding her own head.
"Yes, let's. Kagami doesn't seem to be doing too well here…"
With that, the Nature Knight started to guide Hinata outside of the kingdom’s grounds and towards his own place. Or rather, more broadly, the Sector he was assigned to.
Along the way, he turned to Hinata again.
“How’s the diner going? Good as usual?”
Hinata walked by Matthew's side, hands slipping into her pockets as she felt Kagami calming down.
"It is, as usual," she agreed. "I actually got to work it today with the others, it was a nice change of pace for a while." Hinata smiled slightly at the thought, looking to Matthew.
The Nature Knight turned back to her as well, smiling some before looking around at the area.
“We’re here…” with that, the scenery around them had changed to a more nature-based environment. The houses had vines or flowers growing on their outer walls, the streets had beautiful blossoms scattered on their sides, and the atmosphere was just a positive one overall. However, despite the positive atmosphere, Matthew looked… disgusted being here.
Hinata looked around when Matthew announced they had arrived, letting out a small breath. It did look quite nice… But when she glanced at Matthew again and saw his reaction, Hinata let out a soft breath and put her hand lightly on Matthew's without looking at him again or making a big deal of it.
The Knight eyed what was happening between their hands and smiled softly, hesitantly slipping his hand into hers, hoping that she wouldn’t just brush his hand away. They were continuing towards what could only be assumed to be the Syrain household. That was when a scream— no— several screams came. The Knight instinctively turned to where the screams came from and turned back to Hinata.
“Come with me,” with that, he climbed the wall of the nearest building around them to see what was happening from above rather than rushing into the situation like he would’ve wanted to.
Hinata gave Matthew's hand a gentle squeeze when he took hers, smiling some. Though, it froze when she heard the screaming, and she was glad Matthew was there too keep her from rushing in head first. Instead, the woman followed after Matthew, hand going to Tatsuo's hilt.
Once above, they could see clearly what was happening two streets away from them.
“An Infected Knight…” Matthew had muttered as his spear grew from the ground below him. He turned to Hinata with a nod before heading towards the commotion to see which one of the Knights had been the unlucky one.
"Damnit…" Hinata had expected this, but it wasn't what she had hoped for so soon after getting here. She nodded firmly in turn, drawing her sword as she followed after Matthew. She kept some space between them, so if they were attacked the Infected wouldn't be able to try to take them both out at once. That, as well as giving themselves room to attack without fear of injuring the other.
As the Nature Knight arrived at the scene, the area had been devastated with rocks which were formed abnormally, most likely by the Infected Knight. He carefully walked around to find where the Infected Knight was, finding nothing of relevance for the most part. The atmosphere was silent, as the corpses of those killed by the Infected laid messily across the street. Eventually, turning a corner, Matthew would find the Infected Knight, walking down the street and continuing his mayhem. With a single glance, Matthew had confirmed.
“That’s Austin… he seems Infected alright…” Matthew stated as he pointed at the orange, parasite-looking forms on the Knight’s body in several places.
(4D)
(Austin Glavaler : Rocky Landslide)
"Looks painful," Hinata said taking in the sight of the knight for a moment. She was invited by the corpses, on a physical level, but it was infuriating to see so many people being charged in such a way. Being crushed to death was not a clean way to go out.
"Shall we deal with this then?"
“Of course,” with a small smile to Hinata, the Nature Knight turned back to face the street to see that the Infected Knight had disappeared. Without a second of thought, the Infected Knight—Austin—had emerged behind the two. His eyes can be seen to be an orange hue as his expression was rather… lifeless.
”Leave…” was all he could repeat as his hand came up to aim at the two, gathering the earthy and solid material beneath him and created several sharp—spike-like objects behind the two, all of which were soon fired. He seemed to be struggling… as if he still had some control over his own body.
Hinata turned back as well, concerned when she saw the Knight Austin was gone from where they had last seen him. She turned to look behind them just as Austin spoke, her sword ready to strike as the Knight used his ability, not seeing it just yet. When she finally noticed them, she did her best to dodge, keeping calm and calculated.
Hinata did feel bad, seeing as it was most likely Austin was still aware of what was going on from the behaviors she had observed, but Matthew had already said there was no cure yet, and it wasn't as if there was a way to trap this Knight until there was. Well, technically there was, but it was something that took much preparation, a massive amount of energy, and at least three days to create, not to mention it was permanent and could quite possibly be abused by those with access to it.
Matthew, without waiting for Hinata, had already jumped away. He stared at the Infected one for a moment before turning to Hinata.
“There’s no point, we have to kill him,” he said almost sternly, twisting his spear a bit before he took his stance.
”N-No… P-Please… I…” the Infected Knight muttered out as the ground beneath the two who had tried to attack him started the crack and break in many ways. If the two hadn’t moved, they would be destined to fall beneath the ground, perhaps sealed from the rest of reality.
(A. Attack Austin)
(B. Dodge)
(C. Leave the Scene with Matthew)
Hinata knew Matthew was right. There was nothing else they could really do. If they left, the Knight would cause even more damage before someone else came to finish him off. She glanced at the ground under her, then up to the Knight.
She'd made up her mind. In a moment, she was pushing off the ground, rushing forward to attack Austin, to run her blade through his heart.
"I'm sorry…" She said quietly, just to him, was she did. She'd seen too many people begging for their lives when there was nothing that could be done.
The Infected Knight, since he was still somewhat in control, did not attack back or tried to counter the woman. He let the blade be run through him. Soon enough, his body was on the ground as his eyes closed.
Matthew had walked over to Austin, looking at the orange blobs on his body, seeing how they seemed irritated.
“Let’s go…” he stated as he started to walk towards his house.
By the corner of the street they were on, a humanoid figure could be seen looking at the two and Austin. They stood in silent, only a portion of their features could be seen from where the two were.
(A. Follow Matthew)
(B. Investigate on your own)
(C. [Not Open])
Hinata wasn't going to risk touching Austin's body, but she did her best to make sure he at least didn't just crumple to the ground. She examined the Knight's body from where she was, wiping Tatsuo off just in case any of the infection had tried to transfer.
"Yes, let's." She didn't like the look of the body, turning to follow. She caught the person looking at them from the corner of her eye, but ignored them as she moved to back to be by Matthew's side.
Down the street, the Nature Knight sighed as he looked around at the locals’ bodies. He looked a bit sad but had quickly dropped the frown when he saw Hinata beside him.
“Sometimes I wonder why you trust me so much honestly…” he muttered softly.
The shadowy figure by the corner had vanished with a small smile. There was no telling whether that person meant well, or not so much.
Hinata gently rested her hand on Matthew's when she saw the look on his face, not bothering to give a smile. It had to hurt him, seeing this much carnage inflicted on the people he must have known in some way.
"You're my friend, Matthew," Hinata said, keeping her voice quiet in respect for the lost. "And it does take a lot for me to call someone that. I probably trust a lot of people too much, but… Well, I feel safe trusting you."
Hearing those words, the Knight felt somewhat better. At least someone trusted him, although he couldn’t understand why or how or whatever. He was happy that she’d trusted him, though not sure if it was for the better or for the worse. It wasn’t like he was a person of no secrets after all.
“We’re here…” he spoke as they now stood in front of a nicely craved gate. He pushed the gate open as an owl immediately flew out to greet the two. The owl quickly turned to their actual form.
“Welcome back, master. I see you’ve brought a friend?” Strix had asked with a smile.
(12J)
(Strix Noiyer : Metallic Feathers)
