Shadra phased through the blade as expected, but her claw didn't bring on any sense of pain. In fact, Alvios felt nothing. The woman phased through him entirely, causing him no harm. But she immediately spun around and slashed at his back, albeit with less force and accuracy.

Alvios spun around as well as his sword dug into the ground. Well, crap. So she can go through entire people. She had every angle to attack from, and the only way to defend was to attack. His right hand clenched around the hilt of his sword to pull it back out of the ground, while he tried to backhand her with his left. If he kept attacking with swings instead of straightforward strikes, she wouldn't be able to abuse her small size and speed as easily.

At this point though, Alvios was willing to settle for a mutual blow. Fuck playing carefully around her. She was dangerous to the people around him, and who knows what she had done before coming to his town. "You won't hurt anyone else, Shadra!" Alvios growled, cementing his determination to himself.

Alvios' hand struck home and slapped the side of Shadra's face, but she followed through none-the-less. He clawed hand dug into Alvios' side, but wasn't able to fully tear through his body. The black aura around it faded and instant later, and she was stuck in place. Something dispelled her strange magic, and while she was latched onto Alvios, she had nowhere to run.

Shadra looked up helplessly, trying to pull away from the mysterious force dwelling deep inside of Alvios, shocked and frightened by the prospect she'd been met with.

Alvios would have been dumbfounded. After seeing the curse kill a little girl, and the force tear off a woman's throat and face, he would have certainly stopped and stepped back to question how he was nullifying her power.

Opportunity and anger dictated otherwise.

Alvios brought his sword to bear, and lifted the blade high. He looked down at her gaze of shock and fear. Maybe in a few years, he'd feel some remorse. For now though, he just wanted justice. He slashed as hard as he could muster, intending to tear her open across the torso from shoulder to hip. "Repentance through death, Shadra," he muttered coldly as he struck.

Shadra pulled back, but wsn't quick enough to evade the oncoming strike. She felt an uncomfortable warmth flood through her chest region as Alvios' sword cleaved through her. The tight black leather didn't part, instead sticking to her skin, but her blood was let free, and she fell backwards. Her body contorted awkwardly as she twitched back and forth, not trying to close the wound, but completely unable to react to what had just happened. Her body quickly went limp, and the glow in her eyes faded.

The crowd went quiet, and despite the injury that dug into his torso, Alvios was the clear victor. Rebecca's father wept miserably behind Alvios, leaning over the immobile body of his child, and the corpse of his wife. The elders looked upon the situation in horror. What just happened?

"Alvios," Elder Jon croaked, nearing Alvios from behind, "Alvios, your injury.."

Alvios didn't immediately respond to the Elder, instead ramming his blade into the ground and kneeling down in front of the limp form of Shadra. Adrenaline was still flowing through him, but anger was turning into apathy, and instinct into reason. This girl suffered from some condition. Her perception of the world was different than his. He didn't regret his decision, but he didn't want to be a cold-blooded killer.

"Don't worry about me. Worry about Rebecca." As he spoke though, his body was registering what had happened. Pain struck his side where he had been gouged into, and he stifled a growl of pain. Why hadn't she been able to rend him open though? What had stopped her attack like that? That dark power had just vanished on contact. His left hand moved over to put pressure on the wound.

Alvios reached out with his other hand to try and remove Shadra's mask. She may have looked like a young woman, but he had to know if what he just fought was even human. If nothing else, he wanted a face to put behind what he had just killed.

The elder backed away slowly, and turned towards Rebecca. The father looked up and shook his head. "She's not breathing!" He shouted. There wasn't much that could be done.

As Alvios kneeled down and reached towards Shadra's mask, it didn't budge, almost as if the fabric had been fused with her skin around the edges. It was true, the harder he tugged, the more her skin stretched, just in front of the ear. It was a peculiar fashion statement, to say the least. But as he tugged, it began to peel away, slowly revealing the left side of her temple. But, in a flash of red light, Alvios' hand was suddenly pushed back by something else tangible. In fact, his entire body was shoved away by an arm that appeared out of thin air.

As the light faded, a figure formed from the blatant anomaly that occured before him. A split second later, there was an overbearing presence staring down at him, and standing close to Shadra's side. The crowds looked upon the newcomer in shock. The figure ignored them, and looked down at Shadra with his crimson gaze, before glancing at Alvios. There was a clear expression behind his mask, one that matched Shadra's perfectly in fashion and color. He was furious.

---

There was a pause. The newcomer waited patiently for Alvios to say something, or what passed as patient from his own perspective. His eyes darted forward, past Alvios, before he spoke, and locked onto Rebecca's body before returning to Shadra's with a subtle tilt of his head.

Alvios had gone from confused to completely questioning reason and logic. Well, that may or may not answer the human question. Sure as hell brings up about a hundred more. The pain was digging into his side some as he rose to his feet, grabbing his blade and taking a few steps back. He didn't raise his weapon against the newcomer though. This man's presence alone made Shadra look as helpless as Rebecca.

He didn't even consider lying, and he hastily pieced together the events. "That woman, Shadra, attacked a child, and then killed her mother. I fought to avenge her and protect the others here. I won, presumably. I was looking to see who or what she was, and if I could find out how to help the child from her," Alvios took a breath, holding it slightly as he lowered his left hand from his wound, and gave the newcomer the most stalwart glare he could muster. He didn't want to look aggressive, but he didn't want to look like a beaten dog either.

"...And now you're here, somehow. So I'll ask you. Who are you, and how do I save Rebecca from whatever Shadra did?"

The man met Alvios' glare for a mere moment before he shifted his eyes towards Rebecca again and rose one of his hands. A small sphere of reddish energy began to form. "I did not ask for a summary of what I could already infer," He said, with a tinge of condescension in his tone. With a subtle shift of his wrist, the reddish orb flew towards where Rebecca was laying, and expanded rapidly, consuming not only the young girl, but her family, the nearby elder, and several bystanders. It dispersed moments later, and left nay more than a smoldering crater, filled with smoldering remains.

"Nor did I ask for details that I couldn't care less for. I asked you to explain yourself. The longer you take to do so, the more of your people will die."

Alvios went wide-eyed as the newcomer just outright disintegrated innocent bystanders without the faintest display of effort or care. He didn't know what to do. He was just a man with a sword. Fear was grasping his entire being, and instinct told him to run for his life, no matter if it was futile.

He rejected the fear. He rejected the differences between the two. His grip tightened on his sword, and he looked directly at the man in red. His voice boiled on the edge of anger, but if he lost his cool now, more would die. He had to look past personal grudges and anger now. This was different than Shadra. "I explained what happened. I guess you wanted to explain who I am, not what I did. Fine. My name is Alvios Maeti. I'm the best swordsman in this village. I'm the one who managed to ignore that little masked girl's technique, and cut her down. If there's something more to me than that, I don't know yet. But if you're killing these bystanders out of annoyance or vengeance, let them go, and take on me instead."

He didn't know what else to do. He shifted his stance to prepare for a fight that he knew he'd lose. If nothing else, maybe after this man had killed him, he'd leave the others alone. Maybe another miracle would happen, like with Shadra.

Shadra. His hand moved to his wound again. It was tingling, but closed. When did it close? That gash would have kept him in bed for days with stitches. How did he heal? Alvios figured it didn't matter anymore. He didn't expect to walk away from this easily.

The man looked at Alvios intently for several seconds. He closed his eyes and turned his head towards the largest amassing of people around Helios' statue, rose his hand, and fired a compact laser of red energy towards the center of the group. It tore through several civilians, and he twisted his body sideways. In a quick motion, the beam sliced through hundreds, slicing them in half and leaving a mountain of corpses in its wake. He turned back to Alvios and opened his eyes.

"I'm not one for games, but I'd be hard pressed to deny how satisfying this is," He mumbled, just barely loud enough for Alvios to hear, "Would you like to try again?" while speaking, he knelt down, and gently re-affixed Shadra's mask in place with one of his thumbs. The surviving Civilians scattered in a panic, rushing to their homes, or to the edge of Arcadia in a desperate attempt to escape.

Well, that was going to be traumatizing for the rest of his life, and outright guaranteed Alvios' one hundred percent not-going-to-live theory. Alvios didn't have words. Hundreds dead. People he cared about, people he helped and protected. Just dead, because one day some red-clad magic man just showed up and snapped his fingers.

Well, he explained who he was and what he did, and Alvios didn't really care to start psychoanalyzing some mysterious answer. He had an answer in his hand. Alvios took both hands to his sword and rushed forward, preparing to slash at the newcomer. Everything he had was in this last desperate attempt to accomplish anything. "Repentance through death," he muttered. He was ready to die.

The blade flew forward, but didn't get very far. With a movement of his hand, the masked man conjured a thin layer of red energy across his entire palm, and swatted Alvios' sword. The entire blade turned red for a moment before vanishing, and Alvios' target was left unharmed. Straight afterwards, the man dispersed the red energy that coated his hand towards a group of people behind Alvios, covering them in a fine mist of red dust. Slowly but surely, their skin began to peel away, as did their flesh, until they toppled over, one after another.

"Shadra," the man said softly, "Shadra, do not cry. I will erase him now, do not cry." The man looked back to Alvios and immediately launched a small sphere of energy into his body, but upon striking him, it did not disintegrate his skin, or deal any visible damage. The man's eyes narrowed. What just happened? From Alvios' perspective, it might've felt like a surge of weakness overcame his body, but it was only for a moment..

Alvios stumbled backwards, short of breath and a hand to his chest. This man's red magic has been disintegrating and outright destroying everything it has touched thus far, living or not. That orb was the same thing that had killed those he had just fought so hard to save. Why was he untouched?

He looked to his wound again. Then Shadra. His chest. The attacker. When that orb touched him, it felt like he had lost a night of sleep, but no more. Alvios didn't feel confident about this though. He was just terribly, overwhelmingly confused, that his version of armageddon had shown up and he was exempt.

"Shadra's power...your power...I'm immune?" It didn't exactly matter. His sword was gone, his strength was gone. What was he supposed to do, punch this guy in the face and piss him off more?

"Incorrect, but curious, none-the-less," The man mumbled. A larger mass of energy gathered in his hand, but something tugged at his pants, prompting him to dispel his magic, and look down to Shadra.

"Dy..ing.." Shadra groaned, as blood seeped from her wounds. The man looked between Alvios, and Shadra. Dilemma, one that beckoned an answer. Before the red-coated man could react though, a puff of black smoke encompassed both of the masked villains. "Nex..us.."

Alvios' brow creased in anger. Were these two about to just leave? After everything they had just put him through? Hundreds were dead at this man's hands, and he had the gall to just leave because the also-murderous little girl next to him was somehow surviving longer than he'd hoped.

His fist clenched in anger, and he almost lunged forward to attack again... but he held himself. This might be a good thing. He wasn't going to be able to do anything like this. Unarmed and powerless. If Alvios wanted revenge against this man, he would need something more. Some weapon, some ally, some... power. The power that stopped their attacks. Alvios had something. He didn't understand it, but maybe if he could figure it out, he could make these two eventually pay for what they had done properly.

Alvios just had to let him go. Give him no reason to try and immediately kill him. It was painful to hold his ground, but he just observed, deciding that succumbing to his exhaustion would be the best thing right now. He collapsed to his knees, sighing. Apathy was flowing through him, despair was crushing him, but beneath it all he still had a hopeful, vengeful light within. "Just leave. You've done enough here."

Repentance through death. I'll get the two of them one day...

The smoke engulfed the two without delay, and with an audible puff, they were gone. The last scene that Alvios could catch, was the mystery man's eyes, focused intently on him.

---

Alvios was left the scene of hundreds slaughtered. There was no trace of rebecca or her parents, and with his sweeping attack from earlier, the masked man had wiped out more than two thirds of the village's population, along with...

Oh no... Helios' statue began to creak, and a large crack jutted out from its center. Within moments, the entire structure came crumbling forwards, landing in the center of the giant massacre, and shattering into hundreds of pieces. The remaining village's elders approached Alvios quietly, with less than 40 people left, many of whom had already scattered away from the village square.

Alvios sighed heavily, the tension in the air disappearing along with the assailant. He was tired, down to the bone, down to the soul. He took a hand to his side, over the wound. It was sore and tender, with dried blood crusted over the mysteriously healed flesh. The pain would be gone by tonight, he surmised. He drew in a tense breath, steeling himself as he looked around his surroundings. Devastation was everywhere, but a few of the Elders had lived, and the survivors were still in the double-digits. Better than nothing, he thought dryly, pulling himself back to his feet and turning his attention to the Elders approaching him.

Their expressions both pained and relieved him. They were just as devastated as he was, if not more so, but also were keeping an air of leadership about them. A pang of unease struck him though; the assailants had left. Was he about to get the blame for this? "I'm sorry," he said quickly, struggling to gain composure. "Elders, there...there was nothing I could do. I just tried to help Rebecca, and then the other one showed up, the powerful one, and..."

Alvios took a long breath, trying again to gather himself. Keeping a level head was the only thing to do now. "How can I help?"