"Well, well! So little Tori has never been accepted anywhere! Oh, I'm sorry... It's more accurate to say that the only people who ever cared for little Tori are rotting meters underground!" shouted Castellanos, accompanying his statement with a loud, mocking laughter.
"Hm?" The vagabond, blood dripping in small droplets from his neck and the side of his abdomen stained red, glared at the demon with a look of anger. Carlino chuckled again, satisfied and ecstatic.
"Do you want to know how mommy felt before dying, little Tori?" he asked with sarcastic empathy. "Or perhaps what happened to dear Grandpa Veluard?" Carlino enjoyed watching Tori's face contort in a mix of anger and sadness.
"Repeat that, demon!" shouted Tori threateningly. Carlino resumed the proud smile he had been losing as the battle went on.
"I said, your poor grandpa... And your tender mother..." The demon, mocking and macabre, didn't get to finish as Tori jumped towards him, teeth clenched, brow furrowed, and a clear murderous intent.
Castellanos then prepared the most destructive Earth Spiral he could afford, joining both hands to annihilate the vagabond with just one powerful blow. He knew that a troublesome enemy attacking in a straight line was easier to hit, and he also knew that Tori was exhausted and wounded.
However, the mage landed halfway through his trajectory, on his legs and one hand, to swiftly change direction, passing a couple of meters away from the demon, who observed him bewildered.
"Oh! You're not just boring, you're disappointingly predictable," said Tori, dragging the words with a voice of boredom. Perplexed, Castellanos turned around and saw the vagabond carrying a woman in his arms.
"But what..."
"Oh! You fell for the act again!" Tori's assertion drove the demon back to madness, and he lunged towards him, blinded by rage. The vagabond sent Carlino crashing to the ground with a kick to the chest... a kick that reminded him that his heart area had been previously burned, and that his energy flow was even more erratic than before.
"Damn... DAMN HUMAN!" shouted Castellanos at the peak of anger, once again drawing energy from the dome.
"Yes, yes, whatever," said Tori with contempt in his eyes. "I'm out of here... Oh! Don't you think your mistress in Serenia and your lord in the spiritual realm would prefer a human like me? Oh! Even as a demon, you're mediocre." Tori spoke with cruel mockery, sticking his tongue out between the rows of teeth that slowly formed into a huge, psychotic grin, akin to that of a jester.
"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" shouted Castellanos, using all his energy to stop the bleeding from his heart and prevent Tori from escaping. The vagabond, whom he felt a hatred for that, even as a demon, was new to him, also carried with him the body of Caterina Bellini, for whom Carlino already had plans.
So, a few seconds after he started his run, the demon saw Tori clasp his fingers together, and with fear he intuited –too late- what was coming. "The fingers aflame... piercing my chest, just before falling into the river... I hate you with all my being, Antorique Veluard."
Then the snap sounded, and from within Carlino Castellanos' body, the explosion erupted, blowing off a large part of the left side of his torso, a section of his neck, half of his jaw, and even part of his hip.
"Goodbye, Demon of Boredom," said Antorique before sprinting away at full speed with the woman from the chain in his arms. His objective: to escape using the "door" to the dome that he himself had created earlier to enter the taken territory.
Within the squads of "The Sword of Faith," it was common for each member to have a specific role, even if they all shared basic training. Just as Sofia Romano was the exorcist, Marco de Luca the stealthy assassin, and Luca Moretti the marksman, Caterina was the brains of the group. Before losing consciousness and surrendering to death, she had regretted not calculating the strength of the threat she and her deceased companions would face. She felt that the downfall of the seven had ultimately been her fault for not recognizing the huge difference between their squad and Castellanos. Had she foreseen it, the group could have taken other measures or requested reinforcements. And, although she felt that this was her greatest debt, the last and perhaps most important was not being able to communicate the suspicions she had about the Brotherhood... Whoever proposed sending them had done so knowing they would die.
When she felt the warmth again, she thought that Sanctum would most likely forgive her, and that she was just moments away from reaching eternal rest in the Celestial Abode, where she could apologize to each and every one of her companions for leading them to death when facing Castellanos unprepared.
"Hm... We were always taught that the envoys of Sanctum sent to retrieve our souls were beings of beautiful features and idyllic bodies. With clean hair and spotless attire. And I always assumed that, being parts of Him, that teaching must be correct. But... even in that, I was wrong... 'What is essential is invisible to the eyes,' and in their infinite humility, those closest to Sanctum come to fetch us looking as if they were humans of little grace... one could even say... almost devoid of any kind of beauty," said the girl, feeling a mixture of melancholy and relief, observing Tori with one eye barely open.
"Really? That chain user? I'm rescuing a Sword of Faith fanatic? Wait! You're calling me ugly! ...Fuck. I liked you better unconscious."
