Shadows of Similarities (P, NK)

Altar continued beside Xyxer, somewhat surprised when they walked past the Tenkage tower and onto some form of training field, he guessed. He heard out Xyxer's story, a sob story that was surpisingly effective when you got down to it. And to top it off, it had happened to this man he had once thought of as crazy and broken, an insane man in a mortal body. It made sense now, to see the very reason you strive and breathe break and crumble, bleed and die before your very eyes... It would crush any mere man, and snap the sanity of any man more than that. Altar saw now that Xyxer wasn't truly insane, he was simply a broken man that had lost all nerve and reason to thrive. Perhaps if he could find a new reason, he could change back to the man he had been before.

"I...understand that, actually. It hasn't happened to me, but I tend to jump from one reason to live to the next, and the next. That's all my life's ever been, trying desperately to find one thing that'll keep me holding on, until the line is severed and I have to find another to cling to. I've found one now, for the time being. And this is the only one that I really hope stays. As for you, perhaps you need to find something to cling to, find a new reason to live and breathe. Perhaps when you do that, you can change from who you are to who you were, or even better, to who you can be." Altar would say, finding a seat next to Xyxer.

Xyxer smiled a little, even braving a chuckle out from his weary lips as he gazed at his own rippling reflection, the hollow entity in the water possessing as much soul as the true Xyxer did. "Even Kenchi, my brother in blood has forsaken me.. His presence forever absent to maintain me.. Perhaps I was destined to love and have my hopes crushed. Perhaps my life is a joke to the gods." Xyxer pushed himself up from the floor, putting a hand on the shoulder of Altar as if they were friends, "I can't change whom I am now, Altar. The gods removed the other ends of the tunnel.. There's only one way out now, regardless of how bloody it is. I can't turn back.. I can't." Xyxer sighed as his own belief got cemented into his head, walking off from the scene.

[Exit]

Altar heard out Xyxer, having nothing left to say. He was in no place right now to change his mindset. Perhaps the man was doomed, as he said and believed. But Altar had a hard time believing that. There was more to Xyxer than that. An eternal war that would never truly end, but one that could hold a significant key, one that could be aided on both sides. But he seemed more sane with each step towards insanity he took, more at peace with each drop of blood he could let flow. Perhaps the man truly was a demon, thriving only to kill until he was killed. But that seemed awfully shallow, more a facade that had made itself a truth than anything. And Altar, having been in that place before, almost certainly saw that in Xyxer.

Xyxer clapped a hand on Altar's shoulder after getting up, and made his farewell, leaving Altar sitting over the body of water. Altar would let out a sigh, and stand up as well, aiming to make his way home. He had things to think over now.

~Exit~

[16/30 for Senju retrial from this topic]