[i]The sky was raining fire.[/i]

Arrows of scarlet haze rippled through the twilight horizon illuminated orange. Ash and charcoal scorched the suffocated atmosphere of virulent smog, unchallenged by the west wind. Corpses of men and women, all ages alike, lined the bloodied debris of ruins from what once stood as an outpost for justice.

Among the murdered and the children, a disheveled [b]Zaino[/b] crawled. He cried and cried of the trauma and shock, unable to bring himself to utter a single syllable as he weakly reached out for his blade. He couldn't go on any longer. He was prepared to give up.

---

Wandering out of his memories, the crimson-stained swordsman trudged beyond the sands of mirage and into a mountainous region. A week, was it? Or was it two? Zaino was too weakened to care. He was starving, thirsty, exhausted, and wounded, all in a single package of ailments exclusively for him. His mouth ran arid as the desert he had traversed, and his cut-up apparel was no more than mere patches of clothing barely kept together by strings that distinguished him from clothed to naked.

[b]"Guh,"[/b] Zaino wretched, refusing to submit to the comfort of crumpling to the ground. His expressionless, grimy face carried on the weight of suffering as his eyelids covered his violet eyes halfway. He groaned and desired to salivate simply to rid of the dryness in his mouth, yet his body did not contain enough traces of fluids to even sweat. He dragged his feet along and in his fugue state, walked straight into the bark of a tree. He simply grunted once and forcefully shifted his body adjacently, resuming his zombie-like pace.

*Crash!*

Splotches of dry blood scattered along the blade and blemished its gleam in the sunlight as Zaino's right hand removed the sword from his scabbard, turning to the source of the sound. [b]"Kill..."[/b] he cried more than spoke, closing his drooping mouth and gritting his teeth as his broken legs picked up in their steps. He trailed beyond the foliage and revealed a red-haired woman, cringing as the sight of another soul gripped his aggression. [b]"Die!"[/b] he winced, raising the sword barely over the height of his shoulder. He released the temporary strength in his arm, allowing the sword to lead it down towards the woman.