Chapter 218 - A Pair Matched In Hell

The room they found themselves in was rather vacant of any actual features, other than the grotesque walls that made up the seeming entirety of the accursed domain. All that was left for them was to push onwards through the corridor of flesh. 

"Got my back?"

"Yeah."

As Macheo confirmed this for Ren, the young man unsheathed his longsword from the scabbard on his hip, also removing the obsidian dagger from the small hold on his belt as the grips were squeezed so tightly between his fingers he felt he might shatter them. 

Not again. I'm not losing you again, Iris. I'm not losing anyone today. I can't, I won't. 

At first, Macheo found Ren's quick, readiness for battle perplexing as even though they found themselves in a malicious territory, nothing seemed immediately dangerous. That falsity was quickly corrected as his crimson irises witnessed entities emerge from the lively walls. Jumping back to prepare for combat, he hesitated as he watched the white-haired companion of his simply continue walking forward as if he expected this. 

The entities took humanoid forms, devoid of any facial features, made up completely of stretched, patched together pale skin that wrapped itself around the red and pink form of flesh underneath. They stood tall, lumbering forward with arms that ended in tendrils as substances oozed from their rotten existence. 

"Watch out! We don't know what the hell these things are yet, idiot!"

Attempting to warn his companion, his words of caution met only deaf ears as no sense of strategy seemed to inhabit those relaxed, slumped-down shoulders that carried the two blades. 

"Just watch my back." 

Before Ren could launch his first strike on the unknown monsters formed of patched-together flesh, a sudden force pulled on the collar of his coat from behind, yanking him backward. 

"Macheo!--What the hell are you doing?!"

Stumbling backwards to find his footing, Ren looked at his companion, completely bewildered by the action. 

"Get it together! I'm not going to let you get yourself killed!...We're comrades; so start relying on me, you idiot!"

Yelling this so fervently, Macheo's voice reached a new high as he expressed more raw emotion than witnessed throughout their time together so far. Backing up such words, the golden-haired noble threw blades of water through the approaching entities, repelling them before looking back at his companion. 

Ren's eyes had returned from their vacancy, that hollow, stubborn veil shattered as he found himself perplexed. 

"...Right!"

He's the only one I can trust right now to tell it to me like it is. Whether for better or worse, Macheo doesn't have a filter, Ren slowly smiled, When I get too crazy, he's my anchor. When he gets too crazy, I'm his anchor. 

"I've got the left one, you've got the nasty-fucker on the right!?"

"Yeah!"

Standing side-by-side, the two then set forward to tackle the foes intercepting their path. 

As if it was the natural action, unspoken and without warning, Ren's sprint forward was propelled by launching himself forward by kicking off of a platform manifested by the golden-haired boy. 

Gliding through the air beside Ren as he sprinted forward were a tri-set of water tendrils, following closely beside the snow-haired man before diverging upon reaching the two enemies before them. 

Without hesitation, Ren evaded the meat-sentinel's hooks by kicking himself off the wall, sending his boot against the side of its head, which caved in without resistance. A complete imprint of his kick was left in its soft, squishy crown, temporarily stunning it before it reinflated like a balloon. 

"Nasty…"

Before Ren could have time to lament the disgusting sight, he parted from the incoming danger as the tendrils extending from its arms grew in length, attempting to pierce him. 

While he handled his designated foe, the claws of aquatic magic missed their target as the other sentinel of flesh contorted its body, caving in its own form to narrowly avoid the incoming fits of highly-pressurized water blasts. 

With Ren being the closest one to both of the entities, the two creatures set their sights on him together. Before the other one could third-party Ren, a small but impactful shot of water blasted against its head, forcing it to turn its eye-less sockets towards the direction of the attack. 

"Yeah! I'm your opponent, you gross bastard!"

Fighting at a range wasn't Macheo's preferred style, letting his fiery self propel him forward as he coated his forearms in blades of water, rapidly approaching the living, walking, bag of meat. Spinning himself around the incoming tendril of stitched-up skin, he spun himself like a top, severing the malicious rope into a dozen pieces before reaching the sluggish foe. 

There was no hesitation; cutting it apart with the rapidly spinning aquatic saws, causing it to lose its form as it slumped over into a pile of mincemeat. 

Ren wasn't having any trouble of his own either, foregoing the same visceral speed that Macheo exhibited and instead unleashing few, but powerful strikes of Belus that reduced the sentinel of flesh into chunks against the wall. 

Without thinking a thought about it, the two exchanged victorious smiles as well as a celebratory high-five.

It wasn't a friendship born from an immediate spark between one another nor the sharing of common interests. In a way, it was something even more natural to that, an unspoken bond formed, a kindled friendship unmentioned. One who valued strength above all else, and one who sought to perfect such strength. In a world recognized as nothing less than hell itself, a cruel, unforgiving realm of torment and hardship, even those who found themselves at odds outside of these boundaries naturally gravitated closer. 

Reliance. That's all there was to it. To be able to settle the constant anxiety that drove those in the bowels of Purgatory towards insanity, to be able to set aside some of that burden onto the strength of another. 

That's the friendship of Macheo and Ren. One born not from a special link, but one required by two, aching, yearning souls. 

"Fighting distracted me from the smell...Now it's back."

"If you keep talking about the stink, your nose won't stop focusing on it!"