"No, it's been a lot longer, so much longer. I just can't tell how much time has passed. The world around me has changed, trying to consume me and what remains of what I made. It is to be expected, I just wish things weren't the way they are.
I don't have the time to be pondering though, they still wait for me. There, inside the night.
The night and day met after the long battle the Lightborn had endured, but it wasn't due to the sun fading behind the world that was Erta, it was due to Kilon and Orvus. It was as if the abyss of the infinite stretch of space was watching over Orvus, while over Kilon his star and those further away did the same. It was a deciding moment, after all, in a long history to come, one born on a planet over which the greatest of Sparks was watching over.
"Had we talked, Orvus, we might have understood each other, compromised even," Kilon said as he stretched his hand, and in a few moments his spear appeared in his hands, pulled by an invisible force. "Instead here we are. Having to murder and destroy each other."
"We can still talk Kilon," Orvus' body was twitching as the shield and warhammer he had made from bone were being enveloped by the great darkness erupting from his body. "But that can only happen if you forfeit your body, and allow me to take care of your soul."
"Do you truly believe that is the path? You, forever alone, trying to protect us?"13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbOmI4uGrCY
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"That is the path you chose as well. It is for that reason that you called upon the Link's power, that you stepped into the blizzard."
"My path was selfish to begin with. All I wanted was to see what was beyond. Had I known it would come down to this, I would've perhaps instilled greater fear into all of you, allowed lesser freedoms."
"Then why did you allow us freedom? Why didn't you carve the path on your own? Why did you want all of us to take control?!"
"Selfishness...I simply couldn't stand being alone."
Orvus was at a loss for words, his face was a mix of anger, frustration and sadness. And looking at Kilon, he could tell there was a great sadness awaiting him, and it wasn't due to the fact that he was willing to kill Orvus.
"And now I am forced to be alone, because you couldn't stand it."
"That is not true," Kilon said with a deep frown, "you can still sit besides the others, make amends for the many sins you've committed."
"And watch them be devoured by the world, or themselves? I cannot allow that, not for them, not for you," Orvus' eyes, still lights as they were, let out sparks for tears, "but as much as it saddens me brother, you alone I must kill body and soul. Erase your very existence, for I know even your soul can fight, and that I cannot allow if I am to save us."
"Fine," Kilon said, his voice booming across the fields, "I see that there was no darkness that took over your soul, it was simply another facet of your being." Once Kilon's voice resounded throughout the fields, Arhegon presented himself before Kilon, and Kilon placed his right hand on his back.
"Loyal companion of mine," Kilon's words seemed empowered, "I shall make you my guardian and keeper of the knowledge I possess."
It was as if a god shed a tear, or a flower ready to bloom, to spread into a million petals but not quite. That's how Arhegon's shape was made out to be by Orvus, who couldn't take a step forward, not as Kilon was guarding his companion. He knew he had to act, but had he dared to in that moment, all the power contained within Arhegon would be unleashed upon him by Kilon. He had to wait for a chance.
"Rise and fight," Kilon commanded, "for the moment draws near. Where me or Orvus shall see the face of our Creator." Arhegon clapped his hooves, a thunder's roar is what resounded. "And judgement," Kilon climbed on top of Arhegon, who was now taller and fairer, "shall befall one of us."
Arhegon's fur was molten fury, his hooves a symphony of lightning and thunder ready to applaud in his glory, his antlers were stars carefully ordained with a certain purpose, while his eyes were blazing wonders set upon a head that held the wisdom of the world and matter itself.
The governing forces of their world were something Arhegon understood through Kilon, and Kilon understood the aspect of a flesh being through Arhegon. Together, they felt and worked as one, not one word nor sound was needed be made.
Orvus, seeing as the odds tipped on Kilon's side, decided aid was needed. And he didn't have to look far, as Melonius' and Stelorus' bodies were near enough.
Kilon noticed the changes Orvus was creating in the air and outside the veil of their world. He was conjuring forces beyond what they were allowed, beyond what they were meant to use and work with. It was darkness that which Orvus was calling forth, one that would consume light and flesh alike.
The darkness enveloped the field on Orvus' side, making Kilon unable to see. It was an odd darkness, one clearly cut that when Kilon shot light through, the light was simply lost revealing nothing. Kilon could figure out almost instantly what Orvus was planning, and so Arhegon made haste in the very next moment.
It wasn't fast enough though, Orvus was no longer where he stood and had instead moved further back where Melonius' and Stelorus' bodies were at. Kilon still had to process their deaths, but had no time for such vanities. Instead, he focused on the lights to search for them.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzgbKeqJMwn
He found them, too late though.
"Your companion may be loyal Kilon," the darkness was concentrating on where Melonius and Stelorus were at, "but it cannot understand the bond we share, the feelings and mutual understanding we have for each other."
From the ground the two bodies rose, unlike the others though. Melonius was like a shadow with two specks of dim lights for eyes, his body was made of twisted flesh and light and darkness. Stelorus, meanwhile, was torn flesh and bone, twisted in ways that would make him as physically strong as possible, but with no care for his appearance. Their weapons morphed and cracked as if close to breaking at any given moment, Melonius' shield in particular was radiating an unpleasant sensation from afar.
"It can also not understand how much this saddens me."
As both Orvus and Kilon prepared to clash once more, silence befell the fields. Everything was ordained for that very moment, and everyone and everything was watching. The corpses Orvus had under his control paused for a few moments, as did all the Lightborn that could watch them. It was Orvus' way to show respect towards the siblings he took over, and those he had yet to. He wanted them all to watch what was about to happen.
All they needed was a signal. Something to start the fight. Neither Orvus nor Kilon wanted to take the first step as it could prove fatal. They were both thinking of all the outcomes, every possible action and impossible one. The fight was on full display inside their minds, the ones waiting now were those on the outside, those who couldn't understand what was going on.
Then, there it was, their signal. It began with a powerful tremor of the earth, and then with half the settlement seeming to rise to the sky. Orvus kept his eyes sharp on Kilon, while Kilon put a smile on his face knowing what was about to happen.
And as the sun was setting in the East, it was soon eclipsed by the shape of a giant. A construct made of metal, stone and wood. One so large it dwarfed the trees below it, mere twigs and sticks were they below its shadow.
"Brundus," Gallanius said, "that shall be its name." The artificial creature rose to life, the earth breaking under its weight while the foundations were shaking and cracking. As it took its first step, the corpses took a step back. Orvus couldn't believe the immensity of it, the sheer force contained within.
"A monster made to kill monsters," Gallanius said with pride and repulsion, never had he thought he would be able to make something akin to that.
And as the first pieces of debris started to crash onto the ground and all around the settlement, Orvus and Kilon rushed for each other. Left, right and up, they were dodging with immaculate precision the falling rocks and stones. Then, they clashed.
Kilon's spear struck true Orvus' body, while Stelorus struck Arhegon's head and Melonius crashed into its body. Kilon kept a hold of his spear that was now inside Orvus' body, while Arhegon was being pushed back by his brothers.
The very next moment, Kilon turned his head and pulled at Stelorus' and Melonius' bodies with his spare limbs, manipulating gravity, attempting to crush their bodies at once. But Orvus struck back, forcing Kilon to duck and then dodge blows coming from below as well as the sides and above.
Once Kilon noticed Orvus' plan, he went on the offensive, Arhegon doing the same. Orvus spread darkness around him once more, while Kilon used his mane of lights to produce little sparks of light all around him, each following him at the same pace and speed. Once inside the darkness, whenever Orvus manifested an attack, Kilon anticipated it with his sparks, moving with precision at the very last moment.
And by following the connection Orvus had attached to Melonius and Stelorus, he managed to find him. Orvus was manifesting weapons out of darkness, sharp blades or powerful strikes, he was able to do either as he pleased. Kilon heated the sparks around him, his body's temperature rising as well.
Orvus at first thought he was going to try and burn him, so he was putting distance between them, but what Kilon was doing was essentially accelerating his body by exciting the very particles that made his being. Kilon was essentially manipulating his body, all thanks to the knowledge Manna had provided him with.
'Misread him,' is what Orvus thought as Kilon was so much faster than before, that not even the darkness which could manifest instantly could keep up with him. And so, in a blitz, he dismembered Orvus.
On the other side, Arhegon was struggling against the dead brothers. One constantly attacked him while the other provided defense and attacked between each of his sibling's strikes.
Arhegon responded to the assault by calling forth lights from his crown and spreading them around him, similar to Kilon's, except this ones pulsated and resonated with something within Arhegon. And as Stelorus' corpse approached once more to strike, Arhegon let out a bawl and the lights erupted violently away from him, shooting into Stelorus' and Melonius' bodies.
While effective, it didn't stop them, the darkness filling in the gaps left out by the lights, the dead siblings pushing through it and managing to injure Arhegon with a couple blows to each side.
Kilon wanted to help his companion, but Orvus took priority over everything else. They both knew it, and Kilon's thoughts just affirmed it. 'If need be, I'll have you die for me here.' And Arhegon didn't protest, he would keep on going to hold off those two from turning the fight in Orvus' favor.
Orvus noticed the unshakable bond between them, so a switch of tactics was made in his mind.
'First I must dispose of the creature,' he thought as his limbs reformed themselves, the darkness pulling at his body away from the threat that was Kilon. Kilon followed as fast as he could, but lost Orvus through the darkness who was cutting off the connection between him and his dead siblings at times.
Kilon, seeing as Orvus was running off to some other place, thought about Arhegon and how he may try to strike him. Thus he chose to run back to him.
"A fatal mistake," Orvus' voice whispered through the darkness. Kilon slipped with half his body through the ground, the darkness providing a void below him to swallow him whole. And while he managed to manipulate wind to pull himself up, it wasn't fast enough to move away from Orvus' darkness.
From a thousand different places, the darkness stretched and cut through his body, his light and parts of his soul alike, only Manna's soul they were unable to even approach.
Once he restrained Kilon, Orvus made haste for Arhegon. Kilon knew his companion had no more odds at living, and so did Arhegon.
"It's working rather well," Eraanel said as he witnessed the onslaught Brundus was bringing upon the fields. "Perhaps too well."
"The way it's destroying everything around will mean soon enough we won't have a home to live in," Salvete said with a pained heart.
"We can still rebuild sister," Galanius said, his eyes shedding sparks for what the prospect ahead. "We just need each other, so move away the rubble, we still haven't found some of our siblings."
Salvete, Galanius, Eharel and Eraanel searched for those which helped them bring to life Brundus. Some of them were lost between the fallen debris, some were already running away from the settlement and rejoining their siblings. And while they managed to find some, a few died and they didn't have time to cry nor mourn for them, they had to move on.
"They're waiting outside," Eharel said as he called for Sirva, her fur a guide through the dust and falling debris. "So let's hurry, our battle is almost over and we have to watch over Kilon once is so."
Moving through the broken settlement, Eharel looked around. The broken trees that once rose for the stars, the streets they spent days and nights wandering and wondering, the loyal companions that laid dead on them.
He clenched his teeth and looked away, sparks flowing out of his eyes. "Orvus, how could you?" His question resonated with all of them. Such pain that they could only wonder why.
'The more I fight him, the more I become like him,' Kilon thought in a moment frozen in time, 'that's how dangerous the path I chose is. Treading carefully, trying the best I can to appease, to please and listen to. Maybe those things too are born from a selfish desire. One that one day will bring me what I crave for, what I've been searching for.'
Orvus felt it before Kilon could enact it, but it wasn't worth anything. He could only prepare for what was to come.
'Maybe I want this, for him to stop me, to put an end to all of this,' Orvus thought. 'I would be the first to admit that I went way too far, way too deep into the darkness. But it was necessary, at least that's what I convinced myself.'
Arhegon shone as bright as a star, the fields and even the settlement were caught in the blast of a brilliant light, and with it, the beautiful song of his cry, a cry for his master.
His crown became lightning, fragmenting the air around, and his legs and hooves let out thunders, shattering the earth beneath them, while his fur blazed in all its glory. Such strength he let out, Stelorus' and Melonius' bodies were naturally repelled by him. He was the living contrast of what they were, so much so that when they tried to attack him, their bodies simply faded out of existence.
It was all at a cost though, the cost of his soul.
"To think you'd create such beauty Kilon!" Orvus exclaimed, praising his brother. "And for me to take it down!" Orvus lept for Arhegon's neck, he thought he knew what the creature was trying to do, and he wouldn't allow it to reach its full potential.
"A fatal mistake," Kilon repeated Orvus' words. As Orvus' flesh spear was about to strike true, Arhegon's body disappeared from his sight.
"Now pay," a bestial voice reverberated from the darkness that once surrounded Kilon, now no more, "with your life."
As Melonius' and Stelorus' bodies were falling to pieces, Orvus looked behind him and saw what he envisioned himself as: a monster.
Standing on all his limbs, ripping through the ground with them and chasing after his target, was Kilon. Bone, flesh, light, fire and brilliance. All combined in a most abominable shape meant to kill.
Orvus' soul shivered in fear for what he witnessed, and Orvus felt an almost instinctual fear overwhelming him. Orvus threw all the darkness he withheld at him, tearing Kilon's body to pieces, but it was to no effect, he would just keep running towards him and Orvus away from him.
Orvus then tried his flesh and bone spear, he tried his warhammer and shield, he tried the very lights he swallowed with his darkness against him. Nothing was stopping Kilon, not even slowing him for a moment.
And there he was, engulfing him. A wolf with its fangs out for its prey.Kilon's teeth sunk deep into Orvus, his flesh was burning while regenerating, his bones cracking and breaking all the same, while his soul was in a continuous onslaught.
Orvus felt the pain all over his being and inside of it. As he struggled and attacked Kilon relentlessly, to the point where he should've died, Kilon still kept eating his body and soul, not wanting to miss a piece. Orvus' struggle turned into desperation, trying to make a plea to Kilon, trying to beg him to stop. But he wouldn't. He would keep devouring with thirst and hunger a Lightborn shouldn't have.
Kilon's visciousness was noticed from afar, his siblings watching in horror but none wanting to stop it. They were all hoping that Kilon could do it, kill Orvus that is.
"Creator!!" Orvus cried to the sky with a voice that wasn't his own, one filled with blood and guts. "Please, help me!! Brothers, sisters. Anyone please! Stop him!!!"
There was no answer, no one to help him, no one to listen. "Fine! I will give you my body and my soul, just make him stop, just take him away!!" Orvus wanted to submit to the darkness, but not even that was there for him. He had betrayed everyone and everything
Kilon snapped his spine, ate his brain and organs, tore limb from limb and swallowed them whole, consumed even the darkness enveloping him. Pinned to the ground and unable to do anything but hope the suffering would end at some point, Orvus tried one last thing. With what remained of his body and soul, he gave Kilon a somewhat of an embrace. A hug to remind him that they were brothers.
Kilon felt it, and cried for it. But it mattered not to him as he kept eating every fiber of Orvus' being.
"Here we are at last," Kilon spoke, "the point I never thought I'd ever cross. One which not even you could."
"I suppose," Orvus responded, "I was close though. What you're doing to me, it really brought me over the edge. I never thought you capable of such violence. What triggered it?"
"Obviously you, but I believe you mean why I've gone through with it."
"Yes. I wouldn't have done it even if you made me want to do it, yet you pushed beyond what your very nature calls out to you to not do. Was it the Creator? Did he rearrange the way you are?"
"No, not the Creator. This was all done through my will, I can tell that much."
"But how? If the Creator has power over us, made us however he deemed fit, why wouldn't he just instill a new kind of nature inside of you, one more insidious but prone to do what needs to be done?"
"I don't have a particular answer to that. Call it a foolish trust, one for the being that wanted what was best for us."
"So did I."
"Your methods weren't working. Eventually they would've turned against you, one way or another."
"They were what was needed."
"Needed for what?"
"Don't play dumb with me, you've seen it too, the darkness that is."
"The Creator talked with me about it. When did it all begin? Was it when you killed our siblings way back then?"
"No, it was after I'm sure of it. Probably after me and Felemous fought. He injured my soul, something you probably have also noticed. Then I assume it crept into my heart, slowly but surely. A venom that consumed me from the inside."
"Yet you were able to fight it off, hold it at a distance for a while."
"That didn't come without its price. Once I was confronted by whatever was controlling that darkness, I had to make a choice."
"And you chose to subdue it, take its power for yourself."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I confirmed something when it talked to me inside my soul. It couldn't hear me, my thoughts I mean. And that's when I formulated some ideas and a plan."
"You thought it would be a threat to you, and us, this darkness. Is that why you took over?"
"Partly yes, but not only this darkness but also what lies beyond it. The Creator must've told you something about it."
"He did, yes. He told me that there is a war beyond our worlds, that there are many more like our Creator. And their war was won, but now they're creeping back in, coming out of the deepest shadows they laid into until now."
"So I was right in doing what I did."
"Somewhat, yes. But we both know you couldn't have handled this on your own."
"We don't know that, I could've tried. And you can't blame me for it, it's what you're planning to do as well. Just without their powers that is."
"I must preserve more than their memories, their being, their futures. Those are all things I want to hold onto."
"That means you risk losing so much more than what I was willing to risk. Maybe that's why you won in the end, you had a grander fight inside your heart."
"It's not the fight that pushed me so far."
"What was it then?"
"Loneliness. I saw it stretch to no end for me, and thinking on how terrible that fate is, I couldn't instill it on my siblings. For their souls would find themselves lost and alone, not knowing where to go."
"There is a place for us though, one which the calls for our souls."
"That place cannot be accessed, not when resentment is bred to such a degree inside of them. They would keep wandering Erta until they become hollow husks of what they once were."
"How do you know that?"
"I can see them, their very faint existences still lingering in places. They're calling out for you, and me, and Manna. They blame us for their demise, call out to me and Manna to kill you. They cannot be put to rest until that is done."
"I didn't know."
"I can see that. But you realized along the way that you didn't have a hold of their souls."
"It was after I confronted you. I saw Avunaia and her soul, and realized there was no such lights around me nor inside the corpses I used."
"Yet you kept pushing."
"As I said, I realized there was darkness and something that had to stop it. It wasn't during our battle that I found out about it, it was when Felemous struck my soul."
"Do you think that justifies what you did?"13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEeqCnIMXEh
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"Of course it doesn't. But I hope it makes sense, and that given the circumstances, you realize you would have probably done the same."
"We don't have to speculate, I'm doing the same thing, just a bit different."
"You're keeping them alive in the hopes that whatever may come, their efforts will amount to something. They won't."
"Have you seen Galanius' creation? Avaanel's ingenuity? Stelorus' wits? They have all worked against you and found ways to deal with you."
"And what has that accomplished in the end? Had I so wanted, I could've destroyed Galanius' creation in a matter of seconds, Avaanel's ingenuity only helped her was I to not focus on her, and Stelorus' wits only signed his death earlier than it should've been.
The only one able to stop me was you. Using Manna's lights and your own, her body and knowledge as well."
"There, see? Her knowledge. It is that knowledge that I cannot earn on my own, for I am alone and they are many more."
"Even then, the Creator gave you knowledge didn't he? Otherwise, how would you have learned so much in a fraction of a moment?"
"The point stands Orvus. No matter how much you try on your own, you can only bring yourself so far, especially if time is not on your side."
"It used to be though. Things have changed, and so did the two of us."
"I take it you regret what you've done. I can live with that."
"I regret it, but not entirely. For if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't stand as who you are now."
"You can't tell me you've planned for this."
"No, I haven't, but it was something I considered. That if I were to lose, you would be the next best thing that can happen to our siblings."
"You're flattering yourself a bit too much there."
"It's not undeserved. You saw what I accomplished, I wonder if any of our siblings would be able to even come close to it."
"Probably not, and that's a good thing."
"It is indeed..."
"This is goodbye then Orvus. Your soul, your body, your entire being are now mine to choose to do as I please."
"And you'll do nothing with them."
"Except for your lights that is. Those are truly invaluable."
"What about their souls? How do you plan to save them?"
"I will gather them, and give them a new purpose, a new life to strive and yearn for. One led by me and the others where they don't have to stumble in the darkness."
"That's why you kept Manna's soul so close to you."
"Indeed."
"The road is long ahead then. I don't want to stop you, not any longer."
"It's odd, isn't it."
"It is. We tried to kill each other, and even as you inflict the greatest suffering on me, I still can't hate you. Why is that so I wonder."
"Maybe it's the way the Creator made us, maybe it's us who can't let go of our feelings. Maybe both or something else."
"We'll never know, I suppose. Time will pass and you'll probably forget all about me along the way. And I wish I could say I will watch over you, but we both know that won't be possible."
"All you had to do was stop, even as we fought, apologize and hug me."
"But I couldn't, and you know I wouldn't have."
"Truly unfortunate."
"Goodbye brother."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgWvumCtSc
