Alright... New chapter's up. This chapter will be centred around Ein... the relationship between Ledah and Ein in this chapter is deep brotherly love. It has nothing to do with yaoi... but if it makes you happy, just pretend it's yaoi. ;)
Ein dashed through the woods blindly, not knowing where he was going or even caring. The mist stretched far out beyond all around him, forming a thick and seemingly solid wall, one of which he could not possibly hope to see through. With tears in his eyes, he kept running, almost as if he was being pursued by demons... and perhaps he was... He was running from the demons of his past.
Gnarled branches stretched out from the dead trees that surrounded him, almost claw-like and they seemed to reach out to him, almost as if they were reaching out to him, wanting to rip him into shreds. Almost as if he was protected by something, the branches veered away from him and instead took the alternative of tearing at his clothes, clinging to him and hindering his process in running. The boughs of the trees were twisted and deformed, and the holes within the rotting trees looked like faces... faces twisted in agony and grief. The mist distorted them even further, making them grotesque images of people who had lost their way as he had and given up all hope on ever finding their way back to the light.
A distant hooting of a lone owl created an eerie echo and accompanied by the cold, silvery glow of the thin crescent sliver of moon that hung in the night sky, creating haunting apparitions that seemed to follow Ein wherever he ran. Feeling more lost then ever, Ein kept running though his lungs felt like bursting and his body screamed for him to stop. At last, moments later, there was a stab of pain in his side as Ein fell to the ground in exhaustion to catch his breath.
Ein... a rasping voice called out, echoing throughout the woods.
"Wha-" Ein sat up immediately, in spite of the pain he was in, "Who are you?"
Come to us... another voice called out through the darkness, hauntingly alluring and beautiful, yet carrying a tinge of malice beneath the surface.
Standing up shakily, almost as if he was in a trance, Ein took Einherjar in his hands and shambled towards the direction of the voices. Come to us... a chorus of voices echoed throughout the forest, not giving any hint of where the voices were coming from. Yet, Ein knew where to go... he wanted to go towards the voices... he NEEDED to reach the voices...
Eyes blank, Ein shambled on towards an unknown direction till he reached a lagoon... though a quagmire would have been a better name for it. The water was thick and slimy, and pitch black, like the starless night sky above. From where the disgusting mass of slime had coagulated, thick black ooze burst through where the pressure had become too much for the clotted slime to contain. There was no life within the quagmire before Ein, and evidence of it were the multitudes of rotting plant that surrounded the edge of the water. Bones that had been picked clean lay upon the quagmire, forming some sort of bridge towards a giant rock that stood tall and ominous in the middle of the swamp.
Sitting upon it, was a sight so horrible that one could not possibly bear to look at and yet be able to return to the others to relive and describe the sight. A female sat upon the rock... yet one could only tell that she was female from the way her chest jutted out. The lower section of her body was decomposing, where parts of bone could be seen and maggots could be seen tunneling in and out. Her waist was comically small compared to the rest of her body and it appeared to be festering from some sort of disease. Her chest was covered in greenish scales that gave off a pale poisonous glow and her head was nowhere near human. It was extraneously large, almost as if her head was a balloon that had too much air pumped into it. Her eyes and mouth were merely black gaping holes that were grotesquely stretched and distorted beyond belief. The flesh upon her face was peeling off as she spoke in a deceptively sweet voice that contradicted all that she looked like.
"My child... how pained you are... won't you come closer?" Misty-eyed, Ein walked slowly upon the bridge of bones before he hesitated. His eyes cleared, almost as if he was waking from some sort of deep slumber. Hissing, she spoke once more in the sickly sweet voice, "I understand your pain... as you have lost your beloved wings... I have lost my beauty... Come closer... perhaps I can help you..."
Ein's eyes misted over once again as he stepped forward. Plunging into the thick ebony muck, Ein's eyes became clear once again as he heard a triumphant screech. "Fool... you thought that you could run from the demons that chase you? A pity that you have in fact run towards us!"
Cackling in cruel mirth, the female sat upon her rock, watching with interest as Ein struggled to keep afloat in the thick slime that constantly tugged at him, slowly but surely pulled him under. "Join my collection of lost souls," screeched the female in jubilation, "What a fine addition you shall be... and soon that foolish wench of yours shall follow... just for the love of someone as useless as you!"
Tears filling Ein's eyes, he felt his energy being sapped as the cold clammy fingers of death gripped him, and pulled him beneath the surface of the quagmire. "Please let Fia be safe..." That was the last thought within his mind before everything went black.
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Blinding light.
That was all he could see... Where am I? Ein thought in puzzlement as he looked around, there's nothing around... and wasn't I pulled beneath the swamp?
Just then, realization of his current position hit him like a ton of bricks as his eyes widened. So I'm dead...
"How can you be so sure that you are dead, when you've never experienced death before?" a familiar voice came from behind Ein.
Ein's eyes widened as he immediately recognized the voice. It was the voice of someone who had guided him right from the start... when he was still young... to the point at Heaven's Gate... it was the voice of someone who had protected him in the most troubled of times. Spinning around, he found himself face to face with the face of his best friend and the brother that he had never had... Ledah...
Glancing coolly at Ein, Ledah spoke out, "It appears that you still recognize me..."
There was a moment of silence before Ein fell onto Ledah, sobbing. He felt so weak... so helpless... and he didn't care about what was happening anymore... the barriers that he had so carefully built up over the years had finally broken down, unable to bear the pressure that had slowly but surely worn down his strength... and now that the barriers were down, Ein could no longer hold it in.
Ledah held Ein in his arms, in a warm embrace, and neither spoke as Ledah let Ein draw strength from the fact that he was there. Folding his wings, both of which spanned magnificently on either side when spread out, he created a protective veil around Ein, almost as if he was trying to shield Ein away from everything that had been haunting him.
After a meditative moment of silence, Ledah unwilling separated himself from Ein gently and placed a finger under Ein's chin and lifted his head up and stared into Ein's eyes, "I have come here for one reason... and I do not have much time... neither do you..."
Confusion was evident within Ein's eyes as he looked at Ledah, "What do you mean?"
"This fiend... the one who lured you here... her name is Crepuscule... she was created the moment you had started giving up on hope... and slowly, she drains everything that you were... taking away everything that you were..."
Ein's eyes were downcast as he muttered, "But I'm nothing... I can't do what others can do... I cann-"
Ledah placed a finger to Ein's lips, stopping him from saying anything further, "But you have... you did what I could not hope to do... you followed your heart to do what was right..."
Ein turned away from Ledah and whispered, tears brimming within his eyes, threatening to spill out once more, "I am nothing more than a handicap... I thought that without my wings, I was still complete... but each night, I look at the sky and I yearn to fly... yet I cannot..."
Crimson eyes filled with sadness met sepia eyes as Ledah replied, "Then perhaps you have not yet learnt to let your past go..."
Ein was filled once more with questions and they were bubbling their way out of him through his mouth. However, before he could speak, Ledah continued, "In order for healing to take place, we need to let go of some things... and sometimes, they can be the dearest thing in the world to us..."
Staring at Ein, Ledah ended with a sigh, "And I'm sure you know what it is..."
Ein gripped the handle of Einherjar so hard that his knuckles were turning white, unwilling to let go of it, "But it's part of me..."
"Or have you made yourself part of it?"
Head reeling, Ein whispered, "But I am nothing without it... Einherjar was forged from a part of me..."
Pulling Ein close to a tight embrace, Ledah gently planted a kiss on Ein's forehead as he whispered, "know that I will always watch over you... and when you feel weak, you can always draw upon my strength."
There was a moment's pause before Ledah pulled away and said, "I must now leave... time is running out... cling not to your past, but hope for the future..."
With a great flap of his wings, Ledah rose up and disappeared into the light. Turning to Einherjar, Ein placed a gentle hiss to the blade, almost as if saying goodbye to an old friend, "It looks like everything ends here now..."
Gently running a hand over the flat of the blade, Ein dropped Einherjar to the ground. However, before it could reach the ground, beads of green light collect around Einherjar, causing it to float in mid-air. The beads of light slowly merged together, coalescing into a seamless blade of light. As the light faded, Einherjar was gone, but in its place, a vortex of green light swirled out and surrounded Ein...
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Crepuscule peered eagerly into the ooze, almost as if she was waiting for a dead body to float up. The ooze started bubbling quickly, almost like water boiling within a pot. From it, burst forth a pure beam of green light, followed by another and yet another. More pure beams of green light kept appearing from where the bubbling had been occurring and the night sky was soon awash with green.
Crepuscule leapt back in shock as a figure burst from the deadly black ooze that had swallowed him up earlier. Pure green wings sprouted from his back as they glowed with a holy aura. Pointing a finger at Crepuscule, he spoke in a low voice that carried much power, "You can't control me anymore..."
There was an unholy wail that tore through the night air as Crepuscule started melting before the light, "but you need me... I am what you created..."
"I do not... I never realized that completion was always by my side... you are no longer welcome... begone!"
There was one final unholy screech before the sky opened itself, almost like a gaping wound, sucking in the entire forest, the deadly quagmire and Crepuscule before sealing itself back again, leaving no trace of it having been opened before. Everything was plunged into darkness, but that only lasted for a moment. As Ein slowly landed back to the ground, whereby he was now surrounded by lush greenery, his green wings disappeared, leaving behind nothing... the twig-like scars that had been on his back had all but disappeared, leaving no indication of which his wings had been ripped off.
Now, as Ein stared at his empty hand, Einherjar gone, he was filled with a sense of loss... yet he was experiencing something vaguely familiar... something that he had forgotten a long time ago... like an old friend that had once again been found. His eyes remained dim, yet it could be seen that something inside stirred, as if awakening from a slumber...
It was time for the journey back home...
I was actually quite surprised that the chapter turned out this long. Please tell me what you think in your reviews... Thanks!
God bless, Azarethian Titan