Chapter Eleven
Nova Babylon, Lucifaad Territory
Cyrus listened to an ever-expanding disagreement between the mothers of House Kimaris. He'd never heard or seen the Valefor Matriarch's come to blows over any issue, but the confrontation between himself and Christie led to a shouting match between Elerin and Arwen that forced Cedric to be a mediator.
Lady Gremory stood by as a neutral and somewhat captive audience while the Night Wardens maintained vigil out of duty rather than necessity.
They were loud enough that their children could easily overhear their arguments over who was responsible for the recently volatile reunion.
Elerin criticized Christie for her overreaction to events that were outside of Cyrus's control, but Arwen countered by condemning Cedric for codling Cyrus and neglecting her children's need for a father.
Cedric's furious indignation at being accused of neglect by one of his wives amused Cyrus. Arwen's accusation completely contradicted the loving husband and doting father his children knew him to be.
Cyrus almost pitied the Night Wardens assigned to their parent's protection detail. No doubt, the elite guardsmen were having second thoughts about their current occupation.
Almost.
The only thing speaking right now was anger, and Devil's were prone to lashing out when cooler heads prevailed above all.
Cyrus hummed silently. He was one to talk, considering he was seconds away from rupturing Christie's throat were it not for Ghislaine and Jade's intervention.
House Kimaris was fracturing, and by the looks of it, the parents weren't capable of handling this crisis.
It started with their sires, so it should be concluded by them as well.
Cyrus glanced at his siblings, finding them in very different states of distress. Ghislaine sat by his side, silently placing herself in his corner should she need to choose a side.
The twins, bless their hearts, were caught in the middle of their sibling's dispute and unwilling to even think about choosing one over the other.
Cyrus's nod of approval allowed them to sit across from him on either side of Christie without worrying about his feelings on the manner.
Jade stood in between the two camps, placing herself in the line of fire in case Cyrus and Christie wanted to have another go. The atmosphere was predictably tense, and no one dared to speak up while their parents were still arguing.
It was time to put an end to this nonsense.
Christie had been glaring at Cyrus with venom in her eyes since their parents dragged the entire family into the hallway before they marched into the war room for their screaming match.
The moment Cyrus stood to his feet, Christie responded in kind, drawing looks of alarm or panic from their siblings.
"Hey now, what are we doing?" Ghislaine was the first to rise, immediately placing herself in front of a stern-faced Cyrus with her hand splayed across his chest.
Jade looked on with interest, but she was content to watch her brethren continue this line of thought. The twins weren't sure what to do at first, but they slowly came to their feet by Christie's side. Neither Rose nor Sapphire wanted to see their siblings come to blows for the second time in as many hours, so they put themselves in a prime position to intervene.
"Settling a score," Cyrus whispered low enough for only Ghislaine to hear. He stared past her towards the brewing bundle of anger that was Christie. "Training room, five minutes. Don't be late."
"Oh, I won't be, little brother." He ignored her chastising tone and stalked off towards their intended destination. Attendants and Guardsmen alike shied away from the Kimaris heir out of fear for the potent waves of demonic energy rolling off him.
The devil part of Cyrus was demanding he claw that condescending smile clean off, but he'd become adept at keeping his volatile nature in check. He could easily control his temper, but his infernal arcana was something he struggled to manage.
Cyrus couldn't allow himself to suppress his Devil energy because the last time he tried to bottle it up, it became the catalyst to this entire problem.
It was time to solve this…familial tension the best way Cyrus knew how.
Through violence.
"They're beating the shit out of each other." Jade internally cringed as Cyrus's fist smashed into Christie's left cheek, sending her head spinning and leaving her vulnerable to a nasty knee to the solar plexus.
Blood and spittle shot out of Christie's mouth, but she refused to be placated so easily. Her head snapped up, driving the top of her skull directly into Cyrus's jaw and stunning him backward.
Christie snatched his right arm and yanked the off-balance Cyrus towards her to execute an axe kick aimed at his throat. Cyrus batted away her heel and drove his shoulder directly into her abdomen, taking Christie off her feet and placing himself in a full guard position.
"I don't think he and I have ever gone this hard before." Jade hummed at Ghislaine's comment as the pair watched the grudge match play out with concern, and their expressions were the definition of grimacing with every brutalizing blow.
Neither one of them was holding back, and the twins shifted in their seats in discomfort and silent anger. They had planned to drag Cyrus around town to spend some much-needed time together, but Christie had gone and shot that idea down.
Cyrus was forced to disengage from the full mount when Christie managed to trap his right arm in an arm lock. He victimized Christie by elevating her and his trapped limb into the air before slamming her into the ground.
The Spartan allowed the Devil to find her breath as her lungs gasped for precious oxygen.
"Rarrggh!" Christie deflected a series of palm strikes, and with a mighty roar, sought to take Cyrus's head off with an overhead right. He ducked underneath the strike and drove a counter first into her ribs.
Cyrus countered a roundhouse kick to the skull by wrapping an arm around the offending limb and slamming his elbow into Christie's nose. She tanked the devastating blow and surprised her brother by kicking her free leg off the ground and wrapping it around his neck before yanking him to the floor.
Infernal energy flashed, and Cyrus found himself at the mercy of arcana-laced fists raining down upon him. Gunmetal orbs blazed with fury as several strikes managed to break through his guard and impact along his cheeks and chin.
This was the brutalizing scene a certain Vastaya stumbled upon while searching for her master.
"Shit!" Ghislaine caught sight of a figure skulking around the perimeter of the training arena, and she belatedly realized that the Vastaya was making a beeline for the struggling pair.
"Get off him!" Ahri acted on instinct, pushing a dose of ki into her legs to give her that extra boost of speed. Christie raised her fist for a final strike, just as a heel nearly smashed into her chin.
Cyrus enveloped his arms around Christie's frame, pressing her chest against his and sparing her from tanking a devastating kick to the jaw.
"Calm down!" Ghislaine appeared next to the Vastaya, wrapping an arm around Ahri's neck and keeping her in place. The twins shot from their seats and joined their sisters as they crowded around the simmering fracas.
"All right! All right!" Ahri allowed the tension in her limbs to subside and Ghislaine gave her a narrowed glance before pushing her away. "What the hell was going on!"
"A training session," Jade answered cooly, eyeing their guest with a suspicion that reflected in the gaze of her sisters. "Who are you?"
"Ahri." The Nekoshu's temper flared out under the elder Kimaris's attention. "I'm Cyrus's bodyguard."
"You're not a Night Warden, I recognize."
"That's because she isn't." Ghislaine scoffed at the idea of Ahri being a Night Warden. "She's a Vastaya, one of Viktor's whores that our brother deemed to keep in his company."
Ahri was kept from a harsh retort by the six-foot amazon of a Devil stepping into her personal space with a narrow gaze.
"Is she a problem?" The normally quiet Rose inquired, easily towering over the Vastaya with her impressive height. Sapphire matched her twin's aggressive posture, albeit at a much smaller five-foot-seven.
"No." Ahri was surprised to hear Ghislaine coming to her defense, but it quickly died with her following statement. "She's still a bitch, though, so keep an eye on her."
The twins were in the midst of a thorough interrogation, but Jade beckoned everyone out of the arena.
"Why?" Ghislaine's question was answered when her gaze fell upon Cyrus and Christie. The fury that had built up was receding, and all that remained was a considerable remorse that needed to be addressed with words rather than violence.
"Let's give them the room," Jade took Ahri by the arm and silenced the Vastaya's protests with a burst of infernal energy. "You and I need to have a conversation."
Cyrus ignored that future problem and focused on the black haze dissipating from his eyes. He stared down, at Christie whose heartbeat matched his own receding pulse as both of them came down from their adrenaline high.
"Are we done?" Christie inquired as she wiped the blood from her nose and lips. A drop of blood impacted Cyrus's armored chest. "Or are you just tired"
"I'm sorry." The sudden confession threw Christie for a loop, and she leaned back enough to stare into his crimson orbs.
"Do you even know what you're sorry for?" His furrowed brows brought a chortle of amusement from her. "Of course you don't."
"Are you not angry about that night?" Cyrus spoke with confusion that earned another bark of delight from Christie.
"Oh, believe me. I am fucking furious that you took a chunk of Mom's leg off, but that isn't why I'm still pissed at you."
"Then why-"
"Am I still angry?" Any amusement in her grin vanished. "We lost you, Cyrus…."
Christie let loose a deep exhale, and her piercing grey orbs bore into Cyrus's with a mixture of disappointment and resentment.
"…When you left us, Sapphire lost the one person in the entire underworld who never once chastised her, never once looked down upon her! Rose lost that calming voice that always had the right answer to her problems! And I!…."
Christie's throat tightened, and the slightest tear impacted Cyrus's cheek.
This…visceral reaction was entirely unexpected, and he had no idea how to proceed.
"…I lost my best friend." A sinking feeling pooled at the bottom of Cyrus's stomach. "Before that night, we did everything together. Do you have an idea how much it hurt to just see you walk away from us?!"
A treacherous piece of Cyrus wanted to tell Christie that he emphasized with her words and immediately apologize for his transgressions, but he couldn't allow that.
These Devil's were his enemy, and he refused to be compromised by his familial ties any longer.
It was so painfully obvious that these people were more than capable of subjugating Humanity and shackling them into slaves to do with as they pleased.
Cyrus would not allow these Devil's to chain Humanity to their will, and he willingly threw himself into their army to understand how they operated and use their dogmatic principles against them.
When Cedric gave Cyrus the 10th Cohort, he understood that they were little more than cannon fodder in their current form. He corrected this problem by venturing into the howling dark to turn these stubborn Legionnaires into a potent fighting force.
But what he didn't realize was how easy it was to forget they weren't human. The Legionnaires ribbed at each other like marines, competed against one another like rival branches in the UNSC.
Cyrus had to constantly remind himself that these Devil's weren't human, and to keep himself from developing biases; he sent out a full Centuria without their spears against a horde of Gaiseadh without their spears.
This suicidal venture was dressed up to Arkias and his concerned Centurions as a training maneuver, but in reality, it was a calculated attempt to make these Devil's hate Cyrus so utterly that he would be unable to form bonds with these soldiers.
It didn't work.
Cyrus could barely maintain his composure as the Gaiseadh smashed into their ranks and nearly broke their formation in two. Centurion Zorizar proved his mettle by reorganizing his men into a tight cluster that deflected every attempt by the Gaiseadh to eviscerate them.
In that moment of helplessness, Cyrus didn't see Devil's but Legionnaires…HIS Legionnaires holding the line against impossible odds and with barely concealed regret, he directed a relief force to intervene before the Gaiseadh killed anyone.
Cyrus tried to convince himself that logically speaking; these Devils were more useful to his plans as capable soldiers instead of disregarded cannon fodder.
To make matters worse, the Legionnaires interpreted his constant willingness to stand guard among the other sentries and his utter contempt for a traditional Noble lifestyle as a way of suffering alongside his men.
In reality, Cyrus undertook these altruistic actions because he didn't know any better He hated the way his Cohort looked up to him with such veneration and loyalty, even though he tried to kill some of them just to prevent that from happening.
Cyrus remembered taking a Centuria into Tophet to teach them how to scour a city for its deviants by blending in with the populace.
And that had been a mistake as well.
"Could you spare a coin, mister?"
A child dressed in a bundle of rags approached him with her hands held out. The girl looked so desperate and lost that for an instant, he recalled how he used to be her.
An orphan begging on the streets of a rundown district that half the city either didn't care for or didn't know.
Cyrus remembered walking away from the girl, trying to forget the dismayed look on her face in some vain attempt to keep himself from treating these people as more than just a future adversary.
He didn't want to understand these people, and he didn't want to walk among them as one of their kin.
If Cyrus ever truly accepted the Devil part of him that yearned to be let loose, then he feared the day he would forget what it meant to be human.
What it meant to be a Spartan.
Christie stared at him with begging eyes that yearned for a response that could turn this whole confrontation for the better.
She didn't get it.
"No." Cyrus's impassive tone ignited a fury in her gunmetal orbs. "I don't understand."
"You colossal fucking asshole!" Curled fists slammed into his face with each resounding word. "We're supposed to be a family! We're supposed to look out for each other! Why don't you fucking care about any one of us?!"
"You wouldn't understand." It was a miracle that Christie didn't kill him right there.
"Then fucking tell me!" She snatched him by the collar and snarled at him with barring fangs. "Tell me what I have to do to make you care even the slightest bit for us?!"
"There's nothing you can do." Christi's mind froze in disbelief, and she stared at him with tears staining her cheeks.
No matter how much she thought otherwise, the problem lay with Cyrus alone. He'd been giving this family the cold shoulder for well over two years now, and despite it all, his parents and his siblings have given back nothing but love and support.
"Fuck you, Cyrus…. Something inside Christie died, and he flinched when a familiar dagger was stabbed into the ground not inches from his head.
"Consider this a birthday present for tomorrow." The venom in her voice was shaken by sorrow. "I hope you choke on it."
Cyrus stared at the decorative ceiling, lost in a haze of regret that he would give anything to be rid of. He waited for the footsteps to dissipate and a resounding slam from the arena's doors before grasping the ornate dagger mocking him with its presence.
He laid there for what felt like hours before someone finally entered the training room looking for him.
Ahri managed to evade further interrogation after Christie stormed out of the arena and barreled past everyone around her with tears in her eyes. Jade and Ghislaine followed after her in concern, and the twins figured that discretion was the better part of valor and left Cyrus to his own devices for now.
This left Ahri as the sole person to find Cyrus laying on his back while eyeing the blade that had pierced his side not hours earlier. She sat next to him, silently watching the frayed emotions play out in his crimson orbs before speaking.
"You ok?" It seemed insincere at first but in Ahri's experience dragging things out didn't seem like a particularly sound idea.
"No." Cyrus relented after a few tense moments of silence. "No, I'm not."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Are you ready to leave?" The question momentarily caught Ahri off guard.
His birthday was tomorrow, and she wasn't entirely sure if his family would just let him leave when they were here to spend time with him.
She hoped he knew what he was doing.
"Yes." Cyrus didn't hesitate to find his feet, sheathing his new dagger in his belt before hoisting her up.
"Then we leave now."
"Where is he?"
Sapphire and Rose entered the training room only to find it empty and severely damaged. The sparring session between Cyrus and Christie had left its once pristine faculties marred and severely damaged. The twins returned to their room to retrieve Cyrus's birthday gift and salvage this entire night from the constant turmoil.
"I'm not sure," Rose could feel potent concentrations of infernal energy from a Caiseag Sgàil, and by her estimations, they missed Cyrus buy a few minutes. Sapphire nervously clutched the meticulously wrapped present in both hands.
The twins weren't entirely sure what to get Cyrus at first, but eventually, they decided on a simple picture taken when he was still living in the confine of their fortress monastery. He was different back then, but he changed a lot after the…incident on the terrace a few years back.
"Do you think he'll like it?" Rose picked up on her twin's anxiety with a single glance. Sapphires was as strong-headed as they came, but her confidence had a tendency to waver whenever Cyrus was involved.
"I'm sure he'll love it," Rose wrapped a comforting arm around her twin's shoulder. "Only wish we had a more up-to-date picture. We're still kids in this one."
The image was taken during an annual gathering with House Kimaris retainers at their fortress-monastery. Centurions and Primus Legionnaires alike were gathered together from every Cohort. Rose and Sapphire were expected to attend alongside their other siblings, but Cyrus was being particularly antisocial.
Elerin tasked the twins with ensuring their baby brother remained inside the dining hall and keep him amongst their guests. Cyrus had an unquestionable obsession with touring their illustrious pastures for hours on end, and it wouldn't be an over-exaggeration to say that he spent more time there than anywhere else in the castle.
Predictably the twins ended up kidnapping their brother for a series of pranks that left several party goers simmering in annoyance. Their victims ranged from Legionnaires to their own siblings, and their reign came to an end because Christie started gunning for the trio after Sapphire slingshotted a nasty pair of rotten eggs into her face.
Cyrus guided them into the mazelike bushes of their Botanical gardens, allowing the trio to successfully evade a very irate Christie. They hid in those luscious pathways for the rest of the gathering, and that magnificent setting became the backdrop for their photograph.
Despite the image being wrapped up in a tightly constrained present, Rose could easily recall the photograph's every detail.
Cyrus was wedged in between the pair of vibrant twins; an indifferent expression etched into that stern visage of his and the barest signs of life in his crimson orbs. Sapphire pressed leaned her cheek onto his sternum, with her bubblegum hair tickling at his chin.
Since Rose was the tallest of the trio, she flanked Cyrus's right, wrapping her left arm around his shoulder and pulling him into her side while flashing a peace sign towards their reluctant photographer.
Her Night Warden, a former Centurion called Ornathoz, was kind enough to function as their cameraman. He scrounged up an imagery spell and adjusted their stances as needed, much to Cyrus' chagrin.
Rose felt an exhale of despair exit her lungs. She longed for the days of ignorance and simplicity before Cyrus's demonic energy engulfed his senses and left their family fractured.
"Rose?" Sapphire's hazel-blue eyes stared at her sister in concern. "What is it?"
"It's nothing." Rose took her by the shoulder and led her out of the training room. "Maybe he's in his room?
"I doubt he'd go straight there. He's never been the mopey type." Sapphire grabbed her sister's wrist and started dragging her into the hallway. "Let's try the barracks; maybe one of his Centurions knows where he is."
Rose hoped somebody knew where their idiot brother was.
"1st Centuria form up!" Rose recognized Centurion Zorizar's gravel voice anywhere, and as the twins strode into the barracks, they found the entirety of the 10th Cohort blazing with activity.
Legionnaires and attendants alike were gathering up their equipment by the hundreds, and there were several Centurias already mustering into formation outside their former barracks.
The 10th Cohort was marshaling for a major deployment, but Rose could have sworn their orders were to remain inside the city.
"What the hell is going on?" Legionnaires saluted the twins and maintained a respectful distance even as they sprinted to their respective Centurias.
"I don't know," Rose scanned the mass of Legionnaires and managed to pick out a Centurion entering the Cohort's command tent. "But I bet Cyrus is with his officers."
Sapphire's eyes sparkled with anticipation, and her legs instinctively kicked into the dirt as she propelled herself towards their intended destination. Rose rolled her eyes in amusement but followed after her excitable twin at a more sedated pace.
"Cyrus!" Sapphire threw open the command tents flaps and scanned the half a dozen occupants inside before her eagerness faltered when she found only Arkias and a few other Centurions gathered around the war table.
But Cyrus was once again nowhere in sight, and suddenly Sapphire felt exceptionally awkward for interrupting what seemed to be an essential meeting. Rose preceded her into the command tent and glimpsed towards the Primus Legionnaire leading this procession
Arkias couldn't help the snort of amusement at his Lady's exuberant personality and spared a look towards his underlings. "You have your orders, Centurions. I want your Guardsmen ready to depart within the hour."
The officers saluted their commander and made a hasty departure while formally acknowledging Sapphire and Rose. The twins waited for the final Centurion to exit before advancing towards an awaiting Arkias.
"Lady Sapphire, Lady Rose." The Legionnaire Commander leaned his weight onto both palms as he presided over the war table. "What brings you to the 10th?"
"Was looking for my brother," Rose explained as the twins came to a stop across from Arkias. "But why are you all packing up?"
"New orders, my lady." Our Cohort is to rejoin the Legion immediately, and we're assembling for an immediate departure. A few of my Guardsmen are still inside Nova Babylon, but we're expecting to be outside the city limits by nightfall."
Something felt off to Rose. On the few occasions she and Sapphire had tagged alongside Jade's Cohort, they'd never seen their eldest sister not participate in coordinating their Guardsmen's departure.
It was tradition to rally alongside your Legionnaires as much as it was etiquette, so to see Arkias readying his Cohort for departure without their Lord was…concerning.
"Will Cyrus not be joining you?" Sapphire was thinking along the same lines as her twin and immediately spoke their concerns.
"No, my lady." A tinge of disappointment crossed the Legionnaire's gaze. "He relayed our new orders and left with the Vastaya. I wish he had taken one of us with him, but Lord Cyrus was adamant about his choice. So, we reluctantly accepted his orders."
A cold feeling began to creep up Rose's spine. She did not enjoy the Vastaya, but that was primarily due to her envy of her permanent bond with Cyrus. The specifics were known to the twins, but neither one of them trusted Ahri or her loyalties.
"Do you know where he went off to?" At this point, the twins were getting desperate, and Arkias would be a fool not to notice their anxieties.
"I don't know the specifics." The Primus Legionnaire informed a hint of caution in his tone. "The Primarch designated Lord Cyrus for a personal mission. That's all I know."
"Thank you, Guardsmen." Rose didn't wait for Arkias's departing word and dragged her twin out of the barracks. "We need to find father."
Sapphire scarcely flinched as her sister pulled her up the palace stairway, offering no resistance to Rose's rough treatment. Her thoughts were consumed by treachery, and the far corners of her mind bristled with fear that the worst-case scenario was happening.
"Do you think Cyrus left?" Rose's pace faltered at Sapphire's sudden inquiry, and she forced herself to a halt just as they reached the palace doors.
"Don't be ridiculous, Sapph." The older twin scolded her sister for voicing such thoughts. "There's no fucking way he would just up and leave without saying goodbye."
"He did it once already." Sapphire's hazel-blue bristled with despair as she recalled Christie's scathing remarks before they reached Nova Babylon. "Do you think she was right?"
"That he doesn't care about any of us?" Rose growled out. "Of course not! Christie's just lashing out. She's been angry ever since he left for the frontline…."
Sapphire didn't seem convinced by her twin's justification, forcing Rose to grip her chin and pull her gaze to her matching pair.
"…Cyrus cares, Sapph…." Rose tried her damndest to convince herself as much as she was Sapphire. "…Don't ever think or say otherwise he just…it's harder for him to show it. It always has been."
Sapphire didn't offer a verbal response, sliding underneath Roses's grip and striding towards their father's temporary office. The younger twin glanced back at her sister with uncertain eyes and whispered in a hollow voice.
"I hope you're right." Rose watched Sapphire shoulder open the palace doors. Their present still clutched tightly to her chest. An exhausted sigh exploded from Rose's lips as she stared at the artificial sky in some vain attempt to call upon a higher power.
Predictably nothing but a howling wind responded to her pleas.
Sapphire wasn't the only Kimaris banking on hope.
"He hasn't changed!"
Those were Arwen's opening words during the explosive argument between both Valefor Matriarchs. Cedric was a reluctant participant in the unfortunate position of ensuring both his wives didn't try to kill each other.
Arwen still considered Cyrus a loose cannon that someone in this family would have to put down when he lost control of himself.
Elerin was unwilling to let her sister disparage her only son, and in typical Valefor fashion, she escalated the argument in his defense. The sisters' insults and accusations had come dangerously close to erupting into an exchange of arcana-laced fists, but Cedric and Venelana intervened just in time.
He didn't want his family to come to blows, but an escalation in violence had already taken hold.
Ghislaine had to practically beg Cedric not to intervene when Zakan informed him that Cyrus and Christie were sparring…violently by some accounts. It was only due to Jade's assurances that he didn't walk down there and put a stop to that…session.
Still, what drove Cedric into the annals of misery were the final accusations Arwen was throwing their way.
"You're keeping secrets from me," Arwen's tone was a mix of fury and despondency. "There is something wrong with that boy, but neither of you is willing to admit it!"
"There is nothing wrong with my son!" Elerin's retort caused her sister to explode out in rage.
"You cannot be that blind, Elerin!" Cedric can still recall the waves of nocturne energy that crashed against his skin. "He is a ticking nova bomb. Both of you assured me that taking Cyrus to the frontline would be good for him, but all I see is Cedric using him up like a satan-damned assassin!"
Arwen's damning statement turned Elerin's visage white as a sheet, and Cedric did not doubt that she was recalling their journey through Cyrus's psyche all those years ago. The accusation that they were treating him worse than that idiotic military officer from his past was enough to remove any resistance on Elerin's part.
Cyrus's memories still haunted her, and she had to physically restrain herself from going to him on a whim. Their son enjoyed his personal space, and physical affection was something he was not comfortable with.
"You should have left him in my care, Cedric!" With Elerin going silent, Arwen turned her ire upon her husband. "You have done nothing more than turn him into a machine that doesn't hesitate to strike down his own sister!"
"Christie attacked him, Arwen!" Cedric growled out contempt at the memory of his children tearing into one another. "None of this would have happened if you had kept her calm!..."
He had to remind himself that Christie may have struck first, but Cyrus made sure to escalate the issue by aiming for her throat. He didn't hesitate to go for a killing blow, and Cedric hoped it was instinct and not a deliberate act.
"…Leaving Cyrus in your care would have achieved nothing." The Primarch took in a deep calming breath and leveled his gaze back onto his second wife. "After the incident, Ghislaine was the only one willing to go to him. Christie couldn't stand to be in the same room, and the twins were too frightened to even try!"
Cedric neglected to say that he'd barely convinced Cyrus to recognize Ghislaine and the others as his sisters. He often spoke the term without an ounce of emotion, and he hardly considered them siblings in nothing more than name alone.
Ghislaine managed to break the mold, but theirs was a relationship that contrasted Jade and Arwen's children. Cyrus was more comfortable around the hybrid than anyone else in their family, which most likely had to do with the fact that she was only half-devil.
"But I would have done everything for that boy!" Arwen hissed back with fury. "I love Cyrus like he's myson, but your desire to keep him in his comfort zone is why we are here! The boy barely talks to his sisters, and you don't think I know that Ghislaine is the only one he tolerates! Even then, she can barely get him to treat her as an acquaintance of all things! Then you go out and give him a Cohort because of your Praetor's incompetence!"
"Cyrus needed to focus his mind on something meaningful, and we were losing Legionnaires by the hundreds!" Cedric slammed his fist down onto the office desk, cracking it in two. "Warfare agrees with him in more ways than you could possibly know, so I gave him precisely what he wanted, and by all accounts, it has proven effective!"
She stared at him in muted disbelief, unable or unwilling to follow her sister or her husband's line of thinking. All three of them were consumed by their pride and anger, but she refused to continue this argument against two of the most stubborn people she had ever known.
"That's the problem, Cedric." The Valefor Matriarch let out a snort of content and stared into his crimson orbs. "You gave him what he wanted…."
Arwen's following retort was barely a whisper, but it acted like a sledgehammer that damned Cedric's arguments.
"Not what he needed."
For the first time in decades, Cedric was left without a counter-argument, and in that moment of hesitation, he knew that she was right.
Arwen watched Cedric slag into his chair, but she didn't linger for a response, making a swift exit and leaving Cedric to deal with a shaken Elerin. Silence consumed their atmosphere, and only the deep exhale from his lungs echoed in the chamber.
"She…She's wrong." Cedric tried to reason with himself, but the words didn't quite reach his eyes, and his voice was drained of all the passion and fury it had so recently exuberated.
"No, she isn't. All we've accomplished is postponing a greater issue." Elerin turned towards him with a distraught expression, her composure wavering with grief. "We failed him."
His pride once again made to argue, but all the bitterness that festered inside of Cedric viciously crushed it down. He had no words for Elerin, and his lack of response only seemed to stamp home her feelings.
She departed not long after, bearing a desolate look that left Cedric hollow on the inside. Now here he lingered, wallowing in his own self-pity with only a shattered desk and a fractured family to show for his efforts.
The secret Cedric and Elerin had been keeping from their family was now the catalyst to their problems.
Arwen and her children couldn't understand Cyrus's ruined mindset and how much he truly despised the lot of them coming out of the womb.
There was never a chance in fixing what had long been shattered, but Cedric had the opportunity to apply new principles and motivations to his son at such a tender age.
And yet, Cedric had failed all the same.
Cyrus may have taken to his ancestral powers, but he was no closer to accepting the fundamental fact he was no longer the same human who'd fought amongst the stars.
Cedric couldn't help the huff of amusement at how his one and only son could cause him more issues than any of his sisters combined.
Cyrus was one of a kind, and he continued to prove that in every way possible.
"Father?" Cedric's gaze snapped towards a mop of pink hair poking into the room, and the dejected atmosphere dissipated at the sight of both his twin daughters.
Sapphire strode into the room with a package clutched in her palms, and Rose followed her sister's wake. Both of them were growing into beautiful young women, and Cedric praised the poor sod that would manage to take their hearts.
"What is it, my child." He adopted a placating grin that alleviated the twin's somewhat despondent mood.
"We can't find Cyrus, and we wanted to give him his birthday gift early." Sapphire offered the finely wrapped present to her father, and his eyes danced with amusement. He would be a poor excuse of a father to not do everything he could to locate his wayward son for his daughters.
"Well, I'm sure that I can…." Cedric's heart and voice suddenly froze, drawing alarmed looks from both his daughters. Sapphire dropped her present and caught him as he slumped forward, forcing her full weight into his side and bracing him against her.
"Father!" Rose lunged forward and helped Sapphire ease him into a padded chair. Cedric clutched a hand to his heart; the beating organ was suffering the sharp sting of a thread being cut from its tether.
The anguish sprang up when Cedric tried to utilize the anchor from his Caiseag Sgàil. He implanted in each of his offspring a surefire way to locate and, in some cases, teleport to their location given a certain distance.
However, he couldn't find Cyrus's anchor, and that terrified him.
"Ghislaine!" Cedric called out into the void with a demanding voice that immediately received his Nekoshou daughter's response. Sapphire and Rose were forced to take a step back as a black shape emerged from behind them.
"Yes, father?" The Nekoshou had just come from an intense conversation with Christie and Jade that left her in a poor mood. Cedric ripped Ghislaine from her internal musings when he clutched both shoulders with a concerned grimace.
"Take me to Cyrus." She didn't hesitate to activate his anchor, but like Cedric, she'd nearly fallen over in debilitating pain. Sapphire and Rose could only look on with increasing despair as Ghislaine was slowly lowered to the floor.
"His anchors gone." A million thoughts ran through Cedric's mind, but the visible shock adorning Ghisalines features only drove home the tragedy of their situation.
Cyrus was leaving.
"Zakan!" The Commanding Night Warden stepped out of Cedric's shadow. "Where is Karal?!"
"Lord Cyrus assigned him to Lady Arwen's protection detail when she entered the city." Zakan relayed without hesitation under the Shadow Lord's livid gaze.
"Damn you, Cyrus. Cedric forced down a furious snarl as he rose to his feet and began barking out orders. "Put the Garrison on alert! I want all Guardsmen to be on the lookout for Cyrus now!"
"Yes, my lord." Zakan disappeared into the darkness, leaving Cedric to figure out their next step. Alerting the Garrison was a means to an end, and he didn't bank on a random Legionnaire finding his missing son.
"Father what is going on?!" Ghislaine recovered her breath and drew her father's attention.
"Cyrus is going to Lucifaad!" Cedric supplied as a wave of nocturne energy gathered around him. "I'm heading for the spire to get a fix on him. Find Elerin and search for him to the south. Jade will join you along the way with the 8th Cohort!"
"What about us?" Rose and her twin stood by, ready and waiting to assist, but the uncertain glance Cedric shot her way halted any thought of helping.
"Stay here with your mother." The Primarch wasn't asking or telling them. He was demanding that they stay here, and no manner of arguments could convince him otherwise.
Cedric vanished in the blink of an eye, and Ghislaine barely gave the twins a forlorn glance before accompanying him.
Rose felt like her entire life just got upended, and she didn't know whether to cry or curse Cyrus for doing this. Her blood burned with potent anger and the pounding in her skull threatened to unleash a terrible fury.
But the muffled cries from her beloved twin silenced that rage and only left misery in its wake. Rose wrapped her arm around Sapphire's shoulder as she hugged her brother's gift, unable and unwilling to let it go.
Cyrus left again, and it felt like it was for good this time.
"What did we do wrong?" The question fell from Sapphire's lips along with a stream of tears that made Rose wrap her in a doting embrace.
"I…I don't know."
Grief blanketed the twins.
As Legionnaires took to the sky in pursuit of Cyrus, he heard the fluttering of their wings and the clanking of their Griycium armor echoing in the distance.
They wouldn't find him. None of them would; Cyrus made sure of that. He ignored Ahri's concerned glance as they loitered not feet away from Viktor's unused and unguarded tunnel into Lucifaad.
"You sure about this?" It wasn't the first time Ahri asked the question, and Cyrus was desperately hoping this would be the last.
"Completely." The Vastaya stared at the side of his head with an unreadable expression, as if seeking to pry open his thoughts and discover what was ticking inside.
The Vastaya waved her fingers and produced a weightless orb that shined brightly into the cavern's darkened corridors.
Amber orbs returned Cyrus' unphased gaze, and the two exchanged quiet stares for a few seconds before Ahri's eyes softened, and she averted her eyes.
"Follow me." The Vastayan ventured into the familiar darkness, deliberately avoiding the decaying pillars as she illuminated their route.
Cyrus made to follow, but an echo across the darkened plains rooted him in place.
"Cyrus!"
There was trepidation in that scream that Cyrus found hard to ignore, and he struggled to set aside the piece of him that wanted to turn back.
It was ironic that his Devil side, whom he vehemently detested, was encouraging him to withdraw back into the embrace of those he had never wanted to call family, while his Spartan creed urged him to endure.
This war needed to end, and every second that passed was another step towards the apocalypse. Hundreds of millions of his people would be slaughtered on the altars of sacrifice that these factions would erect upon human lands to amass as much cannon fodder as possible.
Humanity would not be spared underneath these godly creatures, and the planet would run red with human blood.
"CYRUS!" He spared a glance backward, managing to discern Ghislaine's distressed features off in the far distance.
The Spartan hesitantly ventured into the catacombs, drifting out of sight before her troubled expression could change his mind. All the while, Cyrus did everything in his power to ignore the piece of him that would forever despise this course of action.
He had a mission to accomplish, and nothing in this world could convince him to turn back now.
Cedric, Ghislaine, and the rest of his family were Devils.
They are a means to an end.
Cyrus had a family long before these people graced him with their presence. He had two sisters that stood by him when the galaxy reigned hell upon them, burning planets and leaving corpses in continent scarring ditches.
Sister's that he would never truly know if they had died on their feet or lived to see the seasons pass and the worlds they once called home teeming with life once more.
But that is the tragedy of war. Only the survivors received an ending, and Cyrus refused to believe these devils could give him what he apparently needed.
He didn't need Ghislaine, and he didn't need anyone else in the Kimaris family to hold his hand so he could cry on their shoulder.
Cyrus didn't need anyone.
How long are you going to keep lying to yourself?
As long as it takes.
And with that, the Nova Babylon arc is in the rearview mirror, but the aftershocks will continue to be felt for chapters to come.
I am still in quarantine with COVID and I guess I've drawn the worse luck when it comes to symptoms. They were severe enough to keep me in bed for most of the week but not enough to send me to the emergency room so I guess I'm just unlucky.
As always I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and remember to PLEASE! review to your heart's content every little bit helps my motivation.
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good year!
Reviews:
Laplase: It is a possibility, but application and simplicity would take precedent over style.
Lord Shiva: I had no idea what NTR meant until I looked it up, but I can now say I am not going for that. As for Cyrus's power, he is above High Class Devil and can go toe to toe with most Loyalists he faces off against. The High Lords and Ladies like Grayfia and the other Satans would present a difficult challenge that he would face on his terms and in ways that would be considered cowardly by the ancient dogma of Devil warfare.
AthrixUnbroken: I was thinking about going that route but for now the shadow realm is its own plane of reality that connects every living beings shadow in a dimension few have access to.
The Chaos Phoenix: A very high possibility that the entity is Mendicant Bias, just depends which one Cyrus would get. The flood sympathizer or the redeemer that quietly helped Master Chief.
HughJasz: So the Devil Civil War is the foundation of this story but I do not want to get caught up in it for more than thirty-plus chapters. There is a fic called 'A Legend Among Devils' on this site that started in the Civil War as well but he hit over 700k words and 30 chapters before he seemingly went on Hiatus after people hated one of his OCs. I want to advance to a new time period with different adversaries for Cyrus to face down sooner or later.
edboy4926: No endless for the fic, as I do not know as much about them and they seem to still be developing the lore to that new faction. I've been trying to figure out what the primordial truth is for awhile but there is a lot of speculation behind it so I am unsure if the super natural world could handle it.
Vansmoke: I'm still getting used to the flight aspects of warfare so I limited myself to ground attacks only until I can seamlessly add random spurts of flying into combat without losing combat continuity.
Next Chapter: January 7th or earlier(HOPEFULLY)
The next chapter is available on my Pa t re on for those who would like to see it. The Link is below.
www .(p)at (r) e o n. co (m) /Cypher1597 (remove the spaces and () to access