Chapter -132: The Shudder of Shadows
"D-Dad...?!" Shouted Sarajin, the two not meeting eye-to-eye, for his gaze was locked squarely on the queen of shadows sitting across the room from him.
His dad's brows were furrowed deep, showing an impenetrable degree of rage. Yet Ophelia was utterly calm, if not delighted, even if her expression appeared no different than usual.
And she had said two words that shook Sarajin up: "My love."
He looked at the two and saw how hearing those words caused his dad's fists to shake...It wasn't a lie on Ophelia's part but rather, a taunt, a simple and effective attempt to gut Darnia's bravery out of his chest.
"But how?" "But why?" Wondered Sarajin, now feeling like a stranger in someone else's story.
Ophelia then graced Darnia's presence by extending her hand, leaving her parasol in the care of the shadows, "You've aged. How tragic..."
"And you are still the same wicked monster you were sixteen years ago." Darnia replied, not a shred of empathy to his voice.
Ophelia chuckled and withdrew her hand, countering his distant baritone with a fond eloquence, "While time seems to have stopped for me, it has passed by at double it's pace for you."
"Is it because you still despise me that much?" Ophelia laid her hand down at the arm of her throne and the narrowing of her eyes could be felt all throughout the air, "Or does your body break down...Because it struggles with all the lies you've kept hidden from your own son?"
Darnia marched two steps forward and swung his arm out to guard his son, barking bitterly at the queen of shadows, "My son has nothing to do with this!"
Ophelia craned her head back and cooed, "Maybe he wouldn't have had to, if he had a stronger father. Tell me...What is the name of the woman who chose to love such a tired, broken shell of a man such as yourself?"
"That is none of your business, Ophelia!" Darnia shouted.
"..." Ophelia lowered her head and for the very briefest of moments, her smile seemed to waver. She then looked up his way and chuckled, "Then let's get down to business. You've come to kill me, haven't you?"
"...That's right." Replied Darnia.
"You disappoint me," Ophelia said softly, "I suppose your appearance does not reflect any sort of wisdom you may have gained."
"You are wrong," Darnia said confidently, "I finally learned one thing..."
He swung his hand out, causing a breeze to be raised to blow his poncho up, revealing a folded up weapon behind his back.
He whipped his hand back to grab hold of it with a firm grip, which made it unfold into a scythe, one with a curled blade similar to the tail of a wispy cloud, and a handle which was rough and covered with air pockets.
Darnia held it behind his back and stared Ophelia down, the tension they gave off sending chills down Sarajin's spine.
And then, Darnia made his edict, "I should have killed you back then."
"Hm hm hm...You couldn't do it then, and you cannot do it now," The shadow hands began to rise around Ophelia's throne, numerous in number, "Not when our bodies were once one."
Sarajin was numb in the mouth, while his mind was a whirlwind of separate emotions. He couldn't do anything but stare up at his dad from behind, and though fierce, he brought out his caring, fatherly side as he whispered, "Stay behind me son..."
He took one step forward and reaffirmed his grip on his scythe, "I will shield you from the darkness."
"Yes. Such a loving gesture from the overprotective father," Ophelia taunted, "Trying to shield him from the things that you have deemed evil."
"You ARE the evil that plagues this world, Ophelia." Darnia asserted.
Ophelia playfully laid her fingertips at her lips and smiled wider, "Good and evil in people's hearts is subjective, a perspective unique to each individual."
"But darkness itself cannot be quantified by such an abstract ideal..." The hands at Ophelia's beck and call stiffened outward. Grabbing hold of her parasol once more, she folded it up and gestured it at Darnia, "For what darkness is...is necessary."
Five hands launched forth in separate directions so that at least one would hit Darnia. Darnia clutched his left hand into a fist full of wind and then slid to the left, using his body as a shield for his son.
One of the hands lunged into his chest and shoved him back a couple inches forcing little more than a grunt out of him.
Sarajin trembled at the knees and stopped only at the sight of his father flashing a ferocious glare over his shoulder.
"Get out of the palace, son!" He shouted before having to swing his hand out and launch the orb of gales at the remaining hands.
If Sarajin's feet couldn't carry him out then the violent gale that quickly filled the throne room managed to do so. He was flung out onto his back and after tumbling down the hill partway, he landed on all fours and wrenched his head up with a panicked scream of "DAD!"
He then tried to run back, only to be dissuaded by what he saw...
The throne room had been consumed by a typhoon raging as fast as the one below Arc Hurricanos. Contained within this space, Darnia was constantly in a state of motion, his scythe cleaving through the shadow hands with his deadly dance.
Undeterred by the storm he was pressing forward inch after inch to the throne. Ophelia sat there, unmoving, with her parasol tapped against the floor.
When a shadow met its end another one took its place. The darkness was endless, as did seem to be the depths of her power.
She could easily surround Darnia on all sides at any given moment but she did not fight like a person seeking to win.
She was giggling and laughing and having the time of her life, playing with his father like a predator would their food.
Over the course of the first thirty seconds Sarajin saw his father move with the speed and reflexes of a spry young man.
If his fear and panic weren't at their strongest he'd be captivated with awe, wondering just what his father would do next.
With a sweep of the blade around his body, Darnia cut a dozen shadows at the wrist, only to return with twice as many hands, growing off the limb like the branches of a tree.
Darnia was looking like he would be caged in any second but never his stance, holding his scythe firmly in both hands and swinging it over his head.
The storm then gathered into his blade like a compact tornado, followed by him impaling the ground directly in front of him.
A flurry of compact air blades went out in all directions, slicing through the cage of shadows and all throughout the palace walls as well.
One stray blade flew off and cut Ophelia's across the cheek, her body registering that it needed to bleed a few seconds after the fact.
Her smile's fervor increased, and she thrust her parasol forth, calling more, bigger shadows to her side.
"Marvelous, my love!" She shouted with utter delight, "Dance for me your most passionate dance! Let the sparks from your blade rekindle the fires of love that could eclipse the SUN!"
Two hands thrust forth with a ghastly wail, forcing Darnia to dig his feet down and hold his scythe to guard, using both arms as a brace.
He was forced off the palace's front steps and put his heels against the first stone that followed. He then gathered the wind to his scythe and with a sonic boom, forced the hands into the air from recoil.
This gave him time to swing his scythe back and then, with all his might, cleave the hands through with an invisible slice.
The hands froze up, breaking down after the slice delivered a delayed cut through the second floor of the palace.
Darnia stood still and caught his breath, his body beginning to sweat. Ophelia's smile curled, and after she wiggled a finger towards herself one hand emerged from Darnia's shadow and shoved him back towards the palace.
Shadow spikes then erupted from the ground in a line from the throne to where he was, forcing him to make a leap left while his legs were still off-balance.
He dropped to the ground and rolled to get back to his feet faster, managing to narrowly avoid the strike of a few shadow hands.
He then dashed forward, grinding his scythe down the length of the shadows. One of the air sacs on the handle began to glow.
Once he set foot on the steps leading up to the throne he swung a thick blade of wind at Ophelia. She left one of her capable shadows to grab the blade in the center and smash it like it was made of glass.
The hand laid suspended there, slowly sliding back to Ophelia's side as she smiled, "Is this all you're going to show me, my love?"
Her laughter was deep and mocking of his courageous stance, "You stand no chance of beating me let alone killing me but regardless, you could at least try and spice things up a little."
Following a heavy swing through the air, Darnia gripped his scythe in both hands and gestured the blade at her, "I will have your head, monster."
"You could have it again, and more..." Ophelia remarked, "If we made love, not war."
Darnia swung his scythe back in preparation for another attack and Ophelia sighed in a melancholic tone, "Then again, you always were terrible at reading my mood."
A hand appeared behind Darnia and with his sharp eyes he turned around and cut it down, gritting his teeth as his realized folly was exposed immediately by Ophelia, who bombarded his back with a flood of tiny shadow hands.
They latched on one-by-one until his whole backside, arms and all, were stiffened like the joints of a marionette.
Then she slowly pulled him towards her, with Sarajin watching on, helpless to intervene.
But his father required no aid from his inexperienced son. Without losing a shred of confidence he closed his eyes and concentrated, summoning forth a flurry of wind blades to attack both sides of the conjoined hands.
Ophelia summoned other hands to intercept the blades but even she could not keep up with the number, eventually allowing Darnia to cut himself free and stumble forward.
He then turned around, embracing his freedom with a vigorous swing of his scythe diagonally, sending one mighty wind blade through the shadows towards Ophelia.
She called forth a towering shadow to block the attack, only for it to split off and nick a few of her hairs off.
Darnia could tell her eyes were widening with ecstasy and it shifted the atmosphere in the palace to a colder, more hostile vibe.
He stepped back, firing off one more massive swing of compressed air to try and breach the shadow wall. He made it bend, but it did not crack. Another air sac on his handle began to glow.
Sarajin had been taught the meaning of power through the encounters with the Titans and Pulsa Minoria.
But now his father was teaching him what it was like to apply that lesson to combat itself. And though both fighters seemed unaware of it, their struggle was sending tremors all throughout Obscura.
But he was the lone observer in this battle, unable to tell who was winning and who was losing, just that neither side had gotten a meaningful hit on the other.
It was a testament to a past that Sarajin wished he knew more about, one full of struggle, intrigue, and what appeared to be love...
But when he thought of the latter it hurt him deep down, and made him angry. His father had not once denied Ophelia's words even when he was full of hate for the very sight of her.
So that would mean...they did love each other.
Feelings of betrayal and hurt were beginning to form in Sarajin's gut, as he thought about all the times he looked at his parents kiss and hug and be tender to one another. He was always by her side, taking care of her when she was at her weakest...
Was he to believe that was all a lie and he had shared that love with another woman instead?
The feelings weren't given a chance to stew in his heart as the tremors worsened from the palace, the sounds of the ceiling and walls creaking and groaning under pressure filling the air.
The brace above the palace door began to bend as Darnia was pushed back towards the steps by an onslaught of shadows.
Four of the five air sacs on his scythe were glowing and the sweat glistened over his body like diamonds.
Yet the shadows attempted to snuff the light out, falling upon him like a tidal wave.
He rolled out of the way to the left and dashed forward, gripping and swinging his scythe in wide breadths to carve a path forward to his sole target.
All the while Xiark calmly stood up and muttered, "I'm not going to get any rest like this..."
He then walked away all nonchalant through the shadows and wind blasts to the left side of the palace.
Darnia was pushed back by the thrust of two hands, stabbing his scythe into the ground to avoid tripping off the palace steps.
He then charged forward, reversing his grip to drag the scythe through the floorboards, and eventually threw it at Ophelia.
He used the wind to turn it into a spinning blade of death that hit another wall of shadows, grinding against it loud enough to hurt Sarajin's ears with it's metallic shriek.
As the sparks flew Ophelia's shadows were beginning to crumble apart, but she remained calm and mustered up multiple hands to assault Darnia from both sides.
He leaped forward and pulled his limbs against his body, condensing a hurricane worth of wind around his body like a sphere.
The shadows could claw at it but were reduced to mist in an instant. Then Darnia let the winds loose, making the final push to break Ophelia's defenses and causing the ceiling of the entire first floor to start breaking apart.
He then kept moving forward, grabbing hold of his scythe in both hands and spinning all the way around, never letting her head out of her sight.
In the blink of an eye his blade should've connected with her neck and that would've been the end.
But instead he was frozen in place mid-air, unable to do anything but grit his teeth and grunt and groan. His scythe clattered but did not budge.
And she stood there, the blade's tip dangerously close to her neck, with the biggest smile of all. For with no discernible effort, her shadow had swallowed up Darnia's, rendering him immobile and victim to any of her playful whims.
She put her hand up and pricked her finger on the tip of the blade, giving the finger a feathery shake off. She then chuckled, laying the hand to rest beside her, "You've always been predictable, my love. It makes it easy to get you to dance to my rhythm."
"But it's all so frustrating..." She reached out and rested her hand against his cheek, making him squirm, "When it comes to matters of the heart..."
Her soft, silky touch stroked his face down to the chin, where she pinched his cheeks to try and force his scowl off.
"Even after all this time, your skin is warm..." Ophelia's smile carried a vulnerable sadness, and she whispered softly into his ear, "I do not just covet your warmth...I adore it. Just as I do every muscle, every bone, every fiber of your being. And guess what, my love?"
She slowly drew his face in closer, and whispered quietly into his face, "No matter how much you lie to yourself, that love will always be a part of us both."
She then turned her head and let go of his face, letting her hand linger in the air. With a soft coo, she lifted herself partially up off the throne and puckered her lips, "Just one more time...Let us become one."
Darnia, through sheer stubbornness, twisted his grip around his scythe, all the air sacs now glowing, and forced through his gritted teeth, "Fine...Until death do us part."
The light from the air sacs emptied into the blade, with Ophelia wincing in the millisecond it took for it all to be unleashed.
A massive air bubble swallowed up the palace and a long, deafening sound followed. Sarajin had to scramble back to avoid the splinters of wood that fired his way, while others sliced through the nearby trees.
When the turbulence was at an end the first two floors of the palace were in shambles with wood bars impaled into the ground and dust everywhere.
"DAD!" Sarajin screamed, running up to try and find him.
The wood moved and his dad pushed it up with his back, hacking and wheezing but still standing, albeit hunched over and with a weak grip on his scythe.
He then collapsed onto one knee, forced to use his weapon as a cane.
He panted, drenched in sweat, but alas, could not even bring himself to smile, "...Not even that was enough."
The dust settled and Sarajin stopped running before making it to the broken steps. He found Ophelia still where she was, sitting on the empty air where her throne once was.
Her clothing had taken a bit of damage and her mask cracked, but otherwise despite her home still crumbling down around her it was like nothing had happened.
"N-No way...!" Sarajin muttered.
His father had to have hit her with the same amount of force as Pulsa Minoria's railgun...
But again, this was a lesson on power...Including the sheer gap between man and monster.
Ophelia slowly began to rise and the pressure coming off her was a vacuum that swallowed the warmth of the world whole.
"A pity, I liked that little throne..."After brushing the dust and cotton from her back she grabbed hold of her tattered parasol and held it over head.
The glow of her eyes could be seen through the cracks. But then one chip fell off, revealing just how hollow her irises truly looked through illumination.
And her smile, her ghastly smile, continued to persist.
"Exhausted already, my love?" Ophelia shook her head and chuckled at this pitiful looking man, "You never were good at lasting long against me."
"But I still find myself...wanting," Ophelia raised her head and the shadows began to spread across the ground like a rapidly forming lake, covering up the debris of her home and swallowing up both father and son at their feet, "All those wasted years hiding and this is the best you brought to the table? A desperate, pathetic attempt to erase your past and undo your mistakes?"
Darnia's feet and legs were getting absorbed by a thick, black goop, which slowly made its way to his arms.
Sarajin tried to move but the darkness held him down.
"L-Let us go!" Sarajin shouted, his feeble voice the only strength he could provide in the moment.
But Ophelia's monologue continued with her steadily advancing towards Darnia's position, "But that is the beauty and tragedy of darkness. It's inside of all of us, inviting us to embrace it."
The darkness got up to Darnia's chest and started bending his head back to force him to stare up at Ophelia's face.
As he looked into the eyes of madness, she whispered at him, "All I've ever wanted was for you to accept yours...and mine."
"But..." Her tone softened, her lips trembling, struggling to maintain it's smile, "I suppose monsters are not allowed to know love."
Sarajin felt something in that moment, which even his overwhelming panic could not bury. It was like Ophelia's heart was...crying.
Ophelia steadied her smile and then said, "But it's ok, my love...I will mold your darkness into shape, and then you and your son, we can be a true family..."
Darnia grit his teeth and before his face could be fully buried he screamed, "Sarajin! The flute! Play the flute! NOW!"
"W-What?" He stuttered.
"HURRY!"
Sarajin quickly grabbed the robe and scrambled to untie it, then dug into his pocket to grab the small flute his father had gifted him.
Ophelia's shadows began to rapidly rise to consume his body too, but he managed to play just a few notes on the flute, sending a high-pitched tune through the skies.
Before they were both fully consumed in shadow, Darnia screamed, "Now close your eyes!"
Even with the darkness devouring their sight, Sarajin obeyed, hearing the shriek of a familiar friend rapidly advancing closer.
Moses dove Ophelia, carrying a bright, white jewel in its talons.
Before Ophelia could figure out where the nimble bird was he dropped the jewel straight towards her face, her eyes widening as it shattered against her mask.
The shadows wailed as a bright white light burned them away. Darnia gasped for air and then spun around, folding the scythe up onto his back before running straight for his son.
He grabbed hold of him and with Moses at his side, he took flight at sonic speeds far away from Obscura.
The light quickly faded and Ophelia held her hand out, her shadows ready to give chase.
However, she instead closed her hand, clutching the fading dot that was Darnia Stratos within.
She then put her parasol back into her hand and sighed, "That was a beautiful performance...my love."
She then closed her eyes and bowed her head, remarking in a playful tone, "Now...Solomon, what have I said about hiding in my shadow whenever I'm having fun?"
The shape of a teenage boy rose out from the shadow coming off his mother's back. Already a good half a foot taller than her, he wore a dark gray cloak with a faded red cloud pattern on the bottom half and red on the rim of his sleeves. His face was shrouded in mystery, as it was covered by a cat-like mask with hollow eyes, the ears folded towards the back of his scalp. But there were traces of dark indigo hair coming out from behind the mask.
"Who was that?" The boy spoke, stoic but with a hint of concern, "They felt familiar, not unlike myself..."
Ophelia turned around and her shadows began to move, grabbing the pieces of their broken home without her having to flex a muscle.
"Nothing more than a fool and his young mistake," She whispered, "Now...Let us rebuild our home, my son."
"Yes, mother." The son nodded, extending his hand out and creating a black wind that blew off all the excess dust in the area...
Meanwhile, Darnia hurried back home with his son clutched tightly against his chest. These were speeds Sarajin wasn't accustomed to but the trip was brief, with them arriving back at their doorstep in a matter of minutes.
It took a little longer for Moses to catch up and land on his perch, where Darnia petted him and said, "Thank you, old friend."
He then let go of Sarajin and shoved his back to get him through the door, all the while saying in a demanding voice, "March to your room young man. I've enabled your disobedience for long enough. After today, you're not to step foot on the surface."
But Sarajin turned around, his hair all frayed from the flight, and swung his arms down, firmly standing beside the staircase with all his mixed emotions manifesting as a shout, "But dad...!"
"No buts!" Darnia stood in the door frame and furrowed his brow, swinging his arm at the stairs, "Now, you will go up those stairs and go to sleep!"
"You know who Ophelia is...!" Sarajin struck hard with that stinging remark and then grit his teeth, refusing to budge, "W-What else have you been hiding from me?!"
Darnia's eyes flared and he threw his arm back down, growling at him, "This is not up for discussion. You are to forget everything you saw and heard today, and-"
"And do what? Lie to myself like you lied to me?!" Sarajin's remark bite Darnia in the heart, making his skin grow cold.
He then began to curl his fists and cracked the bone, unable to look his dad in the eyes as he whimpered bitterly, "You...you've been to the surface. Why didn't you tell me that?"
"I did try to warn you," Darnia reasserted his authority, "But you got careless, and arrogant, and it could have cost us both our lives!"
Sarajin continued not to stare until Darnia raised his voice demanding, "Look at me when I'm talking to you, son!"
Sarajin raised his angered, tearful gaze at him and sniffled, with Darnia refusing to back down, "Do you even understand what you have done? Or the burden you would've placed on your mother and me had Moses not reached me in time?!"
"M-Moses...?!" When Sarajin stuttered that out, Darnia bit his lower lip, unable to rewind the hands of time as Sarajin's feelings of betrayal drizzled out slowly, "You...you were spying on me this whole time?!"
Darnia responded in kind by narrowing his eyes and thrusting his hand out once more, "You are going to go to your room, and think about what you've done."
"No!" Sarajin yelled, "I want answers!"
"What's going on?"
Before Darnia could escalate the war of defiance with his son, Misty walked down the stairs, tenderly laying a hand on her chest and looking like she just woke up.
Darnia's gaze weakened a little her way as he murmured, "Go back to bed, honey. I can handle our disobedient son alone..."
"What did he do now?" She wondered.
Sarajin turned to her and shouted, "Mom, dad's been lying to us this whole time! He knew all about the surface! And...and he even loved another woman named-"
"Ophelia?!" Misty's eyes widened awake and Sarajin's jaw was left agape.
She immediately turned a stern gaze towards her husband and murmured, "HOW did our son get anywhere close to that monster?!"
"M-Mom...?" Sarajin weakly called out to her, but she was off in her own world...A world now on fire, an inferno directed squarely at the man she loves.
"I-I do not know yet honey, but it doesn't matter...It will NEVER happen again." Darnia then reached out and grabbed his son's arm tightly, forcing it up.
"OW!" He screamed.
"Darnia! STRATOS!"
When the wind blows calm, people accept it's presence as a friend. When the wind becomes a storm though, people know to run for cover before it's too late.
For Darnia Stratos, it was too late. His wife's tender voice broke character, becoming an approaching storm of disappointment and anger.
She glared at him with furrowed brows and first told him, "Let go of our son. Now."
He did that and gestured her way, calmly trying to tell her, "Honey, don't raise your voice. It's nothing to worry about."
"Nothing to worry about? Nothing to worry about?!" Misty raising her voice made it come across as cracked, like it was hurting her throat, "You wouldn't be here having to shout at our son if you had told him about the dangers of the surface in the first place!"
"If he had-"
Misty took a very deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, "Enough is ENOUGH, Darnia. I'm begging you, please, just this once...!"
Her voice was sounding worse by the second, but she mustered up the strength to look at him with her tearful eyes and plead, "Don't treat your son like he's like you...Trust him to make the right...the right...!"
She dropped to her knees and had to plant both hands over her mouth as the coughing started getting really bad, with a tiny bit of blood spraying out between her fingers.
Darnia immediately rushed to her side and lifted her up under the shoulder. Even with her mouth covered she could still be heard begging, "Please Darnia...Please...do it...not just for him, but for yourself...!"
Darnia started to carry his weary wife up the stairs and Sarajin tried to follow, only for his dad to look back and tell him firmly, "Go to the living room...I will be back in a moment."
Sarajin obeyed, only barely, because the state his mom was in warranted more concern than his anger and confusion at the moment.
Minutes passed but every silent second he spent sitting down waiting for some answer only furthered worries that his mom was not going to be ok...And after everything else today he would never have survived word of her death...
When Darnia came down his footsteps were as heavy as stone, but they were the steps of a tired man, not a messenger of ill omen...
Sarajin watched him take a seat in front of him at the empty table, both of them looking at the seat where the woman of their lives would be right now...
Sarajin then murmured, "Is...is mom going to be ok?"
"She just needs some rest."" Darnia said, halfway reassured of his own words.
He then sighed and pinched the space between his eyes muttering, "We brought this...No, I brought this upon her."
Sarajin, with a tense expression, looked at his father's drooping eyes and asked, "She knew too...?"
Darnia nodded.
"H-How many other people know?"" Sarajin felt heartbroken and betrayed by every name and face he knew in the city, shouting to his father for clarity, "Was I the only one who-"
"No,"" Darnia said tearfully, "There's only a few others who know the full truth.""
Sarajin bit his teeth down and trembled.
"...It never should have come to this. There are some stories that are better left untold,"" Darnia pressed his hand against his face and shook it, "But...now that she's forced herself back into our lives again, I suppose I can't hide my story from you any longer, my son."
Father and son looked eye-to-eye, both feeling tired for differing reasons. Darnia then whispered, "I will tell you my story...This may be the only time I shall have the courage to do so…"
Next Time: A Father's Wound