Chapter -109: The One Who Spells Disaster
Nightfall was slowly approaching the village of Obscura. And it's reigning lord, Solomon, stood at the edge of the cliff on his property, overlooking his people.
They were knowing but quiet regarding his presence, but their subdued demeanors told him everything he wanted to know.
He wasn't casting his shadow over the land, but rather Ophelia's, the one who had tormented them with her existence from birth.
Her presence was omnipresent in the atmosphere, and now he was burdened with what she left behind.
But what was he to do with his role as "king"? It was a meaningless crown of thorned wood planted upon his head that pierced his brain and made his motivation bleed dry.
He knew only the way his mother had handled things. Any attempt to further pry into the knowledge and memories of past sovereigns only left him staring into a pitch black emptiness.
This was deliberate on her part, it had to have been. But why? Alas, the dead could not speak, only be interpreted.
"Hmmm..." Moaned Solomon with a sigh that creaked the metal bars of the armor that jailed him.
He saw his village from a former perspective, the few times where he would sneak out against his mother's wishes and try to mingle among the crowd.
He was unique and yet did not stand out in any way. He should have been an outcast the moment he stepped foot in this village no matter the age, but nobody seemed to care.
He was much like the shadows at his feet. There, but not truly alive. And when he would look upon his people and see that they celebrated their own individuality with such cursed but beautiful looking art displays and masks crafted from their bare hands...He could only wonder: "Why am I a part of this world?"
And that question has clung to him throughout the years, and that thorned crown only made things harder for him to figure out.
And so the calendar would continue to shed it's years while he stood motionless between the pages, worn down until all they would find of him at the end was a husk devoid of soul.
It was his spite towards this conclusion that kept his mind active despite the ghosts of apathy that tried to keep him down.
Someday he would find the answer he seeks...Someday, he would be more than just a name and a suit of armor, standing under the moonlight.
Someday...
"...!" Solomon's inner soliloquy would have to wait. The air stirred, and it was suffocating with a rotting scent, tainted by the pitchest of black.
It's presence laid bare feelings inside of him that were familiar, but not of his own making. His body trembled, rattling his ebony cage like many chains bound together.
And he stared towards the north end of his village, feeling this presence growing closer and closer, making the air feel as though it was being choked.
His people laughed...Then they were silent. The sounds of an easy-going village life were replaced with the distant rustling of leaves and splintering of lumber.
He marched towards the sounds with his hands taut by his side and his gaze burning red. Fear had barred any from entering these mystical grounds...
Something now dared to be greater than fear.
Solomon braced himself against the crumbling ground and found Xiark, his puppetmaster, appearing by his side with his skin rippling in anger.
"This presence," He murmured in a disturbed tone, "It's the same as five years ago...!"
Solomon bemoaned the coming danger with an uneasy growl as the figure's silhouette burst into view beyond the ghastly canopy. It's very touch, wilting the leaves into ash.
It was then that Solomon knew that another "king" had come to invade his territory. But not in the shape he was forewarned of...
There was once an entity known as the Skarr Drago, revered and feared second only to the Devil that threatens this world.
But now, having splintered the trees in its path like toothpicks, a new terror revealed itself to the denizens of Darkness...
It stole it's bone-filled innards and wrapped them up in a black goop, transforming them into a second pair of wings. It filled the empty spaces with a leaking black ooze that smelled worse than the worst kind of blood.
And on its face, the melting maw had been replaced entirely by this bright, eerie, toothy grin.
"Sooooo..." The beast hissed with an echoing, abnormally guttural voice, "This one place is where all the Darkness in this world has gathered."
"It speaks...!" Solomon remarked.
"And listens," The creature taunted them both with a haunting laugh, "And just like space stretches forth endlessly, I too...cannot end. For as long as there is negativity in this world for me to feed on, I will continue...!"
Xiark approached the beast while hunched up aggressively on all fours, "Creature of black, you carry a scent that should no longer be in this world...! Just what are you?"
The beast's grin grew wider as it's innards carried the echoes of it's laughter, "I am the beginning of Destruction, and the finale of The End. My name bears no significance, except in the many forms negativity can be spoken of...I am eternity, I am Darkness, I am...'D.'"
Solomon squeezed his right hand and immediately a spire of shadow erupted from the ground and pierced the beast through the face.
There was a long, penetrating silence...
Then, the smile bent around the circumference of the spear as the head pulled down, rising back up to smash the shadows apart.
"Excellent...! Spear this empty vessel with all your hatred...! Make me WHOLE AGAIN!" The beast called 'D.' charged right towards Solomon's foothold and both he and Xiark leaped away.
Solomon levitated in the air with his fists wreathed in a mix of black and crimson. He raised one hand above his head and quickly summoned a sphere blended of the two colors twice his size to throw down atop the beast.
"D." opened it's maw and shoved a rotting sphere wrapped in black into Solomon's attack. Solomon's attack first warped around the demon's, but then the demon's grew larger until they molded into two halves of a whole, and the demon eventually won out.
Solomon's form morphed into shadows and he got out of the way before the sphere hit. It continued to fly, smashing into the pastiche atmosphere and sending out ripples that warped the sky into bright, psychedelic colors for a few moments.
Solomon vanished into shadows and reappeared in front of the beast, smashing them across the face hard enough to warp the air with shockwaves and affect the eaves of the village houses.
The beast bent but did not feel pain, laughing it off with it's irksome smile.
Solomon punched it in the other direction and while it's neck split in the middle, it glued itself back together with that black goop and rammed it's head back into its attacker.
Solomon grabbed hold of it's face and let himself be carried along as the beast spun around and around, causing untold damage to its surroundings.
The whirlwind would continue to grow in size and strength until it's black winds would threaten the village and its people.
With a tense grunt, Solomon shoved his arms forward with all his strength and the beast stopped in place immediately, though at the cost of his elbows cracking.
The beast laughed some more, only to be silenced when it was bound and gagged by a multi-eyed tendril. More and more of them wrapped up "D."'s body and held it down. They had emerged from Xiark's head, but it seemed to be a struggle for them to keep the demon constrained.
The tendril around it's mouth snapped off first and immediately prepared to blast Solomon at point-blank range.
Only for Solomon to thrust his hand out and force the sphere back into the creature's body, leading to an internal explosion that made the beast collapse onto it's stomach.
Solomon fell to the ground with the force of a comet, concentrating all his strength into crushing the beast's skull. And then, for good measure, he grabbed it by the neck and swung it overhead to smash the rest of its body into a puddle upon the ground.
It's parts went and splattered upon the ground, his armor, and all over the forest. It felt all too easy, because it was...
The demon's smile stirred larger than ever in the middle of the puddle and it began to reconstruct itself in perfect form in a matter of seconds.
And some of the goop grew on Solomon's armor to bind his arms to his sides and lift him up into the beast's reformed hand.
"Ghhh...!" He grunted, but remained mostly motionless.
"Heh heh heh. Yessss...! Feed me more! I will swallow it all up!" "D." peered at Solomon through the beast's hollow eyes, and deep inside there was a dark and dim yellow glow.
"You..." The demon stirred with curiosity, enough to make Solomon pause in silence. And as their smile continued to grow, the demon's words would penetrate Solomon's ebony cage.
"You're interesting."
"D." then threw Solomon across the ground and into the hill, causing the cliffside to split in half and him to end up flying into the air.
He suspended himself in place and looked down to find the cliff was going to collapse and send boulders rolling into the village.
He paused for a few moments and watched as one of the boulders crashed through a house and then rolled over a grown man.
He tried to focus on the demon as the damage continued to spread through the village, only for his mother's visage to lay herself against his back and whisper in his ear, "Isn't this what they deserve? You should punish the intruder for daring to step on your domain."
Solomon growled internally and squeezed his fists. In the blink of an eye he avoided one of the demon's attacks without noticing it and dove in the way of the rolling boulders.
"Begone...!" He shouted as with but a swing of his arm, he summoned forth a silent but terrifying black wind that eviscerated the stone and nothing more.
He looked over his shoulder and his people rose from their cowering states, and all he could think was how pitiful their expressions looked.
Yet, one gazed upon him and muttered "M-My lord" with such reverence that it made him feel something, a twinge of pride.
"D." began to march towards the village, his laughs of utter delight bringing the village folk behind Solomon's body to curl against the ground in fealty towards their fear.
"Soooo, you have a soft spot for these tamed vessels of darkness?"
That was not the case at all. But Solomon lacked answers as to why he acted. He glared at the beast of black but there was no weight to his gaze nor in the stance he took against them.
The demon grinned and laughed, "The darkness of this land is wasted on the frail...But I will make better use of it."
A veil of distorted crimson appeared around the demon and dispersed from it to swallow up the land of Obscura. But the effects lasted a moment, and it seemed to have done nothing at first...
Solomon felt unease in his surroundings but in times like these, silence could only ever be broken by the first blood curdling scream.
He looked behind him to find one of the villagers squeezing the sides of their head in intense agony, with what appeared to be their family members at their side.
Their hands began to split open and black ooze spilled out to envelop them, proceeding to give them extra strength to crush their own head and brain in one go. As their body collapsed their family rose up and screamed.
Then the corpse began to fill with more of that black ooze, reforming the head to take the appearance of a hornet's nest while the remainder of the black goop oozed down their hands to form multiple claws of differing lengths.
And this wasn't just happening to one person. Many other villagers were experiencing these effects with only small variations to where the nest appeared or how their corpses moved.
Solomon's eyes began to flare and he could see beyond what he could normally. There were many tiny, writhing specks of black in the air that could only be described as parasites. And they were making their way into the most frightened of the villagers to feast upon their fears and help them give into their worst desires...
"Feast, my children," The demon spurned them on, "This land shall be my place of rebirth, and their fear shall feed my new body until it's whole again!"
Obscura was offset with a tidal wave of great despair, as the demon bellowed in immense joy over those beneath it suffering.
Solomon focused all his attention upon the demon with his eyes burning red and a fierce black aura surrounding his body. He breathed heavily as the debris around his feet began to rise off the ground, only to be fried by the red sparks of energy off his aura.
His mother's visage hovered behind him with her arm held out beside his head as she whispered, "The fate of these people should only be decided by you, my son. What right does this undead abomination have to your destiny?"
But he could do something about these parasites. The question was, did he want to? He felt more drawn to crushing this demon with his overwhelming might. And as his body began to stir, ready to march upon this damned beast...
"RAAAAAAHHH!" A triumphant roar rapidly grew louder as the demon found itself turning its head, only to be smashed in the jaw by a mighty kick from Temporis Aurora, the pink-haired girl he met only a few days prior.
Her strength knocked the beast off its feet and into the rubble. Solomon stood there, frozen in awe, unaware that her presence was joined by another until they were right at his side.
"Sorry we're late, Solomon!"
It was the other one. The one whom invited themselves upon his doorstep, and beheld his green-eyed envy and all the weight it carried...And still, despite this, returned to him now in this desperate hour.
"Sarajin?" The king of shadows uttered in both confusion and contempt.
Sarajin turned towards the demon and what Solomon saw was a man with an expression made of steel. It was a smile that would take much pressure to make yield, yet one that also treated the situation with the gravity it deserved.
As the demon started to rise to its feet with a pained groan, Temporis riddled it with a barrage of arrows while shouting, "Oh no! You're staying down this time!"
But the demon kept rising through her barrage despite all the holes in it's flesh and managed to fire off a sphere her way.
She used her time stop to suspend it in place then use a series of rapid-fire punches to push it back at the demon when time resumed.
However, "D." just sucked it back up and fired off an even bigger blast. Temporis decided to get out of the way with her time stop and started gliding around, firing arrows into the beast's hide.
"Nothing more than a gnat...!" The demon murmured in annoyance.
"IT CAN TALK NOW?!" Temporis cried out.
"What's going on here?" Sarajin wondered, looking to Solomon for answers, only to be answered by Xiark, who appeared on the roof beside them.
"It's the black monster who attacked our planet five years ago." The Titan sat on all fours and glared at the demon, while Sarajin stuttered with a mix of fear and surprise.
"T-The...black monster?" Sarajin grit his teeth and swung his arm out, "But I thought it was killed!"
"Beings of it's caliber can cheat death beyond the need of flesh," Xiark scratched the side of its head, "But in this one's case, it appears it's soul only stirred back to life due to the presence of negativity."
"It's using a Skarr Drago as a vessel..." Sarajin mumbled under his breath, hanging his head with eyes wide as he slowly came to recognize, "Did...did I do this?"
Solomon was beside him, drawn to the contours of his face twisting with regret. But in spite of his rise in frustration, he tried to keep his cool as he asked the Titan, "Is there any way we can stop them?"
"Before, we were too weak. Unfortunately, this egotistical outsider believes that immortality keeps him above our level," Xiark's eyes began to hollow out of their light until they were the most pitch black orbs one could perceive, "He shall be taught the price of this arrogance."
Xiark then transformed himself into a cylinder of fleshy parts and bounced across the rooftops to join Temporis in her fight.
Sarajin was about to join only to cautiously turn to his left upon hearing a series of terrified screams. Where he noticed and was disturbed by the events unfolding for the villagers.
Some of the people had found their courage and raised their hands against friends or loved ones, using dark magic to bind their transformed bodies in place or being forced to just kill them outright.
But something kept causing other villagers to be transformed and it seemed this would continue until the whole village was slaughtered...
"W-What's happening to them?!" Sarajin wondered, more than ready to jump in and help.
However, Solomon would be able to hold him back with a mere inquiry of, "You cannot see them?"
"See them?" Sarajin stepped back and looked him in the eyes.
"There are parasites in the air infecting the villagers."
"And it's causing them to transform into these...monstrosities?"
"Yes. The demon is the source. The sooner he is brought to rest, the sooner the parasites can be dealt with."
Solomon was then the one prepared to march towards the battleground when Sarajin grabbed him on the shoulder and looked him in the eyes, "Who knows how long that may take! More people will die in the meantime! If you have the power to see them, you should stay back and stop them from infecting anymore!"
Solomon glared at him with revulsion as he muttered under his breath, "This does not concern you."
"Yes it does."
"Because you believe you are owed my tolerance just because you knew my mother?"
"No, because I want to help you, as a friend," Sarajin let go of Solomon and looked him dead in the eyes, gesturing out towards the village, "You can believe me or not, but the longer we talk about this is only going to lead to more people dying. Please...I want you to trust me."
"..." Solomon narrowed his gaze as the whole world seemed to fall into a still silence. How could this one person, this one, simple-minded person, bring about so much intrigue inside of him? It would have been so easy to leave his words as little more than a memory to be forgotten by the end of day and yet...
"Fine," Solomon found his voice relenting against his will, "You will have my trust just this once. And so I am clear, Sarajin Stratos..."
He turned towards the villagers with his eyes burning red, "Here, I reign, not you."
Sarajin nodded and felt a little bit of relief, only for it to be discarded when he saw bodies on the ground. Lives had already been taken, and the unnerving sense of dread in the air told him that try as he might, more people were going to die before this conflict was settled...
He grit his teeth and quickly grabbed hold of his sword as he turned to face the demon.
Temporis was keeping out of range and pounding it with larger arrows while Xiark swam around in it's incomprehensible state, lashing away with it's many unseeable limbs.
Sarajin dashed forward and drew his blade out in a flash, sending a cleaving wave of energy through the demon's body.
The demon froze up and staggered back as it's flesh spilled out behind it.
Sarajin then sauntered up with his sword swung out by his side, pausing to bend down and hold it in both hands, his eyes beaming with a calm fierceness towards the beast.
"You're the one who killed everyone in Justek's village..."
The demon stood tall before him and his irritation turned to joy as he looked upon Sarajin's eyes, "Hmm? You have grievances to air towards me?"
"Ghhh...!" Sarajin growled back.
"Justek...Is that the one who got away on that accursed day five years ago?" The demon's grin spread across his face with delight, "Heh heh heh. I am not biased. My slaughter is a gift to all who live. So rest assured, once I am done here, I will make sure to give him the suffering death he's been owed...Just like the rest of his pathetic kind!"
"Bastard...!" Sarajin was about to lash out with his blade when he watched as the demon was blown into the air by a pocket of pure power connecting with the bottom of his jaw.
"W-What?!" The demon then found themselves surrounded by hundreds of arrows wrapped in a sphere.
Temporis floated outside the sphere with her arms outstretched and her coat swaying in the breeze, "Speaking of 'owed'...Here's a special delivery! An arrow for every one you killed!"
She collapsed her arms against her chest with flourish and turned the demon's body into a pincushion. She then squeezed her hands and threw them down, slamming the beast hard enough to crater the ground.
Xiark then manifested above the beast, warping his malleable form into a flesh-filled guillotine that sliced the beast in half in the blink of an eye. He then quickly dispersed into dozens of tendrils that lashed out and threw the demon's pieces all over the place, but scooped up some into his central maw.
Temporis landed beside Sarajin and bent down to catch her breath.
Xiark joined them, back to his cat-like state of being. He then calmly scratched his head and remarked, "Ok, I've done enough to damage it. The rest is up to you."
"T-That's it?" Temporis groaned.
Xiark belched internally and a bit of rot and black goop trickled out of his face creases, only for him to suck it back in, "I have analyzed enough of this being's matter."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning I shall be able to create a catalyst to bind this demon's soul. So loath as I am to entrust this matter to you untrained whelps, you need to wear his body down so the soul is exposed."
"How? He's bound to a Rot Walker." Sarajin wondered.
"Haaa, I am not going to spell it out for you. Look." Xiark nudged his head towards the demon's body, which was beginning to reform despite being torn apart. However, both Sarajin and Temporis realized something...
"It's taking longer to regenerate!" Temporis shouted.
"So the black monster's not fully bonded to the Rot Walker?" Sarajin theorized, "Or maybe-"
"Less talking, more action," Xiark snipped at them sardonically, "I would like to not be kept up much longer. The Flame only knows how long it's been since it's exerted itself so much against these kinds of beings..."
Xiark began to walk out of sight to prepare his part in the demon's defeat. Temporis armed up and flashed a smirk, "Well if this thing's not as resilient then I know how to handle it!"
"What's the plan?" Sarajin said with an aside glance.
"You'll know when you see it." Temporis hunched down as the beast rose to its full height, it's grin looking more sinister than ever.
"Little girl..." It moaned with the voice of the abyss, "There are not even enough stars in the sky, to count how many lives I have slaughtered."
A chill went down Temporis' spin and made her grit her teeth harder, "Just get ready to smite it with some lightning!"
Temporis charged straight at the beast and it tried to swing at her with its claw. She smiled and muttered "Perfect!" under her breath as she vaulted into the air upside-down and quickly tapped the claw with her fingertips.
The claw became trapped in a time bubble and was torn off from the rest of the limb mid-swing. Temporis then resumed time while the demon laid confused and wrapped the claw in aura, thrusting it towards Sarajin with a flick of her pointer fingers.
Sarajin widened his eyes and then closed them with a still demeanor of resolve. He held his blade overhead and time felt like it was slowing around him, with lightning being drawn from his body into the blade.
When he slashed time advanced forward in the blink of an eye with the claw now behind him and lightning splitting the darkness around his sight.
The claw split in two and was atomized instantly, leaving no chance for it to pull back together.
The demon nevertheless tried to force it's black goop to grow to take the claw's place, not pausing for even a second as it turned to try and tear Temporis to shreds with the other claw.
Right before Temporis fell on her back and were to be sliced, she stopped time and landed with a roll, proceeding to get up and make a mad dash for the claw where she did the same thing again.
Sarajin dealt with the second claw quickly and then tucked his sword in his sheath, gathering up even more electricity as the demon looked his way during its attempt to track down Temporis.
It split its mouth open and readied its energy to full capacity, the gravity coming off the rim of the sphere sending ripples across the ground before it raised its head high.
However, it was then stunned to find Temporis had taken to the skies. She flipped through the air until she was nothing but a blur and wrapped her feet in aura, turning her into a discus with glittering trails coming off her.
She smashed down into the demon's attack to force the energy back into its gullet and then flipped off to join Sarajin at his side.
The beast's innards glowed and then exploded, not only making it fall into a heap but also causing the head to go flying off.
Sarajin slashed his blade out at just that moment and the head was suspended in mid-air as he went to sheathe it back in. And when the metal clicked into place, a lightning bolt streaked through the skies and reduced the head and it's terrible grinning face to ashes.
But it was far from over, as the rest of the body reassembled itself little by little, and a new grin formed on the beast's stomach. And it was frustrated beyond the capacity of human understanding.
"Ghhh...! How could this be possible? My body should be getting stronger amidst this banquet of fear, hate and darkness!"
The answer lied in Solomon's perspective. With but a mere swing of his hand his black wind could eviscerate the parasites before they touched down. They were not granted the same boons as their creator.
But for the ones who had already been infected and possessed, they were already too far gone. Yet his actions were still perceived as merciless. He smashed the living dead to smears upon the ground with a mere exercise of his raw, dark power without saying a word or heeding the frightened cries of his people.
The only time he took pause was when one of those he ended the suffering of was a child. And even then, it was a blink that no one would have even noticed had it not been spoken of.
And throughout this crusade against the demon's invasion, the only thing on his mind was the strange behavior of the one called Sarajin Stratos.
He had every reason to leave this village and it's people to it's fate after he had spurned him of his presence. And yet he leaped into action without a second thought, knowing he may very well fall. And for who? Him? A man who to him was but a stranger, but to Solomon, knew him as family he had been denied.
Solomon should hate this Sarajin Stratos with every fiber of his being and yet, defying common sense, his sense of rage was inhibited by curiosity.
And when the final parasite had been reduced to ash, the last infected made a stain upon the ground, Solomon looked up to find Sarajin still fighting against the demon alongside his fierce ally.
Both sides were being worn down but Sarajin refused to take a knee. He could get knocked down, blasted and fried, but would find the strength to stand regardless.
It was strength beyond what was normal...for him. A man who only scraped the ability to know what it was like to feel human.
Sarajin continued to attack the demon with the power of his elements, binding them down with vines while his ally pierced their wings with arrows. Slowly, the creature was being whittled down and victory seemed imminent.
And thus, Solomon began to march...
"D." found himself put together halfway at this point, with barely anything resembling the Skarr Drago's distinct features on his body.
The demon could not experience tiredness, but it did know anger...Perhaps more than any living being ever has.
"My children have...fallen? No, how can my rebirth have been foiled by...you?!"
Temporis had worked up a sweat that she wiped off her forehead before planting her fists on her hips and sticking her tongue out at the demon.
Sarajin pointed his katana at them and remarked, "You've done enough harm to this world already, black monster. After today, the dead will finally be able to rest in peace."
The sound of heavy, metal footsteps approached the two from behind. They looked back just in time to watch Solomon march between them, positioning himself directly in front of the beast.
The demon cracked a big grin while they still could and started laughing, "So, you returned."
"Mmmrr..." Solomon moaned with an annoyed tone.
"Heh heh heh...I have scoured this universe, killing many, many worlds and rendering their skies as red as the heart of the Abyss," And as "D." went still, Solomon eyed them with a blank, glowing glare, "And yet, you're the first I've ever hesitated to kill."
"You are almost perfect...But you fail to reach that potential. Why waste your time on strings...When you could be just. Like. ME."
Solomon slowly drew his hand out towards the beast's humbled corpse and Sarajin shouted out, "Don't! That's just what he-"
"Did I not make myself clear?" Solomon uttered, not only to Sarajin, but for the demon's prying ears, "Here, I reign."
His eyes widened as he delivered a firm, cold, and concise edict, "Now...KNEEL."
He brought down immense pressure upon the beast's body, rendering them little more than paste against the floor.
"GHHH!" The demon screamed.
No darkness. No hatred. No fear. Just pure, concentrated power brought the demon down from it's blood soaked throne, and made them no more than a worm wiggling through the dirt.
First the beast's bones were crushed to dust. Then the flesh of the Skarr Drago smeared upon the ground, the pressure eventually leaving nothing left.
The ground cracked and uprooted itself, throwing Temporis and Sarajin off-balance. Sarajin stumbled back with eyes wide with awe and a little bit of fear.
"This is nothing like what Ophelia did..." He bit his lower lip as he watched Solomon perform his judgment without saying a word, "There's nothing graceful about this power. It's like I'm watching a child break his toy..."
But the results could not be measured in terms of morality when it came to this demon. By the time Solomon was through, all that remained of them were a few black splatters and the fragments of their grin.
Space and time warped above where the beast remained, leaving an ethereal presence with that demon's grin floating in place, gasping in pain.
It then settled down, glancing up at Solomon lording over him with his immense, imposing stature.
"Heh...fine then," "D." giggled, "I won't let your power go to waste then...!"
Solomon raised his hand a second time as the demon's soul tried to go straight for him. However, it found itself ensnared by one of Xiark's tendrils.
"Ghhh...! I-Impossible...!"
Xiark enveloped the whole soul in tendrils emerging from its face and began to drag it towards a large flask made out of some otherworldly looking material.
Xiark spoke in a language unknown to any ear and it marked his tendrils with seals, making it easier to shove "D."'s soul into the flask. There, the demon could only manifest as a black mass with a smile, barely visible to those it still saw as beneath it.
Xiark then returned to its regular form and used a spitwad to seal the flask up. The demon rattled around and screeched, "NOOOOO...! Not another...cursed cage!"
Xiark kicked the flask and muttered, "Oh quiet you. I have enough headaches as is."
Solomon, Sarajin and Temporis approached the flask and saw the demon for how pitiful they truly were, devoid of that power that once threatened this planet.
"Heh...!" Temporis gave the flask a light kick as well and then put her hands behind her head with a smile of pride, "Serves ya right ya asshole."
"...Is it really over?" Sarajin wondered.
"We should destroy the monster's soul, just to be certain." Solomon pointed out.
"I'm afraid it won't be so simple," Xiark remarked, "This beast feasted upon negativity and darkness like a black hole. Any realm under my domain would only allow it to regain its power."
"What ARE you anyways?" Temporis wondered, "Cause you certainly weren't looking like a Titan 90% of the time."
Xiark laid down and muttered, "I see no reason to answer you, you shrill woman."
"Bleh!" Temporis stuck her tongue out at him.
Sarajin gestured at the Titan and asked, "Well isn't there anything else we can do?"
"There was the Void of Radiance that my sister Luminesca held domain over. It would give this black beast a delightful taste of eternal agony."
"...'Held'?" Sarajin uttered with concern.
"Mmm, slip of the tongue," Xiark shrugged, "Point of the matter is, we can't dispose of their soul with our means at hand presently."
"I could take the flask and like, jump forward to the end of time or something." Temporis suggested.
Sarajin turned to her and said bluntly, "No way. You don't have any control over that power."
"Hmph...!" Solomon's sudden utterance of this surprised the two, and they turned to find him grabbing hold of the flask and raising it before his face.
"Neither of you have the restraint to be trusted with dealing with this demon. Until a proper solution can be found, I shall watch over this flask."
"..." Sarajin looked cautiously towards Solomon, who immediately raised his eyes and uttered coldly, "Do you have a problem with my decree, Sarajin Stratos?"
Sarajin shook his head and remarked, "Somehow you kept your cool against this demon the entire time, even after everything it did to your people..."
"Just as you trusted me, I'll return that trust to you, Solomon," Sarajin nodded, "Hopefully we'll find a way to deal with this black monster sooner rather than later."
"Please do," Xiark remarked, "I am supposed to be retired from this eldritch business, it'll be annoying having to maintain this flask."
Solomon then lowered the flash by his side and looked towards Sarajin. There was a long and unwinding silence as the three came to grips with what they had to do.
Solomon just stared at Sarajin and he stared back, leading to Temporis standing between them with her eyes narrowed in a smarmy way, "This is the part where you say 'Thank you'."
"Mrrr..." Solomon glared at her for a moment and she retreated with a chuckle. He then resumed focus on Sarajin and took a deep breath in.
"...You have proven useful today. That's all this means to me."
Temporis glanced at Sarajin and shrugged, "Close enough I guess."
Sarajin smiled and nodded, "I can stick around and help you get things in order, if you want."
"I will not repeat myself, again. Here, I-"
"Fine, we'll leave," Temporis interjected with a whimsical tone, "At least we can finally put that black monster's threat behind us."
The two of them turned and began to walk away, with Sarajin taking one last look over his shoulder to say, "See you later, Solomon."
Solomon continued to stare at Sarajin's back and nothing else occupied his mind except the question of how someone like him could exist in this world.
But unbeknownst to him, "D." stirred with a grin in his flask, whispering in a cold, mocking tone, "It is always too easy..."
There was a faint sensation in the air that made Solomon's mind twitch. The thin traces of the demon's remains were beginning to fizzle away and move...
Solomon looked at the leaving behind and assumed the worst. With no hesitation he shouted right as the parasites sprang from the demon's remains, "Watch out, Sarajin!"
Sarajin turned around and Solomon raised his hand to bar the path to Sarajin with black wind. Temporis simultaneously stopped time to try and push him out of the way.
However, the moment she stopped time, a sharp sensation nailed itself through her head and made her eyes bulge out.
"A-Aaah...!" She fell on her knees and time resumed, with her grabbing the sides of her head and trembling all over.
Sarajin winced and looked down in a panic, "Temporis!"
He fell on his knees beside her and Solomon slowly lowered his hand to pause and think. He then hastily raised the flask before his face and found the demon grinning wider than ever before.
"What have you done?" He demanded to know.
And with ease the demon answered, unable to contain his laughter, "So young...so naive. This isn't the first time I've been inconvenienced...Or the first time I've learned from my mistakes."
"I had planned to regain my true form, but a greater opportunity had presented itself to me in the form of this powerful little girl...So I feigned anger at my defeat to lower your guards while exercising the last of my power to turn my remains into parasites to infect her."
Sarajin turned and grit his teeth, "Let her GO!"
"Why oh WHY would I ever give up this chance...?" "D." laughed mockingly, "With the power to control time I can extend my reach towards the infinite! I can slaughter from the end of time and work my way slowly to the beginning, and then start all over again as I wish!"
"No more mistakes! No more wasted deaths! I will truly, truly be free! ...And sure, her head will split in the process, but all I need is the body the power is vesseled inside of. So no loss to me."
Sarajin was ready to raise a roar of rage when Temporis held on to his shoulder and used him to support herself up.
Her eyes were half shut but she stood tall and defiant in a cold sweat. She grabbed the side of her arm and grinned, laughing in a rather unhinged but triumphant fashion, "Y-You won't take me that easily you black bastard...!"
She grit her teeth and Sarajin watched over her the only way he could, with helplessness at his greatest fears coming true...
"Ghhh...!" Temporis stumbled forward and once more placed a hand on the side of her head. She glared at "D." between her fingers and laughed again, "S-So go ahead and keep trying! I'll fight you every step of the way!"
"Oh that's fine," "D." said with chilling nonchalance, "You can try. But all things bend to my will. Either in death, or by becoming one with me."
Solomon dropped the flask on the ground and marched towards Temporis with his hand raised. Sarajin got in his way with fierce determination and shouted, "What are you doing?!"
"Move aside," Solomon remarked with authority, "The parasites have already latched on. It's too late for her."
Sarajin flared his eyes wide open and exclaimed, "She's fighting it! T-There's still time to find a solution!"
"Yeah...!" Temporis proclaimed, "So put your hand down before I have to...Ghh!"
Temporis staggered around with her hands grasping hold of the sides of her head tightly. Her head was vibrating until she could hold it tight enough. When she raised her head, there was now a little blood trickling out her nose.
"Heh...!" She still smiled with her wild, undying spirit, "I-I'm not going to die here!"
Sarajin's eyes watered as he could hear her voice cracking, and he struggled to reach out and touch her, "T-Temporis..."
"An unfortunate fate has befallen our fortuitous princess."
From the shadows behind Temporis emerged a man with a yellow mask with a black web covering the eyes, and extra attachments on his side that resembled spider legs. Wrapped in a tight, dirty black robe, the man quickly wrestled his hands atop Temporis' shoulders and held her in place.
"Y-You're...!" Temporis seemed to recognize him, but the pain kept her from finishing.
"Where did you come from?!" Demanded Solomon.
"Are...are you one of the Ten Sages?" Sarajin deduced, now on guard more than ever.
"Ten...Sages?" Solomon muttered curiously.
"I am Atrax, of the Shadows," Atrax used one of his spider-y limbs to cross in front of his chest, "I wish our first meeting could last longer, Sarajin Stratos and Solomon of Obscura. But the princess' state forces me to act quickly."
"W-Where are you taking her?" Sarajin hastened to say.
"To Lord Borealis. He will be able to rid her of these pesky parasites," Atrax looked up and the others could feel his gaze moving past them to lock onto the flask, "'D.'? Is that what you say your name is at the moment?"
"...You are?" "D." uttered with mild disdain.
"History abhors a stain," Atrax spoke firmly, "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay wiped clean off the pages."
Atrax then began to drag Temporis into the shadows. Sarajin grimaced and lunged through the air, reaching out with all his strength to grab her, "T-TEMPORIS, WAIT!"
As her face began to submerge into the darkness, she flashed one more smile and seemed to be trying to whisper "It'll be ok".
But when she was gone, Sarajin felt as vulnerable as he was when he was younger. He fell to the ground pathetically and raised his head, clawing at the dirt as the last trace of shadows vanished from sight.
He then slammed the ground with his fists and let out a pained, frustrated gasp.
"Not you too...!" He buried his face in the dirt and began to whimper, "I-I can't fail you too...!"
He was allowed to cry and wail into the skies above, venting his frustrations as his sole observers watched on in silence...
Next Time: No Time Left for You