"The greatest thing the Devil ever feared was not the light above, or the cold below."
"It feared that single whisper, that single defiant sound, that could echo across the ages."
"For it basked in hope, and shared it in plentiful amounts."
Solomon was elated at the idea that his body could withstand the pressure Borealis Aurora exuded.
His feet braced, he swung his hands out, trying to burn through the man's power with the same beam that laid waste to his fallen friend of shielded might.
Borealis took but a finger out calmly and diverted the beam away into dust, his eyes locked to project the simple rebuttal of mockery needed to shake the beast: "Foolish."
Yet Solomon enjoyed the remark, and the resistance. This moment was the pinnacle of his wanting, the day his yearning would see fruition.
He coated his hands in darkness and rampaged across the room in an instant, throwing the bodies at the ground against the walls.
As his attack came crashing towards Borealis' face, the man held his aura up and absorbed the brunt of the impact in his face, drawing only a drop of blood from his nose.
He then reached out with his right finger and transmuted Solomon's armor into a weaker material, where he closed his fist and delivered a point-blank punch that sent the beast tearing through the floor.
The front of Solomon's armor shattered and a dark fog spilled out onto the ground. He heaved heavily with laughter and then tightened his fists, slashing one hand at the ground to lash a wave of darkness against Borealis' body.
He then smashed two more waves out in quick succession, beating upon the foundation of this palace like heavensent lightning.
Borealis stretched his arms out and wrapped his aura down around his body to push the darkness away, and through it Solomon rampaged towards him and grabbed hold of his face to smash him through the throne.
Solomon's bloody bright eyes burned close to Borealis' face as his claws began to tear into the aura.
Borealis' gaze remained unflinching and with a quick snap of his fingers he swapped places with one of the shards of glass on the ground.
He then threw his hands up and the pressure rising off him spread the robe to create a truly divine and wise silhouette.
Solomon found himself surrounded by bright orbs which, unbeknownst to even his deep abyss of knowledge, were the result of instant nuclear fusion.
Solomon sought to escape through the shadows but Borealis pulled from the stone wall behind him to clamp him down and then covered him in a dome of aura before letting the nuclear energy go off.
The light of a hundred suns filled the dome and swirled until bright white, and the energy dispersed safely under Borealis' control the moment the aura shattered.
Solomon stood steadily where he once was, armor half melted off and the darkness only growing blacker around his body.
Every stitch of metal regrew like the rotting flesh of those beasts.
Borealis winced, spitting out a quiet and blunt, "Vulgar…"
Solomon's grin was etched into darkness' hide, "Is that all you have for me…Lord of Aurians?!"
He then charged forward and in response…Borealis merely slid a couple feet to the right and grabbed him by the face.
He killed his momentum entirely and then bent forward to slam him against the ground.
He then floated back, manipulating the floor to lift the body up, where the glass shards were molded into a series of spears that pinned Solomon's body across multiple points including his skull.
Borealis narrowed his eyes and then crossed his gauntlets, both jewels burning with cosmic energies.
"Guh…!" He choked, as one of those spider-like appendages grew from his shadow and pierced his back.
But it could only manage getting a centimeter deep before he responded.
He tried to turn and dissect it but wherever he turned, the shadow was always at his back and kept attacking.
All the while Solomon pushed himself through the spears little by little.
Borealis quickly observed his surroundings and after an apology to his parted friend, guided one of Nimus' blades to slice through the appendage.
And just at that moment Solomon ambushed him from the front with a wailing onslaught of darkness that buried all but that blood thirsting gaze of his.
Borealis locked his heels down and only budged a couple inches, but this process repeated as Solomon kept smashing away at him.
Borealis took a deep breath and thrust his hands down to ignite his aura, exposing his enemy's form.
He then started walking backwards, shifting his body around the brutal string of attacks that followed, the backlash destroying even more and more of the palace.
It was as though every attack Solomon led to the air gliding gracefully around his arms.
Solomon then slammed his foot down, leaving an eerie pause in the air as he took a deep breath, swallowing the darkness around his being into his fist to release a devastating uppercut.
And that shattered Borealis' body to pieces of stained glass.
Solomon flinched and quickly glanced behind him to see Borealis was standing where he started off with his arms crossed behind his back.
"When…?" Solomon uttered.
"Pay attention…" Borealis uttered, "When I'm through with this lesson, the humiliation you shall suffer will follow you to eternity."
Solomon solidified his darkness into being around his body only to find himself bitten down by a mangy beast born of gemstones and magic.
And then a few more followed, chomping right through his armor and even putting a physical grip onto his darkness.
Borealis then marched cautiously towards him while raising his right hand, "Hold him still."
One touch was all that was required to dissect Solomon's framework down to the barest layer.
And from this observation Borealis saw the true darkness laid before him. Truly ugly, the blackest, uneven form, and it was already struggling to pull these spiritual layers of his being back together.
There were many labels to commit to memory, but Borealis knew how to target the most important ones.
The variables with an unknown, twisted language were not necessary for now…
When Solomon pulled himself back together his rage shattered all the beasts and pushed Borealis away.
He then raised his hands and widened his eyes, "Indulge in your perversions while you can, Borealis Aurora."
"There's hardly anything attractive about your nature, beast." Borealis muttered.
The battle returned to a brief stalemate as both titans sized up each other and determined what their next move would be.
And it was Solomon who would strike out first, using the spider's appendages from the shadows to attack Borealis from all sides.
This was all to draw out one of Borealis' gauntlets and use the fourth appendage to lock the fingers down with webbing.
Borealis flinched and that opened him up to take a punch down the front of his face, the roughness of Solomon's knuckles managing to scrape out a bit of tissue.
Solomon then unleashed a flurry of hard-hitting punches that slammed cracks across the entire palace and even hit through to the upper layers of the pyramid outside.
Yet he could never manage to draw any blood from this man.
And it wasn't a feint this time, this WAS him, he was sure of it.
That was the secret Borealis would keep to the grave. For yes, his right hand was mighty, but his left hand was his pride, allowing him to amplify his aura to create defenses at a molecular level not even Stonestein could match.
But that Solomon threatened him with the potential of scars was the warning Borealis needed to keep his head focused.
He repelled the darkness with an expansion of aura from his body, using its light to keep the appendages away from his shadow.
He then utilized more of Nimus' blades to stab and cut into Solomon's body, keeping him from focusing.
The body was still bound to flesh, rotting though it may be, so any interruptions would give Borealis the precious seconds he needed to decipher the knowledge gained from this beast's dissection.
Solomon then raised his darkness higher and higher, scraping against the ceiling as he resumed his march back towards his prey.
The blades started to break, and so Borealis fused the metals into one massive magical sword that was plunged towards Solomon's chest.
The man grabbed hold of it, stabbing his claws into the steel and shredding it down to numb metal.
But then Borealis launched his true attack from behind, using the halves of Stonestein's shield to pierce Solomon from the back.
Borealis then warped before him and grabbed hold of the shield, asking for forgiveness again before he transmuted the peerless emerald into Solomon's armor to cripple his ability to regenerate that section of his body.
Solomon then clawed his right hand out across Borealis' face with ferocity to make him flinch, proceeding to then blast him with a cone of darkness that intensified with red energy as it screamed louder.
Borealis' body shook but he held onto his sanity and tore the webbing off his other gauntlet, while Solomon struggled to maintain his stature without a midsection to call his own.
"Ghhh…" He grunted in anguish, and yet, part of him seemed to be relishing in it.
"BDMP…! BDMP…!" Burned the sound of his heart into Borealis' head.
Solomon took deep, rancid breaths, then curled his fist and with a mighty roar smashed it into his body to force the emerald material out.
With his entire midsection gone, darkness wove its way between his halves to stitch him back together.
Only for Borealis to launch a blazing cannon of cosmic energies to destroy those stitches, and then run up and grab Solomon's upper half and fling him through the throne.
He crashed through the weakened wall and the door to the Atelier.
Borealis calmly walked a couple steps forward and snapped his fingers at Solomon's lower half to send it away to another dimension, as it lacked the consciousness to resist him.
As Solomon clawed himself back upright, Borealis warped into the Atelier, where the many tomes he had gathered over his long life began to act up under his will.
Solomon was beginning to reform his lower half and attacked Borealis with powerful energy blasts in the meanwhile.
Borealis channeled his aura through magic tomes to create towering aegises for the darkness to lash blindly against.
Until came the time where Borealis gathered the rest of the books he wanted and aimed their open pages at his enemy.
Pure streams of starry light cascaded forward to push Solomon down against the floor.
The darkness erupted from his body, lashing between the seams and forming many hands to strangle the light and allow his rise to go unimpeded.
Borealis widened his eyes and thrust his palm out, before clenching his fist with knuckles pointed forward.
The contents of this room shifted around, entire bookshelves rising beneath Solomon to throw him off-balance.
But by now he had found his footing again and pushed his back against the light until he could slide off the shelf.
He dragged his claws through many books and then slashed darkness at Borealis, cutting through the last aegis.
Solomon then dug his claws in deeper and ripped the entire bookshelf from the floor to bash Borealis with.
Borealis staggered slightly but held his aura in his hands and grappled with the darkness as it charged at him once more.
Borealis threw out two quick punches that punctured shockwaves through Solomon's armor, as though the man had traveled a journey of a hundred miles to deliver it.
Solomon braced himself close to the man and grabbed hold of his wrists in a mad attempt to tear his gauntlets to shreds.
But in turn, Borealis flipped his hands around and grabbed his arms, making his metal brittle and torn through easily like paper.
Once the arms were ripped off he thrust his hands out to launch the darkness into the back wall.
There, Borealis twisted his hands around each other, pulling in a crushing vortex of gravity with Solomon dead center.
Solomon tried to drag himself out with angered grunts aplenty but his armor began fusing into the bookshelves as it was crunched down.
Any energy he tried to manifest was forced back into his body.
His eyes widened to their limit and with one determined roar he managed to shake the room enough to make the books rain down from the shelves randomly.
And that gave him plenty of shadows to assault Borealis with his appendages.
Borealis took two piercing blows to the limbs before jumping back and directing his hand slightly to the right, crushing one of the appendages under a separate well of gravity.
He heard a loud crash, as Solomon was able to rip free from the wall and resume his ceaseless march forward, eyes blazing with hate.
Borealis redirected the gravity magic towards Solomon but it was too late, for a few more appendages stabbed him in the back.
Solomon then called all four behind him and alongside them, gathered darkness in his hands to blast Borealis with a wailing cannon.
Borealis centered his aura into a single point to split the beam in two around him, then widened his eyes and reached out with his right hand.
"I see it now…The path to the truth!" He pointed at the top appendages and then with a cutting gesture of his finger, sliced both of them clean from Solomon's body.
Solomon turned his attention towards them as they disintegrated from sight, never to return.
And then, Borealis unleashed another magic infused blast to cut through the weaker beam and greatly stagger Solomon.
Long enough that Borealis was able to slice off the other two appendages.
"Bastard…" Solomon grumbled.
"Curse yourself, monster." Borealis calmly raised his right hand as Solomon roared and charged at him once more.
Borealis swung his arm out and shifted their battlefield through multiple dimensions, slamming Solomon into the dimension walls.
The repeated battering led to Solomon losing momentum and then eventually coming to a stop, where Borealis then left them in a gigantic version of the Atelier with a golden seal on the floor.
Borealis started to march clockwise around the outer circle while reaching into his robes to pull out five separate vials, adding a drop to the smaller runes.
"There is a purpose behind gaining all this knowledge. Because the more we can give to future generations, the better their chances are."
Solomon glared at him from over his shoulder and then lunged out unprovoked. Borealis caught his attack in his left hand and then shoved him back into the circle.
He then snapped his right fingers and the moment Solomon tried to stampede after him again, his legs responded opposite of how they should have, twisting and tripping him up entirely.
"All that the outside world inherited, because of our greed and arrogance, was to kill and hurt one another."
Solomon stood completely still and channeled his darkness to blast Borealis head-on, making the man grimace.
But with a gesture of his robe Borealis then snapped his fingers, and when Solomon attacked again his arms pointed in the opposite directions, causing the darkness to destroy itself and toppling him in the ensuing blast.
Borealis then continued dropping liquids into the runes, with the prior ones having filled the outlines and made them glow.
"I see now that our guidance was what was lacking. We were cowards, every last one of us."
Solomon was at a complete loss of movement until he did what no sane man would dare, and filled his limbs with darkness until they exploded off of him.
This allowed him to slowly recover, and undid whatever Borealis had done to him.
But by this point Borealis had his last vial at the tipping point, drawing out the last droplet before Solomon's eyes while his own gaze penetrated him with disdain.
"I condemn myself to whatever judgment the Lords have for me…But not before I finish carrying out yours, beast of destruction!"
When the last drop fell upon the rune it instantly filled, encasing the whole seal in bright golden light, with the five other colors connecting to each other to form an upside-down star.
Solomon was trapped in place, yelling out in great defiance, "How laughable! There's no chains in your arsenal that will make me yield, for I hold the ultimate key in my hands!"
Borealis extended his right hand out and curled his fingers back as the darkness spoke, "You will undo this seal…!"
Solomon was stunned into silence, as Borealis held in his hands a fragmented label bleeding deep crimson.
"No…" Borealis uttered firmly as he crushed the label, "The truth is lost to you."
"And this is not a seal…" He then said with his hands tucked behind his back, "It's a summoning circle."
A golden dragon's head shattered through the circle already biting down on Solomon's body.
Upon breaking through the confines of this room it thrashed about, repeatedly chomping through the darkness until the rest of its melting body emerged from the seal.
With eyes of onyx and wings of magic, the beast was voracious and left no chance for Solomon's retaliation.
When it had its fill of that rancid energy it spat Solomon out in the void of dimensions and dug its claws into the fabric.
Borealis then channeled a bit of his aura through the beast, "Keep him occupied as long as you can, Gaia Drakewyrm, the Immovable Lord!"
From the golden drake's mere breath came an onslaught of scathing white meteors upon Solomon's body.
Bombarding him relentlessly until his entire body was consumed in white. And only when his gaze stopped burning through it did Borealis take a deep breath and warp his way back to his home dimension.
There, he took rest in the throne room, tucking his hands behind his back to contemplate the remainder of the early information he glanced from Solomon's dissection.
He knew the summon wouldn't succeed. But there had to be a weak point to exploit that he had overlooked.
It was only a matter of time before the darkness came crawling back through the shadows.
Yet he ran into a problem, one that was too eerily similar to what he had encountered in the past.
The bleeding crimson, that awful, ghastly light, and that unintelligible language guarding his labels…
It made him realize…that the circumstances of this battle were already weighed against him from the start.
He could beat Solomon in terms of strength, magic, and wisdom for days on end without exhaustion but killing him as he stood now was…impossible.
As this dawned on him, the shadows rose from the ground to eclipse that light.
Solomon manifested, the dragon's head gripped and bent in his right arm, and claws stabbed through his half-melted armor.
Solomon glared at him while casually tossing the skull through the palace walls, and then tearing the claws out in the other hand.
He then held his hands out and filled the room with a haunting laugh, "I see it in your eyes. You finally understand me now…"
Borealis narrowed his gaze and kept his hands tucked back cautiously, "The Anti-Genesis Theorem."
"I told you, didn't I? I am the end of ALL this world's consequences. You are not exempt, Borealis Aurora. In fact…you had the greatest hand in creating me."
Solomon chuckled some more, "Be proud."
"I can only look at myself with disgust," Borealis muttered with pained regret, "I had wanted to protect my people from the threat of the outside I made up in my head…and by playing to my paranoia, I simply danced in the Devil's palm."
"Just because I upheld my ideals with virtue…never made me right." His sigh was not punctuated with sorrow, but acceptance.
Solomon clenched his fist in triumph, "Then you accept me as your superior!"
"Never!" Borealis uttered, "There is dirt in this world with more value than you…!"
He then began to reach for the shard of comet tied to his neck, as Solomon taunted him, "You have nothing else left…! Do you not get it? I have no weaknesses now!"
"Perhaps not…" Borealis admitted, "But that doesn't mean you can't be slain, monster…"
He clasped the shard with hope and defiance burning brightly in his heart, "For as long as I stand and breathe, these walls shall hold! And the people of this world shall not bend to your violent yearnings! You may believe that what you have is strength, but it is all your own…!"
"I made a promise to the one I loved long ago…and that promise shall be carried upon the wind to someone else, even after I have departed!"
His aura filled the comet, bringing silver radiance to flood the room, reflecting in it the many colors of the rainbow.
With his demeanor staunch to his cause, Borealis unleashed a mighty roar, "COME FORTH…IDOL IN MEMORIAM…!"
Emerging from starlight behind him was a prismatic idol twice his height, taking the shape of his slender, departed wife, whose hands bent down and crossed before the front of his body.
He stared onward and continued to let the comet's energy flow into his gauntlet as the idol fired silver beams of soul fire at Solomon autonomously.
They burned straight through his armor like water and delayed his unstoppable march.
Whenever his limbs still stood, Solomon smashed darkness against Borealis' body, only to be met by an unbreakable shield.
Borealis' expression never changed, only got weaker. His body was wearing down, but he kept holding out hope.
He felt it in the air.
Regrettably, he would not be able to make amends where he wanted to the most.
A tear was shed, its glint everlasting.
Nights spent gazing up at the stars with his wife gave him comfort to weather through the despair of his regrets.
He then raised his head one more time and took a deep breath, awaiting the darkness' final steps towards him.
By the time Solomon overcame the idol's onslaught, it began to break down into the starlight that made it.
And Borealis kept standing tall but weakened, the comet shard reduced to dust in his hand.
Solomon stood over him and glared through his eyes, trying to break the man into cowering.
And when that failed, Solomon grabbed hold of his neck and dragged him down onto his knees, choking him all the while.
"You wasted your final moments, Borealis Aurora…Now how will you waste your last breaths?"
Remaining calm to the very end, Borealis reached out with his right hand and grazed his finger down Solomon's armor.
He then smiled peacefully as he whispered, "Sarajin will stop you."
Solomon's body rattled with a cold shiver, and without a second thought he took his other hand and plunged it into Borealis' chest to grab his heart.
He then ripped it out with the veins still attached and let go of his neck, letting the body collapse in a dignified pose.
With the heart still beating, Solomon stared ahead and muttered, "On a delusion…how fitting."
He then crushed the heart, and the light faded from Borealis' eyes but not his smile.
Solomon then craned his head back and gestured his hands out, drenching himself in the rain of blood that followed as he rose towards the next step of this now vacant throne.
Sunlight bathed over his body, the last he would ever allow himself to feel.
And yet…though his prey lay conquered, his triumph was not in question…Something about this left him empty.
He looked down towards the throne that laid bare, broken but with a seat still remaining.
Corpses decorated the room. Blood filled the air with a musky, decaying scent.
His shadow stretched along the palace floor thanks to the sun's obedience.
After shoving Borealis' corpse to the ground he marched upon the throne and took a seat. His body relaxed itself into place, allowing him to lean his fist against the side of his face.
The darkness creaked with a glorious smile as his eyes settled upon the sight of his first of many conquests.
His superiority had been proven, that he could relish in this sight was indicative of that.
At long last…the king had found his throne.
"Now come…Sarajin Stratos."
Chapter 0 (Revelation): Written in Blood
In the sanctity of her home, Auris began to stir with a disturbed twitching across her face.
Gabriel, whose focus had been northward with a cold sweat on his skin up until now, looked at her as she opened her eyes.
"Mom!" Shouted Zeno with his voice parched from crying so much.
He leaned in and gave her a safe hug, the warmth he shared helping to wake her up faster.
She held onto the back of his head and smiled, but it was a feeling not meant to last.
Her head ached and her body was still shaking off a bit of stiffness. She was reminded of the emptiness now present on her wrist, as now only one Drive stone remained.
"How long have I been out…?" She addressed Gabriel with haste.
"It's morning now, Lady Auris." He said with his relief mixing into his otherwise worried demeanor.
Auris took a quick glance at her surroundings and wondered, "...And Sarajin?"
"I do not know…" It pained him to say.
Auris puckered her lips and closed her eyes. Her ability to sense aura was dulled a bit still, but she would have picked on her husband's trail immediately.
But the fact of the matter was that neither him nor Justek were around, and there was now this…haunting sensation filling the palace of the Ten Sages.
"...Gabriel, you sense that too." She deduced.
"Yes. Lord Borealis called a meeting between the Ten Sages a while ago, and then all of a sudden, I felt Lord Atrax's aura burst with intensity…Only it felt colder and more…hostile."
Auris' gaze was lulled into an unsettled state, as she heard whispers haunting her, and what felt like dying screams piercing her heart.
She dug her fingertips into the sheets and then threw them off, forcing herself out of the bed with a mutter of, "Something's happened…"
She ironed her gaze and then drew both sword and shield with relieving ease before turning to Gabriel and requesting with urgency, "Keep an eye on my son."
"But Lady Auris, you lost-"
"I'm still the better equipped of us to see what's going on." Her reasoning left no opening for him to air his doubts.
But perhaps she would have liked him to try, for even as she steeled her soul to venture into the palace, she felt uncertain about what would come next…
The moment she left her house she saw that the city was being exposed to natural sunlight.
The barrier was weakening and what light once felt welcoming now heralded an ill omen…
She grit her teeth and sprinted straight for the palace without uttering a single breath.
Barreling forth through the front doors, she froze in place, assaulted by the smell of blood and decay in all directions.
Her gaze watered with fright as she looked around the room, the corpses of allies and enemies strewn about without purpose.
She followed them in a disorganized line towards the throne, her heart beat growing louder and louder, with the whispers of the dead gaining a hellish rasp.
Then, one long, breathless gasp made her entire body feel numb with the cold as she looked upon the body of her father…listless, toppled over in disgrace.
"A-Aaah…" She built up a scream, pointing her gaze towards the throne.
There, sat him, that loathsome darkness, revealing his traitorous ways in how he desecrated the seat he now rested upon.
His breaths deep and anxious with wait, his eyes burning with a rapturous fever, his posture…the height of arrogance.
"Heh heh heh," He bellowed with a hint of delight, "So…you're the first member of this audience to arrive…Auris Aurora."
As Auris' thunderous heartbeat began to overpower her hearing, Solomon nevertheless managed to reach through with his taunts, "Are you a fan of the new decor? I feel it gives this dull land some much needed…character."
"Smell it…that wonderful fragrance of sanguine splattered across the walls. I wonder which bloodstains belong to your father…"
"BASTARD!" Auris activated the Aegis Dragoon and lunged at Solomon from across the room, plunging her sword through his skull.
He paused, then pushed his head forward through the blade without a change in expression.
"Haaa…" He uttered dully, "To think, I once coveted you…"
He backhanded her with a massive claw of darkness, blowing her back to the palace entrance.
She held her ground but her body was trembling all over with fear and rage.
She grit her teeth in the bitterest of scowls before howling at him, "I knew you couldn't be trusted…!"
"Are you upset?" Solomon uttered in a mocking tone.
Auris' sword rattled in her grasp as she prepared to strike again, "You're just the same as your bastard mother…!"
"Wrong," Solomon defied with punctuation, "There was beauty to her violence, yes, but she still let herself be restrained by a shred of humanity. I, however, have chosen to reject it for the pursuit of life's evanescent satisfaction."
He tilted his head slightly away from his fist and muttered, "Do you know…why I pursued you once before?"
"Because you were strong. Stronger than me even…And I loathed that. I loathed that there existed the possibility of anyone being superior to me. Yet my subconscious chose to interpret my behavior in the fashion of a good-natured man, struggling to find happiness."
"But all that time I was merely tightening the chains around my neck, suffocating under expectations…"
"I knew I deserved to be free, to live as my heart desired. So I simply chose not to hesitate anymore, and seized my life in my hands!"
"By taking others…!" Auris screamed.
Solomon extended his hand out and chuckled, "You gaze upon me and experience revulsion at my mere presence. But there is no ugliness in my form, no scars to mar my soul. My existence, my darkness…is sublime."
Auris' aura flared around her like a fire, her gaze burning through his oppression like starlight.
And in turn, Solomon raised his body in a proper sitting position, gripping the sides of this throne while remaining unflinching to her bravado, "You lost the right to kill me long ago."
"We'll see about that…" She said with a defiant growl as she lunged herself at him and slashed down the front of his body with all her might, splitting the palace behind him.
But her blade was caught in his right hand, with him glaring past her blade to remark, "Mankind cannot kill the reflection in the mirror. Pretty yourself up all you wish, princess, but you are a beast and a liar at heart."
Auris grabbed her blade in both hands and managed to start shoving Solomon's hand down, "I will not be judged by a heartless fiend like you!"
"Temporis Aurora…" Solomon's banal utterance of that name left Auris' composure in pieces, and following a couple of her gasps Solomon threw her off back to the ground.
He then resumed leaning against his fist and sneering, "You've never told Sarajin that she used to exist in this world, or what she meant to him."
"H-How do you…" Auris spoke with a chill in her breath.
"That spider had a lot of…enlightening knowledge to gleam. Including who truly governs this world," Solomon's eyes narrowed with intensity, "But that's a matter I'll deal with eventually. Your sister, now…Ha ha ha, I wonder how Sarajin would react, knowing you've kept him from trying to reverse her useless sacrifice."
He then raised his eyes and muttered, "Why don't we find out?"
Auris then turned around and standing under the door frame was Sarajin with his sword already drawn, mirroring her reactions to the carnage but with far more sadness and emptiness present in his eyes.
He limped his way over to her side and stared up at Solomon, who greeted him with a raise to the excitement of his voice, "So, you have finally arrived."
Tension brewed in the atmosphere as Sarajin looked around the room, struggling to put the identity of these corpses into focus.
He felt sick to his stomach seeing how they were handled without a care.
And he stared the longest at Borealis, not because of what such immovable strength falling meant, but rather…that he spent his final moments smiling.
"Not a word?" Solomon broke the respect being shared, forcing Sarajin to look only upon him.
"Say something. Have I not earned your disdain?"
Sarajin was as stiff as stone until something, a guiding hand perhaps, made him hold his blade in both hands and point it at Solomon.
"How curious…" Solomon remarked, "Why did you already have your sword drawn when you came into this city?"
Sarajin's eyes narrowed, his knees shaking.
Solomon opened his eyes and chuckled, "Were you planning on killing the Ten Sages first? Ha ha ha…"
Auris quickly grabbed Sarajin by the shoulder and told him, "He's not worth listening to!"
"Oh Sarajin…" Solomon said slowly, tapping his fingers along the arms of his throne, "Gaze upon me, and see me as who I truly am, unafraid of anything."
Sarajin look at him again, and with his wife's support at his back he took a deep breath and tried to muster up some level of focus, "...You murdered all of them. Is this…what you wanted all along?"
Solomon turned his head and took on a more mocking tone, "What was it you always blabbered on to me about? That you wished to create a world where all living beings are free to pursue their dreams? A world that would no longer need violence to sustain itself…"
He gestured his hand out, "And yet look at me. The living contradiction to your ideals. For my dream has always been to destroy everything in the name of my superiority."
His darkness creaked with a sneer, "Everyone knew I was meant to become this, but you…You chose to see differently."
Sarajin's sword shook and he nodded along, choking up on the inside, "I…sincerely believed that you could find happiness in peace."
Solomon glared at him and grumbled in a deep baritone. Then, following silence, he uttered to him coldly, "So naive…but that is always what has fascinated me the most about you…brother."
Sarajin barely flinched in comparison to how rattled Auris became.
Solomon chuckled deeply, "Lying to yourself at this point is fruitless. You always suspected. For who else could have the depravity and emptiness to love a monster, and justify my existence?"
"For me, the blood name 'Stratos' only ever held meaning at this moment but for you? It represents trust, now broken."
"I see your soul quivering. You have already chosen to approach me as a half-broken man, struggling to regain some control over your life."
He pushed himself off the throne and rose with aplomb, raising his voice in ecstasy as his darkness spread to shake the foundation of this city, "Destiny is destiny! We were born to struggle against one other for the right to seize our lives!"
"Look upon me. Loathe me! Gaze upon my humanity, crucified upon my black heart! I am darkness in its truest essence! I am the perfection of your ideals and it's bane! In this moment of finality before all fall in fear of my superiority, I cast off the shackles of my flesh name, and choose to be born…!"
"Kneel before me, Elemental Overlord…For I am your antithesis. Now, and forever, the Dark King…!"
The gravitas of his voice shook the world, making even the sunshine feel barren and meaningless.
Sarajin nevertheless braced the sword in his hands and chose to fight beyond the constraints placed on him by his fear and tiredness.
And the darkness engaged him with an impeccable smile, "Good. Defy me to the very end. I would hate for my baptism in blood to be performed with a cowardly man."
He then turned and glanced over his shoulder, "But I know a more fitting place for our battle. We shall return to where it all began…"
He then began to rise with Sarajin giving pursuit.
Auris tried to follow after, but Solomon uttered, "Parasite…feel free to have your fill with the remains."
As Solomon and Sarajin left the city far behind, Auris was blocked off by an ugly, rising mass of darkness wearing that hateful grin.
Auris repelled back as the darkness grew and grew, revealing a gangly wraith with a pair of many armed wings and tendrils, the face of the Titan Xiark worn over the monster's face like a skinned hide.
"Heh heh heh," Echoed the legion of hundreds choking inside of that mass, the dry and raspy voice of the parasite reaching out the strongest, "It's been a long time…princess."
"You…!" Auris uttered with pure disdain, and from there, everything began to click in her head, "It all makes sense now. You're the one who pushed that bastard over the edge…!"
"Wouldn't that be lovely for you? But I am blameless," Spoke 'D.', "He figured it all out on his own. Sure, a few whispers here and there helped, but only to speed along the inevitable."
"This happens all too often. You gullible beings think you can constrain me, but you always leave enough of a crack for a whisper to get through. And I…am a very, very patient being."
"Waiting, waiting, for one of you to slip up and give in to temptation. Because humans…are inherently allured to the taste of darkness. You want to be strong. You want control."
"But they always forget…that to invite darkness into their hearts, is to invite me."
"So I will be forced to discard a few strong bodies here and there, wasting time in cages and jars. But ultimately, I always win. Because I have nothing to lose, and you…have everything to gain FROM losing."
"And this time my patience shall pay off gloriously…! This world has birthed two perfectly matched hosts, groomed them towards their inevitable conflict."
His grin grew wider and wider with intense glee, "Now all I have to do is wait for them to tire each other out, and take control of the winner! And then…I will continue where I left off, with no one who can stop me!"
Auris swung her sword down and stood tall, "You're forgetting someone!"
"You?" The parasite laughed, "Before, I controlled but a mere mindless beast. Now I have something with…a little more worth, wouldn't you agree?"
"You can pilot whatever husk will take you, parasite, but you're still just one bug!"
"Oh?" His laughter dulled, "Then let's…change that."
Many tendrils lashed out of his wings in an instant and forced Auris on guard. But his target was not her, but the corpses surrounding her.
The tendrils throbbed and bulged darkness into the bodies, even bringing the split body parts of the fallen back together.
And then their skin turned gray and cracked, rising from the ground with discolored clothes and dead red eyes.
"D." puppeteered them up, spreading them out on display atop his wings.
Every ounce of rage Auris now felt was justified by the sheer depravity of his actions.
"This world is filled with so many unique and worthy vessels, it would be such a shame to let them waste away…"
Auris ignited her blade with aura and turned on this mass of heartless darkness without any further need to hesitate, "This time…you WILL die, demon."
"Yes, yessssss…! Struggle for me! We shall dance until our eternal bodies throb in ecstasy!"
The eyes on the ten corpses of the Sages lit up in a row, drawing upon decaying forms of their weapons and powers at the parasite's behest.
"Now rise and writhe, my Ten Damned Apostles…! Let us bleed this world dry of its screams…STARTING WITH HER!"
Next Time: The Desperation of Auris Aurora