He stood over the crowd, all of them pleading on their knees for their lives.
"Please, mighty one, spare us!" They all cried in various fashions. Were he able to, he'd sneer at them. "We knew not they were your enemy! They offered us sustenance and good health!"
He snarled down at them, his ዪⶴጎክዐ expressionless as always. He said no words, his hands gripping ﻮคɭคՇเภє tightly.
"Please! Spare my family." A man came forward on his knees, his nose to the ground. Ayatan could smell the salt in his tears. "I am the one who invited them into our home, gave them what they asked for. Please, forgive my family, for they took no part in this." ﻮคɭคՇเภє pierced his back in response, impaling him to the ground.
People shrieked and scrambled away as he removed the colossal weapon from the man's body. A single colossal step from ዪⶴጎክዐ thundered across the village, shaking buildings and freezing the servants in terror.
"Netra."
The entire crowd of people withered away in a blast of ህዐጎጋ.
"AHHH!" he screamed, bolting upright as his own hands attempted to strangle him.
"Ayatan!" Roygun cried. "Ayatan, it's me! Roygun! Calm down!"
He heaved for breath as cold sweat fell down his forehead. Their skin…like rotting paper. He could feel the magical power pulsing just below his skin, begging to be unleashed on something. He looked down at his own hands, the normal human skin upon them wilting then replenishing itself into the black, lustrous armor he'd been wearing.
His heart pounded in his chest as he felt the raw hatred for their masters burn through his mind, the total indifference to their horrid fates filling every bone in his body.
"Stay away!" he screamed, scrambling away from Roygun as fast as he could. "Don't touch me!"
The blood….the screams. He'd loved it.
Every microsecond of that scene had filled his every sense. The smell of burning wood, the sound of…whatever that was splitting the man in two. The feel of the ground beneath his feet. And the taste of…iron?
He quivered in the nearest corner he could find, pushing his entire body into a fetal curl, making himself as small as he could. Everything was too much as he stared at his hands, blood dripping off of them and pooling on the floor. Those people…they'd been completely defenseless. Their 'masters' had been to blame, but he'd slaughtered them mercilessly nonetheless. He knew they were innocent, but he'd killed them anyways.
No, no they weren't.
Yes. YES, they were!
"Ayatan, you're hallucinating." Roygun's voice breached into his thoughts. "You need to breathe. That word brought back some kind of memory and you aren't processing it right." he felt something caressing his shoulder, a calming power flowing through it as the-
KILLEATMURDERNETRA
He screamed again and squeezed his eyes shut as he felt it surging through his body. The power of that singular purpose, that one word above all others. A word of absolute power.
"Ayatan." she said again. "It's me. I'm here."
The word screamed to be unleashed. To be let rip and annihilate. He raged and wailed against its insidious power in defense of the world around him. It showed him what it could do, the undeath of supernatural magic no safe haven against its categorical superiority. His magic swelled as it begged again for release, and if he did not stop it he would be left in a pool of nothing but death.
He opened his eyes again, tears streaming down his face as the world closed in around him, the rotdecayconsumption showing him everything he could destroy.
And then there was her. Sallow skin shrunk against her bones and eyeless sockets, pink hair rotted to a brown matted husk atop her sunken cheeks. His eyes squeezed shut again as he tried to shut it out. The ground was too rough, too healthy.
"No!" he screamed again. "I won't! That's not me!"
And then it stopped. All of the rot, the decay, the death simply vanished. His magic stopped swelling, and the whispers in his mind that he hadn't noticed until they were gone had went silent. All that was left was his labored breathing, his thundering pulse, and the distressed panic of Roygun.
"Ayatan? Ayatan, please talk to me. What's going on?"
His eyes opened slowly, the world once again back to normal and not coated in the illusion of rot. Walls were just as white as before, Roygun's hair was pink again, and her eyes had once again taken on their brilliant amber hue. His breathing was still labored, though, his pulse heightened as his fingertips thrummed with his own blood pressure.
"R-Roygun?" His voice was shaky, uncertain and uncooperative. His throat felt shredded. Roygun's eyes met his, filled with concern and relief simultaneously. Her hand was still on his shoulder, a strange warmth flowing through it. "I…"
"You don't have to say anything." She replied calmly. Her hand lifted from his shoulder, and he felt instantly cold when the foreign comfort vanished with it. "I may not know what you just experienced, but I understand the horror of a mind attack." He pulled himself further into the corner in a futile attempt to mimic the stabilizing comfort her hand had brought. "You're shaking." she said.
He wanted to snap at her for stating the painfully obvious. He couldn't blame her, though. He shouldn't. Everything was so cold.
"Ayatan, I need you to get out of the corner." Roygun said softly. "I know that whatever you just felt was terrifying. It's your past, and you're not able to properly understand it."
"I'm a murderer." he muttered. "I killed them all." Roygun froze for a moment, but still wrapped her arms around him and slowly guided him away from the corner. He followed, though only barely. She was warm, but there was no heat that would be enough to stave off the endless frostbite nipping at the edges of his mind.
"Maybe." Roygun continued to pull him away from the corner. "But right now you need to think about other things. Keep your mind away from the memory until you can process it better. Think about food. Think about clothes. Anything else."
Ayatan, now moving on his own, stood slowly as Roygun did. Somewhere along the way when he wasn't paying attention she had procured a blanket which found a place around his shoulders.
"Let's get you into the sunlight." She guided him out of the room, his steps small and shaky. He felt no strength in his body, completely contrasted to what he'd felt before. "It'll help you calm down." Ayatan nodded in response, staring a hole into the floor as they left the room designated for magic practice.
The living room was awash in golden sunlight, though the sun was…rising?
"How long was I out?" he asked meekly. His voice was still small, though thankfully he'd managed to remove most of the shakiness from it. Roygun sighed and patted his shoulder.
"About a day. I only started freaking out about ten minutes ago when you started convulsing and trying to choke yourself." she laughed mirthlessly, her eyes sunken. When he looked closely, he could see massive bags under her eyes, exhaustion clear in her posture. "I…I'm sorry I can't do anything more for you." Ayatan tried his best to give her a thankful smile, a gesture that she returned. His own hand landed atop hers on his shoulder, expressing the thanks that words were incapable of.
She had saved his life. Again. One of these days he'd need to find a way to repay her.
"Sit." she commanded as they arrived at the couch he'd grown so accustomed to. "I'm going to make you something to drink, and then we'll talk about…whatever you just saw." Parked on the couch, Ayatan soaked up the idyllic heat of the sun, his shivers subsiding quickly. So quickly, in fact, that he soon ditched the blanket in exchange for more sunlight.
He watched Roygun work in the kitchenette, quickly flitting between various spots and muttering things to herself in a mostly inaudible fashion. He tried to figure out what she was saying by reading her lips, but tried was the operative word. She continued to buzz around, grabbing ingredients and putting them into a mug as water continued to boil behind her. He watched her grab some kind of strange pink leaf and grind it up, followed by the juice from several unidentifiable fruits. She threw them all into the boiling pot of water and mixed it, eventually pouring it off through a sieve into a mug.
"A home concoction of my family." Roygun's tired smile widened slightly, a bit more genuinely happy than it'd been before. "Tinta leaves from Alfheim combined with mangosteen and a secret fruit from my family's garden." The warm drink landed in front of him on the coffee table with a soft thunk, glistening in the morning sun with a warm and creamy orange color. A smell not dissimilar to roses and citrus filled his nose.
A sip revealed it to be far more delightful than what it'd smelled and looked like, tasting like everything good in the world combined into a single drink. There was no one flavor that could be picked out over the other, but each one was heavenly.
"Wow…." he sighed as he held the mug gingerly in his hands. The warmth of the drink seeped out of the mug and into his hands, the stiffness of his joints fading as it did. "This is amazing." Roygun sat next to him, a gratified exhale filling the room.
"I'm glad. I hope it helps you to feel better." she replied softly. He could see her debilitating lack of sleep getting to her, her posture falling as she fought valiantly against the call of sleep. She shook her head violently to banish it, standing up and sitting on the other side of the coffee table. "Do you feel comfortable talking about it?" she asked as she sat, leaning forward.
He shuddered when he thought about what had just happened, but he also knew that talking about it would probably be best. He nodded slowly and silently, his eyes never breaking contact with hers.
"Then start wherever you think is best."
It took him a moment to think about where to start, but he eventually did indeed begin the recount of what he'd experienced.
As he finished the story, Roygun sighed deeply and leaned back into the sofa. Ayatan didn't feel very good about piling this onto her while she was so tired, but she'd seemed pretty insistent about dealing with it as soon as possible.
"That's…quite a flashback." She replied, staring at the ceiling. "I don't really know what to say about it besides 'that's not you.'"
Ayatan wanted to believe her, he really did. But that had been him. There was absolutely no doubt about it. He'd felt every single fiber of emotion and memory, every tiny aspect. It had been him.
"Your own terror at the idea of doing that shows that you're a different person now." she continued. Despite her lack of energy, he could tell she was still in control of her reason, and he desperately wanted to agree with her. To say that she was right, and it wasn't who he was anymore.
But he knew that, given the chance, his body would likely betray him. He may not enjoy it like he had in the past, but he'd do it.
"On the other hand, it does mean something about who you are now. You've got more skills to hone, magic especially." Ayatan raised an eyebrow in curiosity as Roygun looked back to him from the ceiling. Her eyes, despite their exhaustion, were full of energy and insight. "Do you know what that word you said means?"
Ayatan wracked his brain, but all he got was the word itself. He didn't dare think of it for risk of retriggering the flashback, but a translation would be nice.
"Not really." he shrugged. He placed the mug on the coffee table, fully engaging in the conversation as he continued to see if he could remember anything useful. "What does it mean?" Roygun rubbed her eyes with her hands, preparing herself for something that Ayatan figured would probably be bad news.
"It's a…well I won't say it's a 'language' per se, but more of a set of concepts that embodies the primordial natures of the world. The fact that you know it lends a bit more credibility to you being Chebbeniathan's child. It's one of the oldest gods in the world besides the Christian Lord himself." Roygun flinched.
"Are you okay?" he reached across the table towards her, but she held up a hand to stop him.
"Just a quirk of being a devil. I can't mention the Christian Deity by name or I get a splitting headache. A 'holy name' and all that jazz." Ayatan sat back on the sofa, thoroughly annoyed at the concept. Why would that be something that could actually be enforced? Was magic really that much of a dominating factor over her life?
"Anyways, knowing the word Netra," Ayatan shuddered as he felt the all-encompassing cold overtake him for a moment. " means that you were taught it by a rather ancient deity. And I'll guess you know the other ones as well."
"How do you know them?" he asked. "Did you get taught?" Roygun shook her head, the final vestiges of her smile fading away.
"No, I learned them from a book. For the time being, I won't say them so I don't trigger more memories, but you should probably re-learn them in the future." Ayatan nodded, the room falling into silence as he processed that. "The fact that you can also use the words magically means that you're a lot closer to them than most beings are."
"What do you mean?" he asked again. "Wouldn't you just have to say the word and use mana?" Roygun chuckled, shaking her head.
"Not quite. Just expending mana as you say the word would do nothing but tire you out. Like I am. I think I'm going to sleep now."
Before he could say anything, Roygun passed out, leaving him alone and conscious in the shared condo. He stood from the couch, grabbing the still-warm drink that Roygun had provided him. It had cooled considerably over the course of him recalling his memory to her, so he downed the rest of it before making his way towards his 'room.' Said room consisted mostly of a mattress with sheets and a single blanket with no decorations. In the corner lay the weapon that Roygun had given him for training.
He grabbed the sword, stopping for nothing besides writing a note saying that he was heading out. The condo's door opened soundlessly, a soft 'click' filling the hallway on the other side as he heard it lock behind him. He stared at it for a moment, thinking about maybe trying to re-enter rather than do what he was about it.
"No." he muttered to himself. "I have to do this."
'This' involved what was likely the stupidest idea he'd come up with in his now three weeks of remembered life. His feet made no sound on the soft carpeted hall while approaching the elevator at the end of it. There was little for him to do in the moment besides wait and think. He pressed the button to summon the elevator, the ding reminding him of the sound.
'Netra' it whispered in the corner of his mind. He shook his head to clear his mind of the thought.
'Give me a minute.' he snarled in response. 'I'll use you when I'm somewhere safe.'
'Netra.' It was more insistent this time. He shut it down again by forcing himself to think about the sword at his hip. The smooth white surface married to a gorgeous crossguard and handle. The edge was sharp, though the sword was clearly designed to be ornate, not effective. It reminded him of something, though the feeling was hard to place.
It was like home, but not a home he wanted to return to.
The elevator dinged, and the door slid open. The ride down to the ground floor was agonizingly slow, people on other floors either staring at him judgmentally or fearfully refusing to get on the elevator. He did his best to smile at those who didn't get on, though the 'comforting' gesture had poor effect.
Roygun made this look so easy.
When he finally arrived on the ground floor, he immediately exited the building and attempted to find a bus stop. Preferably one that was immediately heading out of town. The road was noisy, given that many people were still caught in traffic. He looked around, realizing that odds were good he was going to be stuck in an unmoving bus if he took one.
So he walked.
It took him five hours to get outside of San Francisco. By his guess, it was almost noon by now and he was still nowhere near far enough from the city to unleash the magic that continued to war against his mind.
It wasn't until mid-afternoon that he felt he was suitably far enough into the middle of nowhere to try using his magic. He could feel it in every one of his senses, screaming against the confines of his body to be unleashed. And so he continued to trek on, unwilling to take even a single chance at his own power harming anyone besides himself.
Somehow that felt true to form for him despite the fact that this was the first time he'd ever sacrificed his own well being for something.
Roygun stretched widely, a huge yawn filling the room as she awoke from her slumber. The sun had set and stars were twinkling magnificently in the night sky. She approached the window to examine the well-lit skyline of her 'home' city.
Maybe she'd been a little blunt before, but at least it'd seemed like Ayatan had understood the gravity of the situation regarding his ability to manipulate the elemental words.
"Ayatan?" she called into the condo. She waited a moment for him to reply, though the silence that greeted her told her he'd fallen asleep. Ever since she'd trained him in that field several days ago, his magic signature had been practically nonexistent, so she couldn't confirm his presence that way. She also didn't want to disrupt the sanctity of his sleep, so she moved quietly.
A small glass filled itself with water at the tap as she examined her reflection in the window. Her eyes still sank into her head, though the dark bags under them had shrunk significantly.
"Hm." she mused as she brushed some hair behind her ear. "Talk about exhaustion. What are you doing to yourself?"
She could still hear it if she sat in silence for long enough. That alone was reason enough to torture herself. She couldn't let what happened to them happen to him. Shrugging and resigning herself to a full night of sleep as well, she headed back to her bedroom.
As she approached, she noted the house felt alarmingly empty without him here. Perhaps she was bonding to something simply because she hadn't anything else to bond with anymore.
Or maybe she was just a lonely old woman. That one felt less likely, given that even Venelana herself wasn't considered old by devil standards. And she'd been alive back when…
It wouldn't do to draw those kinds of comparisons for the poor amnestic.
One of these days she'd have to take him to the underworld and get him a proper weapon. The sword she'd provided him was no weapon, and it was especially no Stronghammer. She stared down at the city, the streets full of people enjoying the nightlife like she and Ayatan had only a few days ago.
Humming a small and sweet tune, she picked up the glass that had been slowly and magically filling itself on the counter, drinking it swiftly and replacing it for a refill. Her head pounded ever so slightly, dehydration from her overworking finally catching up with her. She looked out from the counter, sitting on a small stool and staring out into the night.
It had been many months since she'd had a moment of genuine peace like this. Ayatan was safe, if not a little bit ruffled. She was…as safe as she could be. The stars in the sky seemed to blink at her, like a vast iris full of flecks of different colors.
She drank again as the cup filled, sighing in satisfaction at the turn her life had taken. She supposed that in a twisted way she owed Retea an unpayable debt. In his dying moments he'd shown her something that she could focus all her effort on. Something to care for and nurture. That was what she was best at, anyways.
As she was drinking her third glass of water, she felt a disturbance. Small and magical, but perceptible nonetheless. It was well outside the city limits and barely merited an investigation due to its size, but she was bored and needed something to occupy her until she got tired again.
Her ratty, crinkled clothes magically changed themselves, her hair fixing itself to match her new outfit. She opened the window and flexed her powerful wings for a moment, all twelve of them generating a massive gust and throwing her into the sky.
Quickly she ascended near to the few puffy clouds that dotted the night, gliding between them lazily as she followed the magical oddity. It wasn't moving, though it was definitely growing in size. Still hardly worrying, but the rate it was growing changed her previous analysis to 'definitely merits an investigation.'
It felt familiar but different, like a home she hadn't been to in years that someone else had moved into. Shrugging, she upped her pace and began to rapidly close the distance between herself and the anomaly.
By the time she was about halfway there, it had become worryingly large. At this rate, it'd only be a matter of hours until it reached the city, and it showed no signs of stopping. In fact, it seemed to only be growing faster as it got larger. She pumped her wings full of magic and disappeared into the distance as a dark purple flash.
He'd be lying if he said that the feeling of using his magic wasn't intoxicating. The essence of decay fed wildly on the world around him, turning even the dirt beneath him into a strange gray slurry.
He didn't even feel tired yet, and an area several hundred feet in diameter had been…transformed by his power.
He continued to flex the bounds of his ability, Netra roaring in his mind as he allowed unrestrained freedom to devour his colossal mana stores. He knew that he'd have to cut it off soon or he'd draw attention.
Unless he'd drawn attention already.
Grunting, he halted the flow of power into the word, and everything just stopped. The gray sludge beneath him gurgled and bubbled as the world around it compensated, absorbing the raw nutrition of perfectly degraded material.
In a way, he supposed, it was beautiful. Watching it happen to people was one thing, but doing it to plants and dirt? He could feel the land around him seemingly relax as the power of Netra suddenly came into being. He crouched down from his standing position, staring as grass grew by inches per second. Plants of all kinds swallowed up the gray matter and exploded to life.
"It's…beautiful," he whispered. Netra, having been unleashed, seemed to be content for now. Like a secondary personality, it rumbled back into its own corner of his mind. The slop disappeared rapidly as a single tree began to sprout from the puddle. He watched as it soared dozens of feet into the air, leaves growing rapidly and commanding his view.
When the world finally finished recovering from him, he was surrounded by a small field of lush and brilliant life. A singular tree surrounded by grass and strange plants, he marveled at what he'd created.
"Ayatan?" he heard from above him. He looked up to see Roygun, though far different from what he was used to seeing from her.
She was absolutely resplendent, twelve leathery jet-black wings sprouting from her back. They reminded him of bat wings in a way, though they were far prettier. Her clothes were loose and kind, blending into the background of the night and ground with dark blues and heavy greens.
"Roygun?" he called back. "What are you doing here?" She touched down softly, the newly formed grass accepting her without a single sound. Her wings stayed, granting her a terrifying and dominant presence before him. There was fury in her eyes, though it was quickly being replaced with concern.
"Ayatan, what happened?!" she cried as she landed. "Were you attacked?" She closed the distance between them rapidly, hugging him close. He could feel her body thrumming with power, the air around them crackling barely restrained energy.
"No, I'm fine." he muttered into her chest. Roygun pushed him away and closely examined him, checking him over for any wounds. "I was just…testing my magic. I figured that it'd be best if I learned to control the word rather than let it control me." he realized quickly that it was the wrong thing to say, as Roygun went very, very still.
"How were you testing your magic?" she asked slowly. Her grip tightened tremendously, his bones creaking under the pressure. "What spell did you use?"
The clearing became silent but for a small breeze that picked up. Insects didn't dare to chirp for fear of inciting the wrath of the newly-arrived predator. Roygun stared him in the eye very strongly, though it was clear she already knew the answer.
"What. Spell." she commanded. Ayatan tried to shrink away, but her grip held fast.
"Netra." he whispered. Roygun let go of him, her eyes the size of plates. She shook her head as she stepped away, muttering something as she did.
"Ayatan," she began after there was a good twelve feet between them. "Do you know how rot magic works?"
"But Netra isn't rot. It's decay."
"It's the same thing." Roygun corrected. "Do you know how it works?" Ayatan shook his head slowly, and Roygun sighed.
"It becomes harder to stop the larger you let it get. The more it consumes, the more power it requires to stop. If you'd let that spell run for long enough, it would have taken an actual deity to stop it."
Ayatan, for a moment, was frozen at the idea. He'd almost unleashed a nigh-unstoppable plague on the Earth? All because he was curious about magic?
"Roygun, I didn't-"
"No, you didn't." Roygun snapped. "And going forward you will consult me before activating any spells. Do you understand?" Ayatan remained silent. Netra did not.
'Why should you? You were able to control me, kiddo. It's not like I would've gone out of control. Think of how easy it was to stop me.'
"What other magic are you plan-"
"Do you understand?!" she roared. The distance she'd put between them closed with her growing fury. "Ayatan, you could have killed everyone in California! Millions of people could have died if you'd lost control! Do you think you could live with that on your conscience?"
"Yes. I understand." Ayatan, effectively cowed, hung his head as he whispered his defeated reply. "And no, I couldn't." Not anymore, at least. Apparently who he had been would've been fine with it. The ground beneath him, still blooming with the life he'd accidentally created, seemed ready to swallow him up. Part of him wished that it would. "I'm sorry, Roygun."
He didn't dare to look up, not even when he heard Roygun give an exhausted sigh. Instead, he felt her pull him into a soft embrace, patting him on the back in an ineffective attempt to assuage his growing guilt.
'Use me. She deserves it.'
Ayatan ignored it, but he could still feel its power roiling and waiting to be unleashed. He hugged her back softly, and he felt her relax slightly as he did so. A strained calm came over them, but Ayatan did his best to just enjoy the fact that Roygun wasn't going to disown him.
"Will you come back with me to the condo?" she asked softly. "I want to keep you safe, and leaving you out here with magic you don't understand yet will do you more harm than good." Ayatan nodded into her shoulder, and he heard a heavy 'whump' accompany his action. He lifted his eyes to see that they were now airborne, over a hundred feet off the ground as her wings shone with the characteristic purple radiance of her magic.
The flight back to the city was silent but full of wonder for Ayatan. He'd never been in the sky before and it was beautiful, if not a little loud thanks to the wind rushing past him. Roygun held him close and tight, the clouds soaring by them as her magic carried them away from the field where he'd nearly unleashed chaos itself.
At least, he assumed that would've been chaos.