Chapter 114:
It was worse. How could it have gotten worse?
Gajeel was laying on the altar, black hair spilling in tangled rivulets and mixing with blood. His chest was cracked open and an arm was inside, digging, digging, digging, and ripping out his hEART-
Laxus was climbing the steps of the pyramid. He was so close, just a few more now and he'd be there. He'd stop it. He'd save him somehow! He had to!
Tzopilatl's voice echoed in his head over and over.
"What have you to offer? What have you to offer?"
"How about the still-beating heart?"
"The still-still beating heart."
"Still, beating."
"Still beating."
"Still beating."
Laxus threw himself up the last of the steps and the thing that was digging into Gajeel's chest pulled out his heart. He could hear the snap of sinew and each beat of it sent waves of pain into Laxus's head. It was throbbing, throbbing, throbbing, throbbing-
"Given to a ravenous, upstart god."
. , ,';../';.;#;.- ;.-I will have what is mine.. , ,';../';..,,..;#;.;.-
Just as he reached the top step, something wrapped around his ankle. He tore his eyes away to see Bianca digging her nails into his skin. Her mouth and her throat were gaping, ripped-open sneers. Her teeth flashed at him and her eyes flashed at him and when she spoke a million voices came out.
Our Father, who is strong and supports us, supports the temple and the rock it is carved from. You are the Aurincarae, the profit most high. In your presence reason grows dizzy, thou art the interior and exterior of the soul...
"Let me go!" he screamed, but she was pulling him down the pyramid, dragging him away. He dug his nails into anything, felt the stone bend back his nails as he slipped down the steps. One of the stairs hit him in the ribs and the pain made him see white. "Gajeel! Gajeel! No!"
At the pleading lamentations of our sacrifices, accept our offerings this night, bless their flesh with your hungry bite...
Something was wrong. It hurt. It hurt! His eye was THROBBING
It was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong
His eye was throbbing and Laxus screamed.
Laxus gasped as he tumbled from the hammock. He fell onto something large and felt the body beneath him jerk from him and turn. Rut's eyes flashed in the darkness. Laxus had enough time to lift himself with shaking arms and lock eyes with Davian, sitting upright and eyes wide with shock, before pain seared up his ankle and he was dragged into the forest.
Terror blanketed his mind in gripping ice. Something was whisking him through the jungle at a rapidly accelerating speed. He banged against a tree, over roots, hitting stone. Dead limbs and rocks scratched at his face, arms, back, drawing blood. He could smell the wounds opening, small at first, and then steadily growing worse as his skin was torn against the terrain. Something hit him in the face, knocking stars into his vision and a moment of clarity. He twisted onto his back and flailed for something, anything, to stop himself. He kicked his foot and the grip that held him tightly slipped.
The world stopped moving. Above, parted through the blackness of branches and leaves, Laxus could see a peppering of stars.
Laxus didn't have the strength to move. Disoriented and exhausted, he tilted his head from one side to the other in a pitiful attempt to find his bearings. He heaved himself up onto his side, trying to stand, but his muscles were dumb and shaking. Father had done Its due to him while he slept. His fever was back. He was magic deficient.
Whispers, a schizophrenic and erratic murmuring like insects taking flight, hissed from the darkness around him. They stood out against the blanket of night, corpses staring at him with dead, white eyes, lives snuffed out for some purpose and now left in some in-between state, not dead, not alive, decaying. They swayed like men drunk on the street, necks snapped or chests bleeding or eyes gauged out, and they whispered in unison words Laxus understood and made his heart twist up into his throat.
W̶e̴ ̸a̸r̵e̵ ̷f̶o̵r̸e̴v̷e̴r̷.̶
It was smiling at him. He only knew it was there because somehow the night was blacker where it stood, as if not only darkness but a complete absence of light, a consumption of it, a pit of gravity so deep and heavy that light itself was ripped apart, stood there. It moved and Laxus saw it blotting out the figures behind it, growing larger and taking more of his vision, filling it with nothing but the perpetuity of ink spilling slowly across the page.
̵W̸e̶ ̴e̴m̷b̶o̵d̸y̶ ̵p̶e̵r̷f̴e̷c̶t̶i̸o̸n̶.̶
̶W̵e̵ ̷h̵a̷v̷e̴ ̸b̶e̴e̵n̶ ̷l̴i̵g̸h̸t̸.̵
̴W̴e̴ ̷h̴a̶v̷e̸ ̵c̵o̸m̵e̷ ̸f̸r̵o̵m̴ ̴s̸h̴i̸n̸i̸n̶g̷ ̸s̵t̵a̸r̶s̴.̷
̴W̴e̶ ̸a̶r̸e̷ ̶i̴n̴c̶o̶n̸c̵e̴i̴v̷a̵b̵l̷y̴ ̵l̷a̸r̸g̶e̴.̸
I̴n̸t̷o̵ ̷t̵h̷e̵ ̶s̶h̵a̴d̵o̴w̸ ̶w̵i̷t̵h̷ ̷t̶e̶e̵t̸h̷ ̵b̴a̷r̸e̵d̴
The figures were crowding close to him now, close enough to touch. He didn't want them to touch him. In his mind's eye, he felt if they did he'd shrivel up like them. He'd stand and join the undying, staring with eyes that couldn't see, screaming forever.
It was over him now. He felt something drip onto his face. It smelled like blood.
Little one. Do you not wish to be perfect?
Laxus, dug his heels into the dirt and tried to move. Everything in him resisted it. His muscles ached, and his eye throbbed, and everything hurt. He slid maybe an inch and gave up as the whispering things stepped closing, cutting off any hope to get away.
̷T̶h̸a̸t̵ ̶w̴h̴i̷c̵h̴ ̷i̸s̶ ̷a̵b̸o̷v̵e̵
̵S̷h̷a̵l̶l̷ ̵r̴e̶f̸l̶e̵c̴t̴
I̴n̸t̷o̵ ̷t̵h̷e̵ ̶s̶h̵a̴d̵o̴w̸ ̶w̵i̷t̵h̷ ̷t̶e̶e̵t̸h̷ ̵b̴a̷r̸e̵d̴
I know your fear.
The voice echoed in every inch of his mind, blotting out any other thought he could have. It was a hiss and a scream. It felt like nails being dragged against his very brain. His back arched because it was painful.
I know your pain. I can take it away.
Something drip-drip-dripped on either side of him. It was sickeningly sweet, coppery. It made his mouth taste like blood. The shape of darkness overtook the stars above him. He could see nothing but he knew it was smiling.
"You caused my pain," Laxus forced through his gritted teeth.
Something coiled around his throat. Talons sank into the flesh of his neck and he instinctively wrapped his hands around it. Its grin got wider.
̶W̷e̴ ̸a̵r̶e̷ ̷i̵m̸p̸e̵r̸c̸e̷p̶t̵i̶b̶l̴y̷ ̶s̵m̵a̶l̸l̶.̵
̷W̴e̷ ̸w̶i̷l̵l̸ ̷r̷e̶t̷u̸r̶n̷ ̶t̴o̷ ̴b̵l̴a̵c̷k̴ ̵h̵o̶l̵e̶s̶.̴
̴W̸e̶ ̸w̴i̸l̷l̸ ̴b̴e̵ ̵d̸a̴r̶k̵.̶
Shivers wracked his body. He felt like something in him was breaking. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried not to choke on blood. He dug his nails into the hand that encircled his throat. The throbbing in his eye grew stronger as a pit opened up in his chest, an emptiness that was so heavy he found it hard to breathe...
It is not your fault you were made imperfect. I will make you perfect...
̷W̸e̷ ̴a̸r̶e̴ ̵O̷r̸o̵s̷.̴
̷W̷e̷ ̵a̴r̶e̶ ̴e̶t̶e̴r̷n̵a̶l̵.̷
"You're not Oros." Laxus snarled, the words burbling up through his esophagus painfully.
He dug his nails into the hand that encircled his throat. He dug his nails into something he could touch.
Laxus opened his eyes. Blinding, golden light burned his eyes worse than when he'd looked upon Tzopilotl in Madam Guéneva's tent. He stared into the eyes of the thing that held him, one glowing bright and the other just an empty socket. The spirits around them weren't chanting the praises of Father, they were screaming, crying, and begging.
Please, no. Forgive me, Father! Why have you forsaken us! Save us, please! Return to us! Please, no! I've done what you've asked! So wHY ARE YOU DOING THIS PLEASE FORGIVE US LET US GO
Laxus's eyes levelled on the stilting power up Its spine, blanketing everything in that wretched glowing gold, burning everything it touched. Laxus's felt his own fleeting energy draining away, flowing up the hand that held him. He felt his lacrima pulsing in his eye, the spidering pain of it rooting him into place. He licked the blood from his teeth. Tears were blurring his vision but he refused to close his eyes.
"You picked the wrong wizard, Father." he growled.
He flexed his power through his spine, the Virale, his own Lightning in the Blood. Like a muscle that had never before been used or tested, it responded back to him confused and weak. He felt it spiraling up and into Father, where their fields overlapped, one as hot and livid as an inferno, the other a candle about to be snuffed.
It was like jumping a track. Just a little hop, one line to another. A simple thing. He just... tapped into it. Like a spider on unsure legs, a newborn deer stumbling along, he stepped onto a gossamer wire and was electrocuted. It flooded into him so fast he didn't even have time to scream. He was screaming. He was screaming.
He was in a place he couldn't escape from, decaying alive. Find a way, find a way, find a way to live forever. God has abandoned me and for what? For refusing to leave until my task was done? For flying too close to the heavens? I will pay whatever price is necessary. I'll sacrifice all of them if I must. They will thank me for what I've done. I'm saving them. They need me. I won't go quietly-
Decaying in a foreign space, edges fraying, thoughts coming apart but never-ending. The ages played forward and backward, over and over again, like tumbling down a hill forever until it all blurred together. Which way is up? It is eating away at the edges. Hungry. Hungry. It is all that is left. Just the gaping wanting. He was hungry.
Laxus was laying on the ground. It was just... black. His ears were ringing and everything in his body was in pain. In the distance, far, far away, voices were calling for him, begging for him to answer.
He'd fucked up.
"It would be... dangerous..." he had said at length. Gajeel looked concerned. "I'd have to disrupt my own electric field to do something like that."
"What does that mean?"
"Oh... you know... It could cause me to, say... fry my entire nervous system."
He'd fucked up.
His spine was on fire, the synapsis in his brain weren't firing right. All he knew for certain was that he was in pain. It was a pain he'd never had the pleasure of feeling before, something that didn't emanate from a location because it was far too big for that. It was a pain that made reason and thought impossible. There was only instinct, and currently it was telling him to curl up into a ball and hope his death was swift. What had Davian compared him to? A copper wire? He'd lit up as if he'd been made of magnesium.
He had completely and royally fucked up.
Maddened by a thousand hurts, a hoarse, nasty laugh bubbled raggedly up in his chest, bumping against his ribs and gurgling out his mouth with something that tasted like blood. He rolled over to his side wheezing and clutching his insides like he could find a way to hold them together. He could hear them calling for him. He knew he had to call back, do something. Every muscle, every bone reacted like they were still on fire. He whimpered as he dragged himself to his knees, buckled like a broken twig. He gripped a spinning world with his fists and wrangled it still beneath him. Hot, sticky liquid was running down his face and he knew deep down that it was the black that swelled from Davian when he called on his power, and he couldn't heal like a chameleon.
"Fuck..." he breathed, "I'm here... I'm-"
Eyes flashed in the darkness, wide and horrified. Laxus watched as they focused on him, predatory and precise. Light sparkled dimly from inside and then spread rapidly outwards to claim the eyes that watched him. He couldn't imagine a more dangerous place in the world than inside the circle of their reach.
"Shit..." Laxus sighed wearily, "Why did you have to find me first, Erandi?"
Chaos had erupted all at once. When Laxus hit the ground, an hour long second winced by and he was stuck in between the stutters of the second hand. Their eyes had met and Davian realized something was wrong and Laxus was gone. Vanished like a silver coin to deep water.
"No, no, no, no, no-!"
Remeses went mad, barking into the surrounding forest with an eardrum-splitting howl. Rut was already off, and Davian was quick to follow, dashing through the darkness blindly and calling out a name despite being certain there would never be an answer. It was forever and it was no time at all when heard his friend screaming out in the distance. The humid wind swept back at them, ushering them in some confusing direction and Davian raged against it. Something swelled from deep in his gut, fear and frenzy melted away to something toxic. The aftermath of blind terror left him burning with something akin to hatred, incoherent, inconsolable, infinite.
He heard the chanting well before he saw the spirits. He ran headlong into the things that had once brought him insurmountable dread. He was burning with rage to the point he couldn't recognize it anymore. It wasn't his own. It chased at his heels, goading him onward like a sheepdog to a stubborn lamb.
Laxus was screaming. It sounded like an animal in the last throws of a fight with the teeth of a wolf.
A shattering of brilliant light made him flinch. There was something wrong about it, about seeing it. He didn't know how but it wasn't right. He stopped and blinked, blinded after the light had faded. He felt Rut's consciousness move against his own, in the same way a cat may rub its body against his legs. Confusion and disorientation. They both felt suddenly turned around.
"Where is the mage?" Rut asked at his side.
"I don't know. I don't know." Davian hissed.
They were both scenting the air when they heard Laxus again, and the rabid snarling of a dog. The scream that pierced the darkness this time was higher and in pain. Rut hissed and charged into the darkness while Davian stood in the clutches of his own horror. He could smell blood, fresh and warm and bleeding into the air like some foul miasma. He followed the sounds of chaos feeling as if trapped in a nightmare. Everything had a black and heavy serenity to it, like being smothered beneath a blanket. He stepped into the clearing and felt he'd somehow stepped from his body as well, staring at the scene before him rapt with the intensity of it all.
Pink froth dripped from Rameses' mouth as he barked at the two chameleons now fighting like mad on slicked, dead leaves. Erandi drew back a clawed hand just as Rut moved to grab him and by sheer luck made contact. Rut's head snapped to the side and without taking the time to recover he stepped into the movement, whipping his tail around and slamming it into Erandi. The boy rocketed into a tree and when his spine connected, there was a dull twack. He gasped, the gold suddenly fleeing from his eyes as he dropped to the ground. Rut's hand was shaking as he smeared the blood from his cheek with an open palm. He stared down at his bloodied hand, eyes wide in dismay. Erandi was clutching his ankle, the deep lacerations of a dog's bite oozing his own life's blood onto the forest floor. In the not-far distance, Irena was still calling for Laxus who wasn't here despite it being his blood slicking the ground, somehow too dark and wrong.
"Désole... Désole..." Erandi was curled into a ball and in between gasps for breath he was weeping. His hands were curled from him as if he didn't want to touch them, "Désole... Désole..."
...I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry...
Rut was dragging him to his feet, demanding to know where the mage was, what had happened. There was a trail of blood leading into the forest. Irena stepped into the clearing, breaking up the fight between Rut and Erandi, trying to settle them all down. Rameses was barking into the trees, growling at shadows.
Davian stood in the forest, completely disconnected from it all. It was like watching a nightmare playing out before him. He was waiting for the moment when he'd wake up, when something would grab him from behind and startle him from this strange reverie.
Something moved just out of his sight.
He looked at it and frozen chords of dread cinched his heart tight enough to burst. A woman was standing there, a wraith. Her eyes were dulled and serene, staring off into the night. She had long black hair and sharp features that he recognized from his own mirror. Her chest was torn open, the gaping wound missing its heart, and she stood there whispering a prayer that Davian had a hard time getting out of his head. His mother… his mother was among the wraiths, trapped in agony forever. He suddenly found it hard to get enough air into his lungs.
His eyes fell back to Erandi. Did he know the fate that awaited him when they got to the temple?
"I can't..." Davian whispered, stepping back from the scene before him, "I can't do this."
A voice responded to him, a voice he hadn't asked for and didn't welcome, effervesced from the forest around him or probably just his own head. It was quiet and it was sure and Davian resented it and what it stirred in him to hear it.
"What is it that you cannot do, youngblood?"
"This," Davian hissed, "I can't be a part of this. I can't do this. Not again!"
"Will you fight the spirit?"
"Fight the spirit?" Davian spat, "I can't even dispel It!"
"You cannot dispel something that is a part of your being."
Davian froze, "Part of me? Part of me?! As if I ever wanted such a thing!"
"Is it not your birthright? The shadow is as much a part of you as I am."
"As you are?!" Davian yelled into the forest, "When have you ever been a part of me? It wasn't blue flames that found me in the Golden Chamber, was it? You stood by and watched while I was forced into a pact I didn't understand!"
"A pact which you have broken."
"A pact which you have broken." Davian corrected, stumbling into something in the dark. He tripped over a root and dug his claws into a tree, barely holding himself up, "A pact you could have broken at any time and chose not to!"
"You despair in your own helplessness while accepting your fate for what it is. Do you need the answers fed to you, youngblood? Are you incapable of free will? Were you not born into a religion of light? Is it not your birthright to seek it out, to find truth? Do you not derive your joy in surveying the proof with your own eyes and determining for yourself if you are to love or fight? Do you need a guide to divide you, to instruct you on your purpose? Must I consider wrong and right for you? How can one speak on light's behalf if all they do is act blindly?"
"Act blindly?!" Davian demanded of the forest around him, "I kill the boy and swear myself to Father to save a friend, or I let my friend die and be forced into the service of an old god! You take my choices from me and then tell me I'm acting blindly?"
"Not having the choice you desire is not the same as not having a choice," the voice replied, a whispered hiss that whisked up the back of Davian's neck. He fell to the ground, clutching at ferns, "Leave this place, youngblood. Revoke your birthright. Deny the call of the god you claim to follow. Live as a mortal and die a peaceful death. The shadow will continue to decay and its hunger will continue to grow. It will devour and you will not be a part of it."
"And my friend dies." Davian hissed, pulling himself to his feet again, "His blood would be on my hands!"
"Do you devour the mage? What sin have you committed?"
"I could save him," Davian muttered, "I can't just let him die."
"Then resign yourself to the shadow."
Davian's temper snapped.
"Is that it?!" he screamed, "No matter what another person dies and for what?! How are you any better than Father?! You're just more honest when you manipulate us?! Isn't that just like a god to play with our lives like they're nothing! For entertainment!"
"Everything in this world turns in circles and spirals. Everything has a vibration that spirals inward or outward, everything turns together in the same direction at the same time. The stars sing that vibration when they are born, they expand and destruct only to repeat the cycle again in opposite current. Like the petals of a rose, all things open and close, die and are born again. Such is the story of me and you. Nothing truly dies. It is transformed..."
"Riddles... that's all you have for me?" Davian raged, "Just tell me the circle must start again and be gone already."
"...to live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of creation. When we do this lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is sacrament. When done ignorantly, greedily, it is desecration..."
"I know all this! I studied it!"
"And yet you stand in darkness." the voice continued, longsuffering, never raising above its whisper. Davian's skin prickled and he wanted to lash out and scream, "What was the Rite that you chose? What was it that you wished to accomplish?"
"I took the Rite of Service! To help people!"
"You have no people."
"I wanted to help but all Father ever told me sounded like death! Sacrifice and blood and revenge and-!"
Davian tripped. He landed sprawled out on the ground. Something on the ground dug into his side and he groaned as he pulled himself back onto his hands and knees. He could hear something shifting in the darkness, the sound of a large snake slithering near to him. It circled him like a shark, he knew. He knew though he couldn't see it.
"Look at your people, Davian. Look at what the shadow has done."
An image of Erandi flashed in his mind. The boy who was scared of everything, his hands bloodied, sobbing as Rut tried to contain his rage at being slashed in the face. The smell of human blood drove him to violence that in his own, rational mind he never would have committed. The boy who was scared to die but meditated anyway, praying to be clean enough for the temple.
Désole. Désole. Désole.
Rut stalked at Irena's heels, protective and no longer bloodthirsty. He curled up with the dogs, thankful to not be alone anymore. To feel accepted, no longer listless and hungry out in the world. No longer feeling the need to exact revenge. He had laid beneath Laxus's hammock in the hopes to be there should Father appear in the night.
Désole. Désole. Désole.
When they were boys, he and Orotrushit had been inseparable. Many of the other children didn't want anything to do with them because they had been chosen. Their mother had told them it was jealousy. And then one day his brother came back from a ritual smelling of blood, and he suddenly couldn't stand the sight of him. He'd clawed out his own eye because it looked like their mother's.
Désole. Désole. Désole.
The council wasn't present anymore. They stayed in meditation, eyes glowing gold, staring into nothing as their people desperately tried to maintain order. The Qaholom had retreated to the depths, preferring to disappear into the darkness of the caverns than be part of their world any longer. More and more of the Yaoyo were retreating to the forest, abandoning wives and children for fear of what they might become, of the harm they could cause with their own hands. The Yohual were shrinking as more and more fell to Father's hunger, turning on each other, tearing each other apart, and all the while begging for Its favor. The Osaloua were gone, the only thing left of them appearing when Father forced them from their slumber to pray along with every other soul It had consumed over the ages.
"Your people are decaying because the Aurincarae decays. The shadow covers the skyline, blocking the sun and turning noon into midnight. You can be paralyzed by your fear or you can move."
"You want me to do it? You want me to go there and sever myself from you? That's what you want?" Davian nearly wept, "Why would you want that?"
"The vessel must be made complete, the circle must restart."
"There it is," Davian snarled, "That's it. That's what all this is about."
"The Aurincarae is the voice of Oros. He is the one that guides Oros's children. The children need a leader to bring them back from the darkness."
"And that means surrendering myself to Father... why? Why must I? Can't I do it and still be connected to you?" Davian implored, remembering Irena in his arms, bleeding to death on the bathroom floor, "I'm just getting used to the wrath now, I can handle it, I can use it. I can't control the hunger. I don't want to keep hurting people I care about."
"Nature offers violence that is as necessary as it is atavistic. What is hunger but the need for that which nourishes our existence?"
"I can't keep hurting people I care about!"
"Does the bear mother mourn the starving cub it consumes? What of the captive snake that eats its own eggs? Trees do not deny themselves that which makes them grow, be it rainfall, sunshine, or blood."
"I am not a bear or a snake or a tree!"
"Half a drink will not quench your thirst; half a meal will not satiate your hunger. Half the journey will get you nowhere and half an idea will give you no results. You cannot continue to live half of a life, child of Oros. It is time to pick your path, to accept the consequences of your choice, to meet adversity and conquer it. Gone is the time to go into the wilderness, measure yourself against creation, recognize your place within it, and be saved from pride and despair. Make your choice, child of Oros. I cannot give you all the answers."
"How am I supposed to trust the one who abandoned his people in their time of need? Maybe if you hadn't, none of this would be happening!"
A hot wind suddenly rose from nowhere, encapsulating him in its torrid anger. Davian flinched and gritted his teeth.
"I never abandoned my people." the whisper hissed from somewhere deep into the forest, "They were stolen from me."
"Th-then give me something in good faith. Show me I'm making the right decision! Give me something, anything!"
"You have spent too much time with the mages and forgotten what you are. Everything in this world is ultimately unpredictable, irrational and yet here you are seeking reason in the madness. The storm isn't yet upon you, and you already search for tranquility. Study yourself. When you are suffering, find out who you are. Let the storm come and pass. If you truly seek to help those around you, then it is not the fire that matters, but how you walk through it. What are you, youngblood? What is your namesake?"
"More riddles... My namesake?" Davian snarled at the dirt, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Are you Timid Mouse? Or Broken Wing of the Sparrow? Does the mist follow when you pray for rain? What is your namesake?"
"God's Wrath," Davian clenched his fists.
"God's Wrath? No. You are the Wrath of Oros. Now, pray for rain."
"Pray for rain?" Davian yelled at the voice, "Pray for rain?! You are a god of creation and destruction! What power do you have over rain?!"
The hiss in the darkness sighed, taxed, and slowly disappeared into the forest around him.
"You underestimate the power of Oros's Avatar. Pray for rain, youngblood. The old gods answer when they are called."
"Old gods?! What old gods?! What could rain possibly help in a time like-!"
A hand landed on his shoulder and Davian nearly jumped from his skin. Irena's striking eyes were startled and wide, looking down on him like she was about to cry. Rut was looming past her shoulder, his face still bleeding, holding Erandi in his arms as he sobbed.
"Davian... love..." Irena's voice wobbled, "Who are you talking to?"
"I'm... ah..." Davian stammered, eyes dashing to Rut and the set of his jaw. He looked back to Irena, "You... you can't find him, can you?"
She slowly shook her head, "Rameses isn't a tracking dog. If it were Cersei, maybe..."
Davian looked to Rut, who let out a deep growl in response.
"There isss too much blood," Rut hissed, "The scent of death is on the ground."
Erandi whimpered.
"I don't... he... he can't be..." Davian started, but he saw movement past Rut's back. He stopped, eyes centering on a low-hanging branch. A large viper curled itself on the limb, slithering in tighter and tighter coils as it stared beneath it. There was as shock of white, and Davian rose to his feet, stepping around the three rapt with the sight. It was a stag, so white it almost glowed in the darkness. Albinism, especially in adult animals, is so rare because such creatures are easily spotted.
Albinism... something attributed to... a god. A god of what? He could remember, if he thought hard enough. The name, he needed a name.
"Ulo," Rut stated, and Davian whipped his head around to look at him, "Ulo, God of Storms."
Davian slowly turned his head back to the deer laying beneath the tree, then to the viper. It stared at him with a frightening amount of intelligence, a fringe of feathers circling its long body.
"Laxus is a dragon slayer. A lightning dragon slayer." He glanced back at Rut, who returned his look with one full of questions, "He eats lightning... and derives power from it."
"Oh..." Irena said, wiping her eyes, "You're going to kill the deer."
Rut's tongue flashed out, "The river is this way."
Irena called Rameses and followed close behind him as they traipsed through the woods. Davian approached the deer, its red eyes blinking up at him dumbly, its lack of understanding clear. Davian stared at the viper, its yellow eyes trained on him as it coiled in a way that was a familiar threat.
"What is the point of power, if I can't even keep the people I care about safe?" he said to the snake that watched him coldly. It didn't reply, but he knew Oros could hear him. They were connected, for now.
As strange as it was, his mind turned to Gajeel. Sitting on the bench, Gajeel had read him like a book. Advice. You want advice on something... You better get real knowledgeable about your body's limits, 'cuz you're going to be throwing it in the way of someone you care about to keep them safe.
"Good faith..." He flexed his hand and allowed blue scales to bloom. "Fine. I've made my choice."
He reached his hand down and grabbed one of the deer's magnificent antlers. When he did, the viper struck.
He'd hate himself for this later. He knew it. He would. There would be a later, and he'd hate himself for it.
Laxus Dreyar didn't retreat, he didn't run, but here he was stumbling through the darkness with panic in his periphery. Time crawled by like a wounded animal, or maybe it was just him.
When Erandi had lunged for him, he was sure it would be over. It's odd how much your brain can quantify in a moment like that. The humidity of the chameleon's breath, the panic in his eyes, the way the forest held its breath before the pounce, it was all so loud. Finite and insignificant details become so important, like the slight hesitation Erandi's every movement had, like he was desperately fighting the body he could no longer control. Laxus on reflex had swung his fist and it had connected, and he'd felt every radioactive piece of him scream when he tried to force himself to his feet. The pain was so alive he could taste it, seeping into his everything like water through a failing hull. He was confused when he was dragged backwards and it felt like fire was lacing down his leg. He'd turned onto his back and with as much strength as he could muster, he kicked the boy in the face. He felt a pang of guilt for the way his neck snapped back, but his eyes were still glowing and gold.
He plunged into the forest, the empty chill of his luck running thin propelling him through the pain. When he'd been up against Father, his fear had been a fiery thing, burning through his limbs, fueling courage. Now, he was cold. Creeping and fathomless dread that fueled nothing was digging iced fingers into his skin and draining him empty. Wherever they touched, the pain was unbearable. It wasn't an emotion, it wasn't just a feeling, it was the environment around him. Black branches he could barely see snapped back at him. He tripped clumsily over aerial roots and clawed through leaves that smacked his face. Things crawled around his feet and scattered from his approach, and his mind's eye filled the noises with the horrific shapes of the dead that followed Father when It appeared in his nightmares. He didn't know where he was going, he just knew he had to go, to get away. He left the voices behind him, the baying of Rameses. Like a dark cloud rising and looming up to engulf him, the haze came. The very warmth of his blood was stolen away as he limped through the rainforest.
Stupid. He was being stupid, but right now he could only think simply, and run was about as simple as it came. The pain didn't allow for anything else. Each agonizing step pulled the breath from his lungs. Adrenaline was a bitch and left him on the verge of collapse.
His dad was in the back of his head with a voice full of contempt. (What a time to remember Ivan's voice.) You're a Dreyar, boy. Dreyar's aren't weak! Dreyar's don't run! You're a pathetic excuse for a wizard. Turn around and fight!
He knew he was more of a Dreyar than his father ever was. It wasn't so much the voice that bothered him as it was the thought Ivan would be the last thing he remembered before he died. What would Gramps think of all this? He'd chide him, Laxus was certain. He'd be sitting there in the infirmary waiting for him to wake up with a pipe in his hand, smoking even though Mira forbade it, and blowing his smoke rings up into the eaves.
Laxus, my boy, why would you do something so reckless? Steal the Life Energy of a god? Please, my son, promise you'll never do it again...
Right... he wasn't going to die, because he needed Gramps to tell him how stupid he was. Gramps, and Gajeel. Oh fuck... Gajeel...
He definitely couldn't die, not after he'd lied about where he was going. That wasn't going to be the way it ended, on a lie. Gajeel would never forgive him if that happened, if he came home in a body bag and he'd had no idea he was even in trouble. He'd... he'd kill him for sure... drag him out of hell just to kill him again. No... no, he couldn't... he couldn't die like this... like... this...
Dazed, like he was half asleep and headed for three-quarters, he stumbled and fell into a bush. Spider's webs wrapped around his face, and he groaned and shook on his arms trying to push himself up. In small, familiar motions, he moved himself onward. Crawling first, falling into a tree, pushing himself back up, limping forward. His teeth gnashed from the pain. He couldn't see and he didn't know if it was because the forest was dark or because he'd lost his vision. He didn't even know when it happened, really, he just noticed it when he ran into something and he hadn't even seen an outline of it. His pulse was thrumming insistently at his eardrums, drowning out anything except thoughts of survival, of pushing through, of bearing the pain.
He stepped and the ground was missing. He fell and had the time to realize as much when the ground bounced back up at him. His hand sank into mud and clay and the rest of his body followed. Something startled and splashed into water. He didn't scream or groan, he just lay there in the mud and felt every injury on his body as they voiced their grievances to him. He'd lost blood, and where his flesh was shredded at his ankle, it burned. His foot, however, was startlingly numb. His spine didn't feel right, like a branch set on fire and put out before it could be completely consumed, it was stripped of its living flesh and now just open, raw and aching nerve exposed to the air. He was aware of light but he couldn't really see it. He lay there in the mud and thought of Gajeel and how pissed he'd be when he found out.
The Great Laxus Dreyar, Thunder God of the Fairy Tail guild, killed in his sleep by something that wasn't even there… Except that it was there, even if just for an instant. Everything on him burned as proof of that.
Laxus's eye throbbed once, a skull-splitting pain like a heart attack. Something in the air around him shifted. Before, where there had been nothing in the sky above him, suddenly something rippled. He felt it as if he had been the pebble dropped into the sky to make it so. Then, just as suddenly, he felt static begin to snap deep in his marrow, a reckoning, a remembrance.
He felt it, the sudden cool wind shifting and falling, filling the basin of the forest like a bowl in a sink. He felt it coalescing overhead, called from somewhere, somewhere unnatural, somewhere that didn't exist, like slipping from one spider wire to another. A step to the side.
Someone was calling for him again.
Laxus's eye throbbed. It hurt. It hurt. It drowned out everything else, everything except the emptiness he felt in his gut which was suddenly there and impossible to ignore. He twitched his fingers and it hurt. He clenched his fist and it hurt. The burning, throbbing pain leaked from his eye into his skull. He could feel it in his teeth, down his neck. It hurt.
He opened his eye and it burned. Tears streaked down his face as he stared up at the sky. It looked like the northern lights. Energy danced and folded together. He could have sobbed from relief or pain or both. His stomach curled against his spine and he felt like he'd been starved his entire life. Something in his chest unfurled its wings and screamed for lightning. He could feel it, the atoms humming together in an elysian song only he could understand. He wanted to reach out a hand, to call out to it and draw it close, but he couldn't. He couldn't move and everything hurt.
"Laxus!" it sounded so far away, but somehow Davian was over him. His eyes were shining gold and so was his arm. He looked like he did the night in Madame Guéneva's tent, glowing in some celestial way. He slid down the ditch to where he was, sinking into the mud up to his knees. "Laxus! Thank Oros..."
"Shit..." Laxus winced, his voice barely a whisper, "Thought you... got... lost..."
"Come... we need to get you to a clearing..." he grunted, grabbing hold of his arm and pulling him up. Laxus could see the tears beginning to well in his eyes. Davian felt his pain and his breath left him. He bared his teeth, "O-oh... I'm so, so sorry..."
"Don't..." Laxus huffed, "I did... something... stupid..."
He didn't quite understand how, his mind fuzzied and barely stringing anything together coherently, but Davian managed to drag him from the mud. Half on his knees, he weakly held onto the chameleon as he stepped into loose stones. Laxus tried to put his foot down and pain made his vision bloom with black poppies. Davian gasped.
"I'll carry you... please..." he implored, "It could be broken for all you know..."
Thunder rolled down the mountainside. Laxus choked on the feeling as the atmosphere teemed with raw energy. Lightning knifed through the clouds and every cell in his body responded in kind. His body moved of its own accord, stepping towards the light like a moth following the brilliant moon. He felt the shockwave deep in his soul. His eye throbbed and it felt divine. His stomach was empty and he was hungry.
He didn't realize he was up to his knees in water, Davian still holding him up as he stood, eyes wide as the brilliance of the storm twisted and writhed. It was angry and it was frenetic and it was him. His spine arched and he threw back his head, dizzy from the action, but the entire world was open to the impending storm so how could he not welcome it in kind? Thick, green clouds roiled and were shorn apart by lightning. He heard the rain come, the scent of it making his head swim. A shiver made his body incandescent with hunger, with need, and he realized he was going to lose control.
"You need to go..." he whispered, staring up at the sky. A massive drop of rain plunked nearby, followed by another, and another.
"How many times have you refused to leave my side when I was mad with hunger?" Davian breathed, fear clear in his voice, in the scent that fell from him in waves, in the way he shook as he held Laxus on his feet, "I'm not leaving. I'll have to trust you not to kill me."
A laugh, manic and untamed bubbled up from Laxus, a laugh he had no idea he was even capable of making, "I'm not sure I won't."
Stilting light corkscrewed through the sky and Laxus raised his enfeebled hand. Every string that held his borders together sang, his hair stood on end, his stomach coiled and swooped low with anticipation. The rain was falling heavily, now. It was a downpour that felt like standing in a waterfall. Something small twinged in his body, small but refusing to be silenced. His magic, his magic, no matter how weak and frail it had become, responded like second nature, like a thought, muscle memory, like his heart beating and his lungs expanding and his eyes opening. Like base instinct, the need to hunt, and sleep, and fuck, and be free and unfettered to the world beneath his feet. Like coming home.
The sky tore itself apart. White light fell on him, fell in him, turned his broken body into something different. Like sand melting into glass, he was made whole and seething hot. Magic. Power. Oblivion. Strange and impossible. It had come too easily to hold this power in hands, to learn its push and pull, its screaming demand; to understand and respond with levelheaded control. To master its purpose on a body, the destructive nature, the creation of something beautiful. To rend the world apart and put it back the same and inherently changed. His blood bubbled and bubbled, frothed up like something shaken too much. His entire body sang and needed more.
Lightning struck his open, waiting palm. He grinned. His white teeth flashed in the darkness. His eye throbbed and he felt it seeping into his chest now, burning his veins like maybe they'd been set on fire but it was the most rhapsodic thing he'd ever felt. His mouth tasted like metal, he gasped and shook as power surged into every part of him, filling him completely. His blood was boiling, surging up into his throat. His being thrummed. The unbearable heat, the enshrouding crack, the breathless stampede of thunder, Laxus nearly stumbled in the wake of it all. His core burned like molten copper, liquid and searing through his body, awakening every piece of him he kept carefully constrained. He didn't even have time to be horrified, to worry of the implications.
The bubbling of his blood boiled over. The world burst into blistering technicolor. Tendrils of rogue lightning leapt from him to the water, to the trees, to anywhere they could escape to. Laxus realized he was gripping onto something, that it was there, that it was alive. Davian had fallen to his knees from the terror of it. Laxus's magical presence made a gravity of its own and even the water bowed from his wake. He could feel it, the pulse of life all around him, the fear of the uncontrollable tempest he had become.
Something, a piece of his rational self whispered of danger. Of danger? Lightning loosed itself from the sky and on impulse he caught it. He didn't even need it any longer, he just took it. His mind couldn't wrap around anything else but being open and being fed. His shut his eyes at the blissful feeling of power snapping his down his spine, arching up and over his body, filling the world around him. Raw and sharp-toothed and open and breathing in the life of the storm. Thought was fleeting. Heat lightning danced behind his eyelids as he rocketed towards a familiar height, one he'd only used once, when scales had manifested and he'd nearly gone blind from the light searing behind his eyes... The day he'd almost killed Natsu.
Reality tumbled back to him painfully. Too much, it was too much. And it was too late to stop it. He grabbed onto Davian's arms and lifted him to his feet in the water. The man was shaking uncontrollably and Laxus smiled. It was something meant to be reassuring or even kind, but he knew immediately it held too many teeth and canines that had somehow become sharp without his knowledge.
"I'm sorry." he said.
Lightning struck him again, and this time he desperately tried to concentrate on letting it go. The ire of the heavens passed from one side of him to the other, ricocheting through his bones as he held his breath and tried not to take it in, to release it, to send it back. It didn't work. It found its way into the cracks in him, electrifying his marrow, and his soul vibrated. It was euphoric, it was transcendental, it was intoxicating. He slipped over the edge and tumbled into it, as unable to stop it as he was to stop the rain.
How had he stopped last time? He could hardly remember now... He pictured the last time, Gajeel's red eyes flashing in the light of the storm, the smell of iron. An iron pillar. He'd tethered him down. The lightning he couldn't control had fled from him without his volition. Gajeel had come to his rescue... of course it was him. His memory flashed with touching the light of his spine, seeing the memories he dredged to the surface. Sharp teeth and a wicked grin when they fell into each other. Gajeel showing rather than telling him that he wasn't afraid of his lightning, and hadn't been for a long time.
The sky coalesced. Power surged and cracked above them. Laxus tried to think of what to do, what to say, but it fled him when he felt the sky swarm. All his mind could process was more. You've been starving for so long, it's time to take your fill. He shut his eyes against the urge. He was full, past it, even. The world was alive and he could see it all, he could feel the horror in the body close to him, the gravity of his own power stretching farther than his body's boundaries should allow. If he took in much more, he'd level their part of the forest. He knew his body, he knew his element. He knew he had to stop.
It was like prying his fingers from a death grip. One bit of him at a time released its claim on the sky. A bolt of lightning seared down from the heavens and he turned it away, letting it hit a tree nearby. The energy of it arched and set a fire that was immediately doused by the torrential rain. The next one was easier after that, and then the next. He hadn't realized how heavily he'd begun breathing, how taxing it was to just send it away. After a few agonizing moments, the thunder that sounded rolled a bit farther away. Laxus let out a tight breath and forced open his eyes. At first, he didn't really understand what he was seeing. White-knuckled hands were wrapped around blue wrists. Davian's eyes were wide, and he stared at Laxus's hands like he was scared if he let him go he'd fall away into the river.
Maybe he couldn't understand because he was still too charged. Things were too jumbled and energized. It had taken him a while to feel normal again the last time. He'd had to expel some energy... and he hadn't been safe about it then, either. Perhaps he could send it to a tree, or the ground...
"It's-t's your hands," Davian's voice penetrated his thoughts. When Laxus focused his gaze back to him, still shaking and his words slurring from how scared he truly was, the chameleon said it again, "It's your h-hands... Laxus. Y-You have scales."
"Oh..." Laxus said dumbly, realizing now that the texture he was seeing was indeed scales. He realized then what it was. "That wasn't supposed to happen."
"What...?" Davian paused, audibly swallowed, and tried again, "What wasn't supposed to happen?"
"Dragon Force." Laxus stated calmly.
"Oh... oh." he breathed, "I see."
Davian let out a breath, and with it, his body slumped forward. Laxus caught him, awkwardly holding him there as he tried to catch his breath. His stomach twisted. He felt guilty. He hadn't meant to lose control the way he had, and he'd scared Davian to the point he could hardly stand.
"Maybe I should carry you, hm?" Laxus said gently.
"I'm fine... It was just..." Davian took in a shaky breath, "I never want to be near you when you eat again."
"Should I tell you that was only the second time I've done it?" Laxus asked.
"No. No you shouldn't."
Davian pulled back and took a wobbly step away and towards the edge of the river. Laxus followed after. His ankle ached but it lacked the urgency from before. He knew in just a couple of hours he'd be fully healed. In the tree line, he could see the twisting, twinkling light of four forms. Irena, Rut, Erandi, and Rameses were there staring in awe. Laxus couldn't see past his magic to see their faces and tell if it was a good thing or not.
"What happened to your arm?" Laxus asked, nodding to where the scars marked Davian's arm. It was both similar and dissimilar to what was on his back, although he'd never be able to say how exactly.
"I was bitten by a snake." he replied.
"Is that right?" Laxus cocked a brow at him, but he didn't elaborate.
"Well... if you didn't think you looked like a dragon slayer before, you certainly do now." Davian said, his voice still trembling a bit.
"It'll go away once my Magic settles back down," Laxus said, shaking the water from his hair, "It always does."
