The Road to the Underkingdom
3 Days Later: It was different than the other regions of Hiatus that Caelum had previousely visited. The ground was grey if not black and the skies above were purple and swirling with a toxic mist. The barren land was very grim and ridged with shadows. The sky was the only source of dim light but without a singular source. No heavenly bodies could be seen, no sun or stars or candles. Like he was staring into another pitched den to oblivion. Caelum was quick to stand from where he had landed on the unrelenting ground. Which held its form like old bones worn but unremitted. The fernment felt hollow but had no dirt to speak of and was unyielding to the touch or to weight, like stone. with a dusting of space debre in the form of something similar to sand but weightless and easily disrupted by motion. And it was just as cold, if he had mortal blood, he would have felt it boiling in his veins before his brain was liquified with all his organs. But that was not the case which only furthered his belief that he belonged here. There was a very long road which winded in and out and around very tall crumbled and crooked tower like structures. They seemed to be built of black ebony and had orbs of light which were distant and pale. Caelum heard the sounds of cluttering in the darkness like a spider's legs and soon more footfalls accompanied by a stench he knew all to well. It seemed company had arrived to welcome him home, like sharks drawn to blood, to his blood. They knew who and what he was, and they each wanted a part for themselves. Caelum drew his sword and sunk into his ready stance; it would begin shortly. Caelum made his attack preemptively and swiftly. Taking them by surprise before they could completely utilize their numbers to overwhelm him. They were trivial behemoths to slay, and Caelum focused on reserving his strength and effectiveness for what he knew to be their king. An epic battle which awaited him on the most esteemed fortification in this area of Hiatus. He advanced the length of the road ahead and slaughtered all who stood in opposition of his path, those who fled would be his future subjects. All Caelum could contemplate was the undying temptation which engulfed his every fibre and guided his blade. It was a monstrous obsession, which compelled him to sink to these very bowels to conclude his prolonged awaited vengeance. To take his place as the strongest, to rule, to be obeyed and feared, to surpass his father the leader of souls. He approached his goal alone provoking his enemies, causing chaos across the shadow realm. Bringing all the mayhem and upheaval that he could with the carnage he sewed. One would think that Caelum was out of control, much like a youth or child with a tantrum the way he stormed through the under lands. His disgraceful demands made known to the ruler of the realm via the subjects which fled his condemnation.
Well, the lord of the fortress not too far from the intruder certainly thought so, but couldn't help admiring the work of devastation and power that he brought with him. Melodiamo over looked his vaste waste of a hell scape and chuckled in a deep amused tone. It had been too long since a worthy opponent had travelled to his barren domain set on apprehending his throne.
"what manner of child is this?" he asked rhetorically without a hint of true hostility. Though the inquiry was meant for his own ears his miserable lackey had heard the statement and took it for a genuine demand. The grovelling creature lurking beside its master looked out the arched stone window of eboney and said, "Tis a thing of abysmal and infernal streanth my lord! But I hear it is of flesh that mortals do wear over the light of their soul's." The daeva informed his master with a squeak of anticipation. "An abomination! A hybrid! A sullied bloodline, sire!" it chattered from its twisted beak with black dull eyes watching the ruin from above the land.
"Its of no matter... such insolence will be dealt with soon enough." The Daeva lord told his minion with little to no interest in what the creature had spoken. "The blasphemy that sprouted such a being will be met with the full force of retribution on behalf of all Daeva kind."
For Caelum, the motions of sword play were long ingraved to his being, like a deadly dance with no opponent who could surpasse his finesse. No partner to share in blood or grace with. He was able to think of other things while his blade drank the essence of those who dared to meet his fury. His father had betrayed the original family, his esteemed relative Meladiamo sought vengeance for the undeserved wrath that followed. Caelum remembersedwhat form said revenge took, his mother, brother and himself hunted like lesser beasts by formidable predators. When their father had not been there to protect them, and because of it their family had been torn asunder and Caelum's mother butchered by that monster. His goal wasn't just to reclaim what was his but what belonged to the family, the honor, respect and fear that once held prominence when uttered in the reaches of this place. It had once held a weight that no monster would oppose and now to have been rendered to this? To nothing? It was disgraceful! Unacceptable! Intolerable! Caelum had a task to do that needed to be accomplished, and Lucas was not set or fit to attempt it. He knew nothing of their family history or the responsibilities that weighed on Caelums mind heavily, the fool never understood anything!! Never even tried... Caelum was born from the cold flames of both glory and divine cosmic opposition. He had a lineage to be proud of (on his fathers' side) and he believed himself to be entitled, practically royalty. He was indeed blessed to what he was and even more so to have been given this opportunity. Despite what Melodiamo had done, Caelum couldn't help but Idolize the matron and her husband. Death and Time who were the family zeniths and progenitors. The ones who had raised reapers.
Part of him believed that It was his fathers' fault all along for turning spineless for an Aedra. That was the reason he had been so easily destroyed by Melodiamo and condemned. His legacy would remain a footnote in Time's book, a forgotten memory unless Caelum changed their cursed fate. It was Soul's fault for not protecting them, his fault their mother had been killed and his fault still that Lucas was a spoilt dullard. Caelum for all his pride knew he was the son of a traitor, which was humiliating but he had to push those feelings aside to make a change. His being here would insight much hostility and that was thus proven.
Caelum remembered that day more clearly than any other. When the hordes had attacked the town looking for him and his family. After killing innocent mortals, they found the family home and broke inside, surrounding it. Caelum remembers only being a child at the time, but in the chaos that ensued he had no choice but to fight. He was alone then, Mother and Lucas and the servants were no where to be seen and Caelum was afraid that they had fled, leaving him there alone. abandoned. forgotten and betrayed. He was separated and alone, from anyone who could help him, so he awoke, without even meaning to. His reaper surging to the surface to fend off the monsters so that he could escape them. It wasn't until later that he realized that his mother had died tragically during the attack, and that Lucas had done nothing to protect her. Just like father. But it was on that day that Caelum came out of the ashes of that burning house, in the after wake of a war pledged against humanity, that he saw what he needed to do. With his reaper ready and waiting he now had the power to rise and make things right. But there was no misery or grief that pierced him as painfully as that day. Caelum didn't look for Lucas, he hated him more than ever and went his own way down a path that was both dark with isolation and divine revenge.
And this began the Eternal Winter
Caelum finally made it to the Fortress where he came to challenge the Daeva lord to combat and the right to rule. He would dispute all attempts to be dissuaded into a compromise or manipulated into surrender. He would not be intimidated. As Caelum approached the throne room, disposing of attendants as he went, he felt as though destiny was unattainable. His destiny at least, like he was always racing and struggling against the years, chasing time which cannot be contained. But he suppressed such insecurities when he came to the foot of the throne and made his demands clearly known.
"submit to me and hand over your kingdom or else I will be forced to take it from you." There would be no compromises.
The Daeva sitting there laughed at him but when it realized Caelum was quite serious Melodiamo's jovial manner faded. He rose silently towering like a giant among leviathans. And it sported His weapon an equally deadly but much stranger scythe. The metal all around the room twisted and curled into razor wires marking a boundary for their battle to reside within. Strands and cords of copper and steel twisting into barbed wire. Silver inlayed and stainless coiling to form boundaries for their duel.
Caelum exhibited no trepidation but was sensing vulnerabilities in his own conviction as the monster above him looked down with those glowing eyes. (It was a suseptibility and suggestibility) He had inherited this legacy, but now he comprehended with out any resistance that it was an utter nightmare.He would ignore every opportunity to turn his back because there was no turning from this, not after what he had started. He would see it through to the bitter end. His whole life up to this moment he had been walking a thin line between the light of heaven and his own stray concept of morality. Which was a concept he was losing sight of continually. The fine line between right and his stray concepts of this passion were becoming blurred.
This fortress was vacant of decorum, full of poor tortured souls and endless halls of confused direction. Caelum was determined to defeat this enemy; he would rather die than surrender. But he could see the truth in those ember eyes blazing down at him, a horrific revelation that with his resolve or without, his fate would be the same. His over confidence would be his downfall yet again.
They fought for days...Caelum battled the king through explosions of fire which turned to heavy darkness, as his subjects spectated the event. Caelum gave it everything he had, put his very soul on the line for the success of his mission. His blood was screaming to him to answer the call, the reason for his very existence. The lesser Daeva on the side lines cheered and cried for their lord's victory. The sound which grated on Caelum's senses as much as sandpaper across his skin.
"I faced a god and he destroyed me." He remembered what Evan had said, but that mere mortal was on no equal footing for giving such advice. Caelum was beyond anything that could be considered human, transcended. Evolved. Transfigured. It was enough that he had something to believe in, and if he could not secure victory by his own streanth then he would be willing fall by his own blade. He would never love, never protect, not if he did not find the streanth to deserve such things. Those things he desired, such frivolous vunerabilities, love that would truly make him whole.
It was over. Sooner than it should have been but Caelums personal standards had always been unimaginable to live up to. Caelum lost his soul. The only part of him left that felt anything at all. His enemy had grappled him to the chambers flooring via the large serrated hooks digging through his flesh until he was like an insect with in a display. His sword was afar from him but rang clearly, begging him to get up and continue the fight. But it was beyond his reach and his body though unnatural by human standards was limited by the thick bars woven between his ribs and joints.
The lord of the land looked down on him as if he was a small thing but it spoke with admiration and manic joy in its ember eyes.
"You are a strange little thing, an unnatural occurance, and yet you defy me like no other I have known. Surrender to me. You have been defeated and now must submit your will to my own. Do so and I shall let you live." Melodiamo proclaimed for all of his subjects to hear. And an outcry of approval sounded triumphantly across the graven courts.
"If you want this power..." Caelum wheezed around the rods piercing him. Although his lung capacity was now limited and greatly searing in agony he found the streanth to Shout in the face of his Armageddon.
"If you want this power! Come and Take it!!" He challenged with as much spite as blood running from his veins. He would not relent.
"So be it." Came the final response from Melodiamo as he loomed over Caelum like a living shadow.
He was becoming a husk of a shell as his essence poured from his mind and consciousness. Like a flood breaking away and leaving mud behind to be sculpted into whattever form as it was left behind.
It felt longer than it took for his humanity to be syphoned from him. Caelum couldn't tell how often his mind would replay the memories of days when the family had been together. He watched them flow past like a river of cinema, He could not catch the fleeing images or hold onto the feelings. Those times seemingly lost and drifting away, with what warmth they carried with them. The cold in Caelum's core only growing during his imprisonment after wards. He could still remember his responsibility as his other memories and thoughts left him. To become power ultimate and how Lucas was foolish by denying himself. Caelum had nearly died when he had been defeated by the Daeva king.
It was a low, one of the deepest he had experienced yet. Another on his loosing streak it would seem. The longer Caelum sat there in the darkest depths of the castles reaches where the caverns were located, he realized that he was losing himself. His mind was twisting and became tormented. Years went by and he tried to fight the compulsions, but he was being turned into a mindless meat puppet. He saw the dark throne and those glowing eyes. There were masses congregated there all around their king, now and then blades found his heart still beating, but Caelum was completely unaware of not only himself but soon everything else. It was the worst punishment for one with such pride to be subjugated to the one who had defeated his own father.
"I will never surrender."
It was like everything was on repeat time had no meaning. The throne spiralling above, those eyes burning into his soul, disembowelment. And in those rare moments of silence where nothing but emptiness and stillness remained, he saw the fire. It was still burning, the house on the hill, beyond the trees where he had just begun. Caelum remembered the secret he had kept of a time of vulnerability that made him acknowledge that there was some part of him that was mortal. Some part of him that regretted this path. It was an imagining different than his other ideologies. His childhood was burned up with the house and town nearby. He remembered her, his love. But even now her name was lost to him, all he could see was her face, and that was dimming as well. The librarian with the aura around her, fingering through dusty tomes...and he wished that his father would rectify the situation so that he wouldn't have to.
Despite his denial. He could only feel the gentle tugging of his soul as it pushed him for revenge, but it was far too late. Caelum after so long gave in, his corroded mind was embraced by the enemy and soon they were of single thought and desire. Sired by his very nemesis. Caelum's vision changed to aspire to what his king wanted. He only had seconds to mere minutes of waking when he could loosen the control the monster had on him. In those few handfuls of time, he would find himself wading through crimson, countless deaths by his hand by his masters will. He was a derelict summoned from the ashes of his former self. It was joy, a strange manic love. It was pain but without longing. Instantaneous and removed, watching himself fulfil and triumph for another whom he despised. His will and passion no longer of his own making and for the second time Caelum no longer sought to heal his heart but to destroy.