Author: Naota, Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2016 1:16 AM, Post Subject: Ascension [Solo Post][R - Violence]
It wasn’t a dark or stormy night. In fact it wasn’t even night: quite the contrary it was a beautiful day at a time when the sun was at its highest. I had been sitting comfortably in an empty field, thinking about how to spend the remainder of my day off with only the brush of tall grass to accompany me. Even animals had kept their distance, but I’d hardly noticed that from how relaxed I was. The sun warmed me and the gentle sway of the grass kept me hidden as I laid down, staring up at the perfectly blue sky.
Over time my eyelids began to droop, relaxation taking over completely before finally they closed. For a while I would wonder if that was what started it: being completely at ease for once. Maybe I was meant to be more open and receptive. To be honest I’m still not sure. All I was sure of then, and sure of now, was that I never could have possibly anticipated what happened.
All of it started at once, yet somehow slow: a painful spike at the very center of my forehead. I had taken it to be a migraine, but it was unrelenting, forcing me to sit up and rub near frantically at my skin. Almost immediately I recognized the feeling and summoned Torinasu to my side. The tip of its sheath pressed into the ground as I rested my forehead to the raw black tourmaline that made up its hilt. That usually helped keep him inside, but it wasn’t working this time.
My breathing came in short ragged inhales, and before I knew it I was shaking. Despite that, the peace of the day continued on around me in perfect contrast. When I realized that this wasn’t working I began to pray. With both hands clutching the handle I slumped and sat on folded knees. My eyes could only manage to open halfway and my vision had started to blur. What was happening?! He was going to come out and nothing that usually worked was having any effect.
In a moment of rare panic, I let Torinasu drop to the ground and rested my opened palms against my chest, trying as much as I could to find my center. A burst of wards spread over my body, usually hidden from sight but now glowing so brightly that even the sun’s light couldn’t diminish them. They trailed along my neck, my cheeks, all of my face and along parts of my body that couldn’t be seen by clothing. Their intertwining design shifted from light purple to holy white, dangerous crimson all through the spectrum in a constant pulse. All the while my lips moved silently, willing myself to stay put together with me in control
Tears escaped from under my closed eyelashes, running unnoticed down my cheeks and for a single minute I thought I had beaten him down. The relief was short lived. Without warning, my back arched sharply to the point that the top of my head touched against the ground even while my knees stayed folded in my sitting position.
My eyes shot open, seeing the whole world turned upside down as my arms shot out, but my chest continued to arch as if my ribs were trying to burst out of my skin. Not my ribs at all. Him. Even with my strength I couldn’t hold back the pained scream that resounded with no one to hear it. Images and memories flashed before my sight: faces of those slaughtered by him with my hands while all I could do was watch through imprisoned eyes.
All of it flashed so rapidly that I thought along with the pain I would surely pass out. And then I heard him, not in my head, but above me as he pulled out of my body in full form. Only when he was completely out did my body collapse to the ground: aching and strained from the rigid state I’d been forced into. No amount of oxygen seemed to be enough, and when my eyes opened it was up to a pair of blood red eyes that looked exactly like mine.
There were no words I could say. In vain I had always hoped that the reason we looked so similar was because we shared a body, but now there was no denying that he was my twin. The only things that differed us were the blood of his eyes and hair as well as the scarlet daemonic markings that trailed his cheek, his chest, his back. His skin was much paler than mine as it always was, but other than those few things we were identical in every way. I didn’t like seeing my eyes with such an evil look.
His smirk wasn’t any more comforting, and he didn’t give me a second to think before his hand shot out, blasting fire towards me that would have incinerated my face had I not flickered away. The moment I had landed further in the field he blurred from sight only to reappear in front of me. There were no quips or jabs: he meant to kill me and had nearly every skill I did. This fray could have conceivably gone on forever if not for that one line that kept weaving in and out of my thoughts: “The daemon cannot exist while the demon lives.”
I was the demon, he the daemon, and we’d been destined to this fight since our birth thanks to my blood father’s curse. He’d warned me that one day we would split and fight, with only one winner. And that very person would become the sole inhabitant of the body. In all reality the body was never truly mine…I’d inhabited it just as he had, only I’d held dominance.
Torinasu summoned to my side instantly, just in time to hold fast against a summoned weapon of his own and our noses nearly touched as his teeth gritted against my strength. In true Minasé fashion, he brought his knee up to get my stomach, but I parried and spun behind him, meaning to thrust my blade through his spine, but he was gone in a flash of fire.
Gradually the blue sky above us swirled until it was likened to a purpling bruise, and with it came wind. Somewhere in the world children were sleeping, men were becoming fathers, animals were dying, women were testing their first weapon…and all of it meant nothing to me. The rest of the realm was only backdrop as if we two were all that existed. The only happy thing about it was that we were at least confined to this area as neither of us had thought to move location.
A pillar of fire as thick as a tree trunk blazed through the grass towards me, and I had only enough time to raise my hands and create a barrier around myself. I could still feel the heat of the flames as they licked over and around my invisible shield of protection. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once. When it died down from the initial blast, it had left the ground scorched and the field alight with spreading fire. And through it all he walked towards me, his eyes narrowed with more hatred than I’d ever seen them hold. Why did he hate me?! I lost words to my emotion,
“W-Why?! We could have banded!” Blades of darkness and shadow shot towards me, seemingly liquid in their state and I managed to roll out of the way of them but they followed me quickly: pulsating with purple aura. One of them managed to lick at my side and I felt my skin sizzle and burn. My arms arched around me, sending out crashing waves of light to extinguish his attack, but he was on me immediately; his blade pressing to my neck just before I could grip his arm.
“W-We…We were brothers, why did you hate me?!” His head jutted towards mine, connecting with my forehead and leaving me dazed enough to stumble back and fall to one knee. The tip of his blade pressed under my chin, forcing me to look up at him with blurred vision. For a second I saw something I’d never expected in his eyes: hurt. But it was gone as quickly as it came and he gripped his hilt tighter as he began his thrust through my throat.
The unholy metal only managed to make a knick’s distance as my hand flew up and my fingers wrapped around the blade: holding it steady. Again he gritted his teeth, and I could tell he was using all of his strength to try and push it through. My eyes narrowed, gripping the metal tighter even as it sliced into the crease of my knuckles, leaving blood to drip to the ground and trail down my arm.
I could feel him trying to teleport away, but he was forced to remain where he stood. I couldn’t tell you how I knew, I simply did, I could
feel him trying to move even without the confused anger in his eyes. Jaw locking, I slowly straightened up, still kneeling in the grass but with more strength. The wards on my skin shifted and swirled, creating new patterns along my arms and other unseen places, coming down from my face but surrounding my neck. And then all at once they blazed blinding white, no longer changing in color.
At that moment his blade cracked in my fingers: the metal falling in shards and disintegrating just before they could hit the ground. Holy light shone, spreading up towards him until he himself was washed out in white. It was then that I realized the light was coming from me. His blade now destroyed, I stood up, not noticing at the time that every mark he’d put on me had been perfectly healed. The markings on my skin kept their bright glow, and when I looked into his eyes I saw my own: they were completely white with no sign of pupil or iris, and so brightly they shone. Even my hair as it whipped around my face from the wind, had gone from brown to alabaster.
From then my body moved on its own. My movements were gentle, yet firm, and perfectly precise. My hands were the first to move and lifted up: trails of light followed them and I gently swirled them so that they braided themselves into ropes that swiftly bound him. Now it was I that brought him to his knees in a swift jerk. All the while I remained calm, my face near uncomfortably still as he looked up at me. Despite our switch in position his hatred had only grown stronger.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see him as I quickly pulled my hands apart: tightening his bindings so much so that I knew it would slice his body to pieces. When I opened them it wasn’t to the sight of a burning field in the starts of a storm. No, it was to the greatest tree I had ever seen…
All around me was quiet, and my fingers brushed along the grass as I walked towards it, feeling impossibly small the closer I grew to its massive trunk. Torinasu slowly materialized between my fingers just as I made it to one of its mighty roots. Somehow it seemed to be staring back at me.
Dropping to one knee, I held Torinasu’s hilt in both hands, it’s tip pressing into the ground as it had what seemed like years before this moment but could only have been an hour at most. My shoulders eased, my features softening, and a gentle pulse began in my chest. Not my heart, my soul. It was resonating with this ancient being, and for the first time in so long I felt at home and complete.
And then the warmth was gone, and I was back in the field with only the smell of ash to welcome me. My eyes opened, expecting to see a bloody and mangled corpse, but instead I saw him on his back as if passed out. His features were softened for once, and he looked peaceful. In truth I hadn’t wanted him dead…just to stop. And he had, but the rise and fall of his chest proved that he still lived. I could feel it in me as much as I had when we were one. Our connection was still there, but different…
I rose up and walked over to him, contemplating before lowering and scooping him up into my arms. This hadn’t been the fight to end us…That fight would never come now. We had our respective bodies and none of it to do with that blasted curse. As I walked through the field, him sleeping comfortably in my arms, the fires slowly died. This place was still scarred from our attacks towards one another, but that would be someone elses duty to fix should they decide to.
My eyes stared forward. Despite what I did know, there were so many things that I didn’t. So many things left to be discovered. So many dangers yet to come, for even if we were separated, I knew it was likely we would always remain enemies. Most of all, for whatever reason, I had been chosen to ascend to deity hood.
And honestly? Nothing could be more hopeful and terrifying.
