Divinitas

041 - Heritage of the Sword

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Voices were talking. Like a distant mumble. Words heard from under a sea of oblivion, spoken in hushed angry whispers.

Someone was touching him with warm fingers that burned his cool passive flesh. There was the bite of icy cold metal and then every sensation was gone. Just the familiar voices slurring on again.

\"You know, when I heard Gryps say you would convince Phoenix to stay, I really didn\'t think you\'d have the nerve to chain him up here in Aether\'s rooms…\" Ari commented, the smirk on his lips clear in his voice. \"I had expected you would give him some long lecture about how if he left, he would have no future, excreta, excreta… Not knock him out and then drug him before chaining him up here…\" the older twin continued, highly amused.

Silence replied, just the settling of jingling chains.

\"Or… Am I mistaken, Draco? This isn\'t about nerve or courage at all, is it?\" Ari pondered, his voice taking on a cruel twist. \"You still want to pretend you\'re rule abiding and noble, isn\'t that it? So you\'re not even going to try and convince the poor Little Bird because you still insist you\'re too good to play the villain and lie outright to him…\"

\"Shut up, Ari,\" Gryps\' voice spoke up quietly. Despite the lack of force behind the command, it ded oed of hatred towards the older twin. \"I\'ll be back for my shift.\"

There was the click of the door following departing footsteps.

\"I have such a loving Brother, don\'t I?\" Ari wondered casually. But was there just a touch of hurt in his voice? A quiver that betrayed something hidden.

Draco made no reply. \"Chima, go back to bed. I\'ll take the first shift,\" the raven haired boy said to the child who had remained silent until now.

A quiet acknowledgement, and then the soft padding of bare feet over cold floor. There were little clicks as Yuki walked, his claws tapping against the hard ground.

More words were passed, bordering on mocking and forced civility. Another departure. Then just silence.



~ * ~

Bright noon sunlight streamed in through the windows, casting its warm rays into the room and cutting through the winter air. It warmed his cold limbs, seemed to seep into his icy bones. The light fluttered over his eyelids, enticing them to open.

The familiar layout of Aether\'s spacious quarters revealed themselves through the haze of long sleep. Everything was the same as the last time he was here. Nothing had changed… Only now, there was a figure curled up on the window sill, their body sitting in the narrow space as if it were a cradle.

For a fraction of a second, the scarlet eyes clouded in confusion. Somehow, the boyish figure sitting there looked liked that of a child with golden eyes.

\"Ne, Phoenix…himahima\'s voice carried softly over the still air, emerald eyes looking out the window. \"Why do you fight?\"

A slight frown creased Phoenix\'s brow. Fight…? Why did he fight what? The fiery haired boy tried to shift his stiff limbs. They felt weighed down, and jingled musically with every attempt.

\"Why do you fight when you can not win? When you know that if you fight, the ones you love with be hurt?\" Such a innocent voice, curious, with just a touch of pain. \"Or if you will be hurt?\"

A long stretch of silence followed. It was hard to keep his eyes open. Oblivion was inviting him to drift in its sea again, to be carried on its gently rocking waves.

\"Because…\" The ones you love will be hurt if you fight…? The concept made no sense to Phoenix\'s drug laced mind. But the latter one was easy enough. \"Because… I don\'t mind being hurt… But I don\'t want to forced… To do things that I don\'t want too…\" the whispered words finally tumbled from Phoenix\'s dry mouth. The effort caused the crimson eyes to close again, twin suns setting unwillingly.

The emerald eyes tore themselves away from the scenery they did not see, turning to look at Phoenix lying on Aether\'s oversized bed, silver chains tracing their way from his wrists and ankles to the beautifully carved bed posts.

\"I didn\'t want to come here!\" the chestnut haired boy whispered, his voice bordering on fearful. \"But I didn\'t want anyone I knew hurt… And I didn\'t want to end up as you are now, Phoenix…\"

The chained Sacred Bird of Fire made no reply, but a regretful smile moulded his lips. Whether it was on the account of his words, or something brought on by unseen dreams, Chima never knew.



~ * ~

Night now. Someone must have opened a window, because a soft cool breeze was blowing in off the ocean. It should have been icy. It was winter… But the breeze was caressing and welcomed.

There was still a figure sitting in that same window, silhouetted now by the moon and starlight, as opposed to theght ght warm sun before. The window was open, the breeze lifting the loose strands of silver hair, waving them like silky tendrils of some exotic creature.

\"This time tomorrow night, it will all be over,\" Gryps\' voice spoke quietly from the semi darkness. A half sound that was a bitter laugh invaded the silence. \"No, everything will begin.\"

The feminine boy turned his silver eyes to Phoenix, the reversed shadowing on his face giving him a ghostly, ethereal look. Half mast crimson eyes struggled to focus on the girlish face and form that glared at him with hatred. A hatred that wasn\'t so much directed at Phoenix, but what he represented.

\"Lympha and Terra won the Preliminaries… And so did I.\" A contemplating silence followed, broken only by the soft rustling of chains as Phoenix\'s body shifted, tr to to host itself up just a little to gain a better view of the boy who spoke to him. \"You\'ll become the Child of Fire. Just as we will become the Child of our Element… Lympha has decided to keep you here until the Finals tomorrow night. Next time you wake, you will be in Metamorphosis. You don\'t ha cha choice in this. My only advice to you to win by your own will.\"

A dry sound of refusal coughed itself up from Phoenix\'s throat. \"Never…\" the boy chocked out, stiff, powerless fingers struggling to knot around the bed sheet that laid in a rumpled mess underneath his defeated body.

Gryps made a sound of pitiless indifference. \"Suit yourself, it\'s your funeral, figuratively speaking.\" A stronger gust of wind lifted up his long heavy braid, a silvery snake rippling through the hair.

\"Nothing will be finalised by your becoming the Child of Fire. You already are… By winning tomorrow, you will merely be regaining the title officially, and receive your weapon from the current Child of Fire… There is still time…\" Time to halt the unfolding fairy tale, time to kill the one thing that made its pages turn.

Silver eyes shut themselves, clouds passing over iridescent moons. He wasn\'t a killer. This was only his last line of defence. Killing the Sacred Bird of Fire… It wasn\'t something he desired… But…

A grim smile touched his pale lips. It would seem everyone betrayed everyone else. And everyone had a hidden agenda. Unless he was mistaken, what he had thought would bring him salvation was turning its back on him, just as hd tud turned his back on them for that brief period of time.

He had hoped that by passing the information along to the organization that had placed him here, that something, anything, would have happened to halt, slow even, the march towards destiny.

But nothing had changed. Nothing had happened. Everyday was another step closer to what he despised the most.

So now it was time to play the waiting game. To wait for both Genesis and the Child of Soul to relax in their comfort of knowing the Children were in their grasp. Simply lay in the dark and wait for a time to slip the Child of Fire from their grasp outside the castle walls… So yes. He could restrain himself from doing any harm to Phoenix here and now, despite the fact he was so conveniently chained and seemingly alone.

The moon-like eyes opened again, glassy and empty. The silver discs roamed slowly over Phoenix\'s form, watching as tendrils of drug laced sleepggedgged him back down into oblivion.

\"You want to be all noble and proud, don\'t you, Incendium,\" Gryps whispered. \"You would say in your rash and heated voice, \'I would rather die than become the God of Fire!\' wouldn\'t you? You can, you know…

\"Because I can grant you that false wish.\"



~ * ~

Just darkness. That was all. It surrounded him, bounded him, suffocated him, this merciless inky black that oozed from the walls. Rough stone walls that gave no comfort even as he cleaved to it, the barbed wire of a life line.

He was only sixteen, this boy with the burning crimson eyes and flaming golden red hair. They called him Satan\'s Spawn, the Devil\'s Offspring. Wicked, evil, something to always be shunned and looked upon with disgust and loathing. The one from whose hands fire spewed like great serpents.

The youth clutched his charcoal stained knees closer to his trembling chest, tear streaked face bowed and hidden. He remembered the flames they had tired to burn him in, their friendly licks of warmth and nothing more. His clothes had turned to ashes. He had remained whole and naked, bound to the stake, standing barefoot among the burnt remains of timber.

It would have been better, a death by burning, had it been successful. Better than to be slowly starved to death, locked away in darkness beneath the earth.

\"Poor, tragic Child of Fire…\"

Dull ember-like eyes lifted themselves, half-heartedly searching for the voice that seeped from the very walls.

\"A diamond in the rough, trampled upon, unrecognized for your immense value…\" the voice continued, silky, soothing, dangerous. \"I could polish you up, make you shine… Cut you free from your dull rocky grave and give you the glory of Heaven…\"

A flicker of life shimmered in the dead red orbs.

\"Yes… All you have to do is prove you\'re worthy… All you have to do is fight…\"



~ * ~

The landscape turned, threatened to tip. Displaced scarlet eyes struggled to focus, to make sense of the blurs of colors that assaulted him. Sound returned in a rush of wind, billowing and buffeting against him.

Dreams again. Dreams that seemed more like memories of events that happened no more than four minutes ago. Why such a dream? For the longest time, he had merely drifted between consciousness and empty sleep, uttering heartfelt whispers to familiar voices and searing eyes. But then suddenly this unprovoked dream…

Phoenix shook his head, feeling dizzy and light-headed. This was Metamorphosis. There was no time to contemplate dreams on this playing field. This time, he would keep his mind. This time, he would not win. Never against Ares. Never be the Child of Fire…

\"Ne… Would it really be so horrible, Sacred Bird of Fire? To become the Child of Fire, to come home?\"

The boy ripped around, the child\'s familiar voice haunting his ears.

\"Ares…\" Phoenix choked out, searching crimson eyes falling on the figure standing on the windswept plain. The landscape had returned to normal. No more molten lava, no more endless burning heat. Just the dawn light streaking the clouds and sky pastel shades of red, pink and gold.

The strangest expression marked Ares\' usually enthusiastic face. Disbelief perhaps, confusion, and a touch of misplaced jealousy. \"I thought you said you would never step back into a simulator,\" the older boy said, voice strained almost. Before Phoenix even had the chance to reject violently to that, Ares continued. \"You know, it\'s strange, isn\'t it? I mean, your three friends who have already fought before you… It\'s never happened in the history of the school before!\" He looked slightly mad, the gleam in his eyes too bright to be natural, to reflect sanity.

Involuntarily Phoenix took a step back, despite the fact they were several meters apart already.

\"They defeated the current Children. Sure, that\'s normal. We almost always get a new Child for each House every year. But when they picked up their Elemental Weapon, they called forth their Divine Beast! How were they able to? No one has ever been able to! I\'ve been trying ever since I started playing Metamorphosis and there has never even been a hint of the Phoenix!\" Ares continued, more than a little bewildered.

\"Ares, I don\'t want to do this,\" Phoenix interrupted in a low voice, refusing to acknowledge the words Ares spoke in such a feverish voice. Ares didn\'t understand. Couldn\'t understand. He needed to get out of this duel right now. The tightness that clutched at his heart and soul was whispering urgently for him to get out of Metamorphosis now.

The older boy simply frowned, as if he couldn\'t comprehend how anyone didn\'t want to do this. \"This duel will not end until one of us is defeated,\" he commented innocently, tilting his head to one side.

\"Fine. Just defeat me then. I don\'t want to be the Child of Fire, Ares!\" Phoenix bit out, more than a touch of desperation in his voice. The voice in his heart was screaming now. \'If you stay… If you stay, every secret will be laid bare. Everything you\'ve ever hidden from yourself will suffocate you!\'

Something changed. A familiar presence was settling over his body, like a gentle mist that dropped over his skin and seeped into his soul. Phoenix\'s breath caught in his throat. He could feel this entity drill deeper and deeper into himself, into the darkest corner of his heart.

\"No…\" Phoenix whispered, hand clutching at the material over his chest. His blood red eyes dropped down, noticing for the first time that someone had dressed him in the Child of Fire\'s uniform, as if this was all set and done, the story closed. The inverted cross encircled his neck, choking him almost. \"No…! Get out of me!\" he suddenly shouted at himself.

Too late. Nothing he could do. Just stand by and watch, helpless puppet, unwilling doll. Stand by and watch as your destiny unfolds without your touch.

Awaken, Divine Beast of Fire…

That voice. That voice that spoke to something within him and not to him. He knew that voice!

Awaken and protect your Master. Awaken and retake the Weapon of Fire. Awaken and make the Sacrifice Bleed by your sacred touch, to let Genesis taste the Sacrifice\'s Blood.

\"No!\" Phoenix roared. \"Stop this, Aether! Stop it! Get the fuck out of me!\"

But the damage was done, the incantation invoked. Another heartbeat resonated through Phoenix\'s trembling body. A heartbeat that echoed his own, was a shadow of his own, yet shone brighter than his own.

Something inside of him swelled. His back began to burn, as if someone was searing him with two blades from inside. The twin sensations of piercing pain pushed against his the skin of his back, moving, expanding, trying to rip free. A sharp gasp of pain escaped Phoenix\'s lips, tears of agony stinging at his blood red eyes.

This wasn\'t happening. This was nothing like the time before. The time he had won against Aether. The time the flaming wings had burst forth from his back. That hadn\'t hurt like this! Why was it hurting like this now?!

But the answer came to him before the question had even fully formed in his mind. This time he was fighting it, trying to keep it locked away, trying to bind the egg of his body that the Phoenix tried to break free of. Before… He had used it to win. He had wanted the Phoenix\'s power that laid dormant within him. Back then, the Divine Beast of Fire had flown free with his desperation.

His scream ripped from his throat, lost in the wet sound of blood soaked cloth and raw flesh tearing. A rain of his own vividly red blood splattered down around him, as great gold and crimson wings sprung forth from his back. With a great gust of heated wind, the fiery wings fully expanded themselves, stretching up towards Heaven.

Phoenix collapsed on his hands and knees, the blood from his back running down his sides and arms like wine coloured vines growing rapidly to the ground. His vision was turning red, his breaths short and fast. It hurt to breathe. All his senses seemed on fire, all too sensitive to bare. He could feel the flames of the wings licking warmly at his lacerated back. Lick without burning, as if regretful of the huge holes they had ripped in his body to force their exit.

Half blinded by the intense throbbing pain, Phoenix could only kneel, trembling, as he felt something precious and necessary to him extract itself from his back. Great beats of fiery wings pulled the Divine Beast from Phoenix\'s body, out of his soul. It felt like someone had reached into his chest aippeipped his heart from his ribcage, pulling with it every droplet of blood from his burning veins.

Pain weakened arms and legs collapsed from underneath him with a spasm as the last of the phoenix\'s burning gold scaled claws pulled themselves from Phoenix\'s back, dripping with hot blood. Violent gusts of hot wind washed over the mess of blood and wounded flesh sprawled in the grassy ground as the Divine Beast beat its flaming wings, soaring high into the air.

He barely had the strength to sob, tears leaking from pain blinded eyes. There weren\'t any thoughts now, just a desperate mantra for the pain to stoor eor everything to be over.

But he was flying. He could see. A vision brilliantly lit by golden light. He could see his own mangled form soaking the surrounding ground a disturbing dark red. He could see Ares stand, staring dumbstruck at the scene that played itself out before him, at the brilliant Divine Beast of Fire that had ripped itself free from the younger player and was now hovering over him, staring down at him with ruby eyes.

Then, with a shrill cry, the phoenix dived, great golden beak opened to tear Ares\' limbs from his body. The current Child of Fire hastily snapped out of his dazed awe and brought up the gleaming double bladed weapon, trying to fend off the fiery bird with wide desperate swings, throwing whips of fire out at the Divine Beast of Fire.

The phoenix would have none of it, and with a great thrash of its wings, it sent a rain of fireballs pelting down upon Ares. With the burning rainbardbarding him, the older boy had no ch but but to bring his arms up to shield himself, opening him up to the hungry beak of the phoenix who quickly swooped down like a hawk and tore open his right forearm.

Phoenix convulsed on hearing Ares\' cry of pain, tasting blood that was not his own in his slack mouth as Ares\' lif liq liquid hit the soil, disappearing instantly into the ground. The sight slammed back into his own eyes, the aerial vision dissipating.

\"Stop…!\" he sobbed out in between short heavy breaths, struggling to lift his head. His unfocused eyes swam upwards, trying to lock onto the phoenix that dived again and again, claws and beak ripping into Ares, slashing him across his arms, chest and back. \"Stop!\" Phoenix cried again, his torn body fighting to free itself from the gravity he bhe blood soaked ground, unable to bare the bloody screams of agony that tore so easily from Ares\' throat.

\"The Divine Beast of Fire can not hear you,\" the child\'s voice whispered into his ear. \"Not unless you take back your weapon and become the Child of Fire… Not unless you come home, Sacred Bird of Fire.\"

As if given a silent signal, the phoenix circling in the sunrise sky gave another shrill shriek and plunged towards the ground. Phoenix\'s heart skipped a beat as the phoenix\'s golden claws sunk themselves into Ares\' already bleeding chest, toppling the older player to the ground like a rag doll. The fierce bird sounded another ringing cry before bending down and snatching away the weapon Ares still clutched tightly in his blood streaked hands.

In a fluster of gold and red feathered wings, the phoenix took flight again, ripping its claws from Ares\' chest as it did so, the prize of the Weapon of Fire clamped firmly in its golden beak.

The Divine Beast circled the sky once, twice, three times, its long golden flaming tail drawing lingering circles of light in the sky, before it threw the glittering Weapon of Fire down before Phoenix, a bloody offering from the Heavens.

Flashes of his own straining hand bombarded Phoenix\'s mind. A shaking exhausted hand smeared with ash and blood, reaching desperately towards the gleaming handle, needing it, wanting it more than anything else in the world…

I must have this! Give it to me, give it to me!

\"I don\'t want it…!\" Phoenix hissed, at himself, at the Divine Beast that circled above him.

\"Don\'t make me regret my decision, Phoenix.\" Aether\'s voice. Relaxed, not the least disturbed by the severity of the wounds both Phoenix and Ares had sustained. The Child of Soul was sitting casually on a fallen tree trunk, much like the time he had come to watch the House of Fire tryouts. He was watching Phoenix struggle on the ground, his one eyed violet gaze smiling. \"I could have completed the Soul Bind. But I didn\'t. Instead I allowed you to keep your soul, and risked everything to ensure you gained the title of the Child of Fire by this mean.

\"So do not make me regret my decision, Phoenix. Pick up what is rightfully yours. The game will not end until you do. And whilst you will not die from your wounds, your friend over there may very well be in the danger of losing his life,\" Aether stated with a thin smile.

Phoenix twisted his neck, fixing pained scarlet eyes on Aether. The child with the golden eyes was standing behind him, its arms locked around Aether\'s shoulders, its innocent face peering at Phoenix.

Everything was a mess. He couldn\'t think. The pain overrode everything except the great heavy weight of betrayal and resentment. Ah, the resentment again. Mixed into the toxic cocktail of hate and loathing that was connected to this current situation but at the same time was not.

\"No?\" Aether prompted, voice light and almost aloof. \"That\'s fine. I\'ll ask your Divine Beast to kill Ares now. Then the title and weapon will automatically transfer to you,\" the Child of Soul continued, watching as Phoenix\'s body froze at his words. \"By the way… You do realise that as long as you do not have the Weapon of Fire, you can not control your Divine Beast. Whilst it is a part of you, and will always protect you, it can not hear you without it… But it can always hear me… Because I own it…\"

For an eternal second, everything stood still. Even the blades of grass did not sway in the frozen breeze. Then the phoenix shot downwards, a flaming arrow destined to pierce Ares\' heart.

With a strangled cry, Phoenix reached out and closed his unwilling fingers over the luminous handle of the Weapon of Fire, sealing his own fate.

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