Divinitas

044 - Shattered Exit Signs

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The rain poured down, heavy and wet. It pelted the rocks and the sand, adding to the swelling angry ocean. It should have made endless static noise, sound that pressed in on you and threatened to drown out all else. Instead, it was silent. All the sound in the world consisted of Phoenix\'s loud pounding heartbeat, and the single steady drip of blood hitting the red sand as it slid off the blade of Aether\'s katana.

With a life of its own, Phoenix\'s left hand released Gryps\' wrist and reached up to touch the wounded shoulder, feeling where the blade so cruelly protruded forth from Gryps\' once flawless flesh and stabbed into his own. The blood was hot, burning against his rain-iced skin.

Lifting his eyes from the vivid wound, Phoenix locked them upon Aether\'s. Vacant yet completely focused. There would be no emotional break down or forgiveness here.

Everything moved of its own accord: the placing of his left arm around Gryps\' slender waist, the sharp manoeuvre of his right to thrust his sword forward. Another bright burst of blinding pain ripped through his body as the cruel blade of the katana was withdrawn sharply, jerking free first from his own flesh, then Gryps\'. Pulling Gryps forward onto himself, Phoenix shoved himself off the rocks, placing as much distance between himself and Aether as possible, his left arm still wound around Gryps.

The silver haired boy snapped out of his shock and struggled to free himself, causing Phoenix\'s blazing eyes to flash upon him before throwing him down like a useless weight onto the wet sand. Gryps\' skewered shoulder impacted with the ground, sending pain jarring through his body. How was it possible that Phoenix was still able to move in his condition…?

\"You can somewhat see why the Child of Soul is obsessed over him, can\'t you?\" Ari\'s light hearted and carefree voice filtered through the heavy rain. \"Always burning so brightly. Your proverbial candle attracting the moth.\" Ari\'s feandeanded next to Gryps as he jumped lightly down from his perch on the rocks, squatting down and spilling his curtain of dark silver hair around his younger twin. \"Very silly of you, little Brother… Trying to mangle Aether\'s favourite toy. I wouldn\'t be surprised if you were subjected to the same fate the Little Bird will be given.\"

Gryps glared back, ignoring the throbbing pain that numbed his whole left side. It took all of his will power to lift his right arm to strike out at Ari with his dagger to force him out of the way, hate-filled silver eyes at once locking on Phoenix and Aether duelling on the bleak seashore.

The sharp clangs of metal striking metal shrieked in their ears, as again and again the blades scrapped forcefully against one another. The impact of his blade upon Aether\'s katana jolted Phoenix\'s whole body, jarring his old and new wounds. It didn\'t matter. Nothing mattered except for the fiend in front of him. Let him keep that apathetic mask on his perfect face. Let him play as much as he wanted to. Let Aether allow him to attack him. None of it mattered except for the overwhelming desire to utterly rip Aether to shreds.

Outwardly calm amethyst looked down at furious red, easily turning away each and every blow Phoenix landed upon his katana. So the Sacred Bird of Fire had regained his burning flame. He was no longer willing to accept his fate, and he loathed Aether for ever deceiving him to believe otherwise. One quick glance in the direction of the twins was enough to know that the Child of Air had undoubtedly told Phoenix that Genesis was responsible for their tragic pasts. A dark, bitter smile curled the corners of Aether\'s lips. Then, there would be no possibility of changing Phoenix\'s mind, and thus no reason to play nicely any longer.

Disengaging himself from Phoenix\'s sword, Aether leapt nimbly up onto the rocks embedded in the wet sandy shore, raising an arm to signal the Divine Beasts that watched over the proceedings with omniscient eyes. \"Return to your vessels. Now,\" the Child of Soul commanded coldly, never breaking his intense gaze with Phoenix.

The gold and silvery-white griffin immediately dispersed into streams of violent wind and slammed back into the downed Child of Air, much of the blast entering forcefully through the wounded shoulder and electing a strangled cry of pain from Gryps. Silver eyes squeezed shut in agony, right hand dropping the dagger and darting upwards to clutch his throbbing shoulder.

The phoenix, however, seemed torn between actions, only circling above the Child of Fire, casting a warm glow onto the boy beneath it.

Aether\'s visible eye narrowed, falling upon the Weapon of Fire grasped tightly in Phoenix\'s right hand. Phoenix\'s whole arm was shaking with effort, held out in front of him, the double-ended sword acting as a shield of sorts between himself and Aether. The rubies set into the handle were glowing a deep crimson, evidence of the enormous willpower Phoenix was exerting onto the sword to tell his phoenix to reject Aether\'s commands completely.

\"And what good will that serve you, my Sacred Bird of Fire… Using so much of your energy to keep the phoenix from returning to you?\" Aether questioned softly, his voice almost lost in the howling wind and rain.

\"Who knows, Aether,\" Phoenix returned with deep-seated hate and bitterness in his strained voice. \"I\'m just doing this to oppose whatever it is you want.\" There was a look of savage triumph in his blazing eyes, his mouth set in a hard line. \"I will never accept you. I hate you and I am against you!\"

The Child of Soul slowly lowered his katana, letting a slow smile take over his face. \"Yes, as you have always said and have always been, my Phoenix. Why do you think I have always said I do not care if you hate me? I know nothing else from you, Phoenix, to care otherwise.\"

A flash of pain tore through Phoenix\'s features, as if the words had stabbed deeply. For a single moment, it looked as if the Child of Fire wanted to deny it, to say that Aether couldn\'t be more wrong, but it was quickly consumed by the heated flames of hatred before anything further could develop.

\"All that matters, my Sacred Bird of Fire…\" Aether continued slowly, his free hand moving underneath the long golden locks that hid his right eye from view. \"Is that your Divine Beast belongs to me, and you, being the vessel that contains it, is mine also.\"

Aether\'s visible amethyst eye closed, and slowly, as if unveiling a sacred secret, the Child of Soul brushed his hair aside, revealing the right side of his face. The hand drifted downwards, and with its return to Aether\'s side, Phoenix\'s body automatically began to back away, his heart suddenly racing, beating louder and harder than a giant bangiway way at an enormous gong.

Wide crimson eyes stared at the perfect and near serene face, at the sensual lips and softly closed eyelids.

Don\'t let the eyes open… Don\'t let them open!

It felt like an icy, bony hand had reached into his chest and wrapped its skeletal fingers around his heart, squeezing and locking it in a cage of bone. Coldness swept through his body, like snaking chains of ice binding his limbs. His legs buckled underneath him, forcing Phoenix to his hands and knees, the Weapon of Fire losing its red glow and falling heavily down onto the rain drenched sand.

He couldn\'t break the gaze, he couldn\'t even blink. Aether\'s eyes burned him. Mismatched eyes bore into him and completely defiled his soul.

Phoenix could do nothing, not even lift a finger, to prevent his phoenix from unravelling into great ribbons of fire and streaming back into his body via the fresh bloody wounds. He didn\'t scream. He couldn\'t even feel the pain that Gryps so obviously felt. It was as if his body was suddenly no longer his, and his whole existence revolved solely around the great gold and silver right eye that pierced through his core mercilessly.

\"This is the price I paid, Sacred Bird of Fire… The testimony of what I gave to own you, to keep you by my side. You can not deny this, no matter how much you struggle against it. You are mine.\"

It was the signal Genesis has been waiting for. Great stony vines erupted from the sandy ground like monstrous plants summoned by the sudden opening of the heavens. Razor sharp thorns that jutted up from every surface of the vines glinted in the stormy light, wet and shining from the cold rain. Like an elaborate wire worked flower, the vines twisted around where Phoenix knelt, staring at Aether through the writhing stone petals of the flower of which he was the core.

\"You. Are. Mine.\"

Gryps watched in horror as the throne ridden vines surged inwards, wrapping violently around Phoenix\'s limbs like granite serpents. The thorns sunk deep into the motionless boy\'s flesh, savage fangs biting into its prey, and quickly covering itself and Phoenix in rivulets of rain-washed blood. The vines lifted Phoenix bodily off the ground in an upward rush like a twisted offering to the heavens before it dragged itself and Phoenix down into the sand and the depths of hell.

Somewhere in Gryps\' shocked and frozen mind, fear told him to run. It had seen all that had just played out before him, and it wanted to run. It didn\'t want to share the same fate as the Child of Fire. It did not want to be locked up in a thorn-filled stone cage.

The wet tread of Aether\'s footsteps sounded menacingly in Gryps\' ears, coming to a halt at his feet. Gryps suddenly found himself staring up at the unblemished blade of Aether\'s katana, felt its sharpness against his throat. The gold and silver right eye was once again hidden from view, the long golden locks swaying dangerously in the wind.

\"If I did not need you, Griffin of Light… I would kill you right here and now,\" Aether said coldly, digging the blade deeper into Gryps\' slender neck and then jerking it sidewards, leaving a painful fount of bright red blood. The silver haired boy hissed through clenched teeth, glaring with molten metal eyes but stubbornly refusing to clutch at his throat. \"But as it is, you are a necessity… Most unfortunately for you.\"

The Child of Soul pulled his katana up a fraction before stabbing it back down through Gryps\' healthy right shoulder, forcing a howl of pain to erupt unwillingly from Gryps\' throat.vingving the katana to pin Gryps to the ground, Aether turned his back, heading back towards the castle, not bothering to watch as Gryps writhed on the sand, struggling to remove the cruel blade from his tortured flesh.

\"Stay and watch, if you like, Ari,\" Aether suggested lightly as he passed the older twin. \"I know how it amuses you to watch your other half suffer. Just don\'t venture too close, or Genesis might ensnare you also… And I do not think that would be too enjoyable for you.\"

Ari merely tilted his head and smiled up at Aether, lounged back somewhat carelessly on the rough wet rocks. \"I love my Brother. You know that… So you needn\'t have offered. I would have done so without such indiscreet prompting.\" The older twin lowered his silver gaze, locking it once again on Gryps who laid several meters away, fighting uselessly as the stony vines re-emerged and clamped its unfeeling teeth down on his slender limbs. \"Besides, the sounds out here are so… Pleasant to listen to…\" Ari added with a serene smile as another of Gryps\' scream of pain ripped through the wet air.

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