calamity devours, breeds and neglects — the glory of tenebrae’s heir, the valour of its warrior, all degenerate beneath the erosion of the cosmos. blood rusts, smothered within the reckoning via limbs of miscreation. their devised collapse, decimation and resurgence assume loyalty of accursed digits. they wander, grope, and survey — pressure supplanting tenderness as they pour into open wound with variant concern for irritation. after all, he is the contagion. ravus has nothing to fear, if not for the vile pollution of ardyn’s lungs. to breath embrace life, he must accept death — a widow to peace within the netherworld, and a paramour to the purveyor of his demise.
molten flesh, conserved by onyx precedence of infection, percolates along ardyn’s hand as it is submerged within foreign chest. the cavity suckles at the immortal’s presence, lifeless tenuity of ravus’s features provocation enough for swiftness of engagement. fingers knead, contract, and squeeze — to embrace a heart deficient of pulse, cavity of ribcage carved open by serration of dagger, requires diligence of a human yet facility of an immortal. ‘ soon , you will come back to me . come back to me , ravus . now —— ’ it’s not so harmful, accepting the darkness.
they lie together, entwined by casualty. ardyn persists, and persists, fluctuation of irises eliciting abhorrence of delay. ravus is almost his ( though he always was ). he will understand, more than he ever has. thus, the fleuret’s skin, organs and psyche betray him; smelted fatality turning redness of human blood loss into the defection of liquid asphalt. a daemon’s emblem. the accursed burns within him now, not as before with the prosthesis, but as a ‘ united entity ’. the scourge works as a bacterium, released within congestion of hand upon heart. ardyn feels a beat return. the crater that has become of ravus’s chest, supporting an elbow now dismissed of its hand’s compressions, tastes ardyn in his separation. he withdraws — varnished with plague’s gore — and smears his method of resurrection onto layers of imperial fabric. cleansed, yet tainted in all respects.
“ —— now , now , ravus … slowly . this may come as a bit of a ‘ shock ’ — ” bestial arm seizes ardyn’s throat, abrupt constriction resonating through to timeless diaphragm. ardyn’s tone releases, particularity in beseech as hands rise to appeal ravus’s assault. appendages contact the anatomy of malformation, senses of the fleuret contorting beneath ardyn’s authority. his daemonization is sequential, as was ardyn’s millennials before, yet an approaching subservience rattles ravus’s opportunity. ‘ the chancellor ’ had taken everything from him, down to the last glimpse of his mother and sister in the beyond. all were remnants of the fire ardyn thrust upon him; a conflagration of manipulation, obsession, and resolve — a determining oppression of faith and trust. ravus should kill him. crush his neck by way of newfound strength — an alternative that was no longer his own. ardyn decides for him now, a consequence of the starscourge.
“ release me . ” grotesque possession of neck diminishes on command, not entirely by ravus’s will. he trembles in resistance to the immortal — mutinous hesitation — yet distortion obeys, venerates, and worships the blasphemy of its creator. a tainted leash, left to be pulled by the depravity of history and ardyn’s vengeance. saturated by ravus’s blood, the two situated within pool, its tarnish now accentuates a furrowed brow. “ — there now , see ? all better . ” irreverence of comment is retracted within pant. if he is to sigh, he pities — and to stare, he grieves. ravus was never meant to understand his pain, only he could not let him go.
“ i have so much more to do , and you’re going to help me . it’s just you’ve been so helpful before … see , our ‘ king ’ must be evaluated —— not by the celestials , not by the goddess responsible for my damnation . no . he must make a choice before my eyes — to kill the brother of his forgotten love , and pursue me … or to allow my commander , ravus nox fleuret , to defeat him . to show mercy to what i’ve created ; what we’ve created . ” to profess he was nothing more than a ‘ pawn ’ falls to ravus’s inference.
rising from the ground in unison, a crooked alignment of spine warps ravus into unstable compliance. they face an eternity with one another, a monster in their own rights. ardyn seeks an instance of contact between them before parting, cursor digit grazing spoil of ebony tears along ravus’s cheek — a reflection of his own baleful appearance when not hiding beneath the façade of humanity. he too shares characteristics of this ‘ creature ’, the likes of which only the gods have seen. reality fades, ushering ardyn into an abyss of self-loathing. it seems a lifetime they were together, and another lifetime to fall apart.
without pause, ardyn turns, abandoning; his sights leading him back into the shadows where he belongs. his ‘ toy ’ must find its target, and its inventor must recoil under his insanity. notwithstanding what appears to be ardyn retreating from his decisions, ravus calls to him, virtually frozen thirty feet behind.
“ ARDYN —— c u r s e you !! ”
… and their suffering begins anew.