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Had to Jehvgo.

And now he is Jehvgone.

is now Charidout.

He Charidied.

( second half )

Charidynn Merlow sat on a seat of stone placed within the skeleton of a half-done house. Gaze trailed up bare beams of old wood, along the thin vines that had overgrown the structures through the centuries, up an unfinished staircase and to a second floor of empty bedrooms.

An impatient sigh, and he set is eyes on his hand, where the decay had started. Watched as graying flesh crawl further up his arm, his fingertips beginning to crumble away into dust. He’d found that he couldn’t remove it, neither the killing curse cast by his own magic nor the hand it started---impossible to remove body parts with the spells he’d done unto himself to keep his body intact. Which meant there was no ripping the pesky little burden out of his chest, either...

“....”

It was time.

He reached out and curled his finger in a beckoning motion, and so the chains that he had earlier placed on the twins went on pulling them to this little hidden corner he’d built.

Groaning in pain, he pushed himself up and dropped his cigarette into the grass below him, stomping out the light completely before leaving to look for where his children might have ended up playing.

------

He frowned upon seeing them, laying pathetically at the cliff like homeless rats. And when he’d approached them, he’d found them already asleep.

A scoff, displeased.

They’d grown too big for him to properly carry in his arms, but they were practically dwarfed to the size of newborn babes when taken into the cradle of the large, shadowy hands extending from his back.

It was time.

------

When he returned to the house, the heart beating steadily in his chest began to play with his mind. It gave made the old structure come alive. Finished the walls, covered the grass around him in wooden flooring and turned his stoney throne into a plush velvet chair with a gentle fire lite in the hearth behind it.

With a resigned sigh, he seated himself and pulled his young twins close, curling an arm around them both. It was such a cold winter. And an illness was going around, he had to make sure the little ones were kept warm lest they die of fever.

But he was far too tired to carry them up to bed, and too comfortable to even leave the refuge of his seat. It was fine, perhaps. The warmth of him and hearth would be enough, no? And to spend the night like this. Just allowing himself a few more hours of bliss---it was well worth a sore neck in the morning.

“Welcome home,” he whispered, eyelids pushing a wetness to spill over his crumbling cheek as they closed.

For the first time in centuries, Charidynn Merlow shed tears, and the sun finally set on his last day.

It was his time.

-------

( First half )

The sky was almost as bloodied as they were.

It was almost a chilling scarlet as the horizon swallowed the sun, crimson settling in around them as they stumbled warily through the forest. The crash of ocean tides were loud over their labored breathing, and eventually they made it to where the woods’ edge spilled out over a cliff, bringing them under a clear sky and over the view of an open sea.

They found little peace in the beauty as they looked at it through a filter of runes, a latticework of wards and protections half-transparent as it floated over the island like a dome.

“When did...” The words were panted out in breaths that became more and more painful as the second ticked by. “...he have the time to put all this together...?”

She squinted as she studied the few she recognized, though she was mostly trying to get a feel for exactly how powerful this cage was. Or, at the very least, where exactly in the world it was placed.

“Can you sense where we are...?”

Allisae shook her head, lowering her gaze to the ground as she blinked back tears. The last thing she’d seen just before disappearing replayed in her mind; Taeseong going limp with death, her son---her sweet boy with his fallen glamour, face stricken with remorse and grief...

She had to get back to him. She couldn’t die and leave her boy hating himself for this. She couldn’t leave him alone again.

She and Avelan both had people they needed to get back to. Friends, family, lovers who’ve fought or suffered too much for them to die stranded on some mystery island.

Allisae grabbed her brother’s wrist and turned back toward the forest, vision blurry---though she couldn’t tell if it was due to the tears in her eyes or if she was at her limit....was it getting darker? How was was the sun setting?

Before she realized, she was stumbling forward.

Avelan caught her by the waist, bent to get in arm under her knees before scooping her up.

“Wha---wat are you doing...” Weakly, she tried to push herself out of his arms. “You’re too...hurt to carry me...”

“I don’t care.” He grunted as his injuries protested to the weight he was trying to carry, and hoisted her up higher off the ground. “You’re..about to collapse...”

“We’re going home, Allisae. Father’s done fore...and we’re...

“Were going h..home...”

Avelan fell to his knees, trying still to keep conscious. As did Allisae as she held an arm out to keep the both of them from hitting the ground too harshly. But eventually, their limbs grew too heavy.

They sank to the grass, Allisae on her side as Avelan’s head rested on her stomach, and fought to keep away one last time before fatigue finally pulled their eyes closed.

...

Soft foot steps crunched over dying grass as he approached them. Carefully, he scooped his children up in skeletal hands formed from shadows, and carried them away into the forest, a single promise leaving his grey lips.

Avelan was quick to stand at the at the sight, reaching for his sister’s shoulder to explain when he felt a tugging on his ankle.

”...!?!”

Both the twins looked down to see the shadows of chains appearing again, wrapped tight around their feet. The tugging growing from a soft pull to a sudden yank that dragged them both onto their backs.

“Mother!”

“Yukaine..!”

Allisae grabbed her brother’s hand and reached out to her son with the other, but the both of them were being dragged off far too quickly for anyone to react, towards a mass of black smoke that had bloomed in the area where Charidynn had vanished.

( 3 out of 3 )

The relief they felt was short-lived.

Taeseong turned to them, slowly, with his face wet with blood as his tongue slithered out to taste their scent. Pitch-black eyes settled hungrily on them---on Allisae.

He hadn’t been protecting them. No, Taeseong, in his beast form with his mangled-mind, was only fighting the competition for his prey.

His massive wings spread wide, casting his great shadow over them.

“Taeseong...” Allisae called softly, voice shaking as her mind went back to the last time they faced each other like this.

His bloodied talons dug deep into the ground, head lowering. Readying himself to leap forward. 

“Taeseong...” She called again, loud, and as just desperate as she was back then to reawaken his humanity. 

Maws opened wide to roar once more, the force of it blowing their hair back from their faces.

“Tae...” She was quiet again, his name falling shakily from her lips in resignation.

Another roar as he pushed forward with enough force to break up the ground beneath his feet. Avelan closed his eyes again, hiding his face in his sister’s shoulder, but Allisae kept on looking, trying to search for any semblance of humanity in those lightless eyes.

Eyes that went wide with shock as Taeseong yelped in pain.

“...!!!”

“....”

Yukaine had moved in front of his mother and uncle the very moment his father was about to swallow them whole, pale sword held out as he stood his ground.

Taeseong had run right into it, forcing the hilt deep into his chest.

Allisae peeled out of her brother’s embrace, to stand behind her son. Mouth hung open, as she wondered why this blade could stop Taeseong when no others could. Tears began to sting her eyes at the thought of it being the thing to end him---and she was ready to weep, shaking her head in disbelief at the panting beast who, slowly, began to shrink.

Feathers faded away, revealing soft flesh beneath. Claws receded back to fingernails. And eyes that were so dark with hunger flickered back to the hazel irises and white corneas of a human man---a once human man.

And for the first time in so, so long...Allisae was staring the man she had loved so much in face, in person. No fangs or snarling. Just him, and his soft, hazy expression, as though he didn’t have a sword impaled through his chest.

“...Hello, Dearest...”

And he turned his attention to Yukaine, smiling wide in spite of the pained cough following it.

“My boy...” He laughed shakily, not a single breath lacking strain or blood. “You’re doing such a good job...”

“I-I’m sorry...”

Taeseong hushed his son, touching Yukaine’s cheek as he leaned forward, resting his heavy head on his shoulder as the magic in the blade slowly began to take him.

( 2 out of 3 )

Cecil was then asked to place a paralyzing spell over it, to petrify it and stop what little blood flood flow there was left in the limb. It was cast and closed with a difficult seal, though Avelan knew that Charidynn would be able to remove it with ease.

When Ber returned, he added an ignition spell that would light the runes inside once fresh blood flowed over them again.

And if charged with a Merlow’s magic…Charidynn would be finished.

...

Allisae looked at her brother, expression tight with confusion and panic. “Did you just...”

Avelan shook his head, already aware of what has her so concerned. “No...”

His mind went back to the moment he was told that Yukaine and Damian had gone after Taeseong for a tooth, when he saw his father’s hand wriggling in that jar. It was then that he finally realized the key to the spell as well as answered the question of who would cast it.

Taeseong’s feathers, a soul-destroying beast born from Charidynn’s own magic, had given what the runes, that had been burned into the bones of the hand, the power they lacked. And when Charidynn removed Cecil’s seal, the blood had washed over them and set it all ablaze. 

It was almost lost, however, when Charidynn had realized that taking his hand back was a mistake, but the spell was finally activated by his own magic when he used it to fend off attackers.

“He cast the spell on himself...”

Allisae was still confused, but didn’t question the response. The talk of casting spells had reminded her of the siblings who were meant to do that job the last time they all spoke. She looked around for Nero and Riliane, brows knitting with worry when she couldn’t find them---or the angels that had promised they’d be present for all this...

There wasn’t a chance to ask any question before a large, cat-like beast came rushing at them with fierce vengeance.

Avelan tackled his sister down out of the way, raising another barrier of earth. 

Vines, large in number but thinner than those previous, sprouted from the ground and coiled around the beast’s ankles, holding it back.

Another beast, a centaur-like thing with a lion’s face, came charging and by then they were both too weak to summon anything more than a brittle barricade or ropes too thin to be of any use.

The centaur lion grabbed them with taloned hands, raised them into the air, and threw them down like rag-dolls. 

On the ground, they both propped themselves up, raising their hands weakly as their eyes glowed. Divinity flowed into their their palms just as the the centaur raised its front hooves to stomp them down and, simultaneously, they both sent out a shock that sent the beast reeling back, blinded momentarily and burned where the light had touched him.

But the cat covered in lizard scales from earlier had broken free, running to them once again.

It leaped into the air, ready to pounce on them as though they were mice, with claws and teeth ready for the kill. 

At this point, there was nothing left in them. Too beaten, too bloodied, too exhausted and over-exerted of everything they had.

In that moment, the twins made peace with themselves as best they could. Made peace with leaving loved ones behind, now that their father was hopefully taken care of. And they embraced each other, closing their eyes.

They always imagined that the moments before death would somehow be magically peaceful and quiet, no matter how violent the end. They’d hoped that whoever was in charge of their fate would be merciful enough to give them that.

But all they heard was this awful, strained roar that sounded like metal scraping against metal. And through their closed eyes, a shadow passed over them.

And then the setting sun shone in their face again.

They opened their eyes, wondering why death hadn’t come.

A behemoth of a wolf---a black beast, feathered instead of furred, had its teeth sunk deep into the neck of the scaled cat that matched him in size, thrashing and shaking it around in its maws as though it were a toy, before crunching down harder and snapping the cat’s neck.

With that threat limp and unmoving, it turned it’s attention to the centaur, grabbing at it with long, claws and biting into its side.

( 1 out of 3 )

He was as useless as a pen with no ink. The wings that extended from his back, several feet wide on either side of him, were nothing but pointless masses of feathers when he, not even once, ever actually flew with with them. He never bothered to even try, with how ashamed he was of this form.

The wings merely flapped helplessly as Timothy continued to drag him up into the sky with Anya following close behind.

“What’s so scary about you that made them run away~? You’re just a little bird who never learned to fly.” Timothy taunted as he tossed Yukaine into the air, only to catch him again with with his teeth---a toy being crushed within the jaws of an eager hound.  

Fangs sank deep into Yukaine, a pained cry tearing from his throat as he felt the blood and life being sucked from his body. Panicked, he sent out a pulse of black magic, disorienting Timothy enough for Yukaine to get his sword hand free.

And with no hesitation, he drove the blade deep in between boy-beast’s eyes.

Maws grew slack as the rest of his body went limp, and he and Yukaine both went plummeting gracelessly towards the ground.

Yukaine grunted, clutching one of his wounds as the rushing wind forced his wings back in a position that couldn’t catch air properly. But he fought against it, eventually managing to open them enough to slow his descent some, flapping clumsily through the air

From the sky-high view, he could see the tide of battle turning. Red and silver eyes scanned the ground until they spotted Charidynn being directly engaged with three others before he just...vanished. 

As he tried to search for where his grandfather had gone, he finally caught sight of his mother...

Anya snatched him out of the air, angrily shrieking the loss of her dearest little brother as her claws pierced through his wings. She pulled at them, as if threatening to tear him from his back, before wrenching the black blade from Yukaine’s grip and throwing it aside.

Through his screams, he manages an apology---sincere, at least for a moment---before letting loose a blast of black magic that took the form of spears, all skewering through Anya and tearing holes into her wings.

The falling weight of her dragged him out of the sky, her claws still hooked into him as she fell.

The struggle he made to finally free himself from her had made the landing even harder, but if something had broken, Yukaine could barely tell before his mind went to his mother.

He left the unconscious beast behind to look around frantically, eyes pining for his mother.

She was found, eventually, but upon seeing her surroundings, his grasp grew hungry for the weapon he’d lost. But there was no hope in finding the black sword fast enough in this sea of battle---not in time to save her.

( 2 out of 2 )

Charidynn looked over his hand, teeth gritted in anger. The corpse-like stiffness of his returned appendage added ache on top of the agony writhing in his chest, a deep seeded pain that brought his eyes to water. When he looked at his children, rage began to give way to remorse and anguish---an utter mess of heartache he thought he’d escaped the day Carreau finally swallowed the last bit of the burden.

He shook his head at the twins, removing the insultingly weak seal that was singed into the top of his hand, allowing blood to flow through his fingers once again. 

“...!?”

The bones in his hand began to glow, a burning sensation following it. And he looked at it, confused, before setting his dark gaze on his son, who’d been watching him with nervous anticipation, waiting for something.

“...”

Narrowing his eyes, he formed another blade of shadows in his other hand, ready to hack off the one he had just gotten back---

A scythe impaled him through the middle as his sword collided with the shaft of a spear-like weapon. And before he cold react, the other end of it was swiftly thrust into his side.

Blood spurted from his mouth when the blades were yanked out of him. Before the reaper and the odd woman who’d accompanied him could strike again, he’d pushed them back with a blast of black magic that had traveled through the entirety of his body, including his glowing hand. 

A mistake.

The magic that had passed through ignited an otherworldly, almost crippling, pain that crept slowly from his fingertips and up his arm. As he looked at his slowly graying fingers, a sense of doom cast over him like a wave.

Something was eating him alive...

"What did you do to me...” He looked over to Avelan as Allisae helped him to his feet.

More shadows had begun to rise out of the ground once more, distracting the two who had attacked Charidynn as he made his way over to his children, who summoned up vines and walls of earth in an attempt and slow him further.

But with Allisae weakened after shoving the heart back inside her father, and Avelan in no fairer condition, every obstacle crumbled in decay before he even touched them. And allthough his steps were slow, staggering forward as the pain raked further through his body, he was closing in on the twins easily.

---until the god who’d ferried his daughter into the fight forced him back with a blast of hellfire.

He’d raised in arm over his face as well as a barrier of shadows in defense, though that that was mostly swallowed up in flames.

“I want a moment alone with my children!” 

After a quick write of runes into the air, he flicked a hand over to them, sending out chains of black light that came wrapping around their ankles, which seemed to fade out of sight when the god struck Charidynn again with another burst of flames, searing through another shield of darkness and even singeing the fabric of his sleeve.

Charidynn bared his teeth and growled in frustration throwing a final look in the twins’ direction before black smoke spilled out from his slowly closing wounds. And before anything else could be done unto him, he’d submerged himself into a thick cloud of fog that scattered within a single blink of an eye, leaving behind nothing.

“...”

“...”

The twins kept close to each other, watching the empty space where their father had just been, breaths labored from over exertion as the tide of the battle turned with Charidynn’s disappearance.

Though, they felt little relief...

( 1 out of 2 )

“I hope you two realize just how useless it is to have a heart so heavy—”

Well now it was his burden to bear once again.

Tartarus had appeared with Allisae in his arms, bringing her right behind Charidynn Merlow as he held his son by the throat.

Thick, emerald briers glowed pale green as they coiled around Charidynn’s limbs, snaking around his waist and pushing long, green spines through cloth until they bit deep into skin, piercing the runes.

Allisae’s pupils and irises disappeared beneath the blaze of white in her eyes. The patterns of a seal, bearing a heart at the center, glowed in her palm. In the same hand she held lump of old flesh, brown and black with rot but still glimmering red in the center, as it throbbed in a steady rhythm. 

Goddess-given divnity ate through runes with difficulty as she pushed the beating flesh into his back. His body seemed to take it so readily, swallowing what had been lost to him for so long.

And the pain of taking all that weight back ruptured through his body like a violent plague. The heart spasmed in his chest, erratic as it settled restlessly back in its place, releasing waves upon waves emotions he’d long forgotten.

The shadow-risen army dissipated back into nothing and the heaviness in the air seemed to thin out. Avelan was dropped from Charidynn’s grasp as the makeshift god sank to his knees, clutching his chest. 

Runes grew back over his healed skin quickly and pushed against the seal that attempted to transfer from Allisae’s palm, in the end forcing it back and searing it into her skin.

Tartarus wrapped an arm around Allisae’s waist and picked Avelan up by his before quickly teleporting again.

Once at a safe distance, Avelan barely gave himself time to catch his breath before he grabbed his sister by the shoulders, touching her cheek, making sure it was indeed her face he was seeing. After a moment of small, relieved smiles exchanged, Allisae gave her brother a nod.

The jar was quickly retrieved from his satchel. Waving a hand over the glass, he muttered a quick incantation to deactivate the seals drawn onto.

The severed hand inside was all but yanked out by force that had been tugging on the lost pieces of Charidynn, dragging it back into place, bones crackling as it reconnected with his wrist.

With the Merlow patriarch and his defenses down, Morgan and Azrael cast a spell that would buy them another second for Cecil to make his move. He dashed toward Charidynn, dagger at ready, and cut deep enough into the witch’s arm to draw blood.

Carreau had chosen to stay behind, unsurprisingly. But at least she’d gotten what she needed. The box was clutched tight in her arms and inside she could feel every pulse of her father’s heart thrumming against the sides.

It was that and the the pain from her still bleeding wounds that reminded her she wasn’t dreaming, made it clear to her that she was present---at least physical so--even if she still couldn’t feel much of the world around her.

And the sting of every cut served to remind her of each lash of her father’s whip, as well. Every strike ringing so fresh she could hear it crack against her skin as he spoke his venom...

Stepping outside of Carreau’s little hideaway, she found a figure waiting for her. And at the sight of the only true father figure she’s ever known---the only one who has never once betrayed her---her eyes began to water...