Azrael opened his eyes. He could feel the heavy feeling in his hands and legs, which were bound with thick steel cuffs that clinked with every jolt of the carriage.
Everything around him was blurred with some unfocused figures. The only other objects were the dark wooden walls of the carriage and the red velvet seat opposite him.
A figure there sat staring outside the window at the forest flashing by.
That individual became clearer as his vision became sharpened. Pale skin, raven-black hair, and those crimson eyes that would never leave him even if he forgot the rest.
"Marius Strigoi?" Azrael asked, his voice a hoarse whisper.
The vampire turned his head, his slit-pupil eyes fixing on him. A flicker of surprise came into his elegant features.
"Do you know me?" Marius asked smoothly and calmly.
Azrael could not form the right words to explain his knowledge of the legendary character whose image he had sketched once.
He had known that Marius was supposed to be one of the most powerful and reclusive figures on this continent.
"What are you doing?" Azrael demanded, rattling his chains. "Why did you abduct me?"
Marius did not answer straight away. His gaze went back to the window, a weight of deep, profound sorrow clouding his eyes.
"Because it is the only way," he finally said, his voice barely audible.
"Only way for what?" insisted Azrael, confusion rising along with a growing sense of dread. "What do you mean?"
Marius' eyes shifted back to Azrael, this time with all the palpable gravity of sorrow. "I am sorry, child. It is too late for that and what i am gonna do. I've made my mind, and I will carry this sin."
Before Azrael could present another query to his captor, the upside-down world of reality was turned.
A great crack! Sounded almost like thunder across the world.
The carriage lurched rather violently to one side and soon the splintered wheels were broken into a thousand pieces while it flipped, tumbling through the air horked up in a chaos of breaking wood and screaming metal, crashing onto the dirty road.
Azrael was thrown on the ceiling, his head tallying with dull thud on the wood. After, he dropped in pile towards the ground as the wrecked carriage came to a halt, framing it like a twisted skeleton. Follow current novels on novel(ꜰ)ire.net
Marius stepped out of the wreckage, completely unharmed, movements as graceful as ever.
Azrael crawled out from under the debris, body in pain, and looked up the road.
There stood Celestria, hand still outstretched and glowing with a faint silver light, her face a mask of pure, cold fury. She had used her Creation Affinity and made a blade of solid Aether to slice the carriage's axle.
Behind her loomed Headmaster Theron and an unyielding Sebastian.
"Marius," she said. "Of all people, why are you doing this?"
Marius just stood there, his sorrowful expression unchanged. "I am sorry, Celestria. I have no other choice," he said.
"What choice are you talking about?" she demanded, taking a step forward. "What is all of this? What are you trying to do?"
"I am going to hand him over," he said simply.
The word fell into the silence of the forest road. Theron's eyes widened. Sebastian's hand went to the hilt of his sword.
"Marius, are you out of your mind?" the Headmaster said, his calm demeanor finally breaking. "A demon? They are long gone. It is not possible. You are being fooled."
"I have met it," Marius replied, his voice flat and devoid of hope. "I know its power. I know it can help me."
"Help you with what?" Celestria sneered. "More power? Something else? You are just as greedy as you were in the academy."
A short laugh filled with bitterness and derision escaped from the lips of Marius. "Academy, huh? Yes, very entertaining indeed- fun with you. Memories with you... and with Martha."
He raised his gaze skyward. It was for the first time that Azrael saw tears shimmering in the crimson eyes of the vampire.
"Martha... she left me," he whispered, cracking his voice. "Her disease... her fight...", saying it further after clearing his throat, "her fight with the Fractured Core Syndrome."
He looked at Celestria, as if requesting her understanding. "Her Aether core was cracked. The disease won. The only world that was for me is gone. I lost all hope. It felt like I had lost myself."
"But then," he continued, a faint, desperate light coming into his eyes, "a hope came knocking at my door. A way to resurrect her."
"It was a demon. It wasn't physically present just a projection but the aura it gave off was far more insane than anything I have ever felt. It showed me a hope. It showed me the soul of Martha, wanting me to help her."
"I accepted," he said-the voice stiffening towards its end-as if in pain. "I don't care about this stupid world anymore. I want my last days with her. And you know that as well, Celestria. She was everything to me."
"What has my brother got to do with this?" demanded Celestria, for a brief moment softening her voice at the mention of her old friend.
"I don't know," said Marius. "It just wants him. Alive."
"Are you out of your mind?" she retorted, the ice returning to her voice. "He is my brother! And have you forgotten? We were friends! Don't you have any regret for what you are doing? "
Marius gave no answer. Sorrow disappeared from his eyes, and hard and unyielding resolve filled them.
He just lifted one hand.
The air around him was now vibrating, a low, deep hum steadily beginning to echo throughout the clearing.
It seemed to come from nowhere and from everywhere all at the same time, and with each sound, its volume grew until it caused the leaves of the trees to shake.
"I will not let you stop me," he said, now layered with apparently unnatural resonance. Each word became a physical force pressing against them.
Celestria raised her own hands, light gathering around them. "You will not take him."
Theron's eyes glowed. A shimmering portal began to tear open the air beside him. Sebastian drew his sword, its blade humming with a quiet, deadly energy.
The three of them stood ready as one- a united front of immense power.
Marius gazed back at his old friends, now his enemies. He brought his hands together in a single, sharp clap.
Not a sound of thunder, but like a pebble dropping into perfectly still water.
It gives way to the blast.
The very air around them detonated. There was an explosion. A concussive wave of pure sonic force erupted from Marius, not in one direction, but in all of them.
It wasn't an attack they could block with a shield or dodge with a portal. It was a fundamental assault on reality itself.
The ground beneath them shattered, dirt and rock flying up. The road was punctured with trees which were bent back, their trunks groaning and splintering under the invisible pressure.
Celestria, Theron, and Sebastian were thrown back like dolls, their prepared attacks and defenses utterly useless against a power that had no physical form.
The fight had begun, and with a single move, Marius had shown them that their friendship was well and truly dead.