he snarling hounds of hell came out of the mists around him. and the Christmas of chains followed by a cryptic slab grinding on stone. that left those wondering who would hear it what atrocity has been unhinged before me. In those parting mists … a throne. of contorted agonized faces. spoking thorns made up the flesh-colored chair. The dark figure, with small wooden horns covering the top of his head. His black alligator-like skin and wood-colored nails. scraped against the chairs rest, picking the skin like material. that wept a blood color stream once it was peeled back. His deep red eyes strained up at him from his bowed head, in a vengeful and wrathful gaze. His fingernail tapping, echoed through the realm. new eyes of red blinked on the sidelines of the mist on either side of their master. Adonis finally got to his feet and the tapping stopped. A small door at the bottom of the throne opened wide like metallic pincers and his own voice rung out of it.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes, devote myself to whatever I need to get to her, without her I have nothing, I am nothing”
Nexus beside him, resting her claws on his shoulder, she wasn’t in her human form. He held the dark lords stare for mere moments.
“My fathers proud of you, he will keep a close eye on your next battle”
The spire master turned to Zachariah and wrapped her arm around him, pressing her breasts against his body.
“Was he any good to you in your fight Adonis?”
Adonis looked to Zachariah who seemed to be liking the flirtatious Spire master at his side.
“Brave changed even “
“Brave… “
she lifted his jaw.
“you’ll go back to earth then; mother still believes in second chances. That’s why Adonis will slay the western guardian and live up to his promise. And you will fight at his side, as enemies or as equals. “
She kissed him and the Dragonai’s body, was stretched into streaks of light shooting up into the misted sky.
“Keeping the Dragonai alive taught all three of you something didn’t it” she said.
“It did “
Adonis held the Nxori Kings stare, and the spire master put a hand on his back and stomach gesturing him to stand.
“Tell him what you learned “
Adonis dropped his gaze for a few seconds before returning it to the king who did not blink holding his stare effortlessly.
“It would have been too easy to kill him, I still want to, but …what i understand more than anyone I know. Is that change is supposed to be painful and if I were to give in to these urges …”
Adonis looked at the rings on his hand and spoke.
“Then I might as well have gone back to a time where I was no better to the world, than all my enemies in it “
On earth the dragonai council, the three puppeteers had finally emerged. from the shadows, having landed in New york hours ago. they arrived and made way to their remote bunker, hidden in the woodlands of Riverdale heights.
Orion had his men scattered throughout the forest, hidden.
watching out for the three red hooded leaders. The lone dragonai leader, and four of the orders best soldiers, making their entrance into the bunker behind the council. Orion, having changed for this day in a dirt tan shirt and dark brown slacks. presented himself at his best, on top of executing every task they had given him. his confidence was high that they’d be pleased.
Leading them up a set of stairs, making an immediate left down a cold corridor, and left again to the main meeting room, which had a platform at the back of the room which was used as altar space.
Orion locked the door behind them, the soldiers stood guard, and the leaders carried on.
“You’ve prepared our forces to carry out the inquisition?”
The first council member asked, making his way to the altar.
while the other two removed their hoods revealing their bald tattooed heads. Each beyond their youth, frail but feared without having to have the might of their prime.
“They are taking care of the legal forces here in this town, while a separate entity are moving to carry out the most delicate. all have studied the standard of the inquisition and know the penalties for any deficiencies “
“Before we go out there and speed the process, I want to know if you have any contact with Zachariah? “
“None at all Holy one”
“You can at least track his profile”
Orion walked over to a table in the corner to access his laptop and showed them where Zachariah was. One covered his mouth in astonishment watching Zachariah’s marker fly through the milky-way galaxy, only a few hundred miles away from earth.
His anatomical profile was taken at his initial induction into
the order. they designed a machine to target lock-selected profiles by their natural human frequencies. This machine was the only one of its kind, the future of it was to be able to weaponize it and send warheads to kill selected profiles. But it relied heavily on a scanning process that made it obsolete without this step. For now, it was used a leash. Called, TITUS.
The battle had taken place throughout monumental castle ruins. Abandoned, somewhere in the realm. Adonis met the shapeshifting western Guardian on its bridge. separating two desecrated turret towers. Adonis unsheathed his sword, starting his slow advance towards the bald Guardian.
His wings bore through his shoulder blades. and from there his anatomy changed horribly. On his knees he collapsed, claws emerging. bone structure lengthening reconfiguring. until the dragon was standing on two hind legs. They charged at each other. Adonis held the sword like a dagger, making a fist around the hilt, cocking his arm back and delivering a sonic blow to its head. the blow only successful in pushing It’s headed the other way. but it faced him again. The dragon inhaling., Adonis stabbed Inhaled, shooting its breath of fire that Adonis blocked by stabbing his blade into the ground. preparing for the blast. The flames, fanned around the steel. Searing his knuckles and burning his blade red hot, flaring away from him in two separate tails. Sheathing his hot sword, he swung his burned fist in the air. driving a charged and focused wave of red energy towards the dragon. Smacking across its body, shattered a piece of its side armor plate. with weakness exposed, it shifted back into its winged human form to access speed.
Darting towards Adonis like a bullet, he dragged him up into the air by his throat. The guardian pushed his face aside and took a bite out of his contender's neck, writhing his head side to side chewing and tearing at the veins and flesh. Once the guardian removed its teeth, Adonis took the Guardians head and connected it with his armored knee. ripping open its blood spewing cheek. Without a pause he pulled its head into his punches by holding the back of it’s skull. Until it eventually escaped his rampage by using its wings. to fly back out of the way, only to gain enough distance to charge straight into Adonis. wrapping itself and wings in a trapping embrace. The guardian dived backward, crashing down through the bridge to the lower darker levels of the castle.
Rushing up from under the debris their hands collided.
pushing back on one another. Adonis quickly unsheathed his weapon. The guardian reached upward to the sky, A crack of thunder and his khopesh shaped sword came down through the torn ceiling into his hand, and their blades collided. Adonis was pushing up and the Guardian pushed down. disconnecting their swords briefly. they swung once more with collisions that should have shattered metal. Back and forth their blades would collide. The Guardian swung for Adonis’s head, missing his target. who came under the blade. and cut right and left across its belly. It’s skin like armor, absorbed the blows itself.
Kostollum kicked Adonis back into a pillar. pinning him with an elbow across his throat. Adonis lifted the Guardian from under its arms, rotating his powerful hips to push him through the stone pillar. Stumbling back, the Guardian dug his claws in the ground to stop himself from sliding anymore. he jumped up and converted to the ceiling like a spider, evading Adonis's sword. Dropping back down on top of Adonis he smacked away his blade and hacked across his torso. With strips of his flesh in hand, Adonis fell to the floor in pain. holding his spilling intestines close to his body.
“NO!!”
Adonis reached for the titan’s throat, halting his next attack and phased into the Guardians body. Kostollum collapsed on both knees, clawing at his head screaming as his arms flew back. dislocating behind him. The Guardian forced a transformation, helping him to regain control of his right arm. pulling the joints back into place, pushing Adonis out of his body onto the floor. With his torso healed enough for him to stand. he jumped out of the bottom of the castle. Creating more distance between him and the raging kostollum to heal.
Tailing close behind, like a mad bull. This form cost him agility; so, Adonis was able to easily dodge the bullet and pledge his sword through the broken point in its armor. using the dragons own force to drag the blade across its side. quickly retrieving his sword but slow to turn and face the Guardian that had taken human form in seconds, locking Adonis in an arm bar.
The weakened bleeding Guardian flung himself backwards towards a piece of jagged rock formation. that had formed against the lower side of a ruined turret tower. with Adonis in his grasp, he was prepared to kill them both.
When Adonis realized this. He grabbed hold of the titan's forearms and ripped his arms off from the shoulder. leaving the titan to free-fall in a blood curdling final roar. plunging straight into the natural spear.
Helpless and impaled, his death was instant. Adonis let it’s limbs fall far below toward the pentagon shaped floor of the ancient empire. Light underneath the cracks of the pentagon shaped floor increased when pieces of the floor began to cave in. Adonis watched it collapse inward, sucking down the entire battle ground. pulling half of the structure down into the infernal glowing abyss with it. He could hear the chanting howls of The Infernum bellowing up at him. the glory was as sweet as the amber honey of his eyes. Adonis slowly descended into the bubbly portal down into one of the most feared realms.
Walking through the war trenches of the underworld. the green eyes of tall horned beings moved aside for him as he climbed the rope ladder to higher ground. miles and miles of scorched steaming trees. that had grown sky high. human limbs decorated the thick bark. blood streamed down to the roots of every tree. pooling around the red realm.
To a smaller castle ruin, he marched. seeing that the black creature the spire master called father sat on his throne. as he approached the king. green eyes appeared from within the shadows as dark and scaly as he was but with larger horns.
The king glared at Adonis waiting until his new champion kneeled, only after this act did the king stand from his chair for the first time. turning to face his own throne the king fell to one knee. and pushed his claws into his side. the hissing of blood and wet sounds of him moving his organs aside. Adonis listened to him snap and pull something from his stomach. he raised the rib bone slathered in black blood and skin. and then, there was that familiar metallic compartment in the throne opening. he placed the bone inside of it. It closed quickly, and he waited for something to happen. he could hear the slamming of bolts releasing. and chains snapping off underneath the chair, that started ascending slowly. revealing the 5-foot coffin and the naked young woman in it.
Her arms folded across her shoulders, perking her breasts together that tried to guard a thick scar in between them. she was asleep at the first sight of her. The hell king dug his nails into the woman’s scar and her eyes opened wide to the pain. until he cleaved open her chest and her eyes fell dead. Adonis watched him take out a tan bloody scroll from behind her heart. . One of the Nyxori carried a heavy silver anvil. and placed it on the ground a few meters from him. taking the tan scroll Nyxoriaemon unrolled it across the anvil. The Nyxori brought over a bone-colored knife, presented to Nexus with both hands.
Nexus sat in front of the anvil, crossing her legs and holding the blade. She waited for Adonis to sit across from her and then she proceeded, to cut her palm first. followed by Adonis and then they laced their fingers like they had done earlier in his initial oath.
“We are family now “
she squeezed his palm to push blood onto the skin-colored papyrus, marked in an ancient language and design.
“And now the pact is sealed, and you are officially the guardian of all the worlds mother has created and has yet “
Standing from the anvil, her father rolled the scroll and placed it back inside the corpse, releasing the mechanism for the coffin to glide back into the ground. when his chair returned to his level he sat down. The anvil was taken away and the spire master Walked him to the red river behind her father's throne. the tower itself Grinded in a full rotation to witness the next act. The Dark Baptism.
At the orange sandy shore of the red lake, the spire master gestured with her palm for him to step into the red pool.
Stepping into it this was not just a discolored body of water reflecting the same color as the sky. lifting his hand, the viscosity and smell of it told him it was blood.
“By basking in the river of traitors you define yourself as one devoted and willing to fight for harmony, the penalty for breaking these sacred rites is worse than death “
Adonis laid his head back in the river of blood, while the spire master whispered a long prayer over his body.
Once the un baptism was complete, Adonis emerged from the pool, reclaiming his sword from the sand. Nyxoriaemon, followed by a pack of horned Nyxori, placed his hand on his pauldron and whispered.
“The last sevorian lyes there, on a moon in Astrum Null…. All of your answers, all of your solutions, there…”
Adonis turned to where his wooden nail pointed, a gate had erected itself from the sand, its portal face shimmering an iridescent color.
