(This ones going to be a long one T_T)
In an instant! All the obsidian that coated Viv's torturous trap was pulled to the plume, restoring its glorious hue and reigniting its initial purpose! It floated away on its own, at swift speed, to the control tablet of the Gate, initiating its function! Viv looked on with a twisted glee, flames igniting around her, much like Flux, but with the same wicked blackness that couldn't be mistaken for anything but the corruption of this Lord of Searing Flames.
The venomous spat of her words stung her like a wasp. She had hoped to be able to appeal to whatever shred of her former self remains. But her blind reverence for this entity had eroded entirely her sense of self. She was his now; nothing Flux could say would sway her from her loyalty. This realization devastated the young panther witch. Why was it fated to be this way? Magic was the very imagination of life-given form. Of all the things Viv could have become, why was she reduced to a puppet?
"!!!"
Before she could sink any further, the expanse ignited in a furious flare of black as deep as a void. The flames erupted into a volley of blackness that swept across the space, demanding freedom. It sent a menacing chill through her body, and her senses became blanketed by a thick dread.
"Evil…"
Drachiot were creatures sensitive to the force of the unseen, namely magic. This sensitivity came with a sensory effect that allowed them to feel the nature of other magical sources. It was how she resonated with Masur’s essence and conjured the spell needed to maximize her anthem's reach. Here, so close to such a vehemently volatile abyss of magic, she could feel nothing but a flaring conflagration of madness.
The labyrinth shook and shuddered more violently, "Ugh.. "Masur grunted, touching his index and middle fingers to his temple. He felt like he'd just woken up with the worst hangover. Just in time to witness his goal roaring to life. On his face… ineffable horror as the Gate revealed a landscape of nothing by black flames. The heat of which flooded the chamber, causing the stone to begin melting at the supernova like heat.
And when they needed the one being here who could stand against such a foe, Masur was down for the count. Whatever their connection, Odea could siphon his power; no, it was more like hijacking a system. An override of sorts, the way she pulled his essence under her reigns. Before they would find themselves incinerated by this baptism of black, she weaved a set of curious Ava, her magic propagating before her, manifesting as a series of mystical runes in a language that would appear foreign to those here except Viv. The language of the witches of Serpenterra can magnify the invocations woven with its speech.
"Shield of Fangs!"
Before them, a barrier of lavender flames would erupt, their pure magic nature fighting against the bustling darkness emanating from the Gate. It would not come to ward them off the dangers ahead, but it would at least grant them a sliver of a chance to avoid immediate incineration. All her life, Flux has shared a deep connection with Fire. She has savored the text of all kinds of different flames, each a reflection of the soul of their welders. For the first time in her life, she didn’t need to taste these flames to know that death was all that could come from them….and should this vile evil be allowed to accost Vescrutia, it would reap life from the mother like a torrent of hellfire, bringing nothing but sorrow in its wake.
"Vi-Viv?"
She cried out weakly as the massive black hand, with a speed that betrayed its appearance, grabbed her sister and crushed her in its palm like a gnat. Like the snuffing of a candle, her light was gone….right before Flux's eyes, she was too afraid to react. Her eyes began to swell with sadness, her heart laden with despair. She could not send her sister to the great wildfire from where she was born. Her master’s embrace was not beholden with the grace she sought, the love she craved. Instead, his embrace was a coffin, murdered by her twisted ideals. And they were the only thing that stood in the way of this creature.
"Why? Why must I continue to…"
The bestial bawl of the demon looms from beyond the Gate. Her mascara ran down her face as she began to weep, sobbing as her heart continued to shatter. It's happened again…
"To watch the people I love die?"
Her mother, her sisters, and now Viv. "The Shattering Bloom" is the worst day in recorded Drachiot history. A mass advent of fracturing where a rouge group conspired with malicious magic, forcibly fracturing the various kingdoms, attempting to usurp the current Queen and bring devastation to the covens. Though the coup ultimately failed, many of Flux's friends were victims. She nearly fell prey to the lulling madness that day…that must have been when Viv's sway lost control. This monster manipulated the dejected strings. How much more was she destined to lose?
"Is this? The price to love someone?"
Whenever she witnessed a tragedy befall someone around her, love was the root of the entanglement. A complex web of unspoken resentment, feelings bottled in so painfully tight one could not help but break trying to hold the swelling in. To fit a mold, to exceed a standard, by whose decree did love always have to come with such a heavy toll? It often seemed unequivocal to her. When a person you love leaves this world without knowing the depths of your affection for them, unable to feel the furious furnace of passion, endearment, and loyalty from you to them. To never see if they thought the same. What use would this thing have if it could not be shared freely? What need for a heart is there that cannot beat in joy for the one it yearns for? The object of its affection is torn from its bearer…
Was that their lot in life? A perpetual cycle where far more is taken than can be given? Her magic began to buckle under the weight of her questioning, the pain and conflict seeping through her like bile in her veins. She was crumbling; her magic sways inadvertently compromised by the corrupting black magic swarming around them.
"All…. I've ever wanted… was to love and be loved."
She said as her lips quivered as she tried to fight back her tears—a fight fought in futility. She had lost too much, and here, in the belly of despair, she found it ever more challenging to hold hope that things would improve.
"Tell me, Odea…why does it hurt so, this heart that aches, that burns with loss? Is this how all love stories end?"
Her beautiful emerald eyes were stained red as she wept, grief gripping her. The scalding black flames ripped minor cuts into the barrier as they power wained.
"When, when will I get my happy ending?"
It flashed across her eyes, but only for a moment, before she steeled herself and looked down to Masur, and then to Flux. "Look Alive, Magical One, I need you now, not her!" The emphasis she put on I was a testament to how much she needed Flux to get her head in the game. It also belied the amount of experience Odea may have had with this particular entity. Masur groggily grunted, trying to recover enough to mount an offensive.
Odea's words sent a jolt through her. She could hear the trepidation in her voice; it rippled with notes of desperation and yet belief that Flux could be of use. Flux grits her teeth in frustration as she struggles to hold the force at bay. If she allowed herself to give up here, her life would be lost… and Masur and Odea. Despite knowing this, the cacophonous push and ebb and flow of her magic struggling against the demons pulled her deeper into misery. What was the point of fighting against the inevitable anymore…they were all lost.
Is that what your hearts believe? If you truly felt that way, why do you struggle even now? Daughter of Luvian “
At that moment, time as the knew it froze. At that exact moment, Odea connected her blow. Flux's viewpoint of reality literally
shatters before her. The swarth of ebon flames, the color from all things drained from the reality around her, replaced with nothing but black and white. From just before the gate, a being a
appears whose form seemed humanoid, but it was so distorted she could scarcely make it out. The stone etching of the flames melting under the sweltering oppression of the Lord Of the Cinderlands began aglow again with increasingly prominent glare. Flux stood in total shock as splits started to crack when her neck and hands were like chips in a porcelain doll.
"
You.
Are.
Fracturing."
It was said in a melodic voice that seemed to bounce seamlessly off the air. As the pink gleam grew brighter, so did a feeling of serenity and warmth that Flux had never known before, like the gentle caress of the sun after a chill from the night before. Her face began to fracture next. Just as part of it started to fall off, the mysterious figure held it in place.
"There is more to love than heartbreak, little cub. Just like there is more to fire than destruction."
At that moment, the slowly creeping light would combust in full bloom as the entire realm was painted anew like a blank canvas. Like a flash flame, did the magic encapsulate the domain, immersing Flux in its effervescence. She felt her vessel filled to the brim with the refreshing nature of this entity's flames. A series of purples and pinks from the realms seen and unseen with elements of shades of deep blues and black with sparkling notes of concentrated magic glistening like stars above, revealing the sight of a
woman whose magical presence was staggering just as old as Odea.
"We haven't much time; I can only hold him back for so long. I am known as Elara, XH'an, the Black Flame, Malefic defiler of magic, the scourge of the Cosmos. My people helped raise these temples many eons ago, guarding these gates through the universe. But even we could not stand against him...not after the Cataclysm. Listen to me...”
She said that leaning closer to Flux's Elara's magical flames soothed the pain in her features, though they did not heal them.
"It is his way to tarnish all that we love. He corrupts the origin of your flame, from where your truth burns and sullies all the light within you. Your sister, your yearnings were the same. She longs for love, to be loved and recognized as someone worth loving. The Ember Lord saw this and used it against her, but you, Ozma, are different. The place from which your soul burns is connected to something far more profound than his miserable embers can see. Within you is a lineage that has stood against him, safeguarding magic from his grasp, rebelling against his dogma."
"Am...am I not Draichot?"
Elara's eyes shifted for a moment, carrying a hint of resentment. Flux could see there was something she wasn't telling her.
"I know you have questions, and forgive me for being unable to give you all the other answers right now, but if he is allowed to free himself of the gate, all will truly be lost. He cannot corrupt you, for you are passion incarnate; you must embrace it now. I can draw out your true nature, Ozma, but you must choose from then on. Will you fall or..."
Confusion was added to her face, but for now, she would place what little faith she had left in not so much Elara's words as the powerful sway of her magic. It was intoxicating, like drinking from an endless fountain of your favorite wine. Flux began to feel its heat through her body, the magic runic markings that had lain dormant on her back igniting with a furious flare.
"I...I.."
Flux's voice cried weakly out into the world. Though soft, it ebbed with fleeting yet growing embers of emotion. Her heart began to beat faster, harder, from a slow staccato to a rapid march, each thump sending another pulse of conviction through her.
"I will..."
The magical runes began manifesting in the air around her, igniting with the same passionate glare as her magic, its illustrious lavender allure, devouring Elara's presence as it began to over-shine even her. She was tired of losing those closest to her and of her hubris, blinding her to the moments when she could've affirmed them. Maybe if she had slowed down and taken a moment to see Viv, not just from her own idolized perspective, she could have seen that her sister was hurting and that she felt lost and forgotten. The same feelings that she felt the day of the shattering took Viv from her. If only she had spoken up sooner, she might have been able to save her sister.
But she could not turn back the hands of time.
All she could do now was move forward and carry the weight of her choices and failures. She wanted to glean what lessons she could from them, not to make those same mistakes anymore. She had not truly lost her faith in love, but under grief, reality often is screwed. She lamented her loss but carried many extremes of love triumphing over all.
The love of her mother, her friends, and her sister
The love Masur held for his wife and children
So many shining lights and resplendent embers coming together form a wildfire of loyalty and passion. She could not turn her face from it and allow her sadness to selfishly besmirch the truth of what she knew. She would stand and burn this grotesque mockery to nothing, not even ash remained!
" My Inheritor, never forget, Love...is the most powerful force in the universe."
Elara's words sent Flux's soul into a maelstrom. The gurgling ambition within her, her lamentations like oil combusting into a plume of deep lavender flames, completely engulfing the domain, shattering Elara's hold on time. Like a battering ram of force, her magic made it impossible for Elara to hold on any longer. Her presence and being faded with a slight smirk. Time and color returned to the natural world as Masur and Odea would find themself encouraged by a deep lavender glow that burned solemnly around them, holding the black lord's fire at bay. That same sea of flame would begin to
twist and spiral rapidly, revealing a fearsome winged sight.
Ozma's Soul Flame
"The heart can be such a weak thing. Timid, trepidous, uncertain, unknowing. It wants, it's desire like clay, so easily shaped...and yet."
Her voice cried out at the Ember Lord, her rage and fury boundless. The incarnation of a phoenix began to shrink, eventually revealing
Ozma's form, which was different from before. Her hair and garments were black as the night sky yet iridescently illuminated the space around her. Earrings like lunar cycles hung elegantly from her ears with a pair of massive flaming wings behind her, burning with the same contained fury as her eyes that glared down at XH'an.
"From it comes the conviction that cannot be swayed, loyalty, and bonds that can never be severed. Vivian was hurting; she sought solace from you, but you treated her heart like a playground. "
Her magic began circulating through her, her rune bustling with magic as she blitzed toward him like a lavender comet. Her leg extended back with a firey indignation that would not be ignored.
"FOR THAT, I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!"
Her voice tore through the air like the roar of a panther, her rage cracking in her tone. She sent the flaring axe kick down on her target with incredulous force.
