The Legacy Of The Moonscar[END]

[Inariel Myotis]

As Allen's eyes reflected the sulfurous presence before him, Inari found his soul pierced. An omen of what was to be revealed, a fear of what lay buried beneath Allen'snewly woven desire to protect. As if the being before him unearthed something deeper, something raw.

"How do you know me, demon?"

"Demon...how I detest that slur. It eclipses the beauty of my master's grand works, sullying the magnitude of my lord's magic."

"Your words, they are like blades digging into my ears. Cease your prattle...who. Are. You."

Allen's blood seethed as if he remembered the being before him. Inciting every bit of his instinct to slay it rather than allow it to twist him with words. But this trial...it was not about killing the darkness. It was about confronting it. Inari found himself impressed at the amount of trust Allen displayed. What he lacked in raw power compared to himself, he excelled in will. Something Inari continued to struggle with when it mattered most. The Demon's wings spread, flaunting their massive span as its eyes narrowed.

"Do you not understand the nature of these trials? My dear..."

He said with but a single notion of intent before he was before Allen, his hand resting on his shoulder with a gentleness that belied its strength like the talon of a bird of prey.

"I am you...at least I am now...what I was before was a fraction of a much greater whole."

"Impossible..."

"Is it, though? When faced with an impossibility as the only possibility, does it not become fact? The only option, despite how the truth may defy your comfortable logic?"

Allen moved the beast's hand away but did not back peddle. Standing firm where he was.

"Where I was once a consort to the stars, you have reduced me to a mere steward of darkness. Oh how I miss how the light of the heavens once danced at my fingertips. You've butchered many of us, yet my fate persists...to think even now I still have the chance to grant my lord's wish. Even after you consumed me..."

"Consumed...you can't mean."

"A terrible fate. It was an ancient rite of ... acquisition. I was sure I would be victorious...but I failed, and all that I was...became you. So now, where I once sang of the triumph of past heroes, I am instead the madness lurking beneath your forced smiles, the scorn of your burning heart as it aches in jealousy, an incurable craving, longing for what you do not already possess, what you seek so fervently to understand. "

"Enough of your riddles! You called me the Chosen One, chosen of whom?"

"Hahaha!"

The demon's mad cackle sounded like a wail of insanity as if mocking his inquisition."

"The one who is owed an outstanding debt, one that would see this entire realm consumed by scarlet soot to claim it. But the power of the Moonborn. They have long been a thorn in the side of the Hand, keeping all those soul morsels to themselves. Soon, they will fall to ruin. To the Fel One."

"Whatever it is, I owe it is my burden to bear. I will not stand by, however, and allow anyone to harm the Alondra or the goddesses. I will stand against you. And this Fel One."

"Pfft, Goddess?, parasite, leeches. Had it not been for them, the Hand would have had all they needed to flood this world with Desires. But they persist in their defiance, and now you wish to dance to their tune like a pitiful pet. You are to inherit a legacy of cosmic dominance! My lord has deemed your soul, promised to him through a seal of blood, as the one to usher in the befoulment of all things. Yet no matter how often we come to collect, just as we are about to reap your soul for good...you slip from our fingers...As if Vescrtuia herself ... favors you."

Its tail lashed out at the floor. Inari found himself in disbelief. As far as he knew, Vescrtuia couldn't stand him. Yet, somehow, it played a part in his continuous survival. The being faded into the red clouds, reemerging as a twisted guise of Minratha, the same mad look in her eyes.

"What can you possibly hope to protect? You could hardly stand against me before, barely clinging to life. We would have finally claimed you if it had not been for their meddling—you, who are a mold of carnage, sculpted flesh of destruction. You are capable of nothing other than reaping and feeding. Why do you struggle so?"

The smog of its essence intensified as the leering, suggestive tone it possessed drew him closer. He tried as hard as he might to resist, but it was hard for him to do so. The skin of Miratha's visage began to melt off like acid, eating away at her flesh till half her skeleton lay bare before crumbling to dust. Sophia's visage appeared warped and distorted from another corner of the realm.

"When they find out what you are, what you've done, the death and corpses left in your wake. They will discard you and, more often than not, slay you. As it has been before, as it shall happen again."

"No..."

Then one of Hyomyn. The once brilliant light in his eyes was now hollow and barren, soulless even.
"Am I? I echo nothing that you have not already felt. You know it for yourself...you are not a guardian, you cannot save anyone, for the largest threat to this realm is not some dastardly devil, no giant monster lurking in the brush."

The demon's influence took complete control of the realm whilst Allen's resolve began to stagger; trying to hold his composure was nearly impossible beneath the creature's psychic warfare.

"For the one who will bring this realm to ruin."

The beast became like a fixture of shadows, warped and distorted. Allen felt almost powerless against it. It gently cupped his face with its hand before it melted, becoming a swamp of black that began to slowly drink in Allen's form as if devouring him slowly in its abyss.

"Is You..."

The darkness was proving difficult to resist, dragging him deeper into the abyss of what he had always known; he always felt even if he did not know his past, he knew by the waking nightmares the trauma of what occurred persisted. The pleasure of taking a life, of gaining that which he coveted, was too powerful an allure for him to ignore. How long before he turned his fangs on those he had vowed to protect? Inari watched in horror as he, too, felt the sinking of shadows contracting his end. A vision of his past, the fight against the demon before him...if all came back to him, as the truth was devouring him.

Inari: "I remember that battle; this creature possessed incredible psychic powers, one that nearly brought me to the brink of death. It invoked the same dark ritual I have taken lives with to reap my own. But I heard something...not quite a voice...but a feeling, as if the land reached out to me. The land of Moonfang emboldened me, and I was able to gain the upper hand and instead consume my assailant. What changed? Typically, their will ceases to be after they've been eaten. If the words this darkness speaks are genuine... then the demon itself is a spawn of the one that originated my curse...being that we possess the same corrupted naten...it has been festering within me...biding its time. "

Hyomyn's visage drew closer as Allen found it harder to struggle against the demon's influence.

"Relinquish your petty want to BE and instead choose to BECOME. You are an instrument woven together by the fabrics of the universe. Let your tune be the song that murders the world! Your area, a sound so raw, so pure, the primeval red score that shall cast this galaxy into a bottomless well of despair! Release the Seed Of Creation...let the Mikado finally end with you."

Inari felt the depths of Allen's woes as the blackness consumed him. He knew facing his inner darkness would be a tumultuous task. He never acknowledged it as being entirely reflected by another existence. Allen had been faced with not the siren song of one demon but two. Master and slave, Head and hand, both working to break him, to reshape him in its twisted image. The blackness had reached his chin; mentally, he flailed, trying to keep it from swallowing him whole.

"Is this truly all that ever awaits me? A life as but prey dancing at the claws of hunters? How many more lives must I live before I am free?...do I..."

The swap is just about to cover his eyes.

"If I ...just slipped away?.... Would I finally be free?"

These words echoed from the minds and hearts of Allen and Inari simultaneously, as the sorrow of one was mirrored in the other. For nearly a decade now, he has kept himself in check. Containing his hunger, quelling his thirst with the blood of the beast, he fought off to protect the village. Now he realized that had it not been for his connection to the moonflow, he would have lost himself within that bloodlust long ago. However, that thought birthed another amidst the muck of his despair. Minratha's words just before he came to Sophia's domain.

"To my surprise, you already held an affinity for lunar energy. It has... changed you in ways we must witness to understand. You may return their favor by ensuring they continue enjoying a peaceful afterlife against those that would harm them.. ."

"But if I fail?"

"Trials are about growth, not perfection"

Allen

"I am...a void."

The darkness you feel isn’t all you are.

Allen!

With each deprivation, like a self-inflicted laceration of penitence, a word of affirmation from his friend would soothe it. With each mending, the faint sound of someone calling out to him, but he could barely hear them. The reflections of his companions melded into a massive swamp of darkness.

"Should you ever stray from your path..."

The darkness enveloped him almost entirely, just about to cover his eyes, seeping further into oblivion, his eyes swelling with tears of dismay.

"I'm sorry...Hyomyn...."

Allen's malice swaddled him in a shroud of misery...until

ALLEN!!!

Hyomyn's voice burst into his inner realm with the mighty boom of thunder. Behind it was a flash of light so dazzling the darkness buckled beneath the majesty of its flare. Allen's eyes opened as his resolve grew like a storm brewing in his heart.

"It's true...I can feign ignorance no longer. Who I was...what I was in the past...they would flee from me, maybe even kill me. I didn't want to know, so I buried it all inside. I hope that if I ran from it, I ignored it. Then that darkness would go away....but it didn't, and when I realized it was here to stay...I tried to distance myself. But...Hyomyn...he"

"I have, and I have also seen your capacity for change."

"He has never been scared to glare at the abyss, no matter what may be glaring back at him. He...could have left me to die, but instead risked his own life trekking across the black forest and pleading with a deity to save me...me...a total stranger."

Allen's soul began to stir as he spoke, each emotion spawning a star in the blackness of this void.

"It took me some time to understand why a person would go to such lengths...I once thought that the concept of good and evil was how the weak coped with the decisions of those with power...But I see now...that was just my loneliness speaking. "

His passion began to crack through the darkness like glass, with the light of his convictions seeping from behind the murk.

"For I have felt no greater satisfaction, no greater remedy for the pain in my soul than I did the day I chose to save that little girl..."

An image of Hyomyn's face after that battle, one that saw Allen wounded greatly in defense of the Elder's granddaughter, was one he could never forget, as that day marked the beginning of Allen's chance at a new life.

"I am no one's chosen...for I decide what my life shall look like. So before your fetted Lord, Minratha, and Sophia, I will name my choice..."

The eyes that were made of the burners of his inner realm became blinded by the ferocity of his resilience, manifested as the dazzling gleam of moonlight as a reflection of both Kirin and Bako manifested above him, fighting back the blackness.

"I chose to return the faith that was placed in me, to guard that which saved the life that I am free to wield as I desire. When the light scathes, I shall offer a shroud to comfort; when the darkness sets, I will bring peace with light; if that makes me a Guardian Of Twilight, that is what I shall become!"


His astounding declaration brought a searing luminance that burned like a furnace, sewing flames of light and waves of shadow, bringing the instability of his soul realm under regions, his reign once more. The nightmarish forms of his people stood before him. Sophia, Minratha, and Alondra, with Hymon standing in front of them, holding out his hand.

]"I am right where I belong...to keep them safe....to ensure their future...that is my purpose now."

He took Hyomyn's hand, and the soul realm faded when he was in front of Sophia and Hyomyn, holding Hyomyn's hand.

"Welcome back... fellow guardian."

[Inariel Myotis]

Inari was left now in the cardinal gleam of Akai-Kizu, a ball of scribbled thoughts. To think he found such a union and bond in the depths of his experiences. To have known such devotion, such awe in the face of a mortal man. He would have never believed it true had he not witnessed it himself. He had always felt alone; his thirst for power was a veil of false bravado to hide his true feelings. His most significant anguish was that he was nothing to anyone. His parents take from him, his tribe banished and hunted, and even the plate itself wanted little to do with him. A pariah in every sense of the word, Allen, despite sharing this same experience, found something to live for other than power for power's sake. He saw something worth protecting. Inari could barely explain it, but there was a powerful sense of pride behind what he witnessed; he was glad he could find some form of happiness in the long weave of despair his bloodied path had wrought. Which made doing what he knew needed to happen next all the more difficult.

Despite what he had just seen, he knew that something still happened that brought all Allen had spent centuries building and protecting...to discord. Ultimately, the demon spoke no lies. He indeed proved to be what brought the Village of Moonfang to ruin. Though he faced a deep struggle to persist, witnessing Allen's courage in the face of that darkness embellished his resolve further. If he to mirror Allen's convictions ,then despite what the truth would reveal, he would not flee from it, he would not fold. He hoped to stand and face his actions, however painful they were.

"So it was this cult, The Hand, who threatened the Moonborn. Sophia and Minratha banished them from the planet, forcing them to the stars. Since then, they have unleashed twisted creatures known as Nightmares upon the Blackforest, seeking the font of the goddess's powers for their own."

Amrit appeared, drifting on a crimson cloud, not from him. Speaking his next set of thoughts.

"And true to its nature, the Red Eye gave them the power needed to claim both the waters of the Moonflow and the Gloom Blossoms those waters give life to in the Night Sacarium."

"Allen seemed to elude them for a time, but they found him, no doubt because of a Scarlet Moon, the same way it found me in this present age. I cannot resit the Red Moon, it demands my nature to reveal itself and reap whatever is closest to me."

" Yet Allen defied the Eye not once, but twice within his lifespan. His tether to the moons of Kriin and Bako as ward must have helped him stand against it....could it be because both the Moonflow and Night Sacrium were not sheer reservoirs of naten.... but of Mana?"

The thought sat with him, and as it marinated, it became the obvious answer.

"When Allen touched the Moonflow, I could feel the powerful spiritual presence of many souls. The Moonflow itself may be similar to the Crystal Courts. A means by which mana exists tangibly in this world. The Courts themselves are mirrors humming with the power to draw one's reflection to life. The moon flow, where many make peace with their reflection before passing one, seems to hold a similar cadence."

"Yet the Gloomblossoms were life born anew via the spiritual essence of the departed, wishing to leave behind their knowledge for those who would come after them. That desire bleeds through the earth, saturating it with mana and producing the flowers that hold those secrets."

"Mana and naten working in tandem...as if the flowers were the familiars of those who joined the moon flow...Something about that...feels as important to me as breathing. But I cannot reach far back enough to grasp it..."

Yes, it was similar to the nature of Familars within the courts, but Inari felt like that was but a puzzle piece in the picture he was trying to piece together.

"Regardless, something changed in Allen. In the first vision, I could feel it. That darkness he made peace with still harbored the echoes of the curse that no amount of faith could purge from him. Though he managed to subdue the servant...the master must have found an opening."

"Well, think about it, Inari. Allen took in a demon spawn, one powerful enough to retain a semblance of its prior consciousness despite the nature of the blood magic. It is quite possible that, though weakened over time, the eye gave it such an existence. It is quite possible."

"That the eye knew the Hand would fall to me, and by consuming it, I had finally given it the means to enter Moonfang it needed. And though Allen managed to resit it...that seed of envy nestled deep in his soul was cultivated... in the end. His desires were repressed and festered long enough for the Eye to gain the power it needed, and by the time the next Scarlet Moon arose, Allen proved incapable of warding it off any longer...."

"But that would mean that somewhere along the line, Allen's will waver. Something caused this..."

It was then that it hit him: the scene of Allen pretending to leave Sophia and Hyomyn alone to talk, but he, in truth, stayed behind to escape—the scowl of pain in his face, the tightened fist.

"He...was In love with him."

Inari's gaze became heavy with emotion as he recalled what that feeling was like to experience through Allen's blood.

“With Hyomyn...of course, he was."

Amrit looked to him, tilting its head as he watched Inari discern these parts of it that were elusive to the familiar itself.

“To Allen, Hyomyn was the light of the moon itself. And though he respected and was guided by the goddess, what Hyomyn represented to him was the true root of why he became a guardian. He had found someone worth laying his life down for, one who taught him the nuances of feelings as he explored and battled against his own. They spent decades together facing on meaniving for the other….and then…Hyomyn fell in love with not Allen, but Sophia…it must’ve been devastating for him.”

“Yet he stayed loyal by their sides. Sophia shared with him many secrets of the departed Minratha and trained him to hone his spiritual powers. His prowess as a sorcerer was beyond even their wildest dreams, able to sow life from his very blood, Vescrutia… welcomed his call. The people praised him and even began to refer to him with the same aspects of the divine they followed. The moon-born welcomed him into their pantheon. Entrusting him with both their lives. Why would he sacrifice such a thing for his selfishness…”

Amrit's words were pointed but not entirely misleading, yet to Inari, Allen's reasoning was as clear as the day was bright.

“Because, like so many of us, it is far easier to give advice…than to take or live by it. “

His arms folded as the red moon glistened above.

“The heart speaks a language that transcends the heavens and the earth. Such constraints do not bind love. It’s a force of nature, powerful and undeniable….”

Inari sighed somberly, still feeling the heat of Allen's scorned heart.

“For who could bottle lightning? Cradle a maelstrom? No matter how much he tried…Allen could not cast away his heart…this thing that made it possible for him to know family….and the boy who gave it to him in the first place… He tried to support their love, wanted to be happy for them…and had begun to hate himself. Facing an evil that none of them truly understood.”

Amrit looked to Inari, pawing at a passing cloud.

“We’ve seen demons raze entire kingdoms…and yet, this…love thing seems like the scariest thing of all.”

Inari snickered

“Heh…yes…quite.”

“The fear of losing all of what you have worked so hard to achieve. The bonds you’ve built…Myotis….feel the world around us intensely. I felt in the memory of my father what lengths he would go to protect someone they loved…the loss of a love….centuries in the making …all the while the demon coaxing the strings of his heart with hatred….”

“We need to see it, Inari; we need to face what the end of this story heralds”

His wavering gaze became form once more as his hair seamlessly flowed like the clouds around him.

“And face it we shall”

Having come to terms with all he had experienced thus far, Inari found the strength to continue to what would prove to be the final chapter in Allen’s tale…and the epilogue to his own. Akai-Kizu resonated with his newly cleared mind and locked soundly on the directive of his intention. The world became obscured once more, and as the fog cleared, Allen would be staring before a wounded Sophia in what seemed to be the outskirts of the black forest. The trees now radiated an obsidian and silver gleam reflective of the dance of light and shadow.

[Inariel Myotis]

Allen's eyes flashed with an unnatural glow, his voice distorted with rage and sorrow. He was different, much different than before. His was clad in a smoldering black armor of simmering shadows bearing his fang toward Sophia with a mad glare. There was a blade in his chest, yet he seemed practically unbothered by its presence, practically reveling in the pain the wound caused him. Sophia stood mere meters away holding her side that looked like a claw wound.

"Sophia, you don’t understand! You could never grasp what he means to me...to someone like me, born in evil, a lifetime of chaos and anguish... he is the only reason I am what I am. That I've known any notion of peace in my life. You’ve never felt what I feel for Hyomyn, you aren't even mortal, how can you understand the emotions of the heart? You could never love him how I do. He’s mine!

Her voice trembles with a mix of fear and sadness.

” Allen, please, listen to me. You’re not thinking clearly. Hyomyn is my husband; we have a child together. A child who adores you. You would lecture ME on understanding? I, who have witnessed the joys and sorrows of countless mortals? This arrogance is unbecoming of you. We all care for him deeply, but this isn’t love. It’s a twisted, dark fantasy of the emotions you carry. You’re letting the Eye take control. Just look at you, Allen, you've become a Black One, a Desire."

He scoffs, his grip tightening around the hilt of Sophia's burning midnight blade, slowly pulling it from his chest. The void of flesh where his lungs used to be slowly began sewing itself shut as if he had never been wounded.

“Demonic Regeneration? This may not be Allen anymore, but I must try to reach him!"

"You’re mistaken, Sophia. This is no fleeting fancy. What I have within me burns a flame of passion that has been doing for centuries. A bloom of love. You could never truly value him, nor any mortal; they've always been pawns for your amusement and games. He only married you because I didn't step up sooner, but he was never yours! He’s always meant for me!

She steps back, tears welling in her eyes of fury and betrayal.

"This isn’t you. You’ve always been so strong, so steadfast. You were like a brother to me and Minratha. We trusted you; we loved you…But now, you’re throwing it all away for a lie? It's a lie, Allen. The demon is feeding on your repressed desires, warping them into something that will destroy you and everyone you care about! Don't be a pawn, don't be a fool!

His expression contorts with pain and anger.

"I tried…I truly did. Playing house with you and him, perfecting my role as the faithful steed of twilight, suppressing my feelings, but it’s all been for him. For Hyomyn. And now, I can’t hold back any longer. I can't stand it anymore, this bile that courses through my veins, this amber fury that boils in my blood. It is an anguish only true love can quell. To expect me capable of turning a blind eye any longer, is tantamount to advising me to tear my heart from my very chest…”

She raises her hands, trying to reason with him.

“ Think about what you are doing. You are so much more than this darkness. We have been by your side this entire time; don't break our bond. We can help you. Hyomyn would want us to help you. We can find a way to—“

He snarls at her, his voice growing more desperate. From the shoulder of his armor, he wills a black blade to manifest etchings of crimson, defining a powerful aura about the weapon whilst he tossed Sophia her own before dashing forward and attacking her, which she promptly blocked. Face to face, their eyes met as he tried to cut her down. But the goddess stood resolute to find a way to save her friend. With Minratha asleep and Hyomyn away, it was up to her to bring him back to his senses.

"SILENCE! You don’t get to decide that! You’ve never understood what I’ve sacrificed or endured to keep this curse at bay. How I have bayed at the moon, suffering in silence, trying to pretend that I could be happy with such a meager life. You who were born favored by fate, what struggle do you genuinely know? Which mortal to lead astray today? You could not possibly understand what it was like to skulk the planet for even an iota of serenity. You can only sympathize at best....but you could never know true empathy. Sophia, it is an emotion beneath you…. Well, I’m tired of being the hero who always holds back. I want what’s mine. I deserve it!"

Her voice is firm but filled with sorrow.

"If this is truly your chosen course, then… I am… disappointed. I truly believed that you were stronger than this. I thought you could resist the pull of darkness, but you’ve let it consume you. Hyomyn would never want this. He’d be heartbroken if he knew what you’ve become. Do you think this is the story he wished for you to write? Do you feel killing his wife will bring him any closer to you? You know the truth...Hyomyn has always loved you, but he's not IN love with you. Let’s stop this, there is still time to mend it all."

Allen hesitates, a flicker of doubt crossing his face, his mad leer softening to a remorseful one for a moment before it flared red with insanity again. Within the palm of his hand, a spear of blood manifested, one he used to attempt to pierce her through the stomach; however, she countered, conjuring a dagger of shadows of her own to deflect it, using the force to place more distance between Allen and herself. Then, the fallen began to separate into four clones of themselves. He began to string together an array of hand signs while the others continued their onslaught on Sophia. She was proving too difficult to deal with, as he should've expected of someone with power like hers. Even after training for over four centuries, he found himself unable to take her life. And so, he would use a forbidden technique.

"Maybe you’re right. Perhaps this isn’t precisely what Hyomyn would want. But...even that doesn't matter to me. I have given everything and become all you all wanted me to be so that I could stay in his good graces. Just for his heart to look past me...and see only you. It was a pain that hurt deeper than any blade you can conjure, Sophia. We've barely spoken over the last 60 years; ever since Icarion was born, he does nothing but fret over you both...while I’ve shouldered the burden of guardian for half a century alone. You say I am family…but there is no room for me anymore. While you've been playing the housewife, I've been guarding you and your sister's domain. But what about me?! Why don't I deserve happiness and a life of love like the rest of you? WHY MUST I BE DAMNED?!"

She shakes her head, trying to hold back her tears.

“It is not my wish to fight you, Allen. You’re my friend, my family. But I can’t let you hurt the others. I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect them. Even if that means slaying you…”

His eyes narrow as her brutality against the clones intensifies. As he continued to draw in the malevolent energies, Sophia's eyes widened as she realized all too late what it was he was doing

"I can’t let go of this. If o can’t kill you, then I’ll make sure you can’t interfere.”

He chants an ancient incantation in what most might consider to be a dead tongue. As he did so, the air became heavy with malicious intention, with an inescapable dream permeating the atmosphere. His eyes burned with a dastardly green essence that appeared to burn like flame with a flick of his wrist, and that same dark energy envelops Sophia, lifting her off the ground. She struggles against the magic, her voice filled with desperation as these green flames hold her in place, burning her connection to her Naten. She immediately recognized the decaying stench of the magic nature….Deadflame, the substance of the Nether. Her eyes filled with an inexplicable terror, her heart filled with contempt at this betrayal

"Allen, you damnable wretch! You are too pathetic to slay me, so you instead resort to trickery? I will never-"

He cuts her off, his voice cold and resolute

“Yes, yes, you’ll never forgive me. You could have made this easier by dying, but now you shall spend eternity locked within the realm of Necrofire… while I finally get to enjoy real happiness for once.

With a final, powerful gesture, the magic completes its work, and Sophia disappears in a flash of dark light. And all he is left with is a deafening silence of Sophia's absence. Immediately, he could feel the balance of Moonfang being impacted with one of its spiritual Pilar gone…

He falls to his knees, his head in his hands, as the weight of his actions hits him. What have I done? He whispers, tears mixing with the darkness that now clings to his skin. As if his betrayal stained his very skin.

“But I can’t go back. Not now. Not ever…”

Allen, having Sophia's blood on his claws, licks them and ingests her essence. His form twisted before becoming an almost carbon copy of her visage. Allen cares no longer if it was HIM that Hyomyn loved. All that mattered was that he received it at all. To have him gaze at himself the way he gazed at Sophia….and now that the dark Dee was done, he was ready to begin his life anew. Throwing away the name Allen, and instead becoming Sophia herself, lost in his mad desire to feel wanted…

“I should get back…I’m sure my baby is hungry…”

[Inariel Myotis]

The vision shifts, and now Allen stands before Icarion, Sophia, and Hyomyns child. A boy of auburn hair adorned with a streak of Hyomy's blue locks and whose eyes radiate a subtle yet powerful gleam like his father's. A child of Twilight, cradled between light and dark, destined to inherit unimaginable power. He represented a union of two ancient fae bloodlines and became a beacon of hope and wonder. A soul that burned with a powerful gleam. The child Allen felt he deserved. He approached the boy, his arms extended, reaching for a hug. Icarion was hesitant to embrace, standing in the dimly lit room, glancing at Allen with confusion and sorrow.

"Mother, is that really you?

Allen smiled gently but with a hint of unease.

"Yes, Icarion. It’s me, your mother. I’m here, just as I always have been."

Shaking his head, his eyes filled with wisdom beyond his years.

"You’re not her. I can see it. Your eyes—they don’t glow with the same warmth. They’re cold, like the night sky without the stars."

Allen frowned, trying to maintain the facade.

"Icarion, what are you talking about? I am your mother, Sophia. I’ve returned to you and your father. Can’t you feel my love?"

The boy took a step back.

"I do feel love, or at least something like it, but it’s not the same. Mother’s love was like a gentle flame, a light, always warm and comforting. This… this is different. It’s like a fire that’s been doused, leaving only embers. You’re not her...You’re not Mother!"

He tried to hold the power of his guise together. But Icairon's eyes, able to pierce the veil of falsehood, peeled apart Allen's guise, which, under the scrutiny of his pure gaze, started to unravel, revealing half of Allen's true face and a maddened red gleam of the Scarlet Night influence.

"No...no NO! How can you tell? I’ve studied her. I know her every word, her every gesture. I’ve even taken her appearance. How is it possible for you to see through me?"

"Mom once told me that the eyes are the windows to the soul. She said that no matter what someone looks like, their eyes will always reveal the truth. And your eyes, They’re full of pain.... loss even...but not the love that Mother had for us."

"I thought I could… If I became her, I could finally have what I wanted. To be loved, to be a part of a family. My own family...But it’s not enough...it will never be enough..."

Allen's face became a cold, somber expression that struck fear into the young child's heart. He dropped his ball and attempted to flee. But Allen, with a twitch of his eye, used magic to seal the door shut. Gripping his face as the child's rejection poured sorrow into him. His eye flashed with the menacing flare of the red moon, and before he knew it, he was before the boy, now lying on the ground with a deep claw wound on his back, nearly lifeless. It was then that Hyomyn came to the door. Allen released his influence upon it, and Hyomyns face twisted in despair when he entered. He stumbled into the room, his eyes widening in horror.

"No... What... what happened? Sophia! Icarion... he's...

He rushed to his son's side, his eyes swelling with anguish, cradling as his essence stained his clothes.

"Icarion, hang on, Sophie, what...what happened? Who did this?"

Standing with a twisted smile, half his face obscured by Sophia’s likeness, which only deepened Hyoymn's confusion and angst.

"Hyomyn, my dear, you’re home. Look at me. Don't you see? I’ve done all this so you will love me as you’ve loved no other."

Hyomyn's voice cracked under the weight of this revelation...his voice trembling with rage and disbelief)

"Love? Love? You’ve...hurt my son! Where is Sophia? What have you done to her?"

Allen let out a dry, hollow laugh, echoing through the room.

"That charlatan? Oh, she’s gone."

His smile widens, becoming more menacing.

"Everyone and everything that stood in the way of you being able to profess your love for me has vanished. Can't you see? You can finally tell me how you truly feel and pronounce your undying affection for me here before the Scarlet Moon. Your unyielding eternal devotion. It's all perfect now. Now, there is only you and me, Hyomyn, until time crumbles beneath our feet.

Hyomy's fist clenched, eyes filled with confusion and fury.

"We...I gave you everything. I've stayed loyally by your side, helped you build bonds with Moonfang, and stood by you through countless battles against the shadows. We've faced one deathly encounter after another. I don't get it. We..we were all so happy. How.. how could you do this?"

Allen steps closer, his voice softening but still tinged with madness.

"Because it’s not enough, Hyomyn. It’s never been enough. I wanted to be the one you loved without question, without hesitation. (gestures to his face) I tried to be her, to live her life, to receive the love she had. But Icarion... he saw through it all. Just like his father, he can see right through me. His rejection...I am so tired of being rejected...."

Hyomyn shook his head, tears mixing with anger. His tone was low, almost scarping the earth beneath them, as his eyes began to burn with a somber azure gleam.

" Where is my wife? The Mother. Of. My. Son?

Allen leans in, the weight of his crushing insanity plummeting on top of harmony with the force of mountains.

"She’s in the Nether, a place of the dead fire. I sealed her there, far beyond your reach. But it doesn’t matter now, does it? Because we can leave this place, Hyomyn. We can find a new world and life where you and I will be together eternally. No one else will ever stand between us again."

Hyomyn stands up, placing Icarion gently on the ground, his voice a low, dangerous growl.

"It seems...my vision in the Trials was right. The Garden... tried to warn me, but I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to cling to the belief that you were bigger than whatever evil lurked in your soul. But in the end...despite what we all, including the village, tried to show you...your...foulness is too deeply rooted. We basked in the light of Eternals...but you threw it all away...and now you've become...a Black One. A Nightmare."

"What are you going on about?"

"During my trial, my darkness...manifested as you. It showed me the Black Forest razed in flames. The Moonflow ran dry, and the Garden of Gloom wilted...with you bearing a pair of scarlet wings. The world I loved was gone...with nothing but a malefic scar on the earth remaining. But I chose to believe in you instead, telling myself that even if you faltered, I would be there, that our friendship was strong enough to see you past your pain."

"Do not be so heartbroken, my love. The Scarlet Moon sings a song of acquisition, of triumph! There are many worlds, Hyomyn, and other realities where we could spend the rest of our time streaming through a river of other lives. We become whatever we wish, be whomever we desire, and live however we choose."

Allen stepped forward, trying to embrace Hyomy, but he stepped back. Allen's eyes widened...then narrowed.

"Is it not freedom the ultimate form of love? That is what I offer you. Come, experience this love in crismon with me."

Hyomyn's eyes flared with rejection, a piercing rage building in his soul as he watched his child nearly lifelessly on the ground. A rage so pure, so valiant that it invoked the influence of the Red Eye. Hyomyn could feel the unrelenting wails of the moon, despair embellishing his being, bestowing upon him a war of wills, one that he, under the duress of all he had witnessed, began crumbling under.

"But now I see, pain isn't just something you experience... self-loathing is your very nature. You are a merciless slaughtered incapable of feeling anything. You treat emotions as code to crack or data to interpret and place. You could never understand what it means to love anything or anyone."

A storm of vehemence raged through his being as his naten spiked, tearing the roof from their home, revealing the full bloom of the Scarlet Moon glaring down upon them. Witnessing this, Allen's guise completely melted, revealing his black armor and scarlet red hair that flayed widely in the winds of Hyomym's fury.

"So, In the end... you reject me as well. Fine, I cannot have you."

Allen's demonic power began to manifest around him as a scarlet aura with deep notes of an insidious black. His palm was brimming with a massive sphere of dark mystic power in a second. He fired at Hymon. His child, so near death but staying due to his mighty will, was his top priority, and so at the risk of his own life, Hyomyn stood before the blast.

"No one can."

Witnessing this terrible sanguine storm, the villager retreated to their home. Some even fled as the earth beneath the village began to crack and splinter under the might of such concentrated emotion and naten. Hyomyn, though wounded, did not fall, his back charred from the burning passion for Allen's heinous art, still cradling his son, watching the light gradually fade from his eyes as his hands were stained with his child's blood. Hyomyn's heart, which once burned with a righteous and valiant ember, became a bottomless void. As cold, desolate inner realm...one that the Eye saw could become a perfect container for its ambition.

"I have finally found a vessel worthy of you...Do you desire the power to claim your vengeance? Become my right hand, my instrument of ambition and claim. Give your will to me, and become that which will save this broken, meaningless world. Embrace the Primordial Red."

Though he said nothing in the place where his light used to be, Hyomyn agreed to the Eye's offer and, with a devilish spark of sinister power, became a demon of chaos, of lawless order.

"Then let the name Hyomyn fall dead in the wind, become mired in soot and dust, and from those blackened ashe, Let the Name Grixas, Archdemon of The Scarlet Moon, rise and rid this world of its useless definition and crimson reign...Bring me his heart...bring me the Seed Of Creation!!"

His voice crept along the now burning winds, evolving into a cacophonous roar that struck fear and dread in the hearts of all who heard it as the earth beneath him rumbled chaotically. The skies became red smog as the earth splintered like a smoldering maw of defiance. A sweltering crimson miasma filled their once happy home with a flaring spell of change that warped Hymon into a full-blooded demon. In a dazzling clash of power, the vision faded, and with it, Inari felt the full brunt of all he had witnessed. The final pieces of this part of the puzzle finally come together, fully aware of the gravity of Allen's sins, his sins...

[Inariel Myotis]

Inari held his hands before him; he couldn't believe what he just witnessed. He knew himself capable of some horrendous things...but the death of a child? The corruption of his closest friend into a pawn of the demon who hunted him...and his betrayal of Sophia...damning her to a fate quite worst than death. Casting her in the very realm that her numerous enemies dwelled. It was all simply too much to bear. He was now beginning to understand the nature of the monster that was after him. It is an old fable of incredulous cunning, willing to use whatever and whomever to achieve its angle.

"All of this death... this harm and betrayal. Toying with the hearts of the broken, shattering the hope of the strong. All of this...just for me?"

The Seed of Creation, the cyclized mana of his CORE, root of all he was and had yet to become. What was it about this that this creature that damned him would go so far to gain? What did it genuinely want from him? All of this...for power.

"This...monster creates a problem, watches and activates those who suffer from it, and then shows itself when they are most broke as the one thing that can remedy their pain, or at least bless them with the vengeance they scorned for.."

Inari turned to face Amrit, who manifested behind him.

"Never the wiser that the demon itself was the root of all of it, just for the ruby within you."

"Allen uses his yearning for love and his lack of understanding to create a false hope in his heart. Despite how long and hard he fought against it, he couldn't escape the madness that he inherited...that he...inherited."

"Say it...Own it."

"That he inherited from me. Despite who the blame belongs to, the fact remains the same. Each of my incarnations suffered because of my lack of knowledge and will; how many more will come to suffer while I fumble around in them, enmeshed in my shame? Should I be slain tomorrow, yet another fractured pillar would rise to try to hold the weight of something they can scarcely comprehend...subjugated to the dogma of a force and entity they don't understand."

He sighed heavily.

"When one of me arises, we assume power, or the lack of it, was the root of our suffering. If we amassed it, we would find the answers needed to stand tall...but in each of these lives, they remain unaware of the puppeteer. Accept Allen, becoming a guardian, undergoing that trail, let him know what was after him; he fought against the Eyes force outwardly, but he lacked the pieces of knowledge that I now possess, the root of what was to come. From where it came, the curse, at least. "

"I am tired of being a mindless puppet..."

"So now that you know all this, what will change? What ...can change?"


"Before I can move forward...I have to tie up the loose ends of my past. The lingering regret of my former selves prevents me from reaching into the future. From comprehending my present."

"They are gone, Inari... how can you bring peace to the already reborn?"

"Because they are not gone, don't you understand how this realm works? Memories are a form of immortalization. This realm brings to life the experiences and knowledge of past Myotis long before he or I was fathomed. Allen was the last one; his time mirrored the now-lost Myotis people. The others were deeply immersed in Myotian culture and knowledge. Before it all was lost, he was indeed Myotian, and though not a crown, he still possessed Myotian blood, meaning that each of us was born into the Myotian bloodline to some degree."

"Inherited Mastery..."

"When a Hellgate dies, their Karma is passed to another of their line. However, because of my unique composition, my mastery was not handed down exactly; I just added to it and rediscovered it repeatedly. I have never truly died, only...reformed, reshaped...and re-purposed. Heh, like a blade...a weapon."

" Or, like energy itself. Many believe it cannot be destroyed entirely. Only transformed. So you're saying that if you mend that past fracture, they can bring peace to the parts of your former lives that still echo within you."

"It was Icarion essence that.. altered my curse. Instead of being reborn into another lost life...it returned me to my original self. Before we killed each other, that boy's soul created incredible magic, One that spits Griax into three, sealing one in the nether...perhaps hoping he could find and free his mother. I know I cannot go back in time and change the past; as much as I would like to boast of having such power, I am unlike Antares. Yet, more to the point, he is obsessed with returning to the past. Wishing to return to the get of Blood and Iron."


Inari remembers the incandescent aura of Icarion's spell, the intention, and love embedded within its magic that ultimately saved them all. A noble sacrifice of love.

"But I seek to heal it. The battle between Allen and Grixas...had terrible consequences. It was...violent and sinister, with both bringing forth the use of old evil magic, their anguish saturated the earth, the...destruction of the Moonflow...Allen used it as a font of power, scarring the land in the tormented anguish of the great beyond. Their lament petrified the essence, corrupting the mana of the moonflower and turning it into necrotic energy. For which Allen unleashed an arbitor so great, so terrible it left a festering wound upon Vescrutia."


"Moonscar"

Inari nodded, confirming his Familar's thought. In time, the melancholy of Allen's emotions began to alleviate him. This mending was but yet another means to an end. He needed to experience the aftermath of such a devastating advent for himself. The more he began to understand the nature of the one who sired his curse, the more he began to wonder where his soul truly hailed from. This Seed, his core, was alien to this realm. That much now, he was confident, but from where? There was an entire other side to all this, it was time to address those who hunted him by going and asking these demons themslvs.

"That is where the Opressor, the demon that haunted the Alondra in the Vareth swamp, was said to be from. It seems in the end, me returning there was inevitable."

Inari's eyes gleamed brightly.

"Show me the Black Forest."

The realm obeyed, revealing to Inari a gut-wrenching visage. A domain where the souls of the fallen could be heard riding the stale winds thick with the smell of death and rotting flesh. The earth was raised in spires that snaked into hardened darkness and metal tendrils, like a shattered moon or fangs of smelted earth. It bled a heinous miasma, an aura of suffering and pain allowing no true life to bloom, only twisted fractured reflection that echoed the luscious life that once thrived here—the lining of those pieces into an obstruction that mirrored human faces staring in horror.

"So this...this is why the planet hates me. Heh, it seems, as always, I am more than deserving of the scorn of gods and goddesses. I took the souls of the peaceful, the joy of the hopeful, and sullied them with my warped intentions. Leaving an infected wound upon the earth from which I once encouraged life. Vescrutia once welcomed my every footprint upon her face...answered my every beck and call...as if she knew what I faced...as if she tried to shield me from it...."

He observed the hollowed land, fuming with necrotic essence, marred by the remnants of the Dead Flames' scorn.

"And how did I repay her kindness? By twisting her favor into entitlement, toying with the souls of Moonfang, siphoning the mana of the Moonflow, and using it to prevent the trusted secrets of the Gloomblooms to suit my aims. I did not just betray those who loved me and trusted in me...."

His eyes wavering with a sourceable guilt and relaxation.

"I betrayed the very planet itself..."

Then our task is straightforward...travel to the Black Forest, and sow shut the Moonscar. Perhaps then, the other side of this chaos will become clear.

Amrit echoed his thoughts. Though he still hadn't a clue how to pull off such a feat, he needed to believe it was possible. There had to be something, anything he could do to begin to assuage the world of his blunders. Only then could he return to his people and truly accept his mantle as Crown.

We return to Muu, To the Vareth Bogs, where...the Moonscar and the Opressor await.

The realm of Akai-Kizu dissolved, and with it, Inari found himself back in the material world. The plants around him were lush, a beautiful blooming brush of life. A gentle breeze passed that felt like a whisper of something... grateful. He took this tiny, fleeting kindness to heart, ever more determined by his chosen course of action. He would not waste his time with apologies; words without action were meaningless fodder. He wasn't doing this as a form of altruism; in truth, it was only because it was a part he felt would be vital to finally being free of Allen's guilt. Instead, he would honor Allen's emotions with action by removing the wound he lacerated vescrutia with. With that being his focus, his mighty scarlet wings spread with a mighty gust of wind, and he took to the skies. Returning to the place where it all happened.