The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023

78| Displaced Angels

He should be relieved, shouldn't he? He just received good news. Congrats, you're not the devil but you are related to her! You're welcome.

But no, instead it simply fills Cloud with more questions than answers about his true identity. What was all this about if not for him being the living incarnation of evil?

He spent so much time accepting the idea of his fate being tethered to a title like that, he never did consider that perhaps he was wrong. Never did he consider the demons inside of him being his, and his alone.

This is...this is not how this was supposed to go. Not at all.

However, Cloud finds comfort in knowing that he isn't the only one struggling to grapple with the revelation, mirroring Freya's gaze as they wrap their heads around being related so intimately to one another.

Everyone always said the two of them had this unbreakable bond but...siblings? It makes all too much sense and yet none at all. How? And why?

"My name is Freya Grace. I have...no." she utters, rolling her tears back as she pauses to clear her throat. "No, I had parents. I had a life!"

"Illusions."

"It was real!"

"It felt real." Helel replies, keeping his tone levelled, his eyes twitching back and forth between the pair. "It wouldn't be a good illusion if it didn't."

"But my parents, they were real, I held them. Touched them. Spoke to them."

"You don't understand. Everything was real, just not the life you were living in. That's how the Wheel was designed." he answers, halting his gaze on Cloud. "That's the curse of your existence."

Cloud, Freya and Helel contort in different ways as blood drips from their ears and noses, feeling like their heads are about to explode as Cillian strikes again with his powers.

However, he fails to secure Hunter due to his behemoth size, immediately being crushed underneath his paw even after spraying him with enough bullets to take out a herd of elephants.

Cillian unsuccessfully tries to worm his way out but with a few warning growls and a snap of his teeth just inches from his head, the Mayor settles down.

Afterwards, Dinah pushes Casey away but keeps her gun trained on him, shuffling backwards one step at a time. "No sudden movements."

"Dinah?" Cillian calls, pleading at first before snapping at her. "Dinah? Dinah! Where are you going?"

"You were right about me."

"Dinah, don't do this. You know I'll find you. Remember? You even said so yourself. And where are you going to go, huh? You have nothing!"

She turns towards the door but his words niggle at her, rooting her in place as she acknowledges the hold he has had on her for the past ten years.

"I said there was no place on Earth you couldn't hunt me down," she yells back over her shoulder. "But we're not on earth anymore."

"You traitor!"

"I'm simple, right? Predictable? How could you not see this coming?" she retorts, pushing the door to the cathedral open, leaving with one last remark before slipping out. "Don't worry about me. I always pack light."

Meanwhile, Casey sprints over to Cloud and helps him get back on his feet, throwing his arms over his shoulder so that he can properly support his weight.

Cloud thanks his friends before spitting out the blood in his mouth, his teeth stained slightly redder than usual. "After today...I'mma need to lay down."

"It's not over yet." Casey points out, staring out the window at the Eclipse reaches its peak.

Although mildly entertaining to see it being so dark in the middle of the day, what he is truly referring to is the darkness spreading from Freya's wings, the daunting aura leaking from her manifesting into a very real and corruptive mist of darkness not unlike the mana that surrounds Hunter, Mortimer and Rafaela.

Gusts of air rhythmically emulate from Freya as she miraculously starts levitating off the ground, throwing her head back with her arms outstretched to the sides as her eyes fill with dark magic, shaking in silent agony as the atoms of items in the room break down, floating towards Freya where they disintegrate as soon as they get close enough.

"What is she doing?" Cloud yells, trying to get Helel's attention as the flames go out and the glass in all the windows violently shatter.

"That's black hole energy." he yells back, summoning a flame that is immediately sucked into her orbit.

Cloud tries too, using the red flames of Holy fire instead but becoming similarly disappointed when the outcome remains the same. He covers his eyes, struggling to see without the increasingly violent winds blinding him. "Okay...how do we stop her?"

"She has the power of a Luminaria, the strongest in fact...you don't stop something like that. You can't run from it either."

"Then we die?" Cloud asks, zoning in on Helel's voice, mirroring his unwavering attitude upon accepting that this really could be it for them.

"Then we die."

Cloud reaches out for Helel, who at first seems concerned by it before understanding his intentions. They stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, waiting for the end.

They say in the darkest nights, the brightest stars shine, and surprisingly that's all it takes for the unlikeliest of heroes to rise up and save the world.

"Do you feel that?" Cloud inquires, feeling his mana being syphoned from him, initially believing it to be caused by the anti-magic until a brilliant white light of power slices through the shadows.

Justin leaps in the air and raises the stolen Adamantine blade above his head, letting out a wild scream as he lodges the blade into Freya's back, specifically in-between her wings.

The Solar Eclipse ends as they land back on the ground but in one swift motion Freya rips the blade out of her back and drives it through Justin, her surge of power sobering up far too late for her to properly understand what she has done.

Her wings dissipate as she pulls out the blade, her eyes wide with shock. "No...no."

“No, It’s okay.” Justin reassures her, placing his hand on the sides of her face as she tries to slow the bleeding, using the last of his energy to perform his final act of compassion. “I'll take it all away. Your sin, and your pain, are now mine…smile…you’re free of your burden.”

And with that, Freya feels her connection to Cillian severe, feeling the weight sitting on her back weigh until it no longer exists.

She takes her first breath, no longer a walking vessel, feeling her essence returning to her as Justin collapses to the ground.

Taking his last few breaths.