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 Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 11:56 pm
It happened so fast. He felt close to the thing he hunted, he could feel it so near his grasp in the belly, and then moments later the world disappeared behind a spray of blood and the flash of teeth. Half his face torn away. He howled in rage filled agony. Jerking his body to try and leap backwards. But it was too late. The vice grip of other creature seized him, he was airborne for only a moment before he felt himself crashing down again toward the hard stone floor. Several of his bones snapped. He was stunned, breathing labored, as he tried to understand what had happened.
Clarity came back then as blood dripped from his face and his good eye snapped up at the other beast as he lay on the floor. But instead of fear the creature began to laugh, it was an unhinged kind of laughter, the half skeletal face poised into a permanent, nightmarish, smile. "You stupid little fool." The words were dripping with humor. Somehow it didn't seem as afraid as anything else would have been. Given the situation.
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 8:40 am
Zapathasura finally released the whole beast. The metallic taste of blood in his mouth caused him to instinctively lick at his fangs and lips. It wasn’t mortal blood and it burned but he barely noticed over the pain of the hole in his side which was bleeding profusely. He may have staved off the beast but at what cost? At this point he cared very little. He had won and kept what was his. His chest rose and fell heavily. The vampire let out a shuddering breath as he fell to his knees beside the beast. Eventually his head lolled back and vacant eyes stared at nothing. He was tired. So tired. When it spoke he laughed. A deep, rumbling laugh that eventually turned maniacal that shook his shoulder violently. His fists clenching and unclenching as his head fell forward. A wicked grin on his lips. “ They are all fools. I see clearly now what I must do.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:23 am
The presence at his side was no comfort, but the two faced beast laughed still, joining in the maddening chorus of laughter above him. The eye narrowed as blood seeped from missing flesh, the muscle beneath slick and shiny. Suddenly it froze, shuddered, and a strange voice replaced its own. "You've always been treated like a burden, haven't you, Zapathasura." It wasn't really a question and the strong scent of fire and sulfur permeated the air.
That intense eye rolled again in the socket, his arms slid beneath his body, pushing himself upright. It sat before him, regarding him with that still hungry gaze. Twin tails lashing out across the floor before coming to rest curled around itself. "Did you really never see how much of a pawn you were? That you were being used? You cant admit it to yourself, can you. Because then what would you truly have left. You let her break you. Twist you. And now here you are. The Broken Beast." The gaze was tired now, bordering on defeat. A soft breeze rolled in from somewhere deep within the darkness, coiling around both, stirring thick pelts gently as it went. "You choose to die broken."
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 7:43 pm
Pink eyes focused, becoming clear as his head rolled forward. An intense gaze holding the whole beast in his gaze. Zapathasura’ jaw was set square as he balled up his hands and squeezed. Blood drilling from his palm. He growled. Tired of its chatter. With one quick swipe of his claws he sliced out it’s throat. Blood and tissue flying through the air to splatter on a nearby wall. “I am no pawn.” But maybe he was. He never really understood his mother’s motives. Why she despised Ravnos so much that she would try and usurpe his power by placing him in the place of his father as head of their clan. Then she could truly run the clan through him. It all came together. Bit by bit. “I still have my rage and that is ALL I need.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 8:46 pm
As the claws moved to cut his throat, he closed his eyes and sighed, the choice was made. As claws connected with flesh those eyes flew open and the fire within them was hellish. Laughter echoed through the stone chamber until it became garbled. He shouldn’t have been able to speak and yet... The horrific sucking sound as his windpipe moved, tried to speak, still issued one last warning. “Prove to yourself that you are no longer a pawn or..”
The flesh began to fall off its body in heaps, piling around what was now muscle until that too began to disintegrate. The meat fell in thick, wet chunks to the floor. The bones crumbled shortly after. It began to turn back into the blood it had crawled from. The thick red liquid didn’t vanish completely. It bubbled and sizzled before it suddenly leapt from the floor, launching at the wound punched in through his side where it burrowed.
Those ember eyes opened again from the darkness, Lilith had returned, just as his blood began to boil.
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:21 pm
He groaned as the now liquefied beast burrowed into him from the wound. He tried to reach in and pull it out but it was no use. Zapathasura fell to the floor, squirming in agony and sheer resistance to the beast. If he flailed around enough maybe it would fall out. His back arched up and he was nearly held that way by his head and his feet until he finally collapsed back to the ground If Lilith was there he had no knowledge. His body burned. His blood boiled. All he wanted to do was take it out. Claws ripped at his own fur and flesh as he tried to removed the beast from his body. He flopped around a couple times and bashed his head against the cold stone floor as if I that strempt would daze it and send it running. No luck. He only succeeded in splitting his head ole. And splattering blood all over the floor. “Get. It. OUT!!’”
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:00 pm
Lilith moved towards Zapathasura as he thrashed and writhed, ripping at himself, and bashing his skull into the ground. She looked down at the creature he had become. Interesting choice. He had begun to see things clearly at least. Her demeanor relaxed, as though she wasn’t walking towards an extremely violent predator.
Lilith reached over him and pressed her claw into the flesh of his forehead again, a strange feeling radiated outwards from the point. Tingling began to snake through his veins and slowly immobilize his body. His blood, however, continued to boil.
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:14 pm
He had tried to roll away from her. To keep her from touching him. He didn’t want that. Zapathasura meant to swipe a claw at her but she had stuck him with her claw before he was able. Slowly his body began to lock up, his thrashing had stopped and he lay prone on the floorS On the outside he may have looked calm but on the inside there was war raging. His suffering the thing of nightmares as an eye cracked open and he uncurled in the dark only to be met with more and more pain. Wave after wave more intense than the last. He screamed. Loud and gutteral. Claws digging at his flesh again. He tore at his belly, blood pooling all around him. And yet he lay still.
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:52 pm
Growing pains. The Dark Mother loomed over him like a bad dream before she crouched down next to his body, balancing on the balls of her feet. She didnt speak to him, this wasnt a thing you could speak to. He could barely even reach himself. Thankfully it wasnt all a loss. She'd seen this trial topple fierce creatures before but nothing had fought it the way this beast had. He was strong. But he would pay the price. And this way was much worse.
As the blood charged through his veins, burning every nerve ending along the way, it only seemed to increase in intensity. There was no getting used to this feeling. There was only agony. Lilith straddled the large male as the shadows slithered back from the crevasses and holes in the walls, sliding over his limbs, his legs, and his neck to keep him still. She wasn't taking any chances and it was going to hurt. Probably more than anything he'd ever felt before in his unlife.
Her eyes narrowed, calculating her next move with careful precision. Her claws began to lengthen. Rebirth was a b***h. Whether he wanted it or not. He'd chosen to be a monster. He wasnt allowed to leave here with his sickness.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 8:34 am
His body might have been held down and immobilized but his eyes said everything they needed to. As Lilith crouched he stared up at her. Pink orbs filled with hatred. She had done this to him. She was to blame. Lilith could have just left him alone but no, she had to meddle. Just like they all did. He made a promise to himself that no matter what happened he would remember this moment and then he would come for her. He did not care what kind of powers she had. Zapathasura would find a way to hurt her in the worst way possible. The agony searing it in his mind. A finger twitched as he fought to gain control of his body once more but to jo avail he was at her mercy. “I will…..destroy you.” It was all he could manage to get out through gritted teeth.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 9:09 am
Lilith could feel his hatred burning like the hottest fires of hell, boring into her. If she hadn't the experience she'd had in her long existence she might have been afraid. As it stood she merely observed with clincal interest. His rage was a potent force, one she hadn't encountered in a long, long time. For a moment it reminded her of something, someone, from the past and Lilith stopped as she tried to remember. But like so many things she was still piecing together broken parts since she'd freed herself from Caine.
Whatever it was she made a mental note to keep him an eye on him. Her expression set in focus, blood began to weep from her eyes as she sunk her claws into the flesh of his ribcage, her knees dug into the earth on either side of him. As his words broke the silence it was the first time she smiled in his presence. But it wasn't a smile of humor, it was a smile of resolve. Just her eyes lifted to lock with Zapathasura's, they were almost black save the cold burning light in them, like garnets on fire.
"Many have tried. Many will yet." The first crack resounded loudly as she opened his ribcage. Her gaze still locked eerily upon his face. "I have endured worse than you." Another crack and the bones splintered, she took her claws and reached up, beginning to slice from the top of his skull all the way down to his navel, making a clean line down the middle. But instead of cutting just the flesh, it also tore through bones and muscles as it went. Slicing nerves and ripping away tendon.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 11:08 am
She didn’t know what he was capable of. The pain was agonizing as she sliced and cut away with her claws Zapathasura could feel himself almost loosing consciousness from it. But he kept himself awake. Using the pain to drive away the blackness. Thinking of all the ways he could hirt her. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. She would see. He would make them all see. Grendel, Ravnos, Cassius, Thorne, Cryso, other siblings if he ever came across them. Zapathasura repeated their names and what he would do to the. All. He would no longer be manipulated for their gains. For their lower grabs. No longer be ignored. He made himself this dark promise as he finally did black out.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 12:12 pm
Lilith felt a warning in the back of her mind, something was off. But she couldn't figure out what it was. She had done this so many times before she'd been trapped by Caine. Why did this feel different? But it was too late to turn back. It wasn't her place to kill this beast. If he died he would die as a result of the choices he made for himself. Not for one's he'd made under the manipulation of others. Ones which had twisted him into a monstrous thing, lost to the blackouts as the sickness devoured his mind. She'd heard him call for his mother tonight, before he knew the truth of the woman. That alone told The Dark Mother there was still something left. Buried, almost smothered, but still there.
The spray of his blood misted her as she continued to wrench his body open. Even in his sleep he would not escape it completely. He would feel the next part very clearly. There, curled up deep inside was what she sought. Zapathasura. She reached into the twisted body, wrapping her arms around him, and pulled him from both the shell he'd created and the blood of the other beast. As it happened, the screaming began. The sickness desperately tried to hold on and the blood sang to devour him. Neither wanted to let him go. All of his memories, all of his pain, all of his anger shook the cave. The loose stones on the floor jumping from the vibration as she pulled him free of the sickness and stood, slamming her foot down on the twisted carcass and hungry blood. They began to disintegrate and blow away. Gone forever.
The Dark Mother's eyes bled as she held him close and walked him across the cave. The scent of incense, smoke, earth, and spices back again, but this time softer. He was so small in this moment but would grow rapidly once she set him down. He was free of his chains. His memories would be whole, he would be in control of himself, and now he was free to choose the course his life would take. Whatever it may be. Lilith felt a twinge of sorrow for the extent to which he had been so destroyed. As she felt for all the broken souls that had ever shadowed her doorstep. But still, the warning echoed in the back of her mind. Telling her that, after everything, he could very well use his new life to bring suffering. It was hard for her to say how his path would end. She hoped, for his sake, he held on tightly to the part that had called out for help.
Lilith set his body down on the smooth floor to rest. He would heal and soon he'd awaken. She turned to walk away, stopping for only a moment to look back, glowing eyes filled with some unrecognizable emotion. Then she vanished. The wall of the cave began to shift as the doorway opened and the warm breeze slithered into the chamber. Surrounding him. Waiting to guide him out and back into the world.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 12:28 pm
The pain had been excruciating. Even when he had passed out he still felt it in his core. The tiny piece of him that Lilith was searching for squirming with it. The memories flooding back As if he were walking through them one by one. The things he had done. Had said He remembered it all. The look of disconnect and disappointment on Ravnos’s face. The anger on Grendel’s. Cassius’s bloodied face. He has caused all of it. Once Lilith had left it was only moments before he revived. Gasping loudly as if he had stopped breathing in his sleep. Zapathasura quickly jerked into a sitting position. A hand on his face as his head pounded. But soon the same wind was tugging at his fur. Eyes glancing at the opening in the cave. Had he dreamed it all? The vampire was unsure. It felt real…/ Clambering to his feet he swayed before taking the first steps towards the doorway. Hoping it would take him back to where he needed to be.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 12:54 pm
When he was ready the warm breeze gently guided him out of the cave and down the long candlelit hallway to the outer sanctum and the exit to the wastelands. The storm had long since passed but the smell of ozone and wet earth still saturated the air.
The sky was clear for miles, the lights of Hemlock burned faintly in the distance like the call of a siren. He would be able to spot them with his vampiric sight easily if he tried. The stars shimmered like diamonds. Cold and beatiful. Lost in the silence. They glittered. Tiny adornments tangled in the inky black pelt of the great sky beast.
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