Chapter Text
There it was.
The end of the journey approaching them. The final hurdle, before they could finally go home.
But not a normal hurdle. This was something greater.
It wasn't grand. It wasn't fantastical. It was just raw.
Each noise from it was a screeching cry torn from the throat of everything that Never Was. The grinding of a thousand machines, rusted with blood. A million eyes stared down, void-black pupils contained in fractals upon fractals, endless kaleidoscopes of unreality.
A thousand screeching maws opened simultaneously, each noise which tore itself from raw throat causing reality to waver around it. A cacophony of incomprehensible noises.
It was unspeakable, yet forced others to spread the word of it. Unseeable, but wrenching open others eyes to force them to gaze upon it. Unknowable, but clawing its way into the minds of all like a leech.
The great destroyer. The embodiment of all darkness.
Mara. The embodiment of desire and temptation, the one who blocked the road to enlightenment for all who sought it.
Not in full, no. Manifesting in full would bring about something unknowable.
This was a fragment of it. An avatar, sent up from the great darkness, a creature residing in the deep that had been attracted by the alluring power emanating from the King and his host.
One by one, the others fell.
The Hunter, great as she was and as many as her weapons were, went down swinging, retrieved and brought to safety.
The Daughter of Opposing Forces, as quick as she was on her feet and with the power to control movement itself, born from twin stars, still fell, slinking away to provide support to those fallen.
The God of Lightning, with the power to control each and every electrical phenomena, ignited with the power hidden deep inside him, yet after the time passed, he reverted to normal, fatigued and unable to move, retrieved just in time, almost having been crushed.
Only the Vessel remained. And she fought her hardest. Truly, she did. Pulling out every stop, using every tool in her vast arsenal.
But still, even she fell.
So, the King took over.
And for a moment, it looked as though he would win, as he pushed back the darkness.
But the tide shifted, and the darkness pushed back against him, retaliating and encroaching on the light like the parasite it was.
So, when everything seemed to be lost, when it looked like the people she cherished would die, falling to the darkness…
The vessel made a choice.
___
Under this Binding Vow:
Exchange: Impo Kesune will die. No methods whatsoever will be able to revive her.
Result: Cumen Ishanov will experience a power boost and regain his original form.
___
Even the King, with all his might and glorious power, couldn't stop her from doing it.
The Vessel died. And the King lived.
The Darkness was pushed back, forced into the depths it had emerged from, and everyone went home.
Except one.
The Daughter grieved for her lost love, her star-crossed soulmate vanished into the ethereal planes, but still she denied it, swearing that she would find a way to bring her love back, even if she had to defy the natural forces of Chaos and Order itself. She brought their child with her, walking through the opening.
The Hunter looked down at the body. She didn't know how to grieve in the ways others did, instead choosing her own way to mourn. She stood there, silent for a few precious moments, before pulling out The Weapon That Defied Heaven, and layed it down into the fallen ones hand, curling the bodies fingers around the hilt, before standing up and walking away, towards the opening that would bring them back home.
The Lightning God mourned similarly, not knowing how to grieve for the one who had been the first to teach him what it meant to have someone to trust. So, instead he laid down his staff in the Vessels other hand, then reached up to gently close the fallen ones eyes. He stood up, hesitating for a moment as he looked back, before turning around fully to walk into the opening.
The King was the last one. He sat down next to her, knowing he had all the time in the world.
And he talked. Told her of things, both grand and small. Adventures he had, foes he had vanquished, places he had conquered, things he had learned, stories he knew. He talked to his fallen vessel for hours, time seeming to flow by as fast as a heartbeat.
When he was finished speaking, he left her with one last thing. Biting open his wrist and dabbing his finger with blood, two arms reaching over to lift up the back of her hand while the third one painted onto it a creature with the head of a monkey, the limbs of a tiger, the body of a Tanuki, and the front half of a snake for a tail. His symbol, the blessing of the King.
When he couldn't bear to look at the fallen one any longer, he finally began walking.
And as he passed through the portal, tears began to fall from the six eyes of the King, for the first time in millennia.