Chapter 126 Goodbye For Now
Arias felt like his worst nightmare had truly come to life as he wrestled with the most terrible pain he could imagine. The feeling of being stabbed by this unforeseen creature was so unexpected that he almost thought he was mortal again for a brief moment. His body flashed out of existence and reappeared in the sky a few feet away, where he immediately reached for the gaping wound in his chest. Even though he was no longer being impaled, his wound had yet to heal and that corrosive substance refused to leave his system. "This... doesn't make any sen-"
"ENEMYYY!!"
Shear wasn't the kind of creature who made a habit of letting her prey escape, and she would give her last to ensure that Arias knew that. She rushed at him with all four of her clawed appendages out, but Arias was much more wary of her existence after being attacked. Like before, he conjured over forty of those massive pillars of light and fired them at Shear from every direction. The nightmare used her nimble body to avoid the projectiles by only the faintest of margins, and continued to inch ever closer to the terrified avatar. "Stay away! Stay away from me you fucking beast!"
Arias was clearly beginning to become hysterical, and indiscriminately fired his attacks from any direction, causing terrible devastation on the city beneath them. 'Wait, this is some kind of contracted creature, right...?' Arias realized. If he finished killing Malachi here, this creature would be no more as well. It was a pity, as Hemera wanted him to suffer more before he kicked the bucket but there was nothing that could be done about it anymore. Surely, his sweet mother would rather have her son alive by any means necessary. Arias teleported once again and reappeared on the street beside Malachi. The young man's formerly perfect body was riddled with holes all over, but he was still alive and conscious by sheer force of will. He was trying to climb his way off the top of the car he was embedded in when Arias appeared beside him in a flash of golden light. The avatar of day grabbed Malachi by his throat and held him high above his head. Even in this situation, Malachi showed a bloody smile as if he was devoid of a single care in the world. "Now I know I'm not really all that smart but if I didn't know any better I would think you were trying to kill me." "An infuriatingly astounding observation." Arias raised his free hand above his head and transformed it into a blade of light. Malachi's entire life flashed before his eyes within a few brief moments. It was painful,but sweet, and he would have given anything to do it all over again. In the back of his mind, he contemplated accepting Nyx's offer and fully becoming her avatar. He very nearly made the choice, when an impactful memory arose in his mind. The recollection of he and Luna in the bathtub, making a decision to have a child together as soon as they healed her body. It may have been silly but... that brief moment of hesitation stopped his actions firmly within his tracks yet again. He couldn't do it. No matter how badly he wanted to. 'My sweet boy... do you believe that Luna would rather have your child, or you?' 'I...' For the first time, the obvious answer seemed to escape Malachi and he could not bring himself to make a decision. Nyx's voice did not play within his mind again for what felt like a long time, but when it did he could practically feel her overwhelming sadness and disappointment. 'Y-You asked me for a favor and I agreed without a second thought, so that mens you owe me too...'
Malachi didn't know where Nyx was going with this, but he was beginning to feel slightly anxious. 'I am taking the choice out of your hands...! I... hope with all of my heart that you forgive me...'
'What're you-'
'Please, hold on to everything that you value about yourself, my son. Lest you lose it all in your ascension to immortality.'
Just as Arias prepared to stab Malachi in the head, two significant things happened. For one, Shear appeared behind Arias once again, and she immediately bit his arm, nearly inhaling it regardless of it's sharpness. Arias let out an involuntary scream that seemed to reach the highest of heavens at the same time that a pillar of black light struck the body within his grasp. When Arias watched Malachi's body be ripped apart at a cellular level, he knew full well what was going to happen.
'No...No..!'
Things were about to go from bad to worse within a few short seconds, and Arias couldn't have anything jeopardizing his plans so far. With his hand lodged inside of Shear's mouth, he transformed his appendage into a pointed mace that pierced through her head. The nightmare's body twitched once, then twice... and then eventually not at all. Arias didn't even bother to watch her body hit the ground before he teleported out of the city just as Malachi's body started to reform. The sky overhead which was reminiscent of a beautiful summer morning soon lost all of it's color. But even though this scene should have been nightmarish it was a vision of beauty like none had ever seen before. A completely black sky, with glimmering stars that shone like only the most polished of diamonds could. Beneath the rechristened night, a figure started to come back into being. It started at his feet, and stopped at the long dreads that were flowing out of his head. He was a mass of darkness, stars, nebulas, and black holes all compiled into the shape of a man. For a while he seemed not to understand his existence, and even had trouble remembering who he was. It seemed like he was going to stand there motionless like some sort of statue for all of eternity, but eventually he heard a small voce playing within his mind that brought his psyche rushing back. '...re.'
's..red.'
'scared...'
Turing around, Malachi found his beloved pet Shear lying on the ground, her life force fleeting. Dark black blood was flowing from the wounds in her head, and the sight of her filled Malachi with unbearable pain. "No...Shear...!"
Malachi went to the side of the alien creature that had become a cherished part of his life, and he kneeled on the ground as he pulled her into his arms. 'Scared...very scared...'
"Shear, I'm here alright? You don't need to be afraid. Nothing can hurt you now, I promise..."
'Scared...'
Every utterance of that word broke Malachi's nonexistent heart to pieces, and the pain was almost too great to bear. No, it was too great for him to bear. When Nyx asked Malachi to hold onto everything that he valued about himself, he did. And what he placed the highest value on was the love he had for the people closest to him and his desire to protect and avenge them.
Because what he valued most about himself was rooted in his emotions, he had developed the emotional stability of an immortal within 2 minutes. There is a reason why the stories about the gods are filled with their obsessive tendency to love, enacting plagues over the smallest of slights, and guarding the most minute trinkets with their lives. Their love is pure and obsessive, their hatred is even more so, and their heartache is incomprehensible to the human mind. Unlike humans who's feelings can change with the wind, the highers and those like them love and hate things with all of their being for all of eternity. In hindsight, it was partially a good thing that Mal was practically immortal now. If he wasn't, he likely would have killed himself from this horrible grief that he had no idea how to process. But because he couldn't do that, his despair changed to desperation. He focused on the tether that connected he and Shear together, and tried not to cry out when he felt it rapidly weakening. "You can't leave me, Shear... not you too."
He began to pull her body into himself, at the same time as he tried to strengthen the tether between them. Shear's body was absorbed entirely into his, and he felt another change taking place within his being. But in this moment, he couldn't have cared less about that and focused instead on keeping his companion alive. 'Just a little more... just a bit... No!'
When Shear's body was fully ingrained into his own, the tether that unified the two of them... broke. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't feel her... and he could no longer hear her. In the back of his mind, he tried to tell himself that she was still there and her touch was still within his body but... his logical mind was overshadowed by the grief within his heart. On his knees, he stared up into the sky and let out a terrible heartbroken scream that traveled for miles. The sky above which should have been beautiful and twinkling with lights, was swallowed up in total darkness. But it wasn't just in the south of the U.S. where he lived. The entire world felt Malachi's grief as it was engulfed in a pitch black night with no chance for sunlight to break through.