The Star, The Demon, and The God - 54. The Archdemon

Tobias

I grab Laneer’s arm and quickly pull us to run as far away from Raiyo as we can.

Morgoren stands on the bridge with Luno floating just behind him.

Luno’s eyes shine with starlight.

“You no longer have that ability to shy away from death,” Morgoren says. “Do you really think you can take me?”

The ends of Raiyo’s blades glow orange as they heat up.

“Last time this happened, you ran scared,” he says. “I was a mere human then. The real question is can you take me?”

There is a moment where Morgoren’s smile slips away to reveal that he is truly afraid. He quickly covers it up by yelling at Luno.

“End him my creation!”

Luno raises his hands, lifting up large pieces of stone from the ground.

He claps his hands together, making all the stones attack at once.

As the giant stones fly, Raiyo spins into the air, leaping over the attack.

Once he is flying above Luno and Morgoren, Raiyo throws one of his blades forward. The cloth it is attached to stretches out as the blade swipes for Morgoren’s head.

The Moon God dodges in time before he quickly flies behind Luno.

Luno shoots beams of light from his hands. It is a blinding show to watch, but I must know what is going on!

Raiyo flies over Luno and sends a stream of fire down onto him.

My gut twists up as I watch Luno create a barrier of water to block the attack.

“We need to get up there,” Laneer says next to me.

I look at him with wide eyes. “Are you crazy? We would get wiped out as soon as we get too close!”

He shakes his head. “I wouldn’t.”

I jump when a splash of darkness lands on the bridge, destroying one side.

Luno dodges another ball of darkness before he throws his arms forward, sending a bunch of icicles up towards Raiyo.

Raiyo dissolves into smoke and flies through the attack, headed straight for Luno.

Oh gods! I don’t want either of them to get hurt! Especially not Luno!

Morgoren has him under his control! Surely Raiyo must know that!

Luno tries to dodge the incoming smoke form of Raiyo, but halfway through solidifying once again, Raiyo kicks Luno square in the back, sending him down the ground.

My heart stops when I see how hard he landed on the ground and I quickly make my way towards him.

“Get up you useless abomination!” Morgoren barks down at him.

Raiyo throws both his blades for the Moon God, but Morgoren dodges by a mere few inches.

Luno quickly pushes himself onto his feet before flying up into the air again.

Fuck!

“Luno stop,” I shout. “Fight back from Morgoren!”

He ignores me as he creates a shield around the Moon God.

My eyes widen when I see a ball of black lightning grow between Raiyo’s hands.

He pushes his hand through the ball and a line of the lightning shoots for Luno.

The Star dodges just in time, but I happen to also be in the line of fire.

I try to move, but I find myself being shoved out of the way.

I grunt when I run into a wall, but when I look back, I see Laneer twitching at the ground while holding onto his chest.

“Fuck!” I shout. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Hurrying to his side, I try and see what kind of damage has been done.

His hands cover it up but every few seconds I see a hole has been made into his chest.

When he rolls to his side, I see it through his back.

“Oh fuck!” I cry out. “Luno! Get over here and help me!”

I look over at the star but I see he is still fighting Raiyo.

“Oh gods,” I whisper in panic. “Why did you do that, you idiot?”

Laneer stops moving and he lays on his back.

He groans as he keeps his hand over the hole on his chest. “To keep you alive you dumbass.”

My eyes widen when he removes his hand and I see that the hole is healing up!

Bones reappear as well all kinds of muscle and tissue.

His skin slips over the newly formed chest and the Sailor sits up.

“Can’t die,” Laneer says with a small glare. “Maybe dodge next time though. I would rather not do that again.”

I duck my head when an explosion goes off behind me.

Another opening has been made by a ball of fire.

A shiver runs up my spine as I imagine that hitting Luno.

How do I free Luno? There must be a way!

I glare at Morgoren as he shine a line of moonlight for Raiyo.

I need to stop him...but how?

Luno has a shield wrapped around him so I can’t do anything! There must be something I can do!

The ground shakes, forcing me to my hands and knees, as large streams of stone erupt from the earth.

They rise into the air and move towards Raiyo.

Raiyo throws his blades in front of him, slashing a burning “X” into the air.

It slices through the incoming attack from Luno, forcing the stone to fall back to the ground.

Raiyo switches his grip on the blades, holding them in reverse with the blades outwards.

He bends down in the middle of the air as if he were standing on the ground.

With a spinning leap into the air, the blades unleash spiraling lines of fire before he slams down quickly on the bridge near Luno.

The force of the impact sends him flying backwards.

My heart freezes over as I watch Luno’s body slam into the side of the dome before falling onto the barrier along the edge along with a few pieces of the stone.

A single breath escapes my lips before I quickly morph into my tiger form, sprinting after him.

Leaping up the barrier, I run as fast as I can to Luno.

Why isn’t he getting up! He needs to get back up!

When I reach him, I morph back and kneel down next to him.

Kulu is sitting on on his chest, he lets out little squeaks to the Star, trying to get his attention.

“Luno,” I say, carefully lifting him up to check how badly he got hurt.

He groans as my hands touch the back of his head.

“Tobi?” He whines. “What...what happened?”

I shush him and hold him close.

“You’re fine,” I say. “That’s all that matters.”

How the hell is he not dead or at least bleeding?

I get he’s a star but that slam into the wall looked fatal!

“Where’s Laneer?” He asks. “Is he okay?”

I let out a small sigh of relief that he seems to be perfectly fine and back to normal.

“I’m alright?” Laneer says behind me.

Gods I didn’t even hear him!

“Useless!” Morgoren snarls. “Absolutely useless!”

I look over at him and see him staring at us on the bridge.

A cloud of smoke drifts down a few meters behind him.

Raiyo solidifies and drags the tips of his blades into the ground as he walks closer to Morgoren.

“What’s the matter?” He says. “Afraid you can’t hide behind anyone now?”

Morgoren turns to face the Archdemon. “Not at all, love. This was to test him. It appears it really is down to me to deal with you.”

Raiyo drags a blade in front of him, creating a burning line into the stone.

“Are you ready to die, Morgoren?” He smiles, his eyes glowing just a tad brighter.

Morgoren scoffs. “I plan to live and make a slave out of you for your next life. Are you ready for that?”

He summons a silver sword into his hand.

They stare at each other, waiting for one to make the first move.

“Come on,” I say, lifting Luno up bridal style, “We are getting out of here.”

Luno wraps his arms around me and whimpers slightly at me moving him.

I quickly give my apologies before moving.

“Wait,” Luno says. “What about them?”

He looks over at Raiyo and Morgoren.

I shake my head. “The last place we need to be is here while they fight. I am getting you out of here."

A piercing clash of blades rings into the air. A force of air pushes me to fall to one knee.

When I look over, I see Raiyo’s teeth bared as he slams both his blades onto Morgoren’s sword.

Morgoren moves away before he tosses a shininging ball of moonlight at Raiyo.

Raiyo dashes around the attack before he throws one of the blades after Morgoren.

With a sidestep, Morgoren dodges the blade before he swings his blade upwards, cutting the cloth attached to the blade.

The armband and cloth on Raiyo dissolved into nothing.

The Archdemon yells in frustration before swings his other blade, spinning it around him before slamming it down at Morgoren’s feet.

The area around the blade causes a large explosion that sends shards of stone flying everywhere.

Morgoren chuckles as he flies into the air.

“Is this all you have to offer me?” He grins. “A fight with blades? I was expecting more power from you honestly.”

Raiyo glares up at the Moon God.

Moonlight pours through the middle of the dome, surrounding Morgoren in its power.

“You want power?” Raiyo snarls. “I’ll give you power.”

Raiyo lifts his hands slowly as he flies up off the ground. Vines of darkness and fire dance all around him. His eyes burn with fire and his tattoos glow brighter than I have ever seen before.

The literal air around the dome goes darker with his magic. The only source of light able to withstand the darkness is the Moonlight.

He holds a blank expression on his face but the entire image and display exudes so much power and energy, I can feel it from here!

“Wow,” Laneer breathes next to me.

I raise an eyebrow at him in question.

His eyes widen and he glances at Luno and I.

“Sorry,” He quickly says and scratches the back of his neck. “He just looks...wow.”

Luno lets out a small laugh and rests his head on my shoulder.

I guess I can see the appeal.

Seeing Luno in his powerful states is rather attractive if I say so myself.

This isn’t something we should see however. This is dangerous.

“Let’s go,” I say, moving once again.

I keep an eye on the gods as Raiyo begins to spin around Morgoren.

Suddenly, Morgoren sends a large beam of moonlight at Raiyo.

Raiyo counters with his own beam of darkness.

When the beams collide, a large wall of white and black spreads, completely covered up both sides of the dome!

Luno screams against me as stone begins to fall all around us.

I quickly run backwards as the wall of magic disappears.

Where it once was, it completely cut the dome in half.

Another beam of dark and light collide, creating another wall that cuts through the stone of the dome.

“Let me heal!” Luno says. “We will be faster if I can move!”

The third wall appears behind us.

I shake my head. “No time! It’s too dangerous, alright?”

Laneer keeps his eyes on the gods, helping us move out of the way of another attack with deadly magic.

Oh gods they were really holding back earlier!

Morgoren snarls as he all of sudden shoots hundreds of shards of light after Raiyo.

Raiyo creates a cloud of black smoke before pushing into the shards, completely sucking the light out of each of them.

The cloud still flies after Morgoren who quickly creates a shield around himself.

Raiyo flies higher, breathing fire into the dark cloud.

Morgoren yells as an explosion of light bursts the cloud open.

The force of the explosion causes us all to fall onto the ground.

Raiyo goes flying backwards and slams through the dome.

The entire top of the dome breaks open, sending stones flying outwards into the empty wasteland of Avelin.

Raiyo’s body slams into the ground, creating a large crater.

Morgoren flies over to him and shoots a stream of silver light on top of him.

It bubbles like it is some kind of boiling silver paint.

The streams fills the crater up to the brim before Morgoren shoots down a beam of light straight from the moon.

“Yinx!” Laneer shouts before he pushes himself off the ground and runs for Raiyo.

Dammit! We need to go right now!

“Tobi,” Luno breathes out. “Did Morgoren win?”

No...No he couldn’t have!

I stare at the glistening pool of silver, waiting for Raiyo to pop out and tear into Morgoren.

Morgoren laughs as he lands back on where his broken machine somehow still remains..

“Finally,” He grins. “No more competition!”

Come on Raiyo.

Get up dammit!

Morgoren turns to face us and I swear all the blood turns cold.

He raises his arms and the moon shines even brighter in the sky.

Vibrating energies cause the world to feel like it is being pulled towards Morgoren.

Stones, blades of grass, winds.

I plant my feet into the ground and use one hand to grip onto a large piece of stone in hopes of keeping Luno and I safe.

“Nothing can defeat me now!” He laughs as a shining ball of light is created in his hands.

Everything begins to be sucked into the strange ball.

All of a sudden it stops!

Everything drops to the ground as the light disappears.

Luno gasps against me when we see a red portal opened underneath Morgoren.

Long pairs of arms burst out of the portal, grabbing onto Morgoren. They grab his arms, his legs, anything and everything to hold him in place.

Who is this? Another demon?

My eyes widen when I see the pool of silver has turned completely black.

Raiyo slowly emerges from the pool of darkness.

His eyes and tattoos burn with fire as he steps out of the pool.

Luno’s arms around me tighten as we watch Raiyo slowly walk towards the bridge to get to Morgoren.

“Raiyo,” Laneer calls behind him.

When Raiyo looks over at Laneer, the fire’s all instantly die out.

His eyes widen as he stares in disbelief at his lost love.

“It’s me,” A voice stands.

I blink in surprise.

There is another Laneer?

A new clone of Laneer has appeared out of nowhere.

“No it’s me,” Another clone appears.

“No me!”

“Raiyo!”

Tons of Laneer clones all of a sudden appear out of nowhere.

“No, I’m the real Laneer!”

“No, I am!”

Raiyo’s hands begin to shake, the fires slowly come back to life before he screams and unleashes a large wave of fire that eliminates all the fake clones.

Morgoren laughs even as he struggles against the bloody hands.

Of course this is his trickery.

He manages to escape the arms once again, but he all of a sudden snarls in pain as a tendril of shadow pierces his shoulder and brings him back to his knees.

Another tendril of smoke does the same to the other side, causing the god to moan in pain.

Raiyo drifts up until he is a few yards from Morgoren.

“You are going to regret doing that,” Raiyo says, his voice suddenly calm.

A shiver runs up my spine when he says that.

Raiyo begins a slow walk towards Morgoren.

Shadows and smoke slowly begin to surround Raiyo. They create a cloud around him that soon gets to the point that we can’t even see him anymore!

Fire’s all of a sudden form within the ball of darkness.

I narrow my eyes when I swear I saw a flash of red inside the smoke.

All of a sudden the smoke and fire open like a flower, unleashing a giant wave of fire that comes straight for us.

I squint my eyes shut and grab Luno as the fire comes barreling towards us.

When the heat envelopes us, I am surprised we aren’t dead!

Luno has created a barrier of light around us to keep us safe.

When I look back up at Raiyo, I am shocked to see he has revealed a new form.

Raiyo stands with two sets of wings. They are shaped like a dragon’s and are made entirely of fire and smoke.

They are spread out behind him, completely lighting up the area. The smoke has completely blocked out the moonlight from above.

Raiyo’s skin has turned completely red. His tattoos still burn completely orange. His eyes have changed into black pools of darkness.

Like his wings, he has two sets of horns on his head.

One spirals along the side of his head like a ram, another curves upwards like my hidden ones.

With this new form comes a new outfit.

Like the succubi and incubi, he wears a cloth that covers the front and back.

Jewelry made of red beads and bones are draped low on his hips. There is a set of armbands and ankle bracelets.

I can’t believe I am finally seeing his true form.

I didn’t even know he had a true form!

Raiyo takes a step closer to Morgoren, unleashing a wave of fire that spreads all around him.

Morgoren grits his teeth as the fire encases his lower half.

Another step of fire, then another.

It is a slow torture of fire onto the Moon God’s body.

When Raiyo finally stands in front of the Moon God, his clawed hand reaches out and lightly runs the back of his hand along his cheek, burning the flesh.

Morgoren groans and tries to keep his cries to himself.

“You kept asking me for a kiss,” Raiyo’s voice says.

Little whispers echo his words in the back of my mind.

“It is time I gave it to you.”

Morgoren shakes his head frantically as Raiyo uses both hands to gently hold Morgoren’s head in place.

“No!” He shouts. “Get away from me at once!”

Raiyo doesn’t react to his words.

Instead, he sinks his claws into Morgoren’s face.

Morgoren wails in pain as the skin around Raiyo’s claws burns into his brain.

Raiyo keeps his eyes open as he leans down and presses his lips to Morgoren’s.

As soon as he does that, Morgoren screams against his mouth.

The skin around his face begins to flake off like an old painting.

Morgoren screams in agony as his skin is brushed away by the scorching winds of Raiyo.

Luno’s grip on my arm tightens, forcing me to tear my gaze away.

His eyes are wide open in horror.

Not wanting him to see this any longer, I turn him away and hug him close to me.

Unfortunately that won’t be able to stop Morgoren’s screams from hitting his ears.

I keep my eyes on the scene in front of me.

Raiyo pulls back as he watches his tormentor die between his hands.

Morgoren wails out in high pitched screams as his body disintegrates into nothing.

His legs have completely disappeared.

Seeing Raiyo do this to the Moon God is both terrifying and amazing.

The god had it coming, but it is awful to see!

Seeing his skin disappear to reveal his boiling fleshy insides is an awful image.

Raiyo lifts Morgoren into the air with his mind to keep him at eye level now.

He spreads Morgoren’s arms out to the point that Morgoren’s head turns red as the force ends up tearing them completely off!

The armless and legless god, cries bloody tears before he stares choking.

His screams come to a halt as Raiyo crushes his throat, preventing him from making a sound or breath.

Morgoren’s eyes roll to the back of his head before that too is torn clean off the torso.

Raiyo throws the body to the side and motions for the head to come closer.

He stares at the decapitated head as he twirls it around in the air.

He brings a claw up, as if he wishes to touch it.

Raiyo stops himself.

With a clench and swipe of his hand, the head crushes into itself before it is dropped to the ground into a fire.

I watch the Archdemon breath in the hot air, reveling in his victory.

Large cracks form across his body.

They glow orange as if the power inside Raiyo is threatening to pour out.

Raiyo slightly raises his arms, lifting up into the air.

His wings unleash waves of fire and smoke, completely destroying the bridge below him.

With Luno in my arms, I quickly stand.

“It’s time,” Laneer calls.

He runs up next to us, his arm can be seen healing up some kind of burn.

It must have been when Raiyo wiped out all the clones of him.

“No,” Luno shakes his head. “You can’t!”

I almost drop Luno as a ground shaking explosion echoes above us.

Raiyo’s hands are raised to the sky.

A giant opening to another realm has been forced open.

One filled with a jungle.

In that realm’s sky, another explosion opens another realm.

It becomes a train of destruction as Raiyo tears through all the realms that belonged to the gods.

My eyes widen as Raiyo unleashes fire into the realms, completely burning everything inside them all.

Winds of fire sweep across the sky, flying into each realm as if it is an opening to a cracked window.

“Get out of here now,” Laneer yells. “Leave this to me.”

Not needing to be told again, I tighten my hold on Luno and run.

~~~
~~~

Laneer

I don’t turn to watch the Star and Demon leave.

For all I know, they might not even make it.

Raiyo is destroying whole realms.

He will do the same here.

I am brought to my knees as the stone underneath me begins to shake.

The ground trembles as stones begin to be torn off the barrier, piling up underneath Raiyo.

I quickly run along the barrier, trying to find a way towards Raiyo.

I need to get to him but how?

Just as I am thinking of a plan, the stone underneath my feet is swiped out from underneath me.

Falling down to the ground, I groan as I land flat on my back.

When I open my eyes, I see stone moving in the sky.

As I turn my gaze to where they are all leading, I am surprised to see the pile of bricks has nearly reached his feet!

I need to climb that thing!

Pushing myself to my feet, I rush for the stone pile.

As I get closer to it, I swear it brings a flashback of that vision Morgoren had sent me.

A path of fire that led to a giant pile of bodies in Avelin. Yinx’s caged body at the top.

Clenching my jaw at the memory, I grab onto any stone that doesn’t move under my hand and I start climbing.

This is only a pile of stones. No fire and darkness just yet. No caged Yinx.

I can do this!

Another realm in the sky is broken into, shattering like glass.

Stones fall as the fiery winds slice through the world around me. They burn through everything so easily!

Raiyo is going to destroy everything if I don’t succeed!

A sonic boom goes off as a heatwave explodes off of Raiyo’s body.

I watch as a wave of stone crumbles to pieces as the wave heads straight for me.

Quickly, I try and shove myself into a small opening in the pile of stone, trying to get away from the fire.

Clenching my eyes shut, I suddenly feel white hot pain all over the left side of my body!

Screaming in agony, I grip too hard onto the stone under my hands and breath hard through my teeth.

Taking the chance to open my eyes, I see the world outside me has indeed turned into one of ash and fire.

The left side of my body is red and steaming, my skin completely burned off!

My body begins to work overtime with trying to heal all the damage.

In seconds, my skin begins to heal and grow back.

Groaning in pain, I move to start climbing again.

It has grown smaller thanks to the heatwave by Raiyo.

After some time, I reach a platform that allows me to rest on my back for a moment.

Trying to catch my breath and let the healing finish, another sonic boom stops me.

Another wave of heat hits me full in the face.

Screaming in pain, I grab at my face but instantly regret it.

Moaning and rolling onto my stomach, I feel my body healing my head.

I can’t do anything! It all hurts to try and move!

All I can do is lay there, trying to let the healing curse bring me back to where I can move again.

I groan as I try and open my eyes, looking out into the world of Thymestrys.

The world was once green around Avelin. The world was filled with trees and life.

Now all of that is gone.

There is a wasteland of fire and smoke that looks as if it goes on for miles.

Did the Star and Demon get out? I truly hope they did.

Not wanting to let them or anyone in this damned world down, I force myself to get up.

Throwing off what remains of my coat and harness, I get to climbing.

Now being a lot closer to Raiyo, I can see him more clearly now.

His demon form continues to unleash his rage into the world.

No longer do I feel the stinging of pain on my face. It has fully healed.

Gritting my teeth, I pull myself up onto another bed of rock.

This one is my last stop for climbing.

“Raiyo!” I shout up to him in the sky.

He is flying above a small perch of stone that has what looks like a stairwell to me.

His gaze turn to me, sending scorching hot air in my direction.

I grit and teeth and growl at the pain that spreads across my chest and shoulder.

Raiyo drifts down to stand at the top of his stairwell.

Taking a step closer, I fight through his fire and try to get closer to him.

He also makes his way down. Each step he makes, he unleashes another attack at me.

A wind of fire flies in front of me before it goes right through my stomach.

I fall to one knee, moaning at the pain that feels like it is in all corners of my body.

“Why won’t you die,” Raiyo snarls. “What trick did Morgoren pull as his dying wish?”

I look up at him.

My eyes feel a bit watery at how much he wants to kill me, but I bite through this pain and say, “I’m not a clone. This time it’s me.”

He shakes his head before he dashes forward and sinks his claws into the flesh between my neck and shoulder.

“Don’t play with me!” He screams.

His eyes burn a fire that threatens to touch me.

I laugh slightly, though still it hurts to do so.

“I’m not lying, Yinx,” I whisper. “You know I wouldn’t.”

I watch as the fire in his eyes slowly begins to disappear.

Like steam rising off his skin, smoke completely surrounds him before he is back to his normal form once more.

“L-...Laneer?” He whispers, still shaking his head.

He quickly removes his claws from my neck and instead pulls me into a hug.

I close my eyes as I feel his embrace.

“Is it really you?” His voice shakes. “but...I killed you.”

It takes everything inside me to not hug him back. It takes everything to not break after hearing these questions again.

“Yinx,” I say. “What are you doing here? Do you realize what you are doing right now?”

He leans back slightly to look at me.

“Stop this now,” I say. “This is madness.”

His eyes begin to cloud over in darkness but he shakes his head.

“I can’t,” He chokes. “I need to do this!”

“No! No you don’t,” I grab his arms. “This isn’t you! Stop this while you still can!”

He looks up at me in shock.

I know this is the first thing I am telling him after he has learned that I am still alive, but the fate of the world is at stake here.

He steps away from me. “I can’t do this Laneer. I can’t!”

Black tears begin to fall. “Help me.”

I frown and stand, reaching for him.

“I’m a monster,” He cries.

The pile of stone begins to shake underneath us.

“I’m evil,” he pushes my hands away.

I grab him by the shoulders, “Stop it! You are none of those things!”

Thick tears stream down his face and his bottom lip trembles.

“Please kill me,” he whispers.

I shake my head. “You can stop this, Yinx. I know you-”

“Please,” he says again, bringing my hand to the dagger on my belt.

My heart aches seeing his face like that.

The skin around his eyes all of a sudden darken before he screams.

“KILL ME!”

My mind snaps as my body moves without my permission.

My hand grabs my dagger and then shoves it into Yinx’s chest, right over his heart.

Both he and I look at each other in shock as he releases his control of my mind.

“No,” I whisper in shock, my eyes clouding over.

“Why did you have to do that,” I cry out. “Why?”

Yinx’s voice shakes slightly as he collapses against me.

I quickly grab him as we sink to the floor.

He lets out short breaths as he stares up at me with tears still coming from his eyes.

“I’m...sorry…,” He breathes out

I grab one side of his head, pulling him closer to me.

For the third time now; I watched the love of my life die.

As I sit there with my protecting his body, a voice shouts above me.

~~~
~~~

Yinx

“Laneer!”

The Sailor looks up at me when he hears my voice.

Tobias is underneath me with a pile of stones used to lift him up into the sky.

We quickly land on the giant pile of stone and stand before Laneer.

I get on my knees in front of him.

“No,” I gasp.

Laneer wipes away his tears and looks down at Raiyo.

His eyes are closed. The tattoos’ glow has disappeared, revealing small red marks in the skin instead.

The cracks on his body from the souls and their corruption have also lost their glow.

“He’s gone,” Laneer says. “It’s over.”

Hesitantly, I reach out to touch Raiyo.

When Laneer doesn't say anything, I take that as his blessing for me to touch Raiyo..

My hand touches the wolf head over his chest.

Seeing that makes Laneer’s body begin to shake with more tears that have yet to be shed.

Closing my eyes, I feel a warmth coming from within Raiyo’s body.

He’s not entirely gone yet.

There must still be time!

“I feel him,” I say. “I can still feel him!”

Laneer sniffs before saying, “what?”

“I can save him,” I say, opening my eyes. “I can bring him back.”

He stares hard at me for a moment.

“Can you?” He asks. “The real Yinx?”

I almost frown when I hear that.

“I-I could try,” I say.

“Please,” He says quickly. “Please, I’m begging you!”

He gently places Rai-...Yinx on the ground and steps away.

“Please bring him back to me.”

Glancing at Tobias, he nods for me to do it.

Biting my lip, I press my hands over Yinx’s stomach and chest.

Closing my eyes, I quickly look for his spirit.

My power drifts through the dark plains of this body.

It is awfully dark here. I can’t see anything!

I can tell he is close, but where?

All of a sudden I hear a voice.

It’s...it’s singing!

If I am not mistaken, I believe it is the old Serendian language.

Drifting through the darkness, I try and follow the voice.

The voice sings some kind of lullaby. Something about two lovers traveling through the desert together.

It is a pretty song with a pretty voice that echoes for me to follow it.

As I look for Yinx’s spirit, everything all of a sudden turns a pale pink!

Pinkish fog surrounds me, revealing a special scene.

A pink tinted memories reveals a naked, but covered, Yinx and Laneer.

Laneer is under the sheets in a bed while Yinx sits next to him, playing on a lyre.

Yinx gently sings down to Laneer with a smile even while he is sleeping. He sings the song for him, softly bringing him out of sleep.

I smile at the memory.

I believe I found him.

Slipping out of Yinx’s spirit, I find myself being held by Tobias.

I blink and look around us.

Where did the stone pile go?

We are flat on the ground of Avelin.

Smaller piles of stone are all around us, but we are safely on the ground again!

My eyes widen when I see Yinx’s body in the air.

A white light shines around him, cleansing him of any corruption from all the souls he had taken.

His markings and scars disappear, his claws revert back to regular human fingers, his hair is no longer the unnatural darkness that it was.

All these changes make him look more human!

I watch as he slowly drifts back down to us.

As he is laid on the ground, Laneer walks over to him, kneeling down.

Staring at Yinx’s chest, I watch it slowly move up and down.

He’s breathing! He’s alive!

Laneer scoops his arms under Yinx’s knees and back.

He lifts him up and looks over at us.

I smile at him, happy that he has his love once again.

Then he turns away.

I frown and move to follow.

Tobias grabs my arm.

“Let him go,” he says. “They deserve to be left alone for once.”

I frown at his words but I understand.

After everything they went through, they deserve their chance at peace.

Tobias and I watch Laneer carry Yinx away.

I stare at the one I was made to look like.

His head bobs slightly with his arm swaying behind him.

He looks deep asleep.

What will happen when he wakes up?

“Well,” Tobias says, grabbing my attention. “We did it!”

I beam up at him. “We did!”

He reaches for my hand. “Now what?”

I look around us, at the destruction that was left by Raiyo, not Yinx.

The sky is still split open, revealing tons of ruins filled with fire.

I turn to Tobias and smile, “Now we fix it like I used to before, except this time...you’ll be there to help me.”

He grins down at me before pulling me in for a deep kiss.

I kiss back and really let the feeling at this new chapter in life settle on my shoulders.

No more quests to save the world. No more scary gods.

Tobias leans back and smirks. “Let’s do this thing.”