Gabrielle and Skyler entered the castle, it's exterior may have been white but it's interior was all black. They entered the throne room where there were many statues of various Centaur Darklings along the walls, Wrackivorn was sitting with the back part of his horse body on the throne. He was clad in black armor, his glowing white eyes were similar to Shai's. He carried a large two-sided axe with him.
"You've been expecting me." Skyler coolly took off his coat and removed his shirt.
"You have destroyed my family, and now I will destroy you and all that you love." Wrackivorn got up from his throne and galloped over.
"We'll fucking see about that." Skyler summoned the machine, took off his coat, shirt and gloves and put it on before Wrackivorn could reach him.
Another pulse of energy was emitted by Skyler, knocking Wrackivorn back and causing the earth under him to be covered in raw flesh. Skyler's face crunched as his Fallen mouth came back out and he gripped his head.
"Don't think about her, she isn't there, she isn't there," Skyler whispered to himself.
"Die, wretch!" Wrackivorn tried to hit Skyler with the axe, but he caught it between his hands.
"Don't... fucking... interrupt me!" Skyler shouted, and a pulse of Shock energy came from him, radiating from his scars and into the weapon.
Wrackivorn managed to keep a hold of his weapon as he was knocked back again.
Dahlia materialized next to him in a cloud of black smoke. She walked up to him, and gave one glancing look behind her towards Gabrielle. He saw her eyes smile, and then she turned back to him.
"Ah, revenge… Wonderful, wonderful revenge. I live and breathe for revenge, how about I help you? Are you willing to merge with me to defeat him?" Dahlia whispered into his ear.
"I'll do anything as long as he dies." He pointed to Wrackivorn.
"Good, it's settled then, get ready." She took off her mask to reveal a gray skinned face with small intricate black cracks around her eyes and mouth, she had a Fallen mouth as well, but her teeth were black.
She jumped into him, and Skyler howled in pain and put his hands to the sides of his face. He grew Dahlia's horns and his Fallen mouth's teeth turned black. His eyes changed into hers and black cracks appeared around his eyes. Skyler's new form terrified Gabrielle, she stood there for a few seconds while the two of them stood there. She thought he was scary before, but after merging with Dahlia, it changed him. She snapped out of it, then tried to focus all her energy on the mark on his neck.
"What have you done? Merging is a forbidden act!" Wrackivorn was brimming with rage, the man who killed his family had just done something unspeakable.
"Ah, so he's just like me after all," A combination of Dahlia and Skyler's voice spoke.
"I cannot allow you to live after this." Wrackivorn readied his axe.
"That is not for you to decide," The two demons spoke in unison.
Gabrielle tried to keep her fear from getting the best of her, but she was also scared that Skyler and Dahlia could never separate again and he would be stuck like that forever, on top of being scared that the new being that formed would turn it's sights on her.
The new Skyler jumped at Wrackivorn and slashed at him. It missed, so they slashed again, they hit Wrackivorn's helmet and a loud clang resounded. They continued to fight, and every second Gabrielle could feel her consciousness fading, she was using too much energy, but she was scared that he would be corrupted forever.
"I have no choice, you must be punished." Wrackivorn raised his hand, but before the spell could finish, the new Skyler slashed at his neck.
Black blood spilled from him. He used his axe in one final attempt to kill him, it barreled down onto the machine on the new Skyler's shoulder, breaking the machine and cutting into the new Skyler's flesh.
The new Skyler screeched, but looked back to see a spell heading straight for Gabrielle. They jumped in front of the beam, and they were hit instead of her.
"What? That was a forbidden spell to disintegrate anyone! How are you still alive?" Wrackivorn shouted.
"Dahlia isn't dead, and neither is Skyler." Dahlia's features faded from Skyler, and black blood dripped from his shoulder.
"One of you had to die," Wrackivorn growled.
"Dahlia can never die, that's why she took the hit instead of me." Skyler gripped his bleeding shoulder.
"Are you alright?" She didn't feel he was safe enough but her concern was too great to stay where she was, so she ran up to him.
"I'll be fine, it's over now." He looked at her and then turned to Wrackivorn, who was desperately covering his wound to stop the blood.
"How? But I'm immortal! Why aren't my healing spells working?!" Wrackivorn cried.
"Remember when I swallowed the Black Hole Sword? Yeah, I can only reuse a weapon's power once, and I saved it for you." Skyler neither smiled nor frowned.
"You didn't save it for the others?" Wrackivorn looked to him.
"My old prosthetic hand was combined with a scythe, that gave me nigh infinite power. Unfortunately, it broke, just like you broke the machine, they destroyed it before they died." Skyler shook his head.
"Damn you, damn you to hell, you worm!" Wrackivorn bellowed.
"Let's go, The Ruby Citadel awaits." Skyler turned and started to walk away.
"Wait! Shouldn't I heal you first?" She grabbed his arm.
"No healing spells work, only special stitches and bandages will help, Pain has some outside, he came prepared." Skyler's Fallen mouth went away, and he smiled lovingly at her.
She was so relieved that he was back. She felt pools of tears forming under her eyes, she couldn't help but hug him.
"Hey, hey. It's okay." Skyler patted her on the back.
"I'm so glad you're back." She whimpered.
"It was a mistake to merge with Dahlia, I'm so sorry. She initially didn't want to separate, it was a trap." He hugged her back.
"Don't ever do something like that again, promise me." She pulled away and stared at him, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I promise, never again." He nodded.
She was so overcome by emotion that she forgot that he was bleeding for a second. Black blood stained her dress, she looked back up at him worriedly. He only smiled back at her. They left the throne room and went back outside. Pain was was waiting for them out front alone.
"Where are the others?" Skyler looked around.
"They went home. Here." Pain handed Skyler purple bandages with light blue markings on them.
"Thanks." Skyler rolled the bandages onto his wound.
"I'll see you later, Pain." Gabrielle waved.
"I'm not going anywhere, at least not now, there's someone I need to talk to." He turned to look behind Skyler.
There stood Fallen Hex, he was clad in black with a long black coat and long gloves covering his sharp claws. He, unlike Pain, did not have bangs on his hair. He had red colored eyes, and his Fallen mouth frowned. He was clutching a large black book under his arm.
"Ah, it's you. I need to talk to you." Pain walked past Skyler and up to Fallen Hex.
"You can't have it." Fallen Hex gripped the book tightly.
"No, you misunderstand me, it's not for me. It's for someone else." Pain waved his hand.
"Wait, you aren't actually asking him to give you the book, are you?" Skyler's eyes widened and he looked over.
"I have to, there's someone I need to protect." Pain looked back at Skyler, then turned back to Fallen Hex.
"Turbuk didn't use the book for himself but for Wrackivorn, you expect me to hand it to you even if it isn't for yourself?" Fallen Hex scoffed.
"Pain! I'm so glad I found you!" Fira shouted and ran up to Pain.
"Fira! I thought you had gone home." Pain turned to her.
"I did, but I came back to look for you since you were gone." She wrapped her arm in his.
"I can't go yet, I'm talking to someone." He pointed to Fallen Hex.
"Wait, why does he look like you? That's not the real Brian is it?" She did a double take.
"No, there's actually five of us, he is from a different timeline, like I am." He lowered his arm.
"Is this who you are going to use it for?" Fallen Hex pointed to Fira.
"… Yes, yes it is." Pain nodded.
"Come." Fallen Hex gestured him over.
Pain silently let go of Fira's arm and walked up to him.
"What's going on?" Fira looked around.
"Take my hand." Fallen Hex outstretched his hand.
Pain took it his hand, and closed his eyes. He grimaced, and threw back his hand.
"Now that I know, I will allow you to do such a thing, but only once." Fallen Hex took the book in his arms and handed it to Pain.
"What was that?" He opened his eyes but still had a pained expression on his face.
"We exchanged memories, it was to better help understand you. I know you will keep it safe." He gestured for Pain to take the book.
"Thank you, I promise not to lose it." He took the book.
"You came prepared to fight, but I am not that kind of man to hurt an innocent and you know this." Fallen Hex frowned even harder.
"I didn't think it would be this easy." Pain looked down.
"It wasn't, what got you here was difficult." Fallen Hex shook his head.
"Pain, what kind of book is that?" Fira went up and tried to open the book.
"No! Don't! It's dangerous!" Pain pulled the book away from her.
"Dangerous how?" She looked at him with a blank expression.
"It could hurt you! This book isn't for the faint of heart!" He put it under his arm, where she could not read it.
"Oh, I… I'm sorry I… I didn't know." She frowned and lowered her head.
"It's fine, don't worry too much about it, just steer clear of it." He patted her on the shoulder.
"Okay, I will." She nodded.
"I think I heard about this book, it's that forbidden one, right?" Gabrielle turned to Skyler.
"Yeah, you're right." Skyler nodded.
"Oh he's not going to use it, is he?" She grabbed his arm.
"Unfortunately I can't stop him, that's his decision, not mine." Skyler shook his head again.
"Oh Skyler please! You have to!" She tugged on his arm.
"I know why he's going to use it and I can't bring myself to tell him no." He lowered his head.
"Thank you, old friend." Pain turned around and started to walk past Skyler.
"Remember to go to Elaine after you use it, she'll know what to do." Skyler grabbed Pain's arm.
"I know." Pain nodded again, and slipped loose of Skyler's grasp.
"Ah, there it is," A low male voice spoke.
"You motherfucker." Skyler raised his head and his Fallen mouth appeared again.
"Hand over the book." A man with short black hair and clad in a long red robe came up and tried to grab the book.
"Absolutely not, not to you or anyone but Fallen Hex." Pain pulled the book away from the man.
"Who is that?" Gabrielle turned to Skyler again.
"That's the man who signed both mine and Pain's death warrant, he's the reason either of us died in the first place." Skyler was still shirtless and had no gloves, he had left his clothes behind.
"Oh, my god." She put a hand to her mouth.
"You picked the absolute best time, asshole." Skyler ran up and slashed at the man.
It connected and he dug his claws into the man's shoulder and dragged his claws across his chest. The man screamed and pulled away.
"If you don't die from this, I hope you live the rest of you life in misery for hurting me and everyone I love." Skyler licked the man's blood from his fingers.
"That's Turbuk, the evil warlock, if you were wondering." Pain turned to Fira and Gabrielle.
"Oh, so that's Turbuk." She turned to Turbuk, who was running away.
A portal opened in front of Turbuk, and he jumped in.
"Fucker got away again, but this time I chose to let him go." Skyler smiled
"Why did you let him go?" Pain looked up at Skyler.
"I scratched him when I still had the Black Hole Sword powers in my claws, saved them just in case he showed up." Skyler laughed.
Gabrielle and Skyler bid Pain and Fira farewell and went to find the Ruby Citadel. Skyler told her that it was a giant white structure that was placed on what used to be the old border. He told her that he would bring the border back to the way it used to so it would open. She asked him if he should go get his shirt, coat and gloves back. He refused, and said he was leaving it behind for now, and would grab it later when he came back to be crowned King of Darkness. She asked him about the spell that kept Elega stuck in evening, and Skyler pointed up to the sky, it was already continuing on into the night. He said that without help she would be stuck in Elega for the rest of the night, and to go to Shai once they were finished at the Ruby Citadel.
Read the rest of The Light Maiden's Mark here: https://moonquill.com/book/46