Long black hair with a hint of gold strands, hairy arms and torso, long and sharp claws, huge fangs, and a giant curved horn… are the characteristics of a natural born Sluagh. But for someone like Larius, his transformation is a bit different than the others.
A Sluagh like him has white hair, armored with the thick skin of a dead Sluagh, a black and transparent cape, and a long staff as a weapon. He also has a humanoid face and deep green eyes that glow when the moon shines over the horizon.
He never understood his reason as to why he agreed to join the forces of the Sluaghs. But with the immense power that the creatures have, who wouldn't join them?
Larius walks down the hall as his feet stride the long way to his room. When is the last time? he suddenly thought. He chuckles to himself that he just purposely thought about it. Larius was never a fully transformed Sluagh.
He still has his angelic powers. He has the same angelic powers as his sister, who he never saw since the day he left the Seventh kingdom.
He opens the door of his room and was greeted by Keres. Keres is the newborn son of King Agus, the Sluagh King. His name means evil, which describes his Sluagh form. He has the same face as Larius since his mother is human.
A human and a Sluagh kid never grows old, unlike Sluagh born kids who only have ten years to live. Sluagh grows by the day, and on their full growth, they become a Sluagh warrior under the care of the king himself.
He smiles at the two-day-old kid who has the same height as a seven-year-old human boy. "Where have you been, Larius?" Keres asked, wondering where his favorite soldier has been.
Larius just smiles and enters the room. He drops his weapon on his desk and faces the kid who is in glee. "I went to the training grounds to see some newly born Sluagh, my Prince," Larius said then smiles at the kid.
Keres looks at him with curious eyes as if reading what is in his memories. Keres then nods and said, "You pass!" The child giggles and Larius chuckles along with him. Larius bows and they started their scheduled training inside of his room.
"Where are we going now, Larius?" Keres asks while sitting at the center of the bed surrounds by piles of pillows and sheets. "It's a surprise," Larius said, forming an inverted triangle with his palm.
After a few chants with an unknown language that only Angel Gods and Living Gods understood, a green –like orb forms between his palms that created an effect of a floating orb. Keres was amazed by the sudden display then frowns when it burst into thin air.
"What happened?" he said frowning but when he looked at Larius, the man is suddenly changing into something else.
There, standing in front of the prince is a giant man with long black curly hair, a massive body, and two gauntlets in his both arms. He has wings and a horn just like a Sluagh. Keres was mesmerized by his beauty.
The young prince had never seen such beauty before. He moves towards the man but stopped when Larius' wings draw themselves out in the open.
It has been so many years since Larius opened them, which why they looked old and grainy. Their colors already faded from the years of hiding behind him.
The textures of his feathers are rough and start falling apart from the wings themselves. Keres looks at them with pain in his eyes. Larius draw them back and flops on the floor.
Keres went to him immediately, radiating his solar energy, and gave enough of his energy to Larius. Larius pulls away and clears his throat.
"You really don't have to, my Liege," he said, looking away from the kid. Keres was heartbroken by the rejection from his friend. He stands up and transforms into his real form; a devilish Sluagh, who can kill a thousand human with one solar energy.
The boy stomps towards the trembling knight and crouches down. In the boy's mind, Larius is opening his arms, giving him access to his body. But in reality, the knight is trembling in fear.
Keres grabs his body with one arm and hugs him. But instead of a normal hug, Larius screams in pain and when Keres heard it, the little boy turns back to his normal self and found that Larius is bleeding and on the brink of death.
Keres gasps and tries to stop the blood from oozing out. He frantically calls for help but no one came.
Instead of a hug, Keres accidentally crushed Larius like an orange, and now, the knight is dying. He transforms again and put Larius on his back and immediately went to one place that Larius told him to go if he got injured; the Phantom Island.
x-x-x-x-x
Amihan is doing her daily chores when she tingles in her wings. A tingle that she never had felt in such a long time. She drops everything that she is holding and rushed towards the forest. She sends signals to the other Angel Gods and to Salthifer to help.
Salthifer immediately went over but stops when he sees a Sluagh cradling the dying Angel God. He drops to the ground and tries to calm him down. Moments later, the others came to the forest and had the shock of their lives.
There, sitting on the cold and rough ground, a Sluagh crying in pain for the dying Angel God. Amihan gasps when she realizes who the Sluagh is cradling.
It's her long lost brother, who she thought died after the last war against Siyenthera. Amihan steps forward but was stopped by Salthifer. She looks at him in confusion.
Instead of answering, Salthifer points in the direction of the Sluagh, and there, they saw how the monster transforms into a tiny little boy.
He looks at them with pain and cries his heart out. "P-Please! Help him!" he cried, dropping Larius' body on the ground before he slowly backs away from him. "Help him!" he said before creating a portal to go back to Biringan.
He looks at Larius again before jumping into the portal, leaving the other Angel Gods in shock. Salthifer moves quickly and drops a potion in Larius' mark. The mark didn't disappear, earning a groan from Salthifer.
Fate, huh? he thought before using his powers to heal Larius.
They brought Larius to the palace to rest before waking him up to ask what happened to him. While the knight is healing, Amihan is sitting beside him holding his hand; afraid to let go again. The last time she lets go, her brother went missing.
She won't let go this time. But her mind still trails back to the young Sluagh who asked for their help. She had never witnessed a Sluagh who begged for help before. She shakes off the feeling of sadness and guilt towards the Sluagh. They don't deserve it. She just looks back to her sleeping brother.
Meanwhile, outside of the room, Alviary and Salthifer were talking about the Sluagh from earlier. "Who is he?" Alviary asks with worry evident in his voice. "Keres," Salthifer answers as he looks at the other living God with worry. "The Sluagh Prince, son of Agus, their King," he said, earning a gasp from Alviary.
"How?" Alviary asked confusedly. Salthifer just looks at him and wonders, why will a Sluagh cry for an Angel God who got turned into a Sluagh? He never heard such things before.
He probably asks Belevathan if she knew anything about it. Salthifer sighs and extends his hand forward. He closes his eyes and calls for Belevathan. Moments later, the Endulity Goddess appears with maps in her hands.
"You called?" she greets with a scowl on her face. She looks a bit pissed but none of that matters since Salthifer doesn't care about her. "I have a question," Salthifer said, Belevathan looks at him with one brow raised.
Knowing Salthifer, he will never ask anything from her or the other living Gods. Is this what happens to every living God when they find their mage?
Her train of thoughts about what it feels like having a mage was cut off when Salthifer asks about the Prince of Sluagh and their marks.
"Oh, is someone marked by a Sluagh?" she asks in return, looking at the two men in front of her gives her an answer. "The mark is the symbol of the person marked that he or she belongs to that Sluagh.
If the Sluagh is a prince, that marked will never be removed even though you will kill the prince. But killing the prince will give a great threat to the life of the marked person," she informs them, Amihan heard it all but didn't react.
She was too shocked to know something like this could happen.
"How one gets the mark?" Alviary asks, waiting for Belevathan's answer. She drops her shoulder and answered, "To get the mark, he or she should be imprinted to the Sluagh. You can't be marked if you didn't swear to protect the Sluagh.
It's their most absolute law, and we, living Gods, can't do anything about that. Since we can't interfere with any creatures' lives," she said, giving Alviary the maps that she is holding and smiles.
"Those are the battle strategies. Explain them well," she said before disappearing into thin air. Alviary and Salthifer look at each other and rubs their temples, both hoping that the headache will spare them this time.
As for Amihan, she silently cries for her brother, who was imprinted by a Sluagh. She just hopes that the Sluagh won't be killed in the upcoming battle, or her brother will die also. She sighs and sits beside him again until she fell into a beautiful abyss.
On the other side of the realm, Keres is pacing around the room, hoping that the people of the island would help Larius. When he felt as if his solar energy is increasing, he smiles.
Larius is alive, he thought before lying down to his bed and fell into his beautiful yet melancholic abyss, where Larius and he are happily playing in a vast space where the word everlasting could only describe it.