WARNING: This chapter contains a nonconsensual kiss. Three guesses as to who's responsible. -_-
~*~
A violent shiver wracked Zenith's body. Just like that, all the confidence fled his stance. As his sword dipped to the floor, he stammered, "I – that – I don't know if I believe them, just – "
"Oh, Sir Zenith." With a single stroke of his wings, Cyrias launched himself forward. He streaked past Darian and Theo in a blur of feathers and crackling Levia, and the next thing Theo knew he was directly in front of Zenith, close enough to touch.
And touch he did. His hand shot out, closing around Zenith's chin. Almost like how Theo had touched him earlier, but without any pretense at being gentle. Instead, his fingers dug into Zenith's skin with a possessiveness that made Theo's stomach turn.
Do something, he had to do something, but he couldn't move before Cyrias spoke.
"Sir Zenith, Sir Zenith, Sir Zenith, Sir Zenith, Sir Zenith. Is your resolve really that weak? Don't tell me you've already forgotten the vow you swore."
Zenith squeezed his eyes shut. His throat convulsed. "N-no. I have not."
"You vowed to serve Emperor Astraeon as his loyal knight. To be his sword and shield, to execute his will. To protect Miria. He even shared his Levia with you, and this is how you repay his trust? For shame, Sir Zenith. For utter shame."
"That – that's not – "
"You can't let these traitors sway you." Cyrias's tone became cajoling, though his grip on Zenith's chin never relented. "Didn't you come with me in the first place to escape their lies?"
"I – no, I, I don't...." Sweat beaded across Zenith's forehead. "I don't think...they're lying."
"Really," Cyrias drawled. "They're telling you your liege is the Infernal Lord, and you can't see that as a blatant lie? Please. I'm pretty sure I made you smarter than that."
"I mean – I – they believe it." With each word, Zenith's voice grew smaller – and his terror thrummed deeper, pulsing in sick waves through his Levia. Even without a contract, Theo could feel it. "And they...they came all this way...for me. For...my sake."
Cyrias sneered. "Something like that's enough to move you? To make you renounce your duty?"
For the first time, Zenith's eyes flew back open. "I...don't know what...my duty is anymore."
"It's simple." Cyrias's hand clamped down tight. "Obey your liege's orders. Fulfill his charge. And that means squashing these little pests to paste!"
He swept his hand at Theo and Darian, his Levia flaring as if issuing a challenge. Theo responded instinctively, raising his staff in front of him and gathering his own power.
Zenith glanced wildly between Cyrias and Theo. When his eyes landed on Theo's face, Theo's heart wrenched in his chest. With all his effort, he made himself stand up straight and lower his head in a firm nod.
Zenith's eyelids slid shut. When he spoke, his voice was still quiet, but clearer than it ever had been. "I cannot kill them. My honor as a knight will not permit it."
"Your honor. Your good-for-nothing honor." Cyrias's lips pulled back from his teeth in a ferocious snarl. With his eyes wild and white-rimmed, he resembled a cornered animal far more than a noble seraphim. "You stupid, useless, defective piece of trash. Don't you understand? Your honor is what I say it is. Because you are my creation. I own everything – every single part of you. Your body. Your armor. The Levia that gives you life." He rapped Zenith's breastplate, directly atop the broken crystal. "Whatever passes for thought inside that empty head of yours." A harder rap, to Zenith's helmet. "Everything."
All right, Theo couldn't stand another second of this. If he'd hated Cyrias before, that was nothing compared to the sheer, apoplectic fury boiling inside him now. He raised his staff high, prepared to cast the strongest elemental spell he knew on Darian, so she could fry Cyrias and his stupid wings like a pigeon on an electrical wire.
But before he could gather the Levia, Cyrias moved. His arm wrapped around Zenith's waist, tugging him tight against his own body. The hand on Zenith's face tilted his head back, and he bent his own head until –
Theo didn't realize what was happening until too late. Until Cyrias had already captured Zenith's mouth with his own. Though Zenith desperately fought back, writhing against Cyrias's chest, Cyrias never stopped attacking his mouth with kiss after brutal kiss. There wasn't a trace of tenderness to be seen, or even passion – just the raw, animalistic desire to consume.
"Stop it! Stop!" Theo's voice finally escaped his throat. "Stop it now! I'll kill you, I swear I – "
But even as he shouted, he became aware of Cyrias's Levia swelling in the air. It beat against his skin like the rays of the desert sun, drying up his sweat – yet this wasn't even aimed at Theo. No, every ounce of that scorching light was pouring into Zenith's body. Wave after ferocious wave, it swept aside Zenith's pure white power.
"No!" Mindless, desperate, Theo rushed at Cyrias. Before he could reach the seraphim, a whip of golden light lashed out from the Levia surrounding him and struck Theo across the chest. Its stinging power seared through his muscles, scattering his own Levia into fizzling sparks, and sent him flying across the hall.
All the breath fled from his lungs when he slammed into the wall. Struggling with all his might, he forced strength back into his limbs and climbed to his knees. By now, he no longer saw Zenith or Cyrias – only a wall of golden light so intense he couldn't bear to look into the center. Through it, he sensed not even the faintest spark of Zenith's Levia.
Dread thundered inside his skull. The Levia crested, surging through his flesh and bones as if it was trying to dominate him too – only to die down without a warning. Released from its grip, Theo tumbled forward and landed on his hands and knees. All he could hear were his hissing breaths and throbbing heartbeat.
But Cyrias's Levia wasn't gone. The power still stung against his face, sizzling like static electricity. Blinking hard, fighting down the dread swelling inside him, he made himself look directly ahead.
Cyrias was no longer kissing Zenith. Instead, he stood facing the knight, hands resting on his elbows with an intimacy that sent the ghost of rage fluttering through Theo's chest. Zenith himself gazed back at Cyrias, head lifted, stance stiff and straight. Almost unnaturally so.
Then Cyrias released Zenith and took two deliberate steps backward. Zenith remained in place, not twitching a single muscle.
Cyrias was smiling again, his eyes sparkling not only with Levia but savage joy. "That's more like it."
"What did you – " Theo began, only for Cyrias to cut him off by snapping his fingers.
"Sir Zenith," he said loudly. "Fulfill your charge. Take out the trash."
Zenith hefted his sword and shield. With a quiet creak of armor, he turned around.
His eyes met Theo's. Theo reeled, feeling like he'd been punched in the chest.
Gone was every last trace of blue. No, Zenith's eyes now glowed the same brilliant gold as Cyrias's Levia, casting stark highlights across the planes of his face.
In a flash, Theo hurtled away from Cyrias's airy workshop and into the dimly lit coliseum of the Enson prison. Zenith's eyes had blazed just like this back then, only with Oliver's orange Levia, not Cyrias's golden light.
But Theo knew exactly what it meant. Cyrias had taken over – everything. Zenith's body. His mind. His will.
"What the hell did you do?" Darian's thin, strained voice barely broke above Theo's pounding heart.
"Isn't it obvious?" Cyrias said, smug and gloating. "I'm helping Sir Zenith become what he was always meant to be. Now nothing can get in the way of his true duty. Not your lies, not his silly so-called honor.
"Now, he is the essence of a homunculus knight."