Deceit continued to drag Ace by the parking lot, which was now a patch of fire and death. Unas was tearing apart the most recent of Deceit's children. The winged freak was somehow still alive, albeit on fire.
It opened its mouth, stitched together from numerous interdigital folds, the webbing between one's fingers. Hot black tar spewed out of its mouth and Unas gleefully embraced it, feeling like it was more of a warm bath.
The disgusting attack that worked on many foes did nothing to deter the god of fire and revenge. Instead, he ran through it, grinning and excited. Unas took his sword, and with the full force of his body he cut right through its left front leg.
Or what should have been a left front leg.
Multiple bones of various dead creatures, animals, and people alike made up the interior of its body, and the skin on the outside stretched around in many rings, holding them all together. He sliced right through one of the rings, and it fell over, spewing fluids into the air, letting out a disgusting screech.
None of you are enough to feed me, Unas screamed. Feed me!
The blood of the damned was not enough nourishment for him. Their pain and agony that slid down his throat whenever he consumed the black tar was the appetizer. He needed the real thing.
Deceit screamed in anger as she saw him kill her newborn. She let go of Ace and started throwing another tantrum, stomping on the ground and screaming at the sky.
"My baby," she screamed. "You can't take what's mine!"
She did not worry for its safety, but the fact that someone had taken something from her. Deceit grabbed Ace's hand, but he refused to move.
"Don't just stand there," she screamed. "I need to help her!"
"That thing is a woman," Ace asked.
"She's a little girl."
The "little girl" struggled to stand with only three legs, and she slid her burning body through the pavement, still trying to hang on to the mortal realm as long as possible. She pushed her body away from the vengeful god with her two back legs, but she wasn't fast enough. Unas lit his entire body ablaze, and he ran straight inside her.
With a giant smile on his face he ran through festering body parts, soaking in their pain from being massacred. Their need for redemption made him only stronger, and the more he fought, the higher he got.
Ace almost threw up from the sight of the "little girl", but this time he did once he saw the god that had commandeered his father's body tear through its flesh, blood, and bone. He ran through it, hot tar spilling onto him as he burnt through the beast's frankenstein body.
"Stop making everything about you," Deceit scoffed. "Stand up straight!"
Ace retched the few contents left inside his stomach and tried to stand up again. She grabbed him by the arm and forcefully took him towards the parking lot.
"Turn it back," Deceit pleaded. "Give her back to me!"
"I can't. I won't."
"Don't lie to me," she growled. Her voice was no longer young and bubbly but demonic. The entire night had taken a toll on her as well. It was hard for her to keep up the charade of humanity.
Her large eye opened on her forehead, red and strained, looking around at the world. It stared Ace right into his eyes, seeing into his soul, and it knew he spoke the truth.
"You can't," Deceit asked. "Why not? You have the watch, right? Isn't that what did this?"
"No," Ace lied. "What are you-"
She pulled him down by his hoodie and smacked him in the face, outstretching her palms in such a way she could scratch him with her hard acrylic nails as she made contact.
Ace screamed and laid on the brown grass, clutching his face, angry that he had been caught off guard. He usually could dodge her smacks and hits, but this time he was too tired to notice beforehand.
"I know it's the watch," Deceit's demonic voice bellowed. "I saw it take you."
"I don't have it," Ace cried. "Please."
Deceit closed her eyes but continued to stare at him with the large singular one in the middle of her forehead, and she again knew he spoke the truth.
"Every time this bullshit repeats I've waited patiently to get that glowing man of yours," Deceit screamed."Give me the weapon! Give me the thing you turned into!"
Their conversation was interrupted by two of her children that came running out of the burning parking lot. It was Putrid and Fury, screaming, the cleansing fire expunging their evil from their victim's bodies.
"Run," they screamed. "Run mother."
They died on the brown grass, and soon another fire began to spread.
"You're a terrible father," Deceit whispered. "How could you let this happen?"
A knee jerk reaction came into Ace. He kicked her in the leg, and he started screaming all kinds of insults at her, screaming about his actual son instead of her multiple inane fantasies.
"You took Aelius from me," Ace screamed. "Don't tell me about being a good parent. You took my son!"
"I gave you your son," Deceit spat. "You are nothing, without me, you're-"
The only one of Deceit's children that seemed to have common sense appeared next to them, Gruesome. Her body's once beautiful skin and hair were now fused at the scalp, and Ace looked away once he saw her appear.
Her eyes were now gray, and she could no longer see out of her right eye. Ooze dripped out a wound in her left leg and her cheerleader costume was completely ruined, more blood than a costume. The skin fused with her hair was red and and white, and one of her ears was missing.
"We need to leave mom," Gruesome whispered. "Fire is the one thing we cannot recover from."
"Let me kill him first," Deceit sighed. "He keeps being dramatic and I'm getting bored."
Unas however, was still not done with his rampage, charging through the fire and flames, right for her, sword in hand. Fire spewed out of his mouth and furled around his body, smoke and death trailing behind him.
All the tar on his body had again hardened and fell off as he approached them, the thick shell of death falling to the hot ground. His rampage made him only emboldened once he knew that the dead were weak to fire.
Gruesome put her hand on Deceit and they quickly escaped.
Ace stood up, and heaved, grateful that he was still alive, wondering when his luck would run out. He closed his eyes, frozen in place, and tried to tune out the sounds of screaming monsters and the smell of burning and decaying flesh. Ace was caught off guard when Fenton came up and hugged him from behind.
Gabriel trailed behind Fenton and winced as Ace screamed in terror, and punched Fenton in the face.
"Wait-" Fenton screamed.
Ace was not thinking anymore. He had been sexually assaulted and faced death multiple times. He was simply hitting anything that got too close. Everything was a threat, nothing and nowhere was ever safe.
Is he going to do something to me like Titus, Ace thought. I can't trust anyone anymore, not even my father.
He pushed Fenton to the ground and screamed, over and over again, hysteric and afraid.
"Stop," Fenton gasped. "What, what are you-"
He stopped speaking and looked up into the sky.
Unas was rising slowly into the air, smiling. One of his best days was everyone else's nightmare. He had found Acheus, and finally, after many, many years, he was about to have the best meal of his life. He wondered if he would ever be able to make it to the afterlife, so he could see Tyreceus, ever again.
"I will miss you, son of Prima," Unas mumbled. "You are not worthy of them."
I will miss you too, Tyreceus said. Please take care of him.
"I will," Unas promised. "Let us have our last meal together, my brother."
Unas rose higher into the sky, enjoying the screams below, the chaos and fire. He emptied his mind and grinned his ghastly smile, happy that for one last time he could help the only mortal he considered his friend.
He opened his mouth, and a unearthly sound came out. It first sounded low, but as the decibils increased, so did the air around him whip into a flurry, his mouth now a blackhole to his endless stomach.
All the fire leaped up from the ground, swirling together. Like the colors they had to return home, inside of Unas. They spun and spun, into the air, whirlpools of anguish and pain, and they had found their home inside a man who would never let go of his grudge.
"He's a demon," Gabriel cried. "He got the others and now we have to worry about him."
"No," Ace shouted. "Don't say that about him!"
The sound only got louder and they all began to scream in pain. The fires continued to leave, all into the air. People from outside the dome watched as all the fire in their town left as well. They all went into one singular stream towards Unas.
His mouth opened wider, too wide for any living creature.
He enjoyed his meal as it slid down his throat, filling him up. The fire made him feel alive. It was one of the few things that could help him forget what was always missing, whenever he could partake in his pleasures of life: eating and killing. No greater pleasure was to be had without his wife and daughter.
He continued for a full three minutes, engorging himself on not just fire, but the very essence of the anger of those around him, and it was the best meal he ever had.
The anger of the damned forced to rise again, the anger of the abandoned left to die, they made him feel whole, but the best part was the anger of Deceit, who would never get what she wanted.
The sound finally stopped and he gracefully landed on the ground. Ace backed up as Unas ran to him. His devilish grin was more terrifying than relaxing, and Fenton bared his teeth at him, preparing himself for another fight.
"Acheus," Unas shouted. "I will be yours until our final days! I promise this!"
"What," Ace balked.
He did not get an answer as Unas began to shrink. Hair sprouted from his scalp, brown and long, and his skin became slightly lighter but still brown. His eyes turned blue and Tyreceus stood there, groggy and tired.
Tyreceus looked around, surprised that he was still alive.
"Ace," he smiled.
Ace smiled back, but he grimaced as something red started to spread across Tyreceus' chest.
"Dad," he whispered. "What did you do?"
Tyreceus quickly took off the watch and gave it to Ace. He put the sword inside its scabbard and shoved it into his hand.
"Don't lose it," he shouted. "Don't ever use it unless you have to."
"What's happening," Fenton screamed. "I'm so scared. So scared."
"Run," Tyreceus groaned. "I don't want you to see."
"I'm not leaving," Ace shouted. "I miss-"
Tyreceus lit into flames and screamed.
They stood there in shock as he screamed in pain. The fire was not red, but it was white and hot. They stood back as it was the hottest thing they had ever felt, singeing their eyebrows and cracking their lips, drying out their skin and making them sweat.
"Mother," he screamed. "I'm sorry."
Tyreceus continued to burn bright, and everyone watched, unable to put him out, unable to think or do anything. He continued to shriek and scream, over and over, unable to make it stop.
"Mother."
He stumbled and screamed louder, the pain overwhelming every nerve in his body.
"I miss you."
In the last moments of his life, more than anything Tyreceus wanted his mother. He wanted her to finally accept him.
He would never know if she did.
"This isn't fair," Ace cried. "I can't lose everyone."
Tyreceus fell over, silent and long gone.
He kept burning, and Fenton had to pull Ace away. The fire would not go out. It was the only one left, hotter than all the others, and it would burn until it had eradicated every trace of Tyreceus that ever walked upon the land.
Ace refused to leave, and Gabriel had to drag him as well, as he stood there, hypnotized, crying as if his small tears could extinguish the flames.
Infiniti sighed, long used to the sight of people dying at the hands of the cursed objects. A mortal I will miss is gone because of this filthy son of Prima, Infiniti shouted. All of you are born liars.
Tyreceus's body burned until nothing was left, consumed by his anger and regret.
Another person had died from the curse of House Regalis.