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 Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 2:16 pm
The second entity stop moving, then suddenly the bubbles resumed. Shimmering brilliantly. The cold air weakened and the warmth burst through in full force. Driving it completely away. The voice was calm now, different, as if it were smiling. "You are no son of Caine. I will not stand in your way. I wish you luck God of Vampires." And with that it vanished through the door. There would be no respite as the third and final entity appeared within moments.
There was something about this one that differed from the energy of the other two. A kind of mercy radiated from it, but with that a strong, terrifying, finality. "Grendel.." It's voice was calm, comforting. "You, more than many, have suffered greatly. Yet you have continued to endure." The form it bore was a veil of both shadows and light. Weaving together in a beautiful dance of balance. "I have come not to challenge you, you have already come to us bearing the weight of responsibility for what has transpired, this will take you far as a God." The movement of the shifting light and darkness was strange and disjointed, as if it operated in a frame of space far outside of his even now.
"I've come to ask you one question. With these Disciplines will you promise us that you will respect their power? Understanding that by using this great gift you will take the throne and change the fate of the vampiric race.. forever." It paused, reversing it's flow, chaotic and disjointed but strangely peaceful.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 2:34 pm
It was hard to hide his surprise when the second entity shifted, it’s mood seeming to change as quickly and easily as the tide. He had been so sure for a moment that he had failed, to know that he somehow hadn’t filled him with relief. There was still a chance that he could do this. He was getting closer now, he could feel it.
Another step. He was on the edge of something now.
The entity left as the air warmed, a feeling of jubilation beginning to course though the Gods veins. But he wasn’t finished yet, it seemed. There was still at least one more. The final he thought, or at least, hoped. One last obstacle in his way to ascension, and to hopefully getting back what he had lost.
This entity did not seem so intimidating as the last. In fact, it felt quite the opposite to both prior entities. It did not seem so aggressive, and it did not compare him to Caine, which was a refreshing change,
The weight of its question though, was heavy. Grendel listened, feeling perhaps for the first time the importance and finality of what he was about to do, and how that could alter his entire existence, and that of an entire race. He let that knowledge settle before he answered, just two words, given in sincerity.
“I will.”
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:23 pm
The fabrics of light and darkness stopped again, changing direction for a final time as it thrummed with energy. His promise, his covenant, was sealed. "So it shall be. I will not stand in your way. Remember your promise and rule well." With that it vanished through the door which slid shut behind it. The cracks of light sealing as the realm faded and the entities departed.
Before the knowledge entered his body The Dark Mother was behind him, her voice low, almost unlike Liliths. So primal in nature. "The pain will come and with it release." She grabbed hold of the tentacles along hid back, his mark of Caine, and ripped them from his flesh. Tossing them into a silver bowl where they sizzled and suffered. "What binds you is severed. Now the Disicplines will be yours to wield, God of the Beast. Remember your promise and your strength, your authority, shall never falter." From the wounds in his back shot shadows, long and powerful, the raw energy in them undeniable to any in his presence. Not a mark but a symbol of his rebirth.
Lilith stepped around her childe, their own bond would change now as well. She would be his mother still, in some sense, but more his source of knowledge should he need guidance. A place he could turn to even in the darkest of times. She would always be there when he sought her. Placing a finger in the middle of his forehead she pushed and his mind opened wide. The Disciplines flooding him, weaving themselves into the very fibers of his being. Celerity, Potence, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Dominate, Presence, Protean, Animalism, and Auspex. He was master of them all, could use them all, and now would possess them all in their strongest form. Able to bless any he chose, he could remake the Disciples or create his own.
Every vampire in Faetasia, clanned and clanless, would feel a moment of intense agony, as if something within them was severed, and a new tether had been woven in its place, an unseverable braid, so long as he reigned. Their innate power would increase as this new bond reinvigorated the blood and the beast. Caine had lost his throne. A new God had risen.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 7:29 pm
Grendel had only a moment to think, Well, that was easy..., as the entity departed back through the doorway and it closed behind them, sealing shut once more. He felt oddly calm for a split second, though this was followed by the first trickles of elation. He'd done it. They had believed him worthy, and what's more, they did not think him to be like Caine. That was perhaps the greatest victory of all.
However, there had barely been time for him to acknowledge this fact when Lilith stole behind him, her voice sending a chill down his spine. There was no time to react, no time for him to get away. She had grabbed the tentacles at his back and he gasped, and they trashed against her as if they had a mind of their own. He felt a tightness in his chest, a momentary panic when he realized what she was going to do, her words echoing in his head.
And then pain, a physical pain, unlike anything he had ever experienced. Something that had always been a part of him was torn away, ripped from his flesh. It burned and he shuddered, but where there should have been blood instead there was darkness, shadows, just a trickle at first, but it soon seemed to almost solidify, take form, and burst free to take the place of what was once there. He still shivered, chest rising and falling with heavy breath, his face set in a scowl, teeth bared and eyes as black as the new tendrils that writhed behind him.
"Ow!" He hissed at his Mother, glaring at her as she stepped around to stand in front of him, with half a mind to grab her by her slender neck with his new appendages and squeeze.
But he knew why she had done it. It was as she said. What bound him was now severed. His last link to Caine had been wrested away and sent to the flame.
He was free.
What happened next would change him irrevocably. Lilith pressed a finger to the center of his forehead, and he felt it. The raw power and knowledge of the Disciplines, and more. Everything that had ever been kept from him, his potential that had been locked away all of this time finally released. It was so much, so fast, he thought for a moment that it might tear him apart, or melt his mind. They burned through him, his body held rigid, his fingers curled into claws.
When it was finished he found himself on his knees, but he did not remember falling. His figure seemed dark, as though encompassed by shadow, but with a wave of the hand those cleared, and he stood to his feet. He felt different. He looked different. More domineering somehow. Stronger. He held his hands out before him, and that which had been destroyed by the Spear had been healed.
Power flowed through him, unlike anything he had felt before.
And he knew so much. He knew exactly what he needed to do.
"Thank you, Lilith." He nodded at her, unsure of how to address her now. Though they would always share a bond, it no longer felt the same as it once had.
In a flicker of light, a quick dimming of the shadows, he was gone.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 10:50 pm
Lilith smiled as the new God departed. “Goodbye.” She breathed. "Grendel." Behind the darkness set deep within her eyes a soft glow flickered to life. The kiss she'd placed on his forehead before he'd begun his trials was her goodbye. She knew well that the moment he'd triumphed, and the Disciplines became part of him, there would never be a place, or a chance, for them as Mother and Son again. Not like they once had been so many years ago.
Memories of reading the old tales to him by the fountain, teaching him ancient songs and poems, walking with him in the gardens.. so small. He’d once been so small. And there had been no time for them to reconnect to those moments between when she’d had him, her Grendel, and when Caine had begun to take him. But he was on a path that was more important than her own desire to recover what was lost, to point his memories in a direction that would reveal the bond they once shared, stolen so long ago. He had a responsibility, he needed to focus on his future, and she would sacrifice her own wish if it meant seeing him succeed. Ultimately, she’d lost her children to Caine. Out of everything he’d done, that had been the start of her re-awakening. She had been so lost, suppressed, and trapped in a nightmare for so long. She could finally breathe.
Soft tears rolled down her cheeks, one for each of her children, adding to the dark color which stained her pelt. And moments later the soft light in her eyes was gone, replaced by the intense, primal, gaze of The Dark Mother. Like rubies set aflame in a sea of black. She released her sorrow to the darkness which devoured it hungrily, returning to her a single star-shaped seed. Reaching out to pluck it from the air, sharp claws delicately holding the newborn seedling, she admired it. It was beautiful. Perfect. Fastening it within her fiery locks she turned to pick up the silver bowl that contained Caine’s tentacles and, as they continued to sizzle, she threw them onto the fire where they were devoured. The warm breeze carried the smoke and ashes up and out of the cavern. Banished from her presence. There was no more time for sorrow. The seed she’d just created would sow her third and final garden. Once the first two were born she would plant this. The Garden of Sorrow.
Lilith vanished into the shadows, she had much work to do and eternities in which to do it.
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