The battlefield was a fractured world filled with steel, roars and trembling ground.
Simon and Anya stood back to back, their breath ragged, their blades drenched in sweat and beast blood. The barrier formed by Adler has been destroyed and the beasts seemed to have regained their relent attributes. Every heir was hanging on the thread, but none could retreat- not because; Ammon, Ayden and Lucian were no where to be found- as the warring heirs do not yet know about the demise of General Lucian, but because they could not. The air was thick with Hart's pressure, heavy enough to make their bones hum. The dark god's pressure loomed like a collapsing star, bending the very air around him.
But somewhere else, the storm was different.
Ammon knelt on the shattered earth, Ayden's head heavy in his arm.
He tried to shake him to wake- faintly, then sharply- but the warrior head slumped against his shoulder.
"Ayden... come on, don't do this," Ammon whisper, voice trembling.
His hands wouldn't stop shaking.
His breath would not settle.
The world around him shrunk to the silent, unmoving friend in front of him.
Ayden has always be strength carved in human form.
A friend who laughed in the face of fear.
A man who stepped between the face of danger and his allies without hesitation.
To see him like this- unmoving, pale and bleeding- tore something inside of Ammon.
"How can someone like you fall...?"
His voice trembling.
A tear slid down his cheek landing at Ayden's armour like a bead of fire.
The poison in Ammon flared again, dragging pain across his body like burning waves.
His muscles spasmed. His vision flickered. He could feel himself slipping- physical and mentally.
But the ache in his chest was worse than any poison.
The ache of losing someone irreplaceable.
The ache of his failure to protect him.
His body leaned forward as another pulse stabbed through his skull. He braces his hand to the ground, fingers curling into dirt.
Something inside him stirred.
Not gently.
Not warm.
But like a beast rattling a cage.
His heartbeat slowed... then pounded violently.
His mindset fuzzled... then narrow to a cold light. A faint vibration rippled through the ground beneath him.
"What happening," he whispered. Gripping his head as if trying to hold himself together.
But the thing inside didn't care.
It pushed.
Pressed.
Demanded.
A presence- ancient, coiled, hungry- brushed against the edges of his consciousness. He felt it like a second pulse like someone else's heartbeat beating besides his own.
Ammon grasped his breath hitching.
His vision darkened around the edges.
The beasts surrounding him felt the shift instantly.
They circles wider, snarling, uncertain.
The air tasted different- crackling wrong.
Even the beast god paused for a moment, narrowed his gaze,bas it sensed unfamiliar energy rising from the kneeling heir.
But hesitation quickly turned to hunger.
A trembling, poisoned human, such a perfect kill.
The beast god raised his massive head signalling for them to charge.
Dozens of beasts lowered themselves, muscles tightening.
Ammon didn't look up.
He couldn't.
He had a lot of battles fighting inside his own mind.
Ayden silent form in his hand.
The poison burning through him.
His personal grief.
And that thing- whatever is it- trying to rip itself out.
His hands shook violently.
His breath came in broken gasps.
Another year fell into Ayden's armour.
"I promise, I wouldn't let you fall..." he whispered, voice cracking.
"But I'm... too weak."
Weak.
That word echoed inside of him.
And something inside of him snapped.