The Tragedy of The Fates

IGNEUS' NEW CONTRACT

Ryan watched stunned as the attacker flipped Kain's corpse over and closed his eyes. Ryan choked out, "Are you gonna," the thought hit him, kill, "Attack me?" They paused and shook their head.  "Why did you do that?" Ryan asked, fear tingling in his voice.

She paused, "Well, I knew what Kain was about to do, and I know him. I wanted to save your life."

Ryan processed this information, his heartbeat slowing down as he grew calmer, "And what is your name?"

"Elizabeth." With that, she stood up, looked at the dead wyvern, and left. Ryan felt questions burn in his mind as he shouted for her, and ran after her.

Elizabeth felt deep darkness, there was no more sense of emotions. Not one. She had just killed her brother. The brother that kept her safe, protected her and loved her. When she left the cave tears were running down her cheeks. It was there she saw Owen.

He wasn't exactly tall, but he wasn't short. He looked strong, and the sword and shield looked like they were made out of a metal stronger than steel. She was then sent tumbling when Ryan emerged from the cave and bumped right into her.

Owen opened his mouth to speak, and then the ground rolled and spilled and cascaded. Everyone fell to either their knees or just down to the ground. Owen held onto his sword and shield, adrenaline coursing through him. Cracks ran from out of the cave, and then the hill collapsed.

After a few more seconds a massive crack appeared, and it ripped open the ground destroying the magic-infused hill.

~~~~~

Igneus watched the man's smile grow as he said, "Looks like fresh meat!" He roughly grabbed Igneus' neck and started to choke him. Igneus sputtered, "I can-" The pressure increased and he choked out, "Help."

The man paused, "Help? How on earth can you help?" The grip lessened.

"I can free you from here, I can help you."

"Who said I wanted to be free?" Igneus had to think and ponder, and he opened to speak when the man said, "How can you free me?"

"I can uh, use one of my spells."

"These walls make teleportation impossible. If this is all you have, then I'll go back to killing you."

"No- wait! I can cause the ground to split and we can vanish away."

"Fine then." Igneus sighed a breath of release and then the man said, "What is my price? I know magic to be used for others has a price for the recipient. What's my price?"

Igneus paled, he was hoping he could use that to trap the man in a bind and Igneus then said, "You have to do what I say for a month time."

The man shrugged, stuck out his hand, and said, "Well, then we should introduce ourselves. My name is Shuriken."

Igneus grabbed the hand, and looked at the man square in the eyes, "Igneus." Then Igneus got to work.

~~~~~

Igneus grabbed Shuriken's arm, and they winked out of the entrapment for Shuriken Fate. They returned to Brathu's cave where Brathu lived, and Shuriken looked and saw Kain's corpse. He kneeled, "You always were father's favorite. Never did any wrong. Never looked him in the eyes. And you were so desperate to be a victim. Standing in for our beatings. Taking the pain Dad dished out. Working hard to give us everything. And then helping us. But only after complaining. Only after making us feel guilty. 

You were so strong. You could do anything. You were a god in your eyes. And now you're dead. Because you aren't strong. You're nothing more than a disappointment to our family, Kain." Shuriken put his pointer and ring finger into Kain's eye sockets ripping through his eyes. Shuriken's middle finger rested on Kain's forehead, and Shuriken jabbed his thumb through Kain's upper teeth and then put his left hand on Kain's chest.

Shuriken began to pull. A sound like a slurp was heard as Shuriken increased the force, and then Kain's skull moved up. Now the brain stem was visible, and then Shuriken added an extra pull, then the brain stem severed, leaving Kain's skull in Shuriken's hands. Shuriken lifted it and looked at the head under his hand. He paused, cocking his head to the side, and stood up. He let out a laugh before saying, "Pathetic." He threw the head to the ground and asked no one in particular, "Who's the better son now, huh?" Shuriken chuckled as he said that, wiping Kain's blood on Kain's shirt, "Guess it's me or Nathan now. I'll rip his head off too, because I am the damned king of this family!"

Igneus was shocked, scared, and surprised. This man, this man just desecrated his father's corpse! Igneus was so caught up in what this meant for him he didn't even stop to think that this man was his father's brother. This man was Igneus Fate's uncle.

Shuriken said, "Okay, come on, let's get out of here." Igneus grabbed the man again, with a strange sense of calm. This was a real man, a real father. A real mentor.

~~~~~

Once the ground stopped shaking Owen screamed, "The hell was that!" Ryan nor Elizabeth had a chance to speak before Shuriken and Igneus appeared on the ground, and Igneus looked oddly at peace. Igneus looked at the three people, as Sihu approached, and Igneus said with a grin slowly growing on his face, "Kill them. Kill them all." Shuriken drew his sword as he said, "Gladly."

For the first time, Igneus could see Shuriken clearly. He was pale, almost to the skin color of albinos after being out of the sun for so long. He was muscular and strong as he effortlessly wielded the longsword slicing at Owen and Elizabeth as Ryan went to go and try to talk to Igneus to get Shuriken to stop.

Igneus finally noticed Shuriken's height. He was easily 6'7, and he landed a blow on Owen's shield, denting it heavily. Then there was a blow on Shuriken, and Owen's sword bounced off of his skin. Clearly, Shuriken had his own magic. Shuriken swung again and folded Owen's shield, damaging it badly. So badly that Owen threw it to the ground and gripped his sword with both hands.

Ryan made it to Igneus and Ryan stopped a few feet away from Igneus and asked, "Why are you doing this, why are you having him attack us?"

Igneus simply ignored Ryan and approached the cliffside of one of the cracks and said, "I wonder how deep these go."

Ryan didn't believe what he was hearing. In a move of desperation, he said, "Kain, Kain's dead. Look, I know you're upset, but he wouldn't want you dead."

Igneus just chuckled as he said, "I know he's dead. I know that his neck was sliced. I know that he's never coming back. For the record, Ryan, I don't want to die. I want all of you to die. I want y'all to die for prioritizing that damned dragon over my father!"

Igneus roughly grabbed Ryan, since Ryan had been slowly approaching Igneus since he believed Igneus was contemplating suicide, and Igneus said, "Tell me how deep it is won't you?"

Before Igneus could do anything a large cracking sound filled the area, the air seemed almost supercharged. Igneus and Shuriken went flying. Ryan grabbed onto Igneus tightly to stop him from dying Ryan said, "Please, Igneus, he tried to kill me. He tried to attack me-"

Igneus shouted, "No, you killed him, you did! You bastard!"  Igneus grabbed the rock wall and tried to pull Ryan down. And then the ground became flat, terraformed suddenly, and very, very flat.

Igneus looked to see what caused this. At first, all he saw were glowing blue eyes, and then he saw the man's hand on the sand, and then he saw the clothes, and then Igneus saw who it was. He was panting, and Igneus was flat against the ground. The man was panting, and looked ragged.

It was Kain.