MY GOLDEN BLOOD - JossGawin FanFiction

CHAPTER 27: THE SECRET OF MARK'S ORIGIN

The wind whistled through the ruins of the old manor, where Mark stood as still as stone, gazing upon the remnants of his history. His mind weighed heavy with what Kael had said—a mistake from another era.

His existence had been shrouded in mystery for centuries, the truth of which was now slowly unraveling. But as much as Mark had hoped to be rid of it, the past has a way of catching up, bringing with it the chilling memory of the night everything changed.

The dilapidated Vantore estate stood as the keeper of dark secrets within its silent walls: the story of Mark's origin and how life had spiraled into a curse never to be outrun.

Centuries Ago: The Night of the Moon Drop Ritual

Mark was more than the youngest son of the Vantore family; since his birth, he had been chosen and prepared to carry an ancient, awful power. His family was both feared and respected for knowledge in both the fields of magic and the dark arts, having performed for generations the Moon Drop Ritual, which was supposed to confer a form of twisted, immortal life upon its participants.

Unlike any other family, however, the Vantores did not pursue this ritual due to greed or vanity but because they were bound to do so by a dark pact laid upon them many centuries earlier, with the said ritual being the only key to their survival.

But with a catch, the Moon Drop Ritual required a strong enough soul, which could channel the energy of the moon itself, and it wasn't something any person could accomplish. It was an awfully dangerous ritual and had destroyed many before Mark, unimaginably.

When the time was upon him, Mark was ready. He knew the danger: his family had trained him for this moment. The rite of passage, performed under the full moon, was an abomination—a horrific amorphous thing of arcane magic, blood, and dark energy.

As the cold light bathed the moon, Mark felt the raw power surge through his body, latching him onto the world of the supernatural in ways he could never have imagined. His human form shattered, releasing into something far darker, far stronger—a creature of the night, bound to the Moon Drop, doomed to live forever.

But it came with one price: immortality. It made Mark empty, devoid of emotions or attachment to this world as it used to be. The Moon Drop's curse had twisted him, tore the strings that bound him to his family, his very self, even to time. Until the Vantore family was to bear its brunt, too—one by one, each started to wither, unable to bear the load of what they had done.

Aeon: The Hero Who Knew Too Much

By the time of the Moon Drop Ritual, however, Aeon was already a legend: a hero, a healer, a protector of mankindhis very existence a denial of the natural order. For centuries he had lived upon the earth, longer than any man.

His life force was inaccessible, impenetrable, unreachable by ordinary means. Aeon had saved innumerable lives, brought peace to war—torn lands, and healed wounds that others considered not possible to do. Behind such extraordinary strength and survival from impossibility lay a secret: Aeon could not die, not in the way others did.

Yet such immortality was a burden Aeon silently carried. He had known Mark's family, of their dark legacy, and though keeping his distance, Aeon had long since suspected a certain power the Vantores would wield. His intuition had told him something dangerous stirred within their very blood. It was then, after Mark's transformation, that Aeon was pulled into the vortex of participation.

The moment Mark performed the Moon Drop Ritual and was transformed into an immortal creature, Aeon saw not only a reflection of his own curse but a dangerous shift in the balance of powers. Aeon had chosen to use his longevity in service for good, but Mark's new immortality had come shrouded in darkness. And Aeon instinctively knew that such a man one day would threaten this world he had sworn to protect.

Yet Aeon also experienced something more —a linkage inexplicable. It was not just because Mark was another immortal; it was deepe —their fates were somehow interlinked. Aeon watched Mark from afar for years, watched his transformation, and while a part of him knew he should stop this darkness that Mark so readily embraced, another part of him was drawn to this man who once was human.

The Truth Behind Aeon's Death

Of all the fantastic abilities of Aeon, invincibility was just not included therein. Somebody, somewhere, had learned how to kill him—something even Aeon had never foreseen. It wasn't some brutish, blunt force or physical death. Aeon was able to heal from wounds that would kill any other man, but there was only one weakness, one fatal flaw in his otherwise invincible existence.

The story of Aeon's fall was passed down in distortion and veiled by time, though Mark had never known the details. Now, it seemed crystal clear to Mark that Aeon had not been simply a healer, or even a hero, but part of something greater-perhaps something which breathed beyond the physical realm.

Aeon had been sustained by an ancient bonding into the universe itself, an attachment giving great power and binding him to a set of cosmic conventions. He did not die from some sort of simplistic attack; rather, his death was staged.

Quite simply, someone had found a way to sever Aeon from that source, a way of striking at the roots of his immortality. Rather than any weapon or spell, it was a certain betrayal of trust that had ripped apart Aeon's defenses and left him vulnerable to injury.

His murderer had been good enough of a friend to Aeon to learn his one and only weakness; when the time came, he knew with complete certainty how to use it against him. To Mark, the details of the betrayal remained a mystery, but his suspicious mind knew that whoever had taken his friend's life did so with a cold-blooded intent to change the scales in life and death, light and darkness.

Centuries later, the same forces were once more at work. Tong, the reincarnation of Aeon, had cropped up in Mark's life, bringing along a past Mark had long tried to forget. The danger began with the coming of Tong: the arrival of Kael, the strange goings—on around Tong—none of it was coincidental. The cycle was complete, and Mark felt the threat closing in once more.

Kael knew more than he was telling. His ambiguities regarding Mark—a mistake from another era—had slowly started to make sense. The very ritual that had bound Mark to a curse, yes, but also bound Aeon's life—and death—to some greater destiny. And now, with Tong blithely playing out his part in Aeon's place, the forces that had destroyed Aeon once before began to circle anew, seeking closure.

Mark's fists were clenched, a steely resolution washing over his features. Once he had lost Aeon; he would not lose Tong. Never again.

Secrets of the past might have ordered his life, but they could never hold hostage a better future. It was now time to fight this time for the one he loved.