The Corruption- First Draft

Chapter 14

Hyalbtz stood inside a dream bubble, his form rapidly decaying before our eyes. He removed his mask to reveal the horrendous sight, being mostly bone at this point, with an eye missing. The one still there glowed a bright yellow. The skin still on him was dripping, just like the goo that infected countless others.
He extended his bony arms out and to the side as he spoke, "I severed death's leash with teeth made of memory. I am but a god now- your god of undeath." He said, walking towards them.
He suddenly paused when Garbone flipped around her axe "now!" She exclaimed, yanking off the cloth to the crystal attached to it, and shoved it in his face.
We waited with bated breath for him to freeze- but it didn't happen.
Hyalbtz cackled. "Oh you poor child, you really thought that was going to work?" He asked, circling Garbone.
"I have passed through death," he said. "I have devoured it. Ripped open its belly and gorged myself on its entrails. I drank the dark that drips between lives. I tore my name from the veil, and it bled when I did."
He looked down at his hands, long, bone-thin fingers with the ring embedded at one of the joints. His fingernails were obsidian. Cassius whispered to us that the ring was the phylactery.
"I am the one who lived through dying," he whispered. "I am not bound by the mortal coil, not by gods, not by time. You don't understand, not yet- but you will. You probably think this is madness. It is revelation. It is perfection," he said, doing jazz hands.
"I have to admit, I'm a bit sad. I thought you all were ready to accept me. No big deal, I'll give you a chance," Hyalbtz said, squeezing Garbone's shoulders before she could back away. "Kneel for me. Accept me as your true God, and I won't possess you like I did your brother."
Despite Hyalbtz pressing down on him, encouraging him to kneel, and despite Garbone's quivering lips, she refused to kneel.
"Did I not make myself clear? Kneel," he hissed, suddenly cupping her cheeks.
He perked up when Sir La'et spoke. "I'll kneel," he growled, rushing at Hyalbtz and digging his knee into his ribcage.
Hyalbtz roared angrily, wincing as he fell to his side, hearing something crack.
He grabbed his wand, aiming it at Sir La'et, pupils thin like slits. "Sheya!" He rasped out. He tried to dodge, but was caught in it.
Sir La'et cried out as glowing purple eyes dotted his face, and rings formed in the whites of his eyes, falling to his knees as his eyes widened. "N-no, stop-!" He yelled out, grabbing his own head roughly as nightmares played in his mind.
Garbone rushed past Hyalbtz, kneeling beside Sir La'et as An'thaehl muttered a prayer before turning into his dragon form. He rushed at Hyalbtz, ready to rip off the ring- until Kyazf dove in his bird form, biting An'thaehl hard enough to pierce the scales.
"Agh!" He cried out, morphing back into his humanoid form before throwing up.
"It's about time you showed up!" Hyalbtz hissed as he slowly stood up, his injuries healing rapidly.
"I'm so sorry, my love, I came as soon as I heard these heathens making it down here," he said as he morphed back into his ivierae form.
Hyalbtz suddenly slapped him across the face, sending him staggering a bit from the shock of it.
"You're too slow. Are you still tired? Such a pain you are. You can sleep when these heathens are dead. Now kill them!" He ordered, putting his finger at us.
Kyazf nodded, facing us. He tried transforming- but the blue in his third eye suddenly flickered out. He grimaced, and pulled out a dagger before charging at me.
I immediately used my wind powers to knock Kyazf into the wall, pinning him there. He wasn't strong enough to move.
"Pathetic. Why did I ever love you? You're useless!" Hyalbtz exclaimed before facing me. "Sheya!" He casted, but I rolled out of the way in time. Shaking with anger, he spam-casted the spell at me, but I was able to dodge each one. I flinched at the last one as I hear Havre cry out.
She collapsed as she was hit by the stray spell while trying to heal An'thaehl, dropping the potion vial. She sobbed, curling up into a ball.
I grit my teeth as Tassira goes to comfort her, and I face Hyalbtz. I blast a current of air at him, but he deflected it, knocking Cassius into a wall. He slid down to the floor, tightly holding Lennon as he winced.
I quickly rush to Lord Benoist, checking him for injuries. "Lord Benoist! Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Agh- my head is bleeding," he murmured, looking at the blood covering his hand that he used to check his head.
Before I could administer aid, Kyazf rushed and pinned me to the ground. He started wailing on me, delivering punch after punch until I was dizzy and stopped struggling against him.
Garbone rushed Kyazf, knocking him to the ground. The two wrestled each other, trying to get on top of the other. I tried standing up, but the punches left me disoriented.
I looked at a large bubble that appeared, and the figure standing there.
Gyala?
I squinted, and began crawling towards the figure as he beckoned me.
Before I could step into the bubble, I paused. His expression was too wild to be Gyala, right?
He growled. "Come here, my 'love'. I have something for you," he extended his arms.
I cautiously approached, standing up finally. "Gyala? What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't stand to be away from you. Things are so chaotic at the castle, I need you," he said, wrapping his arms around me.
"Wh-wha? But I-" my breath suddenly caught in my throat as I felt goo latch onto my neck, sinking into my flesh. I push back who I realise too late to be Hyalbtz.
"What's the matter, dear? It's me, the Highking. Your love," he insisted.
My legs trembled as my knees threatened to buckle.
"You love me, don't you? Kneel for me, show me you care, please!" Hyalbtz called out.
My body grew more tired as I fell to my knees, palms hitting the stone floor. "No- no! You're not him. You're not..." I murmur, trying to keep my wits about me. My mind flooded with whispers not belonging to me.
"He loves you.
He is your one true love.
Smile for him.
Say you love him."
I felt a smile crawl up on my face, though I tried to fight it.
"Shit," I heard Lord Benoist say. He rose up, handing Lennon to Morinthir as he pulled out a piece of silver from his pocket and rushed over to me. He quickly pressed the silver to the spots where the goo coated me, and I gasp and wince as I feel my skin burning.
"Stop him.
He's trying to separate us.
Cassius always hated our relationship!" The whispers continued.
I wince, trying to grab at anything to hold onto reality. "He swallowed death and spat out rot. But rot cannot love, and love is what kills him. The mother sleeps beneath the roots of light, but her eyelid twitches when the moon is torn!" I shout to drown out the whispers, twitching as Lord Benoist helped burn away the rotting flesh. "The throne will be carved not from stone, but from the future; soft, pink, and breathing. A dragon will call her Queen, but in truth she will be a Vessel. Her body will not belong to war, nor worship. Only to lineage. Only to him. The stars will weep. The moon will close its eyes. Abija will stir but not yet speak. And the Highqueen will rule over ashes, thinking them flowers. Her daughters will be born with wings, and never learn her real name. Because it will not be written. Only whispered, by the last who remembered her."
Garbone throughout the speech had been defending the two from Hyalbtz' attacks, using the crystal from her axe to deflect any spells.
Enraged, Hyalbtz started throwing out random spells left and right. Morinthir helped guide everyone to a hidden corridor while Tassira distracted him.
"What the Hell are we gonna do now? An'thaehl is dying and the damn crystal doesn't work on him!" Lord Benoist blurted out.
"What if we get Kyazf to attack Hyalbtz?" Garbone suggested.
"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?"
"That dream bubble Hyalbtz created- it disguises people inside as those you want to see. For Eilis it was the Highking. For me it was Havre. No doubt Kyazf is going to see Hyalbtz. We just need someone to enter the dream bubble and order Kyazf to attack the real Hyalbtz."
"Hm.. That might work. I suppose I can volunteer for that," he said, thinking as he peered out carefully. Kyazf was distracted. Good. Lord Benoist treaded carefully into the bubble, before shouting. "Kyazf! You must kill them, they're no ally to your kind!"
Kyazf paused, looking at the two of them in confusion.
"It's pitiful! Look at Garbone!" Lord Benoist shouted as he pointed at Hyalbtz. "They used illusion magic to try and disguise themself as me and trick! It's pitiful they can't fight us while showing their ivierae identity. Kill them and take the fake ring they have!" He commanded.
Kyazf hesitated for a minute before furrowing his brow at the real Hyalbtz, before growling. He rushed at Hyalbtz, zipping by as he tackled him to the ground, throwing away his wand so he can't cast spells.
Garbone widened her eyes slightly as she overheard Lord Benoist. I hugged her in a moment of comfort. She thanked me before returning to Havre to check on her, being mostly stable by now.
Kyazf grabbed at Hyalbtz as he demanded, then begged and pleaded to not take the ring, easily rip off his ring finger with his teeth, chewing on it.
"Ah! You damned idiot, you messed everything up! It's me, I'm the real Hyalbtz," he hissed, smacking him.
"Are you just going to tolerate that?" Lord Benoist asked, crossing his arms. "They insult you even as you show dominance over them."
That's when Kyazf began wailing on Hyalbtz, delivering blow after blow just like he did with An'thaehl, until he got dizzy. He then grabbed him by his head, smashing it hard against the stone floor. We all went dead silent, except for Kyazf with his grunts in effort, and Hyalbtz with his cries and pleas to stop.
As Hyalbtz' protests weakened, Garbone began to sob, Havre now consoling her.
Dust poured down from Kyazf's head as the bones in his skull disintegrated immediately. He spat out the dust and ring shards in his mouth into the growing pile of dust as he stood, looking around at everyone.
"I. I'm sorry," he murmured, stumbling as Tassira held him up.
Everyone that was conscious ran back into the main corridor where they and Morinthir were.
"Why are you so exhausted?" Lord Benoist asked.
"I- it's. Depressive sleep," Kyazf answered, collapsing into Tassira as he lost consciousness.
As the door to the ruined chamber closed behind us, we didn't speak. There was nothing left to say.
We'd won.
But victory isn't always clean. It doesn't always heal what it breaks.
Garbone didn't look back. Sir La'et carried Kyazf, and Lord Benoist carried the now deceased An'thaehl.
And I kept my eyes on the floor, trying to forget the smile I'd almost worn for a man wearing Gyala's face.
The nightmare had ended, or so I thought.