Malion: Royal Blood

The Emperor of His Mind

"You can certainly try, Brother." Selvan told Herross with a glare. There was a heavy punch duetting with a devistating crack as Herross' body few away from Sevlan, flailing like a rag doll. He skid in the grass on his side, only able to get up moments later, his eyebrow split and bleeding and the skin around his eye red.

"You may need to try harder than that if you want to hurt me, Brother." He growled at Herross as he stood.

"Take back what you said." He told him quietly, glaring at him through narrowed eyes. His wound shifted colours from red, to a deep, sickening violet as it swelled nearly to the point of closing Hero's eye, but before that, the swelling went down and healed, all within seconds. Selvan seemed to take no notice of this and stood his ground.

"Take it back, Selvan." He said, slightly louder.

"What, you arent going to attack me in front of your little peanut gallery, are you?" He taunted.

"I wouldn't have attacked you regardless if they had come along or not." He told his brother calmly.

"Then why did you make the first move?" Selvan growled.

"Calm down. You just need to listen to me for once and then you'll understand." He spoke quietly, stepping forward.

"If I am to trust you, I will have to accompany you to this place you need to go to. If you take any lives, I will send you back." Selvan stated, matter-of-factly.

"I will tolerate your company and your arrogance, as long as you do not speak badly of my name to others. I have put in a lot of work to minimize the hatred of my image, and I have no doubt that you have had a hand in the ruining thereof."

"The last time Norvek and I saw you, you were driven with hatred for Gaia. You wanted to destroy it. What makes you think I should believe your pittiful blubbering?" Selvan growled. In that moment, Herross' eyes flashed a bright yellow as a gasp escaped him.  He fell to his hands and knees and caught his breath as he stood.

"What was that?" Selv spat. Hero smiled whistfully at his brother.

"That was what changed me from what you knew 1000 years ago." He said, "It made me realise that family is more important than I thought." He walked up to Selv and hugged him, to the obvious surprise and hesitation of the more mortally formed God. He shoved Herross away shortly after.

"What in The Nine Realms do you think you're doing, Brother?" Selv growled, only to be met with a kind smile and a slight chuckle.

"I'll tell you about them later. All you must know is that we are no longer alone." He said and turned to us.

"Shall we continue, Decoda?" He asked me. Hesitantly, I smiled and led the way.

"Actually, you can continue forward. I would rather not have an audience for a bit, if that is alright with you all." Herross said and gave us a sign to go on in the direction we were heading. He would catch up and we knew that, so we continued on into a large forest filled with spindly birch trees.

When the day came to a late end, Herross still hadn't returned to us and we started to worry. As we set up camp, we huddled up by a fire Kaylum had made. He didn't even need wood to feed it. He ignored the fuel of birch wood all around us.

"Kaylum, how?" Michelle asked, referring to the fire.

"Magic." He said shaking his open hands with his fingers parted as he faced his palms forward.

I laughed and Elliott joined in on the laughter, then abruptly stopped. When I looked over to him, I noticed a very wide smile stretched across his face. His grin made me very uncomfortable.

"Decoda, would you come with me for a bit? I'd like to go somewhere a bit more private to discuss your recent... bond to my 'friend'." He said. I had no real choice there. He would've dragged me along forcefully if I'd refused. He ginned again and took my hand in a surprisingly gentle grip. He led me a very good ways away to the east. Then he suddenly sat me on the ground.

"Listen to me." He commanded, "My vesil is a stupid little spek. So I need you to help me with something that will help literally every being in this miserable world. Eradicate his mortality and I will reward you." He grinned madly.

"What? What on Gaia do you mean by that?" I asked him, crossing my arms. He squatted down in front of me, widening his eyes and stretching a grin from ear to ear. His thin pupils where near to impossible to see in the dark.

"Well then, Lethallin! I want you to take his life force and give him some of your own. That will begin his transformation." He laughed.

I hesitated before answering the Malignant,"What the hell does that even mean? What transformation?" He started to laugh hysterically but stopped in the middle of his hysterics.

"Oh. You are serious. Well, my dear! The transformation is vital to my and his existence. You see, without this, he will die. That wound that he is suffering with will rot his insides until he dies and he can only keep it at bay for a short period." He told me in a low hiss.

"You're lying." I stated, glaring at him.

"I may be lying but if you leave this too long, you can find that out for yourself." He told me with a grin. I narrowed my eyes and sighed.

"And why me exactly?" I asked him. He scoffed.

"Because you are a Malion and he loves you. You share souls for The God's sake." He growled, prowling around me like a hungry Endoran, "Your family has a very unique bloodline that has many wondrous qualities. A lot of which is beautifully useful for healing imperfections." He hissed.

"He doesn't have any imperfections." I said planely.

"He is rotting from the inside out. Now stand up." He comanded again with a cold leer. I furrowed my brow but did what he told me.

"I'm not a dog, you know." I objected.

"No, you're a pest." He snapped and bolted towards me, still on all fours. I dodged him and he skidded to a turning halt, his eyes trained on me. I watched his body contort as he stood up.

"Why won't you simply crack?!" Ronin yelled, "You need to crack! Break yourself open for his life, you useless welp!" He ran at me again, this time tackling me to the ground. I yelled as I hit a sharp stone, pain bolting through my body. Ronin stood up and threw me off of the rock. I landed on my stomach. I couldn't move but everything hurt so much. I gritted my teeth to try and keep in another yell. The moonlight that dappled the grass below the canopy was consumed by Elliott's shadow. I lay there, helpless and filled with terror.

I screamed.