Advent of Chaos

18

(Uriel)

The depths of the moon were colder than they looked, the breeze hissing against his leather-bound skin. His armour, his defences, they seemed to do very little for such mortal preferences. The crunch of dust beneath his boots came to a halt when a flickering green light came into view.

The shadows danced along the great stone walls of the caverns, like the Hivelight crystals had suddenly gone out, and the only source of light was the flash of his ghost, assessing the antechamber of the room he'd stumbled into.

Uriel had almost no idea where he was going. He should've taken that damned map with him. Traveller save him, he was going to lose his mind before the Relkan managed to even touch him.

He kept treading deeper into the abandoned Hive territory, his feet as soft against the surface as they could be, until his footsteps grew silent, and he could hear nothing, and feel nothing.

He raised his arm, a steady command to summon his ghost again. His ghost clanked to the floor as if it had never once been alive. Horror filled his veins like an icy poison infecting his mind, his soul, his entire body became cold. But not the kind of cold the moon offered, no. It was a different cold.

It was longing, begging him to give in, but Uriel kept walking, even after pocketing his ghost.

He had never had his life so thinly stretched, Uriel realised as he closed his eyes, breathing in the foreign air. Was this what it felt like to be mortal?

The only sound Uriel could hear in those moments, was his own heartbeat, and then, as his legs began springing deeper into the depths, he felt a jolt of pain in his thigh, and then the world tumbled into blackness. A thick chaos rolled, and he felt and heard everything in that ruin.

When he awoke, his heart was thundering at an alarmingly slow rate. His eyes took only a few moments to adjust and his mind a split second to realise that he was bound by chains, his helmet discarded in the dust somewhere.

"You're the one she calls Uriel." A smooth, dark voice mused quietly. Uriel tested his arms against the chains, and tried to move his body, but his throat had been chained as well. The solid structure he was leaning back against dug into his armours bitterly as he tried to worm his way out— somehow. But the chains held tight, his throat straining on the force it was locked into.

Uriel didn't speak, he just sized up the beast, his leather wings lowering in response to the silent threat.

"And what, pray tell, brings you to our final burial site?" The beast grinned as he turned around to face his prisoner. Somehow, the grotesque features became more human than the last time he'd seen the beast. At least, from the picture Mora's ghost captured.
Cassain.

Uriel had no desire to play games with Cassain, nor to even refer to the Relkan as such a name. It seemed too casual and too friendly for him. Uriel mused upon something like "Skull-Crusher" or "Darkness-Doomy-Dickbag" in his mind. But he knew it was for more than to simply keep himself sane. He felt his heart fleeing, the heartbeat afraid of being in the Relkan's very presence.
Uriel didn't answer.

"What is up with you stuck-up, prideful guardians and your inability to answer a simple fucking question?" Cassain's eyes flared blood red, and he threw a fist into Uriel's face. The collision sent Uriel's blood spattering across the ground in front of his knees, and he heaved a breath of air into his lungs.

Shock hit him. He knew the Relkan were strong, but he hadn't expected such strength from what he knew would've been considered a light tap on the cheek to the Relkan. The posture, the stance, the acceleration, he knew it wasn't enough to produce such force. But here it was. Colliding into his jaw. Uriel spit out more blood below him, lifting his head slightly.

"I can't hear you." Uriel cooed simply, his eyes narrowing, and bracing for impact.

This undoubtedly earned him another love tap on the cheek. Each time felt like a brick coming at him from a speeding car. But Uriel refused to say anything beyond snarky remarks.
"Well, I suppose I could vent my anger out on your bleeding face." Cassain spat.

He kept going, and going, and going. Only until Uriel's eyes bled and his lips stung, did he exhale.

Finally, Cassain sighed into his palms, pressing his lips together. The canines were mostly gone, hidden beneath that too-human jaw and leathery skin. But each time Cassain touched Uriel's face, his own became more and more flesh coated, softer, pleasant.

Uriel finally opened his mouth again, in a slanted vision of awe.
"Where are your bat-buddies?" He smiled through swollen cheeks, his fists tightening against his collar chain, and blood dripping from his nose all over his clothing.

"They needn't be here for the mating ritual. It's distasteful for them to watch." Cassain licked his lips, blinking over at the mess of blood he'd drawn from Uriel.

"Mating ritual?! You said this place was a burial site!" More panic jolted throughout Uriel than ever before as he regrettably pictured Mora and that— thing, colliding in this chamber.

"Well of course I did. Did you expect me not to lie? That's why you stumbling into here was such a pleasant coincidence." Cassain crossed his arms, his broad shoulders forming a wall of darkness before Uriel, even as he knelt down to his level. The beast was magnificently large.

Uriel swallowed his alternative thoughts, and as if the Relkan leader could sense his thoughts, his slight grin faded.

"Gods no, not you." It said almost too casually.
"But I'll let you in on a little secret since, well, you're going to die here anyways." Somehow, Uriel felt no panic in himself at hearing that. But he closed his eyes as if he knew the answer.

"You being here is the perfect way to lure Mora into this chamber, where I can seduce the Chaos already within her... To succumb to the power. She'll become wholly mine— ours." Cassain started, but his voice dropped low enough that Uriel knew his growl was against his ear, his talons gripping a clump of Uriel's hair for emphasis.

"Unfortunately for you, in order for her to truly become my Queen, to become the only existing female Relkan in over 5000 years, she has to give up something she loves dearly. Lover, friend, it doesn't matter..." The growl of his voice grew deeper, more sadistic, and his grip on Uriel's hair became violent.

"...As long as some sorry bastard spills blood by her hands." He let go of Uriel, pulling away and wiping his hands gently against his leathers.

"This orb of Chaos, it grants me the ability to transform into something more... Human. Something more desirable for our Queen, if you will."
Uriel refrained from commenting that he doubted Cassain's size would frighten her.

"You're sick. Mora has more willpower than you could ever imagine. Your dominion will fall apart at the seams when she gets her hands on you." Uriel spat in a fury.

"Oh, but I believe she will fall apart at the seams when I get my hands on her." Cassain said with a wink as his wings became smaller. Though he was still tall and bulky, his horns faded with the wind. And he was armour bound, tight leathers dark against his now tanned human flesh. The well of power from the Chaos orb flickered, and he closed his eyes. They were gold, almost twin to the eyes he'd beheld from Mora, but they held a cold, metal edge to them when he reopened his eyes to a new world.

"Yes, this is what it feels like to be human." Cassain said to nobody in particular, gesturing to the bloody, aching mess of Uriel.

Then he turned, facing the centre of the chamber, the walls darkening as his eyes scanned over them."
"This is what it feels like to be a God."