Duel Duel At the Grotto

[Ishani Dinn]

Resting on a blanket nearby, Rhi watched the twins playing in the water. The naturally formed grotto had swiftly become a favorite spot for the kids. They had been begging to be taken there for some time, and though she was reluctant to venture too far from home now that she was farther along in her pregnancy, she had finally relented today.

Marcus climbed out of the water and reached for a towel to dry himself off. The boy was immediately assaulted by Eloise, who splashed him with water. He took off, trying to get out of her range, but the stone ledge around the pool was too narrow and she just kept chasing after him in the water.

“No running, you don’t want to slip and fall,” Rhi warned. The black rocks were wet and slippery. “Eloise, stop splashing your brother. He’s going to wind up hurting himself.”

Marcus made his way over to his parents—the only open area far enough away from his sister—and sat down, wrapping the towel around his bare shoulders like a cape. “They’re coming,” he said ominously.

Rhi frowned. “Who’s coming?”

“Two people.” Water dripping from his red hair, Marcus cleaved to his mother’s side. “Master and apprentice. They don’t want us here, on this planet.” He looked over at his father. “Daddy will have to protect us.”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Though he was watching his beloved family frolic and relax, his attention had mainly been on the newest addition to their household, the young Pharus Dystra. He did not seem at all thrilled to be here, in fact he clung to the shadows and watched on with a pout as the twins splashed and played. Isolating himself from the rest of them; Arcturus could not blame him.​

​

So he settled down beside the boy, back against an old stone wall, and stretched his legs out. Casual, but not forced. He didn't look at the blonde boy, who very easily could have been one of their own children, borne of their blood, given how eerily similar he looked to Rhiannon especially, instead he continued to watch the rest of the grotto.​

​

"It's not easy, I know," he said after a moment, earning him something between a scowl and a look of curiosity from the blonde youth, "I understand if you despise me for the part I played, but... You live, and that is all I wanted for you. I could not bear to see you fall like the others who resisted."​

​

Pharus pursed his lips as though he'd chewed on something sour, and went back to glowering at the twins.​

​

"I've been where you are now" he went on to say, "I too lost everything at the hands of the Sith..."​

​

"Then why do you work for them?" the boy understandably spat, and Arcturus found himself exhaling a long breath.​

​

"Because... it's complicated. Because the one who tore away all I knew was not the same man that raised me up. Both are Sith, yes, but... It's not so black and white." Without thinking, he reached an arm out and around Pharus' shoulder. The boy stiffened, even growled slightly, but ultimately softened up when Arcturus did not immediately shrink back. "We care deeply for you. This may not be your home, but... It could be. Is it so bad here?"​

​

Pharus said nothing, and before their conversation could continue Marcus' ominous words were uttered. Arcturus lifted his head sharply, eyes drifting toward the only way into the grotto.​

​

"Listen to me now" he said, voice firmer than it had been, "I want you to go with Rhiannon and the twins, and find somewhere out of the way to hide." He turned his gaze back down to the blonde boy, eyes holding an intensity. A.. fear. "Please."​

​

Something in the way it was said seemed to shake Pharus, for the boy nodded and hastily found his feet. He hurried over to Rhiannon and the twins, offering down a hand to the woman so that she might find her feet. "Mister Dinn says we're to hide, M'Lady" the boy said softly, all of that fight suddenly lost as a real threat seemed intent on presenting itself.​

​

Arcturus too was fast on his feet, reaching for one of several daggers he carried upon his person. Whoever was coming, they would not catch his Household off guard.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Searching Marcus’ face, Rhi looked up with a start upon hearing a voice over her. It was only Pharus. She had noticed Arc conversing with him earlier, and had been watching them out of the corner of her eye. Her husband seemed quite taken with the young Lord Dystra, even though the boy behaved as if he loathed every moment he spent with them. Like it or not, Pharus had been placed in their care—and while Rhi had done her fair share of mothering him, she hoped that Arc might be able to reach him.

Now he was ushering them away to hide. Rhi took his offered hand and stood up. “Eloise,” she called to her daughter. “Get out of the water.”

“But I don’t want—”

“Right now! It’s not safe.”

Pouting, Eloise remained in the water even when her mother barked orders at her. Rhi reached out with the Force and grabbed the wayward girl, plucking her from the pool and carrying her over to the opposite end of the grotto, where a small dark cave lay. She deposited the soaked and furious Eloise on a flat rock and flung a towel over her.

“Your brother has had a vision,” she said, lowering her voice. “We are in danger. We have to hide—”

She broke off suddenly, wincing and clutching at her stomach. Eloise’s scowl vanished and her eyes widened. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Just… give me a second…” Rhi leaned against the rock and waited for the contraction to subside, then gasped out, “Yep, baby’s coming. Force, why do I always have the worst timing?” She looked around. “Where’s Marcus?”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Dev Ossian]

Dev couldn’t believe his luck. He and his master, the trickster god Kolinahr, had been scouting out the grotto from the safety of the rocks when one of the little ones came within reach. Wandering away from his family as if in a daze, the boy walked right into the Shaal’s path. How could he resist an opportunity like that?

Seizing the child with a clawed hand, Dev pressed a dagger to his throat. “Don’t make a noise,” he growled.

<Just kill him now.> His master spoke from inside his head. <Cut his throat and be done with it.>

Normally Dev would not have hesitated to obey. But something about Arcturus—the God of the Underworld, the people had declared him—stayed his hand. <They already know we’re here,> he shot back. <We might as well take a hostage.>

<I told you there was no point in bargaining with them. We kill our rivals before they have a chance to surpass us.>

<We’ve never fought this god before. Do you know for certain that you are stronger than he?>

Silence. Then, his master relented. <Fine. Use him as a hostage. After we kill the rest, we’ll sacrifice the boy.>

Dev grinned. <I’ll feed him to the machine myself, master.>

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

To even his own surprise, it was Pharus who immediately leapt into action both insofar as Rhiannon's sudden labour was concerned and the wayward son. He stripped off his shirt, setting the clean fabric down beside Eloise, and looked to the older twin. "Get the towels, El," he urged her, "Don't worry, M'Lady, I'll find him."​

​

Then he was off, out of the cave and into the fray.​

​

Arcturus was stood, primed and waiting for the pair to arrive, though he sensed something odd alongside them. A presence oh so familiar... Marcus. He could feel a rage beginning to form deep within him, and his free hand reached instead for the lightsaber hilt he rarely sought to use. That was not to say he did not keep well practiced, of course. He knew how to wield the thing.​

​

Before he could do much of anything though young Pharus was running forward, armed with only a stick he'd happened to find along the way.​

​

"You let him go!" the boy yelled when he saw Marcus held at knifepoint within the grasp of the towering Shaal. He too could feel a hot wave of rage coursing through his veins, only it focused more in his lungs than his heart as the all too familiar urge to scream arose within him. "Put my brother down!"​

​

Stepping up behind Pharus, Arcturus ignited his saber and glowered up at the pair.​

​

"Do as the boy says," he warned, "Or you'll wind up in my domain." Perhaps just a trick of the light, but Arcturus seemed to grow a few inches in that moment as he allowed himself to feed upon the grandiose beliefs of the natives. They wished for him to be their God of the Underworld? Well then... Who was he to deny such?​

​

Making a point of moving between the threat and Pharus, he shielded his ward but did not immediately urge him back to the cave. Perhaps he should have, but he didn't.​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

For a moment, as Arcturus seemed to grow larger before his eyes, Dev was genuinely frightened. His people’s instinctive fear and awe of their gods was still deeply ingrained in his very blood. But this Shaal’s eyes had been opened. He had traveled the stars and seen the truth about the nature of these “deities”, and so it was only for a moment that he was afraid.

“In your domain?” Dev laughed. “You’ve tread upon my master’s domain.”

A sudden blast of telekinetic energy came hurtling toward both Arcturus and Pharus. It had not come from Dev, but from his master.

Kolinahr revealed himself then, appearing from seemingly out of nowhere on top of a flat rock the children had been using as a diving board. A changeling, today he had taken the form of a handsome male swathed in finery, his broad, muscular torso and arms exposed. He certainly looked the part of a fair young god, gleaming like a golden idol in a Shaalite temple.

“I am Kolinahr the Trickster, and I don’t share power!” he shouted, grinning. “You think you can make your own pantheon? This world only has room for so many gods!”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Arcturus felt the build up in the Force and hastily shoved Pharus aside as the blast was thrust toward them. He dug his heels into the earth, deep lines grating through soil as he was pushed back; a glower twisted his expression, and without looking at the golden haired boy he spoke to him directly.​

​

"You did well, now find your mother."​

​

He did not care in that moment how Pharus viewed them, he would protect the boy and treat him as his own son from this day forward. He'd stepped up to the plate, he'd offered himself up in defense of Marcus, and that solidified them as family in his eyes.​

​

"MY DOMAIN" he asserted all at once, voice shaking the walls of the grotto around them as a searing rage welled up inside of him. "I reside over the dead, and if you do not release my boy then you will find yourself in the most depraved pits of Hell."​

​

As he spoke drew upon the Force, then for a moment seemed to flicker from view. He disappeared entirely, only to resurface in the very center of the grotto, upon a ring of runes so delicately etched that they were almost impossible to see much less make sense of. Only he did not reemerge alone, in each hand he grasped a withering soul which he flung forth toward them. The dismal corpses rattled and groaned, shaken by their sudden uprooting from the Netherworld.​

​

"You and me, Trickster," he spat, "The boy has no part to play in our divine wars."​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

Chunks of rock falling from the stone walls around him, blasted away by the Force, Pharus gaped at the immense power Kolinahr had unleashed—and at Arcturus’ ability to withstand it without so much as taking a scratch. His feet moved faster than his mind as he raced back to the hiding spot.

Rhiannon lay on a towel on the ground, looking very sweaty and strained. She had removed most of her clothes out of necessity, but pulled a towel over herself when Pharus entered. Eloise was fretting by her side, clearly unsure of what to do. “Did you find him?” Rhi asked immediately. Of course, she could sense that Marcus was still alive, but what was happening out there, she did not know.

Pharus was hesitant to tell her. “Mr. Dinn has things under control,” he said. “What about you, ma’am?”

“This baby is definitely coming. Feels like it’s happening a lot faster than the twins…” She winced. “Well, don’t just stand there! Help me out here!”

“Uh… How do I help you give birth?”

“Go stand somewhere else, then!” she growled between grit teeth.

Rolling his eyes, Pharus went to go stand somewhere else within the safety of the cave.

---

Kolinahr laughed. “That’s better! When I shout, you shout back!” Stepping off the ledge, he floated down to the same level as Arcturus… just in time to see the God of the Underworld disappear.

When he reappeared at the center of the pool, floating above it, clutching the souls of the dead in either hand, Dev had to admit he was impressed. Kolinahr too was taken aback, watching his opponent with unease. “Oh, but he does,” he said, regaining his smirk. “I know what’s going on here. Rhiannon brought you in as her consort. You’re going to start a dynasty here. I can’t let you do that.”

<I changed my mind,> Kolinahr’s voice filled Dev’s mind once again. <Kill the boy now.>

And once again, Dev found himself hesitating. He suspected Arcturus would make short work out of Kolinahr once they actually started fighting, and Dev didn’t want to make an enemy out of a stronger deity than his master. So, he disobeyed. Releasing the boy, he pushed him toward Arcturus.

Marcus stumbled forward, his face streaked with tears and snot, and stretched out his arms toward his father from the shore. With a roar of anger at Dev’s treachery, Kolinahr aimed another blast of obliterating telekinesis at the boy, hoping to dash him against the rocks.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Pharus did not dawdle, and that was good. There was already one too many children in the crosshairs, he did not need another's life at risk. His focus was now fully set upon the trio, drifting between Master and Apprentice where his boy was held still at knife point.​

​

Arcturus shook to see it, but it was not a fear filled tremble but pure rage the likes of which he had not felt since freeing his wife and children from the grips of nefarious pirates.​

​

He'd seen their blood flow through the ships floor vents, tasted their flesh on his tongue, and he would do so again now.​

​

"I am no one's consort" he claimed, "She and I are two sides of the same coin, one who walks the heavens above and one who slinks in the shadows below. Day and night. Life and death."​

​

By this point Arcturus' words were coming out hissed.​

​

Those ambling corpses floated shakily toward the Master, and once their half-rotted feet touched the ground they ran at lightning speed toward him, intent on rending flesh from bone.​

​

The other though, the Shaal, seemed to understand better than this so-called Trickster God. Wiser than Arcturus might have given him credit for, he soon released Marcus and while the boy ran forward, arms outstretched, Arcturus hovered down toward him until he stood before the boy. One arm reached back, wrapping around him as he cowered behind his legs, and the other was thrust forward as though cutting that telekinetic blast in two. Certainly it parted like the red sea, shattering more rocks around them as it was thrust into the walls instead.​

​

"You are no God" he declared, "You wield party tricks like some sniveling Jedi, you are naught but a man in god-wrought clothing. Pathetic."​

​

Keeping Marcus behind him, he took another step forward.​

​

"So called Trickster God, you choose to attack mere children because you are afraid of what will happen should you face off against a Higher God. When I am done with this world, the Pantheon shall kneel before me, but you shall not live to be amongst them. You, and me. No Sons, no Apprentices, just God on God."​

​

He lifted his chin slightly, feeling more alive than he had in a very long time, and glared daggers at the man.​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

Two corpses lunged toward Kolinahr. Activating his lightsaber, he cut them down with relative ease, though no doubt more would come to harry his defenses while Arcturus mounted a stronger attack.

Dev would have helped his master, but… well. He was starting to think it might be best if he stayed out of this feud entirely.

“There’s a reason the Sky-Goddess made you the patron of the domain beneath hers,” Kolinahr replied. “You’re nothing but a means to an end, a way to further consolidate her power.”

"You are no God. You wield party tricks like some sniveling Jedi, you are naught but a man in god-wrought clothing. Pathetic."

That got a rise out of Kolinahr. “I was a Jedi,” he said. “But I freed myself from those chains long ago. I’ve killed my brother, men, women, and children. Unlike you, I have no line I’m afraid to cross.”

Dev’s gaze darted between Kolinahr and Arcturus as they traded barbs and jabs. “Is this to be a battle of words?” he asked impatiently. “Send the boy away like you did with the other one, and settle this once and for all.” He might just swear fealty to whoever came out victorious.

Kolinahr, still fighting dirty, seized a boulder that had fallen and flung it at Arcturus.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Unlike the traditional trope of a rambling, monologuing villain, Arcturus was only using his words to deflect attention away from Marcus. With the boy soon secured the need for such diminished, and as the now-bystander chimed up he found himself once more informed of the Shaal's wits. More of a mind than the man throwing rocks, to be sure. It would be a shame to cut him down when all was said and done.​

​

"You will remain where you are" he ordered of the Shaal, not wanting to risk him following Marcus back to the cave. Then without turning to his boy he spoke softer. "Your mother needs you" he said, sensing something amiss in the distance, "You will go, and you will help her. I'll be just behind you."​

​

Hopefully his little mini-me would listen. With one last squeeze he released him, and set his full attention back to the Trickster as a boulder was flung his way.​

​

Arcturus leapt aside, the boulder smashing into the ground and sending shrapnel this way and that. It cut up his face and his hands which raised to try and protect his eyes, leaving a sizeable chunk sliced from his forearm, and then a bestial growl rumbled up from the depths of his chest. No children to fret over, he pulled back his teeth as though a snarling animal and disappeared once more.​

​

Another blip in time, then he ripped forth more of the dead from the realm beyond realms, materializing back on the spot up high. These were more hulking though, not men suffering the decay of time but titans in comparison, beings of the Nether itself. They would not last long in this realm, they were not like the Shadows fully capable of jumping between worlds freely, but they would last long enough.​

​

Then he leapt down from the rock, forgoing the hovering this time in favour of crashing into the ground before the Trickster God.​

​

"I hold dominion over life and death, the very life force which slinks through your putrid body" he proclaimed, before a series of unintelligible words ran from his lips. His hand rose up even as he spoke, wasting no time he multitasked words and actions, and focused deep inside the man.​

​

Focused, focused... Until he could hear the very blood coursing through his veins. Arcturus' eyes turned a sickly hue of yellow, his skin paled, and with the closing of one hand he sought to cut off circulation to the man's saber-wielding arm.​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

"You will remain where you are."

Dev held up his hands as if in surrender, but his lips were twisted in a smirk. He backed up a few steps, getting to higher ground so as to view the duel from above.

Marcus pressed his lips to the back of his father’s hand before he ran off. The kiss seemed to carry with it a little added oomph in the Force, giving Arcturus a little extra strength along with all that he had already gathered.

The fight began. Arcturus narrowly defended himself from the flung boulder, but it served to enrage him. He disappeared and reappeared again, again carrying two beings he had dredged up from the Netherworld. But these were not shambling corpses. They were demonic entities, unaffected by Kolinahr’s lightsaber.

The trickster god was struck, black blood welling up from the cuts and slashes the twin demons dealt him before he realized his blade was useless against them. Abandoning the weapon, he lashed out with the Force, draining them both of life. His wounds sealed rapidly, but they did not heal; the blood remained, smeared and dripping over his skin.

Arcturus used the distraction to get closer. Grinning—he had hoped the fool would come within his reach—Kolinahr revealed his shapeshifting nature. His body twisted and writhed as he lunged at Arcturus, coiling his body around his. Fleshy tendrils enveloped the human, pinning his limbs to his sides and wrapping around his neck. But before he could apply pressure, cutting off the supply of air, the coil around Arc’s throat suddenly went limp.

“Veshyasuta!” he cursed Arcturus in his mother tongue, fighting bitterly against the blood magic. He flung the God of the Underworld into the waters of the cenote, desperate to break Arc’s concentration.

Spoiler: Veshyasuta means...

"spawn of a whore"

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

The kiss did its intended job of boosting his morale, focus, and connection to the Force, as did hearing the pattering retreat of the young boys footsteps. Now it was just the three of them, two so long as the red-skinned Shaal remained disengaged.​

​

His minions did precisely what he had hoped, first drawing tangible blood from the Trickster while also serving as a distraction. As he jumped down to the platform the Trickster stood on though he realized that he wasn't the only one with a trick or two up his sleeves. "Shapeshifter" he spat, no wonder they had dubbed him the deity which they had. What was he? Clawdite, Shi'ido? Perhaps some varient he'd never heard of before...​

​

It didn't matter.​

​

As his body was entwined with the oddly elastic form of his opponent, Arcturus sought to keep his focus on the being's bloodflow, on cutting off a supply to-- well, frankly, he wasn't sure which part of the shifter he was targeting at this point. He could feel a light pressure beginning to form, as though constricted by a boa, and then...​

​

He was released, flung into the waters which until just now had been a refuge and retreat for he and his family.​

​

Arcturus began to sink just a little; he'd never been the most confident in water, in fact he'd first learned to swim with Rhiannon back on her homeworld, and the only way he really managed to get through it had been through the stealing of one of those crazy mermaid skins. He did not have such here, so he sank...​

​

While the shifter sought to shake off his blood magic, Arcturus found himself fumbling for one of many pouches he always kept attached to his belt. He felt around in one, thumbing each of the pebbles it contained until one felt right under his touch. ​

​

He released the trickster, returning circulation to his whole body, and drew his attention in the Force elsewhere. Another blip...​

​

Arcturus did not appear up on top of the ledge as he had been doing, nor did bubbles arise from the water. It seemed as though he was gone, lost beneath the grotto's dark waters.​

​

Then a splash, and he emerged from the water behind the shifter, his skin no longer as it had been. Wrapped in the Atargatis Skin, he stepped back onto the rocky shore and this time knew enough to keep his distance.​

​

No more games, he decided. He flicked his hand and loosed from it his beloved dagger; before it had even come close to hitting its mark, if indeed it did, he drew from his back his Lineage Razor and drew upon it for strength of will. All around him he saw visions of past kills, the pirates who had sought to enslave his wife, and children, the fellow slaves who had died in the same program he'd been rigorously put through before Darth Empyrean had welcomed him into his home, gladiators back on Geonosis, Jedi on Qi-Ko, and perhaps the most unexpected of all...​

​

A face he did not immediately recognize, not by sight, but whom he knew deeply by presence alone. The way in which she looked at him, her soft blue eyes and auburn hair unmistakable. She exuded pride, which she conferred his way without needing to open her mouth, she encouraged strength within him, reassurance. And for a moment, just a moment, even her name finally came back to his mind.​

​

Eleanor Dinn... Mother.​

​

She would not let him fail, not let his children be harmed the way hers had been.​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

The numbness finally abated, leaving Kolinahr fuming. Gathering lightning in his fingertips, he blasted them at the water, intending to fry the God of the Underworld while he was still submerged.

But Arc was already gone by the time the water was electrified. Kolinahr blinked and whirled around as his opponent suddenly reappeared behind him. Just in time to be struck in the chest by the flying dagger.

With a cry, he yanked the blade free. Heart's blood welled up from the wound, black as ink. But the Shi’ido wasn’t dead yet. “It’s you who will die here, Desdinova!” he shouted, reaching out with the Force to choke the rival god.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

The blade came free without any difficulty, then teleported itself right back into Arcturus' empty hand. He held it, contemplating tossing it once more, and then felt a pressure beginning to form around his throat. He lifted his head some, as though hoping it might open up his airways, and dropped the dagger. It materialized back on his person, clinging to the atargatis skin, and his now free hand reached up to touch his neck.​

​

He tried not to panic. His mother looked at him, then past him, and he felt... something. A pulsing call sent through the Force. Eleanor turned, eyes drifting behind the Trickster to where the cave lay, and Arcturus' wide eyes followed to discover someone unexpected peeking out from the entrance.​

​

His immediate instinct was to order him back somehow, reach through the Force to speak into his mind and bid him to return to Rhiannon, but as the pressure at his neck continued to cut in he simply nodded once.​

​

Then Arcturus began to laugh, a choked and malicious laughter which had him hacking and coughing to do, as he took a slight step forward, feeling his head begin to get heavy. He held out the Razor, as though fumbling forward to try and skewer the trickster, hoping to give enough time for the young boy to do something. Anything.​

​

Whether the child managed a direct blow, or simply a distraction, Arcturus would use it to his advantage. He had to.​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

Rhiannon was trying to make as little noise as possible, not wanting to draw unwanted attention to their hiding place. When the pain reached a point where she couldn’t help but moan, she gagged herself with a wadded up strip of cloth to stifle her cries.

Marcus returned not long after Pharus, running teary-eyed to his mother’s side. Both twins clung to Rhi, who was trying to stay calm.

Unable to do much, Pharus went off by himself, keeping watch at the mouth of the cave. At least, until he heard Rhi calling to him.

“It’s Arcturus,” she gasped out. “He’s losing consciousness. If he passes out, he’ll be killed—”

And then we’ll all be dead, Pharus realized. Whatever mixed feelings he might’ve had, that was reason enough for him to intervene. “Don’t worry, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll go and help.”

Pharus ran back the way he had come, and sure enough, he found Arc being throttled by an unseen hand. Well, what could Pharus do? He was no Jedi or Sith. All he had managed to do thus far was scream… a scream which had drawn blood.

Better that than nothing. Sucking in a deep breath, Pharus tried to summon up that old rage—and found it came to him quite easily. He had never stopped being angry over the deaths of his parents, the conquest of his homeworld, and a whole host of other things. He howled his pent-up fury at Kolinahr, who was forced to relinquish his hold on Arc in order to protect himself from the weaponized sound waves.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

The Shi'ido was caught off guard, no doubt struck by the bulk of the Force Scream, and because of this Arcturus' throat was freed from the telekinetic grasp. He wasted no time, no time at all, he gasped for air then lunged forward with all the practiced grace of a Makashi practitioner, and stabbed the Razor straight through his back, to where his heart ought to have been. ​

​

Arcturus could not claim to have any great knowledge on the anatomy of a Shi'ido, he did not know where exactly their hearts lay, but if nothing else it anchored him in place for what came next.​

​

"Look away, son" he demanded of Pharus, before removing his hands from the hilt of his blade to bring them up instead to lay on either side of the Shi'ido's head. With the last of his Forcely strength he snapped the Trickster's head to one side sharply, then both he and the shifter disappeared from view.​

​

In the Nether, Arcturus dragged the body of Kolinahr, live or dead, through his workshop, before smashing his head against his anvil. Once, twice, thrice, he reached a hand out and called into his grasp one of his great blacksmithing hammers, and then brought that down too, planning to squish the pseudo-God's head between two sets of heavy metals.​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

Watching his half-alive master be dragged through a portal to hell, Dev concluded that he had made the right decision by not siding with Kolinahr in this battle. On the other hand, he had no idea whether the God of the Underworld would come back and turn his wrath upon the Trickster’s apprentice. With that in mind, he began to climb up over the rocks, trying to escape…

Pharus returned to the cave. “Mr. Dinn has won the duel,” he announced. “Pretty sure, anyway...”

“Where is he?” Rhi asked desperately. “I need him here…”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Satisfied that the Shi'ido was now pulp, Arcturus reemerged back on that rocky outcropping, wherein the runes had been etched, dragging the bloody pulp of a man back with him. He scoured the grotto in search of the red-skinned Shaal, and upon seeing him attempting to flee he raised his voice and held aloft the mutilated body by his hair to make a point.​

​

"YOU HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN LEAVE TO EXIT MY DOMAIN" he rumbled, fueled by the Darkside alone at this point, "COME BEFORE ME NOW, AND YOU MAY YET LIVE."​

​

He didn't even realize he was still in the mermaid skin, or that it and his face were flecked with blood and viscera, none of that mattered now. For as sore and beaten as Arcturus felt he had been victorious, and his family would be safe for yet another day.​

​

Dev Ossian ​

 

[Dev Ossian]

Dev sighed and turned around. His eyebrows rose at the sight of Desdinova holding the mangled corpse of Kolinahr aloft, his body splattered with black blood, but otherwise this was all par for the course for him.

“I like the sound of living!” he called back, before heading toward the victorious deity of death. “I know all about Kolinahr, you know. All his secrets, the height and width of his domain—I’ll tell you everything I know, in exchange for my life—”

“Arcturus!” Rhi screamed from down below, giving up all pretense of trying to be quiet.

Dev faltered a bit at the interruption, then continued, “I was his apprentice for twenty-five years. I know all his tricks. I mean, not that you would need to know them, since you were clearly the stronger opponent—”

“The baby is coming!”

“I also may or may not have stolen your wife’s ship,” Dev suddenly confessed. “You can have it back, of course, as long as you stop her from killing me.” A wordless wail of pain echoed among the rocks. “She certainly sounds like quite the holy terror...”

Arcturus Dinn​