The sand was cold, the wind was cold, the humidity from being close to the ocean felt like bits of ice upon his skin. And the night sky looked odd, as if there were no stars yet he knew them to be there.
I have failed. He thought as he took step after delicate step across the shore. But failure wasn't something he regarded as he once did. In another time, failure would have resulted into serious ceaseless thoughts that all aimed to fix the disappointing result of whatever had transpired. Now, he didn't have ceaseless thoughts, just one, a hunger to see everything die. And from it was a singular emotion, as cold as all that was around him.
Leba Vigon, once Prince of Binoria stopped in his tracks to regard a boulder that was in his way. The shadow the rock cast across the sand was thick with layered darkness. He could tell the different shades of black the boulder cast, he needed one that lay at the centre, a darkness that permeated everything. He saw it and reached out a hand, changing the pitch of black smoke that twirled around the length of his arm and hand to fit the permeating darkness, he touched the boulder's shadow and was sucked into the darkness.
He appeared a moment later in a place of pitch darkness with a singular white circle upon the ground. He walked and stood in the middle of the circle. The dark mist around him sometimes formed into liquid, and darkness dripped down his legs but when it touched the white circle it receded back up his legs as smoke.
When was the last time I felt warmth? He remembered the beginning, at the chasm within the cave. The place he'd gone to summon an ancient darkness and succeeded in the most unlikely of ways. He had tried to feel warmth then, after he had climbed out of the chasm and killed everyone who'd helped him summon the Bringer Of The Endless Night. He'd gathered their clothes stained with blood, and wrapped them around himself to ward off the chill, but nothing could fight off the cold. Not even the sun, oddly enough, the sun made it even colder.
"Did you find her?" A bestial voice spoke from the darkness all around.
"I did." Leba said. He should have been afraid of the voice, and the face behind the voice. But he wasn't because fear didn't hold the same meaning it once did. He treated the deity bound to him not as a mortal would treat a God but as a servant would their master, a master they've served their entire life. Not that his relationship with Locha carried the same affection long years of service would. No. Affection wasn't something he related to anymore. "But, she escaped, I couldn't get close to the fire she used to keep me at bay. It was too..." Cold, he wanted to scream the word at the deity. Why was it all the champions of the other Gods didn't suffer as he did? Why was warmth something he no longer could feel?
"I cannot tolerate weakness." Locha said. "The cold isn't something you should avoid but embrace. Through the burn of something cold do you truly appreciate the congruence"
"It's not a weakness I chose to bear." Leba said. "I would very much prefer to go about my duties without having to be hindered in any way."
"You seek a solution?"
"I seek an end."
The voice laughed then, cackled and hacking with a rasp like a blade being drawn. "Our desires are the same. You must prevent Alietsi's champion from touching the sea, if she does so she will draw strength from the puny Goddess and that will make things difficult for you."
Leba understood, of all the Gods, Alietsi held the key to a land beyond the Rankf Sea, a land where the banished God Sin and his worshippers dwelt. A land ruled by fire, the bane of Locha. If Edda managed to bond Alietsi fully by either drinking from her chalice cup or touching the sea, she could withdraw the Leviathans ruling the Rankf Sea and the Rad es Maalas and their wretched sky serpents who spit fire would enter the fray.
"It is my belief that the woman Alietsi has chosen, has no desire to bond the Goddess." Leba said. "The next time I go for her, she will draw her last breath."
"What of the Goddess Meena and her champions?"
"Unite them for a singular strike that would end both their lives. I believe Masutap is on her way to Dahli."
"That would give me the opportunity to devour Meena, it'll weaken her enough.". He sounded pleased and Leba wondered why, being that he'd just come from a failed mission. "What of Nyawe?"
"Kill her champion and she is no more."
"Yes, love will cease to exist entirely. She's done more than bond Rehny, she's using his life line to extend her own, the bitch has made a mortal immortal. What of Nielda?"
"His champion must never master space, he should only ever remain in the construct of time, ever losing himself to it until madness prevails."
"And the God of Chaos, Ovek?"
"I'm yet to figure out a way to bring down Ishar. Madness lacks cure, it is uneven and unpredictable."
"Perhaps this will help."
A woman fell out of the darkness, naked and whole. Blonde hair and blue eyes with pale skin. She shivered and cried out at the sight of him. Leba felt neither desire nor arousal. "In what way will she help me?" Leba asked. He knew Locha had just pulled out the woman from somewhere in Binoria. She'd maybe stepped into a dark alley or had blown out the candle to retire to bed and made herself susceptible to darkness.
The woman cried out when she heard Locha's voice. "Her blood, spill it."
Leba moved like an arrow shot from a crossbow at short range, his fingers drew a line across her neck and blood spilled out. The air was stained with the tinge of rust and his hands touched the red liquid that carries life and with the touch he felt... Warmth.
Sweet warmth. He tore at her gaping wound, willing more blood to spill. He lathered himself in it, broke her wrists until the bone pieced skin and blood sprouted in squirts. The blood was warm and it drove away the cold, he bathed in it and rejoiced. All the while Locha laughed.
XXXXXX
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