"It's the end."
Yoru stands in the rain, looking at the man he just killed. The Shard of Light – the key to his power, to the Mirage Realm, to his peace – is now piercing through the heart of his lover. Ex-lover. The bloodied face stares at him, a part is covered by the scar from Yoru's attack.
"Yoru, don't –" Hanu coughs up reddish phlegm, trying to appeal one last time for the Supreme Deity's pity. "You promised you will help me ascend the Throne of Oblivion."
"And I will send you there myself. Hanu, it's over."
The Supreme Deity of Chaos and Divine War shed his first tear. His last. A strand of silky black hair falls down his face, cascading to the body of a Semi-Deity, which is growing cold.
Covered in the white feathery coat and the luxurious robe made of stars and lights in the universe of dreams, Yoru heaves a sigh.
Where had he gone wrong?
Alone, he was born from the flesh of the predecessor Supreme Deity. Sealed inside him was the Shard of Light. The dying god, before he breathed his last, told Yoru to never fall in love. That is a vital condition to keep the Shard of Light safe. To maintain the order of their Godhood.
"Why?" Yoru, a tiny little boy with the eyes as dark and unfathomable as the Throne of Oblivion itself, asked.
"Because love is the most hideous monster."
He didn't understand what the elder deity meant. Living as long as he does, Yoru has watched the rise and fall of the Throne. He never once involved himself in any of the wars, because he was always the one who created them. Fuel the bloodshed. Watch the flames burn everything down. Build it all up again. Such is his role.
Until Hanu crossed his path.
"Are you really a Supreme Deity? You look frail."
Hanu met him when he was just a weakling semi-deity. Even then, he was notorious for being the strongest among his peers. The fastest. The wisest. And of course, it only came to Yoru's ears later, the wickedest.
That semi-deity looked at him, fierce with passion and fearless in his arrogance. It was true: Yoru's frail body didn't make up for his immense control and power. The pale white skin from being in the darkness for far too long, the carpet of silky black hair that was turning white at the tips from living a life longer than most, and the face that surpassed the definition of beauty.
"You look like a snowflake in the night. What's your name?" Hanu nodded his head at him, asking unabashedly.
"A Supreme Deity can't tell their name to others."
"Why? Someone bites you in the back if you do?" The semi-deity smirked. Yoru flinched at the unfamiliar vulgarity.
"No. Because it is a binding contract. I only tell my name to the Throne."
"Oh? Then I will ascend the Throne. Tell me your name, Supreme Deity."
Annoyed at the careless remark, Yoru turned to face the semi-deity, ready to lecture him on the order of Godhood. But before he could utter a furious reproach, Hanu grasped his chin, clashed their lips together, and swallowed whatever words left in his overstimulated mind in a tangled of tongues and wet sounds against his ears. "I like your taste." Hanu flicked his reddening earlobe. "I knew it from the start. Sweet, sugary, star anise, and cinnamon powder. You are an omega, aren't you, Supreme Deity?"
"I –"
Yoru's protest was cut short with another deep kiss. And it got heated with a pair of strong hands on his chest as he tried to breathe. The palpitation raced in his ribcage. His heart was bursting. The hands kept wandering on, leaving not an inch of skin untouched, as it they were trying to claim the promised land.
"You –" Yoru tried to talk between the kisses and the burning fingers dancing on his squirming body.
"Not 'you,'" the semi-deity struck back, a mischievous grin plastered on his face, "Hanu. Everyone calls me that. What about yours?"
It was long after the night they spent together in the blooming idyllic garden of the Mirage Realm that the Supreme Deity gingerly told Hanu to call him by name. "Yoru. The Throne calls me that."
And now that the Throne is killed by the power that should protect him, the Supreme Deity succumbs to the hideous monster that unleashes the negativity he shouldn't feel, the Shard of Light is tainted irrevocably, their names are but salt in a sea of wounds.
Yoru lifts the Shard of Light for one last time, letting the blood of the one he loved drip on the ground, and wields his final remnant of strength to draw a ritual of old. The one the elderly Supreme Deity forbade him to use before he died of old age. The archaic words shine with each drop of red ink, and when he finishes, Yoru mumbles his prayer. With a swift motion, Yoru gorges his heart out as an offering, and falls onto the circle as the light beams swallow him. A loud bang reverberates in the dark. As Yoru reaches out to stroke the newborn babe's platinum silver hair and his peaceful sleeping face, he whispers:
"Oh Supreme Deity of Death and Oblivion. Thy name will be –" He choked on the cloud of sorrow and despair inside him, "Yuriel."
The babe cries as he was thrown into the mortal realm. Yoru watches with coldness and detachment as his world falls apart.
Yes, Love is a hideous monster. And he won't fall for it twice.