Ciclico END: At the very least, you always had each other ~ Past

They were very far away from Ciclico.

The village was already far from all of its neighbors, but the situation only made it more difficult after it. Ases had to stay in the forest, unseen by the village, once they arrived at the next one. They were dozens of kilometers away from where they used to call home, but fortunately, someone managed to recognize Herm and Raz. Raz had visited the place on its way to Ciclico while Herm and Ases had visited once several years ago, accompanied by their father Plojem.

The image of a woman dressed as if she belonged to royalty, accompanied by two gravely hurt people was something everyone was immediately suspicious of. If the villagers hadn’t recognized the two hurt ones and decided to help them, they probably would not have made it.

After some hours Mors finally returned to the forest, leaving the other two to rest and recuperate in there. When she returned, Ases, still transformed into an enormous monster, was thrown to the ground in a fetal position. When she left him he was out of himself out of worry, but somehow, he looked to be faring even worse.

“They are safe” She said, but Ases did not move at all. “I fulfilled my part of the deal, now you’ll come with me.”

He still did not respond.

Mors looked at him and could not avoid feeling resentment filling her gut. She had been hunting the boar for years, slowly making way, fighting through the danger that was facing it while being killable. And what was it all for? For a random person out of nowhere to appear at the last second and take away the part of herself she sought for so long.

She got near him and touched his shoulder, trying to make him react, but Ases did not move. He seemed lost in thought, not recognizing what was surrounding him. While he was this distracted…

Maybe she could simply take her power away, and feign that nothing happened in the first place.

She rose up and joined her hands as if they were a bowl. She visualized the missing part of herself in it, slowly filling, trickling in. Spiritually, she could feel the weight that started accumulating there. When her hands were full, she closed her fists and pulled with all her strength, hoping to rip the power out of its vessel and into the one she had just created.

Ases body shot up, pulled alongside the power, waking up from his trance. He was screaming in pain, feeling as if his skin was being ripped from his body. The power did seem to separate a little bit, floating as a black mass accumulating over him, but it refused to completely unstick, tied to the very fabric of his being.

Mors saw this, thinking that it was too late and it would be better to rip it off completely now that she had come so far. She pulled harder, Ases apparently starting to return to normality, at least, until blood started to pool in instead of power. In both Ases and Mors arms the shape of a bracelet appeared, showing stronger the more she pulled.

Knowing that it was useless, Mors let go, the power returning to Ases who was left groaning in pain in the ground.

“You are going to kill him if you try again.”

Mors turned around, startled, only to see the culprit of her situation calmly leaning on a tree. The number two person on her list of hated people, the Goddess of Wisdom, had appeared.

Her first instinct was to try and attack her, but something stopped her from committing to it. It was as if her mind cleared, her power waned, although it did not disappear. Seems like what she had said about Gods attacking other Gods was not a lie.

“I come to help, so let’s not do anything violent, please?” She said, with the tired tone of someone who has done something too many times to care anymore.

“You? Help me?” Mors responded, wondering if she should try hitting the Goddess’s face with her fists.

“I see you got yourself a new hero, although he is not the person who I expected to be.” Wisdom said, sounding slightly confused while looking at Ases.

“What do you mean, the person who you expected to be,” Said Mors, almost growling, speaking through her teeth. “I was about to kill the boar when he got in the way.”

“I made the boar precisely so you could not kill it. Believe me, even if you had managed to kill it with its tusks, it would not have counted as your kill. That power is no longer yours.”

“Is it not mine? I can feel the hole in my soul you left when you ripped it from me!” Mors screamed, rising up. She really was now convinced to try to punch the Goddess in the face.

“That feeling is not the missing power, that feeling is the seal. You know, the one that keeps your son alive?” Wisdom replied, not moving, even when Mors was approaching her.

When she said that, Mors stopped abruptly, her ire giving way to consternation and fear.

“Yes, your powers are sealed. That’s the only reason they have not killed your kid.” Wisdom went on, seeing that Mors had now stopped. “If your powers are sealed, I can interfere with them, and with the bracelet, I can redirect them away from him. You can’t get the power of the boar, because it does not belong to you, at least, unless you break your seal.”

Mors brought down her fists. She was closing them with such strength that blood started flowing out of them, her own nails hurting her.

“You could keep trying, but while you are still constrained, all you would do is kill your hero, and carry around a piece of power you can do nothing with. That hole in your soul would still remain.” Wisdom finished. Mors simply fell into the ground, not saying anything, trying to assimilate what she said.

The fact that her soul would be incomplete as long as her own son lived.

“I did warn you to wait for your hero. You were very close to getting one, it is extremely rare to find a human capable of wielding any kind of magic, specially of that caliber. And what did you do? You interfered, and ruined this kid’s life along the way.”

Wisdom pointed to Ases with her head. Ases was unconscious, breathing heavily, slowly recovering from the damage Mors had done to him. Mors looked back at him, still confused, incapable and unwilling of processing what had transpired.

“Whatever you decide to do with him, that’s your choice. At the very least, if you are going to rip his soul to get your power out, kill him first. Be a God, not a monster.”

Wisdom said that and walked towards the tree. For a moment she seemed to hide behind it, but she did not come out on the other side. She was gone, and all that was left were Mors and Ases, fully immersed in themselves, trying to process everything.

Hours went by, Ases was now healed, waking up from what he felt was an extremely long nightmare. His body was back to normal, the woman with the royal clothes was over him, tweaking her fingers while murmuring something. When she moved her hands, he felt as if his body moved too, transfigurating again.

Panicked, he scurried away from her.

“What are you doing to me!” He said, absolutely terrified.

“Wait, I’m trying to help you!” She said, trying to calm him down. She stayed where she was, not wanting to move closer or she would scare him more.

Ases looked at her, but as she did not move, he slowly calmed back. When his body finally seemed to have lost its tension, Mors continued.

“I don’t think I can return you to how you used to be. I can try, but I think there’s no going back. At the very least, I think I can make you look human, at least human enough for you to enter the village and see those two again.” She said, slowly, now sitting on the floor and trying to relax too.

Ases heard her and didn’t know what to believe. He looked at himself, and effectively, he had changed. Where there were two enormous claws before, now there were two hands. Too big for a person, but smaller than they used to be.

When he saw his hands, he saw blood, blood that he knew was not his.

Mors expected him to be scared, that was understandable, but she didn’t seem to understand why he started to cry.

This was the absolute worst.

Ases started sniffling, but soon enough, he was full on bawling. When it went on, Mors rose and tried to put her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t even seem to notice.

Minutes went on, until eventually, he seemed to have tired himself out. Only then could he speak again.

“My… my father…”

Oh, of course, that’s what this was about.

She really hated this situation at all. She didn’t know what to do, what to say. Hell, what can you even say in a situation like this? She could not even begin to dimension the loss that he was going through. How could she? After being trapped in the shrine, she had lost any semblance of family she had before.

How would she react if her own son died?

No, the thought alone was too much for her. Her son was all she had, especially now, that she knew she was condemned to the void in her soul. Thinking about losing him was something she could not deal with now.

She simply stayed there at his side, not knowing what to do next. Wisdom was right, his life was now ruined. Even if she managed to make him look human again, he was now the hero of death, something he would have to carry for the rest of his life.

A life he would now have to spend with her as a constant, the one that had ruined it to begin with.

Neither of them knew what the future awaited, neither of them was optimistic about it. But at the very least, one thing was certain for Mors. She regretted what had happened deeply. If there was a chance that he could forgive her for what she had done, she would work however hard she needed to to get it.

And maybe, someday, he will be able to trust her. Confide in her. If he was now the hero of death, maybe they should work together after all.

She could only hope that the future would be kind, and someday they would be able to look at each other, with full trust in one another.