Not Yet Time

Avii struggled against the weight of Sebastian. As he tried to push himself from the thick liquid, hoping for but a single breath of air, his hands only slipped and drove deeper into the muck. There was no solid ground for him to press against. Nothing to use for leverage. The shores of the pond were nothing more than pulverized bone and decomposing flesh layered feet deep after years of regular use. So long as Sebastian remained atop him, there was no escape from the sludge.

“Avii,” Harbinger continued to whisper in the back of his mind, its voice hauntingly set against the sounds of his final moments of consciousness. “You must live. You must survive. Survive…”

Unable to hold it any longer, Avii exhaled the last of his air. With a gasp, blood flowed into his lungs, choking him. His end had finally come at the hands of the twisted man. A man reared by the very soul that tortured him for years. It wasn’t the end he wanted, but his own mind reminded him it was the one he deserved. After all, Kovik and Estarian alike blamed him for the greed of Maldain. Blamed him for living. For surviving. And even his own people blamed him for their demise. For the sins of miners who delved too deep. So, though he dreaded the thought of ending in such a way, to drown in the blood of the tortured was as fitting an end as any other.

“Survive,” Harbinger commanded as Avii’s body began to tense. “Survive. For if you die in this forsaken realm before achieving your purpose, you will never see them again.”

At that sinister whisper, Avii felt the necklace slip from his neck and over his limp head. It floated before him, a crystal and a pendant, drifting down into the putrid muck. He could barely see it through the thick liquid. Through the remnants of tens of thousands of innocent souls. And then, like a fire lighting up the night, he saw it. The glow of hope deep within the putrescence.

Reaching forth his hand, Avii stretched. His fingers dug through the muck in search of the necklace as his tense body began to seize. The feeling of Harbinger taking control of his muscles chilled him to his core. He needed to act before it got its chance. Needed to grab onto the necklace before it was gone forever. Avii couldn’t lose it. The last memory of his family.

And there, as the delicate chain tangled amongst his metal fingers, he found something else. Something to take hold of. Something firm and jagged. Then, out of pure instinct, Avii’s body flinched.

With a burst of power, Harbinger took control of the final moments of Avii’s life. It grappled his body as he walked that fine line that bordered death, tensing his muscles and giving him just enough strength to throw a single arm back. The object he grasped erupted out from the water, swinging madly in the air before striking something solid. Immediately, the hands that held Avii into the pond released, allowing his body to respond.

“Gyuuuhh!” Avii gasped, pulling himself from the blood. “Ack-gyahh.”

As he coughed up the blood that soaked his lungs, Avii turned his vision towards Sebastian. The man slowly stumbled away from the pond, holding at his throat as blood sprayed from the fatal wound that had been inflicted. Buried into his neck, a fragmented shard of femur dripped with a sanguine stream that spilled over his body as he hobbled back towards the grinder.

Avii’s heart dropped as he saw the man lose his footing. He couldn’t let him fall. Couldn’t yet let him die in such a gruesome manner. Not because he deserved to live, since out of everyone, he deserved death the most. No. Sebastian couldn’t yet die, because tangled up on the bone and dangling from his throat was the necklace that Avii valued above all else.

With a final cough of ichor from his lungs, the mule kicked himself to his feet and charged the villain. The world slowed as he watched Sebastian tumble back, his foot slipping from the edge and his armoured body beginning to fall. But Avii wouldn’t let it happen. At least not yet. So, reaching his hand out, he grabbed the man by the collar of his armour, holding him in place.

Hateful eyes looked back at Avii as the dying man choked on his own blood. Sebastian coughed, trying to sling departing slurs as the mule held him in place, but no words slipped past his lips. All that emerged were sanguine streams that coated his armour. But none of that mattered to Avii. The only thing he cared about was the memory that hung against the man’s neck.

Ignoring the hate, Avii looked down from the dying man’s gaze long enough to free the bone and necklace from his flesh. With a spray of gore, the Butcher released a final gurgling gasp. At that, the unrestricted fountain poured forth in an instant, thick and dark. Sebastian’s eyes rolled to the back of his head a moment later as his body fell limp, his chin resting to his chest. That was when it happened.

Suddenly the breastplate of Sebastian’s armour, which had previously been adorned with little more than scrapes and burns, receded enough to reveal a single fire opal hidden from view. As the gemstone glowed, a banshee-like cry echoed out, piercing Avii’s ears as it drowned out the tune of war around them. Then, as the deafening shriek reached its climax, the stone became consumed by a brilliant and fiery flash, before finally shattering. With that, a horrid sucking sound filled the air, as sinister magical energy swirled around Sebastian’s corpse and an unholy spell took hold of his body. In an instant, spilled blood flowed back through the fatal wound, filling him once more before sealing it with a grizzly scar.

Before Avii could do anything, two powerful punches struck his sides. Glowing rods pierced his armour, driving deep into his body and forcing him back from the pit. He released Sebastian, who began to fall, only to watch him kick from the edge of the grinder and land safely on the far side.

“Thank you, mule,” Sebastian yelled out over the grinder. “That was exactly what I needed. A little pick-me-up from a damned soul.”

Glancing down at the spears that had pierced his side, Avii groaned before directing his attention back to Sebastian. Horror quickly filled the man, shaking him to the soul at the sight of the beast before him. The Butcher had changed. Suddenly, his eyes had begun to burn with a devilish glow as the top of his skull split and horns pushed forth. The sinister smile that he wore revealed blood-coated fangs that framed a split tongue licking at charred lips

With a gulp, Avii placed a hand to his chest. Taking a cautious step back, he wondered what devilish deal Sebastian had agreed to with that stone. Or whether Sebastian had ever been a man at all or if he had always been a demon in disguise.

“What are you?” Avii asked, taking another step away from the pit. “Are you a man? Or are you a devil?”

With that question, the earth shook, trembling as though it feared to know the answer. Beneath Avii’s feet a crack formed. A fissure that stretched from the pit to the pond, causing a trickle of blood to begin to pour forward.

“Me?” Sebastian cooed, raising his bloody arm to his face before licking at the gauntlet. “I am free. And you are dead.”

A sharp turn of the devil’s head revealed his intent as abyssal black eyes, each marked with a pair of orange irises, locked onto Avii. In an instant, he cleared the gap of the pit and stood before the mule with his fist primed to strike. But, pulling his arms up to block, Avii saved himself from being skewered once again. The magical rods burst through his plated forearm, piercing metal and bone before erupting out the other side. Grimacing, he fought against the agony. Fought the pain. In that moment, he could do little more than defend against the flurry of blows that came his way.

“GYAHH!” Avii cried out, the bones in his arms splintering with every block of the strikes.

But for every blow his arms took, it was one less that reached a vital organ. One less that risked his life. And, most importantly, one less tool that the devil named Sebastian had at his disposal. This alone made the punishment worth it. Yet there was still more that came from it. As with each failed strike, the Kovik grew frustrated and careless.

“Damn, mule!” The devil of a man cried out as he grabbed at one of Avii’s fists and ripped it to the side. “Just die already!”

Allowing the opening, Avii watched as Sebastian swung for his gut. The sinister glint in the man’s eyes revealed his eagerness to deal the mortal blow that would finally allow him access to the armour. But his gaze grew wide with horror as the strike failed to hit Avii’s plackart, instead connecting with the mule’s gauntlet. In an instant, the tides of the fight had turned, as the moment the rod pierced Avii’s glove, he gained the upper hand.

With their hands now locked, Avii tugged Sebastian’s limbs in opposite directions. After years of seeing them work and fight and experiencing their limitations firsthand, the mule knew a secret about the offensive armours that even their wielders didn’t. That no matter how powerful the combat models were, they struggled to maintain proper joint support for bearing heavy loads. But this was something that Maldainians were used to.

So Avii pulled. He strained and reached as far as he could. He listened as Sebastian screamed while his body was being ripped to the breaking point. Listened as metal began to crack and bend under the pressure until finally it loudly snapped. Giving way, the armoured joints broke the man’s arms at his shoulders, fragmenting bone and rendering them useless.

But Avii wasn’t yet done. Still holding the devilish-looking Sebastian by his now limp grip, he stared into the eyes of the hateful man who exhaled heavy, angry breaths. There was still fight in his stare. A vengeful fury that could never be quelled. There was no salvation for him. And because of that, there was only one thing Avii could do.

"No, Sebastian,” Avii answered coldly, a lifetime of pain and agony preparing him for this moment. “You must die.”

With a firm kick, Avii knocked the man back into the gore-soaked grinder and watched him disappear. Screams echoed out as the ground shook once more, as though displeased with Avii’s swift justice. But he did not care what others thought of his decision, whether they be gods or man. Sebastian had been evil beyond what mortal was capable of. A swift death was too good for a ghoul such as him.

“Mule!” Sebastian cried out from below, his voice louder than the howl of the grinder. “MULE! I’m going to kill you!”

Avii approached the edge and looked down, staring at the way Sebastian had become tangled in the machine. The grinder groaned, its tricone bits struggling to move, meant for flesh and not metal. It had done its best, eating up to the man’s legs, crushing them between bits that hungered for the flesh beyond the suit. And though they continued to slowly eat the devil alive, Avii wouldn’t leave it to fate to deliver justice.

“No, Sebastian,” He added, removing the rod from his fist before clenching his hand. “You will drown.”

Stepping back along the growing faultline, Avii slammed his fist to the ground as though he were clearing rock from a rare vein of metals. With a mighty hit, the earth rattled, fracturing even more, before finally giving the pond the gap it desired. In an instant, a sanguine wave poured through the crack, spilling over the stuck man and quickly submerging him in the blood of his victims.