What he saw in front of him took time to process, the dead or dying cultists around the ritual site and within the ritual circle finally locked into place why they were dead to begin with. They had been siphoned of all life force to feed the being within. They had been sacrificed to the greater machinations that was whatever the trio of siblings mother had. The creature was like him, it had a floating tail and four ears. Even talons. But it’s skin was a black unlike any other, deep dark wells of hatred seething on the surface. Eyes plentiful and spread along it’s body without cause or reason. They had been closed but as he stepped in they opened to stare at him.

Even the ones on it’s head opened, something that his kind… His… Kind? Saturn stood there processing that. He… Here was one of his kind. The only other. The only one that he ever had found or even seen. There was a hurt in him knowing that he was going to have to kill them. That there was nothing he could do, that his light could never help sequester the darkness within the other. He had light, he had dark, that was the natural instance of things.

But the hatred, the pain, the seething writhing masses of negative emotions meant… That this being only knew the negatives of life and nothing would ever be the same. They already knew one anothers names. They already had fought just a little bit ago. He stood there trying to speak, trying to formulate something. It opened its mouth to talk.

”Brother. Saturn.”

”...Brother. Shade.”

”We were… never meant to co-exist.”

”...Yeah.”

”You’re… weaker than me.”

”Weaker in strength maybe. But not where else it counts.”

”...Will it hurt?”

”It’s like going to sleep.”

Shade didn’t seem to like that answer and slowly uncurled. It’s feet touching the ground as the ritual circle and it’s barrier fizzed out at the same time. He was taller than saturn by a good ten feet. Something that he wasn’t used to was being smaller. Shade was stronger in almost every way but it didn’t matter. Saturn was still going to fight him. Still neede dto contain him. The first blow that shade threw was so fast and so powerful that saturn didn’t even have a moment to blink as he was thrown away from them. Crashing into the mound he had thrown at gunther earlier with an impact that rattled him to the very core.

You can’t win in a straight fight saturn.

I can’t win in a fight at all. What are you suggesting?

We take it to the mental scape, break him down brick by brick. When he’s weakest… you won’t kill him.

Saturn understood what they meant by that, they were made of the same stuff. They could combine in a sense. Shade just needed to be weaker than him in some regard. Huffing and breaking out of the hill, he saw that shade was already standing there. Head cocked to one side and curiosity playing on it’s features. Saturn didn’t waste any time, reaching out with his mind like the other had done while it still rested he found himself in a scape of nothingness.

Shade was much smaller her and the both of them stared at one another for quite some time. Saturn stepped forward, through the thoughts of the hundreds if not thousands that made up shade and his ever growing power. If let go it would be uncontested for a long time. Until it met some titan like lumikki.

I didn’t know you could do this.

I didn’t until I tried.

You can’t win here either Brother.

Saturn reached out, grasping shade by the shoulders and stared down at them. Studying his features, every little thing about him. He truly was a being meant for slaughter but then saturn grinned slowly, his ears twisting and turning forward as he stared his younger, more powerful brother down in a sense.

Its not about winning Shade. It’s not. About winning.

Saturn could feel the confusion of the other rise and that’s when he took his first proper shot. Both in and out of their mindscape shade was thrown backwards by a straight punch into the gut. Saturn could multi-task rather easily especially with something or someone helping him. His inner demon could pilot his body while his mind wrestled with shades. It’d be hard to take his body back after this but he didn’t much care.

He’d figure it out, or he wouldn’t. It was up to the cards on that one. Outside of the realm of his mind saturn’s body moved like something possessed and it slammed into the larger demi-god time and time again. Throwing it about like it weighed truly nothing. Inside of the mindscape saturn worked on wearing it down, showing it things that it could have had if it was to be like him.

Love, laughter, happiness, the soft tender feeling of the dew on your forehead when you wake amidst the worlds peace. The feeling of ones hug, the breath of a city both moving and not at the same time. Things that the being recoiled at. Memories from the others within began to shout, began to writhe and wrestle with him. He felt their souls intertwine for a moment with how close they were both physically and mentally. Saturn reached out, grasping hands to that and started to pull. Pulling the both of them deeper to one another; but it wasn’t anything like they had ever experienced.

It was a strange sensation, stranger still that he could have all this hate, all this malice, all this desire to wrestle the world to its knees but know nothing about it. He felt the tenderness from before work its way into his mind again; every little thing that he had felt up to this point was making a case that the demi-god couldn’t do anything against. He felt it’s mana seep into him and he was reminded of Liv.

He didn’t taste this mana so much as he was simply absorbing it; he didn’t feel the other work its way into his being so much as they were just simply becoming one another. He felt shade struggle with him while his demonic outside counterpart really laid into them. Sending them crashing around even as shade was able to throw them around so too were they to return the favor. They were tough and had a lot going for them. But they were dwindling in comparison while saturn only grew stronger.

Shade grew smaller in the mind scape, he could feel the fledgling soul in front of him start to wane. His eyes were tender and full of love. He’d scoop up the dwindling force that was his brother. Sighing wistfully as he knew that he couldn’t let them into this world and he would take the darkness of his being into himself utterly without question like he never existed.

He felt the darkness that had been the other slowly fade out and eventually he was left standing there amidst a clear field of mental scape. A clear field of nothing but what emotions he felt like. There was nothing left of shade now. Not in the mental scape, not in the soul scape. Outside? His body stood over the inert body of the demi-god as it slowly started to flow into their body properly. Their proportions distended a bit and his body started to be taller, darker, thinner. But it eventually evened out and saturn’s body returned to ‘normal’.

Standing in all three scapes at the same time now. Saturn could feel the peace within himself grow. He could feel the reasons why he came here solidifying and felt that he had done the right thing. He looked down at his hands and questioned it. He looked at his hands and questioned everything he had done to this point.

Was it worth it?

To take anothers entire existence because you knew that they couldn’t stomach the world as it was? That they would have destroyed everything that you loved? His answer was unsaid. His answer would remain unsaid and he turned slightly. Looking around as though seeing everything for the first time.

They were the same. They were the same.

He felt like crying. It was a hard sensation to deal with, losing someone that you could have been close to. Losing everything that someone could be. Losing the last of his kind to his own knowledge that there was no turning shade away from everything. Now instead… shade was a part of him. That was okay because now they could see the world through his eyes, through his soul. Through his mind.

He felt his mind, his soul, his body re-align and he was standing there amidst the ritual circle. He could feel the attention of others on him but he simply walked past them. Walked to the shore and took a seat there. Staring at the waves. He had succeeded. He had… won against all things. He… knew that in the end that he did the right thing.

He looked at one of his hands through a new set of eyes. Knowing that he could never go back from this.

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