(.....)
The golden knot of their hair bound them together, a shimmering bridge between a sun and a black hole. Zuriel's breath was warm against Iva's lips, his golden eyes wide and unblinking. The question hung in the air, heavier than the crumbling ceiling of Acheron.
"Tell me," Iva hissed, his fingers digging into Zuriel's waist until the silk groaned. "Do you truly love me, your brother? Or do you only love the obsessive thrill of this conflict? The high of chasing me across the stars? The perverted pleasure of being pinned against a wall by a monster you created?"
Zuriel didn't blink. He didn't even hesitate. A slow, terrifyingly honest smile spread across his face, one that reached his ancient, golden eyes.
"Both," Zuriel whispered. "I love the brother who used to share his starlight with me in the garden. And I absolutely adore the monster who thinks he can break me. I love the thrill of your hands on me, Iva, and I love the soul that's screaming underneath all that shadow. Why choose? You're a masterpiece of tragedy, and I've always been a connoisseur of fine art."
Iva's eyes flared with a violent, purple light. He let out a roar of frustration, shoving Zuriel's head back against the stone. "You don't understand! You never did! You sit there with your 'both' and your 'obsessions,' acting like this is a game! You don't understand the cold! You don't understand the hunger!"
"I understand better than you think!" Zuriel shouted back, his voice cracking with a sudden, sharp childishness. It was a sibling fight of cosmic proportions. "I've spent eons watching you! I've memorized every twitch of your lip, every shadow in your eyes! Don't you dare tell me I don't understand my own twin!"
"You don't!" Iva screamed, his voice shaking the vault. "You think you can just 'purify' me? You think you can take the Shard and wash away the Architect until only Iva is left? You fool! There is no Iva left to save!"
Iva's grip on Zuriel's waist tightened so hard it was almost a crush. He leaned in, his voice dropping to a terrifying, hollow rasp. "The Father didn't just poison me, Zuriel. He replaced me. The 'good' twin, the one who loved the butterflies and the sun songs... he died the moment that poison hit his veins. Long ago. Eons ago. My bad side isn't a mask, Zuriel. It's my heart. If you take the darkness out, I'll drop dead on this floor because there is nothing else holding my ribs together."
Zuriel froze. The golden hair wrapped around Iva's dark tresses went limp. For the first time in his existence, the Serene God was speechless. The logic of the Father's cruelty finally clicked,it wasn't a corruption; it was a total substitution.
A second passed. Then another.
Suddenly, Zuriel's head fell back, and a sound erupted from his throat that made the Architect flinch. It was a maniacal, shrill laughter. It was the sound of a god finally losing his mind. He laughed until his small chest heaved, his eyes sparkling with a terrifying, manic light.
Then, just as abruptly, the laughter died. His face crumbled. Large, silent tears began to track through the blood on his cheeks. He started to sob quietly, his shoulders shaking, but the smile remained on his lips,a jagged, broken thing.
"Why?" Zuriel whispered through his tears, looking at Iva with a devastating mix of love and pity. "Why didn't you say it sooner? Why let me hunt you for so long, trying to 'fix' a ghost?"
Iva's expression hardened, a flash of raw, pathetic vulnerability crossing his features. "Because I thought if I said it... if I told you that there was no light left... that you wouldn't love me. I thought you only stayed because you hoped the 'old Iva' was still in there. I thought no one could love the dark side only."
The honesty was too much. The Architect's shame turned back into rage. He couldn't handle the look in Zuriel's eyes,the look of a person who finally saw the bottom of the abyss.
In a blur of motion, Iva summoned the Chains of Acheron. With a violent clatter of dark metal, he chained Zuriel from his ankles to his wrists, binding him to the cracked marble wall. The chains were cold, biting into Zuriel's skin, suppressing the golden glow of his growing body.
"Stay there!" Iva yelled, pacing back and forth like a caged animal. "Don't look at me like that! I'm the Architect! I'm the villain! I'm going to kill the Father, and then I'm going to burn the garden you love so much!"
Zuriel, despite the chains, despite the sobbing, didn't give up. He looked at his brother, his golden eyes burning with a fierce, renewed light. "We'll find a solution, Iva. We'll find a way to keep you alive without the poison. There's always a way for us—"
"THERE IS NO SOLUTION!" Iva screamed at the top of his lungs.
The power behind the scream was immense. It wasn't just sound; it was a physical wave of despair. The dark palace walls cracked from floor to ceiling, and a strong, rhythmic purple light pulsed through the stones, matching the beat of Iva's poisoned heart. The very foundation of Acheron was weeping for its master.
Zuriel hung from his chains, his long hair trailing on the floor, but he didn't look away from the purple light.
"Then we'll kill the Father first," Zuriel whispered, his voice steady even as the room fell apart around them. "And if you die when the darkness goes, then I'll just have to find a way to follow you into the void. Because I'm not letting you go again, Iva. Not even to death."
Iva stopped pacing. He looked at his chained twin, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, conflicted hunger. He reached out, his hand hovering over Zuriel's face.
"You really are the obsessed one, aren't you?" Iva whispered.