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The heavy, obsidian doors of the throne room groaned shut behind Iva, leaving the chamber in a suffocating, rhythmic purple silence. Zuriel hung from the wall, his small frame draped in dark, heavy iron that bit into his ankles and wrists. He didn't scream. He didn't even struggle at first. He simply watched the door, his golden eyes glowing with a cold, calculating brilliance.
You think chains can hold a god of fluidity, brother? Zuriel thought, a ghost of a smile touching his lips.
He closed his eyes, focusing on the divine essence Lyra had left him and the strength he had stolen from Axiom. He didn't try to break the metal; he tried to break the concept of his own physical limits. With a soft, wet sound of shifting bone and compressing light, Zuriel shrank his wrists and ankles. His hands became thin, childlike, and slick with golden sweat. With a sudden clink clatter, the massive manacles hit the floor, empty.
Zuriel dropped to the ground, his bare feet hitting the floor with a dull, heavy thud that echoed through the empty hall. He didn't waste a second. He turned and ran, his oversized robes bunched in his hands, his long, luminous hair trailing behind him like a comet's tail. He knew where he was going. He could feel the beat, the sick, thumping rhythm of the palace's life force. He had to get to the Heart of the Dark Place.
*
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*
In a high balcony overlooking the central spire, Iva stood before a massive, swirling globe of dark glass. His fingers traced the surface of the sphere, which showed various sectors of his crumbling palace.
He saw them.
Aki, with his massive white wings tucked tight against his back, was creeping through the ventilation shafts. Behind him, Axiom was melting through stone walls, her red eyes alert, and Kael was moving with the silent, lethal grace of a man who had seen the bottom of the abyss. They were coming to "rescue" the god.
Iva let out a mocking, jagged laugh. "Look at them," he whispered to the empty air, his purple eyes fixed on the image of his brother sprinting through the lower corridors. "The hero and his little pets. They think they're the variable in this equation."
He touched the globe, sending a pulse of static through the palace. He watched Zuriel run, watched the way his brother's bare feet slapped against the cold obsidian. It maddened him,the idea that Zuriel still thought there was something to save. Every time Zuriel looked at him with pity, every time he treated Iva's hatred as a "poison" rather than his "identity," it made Iva want to shatter the universe.
"You think I'm just an empty shell, Zuriel?" Iva sneered at the globe. "Watch what happens when you try to touch the heart of a void."
Zuriel skidded to a halt in the center of a vast, circular chamber. In the middle of the room, suspended by thick, pulsing veins of purple energy, was a massive Jade Heart. It wasn't a biological heart, but a jagged, mountain-sized gemstone that glowed with a sickly, rhythmic light. This was the core of Iva's existence,the engine the Father had built to keep a dead soul walking.
Zuriel approached it, his small face reflected in the polished, green black surface. He observed it with clinical intensity. He could see the micro fractures in the stone where the poison leaked out. He knew the theory: if he could inject his own pure, divine life force into the core, he could create a soul sharing bond. He could act as the battery for Iva's life, allowing the poison to be purged without Iva dissolving into nothingness.
But he needed a catalyst. He needed a medium to carry his essence into the impenetrable jade. Divine tears.
Zuriel stood before the heart and tried to weep. But his eyes were dry. He was the Serene God; he had spent eons perfecting the art of not feeling, of remaining untouched by the world's sorrow. He thought of the war. Nothing. He thought of his own pain. Nothing.
"Come on," he hissed at himself, clenching his fists. "Cry, you arrogant brat!"
Then, he stopped trying to feel his own pain. He pictured Iva. He pictured the moment the darkness was removed. He saw Iva's purple eyes go dim. He saw his twin's body turning into grey ash, drifting away into a cold, eternal thin air. He imagined a universe where he called out "Iva!" and there was no scowl to answer him. No shadow to fight. No twin to obsess over. Just a silence that would last until the end of time.
A sharp, agonizing sob tore from his throat. His eyes filled with tears, hot and salt-heavy, spilling down his cheeks and glowing with a brilliant golden light.
"I won't let you disappear," Zuriel whispered.
With a sudden, explosive movement, Zuriel leapt into the air. He channeled every bit of his physical momentum and divine weight into a shattering kick. His foot slammed into the Jade Heart with the force of a falling star.
CRACK!.
A tiny, jagged fissure appeared in the center of the jade.
Quickly, Zuriel leaned forward, pressing his face against the crack. He let his golden tears flow directly into the wound of the stone. He felt the Jade Heart scream. It tried to reject him, the purple malice fighting the golden purity, but Zuriel didn't pull back.
*
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*
"Mine," Zuriel gasped, his voice weakening as the Jade Heart began to greedily drink his mana. "You are... mine."
He threw his arms around the massive gemstone, hugging the Jade Heart close to his chest. It was cold enough to freeze blood and hot enough to burn skin, but he didn't care. As the soul sharing ritual took hold, Zuriel's immensely long hair began to act on its own. It swirled around him and the Jade Heart, weaving a thick, glowing cocoon of gold.
It was a literal soul sharing. He was tethering his heartbeat to the palace's core. The drain was immense; he could feel his consciousness slipping away, his height shrinking back down as his body exhausted its energy to maintain the link.
Inside the cocoon, wrapped in the silk of his own divinity, Zuriel closed his eyes. He was falling into a deep, mana-induced sleep. He would stay there, a living battery, a sleeping guardian, until the bond was permanent or until Iva came to tear him out.
Outside, in the control room, Iva watched the globe go dark as the Heart's chamber was sealed by the golden cocoon. He stood in the silence, his hand trembling on the glass. He felt a sudden, terrifying warmth in his own chest ,a steady, golden pulse that shouldn't be there.
Zuriel had done it. He had shared his soul.