The Cataclysm.

[thedebauchone]

Alexis's words are eclipsed by the throbbing of the sun.

Everything is silent and my visions tunnels. All I see is red red red. The sun is bleeding, gushing, expanding and churning with fire.

And a tremendous force has landed, and the earth shakes slightly with its impact like a rickety old platform for a train.

They're here.

I spin around looking

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[theaurorasfate]

Aurelio's eyes tear at the sun, his face registering an emotion that I have never seen before. Suddenly he lets out a strangled, animal-like noise and looks at both Ethan and I with... what? Anguish? Helplessness? I don't know, but it terrifies me and I'm not sure what to do. I am overwhelmed with the feeling that something very wrong is about to happen - already has happened - and the intensity in Aurelio's eyes only does more to confirm it to me.

Ethan's hand grips my arm gently and he hesitates, about to respond. In this lapse of seconds a strange, broken scream permeates the silence and for a moment I look at Ethan, stunned. I turn to where the noise came from and I think instantly of Caden and Cassandra - Cassandra, with her red-rimmed eyes and flushed face.

“I have to… go,” I choke out, a flutter of panic causing my stomach to clench tightly.

[thedebauchone]

I see a strange glimmer everywhere, confined to the sharp oscillations of red(Marcus) and gray(Father), as if my retinal view suddenly included along with the reflective blessings of light, an unearthly collusion with foresight and sound, registering all possibilities of harm. Every threat. Every move.

Marcus is here. All thousand and one claws.

That fucking cunt. I smile.

So I’m terrified and sweating and thinking fast on how to save us-but also thrilled. Biting back a mad smile. I’m thrilled because at that moment I understand with the hopeless and last minute clarity of a doomed man that I would never be able to love another man the way I loved my Ares, even if I spend the rest of my days trying.

I’ll die trying.

Because I’m not going to be his fucking golden boy anymore. I am no longer Bacchus. Or even Dionysus. The day I joined these stumbled upon was the one I repented, made myself a eunuch and squandered my power...Right?I am Aurelio. Aurelio Cruz. And I will fight for my soul

[thechiron]

My heart is racing as I take a last, desperate look at Alexis, then run to catch up with Aurelio. I'm thinking a thousand things at once and none of it makes any sense and I wonder for a second if I've actually lost my sanity completely.

I'm trying to breath evenly and keep up with the golden, glowing figure ahead of me.

This is insane. What the hell.

We're suddenly tearing through the trees and foliage, everything now dark and treacherous and I manage miraculously to avoid tripping on the underbrush. I cannot see Aurelio though I know he is close - it sounds as if he is not even trying to evade the various obstacles of bushes and sticks and small trees, he is simply crashing through them.

Suddenly he stops and in the distance the temple looms against the backdrop of the forest.

[thedebauchone]

It's terrible and breathtaking to realize that I feel more at home in front of this stony holy house, than in any bed or time I've known before.

And night has come upon us like a stranger. Without the red wound burning overhead, the sky is ashen and without character.

I lift my hands, they leave firecracker blurs in their wake as they move through the dark night air. I hardly have to move a finger for the doors of the temple to crash upon.

Floating in, throbbing, I set forth to prevent it.

[thechiron]

What the fuck, I want to say, Aurelio, what the hell are we doing? What does he want me to do? Of everyone I am probably the least qualified to be here with him - though in retrospect I'm the only one I'd let him drag with him when he has this maniac glow coursing around him.

He moves into the temple before I can say anything. I follow, not knowing what to expect. Nothing? Everything we've feared? I don't know. Everything is terrifyingly still and silent and the sky is roaring above us.

Something is about to happen. I follow him mutely towards the inevitable.

[thedebauchone]

I begin to tear through the place.

Crushing altars, clawing at banners, burning anything I touch with my palms.

My precious little followers, my Bacchantes, they watch and they follow. They rip up their clothes and offerings, and howl at the moon as they pluck out the gem-eyes of their stone deities. They topple the symbols and idols they moments earlier trembled before and I all because I fucking said so...

I love being divine. I am gorgeous, golden, and gory. I laugh and it comes out a growl. My voice as I address command sounds low and not my own.

I smell fire, and it’s not until I hear screams and find myself covered in blood that I realized I must have commanded them to kill the priests and oracles. I shrug and kick their bodies aside as I make my way back to the glimmering, floating timelines.

Catching Dalus staring at me, I turn to him. I raise a hand to my face and it comes back red red red and I say, “What? Is red a good color for me?”

[thechiron]

"The very best," I say shakily, quietly, without missing a beat. Aurelio says things I have never heard before, growls, screams like a crazed animal - and they all respond with wild panic. Now I want so very badly to leave, to press myself against the wall at the very least, but now - Now I cannot move. I watch, horrified, as Aurelio merely flicks his wrist and a pack of beasts descend upon the group clothed in white. It rains sweat and blood and fire and screams and moans clash like thunder. Bodies push and shove against me and I can feel warm, sticky blood slick against my arms.

I close my eyes and shudder, not wanting to look again but unable to stop.

[thedebauchone]

Fuck yeah, Fuck yeah.

This is how I roll.

I'm flaying about, sinking in teeth (into flesh? into stone?) and no one can stop me now.

It's raining fire in here. The ceiling is burning, and everything’s is orange, yellow, and red. Fire, melted gold, and blood.

"My children" I purr affectionately to my Maenads as they blunder. The only calm thing is those pale spirals.

Ears ringing, I look around. Corpses litter the room and it's unrecognizable as a temple. Grinning wickedly, I know I’ve completely phase one.

Now to attend to the timelines, I crawl toward them. But something catches my eye. A dark figure in the doorframe.

Ryan.

[theorionsstar]

It's like a siren song that awakens me in the twilight. There's a bitter taste of bile on my tongue and I can't remember standing, can't remember moving. I drift, shapeless and ominous, like the interminable, unstoppable advance of night, over the land

[themarpessa]

After I leave Alexis silently, I’m striding down a broad dust road that’s seems to cut right through the vast emptiness of space. With no stars to spoil its shade of tar, the night sky looms perfectly black except for the pale, cold light of a huge harvest moon hanging strangely low over the temple

[theorionsstar]

She is the shimmering light at my side and the world heaves and shivers when her hand slides into mine.

Her light eclipses everything and I will follow her to the end (and until the end) of the earth.