At least a minute passed like that for Rory. Totally blind and barely able to breathe without pain, he sat there in the near silence. The only sounds were those of his own wheezing and Henry’s panting. The panting slowed and Rory winced as a light slowly brightened the room. His eyes adjusted quickly and he saw a man who looked sort of like Henry but not. The first thing Rory noticed was that he was quite literally glowing while standing there in the middle of the room. After that, Rory realized that Henry was no longer the stopped old man he had known. He was straight-backed, black-haired, and looked no older than forty. But most shocking of all was his size. He was at least four feet taller and the rest of him grew in proportion. Henry’s clothes were gone but a glow surrounded him, covering his middle. The glow faded then and a cloth of some kind was wrapped around his waist at an angle. It was easy to see that this man’s musculature matched his immense size. He was like a statue, pristine and powerful.

This new Henry was looking at his hands and arms and then felt his face and he looked as amazed by it as Rory did.

Henry spoke then, but in a foreign deep baritone. “Those fools. They thought they could seal me and then steal from me. But now I am where and when I need to be.” He rubbed his bearded chin and mumbled loudly enough for Rory to hear, “Has he succeeded, I wonder?”

Rory asked in a soft tone he almost could not hear himself, “Henry?”

The man’s head jerked towards Rory and then gained a look of surprise. His head tilted to the side, looking pensive. Then his face changed to one of understanding. “Oh. You came here with him.” He blinked a few times and continued, “Ahh. I see. He used you. You had no idea. Too bad.”

He walked up to Rory and pointed down at him with the first two fingers of his right hand. Leaning forward slightly, the fingers made contact with Rory’s forehead causing thoughts and memories to crash through his mind. Just like with his compatibility test those years ago, every moment of his life was experienced in a matter of seconds. His joyful days with his da, the betrayal of his best friend, the torment of his inscribing at the hands of the Walsh’s, the degrading and eventual self-destruction of his mother at the hands of depression and alcohol, his battles day in and day out to have enough food and water to survive. It ended here in this building and room with Rory’s searching for hope for what was left of his family, only to find it and then have it taken from him. He saw yet again what happened here with Henry and finally this experience of having his life sifted through, one memory at a time.

Rory’s head was splitting when Henry removed his fingers. “You have been betrayed nearly as often as I have. We are alike, you and I. It is a shame I could not have you as a host rather than this decrepit from.” He waved a glowing hand up and down his body. “I repaired it as well as possible, including converting the chemicals this host had just used to strengthen himself. But your form would be stronger. I could have removed your malformation. I still can.”

Rory could not believe what he heard. This man was clearly not Henry anymore.

“Were you inside the orb?” Rory managed to wheeze out. He tasted blood and felt it rising in his throat.

The man that used to be Henry nodded. “Yes. They thought to seal me away and steal from me my power. But I called out with nearly the last of my strength and my call was answered by those that were held in this place. The ones who would take from me were themselves taken when vengeance came for them on claw and tooth.”

So Henry was telling the truth about that part.

“Will you join with me and let me heal you?” the man asked suddenly.

“What?” Rory gasped through pained breaths. “You can fix me?”

“I can,” the man confirmed with a kind smile and a nod.

Rory thought about that. To be able to use his vessels and grow. He would be able to free him and his mother from this hellhole. But…. “Will you take me over?” he asked the man with a wheezed breath. “Like you did Henry? And what’s your name?”

The glowing man nodded again, his smile widening., “My name would mean nothing to you. And yes indeed, you will become a part of me and I will become the maintainer of that form. However, I would not take more from you than has already been stolen. If you do not wish it, I will not force you. I will bring you to where you can die peacefully.”

“So it’s either join with you or die? Is that the deal?” Rory asked with a pained groan.

The man looked sadly at Rory. “Young man, you are dying now. Every breath is drawing you closer. Your body is failing, as all of your kind does. Your body is damaged more than most and will end sooner, but it is all a blink of time to me. If you join with me you will see so much more. Through me you will see stars birthed and ended, galaxies collide and the universe itself fade and die.”

That was insane. Was this guy some sort of god? Join with him and live forever?

If I did, would it be better? Maybe it would.

Seeing worlds and galaxies seemed… overwhelming. It was what he had wanted when he was young and thought he’d be with his da forever. They were supposed to have explored the galaxy together. See amazing things, fighting side by side with their friends and family.

But that was youthful fantasy and Rory has been done living in fantasies since he was ten. He had trusted and was betrayed. Henry’s only the latest of a lifetime worth and, frankly, Rory was done with trusting people. No. He wouldn’t place his trust in this guy.

Why would he want my body so badly anyway? What made me so much better? And would the guy swap me out as soon as he found a newer better model?

A barely audible crunching sounded outside the sealed room and the glowing man looked towards it and then down at Rory. “Time is short. A terrible and powerful beast is approaching and you are its target. Will you join with me? Together we can escape. Or even defeat it.”

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That did it. If he was all-powerful and could see the universe end, why would he be scared of a creature in this building? Even if it was strong, it was still just a beast. This guy was a fraud and he’d betray Rory just like everyone did. At least dying to the beast would be honest. It would kill him and eat him and it wouldn’t lie about its intentions.

Rory looked him in the eyes and angrily coughed out, “No.”

The man’s genial face vanished and it became a mask of fury. His glowing skin brightened greatly and he reached down grabbing Rory by the neck.

“I’ll take you by force then,” he growled.

The glowing man lifted Rory up by the throat until he was staring the gigantic man in the face and was dangling feet above the ground.

“You being unwilling means I might lose most of your power, but it will be worth it to finally acquire my brothers’ power. Even a flicker will do it, though it take millennia to use. What belongs only to Azrael and the betrayer will be mine as well.”

Rory grabbed the man’s arm and tried to squeeze it or push it away or anything to get loose, but nothing worked.

“First I will find it within you and then I will rip it from your soul,” the man snarled.

Then Rory could feel a slight burning tingle in his throat that slowly worked its way down his body. When it reached his old scars the pain intensified and white glow started from them. Then Rory screamed as burning pain matching that of his original branding exploded from his hands, arms, chest and thighs. Rory’s mind blanked until, just as suddenly as it had come, the pain stopped.

Blinking, Rory refocused to see the glowing man still holding him up, but looked not at him, but at the vault door. Then a horrific screeching sound of metal being torn asunder echoed throughout the room. Rory’s hands jumped from the man’s arm onto his ears looking towards the source of the sound.

In the blazing light of his captor, Rory saw a massive snake slither its way past the round entrance. It was at least a yard thick, its head was half again as large and bore two slitted red eyes. Most terrifying of all, from its scaly form black smoke was rising and while watching it, Rory knew his end was not far.

“His power is mine!” the man yelled, making Rory jerk in his hand. Then Rory felt himself being thrown aside so he once again slapped into the ground and slid against the wall, twice as hard this time. Rory nearly fell unconscious from the pain in his chest. He coughed and blood spewed from his mouth. Rory vaguely reflected that his ribs must have punctured a lung.

With a mental laugh, he wondered if he’d even last long enough for the one or the other to kill him.

A sibilant voice sounded throughout the room. “You cannot take what is not yoursss, Bernael.”

In response, the glowing man bellowed a wordless cry and exploded into golden flames. Rory was sure he was hallucinating from blood loss when wings of golden flame appeared out of man’s back and a large sword appeared in his left hand, also blazing with golden fire. Was he a Soul Warrior then?

The snake continued to slither in. Rory switched to look at the creature and groggily wondered if its body would ever end. Just as he wondered that it did and the snake’s immense form was fully in the room.

The large burning man – the snake called him Bernael – elevated from the ground and floated a few feet above it. The snake rose from the ground itself, its head nearly reaching the ceiling.

The man raised his sword in two hands and flew at the snake. Rory’s eyes saw a trail of gold like a beam of light behind Bernael as he charged. The snake didn’t move and Rory thought the creature would be sliced in two, but just as the sword started to fall, the creature’s tail snapped out so fast Rory almost didn’t see it move and the room vibrated with the thunderous collision. A golden streak flew away from the snake and crunched into the wall, creating a dent two feet deep.

“Ssstop this. You cannot have hisss power,” the serpent called. “He wasss never meant for you.”

A vibrating growl sounded from Bernael as he pushed off the wall and flew back at the snake in another streak. This time he stopped before reaching it and swung his sword. A whip of the golden flames extended out many feet from the sword’s tip and it struck at the snake’s body. The snake opened its massive jaws, showing two fangs as long as Rory was tall, and spat out a cloud of black gas that engulfed the flaming projectile. Sizzling and popping sounded from the cloud, followed by another collision. Bernael once again had been sent flying away, but this time when Rory looked at the snake he saw a slice on its black-as-night scales that burned brightly. However, only a few seconds passed before the golden flame was engulfed by the black smoke and vanished.

“Thisss isss your lassst warning, Bernael. You are weakened. Give up your foolish desssire and leave.”

“None will have him, then,” the glowing man bellowed before he pushed off the wall again. Oddly the flames weren’t as bright and had flickers of black in them.

But that thought didn’t last as Bernael flew faster than Rory thought possible away from the wall… And towards him. The glowing hand holding the sword was reaching out and the flaming pointed tip was about to pierce Rory through the chest.

Rory knew he was going to die then. He couldn’t move to dodge, couldn’t defend himself. Hell, he could barely breathe. At that moment, Rory thought of how his mother would end shortly after, without him there. He wondered if it was true what some of his fellow slum rats said. That things were better after because you saw those you’d lost.

Will I see da? Will mum be back to her old self?

Rory was ready to rejoin his family when the blade was stopped inches short. At first he couldn’t figure out what happened. He even felt a flicker of disappointment. Then he realized the body of the snake was in between him and the sword. It had been pierced through by the six-foot-long flaming blade and was burning.

An echoing hiss resounded and somehow Rory knew it was of pain. In his mind, Rory heard, “Ssstrike him now.”

Rory hadn’t really understood the term, “reacted without thought” before, but what he did next was exactly that. He didn’t even understand what he had done until after he had done it. First, the being who had been protecting him had been injured to save him, and then Rory’s hands were up and pointed towards Bernael. His two chakram had streaked forward and were about to make contact with the flames of the immortal. The rusty, dented, and dull circles of Rory’s solidified Soul Constructs contacted Bernael at the same moment that the snake’s open mouth reached forward and one of its fangs puncturing the glowing form’s side.

In that instant, the golden flames died and the first Chakram from Rory’s right hand struck Bernael’s shoulder and the second from his left flew by the man’s ear.

Looking at the ends almost passive, Rory thought, Two minuscule slices on an otherwise undefeatable creature.

But also at that moment, the two Soul Weapons touched the pulsing, golden, energy-filled blood of a creature so far beyond his and their power it was like a single grain of sand compared to a galaxy. The pair of circles exploded into fragments and turned to myst, vanishing into the air.

Rory’s body exploded with light and he knew nothing but pain. Burning agony once again matching that which he felt eight years ago stormed through his body and mind as the inscriptions that had been forced upon him as a child and had been plaguing him for half his life blazed with light again.

A bright blue almost white glared out from them. But the light was not pure. It was streaked with darkness, as if black clouds were flowing in a river of ice up his arms, down his chest, into his legs, and then back again.

Rory howled in misery as his body arched and his muscles strained.

And then Rory saw a flash of golden fire he was released.

Finally, his mind and body could take no more and he fell into darkness, collapsing onto the steel floor of a vault filled with secrets.