Azazel giggled from within her Void Space as Karastak scrambled to save his left leg. For it had become trapped, encased in ice, after he set the word into the stone before him and activated it. Whereupon he watched with great fascination until, too late, the ice had found his left foot. Here, he yelped and fell as it crept up to his knee before halting, then tried to melt the ice by inscribing the word of FLAME upon the surface of the ice. Unfortunately, it not only melted the ice, but lit up greatly whilst scorching his flesh.
Once again, the man cursed loudly and profoundly as he did his best to restore his leg with the words of HEAL, RESTORE, and REGENERATION. Which only elicited another giggle from her as she watched. Unfortunately for Azazel, her ears twitched from underneath her hair, and she quickly removed her presence from Karastak so that she may address whatever it was that caused her to cease her watch over the man. Of which caused her to frown, for her own sister, Azrael, appeared within her void space with the grin of one who was eager about an event.
“Azazel,” she called out with a wave, and strode over with a skip to her step. Of whom was the same height as her, and wore the same outfit, but with a pink flower pattern as opposed to one that was darker in shade. Other differences came in the form of her hair colour, which was snow white, her skin of alabaster, and her eyes as dark as pitch. Otherwise, the pair was identical in every way.
“Azazel,” she reached out to hug her sister, but was denied as the other stepped out of the way, causing her to topple over. “Muu,” she replied, jumping to her feet and waving her arms in a wild manner, “That wasn't very nice, Azazel.”
“Hmph,” came the other's reply as she crossed her slim arms over her chest and turned her head away from her sibling, “I'm still mad at you, Azrael.”
“Is it because of your Demon race?”
“You killed them all,” shouted Azazel, who then pointed her finger at her sister, and sent forth a bolt of brackish lightning. Of which leapt through her void space, never to return, as her sister had dodged out of the way.
“Hey, Hey,” Azrael pouted from the ground before leaping to her feet and brushing off her dress, “You let your Demons kill my race's Hero.”
“And that denoted you wiping out the whole of my chosen race?” A great expanse of black, leather wings erupted from her back, causing her body to float high within the void space. Here, she summoned great orbs of chaotic fire, and hurled them towards her sibling.
Of whom dodged the projectiles with practiced ease whilst frowning with great uncertainty, “Yes?” she replied as her eyes sparked with confusion, “I mean, you can always make more, right?”
“That's not the point, and you know it!” Azazel raged, her form twisting and warping until she resembled the Demons she cared for before their untimely demise. “Get. Out. Of. My. Room!” With each outburst, she sent forth hundreds of sky-blue coloured missiles towards her sister. Of whom could not dodge them, and was therefore ejected from the space until all that was left was a tearful Azazel. Who then fell to the ground, openly weeping as her robe fell away in tatters.
*****
Sarah set the book down upon her lap, blinking with confusion at what she had just read. “That can't be right,” she muttered to herself, “Mother wasn't like that, at least not what I read about and was told. Even back then, she had her own Pantheon when Karastak first appeared...” The edges of her lips turned downwards into a frown as she tapped a foreclaw against the side of her muzzle whilst staring down upon the pages, rereading the words.
“Ageless,” came her mutterance once more, “did you change her Story, too?” before returning to the book at hand.
*****
“Fuck, fuck fuck,” swore Karastak as he laid upon his back outside of the cave he had occupied. His left leg had been regenerated, but that only left some questions floating about his mind. Such as how he was able to perform such feats which should have taken many a month in order to achieve such things. As well as to question himself as to why he was able to place so much energy into his “spells”.
However, Azazel was awfully quiet after he nearly blew himself up from just an ICE and FLAME enchantment. Perhaps he should call her... then again, he didn't exactly have her number on hand. To which he chuckled softly before wincing from the sharp pain which flew up his leg and spine. “Bloody Gods,” he muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his wrists, “To think the regeneration process would hurt so much.”
“[Well,]” came a small voice in the back of his head, followed by a few sniffs, “[that's what happens when your body has to regrow everything from scratch. Your bones, veins, tendons, arteries, and skin. All of it has to be regrown, and it's a painful process even when you're asleep.]”
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“You okay?” asked Karastak, his pain momentarily forgotten as he sat up from his position, scratching at an area where a rock had embedded itself against the left side of his spine. Here he frowned as his fingers found the skin had an indent of the rock's shape, but retracted his thoughts when his patron, Azazel, spoke once more.
“[I'm fine,]” then sniffed once more. To himself, it sounded as though she either had a cold, or wept for some odd reason.
“You know, when a girl says they're 'fine', it usually means the opposite. However,” he felt as though she were about to retort, and stopped her quickly, “just know that I'm here if you need to talk. Though, do you prefer to speak of other topics?” In his mind, he saw Azazel bob her head a few times, which elicited a small smile from himself.
“Okay, what I wish to know is why I can do what I did. Such as pouring energy into the words written in my blood, and the like. Because it should take someone many months, if not years, to be able to perform such tasks.” He scratched at his back once more, around the spot where the rock had been, but found it whole once more and frowned.
To which he heard a soft giggle coming from the other, and felt her maneuvering herself closer to speak with himself. “[Well, it's an innate skill of yours, a Passive Ability, if you would. I think it's called
“Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but isn't that a bit of a cheat ability?” His right hand reached up to scratch his head slowly in contemplation, then moved to stand tall once more and brush the dirt and pebbles off of his shorts. Of which had scorch marks nearing his left thigh due to his experiments with ICE and FLAME.
“[No?]” he felt her blink as her features formed into an adorable face with widened eyes. However, he quickly shook his mind free of the thought, which brought about the pouting face of Azazel. “[Meanie,]” she muttered, then continued with, “[There are lots of 'cheat' abilities and skills out there, but yours is unique, so there is that.]”
“Well, what about my height? I know I was quite tall before, but now I feel like a giant.” Within his mind, he witnessed her tilting her head to the left as though she was somewhat confused. To which he sighed and elaborated with, “For instance, that bear in the cave,” he waved towards the wide mouth of stone that was in the process of thawing out, “A normal height for it, as an adult, stands up around one hundred and fifty centimetres.”
“[Yeah, so?]” he felt her shrug with some boredom.
“So, I'm half again taller than it. Not to mention those farmers I took the pants from were almost as tall as me. Why is that?”
“[No reason,]” she appeared within his mind with a shrug of her small shoulders, “[I just like tall people, and the locals are also tall. So it'd be rather strange if you appeared as though you were the size of one of their children, yes?]”
“I guess...” Karastak scratched his head slowly, unsure as to where to proceed. That is, until something appeared within him which caused his blood to boil and his eyes to change into an orb of violet and another of crimson. For the image of him being tortured by an unknown whilst he floated within a dark space persisted greatly within, and he felt the desire to burn whoever it was that caused him such pain to ash and dust.
Even Azazel felt such hatred, and smirked to herself. Of which became a grin that stretched until it consumed the lower half of her small face. For she knew who the perpetrator was, but would have to bide her time with him before setting him loose like a rabid dog. Upon returning to the other's mind, found him to be scrawling the word of SCORCH upon the cave's entrance with a wide grin.
It appeared to herself that he had become blinded by rage, but after milling about his mind for a few moments, found it to be crystal clear. Unsure of what had occurred, and not wanting to interrupt himself, she sat back and watched as he leapt away whilst stretching out his right hand, palm towards the word. Whereupon the pair watched as the word flared with great heat, but no flame, and charred the stone a black and dark grey.
Here, she clapped with excitement as Karastak breathed slowly, a few beads of sweat upon his brow. “[I suggest eating some energy before attempting anything more, Karastak.]”
To which he blinked several times, his visage no longer enraged, but full of confusion, “And how am I supposed to do that?”
Of which led to her palming her own face, slowly dragging it down before explaining to him slowly, “[Switch to your other sight, look at that tree to your left, and bite it. Your natural instincts will take over afterwards.]”
Thus leading him to closing his eyes for a moment before opening them once again to reveal his right eyes had become an orb of violet energy, and his left one of a fierce crimson. Whereas his own sight revealed many scintillating colours of every shade and hue, which caused a few tears to leak out from the beauty of it all. “[No staring,]” commanded Azazel, bringing him back to himself, “[Just bite down on the tree next to you.]”
Turning to his left, Karastak stared with widened eyes at the large structure full of blue and yellows and greens. Here, he watched as the green colours slowly trickled down from the highest heights, whilst the yellows and blues stretched themselves from the ground and towards the tops. Which then led to him slowly making his way forward, as a hunger of some sort entered his mind and body, stretching his canines into fangs whilst his mouth stretched fully open.
Afterwards, his head turned sideways as he bit hard upon the colours of this unknown structure which held the appearance of a tree. Though he expected to taste bark when his tongue lashed out to stroke its surface, instead found... nothing of the sort. Instead, it tasted of sweet water and resulted in his throat releasing a low growl as his instincts took over.
For his body began to suck upon this sweet water as though he were no more than a babe suckling on the tit of his mother. Whilst this occurred, however, his eyes caught sight of the energy within the structure. The yellows, greens, and blues which had balanced themselves within, were now flowing towards his mouth and down into his own gullet.
And afterwards? After the energy was drained, Karastak removed himself from the side of the tree, his second sight retreating until only his original sight remain. Whereupon he watched as the tree which was so vibrant before, fell away whilst most of it crumbled into dust.
“What just happened?” he asked, slowly moving away from the scene.
Whereas Azazel just giggled, his mind giving rise to an image of her falling over and rolling around in a jovial manner. Moments later, she sat up, releasing a few more giggled before exclaiming, “[That was so cool! Hey, hey! Do it again!]”