“So, a Paladin is basically a man possessed by his own hatred or some other twisted desire,” Iris summarised this new revelation. “They appear to be good people when they really let themselves become monsters.”
“And eventually they lose themselves,” Arylos continued with a firm nod. “Nerseis is the prime example; he has no control over the monster he has become. It’s instinctual for him. His body will retaliate whether or not he wants to. Imagine if your body became self-aware and decided to start killing everyone in this neighbourhood regardless of how much you tried to stop it.”
“That would be horrifying,” Iris responded, thinking carefully. “Is there any way to help him?”
“Not in his current condition,” Arylos answered. “His condition has progressed to the point that I don’t think he can help himself. He vowed to kill me and his hatred won’t let him die until that happens. However, I can’t die, so as long as he thinks I’m alive, he will continue to live and kill.”
Iris had a thought come to her. “Wait, so not even you can kill him?”
Arylos shook his head and Iris suddenly felt bad for the creature in Sentarus’s basement. “No, especially if it’s me. The only thing I can do is immobilise him and imprison him again.”
Iris wrapped her arms around her, trying to imagine being alive for three millennia while her own body forced her to hunt down a Titan possessing her brother’s corpse and being unable to die. Existence would be painful, lonely, and torture.
“You sympathise with him?” Arylos asked while seeing Iris deep in thought.
“I guess in a way,” Iris responded. “I just know that if that was me, I would be hurt and lonely. I wouldn’t want to live in this world anymore.”
Arylos let out a light sigh of understanding. He had more to tell her, but was this the right time? Would she understand?
“So, what happened between you two?” Iris cut in, interrupting Arylos’s thoughts. “How did you possess Korseis? What happened after you two fought?”
“Once Korseis and I agreed, I took over his body,” Arylos began with the intention of leaving no detail out. “However Nerseis saw this and tried to fight me in order to stop him and it almost killed Korseis in the process. Once I knocked him down, I gave him a warning to stay out of my way, not thinking him as much more than a nuisance at the time, and went on my way.”
“I don’t blame you,” Iris cut in. “You’re a Titan. You probably didn’t think highly of us Kaiyumae, did you?”
Arylos nodded slowly, leaving words unsaid. “I fought in the war and in doing so, I began to grow closer to your people and understand their plight. I resolved to not rest until I could secure your freedom but Reyz had other plans, making himself stronger so he could destroy me and slowly becoming a Paladin.”
Arylos began loosening his shirt and took Iris’s hand and rested it on a scar over his heart; a scar Iris had seen many times but never up close like this. “Do you know what this scar is?” he asked softly.
Iris felt a touch of shock hit her as the deep wound in his chest felt surreal. It looked and felt as though his chest was broken open by a large sword. “Did Reyz do this?” she asked softly, running her fingers over the wound.
“That happened during our last fight, when I found what he had become,” Arylos responded. “He got the better of my weakness, my willingness to protect your people, and caught me off guard. After a long battle, he broke my connection to this body, bringing Korseis back for a moment. But without me, Korseis was dying.”
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“He killed his own brother trying to save him,” Iris realised, feeling more sympathetic. “But you’re still here; what happened after that?”
“He was lost and broken,” Arylos continued, holding Iris’s wrist as she continued examining his wound. “He was losing his brother, and so he panicked. He had a relic that could save him called ‘Helena’s Nail’. It came from another world and carried what could best be described as a curse. He dug the nail into Korseis’s heart and it took over, freezing his heart and locking his soul to this body, rendering him immortal.”
“Something like that exists?” Iris’s shocked voice cut in.
“Yes, and people have used it for similar purposes before,” Arylos answered with a hint of disgust in his voice. “It’s a vile imitation of immortality. A weak attempt to hasten what evolution had perfected.”
Iris then followed what happened and the realisation made her heart sink. “It didn’t just lock Korseis’s soul to this body; it locked you to it too, making you unable to leave.”
“That’s exactly what happened,” Arylos responded with sadness in his voice. “He quite literally nailed me to this body and now I’m trapped with nowhere to go. The curse prevents me from taking the nail out and so far, my attempts to destroy this body have failed. I can black out, lose connection to it, but I can’t leave it.”
“And that means Korseis is still inside,” Iris added on, feeling a dark sadness come over her. “All this time, Korseis is still in there, aware of what’s happening but can’t do anything. Like a waking dream he can never wake from.”
Arylos pulled Iris’s hand from his chest and held it in his hand like he was reading the lines of her palm. “That’s why I say this body is a puppet and why I tell you never to forget what I am,” Arylos told her with sadness in his voice. “You see Korseis when you look at me, but the creature you’re talking to is an invader that can’t leave and there’s nothing I can do to change that.”
“Is he aware of us?” Iris asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious. “Like can he see us right now?”
“I don’t know, but I believe so,” Arylos responded while letting go of her hand. “In theory, he’s still in this body and aware of our surroundings, but we haven’t been able to communicate since this happened. I believe he’s still inside but trapped between life and death; trapped between one heartbeat and the next.”
“Kind of like a sleep he can never wake up from but can’t dream,” Iris wondered aloud, trying to imagine all of this. “I guess if he is aware of his surroundings, us living a quiet life here is kind of like paying him back, giving back the life he lost.”
“In a strange way, yeah,” Arylos added with a light chuckle. “A life both of us lost and can never get back.”
“Right, Mortehksun,” Iris added with a sigh as she remembered Arylos’s past.
Arylos’s past…
“Can I ask you something?” Iris cut in suddenly as the thought came to her. “You say you came here to fight the Reig. Why though? It wasn’t your fight, it wasn’t your people. Why did you feel compelled to fight for us?”
Arylos froze, as if hiding a terrible truth. He looked away from Iris and held his hands together, trembling under the thought of it. “And this is where I lose you,” he whispered under his breath. “Why do you think Oldalthur called me the ‘Great Father’?” he asked.
Iris thought about the question for a moment. “I guess because you created our world?”
Arylos shook his head fiercely. “No, it’s because I created the Reig from my own blood. In many ways, they are my children and I am their father. And so they call me the Great Father.”
“Wait, are you serious?” Iris cut in, not believing this.
“One of my many titles is ‘Father of Dragons’,” Arylos continued. “I created them a long time ago in the reflection of the Titans. And so they are not unlike us; they live in the void and are unable to enter this side of your world without a vessel.”
Iris took all of this in, the signs making sense in some circumstances but still beyond her. “So I guess you were trying to correct and discipline your creations,” Iris wondered aloud.
“In a way,” Arylos sighed as he got up from the sofa. “The war started because I gave them a command that they initially refused but ultimately would carry out. Kalndahvok disagreed and killed their king at the time, becoming king himself and leading his campaign against your people. At the end of the day, my order resulted in the Dragon Wars.”
“What did you tell them to do?” Iris asked, not knowing if she wanted the answer.
Arylos clenched his fists as he felt a wave of pain come over him as the words escaped his lips. “I told them to destroy your world.”