"Moon Magic! Lunar Eruption!" White beams shot but were directed to the sky.

"Fo---tt-n K----r. Un-ung H-ro."

A swift mist came about, whirled, and solidified to a tall shadowy figure in black metal armor.

"Dragon Magic. Sky King's Star." A blast of orange light barely slipped through Kirin's wall of fireflies that were dying one by one as they pinched his skin.

"I can't see! Darn it!" Kirin summoned and released his magic within a small area around himself. "Vampire Magic. Red--"

A teal-skinned punch delved into his gut.

"Th-Thorns Aura." The trap's legs waddled as the fist on his stomach dried to a paper-skinned hand. "That felt so bloody good." Kirin punched back, through the bugs, and red light traveled through his veins, from his knuckles, through his shoulders, and to his abdomen.

A lifeless finned lady with a swollen face collapsed on a hill of flies whose lights were beginning to dim. The bug wall floating around Kirin also thinned, allowing him to see again.

Approaching fast, the other lady charged.

Kirin simply stood his ground and allowed the creature to use the claws on its hand to puncture his shoulder.

Blood oozed.

Kirin grabbed her by her wet hair and her wrist, pulled her hand out of his body, and whispered "Red Touch," collecting her life, driving it out of her eyes and mouth, and guiding it to fix up his wound.

"No!" Robin screamed. "Leave him be!"

"Sky King's Star!" Faolan shot at the unsung hero, blasting its head off into the lake.

"Moon Magic!" Onyx swirled in the air. "Lunar Gust."

White light spiraled around the blue knight.

Olibas stumbled backwards, blocking with unseen defenses that disrupted the flow of Onyx's magic. He jumped and floated, then boosted himself to land a punch on Onyx's face.

Onyx ducked and rolled to a side. "Crescent Blade!"

"Vacuum!"

The blade shrunk into a point.

Olibas jumped again, flickered in and out one more time, and summoned an orb so bright that the lake seemed black in comparison. "Forgotten Keeper. Oblivion's Hunger."

The orb shot towards Onyx.

"Night Stalker." Shadows engulfed and concealed the knight.

The orb continued on, landed and infused a tree's trunk, then seeped into all of its branches and leaves before erasing any sign of its existence from history.

Wait, what was there again?

Onyx reappeared behind Olibas, a blade ready to cut the god's head off. "You're not taking me seriously because I'm human."

"Fighting a god is futile, my nephew." Olibas created a vacuum that pulled him down faster than Onyx could strike with his weapon. "No human can kill us."

"Gravitate." Onyx whispered, using the spell to pull the god back up. "You have a relic. You're not immortal." The knight aimed his blade at the god's forehead. "It's even killing you as we speak."

Olibas used a vacuum to pull himself to a side, then up, then down behind Onyx. "Please. I am not your father. You don't--Argh!!!" Olibas screamed in pain as he started to blink out and in again.

Onyx seized the moment. He turned, and drove his sword right into the god's chest.

Olibas gawked with surprise, holding the blade as silver blood dripped from the opened wound. Flickering out and in of existence one final time, he mumbled, "Lethe's Fingers."

The god's wound gleamed gray, and an essence of the same color crawled out and creeped along Onyx's weapon. The essence travelled along the edge, onto the hilt, and, as it reached the knight's hand, imbued into his veins, and rushed to the rest of his body.

"Grraaaaah!!!" Onyx's eyes widened, and three neon black light beams discharged to the sky from his irises and open mouth.

"Onyx!!!" Faolan, Kirin, and Alia called in chorus.

The man's veins begin to blacken.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Olibas dropped and fell on his behind back inside the mushroom circle. He heaved the sword out of his chest and tossed it to a side. He gasped for air as his wound stitched itself back shut, then raised his chin as he watched his nephew pinned in the air by magic. "What in the..."

"Olibas!" Robin, having let go by Alia who was now flying towards her friend, scuttled towards and embraced the god.

Black lightning zapped from where Onyx was, deleting everything it touched. Trees, owls. Even water from the lake.

"Onyx!" Faolan called again, opening his wings, and flapping to bring himself up, only to be sent back down as a zap erased his ability to fly. On the ground, Faolan groaned, sitting back up. "I can't... I can't summon my... I've forgotten!"

"Aaah!" Alia dropped too as she met the same fate.

"What... Hey!" Kirin shouted, stomping over to Olibas and grabbing him by his shirt. "What have you done?!"

"I uhh..." He glanced at Robin who was just checking at where his wound was. "I've done nothing. My God Relic... It transferred to him."

"Take. It. Out." Kirin squinted, his blue eyes reddening.

"I can't! He needs to give it back." Olibas pushed against the ground as he brought himself back to his feet. "A God Relic consumes our life force to keep itself alive. If touched by a human, it kills them in an instant. He has to control it! Onyx, calm down and return it to me before you die."

A black lightning streaked right to where they were, prompting Kirin to jump back, and Olibas to hold and carry Robin away.

Kirin looked up. "Onyx! Listen to him! Give it back or you'll die!"

"I..." Onyx watched his palms.

Another strike came and zigged and zagged its way towards Kirin, but stopped right in front of his face.

"I'm not."

Gradually, the black storm subsided. Faolan's wings reappeared and so did Alia's, and the owls and trees that have vanished faded back in.

Onyx descended, head lowered, and back facing everyone. "I'm not dying." The blue knight clawed his chest and extracted the gray essence back out, then sent it drifting towards Olibas.

"Onyx..." whispered the god, as he accepted the relic into him. "You're a..."

"I'm a god!" Onyx shouted, anger filled as he crashed onto his knees. "I'm a god, okay?! I'm a stupid god. All these years... I am. Why? Tell me why... why my father had to hate me before this stupid power revealed itself. Why not when I wanted it to?! When I needed it to?! When I wanted to come with him to all of those places... When I wanted him to be proud of me for being a powerful child? When I needed our people's respect? Why? Why...?" Onyx punched the beach and pounded water in the lake before giving all up and resting his forehead on the ground. He was crying.

Kirin was about to go, but Faolan came behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I think Onyx is the type of man who would appreciate being left alone in this situation."

Kirin looked on.

Though the sight of Onyx crumpled his heart with pain... Faolan was probably right.

Alia joined the two of them. "Even I think that too."

"Right." Kirin lowered his head and closed his eyes. He balled his fists. "Even still..." Kirin ran, kneeled beside Onyx, embraced the knight, and rested his head against the man's. "I know you'll be mad. I know you're gonna scream at me and tell me to leave you alone. But I won't let go. I know you're cold, and I know you're strong... But even you need a hug sometimes. This is what I'm here for. You can scream, you can shout. But please... Just... let me hug you. Let me..."

Onyx stayed silent.

"Just..."

Onyx held Kirin close, and rested his chin on the trap's shoulder. That was all he did, and he let it stay that way, not saying anything more and not moving at all.

Faolan and Alia looked at each other, relief glimmering in their eyes.

"Ah..." Olibas collapsed on his knees again. "I'm sorry, my love. "I don't have much longer. In a few moments, I'll be out of magic. I need to come back to The Realm of Oblivion."

"No!" Robin knelt in front of him and started caressing his face. "I remember. I remember everything."

"What?"

"Onyx returned all of my memories." She held his head and planted a kiss on his lips. "Please. Please don't leave me. I remember now. I remember how you've made me fall in love every single night. Even without my memories. Over and over... I have loved you. I still do, and will do forevermore."

"Robin..." Olibas whispered and kisses her back. "If I don't leave, oblivion will consume this world. I need to return to my realm."

"When will you be back?"

Olibas looked down. "There's no telling how long it will be. A month, a year, a century. Until Lethe's Fingers returns to being stable, it must never be outside of the realm."

Robin brought him closer and rested his forehead on hers. "Then take me with you."

"Robin! My love..." Olibas held her shoulders firmly and pulled her away to gaze at her face. "You don't understand the weight of your request. You're a star. A celebrity. By being in The Realm of Oblivion, your name will be erased from this world."

"I don't care!" Tearing up, Robin brought her hands to his wrists. "I don't care if I'm forgotten. I don't care if nobody remembers me. I would rather... be forgotten by everyone I don't know and be alone with who I want to keep in my memories forever. Please. Take me with you."

Olibas gazed into her eyes.

When the forest's silence returned, Kirin's heart became audible and synchronized with the beats of Onyx's. In the lake, the water settled. New fireflies replaced those that have lost their glow. From the willows' roots, the owls flew off and glided quietly to the night sky.

***

Footsteps thudded all over the place in Fable Eclipse's dorm room.

"Hey guys!" Alia called, slamming the door behind her. "I have so much news."

"Good morning!" Kirin yawned, stretching in his bed. "I think I had a very action-packed dream. I witnessed something very beautiful too. But I sadly don't remember it anymore--"

Faolan, chest and abdomen exposed, was leaning by the window with one hand and drinking from a cup with the other. "Good morning!"

"Uhh..."

"You slept earliest and you woke up last." Onyx, also shirtless in his bed, was gazing intently at his hands.

Kirin swallowed and looked straight across from where he was, right at an empty bed. "G-Good morning! What's the news Alia?"

"Hold on. You two have finished washing? Why haven't you gotten dressed yet?"

Onyx sat up. "I slept like this. What's the news?"

"Well!" Alia pulled a stool from under the table and seated. "I think we might have been so tired from travelling, we all actually slept a full day away. It's Saturday!"

"What?!" All other three exclaimed.

"How's that even possible? That's so much time wasted." Faolan lowered his cup onto the window ledge. "Right. Everyone start getting ready. We have to get to the guild as soon as possible. There's no telling how much the other parties have already gone past us by this point."

"I'm getting food downstairs." Onyx picked up his shirt from somewhere on his bed and slipped right into it.

"Goodness!" Kirin pulled his blanket off of himself. "Wait! This means we can probably collect our pay by now!"

"Get up!!!"

"Right!!!"