Columba's soul materialized in the chapel, his form translucent and shimmering with ethereal light. Callum knelt before Columba’s soul, his heart laid bare, trembling with a love he could no longer contain.
“I did this for you,” Callum’s voice was unsteady, his words a desperate confession. “I went to Mephistopheles himself, bartered my soul–my faith–so that you could be freed from the Rain Wraith’s curse.”
Columba’s ethereal form seemed to stiffen, his gaze narrowing, colder than Callum had ever seen. “You did what?!” Columba’s voice was filled with disbelief, quickly giving way to harsh contempt. “You went to a demon? Forsook your soul? You would damn yourself, Callum, for something so–” he paused, his lip curling with disdain, “so shameful?!”
Callum recoiled, the weight of Columba’s scorn crushing him. “I did it because... because I love you, Columba. I couldn’t bear to see you suffer, to be bound to that curse.”
“Love?” Columba spat the word as if it were poison. “What you call love is a perversion, a sickness that has led you to forsake everything we were taught to hold sacred. Our faith, Callum, our vows–do they mean nothing to you?”
A tremor ran through Callum, but he forced himself to meet Columba’s gaze. “They mean everything to me. But I couldn’t leave you to that fate. You mean everything to me, too.”
Columba’s expression only grew harsher, his voice cold and cutting. “Then your faith was nothing but a lie. You think this act of selfish, misguided devotion makes you noble? It has made you a fool, Callum–a fool and a traitor to the very God we serve.”
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Tears stung Callum’s eyes, but he refused to look away. “I did it for you. I would give up anything for you.”
Columba’s spirit seemed to recoil, his gaze filled with revulsion. “Then I pity you. I would rather have remained cursed for eternity than be saved by such blasphemy.”
As Columba's spirit began to fade, ascending towards a heaven that Callum knew he would never see, something deep within the fallen cleric snapped. The last remnants of his humanity, of the pure and selfless love that had driven him to such extremes, crumbled to ash. In its place, the embers of a terrible vengeance began to smolder.
Mephistopheles, who had watched the exchange with cruel amusement, saw his opportunity. As Columba's soul reached the threshold between worlds, the devil prince lashed out with tendrils of pure darkness. They ensnared the ascending soul, eliciting a scream of agony that shook the very foundations of the chapel.
"You dared to scorn his love, his ultimate sacrifice," Mephistopheles snarled, his voice dripping with venomous glee. "Now, you ungrateful wretch, you will know his torment–feel every ounce of pain you inflicted on the one who loved you more than life itself.”
Columba struggled, his translucent form writhing in the devil's grasp, but Mephistopheles only tightened his hold. With a wrenching motion that seemed to tear at the very fabric of reality, Columba's soul was dragged back down. Once more, it was forced into the cursed form of the Rain Wraith. But this time, the creature's icy blue eyes flickered with a new awareness–Columba's consciousness, fully aware and horrified by what he had become–again.
"A fitting punishment, don't you think?" Mephistopheles chuckled, turning to the stunned Callum. "He rejected your love... now he shall forever be bound to the symbol of his own betrayal. Poetic, in its way."
His heart a battlefield of conflicting emotions, Callum stared at the transformed Rain Wraith.. Love warred with hatred, despair grappled with a terrible, consuming rage. And through it all, a new power began to pulse within him–dark, seductive, and promising retribution against a world that had denied him everything he had ever truly wanted.
As dawn broke over the Scottish hills, casting long shadows through the shattered windows of the desecrated chapel, two new beings emerged into a world unsuspecting of the chaos about to be unleashed. The Rain Wraith, once Columba, now a prisoner of his own righteousness and fear. And Callum... Callum, whose transformation had only just begun.