09-28-2018, 09:17 PM
All but one of them make it to the heart. Most of them are in the same condition as him, too sick or weak to stand any longer. As Carnage's voice echoes behind them, all around them in the murky water, Oxytocin forces himself back to his hooves, anger giving him enough strength to stand. The dirt from Pangea and the gravel from the Mountain buzz furiously under his skin and he trembles from the pain, but he forces the feeling aside as he looks around, wanting to set his eyes on the monster that forced them down here, forced them to bleed for this sunken wasteland.
Naturally, he is nowhere to be seen.
"Haven't we suffered enough?" he snarls, knowing the Dark God will here, wherever he is. "I have already sacrificed <i>everything</i>!" And in his eyes, he has. He has lost Kindling. Cress. His crown. His kingdom. Everything he ever thought he loved is gone, crumbled into ash or floating in rotten pieces at the bottom of the ocean.
<i>Cement the bond.</i>
Oxytocin gives in to the pull of the Dark God's magicks, and shudders as the fragments travel beneath his skin. They do not break through bone and arteries for him like they do for some of the others, but they seem to touch every nerve ending on his body, even the ones that his daughter managed to burn away. Within minutes, the black stallion is screaming underwater, rearing up as if to fend off unseen attackers. He had thought he was one of the lucky ones. He had thought he had made it through this relatively unscathed. He was wrong.
Eventually the fragments grow sick of their game (or perhaps that is Carnage who grows weary of it, but Oxy is too ill and distracted to string two thoughts together, let alone care) and burst from his flesh, leaving bloody trails as they dart away to join the dying heart. One leaves from his chest, just above his heart and thankfully missing any important arteries... the other one, however, may leave him a cripple. It is the piece of gravel from the Mountain, and it explodes from his fetlock like a bullet from a gun, leaving a mangled ruin of his lower left forelimb.
He groans as blood flows from both wounds, watching as the heart feasts upon his and the others' offerings greedily. His eyelids grow heavier as he loses more and more blood, and he begins to wonder if this is all that there is. Just him and the others, feeding their blood to this dying heart until they give all of their lifeforce to resurrect a kingdom that was never meant to exist in the first place. It is his last thought as he drifts into nothingness, too injured and drained to remain conscious.
~
He awakes, with the others, on the same beach where not long ago they had all plunged into the ocean together. They are all bruised and battered and separated, and Oxy cannot even look at them. He just draws his legs as tightly to his body as he can as he bleeds onto the sand, trembling against the light of the day. He has nothing left to give.
Naturally, he is nowhere to be seen.
"Haven't we suffered enough?" he snarls, knowing the Dark God will here, wherever he is. "I have already sacrificed <i>everything</i>!" And in his eyes, he has. He has lost Kindling. Cress. His crown. His kingdom. Everything he ever thought he loved is gone, crumbled into ash or floating in rotten pieces at the bottom of the ocean.
<i>Cement the bond.</i>
Oxytocin gives in to the pull of the Dark God's magicks, and shudders as the fragments travel beneath his skin. They do not break through bone and arteries for him like they do for some of the others, but they seem to touch every nerve ending on his body, even the ones that his daughter managed to burn away. Within minutes, the black stallion is screaming underwater, rearing up as if to fend off unseen attackers. He had thought he was one of the lucky ones. He had thought he had made it through this relatively unscathed. He was wrong.
Eventually the fragments grow sick of their game (or perhaps that is Carnage who grows weary of it, but Oxy is too ill and distracted to string two thoughts together, let alone care) and burst from his flesh, leaving bloody trails as they dart away to join the dying heart. One leaves from his chest, just above his heart and thankfully missing any important arteries... the other one, however, may leave him a cripple. It is the piece of gravel from the Mountain, and it explodes from his fetlock like a bullet from a gun, leaving a mangled ruin of his lower left forelimb.
He groans as blood flows from both wounds, watching as the heart feasts upon his and the others' offerings greedily. His eyelids grow heavier as he loses more and more blood, and he begins to wonder if this is all that there is. Just him and the others, feeding their blood to this dying heart until they give all of their lifeforce to resurrect a kingdom that was never meant to exist in the first place. It is his last thought as he drifts into nothingness, too injured and drained to remain conscious.
~
He awakes, with the others, on the same beach where not long ago they had all plunged into the ocean together. They are all bruised and battered and separated, and Oxy cannot even look at them. He just draws his legs as tightly to his body as he can as he bleeds onto the sand, trembling against the light of the day. He has nothing left to give.