@insectnova ⇢ ( mantis. ) prayed : The ash that coated her was as heavy as a shadow. The hiss of each breath sounded as if her lungs could no longer remember how to breathe properly. There was little sound left from the battle, only an emptiness in the ground and an absence of air in the sky, as though the world itself were choking, struggling not to cry out. Mantis stumbled through the wreckage of broken stone and discarded weapons, one hand pressed against her side, the other reaching out instinctively for anything her fingers could find. Her antennae hung limp, broken at the ends, and her once bright glow had faded to a faint flicker, nothing like what it had been before. They were defeated. She knew it by the way the world had turned cold, and by how her cries for hope had been met with silence.
Through the thick haze, she finally saw him. Her knees gave way at once, and she fell forward into his open arms, because he always existed, because he was always there. Her forehead pressed weakly against his chest, her fingers clutching at his clothing, as if holding on might still change something. “ I tried… ” she whispered, her voice broken and thick with shame and grief so tangled she could not tell where one ended and the other began. “ I tried so hard to do what I could. ” Tears ran freely down her face, carving clean paths through dust and blood as her body quivered from exhaustion and the strange absence of fear. Even now, ruined and spent, she could feel him, quiet and hurting, just as she was hurting. But she was not that badly injured, that she would die, she would be fine. Still, he pained.
She could not handle seeing him hurt, feeling him hurt. Her hand tried to reach for him, tried to alter his emotions into something happy, but... then it began, that terrible light creeping slowly up her arm like snow and ice. Panic seized her as her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened as she pulled back just enough to look at him. “ There is something wrong. ” She already knew it. Her hand lifted, trembling, reaching for his cheek. It began to fade before she could touch him. She tried again, sobbing now, desperate and breaking. “ Please! I do not want to go! ” Her voice vanished as her body turned to dust and scattered in the air. The last thing he saw were her eyes, filled with love, regret, and questions left unanswered, before they too disappeared, leaving him behind with nothing, not even a body which he could mourn.
he felt it in his bones, not like a wound, but like something essential being torn from him. yet the balance of the world did not scream. the fates did not call for him. no thread had been cut. whatever this was ... erased everything. souls vanished before his eyes and went nowhere. no passage. no after. no underworld waiting to receive them. they were simply gone. crimson eyes stood unfocused, glassed over with something close to disbelief. in all his existence, he had never witnessed such an ending.
it had been inevitable. he had known they would lose before the first blow was struck. he had felt it. the fates had reached for him then, voices trembling as they begged him to stay away. to not involve himself, to endure this loss from afar. but there had been something worth fighting for. someone. he had tried. gods he had tried. and still, no one had been strong enough. no one ever could be.
dirt and ash clung to him from head to toe. his blood stained the ground beneath his feet. blood he had not spilled in centuries. his body screamed in pain, yet he remained standing, watching as mortals, heroes ... all turned to dust. still, his eyes searched only for her. and then he saw her.
relief crashed through him so violently it nearly brought him to his knees. she was still here. still breathing. still with him. his arms opened instictively, and she fell into them. he hadn't expected the weight. her body hit his chest with a heaviness that forced him down with her, both collapsing into the dirt as he wrapped himself around her like a shield far too late. he held her as if his arms alone could anchor her to this world. ❝ i know, love. ❞ he whispered against her hair as her sobs tore into him. ' i know. ❞
one arm tightened around her, the other lifting to brush dirt and blood strands from her face. his touch was trembling now, no longer steady. ❝ it's not your fault, ❞ he murmured, voice cracking despite his effort to keep it whole. ❝ we did what we could. ❞ they had done nothing.
her pain cut through him sharper than any blade. he could endure suffering, had lived with it for lifetimes. but not hers. never hers. his fingers caught her tears, desperately wiping them away as if that might stop what was coming. she shifted in his arms. he felt it before he saw it. her had lifted, slowly, as if she wanted to touch his face, to ease his pain. he leaned into it without thinking. but she never reached him.
his breath hitched. crimson eyes widened as they met hers, and in them he saw it. the same hollow knowing he had seen moments ago in every soul he had lost. no. ❝ no ... nothing is wrong. ❞ he said quickly, too quickly, panic bleeding through his voice. ❝ nothing is wrong, mantis. ❞ but his words shattered. her fingers were already fading. ❞ no. no, no ... please ❞ her body dissolved against him.
he lunged forward uselessly as she slipped through his grasp like smoke, his hands crashing into the dirt where she had been. his fingers clawed at the ground, grasping at ash, at dust, at nothing. his body went numb. his heart collapsed inward, a weight so crushing it stole the air from his lungs. something lodged in throat, raw and unbearable. he gathered the dust in shaking hands, watching it spill through his fingers, refusing to accept that moments ago it had been her. that it had been the woman he loved.
for the first time in centuries, in millennia, the god of the dead broke. warm tears bruned down his cheeks, blurring his vision as he bowed over the ash, clutching it to his chest as if even that was all he had left of her.
footsteps approached, hesitant, careful. someone said his name, he did not look up. a hand reached for his shoulder, but before it could touch him, shadows surged violently from beneath his feet, snapping like living things, forcing everyone back. crimson eyes lifted then, not in anger, but in something far worse. emptiness. a warning without words. ❝ don't ... ❞ he said, voice low, factured. not a threat, a plea. whoever it was, they stopped. no one dared step closer. no one dared speak again. the god of the dead remained kneeling in the dirt, clutching what was left of the woman he loved ... alone, untouchable, unreachable.
