[ The slow, unhurried footsteps that draw closer are much too light, much too at ease to be Somnus. Much too calm to be Bryn, either, considering the circumstances. Occasionally, the footsteps stop and then start up again a few seconds later, getting closer and closer every time.
Closer.
Right outside.
There's an agonizing moment of silence and then the doors come exploding open. Wagner lunges at Orthrus even as it enters, snarling the whole while. ]
[ He braces himself through that whole silence and when she lunges in he holds up his shields, blocking her from actually reaching him. ]
Brynhilde! Snap out of this, dear...!!
[ She has to be somewhere still in there, right? She's reminding him of what happens when a sentient life form succumbs to mana corruption - but that's not possible here. So if he just speaks to her... ]
[ Its hands, curled into claws slam into each of the shields and its heads strains forward as if to try and take a bite at him. This close, almost face to face, they should be able to look each other in the eye, except...
What eye?
The one she'd had remaining is glassy, now, rolled back and unseeing – and most upsettingly, the slightest peek of greenery can be seen trying to bloom from under it. If there's anything left of Bryn in the beast, it isn't in the eyes.
As if enraged by his attempt, Wagner snarls again and draws both hands back before slamming its fists into the shields, trying to claw its way through. ]
[ The sight of her eye is enough to tell him everything. It may not be mana corruption exactly but it's close enough that he knows: Bryn really isn't in there anymore. All he can think of now is poor Artemis in her youth, futilely begging him not to kill a dogsheep she had befriended but had fallen to the corruption, only for the same "friend" to mindlessly attack her as she did. And what had he done?
He'd done what he had to. He put the monster down before it could even reach her, and held her small, sobbing body afterwards.
Bryn isn't in there anymore, and he knows. And he cares for her, even if he doesn't really know how she ultimately felt about him, if she thought him overbearing and annoying in his attempts to try and be there for her. And because he cares for her, for Hubert, for Somnus, for everyone else, he has to do what Somnus couldn't--
"But if this situation should arise again, I will put a stop to it however should be necessary." "That's fine. I would do the same."
--and put down this monster wearing her skin.
In an instant he combines his shields together into one large one. He pushes her back with a burst of strength and then in the next second brings it down hard on her head, harder than he even did that first motive all so long ago.
[ For all Wagner's strength, that brute force turns out to be a weakness, too. It's leaning so hard and so heavily on Orthrus's shields that when they reform, it's thrown off balance – enough so that it staggers back and doesn't have time to move out of the way when the shield cracks down on its head.
The impact is so forceful that Wagner goes down to the floor like a doll with its strings cut.
[It's so suddenly quiet, and even barely conscious Hubert grieves. But what's done is done, and with a grunt he struggles to his knees, peering over the pew]
[ Orthrus is about to move to crouch down and finish the job but Hubert's voice gets him to stop and look at him, taking his eyes off the downed monster that was Bryn for just a second. ]
[ A second is all it takes. Wagner might be a beast, but it's fast – and now that the body has stopped resisting, it's getting faster all the while. So in the instant Orthrus lifts his eyes, Wagner's hand snaps forward and the gauntleted hand closes in a crushing grip around his leg.
From the beast's mouth comes a purr of dragonsong that sounds almost like a laugh.
Got you.
It yanks Orthrus's leg to the side, not just knocking him to the ground but outright tossing him through the air. It doesn't even stop to see where he's landed before it surges back to its feet and lunges across the chapel once more
[ He should have known better. He really should have known better.
He doesn't always feel pain the way humans do, but this he does. The way the metal digs in and crushes his leg, and then rips through the skin as he's thrown. The way he eventually lands, crashing through the pews on the other side of the room, wood breaking beneath him.
He lays there in the wreckage, completely still on his side, in the perfect position for Bryn an Hubert to still be in his line of sight-- ]
[He realizes his mistake almost the instant it happens. But an instant is still not fast enough. If he was of sound body and mind he oculd have warped away. Could have attacked her with a spell. But he's not. He's down and eye an arm and a large amount of his own blood.
He's killed enough men to know, at this point help would not come fast enough, he was going to die. The next time he passed out, mostly likely. If he used any magic it would just come faster.
He told Karl before that he knew he was never leaving this tower. Spoken over Bruno's corpse like it's own dark prophecy. So like Bruno he closes his eye... and accepts it.
[ By all logic, Wagner should be lumbering and slow - it seems all too wrong that it's moving as quickly and gracefully as it is, darting across the chapel now that Orthrus is out of the way.
Ah. That's the blood it scented. That pale, half dead man is the one who started all of this. It only seems right that Wagner should end it in turn.
Even down to one arm, its strength is enough. It reaches Hubert and its hand shoots out to grab the bottom of his face and twist. There's the pop of bones and muscles giving way, giving all the way until both parts come apart from each other, as easily as snipping a bloom from the stem of a flower.
Hubert's head thumps to the floor.
Just one left to be done with.
The expression of its face twists into something that could be a snarl or a satisfied smirk and the beast turns towards Orthrus. ]
[ He’s powerless to do anything but watch as the monster (he has to keep thinking of it like that to remind himself to not think of it as Bryn anymore) finishes Hubert off in the most horrifying way possible. Ah. He’s failed both Hubert and Somnus now. How many more will die now? How many will he fail by sunrise?
For a moment the life goes out of his pitch black eyes. What does it matter now? He wanted to die, didn’t he? That’s what all astral beasts should want. Freedom from their endless curse. He should have died as a child, and now he’s lived too long - it’s only right he dies. He had tried to go so far as to even offer his life to Heisenberg, won’t this be enough?
No. You can’t die like this.
A voice that isn’t his keeps yelling in his mind. Just as it did at Stella’s trial, when it told him to keep the details of his own power, of the effects of his mana on others, to himself.
You have to get up! You have to get up right now!
Strange. He doesn’t recognize the voice at all, and yet somehow it’s familiar and comforting all the same.
If you don’t have the strength to get up then you will have mine!
He can tell his earring is getting hot. Hotter and hotter like a furnace.
I’m not going to let another one of you just die…!
Shakily Orthrus begins to move, pushing himself up with his arms, fueled entirely by his father’s fire and love for all of his children. ]
[ Wagner watches him struggle to his feet and what little of its expression is ready to read looks remarkably unconcerned. He hasn't posed much of a threat so far, so why not let him die on his feet?
It lets him struggle to stand for a moment longer before giving a huff of impatience and vaulting over the pews to charge him. Soon enough, this will all be over and done with. ]
[ He can’t quite stand, he can tell his leg hadn’t fully recovered yet, but he’s sitting up at least, supported by both arms. He looks up just in time to see the monster vault at him and so quickly he throws his arms up in front of himself and with it a new shield. ]
[ Another of those irritating shields. It goes up suddenly enough that Wagner staggers back but its quick to recover, ramming its remaining fist into the shield over and over.
Just give up. Drawing this out won't do either of them any good. ]
Edited (wagner while murdering orthrus: :)) 2022-05-05 07:37 (UTC)
[ He keeps the shield up but starts to feel it push back the more she punches. He can’t let it down though - for not just his sake but everyone else sleeping just a few floors below.
He only has one chance at this. And he has to make it count.
Once the perfect timing arises he reforms the shield into a lance and puts it right through her rose eye. ]
[ The shield gives and it's too quick for Wagner to lunge forward and just quick enough to keep it from skittering back. The lance strikes true, piercing through with no resistance and the momentum sends Wagner staggering away a few steps with a burble of dragonsong rising from its throat. ]
Aah... ngh...
[ It lifts a hand to paw in confusion at its face. Like that, with its expression softened by shock, it almost looks like...
But then its knees give way and Wagner collapses, scattering bloodied white rose petals as it hits the chapel floor. ]
[ As soon as the monster that was once Bryn is down and, more importantly, stays down Orthrus crumples into a heap. Like a doll being dropped he lands with his back against the wrecked pews, his eyes pointed at the ceiling.
He lays there for what feels like an eternity, before his body starts to finally move independently of him. He watches it as it manages to correct whatever was done to his leg and starts to limp across the chapel (Don't worry, your leg will be fine in a few hours, it'll be fine before the trial). Dragging itself to Hubert's body (Don't look at it) it finds the harp still hidden under the pews (You can't leave this here, they'll know it's you) before leaving the chapel entirely.
Clean up. You have to clean up.
So much of Hubert's blood is on him now, and in the back of his mind he notes a trickling down his leg. The restroom is just a floor below, it'll do. He watches his body stagger in there, surely having tracked more blood with it, and remove all his clothes before collapsing onto his knees under the running shower head.
It's so cold. The room is so cold. And yet he himself is running so hot, like a system overheating. He wants to cry, it's so uncomfortable.
Then cry. But no matter what you must survive.
He sits there under the water as the voices get louder and louder until it drowns out everything else.
Survive.
Survive.
Survive.
Someone is sobbing. Someone is wailing their heart out. Sobbing and crying and wailing and cursing and-- ]
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no subject
Closer.
Right outside.
There's an agonizing moment of silence and then the doors come exploding open. Wagner lunges at Orthrus even as it enters, snarling the whole while. ]
no subject
Brynhilde! Snap out of this, dear...!!
[ She has to be somewhere still in there, right? She's reminding him of what happens when a sentient life form succumbs to mana corruption - but that's not possible here. So if he just speaks to her... ]
eye squick
What eye?
The one she'd had remaining is glassy, now, rolled back and unseeing – and most upsettingly, the slightest peek of greenery can be seen trying to bloom from under it. If there's anything left of Bryn in the beast, it isn't in the eyes.
As if enraged by his attempt, Wagner snarls again and draws both hands back before slamming its fists into the shields, trying to claw its way through. ]
no subject
He'd done what he had to. He put the monster down before it could even reach her, and held her small, sobbing body afterwards.
Bryn isn't in there anymore, and he knows. And he cares for her, even if he doesn't really know how she ultimately felt about him, if she thought him overbearing and annoying in his attempts to try and be there for her. And because he cares for her, for Hubert, for Somnus, for everyone else, he has to do what Somnus couldn't--
"But if this situation should arise again, I will put a stop to it however should be necessary."
"That's fine. I would do the same."
--and put down this monster wearing her skin.
In an instant he combines his shields together into one large one. He pushes her back with a burst of strength and then in the next second brings it down hard on her head, harder than he even did that first motive all so long ago.
It'll be easier once she's down. ]
no subject
The impact is so forceful that Wagner goes down to the floor like a doll with its strings cut.
Everything goes quiet. ]
no subject
Bryn...
no subject
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From the beast's mouth comes a purr of dragonsong that sounds almost like a laugh.
Got you.
It yanks Orthrus's leg to the side, not just knocking him to the ground but outright tossing him through the air. It doesn't even stop to see where he's landed before it surges back to its feet and lunges across the chapel once more
towards Hubert. ]
no subject
He doesn't always feel pain the way humans do, but this he does. The way the metal digs in and crushes his leg, and then rips through the skin as he's thrown. The way he eventually lands, crashing through the pews on the other side of the room, wood breaking beneath him.
He lays there in the wreckage, completely still on his side, in the perfect position for Bryn an Hubert to still be in his line of sight-- ]
no subject
He's killed enough men to know, at this point help would not come fast enough, he was going to die. The next time he passed out, mostly likely. If he used any magic it would just come faster.
He told Karl before that he knew he was never leaving this tower. Spoken over Bruno's corpse like it's own dark prophecy. So like Bruno he closes his eye... and accepts it.
'Bryn... I am... so sorry.']
cw: decapitation and general gory unpleasantness
Ah. That's the blood it scented. That pale, half dead man is the one who started all of this. It only seems right that Wagner should end it in turn.
Even down to one arm, its strength is enough. It reaches Hubert and its hand shoots out to grab the bottom of his face and twist. There's the pop of bones and muscles giving way, giving all the way until both parts come apart from each other, as easily as snipping a bloom from the stem of a flower.
Hubert's head thumps to the floor.
Just one left to be done with.
The expression of its face twists into something that could be a snarl or a satisfied smirk and the beast turns towards Orthrus. ]
no subject
For a moment the life goes out of his pitch black eyes. What does it matter now? He wanted to die, didn’t he? That’s what all astral beasts should want. Freedom from their endless curse. He should have died as a child, and now he’s lived too long - it’s only right he dies. He had tried to go so far as to even offer his life to Heisenberg, won’t this be enough?
No. You can’t die like this.
A voice that isn’t his keeps yelling in his mind. Just as it did at Stella’s trial, when it told him to keep the details of his own power, of the effects of his mana on others, to himself.
You have to get up! You have to get up right now!
Strange. He doesn’t recognize the voice at all, and yet somehow it’s familiar and comforting all the same.
If you don’t have the strength to get up then you will have mine!
He can tell his earring is getting hot. Hotter and hotter like a furnace.
I’m not going to let another one of you just die…!
Shakily Orthrus begins to move, pushing himself up with his arms, fueled entirely by his father’s fire and love for all of his children. ]
no subject
It lets him struggle to stand for a moment longer before giving a huff of impatience and vaulting over the pews to charge him. Soon enough, this will all be over and done with. ]
no subject
no subject
Just give up. Drawing this out won't do either of them any good. ]
It’s time
He only has one chance at this. And he has to make it count.
Once the perfect timing arises he reforms the shield into a lance and puts it right through her rose eye. ]
eye squick
Aah... ngh...
[ It lifts a hand to paw in confusion at its face. Like that, with its expression softened by shock, it almost looks like...
But then its knees give way and Wagner collapses, scattering bloodied white rose petals as it hits the chapel floor. ]
1/2 cw: dissociation
Everything is quiet now.
He lays there for what feels like an eternity, before his body starts to finally move independently of him. He watches it as it manages to correct whatever was done to his leg and starts to limp across the chapel (Don't worry, your leg will be fine in a few hours, it'll be fine before the trial). Dragging itself to Hubert's body (Don't look at it) it finds the harp still hidden under the pews (You can't leave this here, they'll know it's you) before leaving the chapel entirely.
Clean up. You have to clean up.
So much of Hubert's blood is on him now, and in the back of his mind he notes a trickling down his leg. The restroom is just a floor below, it'll do. He watches his body stagger in there, surely having tracked more blood with it, and remove all his clothes before collapsing onto his knees under the running shower head.
It's so cold. The room is so cold. And yet he himself is running so hot, like a system overheating. He wants to cry, it's so uncomfortable.
Then cry. But no matter what you must survive.
He sits there under the water as the voices get louder and louder until it drowns out everything else.
Survive.
Survive.
Survive.
Someone is sobbing. Someone is wailing their heart out. Sobbing and crying and wailing and cursing and-- ]