Submission (#1558) Approved

Gets a bit grim and dark, like bit disturbing so just proceed with a strong will.

Normally the snow was a dead grey, dark as ash, but the powder under his paws was absorbing the viscous ooze running down his matted fur turning it a sickeningly deep red. The beast towered over him hoisting its deformed limbs as his vision faded. With a ripping crack he knew it was over. Yet the release of death stood watching, the searing fingers of agony still interlocked with his systems. As the world span furiously he still felt the cool of snow under his body, the soft caress of freshly fallen flakes creating hungry layers for his burial. Still he battled for knowledge of the situation, fighting for the given solution to his situation. The beast’s corpse lay strewn in front of him, a bolt piercing through where it’s visor would have once been leaving a grotesque desecrated mockery of a terra. Now it was at peace, with The Ancestors. Suddenly, the reality of the situation presented itself and he scrambled for his rifle, weary of the being who had saved him. A glint of yellow caught his senses and his rifle snapped into position. A terra stood before him, apparently negligibly ill affected by the snow comparatively to most. They were of fairly average build but with a distinct design of hazmat-esque patterned fur. A cross bow was slung across their back and a quiver of bolts at their hip as well as a variety of weapons and tools strapped in various positions. Striking out a hand they announced “Name’s Hazard. Fortunately for you I am an apocalyptic scenario expert!” Glancing at her hand he responded “Don’t see very many still able to talk”
“Me neither, why’d you think I didn’t just let the Writher end you?”
“I’m called Helix and thank you.”
She threw him an axe which he held quizzically. A chuckle escaped her “Unless you know how to craft ammunition from scratch, which I don’t think you do considering you almost died to a Writher, that gun is useless. You need a weapon that doesn’t consume ammunition like a melee weapon or one that has ammo you can retrieve like a crossbow.” As if making a point she yanked the bolt from the Writher’s body. “And if you are coming with me you need a weapon, so I provided you with one.”
“Where are we going?”
She pointed to The Beacon, a harsh green beam of light shooting through the pall of heavy cloud that enthralled Terrah. It’s power infected the sky creating The Darkness which plagued everything. Helix nodded grimly.
Everything washed over him with such concentrated intensity it felt he had slept for millennia. But through it all broke the touch of his lover and everything gained clarity. Maleficent brushed his hand across his cheek as he leant over him with complete indescribable joy rattling his voice, breaking it at every opportunity. “You’re here again my darling, my world, my soul; Zeus”.
Hazard and Helix sat in an abandoned police station, a relic of the past now fit for a camp. Hazard had set up a fire and rations while helix managed more menial labour. The flicks of the fire lit up their feature softly as the light crackle filled the silence. “I’ll take first watch”
Every moment stretched forever, the stakes forever hanging heavy in the air. After a wordless breakfast the two packed up and left cautious with every step. They walked for miles with the destination ever drawing closer, the goal al-RECHTICHTITITI. An inorganic scraping cacophony of clicks and shrieks accompanied a Lurker bursting through the powder, sweeping Hazard’s legs out from underneath her. Helix lunged forward and slid along the snow slashing into the abominations flesh between its chitin plating. It flailed into an upright stance before crashing down upon where Helix stood. He rolled aside and barrelled towards it, cleaving into its cranium. Gore splattered across his visor, tumorous lumps pulsating. Hazard knelt mortified, stroking what was left of it’s head. “I knew this terra. My own best friend. Who knew we’d me again, especially like this.” Helix placed his hand upon her shoulder, and then held her. He needed to be held too. There was no one who didn’t.
The wind whistled, coursing through their hair. The sun smiled upon them, the birds sang and the trees danced. The feel of leaves and stick crunch underfoot as they raced through the forest with nothing to constrict them. It was simply beautiful as was the rest of the last few months. Together Zeus and Mal sat under a tree and talked and laughed and never let go of one another; their fingers laced. Marking upon himself a wound deeper than any dagger Mal stood up and apologised “A vital spell requires maintenance, I will return darling.” He waited what felt like an eternity when two terras slept from the bushes, wielding weaponry. “Tell my exactly what the hell you think you’re doing.” Growled one.
“What?”
“That green tether of energy attached to you, it’s the same as The Beacon.”
“So?”
“So you are the one killing the world.”
They had returned to the Lurker, its mangled corpse an evident display of disease. “The Beacon creates The Darkness, a winter constantly shedding dark snow which infects our friends and our family and the whole of Terrah, mutating us and turning the unlucky few of us into The Lost. Monstrosities incapable of empathy. All with a drive to kill and devour. To grow and to spread. Not just terras but creatures and plants. Nothing is safe. This world is dying, all to feed your life force, lich.”
“That-that can’t be true.”
“The snow around you melts, the grass under your feet dies, flesh in your grasp rots. You are death, the destroyer of this world.”
“How do I fix it.”
“Break the tether, ending your vampiric grasp on this planet.”
As Zeus unsheathed his claws a draconic form came crashing in from the horizon, roaring protest. “Maleficent, stop.”
“I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE RIPPED FROM ME AGAIN.”
“What I will not allow is for the whole world to crumble and suffer just so I may walk. Fate is cruel ripping me from your embrace only moments after the first touch but that does not make it worth the slaughter that you have forced upon this earth.”
A void, an abyssal gap, struck into Mal’s heart, hollowing all that was left.
“Why must you be taken from me again?”
“Because somethings aren’t meant to last forever. If you are to bring me back, it is to be at not another soul’s detriment. Come here, one last time.” Their bodies intertwined as their world came crashing down.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I will find a way.”
“I know.”
And his body fell limp in Mal’s arms again.