The bindings were coming undone...
Ruml Abellion could feel them unraveling, thread by thread.
The ancient seals that had held him prisoner for millennia were finally beginning to break.
The ritual had worked perfectly...
The human boy had played his part beautifully as well.
And now the power was returning.
The blue flas from the fungus-covered floor began to rise, as streams of luminescent fire that flowed across the chamber toward Ruml Abellion’s four-ard form. The flas swirled around its body, drawn inexorably toward the white wooden mask, into those empty sockets that housed an endless abyss of darkness.
The flas poured in.
Ruml Abellion’s soul fire was ignited once more.
For the first ti in centuries beyond counting, the Angel felt whole.
The hollow emptiness that had defined its existence in this... this putrid prison began to fill with sothing closer to true consciousness.
It had been so long.
So impossibly long...
Ruml Abellion had been a being of significant power once, before his binding.
He had once been an Angel, not one of the great Grigori that had taught humanity the forbidden arts, but sothing much older. Sothing that predated even their fall.
It had watched the Divine Will shape the world, perhaps...
It had seen the angels march to heralds of war, perhaps...
It had witnessed the war between heaven and the depths.
Perhaps...
And as with the case with all heavenly wars and whatnots, he had chosen a side.
The wrong side, as it turned out.
When the Demon Wars ended and the victors began their purges, Ruml Abellion had fled. Fled to the forgotten places where the divine light could not reach him. And for a ti, he had been safe.
Until the hunters found him.
They had been relentless, those dogs. They had tracked him across continents, through worlds and even between dinsions, until finally cornering him here, in this pocket realm— A place compared to a puddle of mud, or a ditch.
In the end, he had been sealed here.
When he considered the treatnt so of the others got, then perhaps he got of lightly. However, he was still aggrieved.
Nothing was ant to find this place.
And anything that did find it should have been incapable of setting it free.
Fortunately, his jailers had underestimated the heights of human potential, curiosity, and folly.
The boy was his long awaited key.
He still did not know how they had been able to reach this place, but he couldn’t care less.
Perhaps there was sothing special about the boy. He could sense the faintest wiffs of stain and the terrible, putrid, black rot of corruption on the human, but he paid that no mind.
The human was shrouded in a thin veil of mystery. One even he, Ruml Abellion, didn’t truly understand.
But that was insignificant...
The flas continued to pour into its mask, and with each mont, more of its power returned. Not all of it. His complete release would require more blood, death, and sacrifice. But this was enough.
More than enough to get rid of all these shackles.
Once fully freed, Ruml Abellion had plans. Grand plans...
The world above had changed during his imprisonnt, he reckoned.
The heavenly orders were also sure to have changed greatly, with the Divine One’s grip loosening as the corruption spread like a poignant rot through the foundations of existence. By now, most of the angels should have retreated to their crystalline palaces, abandoning the earth to seek safety themselves...
It was chaos up there now, he reckoned. Beautiful chaos...
And he intended to fuel those chaotic flas even more.
All of everything was a broken ss. A discordant, blasphemous shell of its forr state.
There were all sorts of horrors and nightmares being birthed every passing day, with each one being even worse than the next.
Very soon, the heavens would be unable to ignore this festering pot of its own creation.
Then, will it open its doors once again?
Regardless, it didn’t have a choice.
It was either that, or the darkness would pry open those golden gates itself, no?
***
Jacob’s axe descended toward Nero’s skull.
’Fuck, fuck, fuck!’ Nero’s mind raced as he threw himself backward, the blade passing close enough to shave hair from his head.
He’d almost been had!
He had almost, fallen for the obvious deception. It had been so close.
But he’d trusted his intuition, in the end.
Before agreeing to Ruml Abellion’s terms, before shaking that terrifying thing’s clawed hand, Nero had done sothing the creature hadn’t anticipated.
He’d consulted the Oracle one more ti, using his daily question on sothing crucial...
’Would it be wise to agree to this being’s terms without contingencies?’
The Oracle’s response had been imdiate and unequivocal.
{That would be monuntally stupid. A Contract of Binding would be the minimum appropriate precaution}.
Nero had never heard of such a thing, but he’d learned to trust the Oracle’s guidance.
’What’s a Contract of Binding?’
{A Contract of Binding is an oath upon the pillars of the true na. It cannot be broken or circumvented. Both parties must agree to specific terms, and violation results in punishnt by the heavens themselves—or allows the offended party to demand recompense regardless of the violator’s power. It is activated through a specific chant and the speaking of both parties’ true nas by either one of the two parties or both}.
True nas.
That had been the gamble...
Nero had no idea if "Ruml Abellion" was actually the being’s true na, or just a simple na the thing. But he’d decided to risk it, speaking the words of binding while the creature had been distracted by its own theatrical declarations.
The Contract of Binding also allowed that one, or even both parties needn’t be aware of the contract. So long as terms were established, the true nas were spoken, and the chant was said, then the Contract could be created.
When Nero thought about it, he realized truly how terrifying such a contract was. It was, for lack of better words, a sure thod to guarantee that a word was kept.
The contract had been simple; neither party could directly harm the other or cause the other’s death through deliberate action. In exchange for completing the three tasks, Ruml Abellion would wake Arthur and Jacob, and provide safe passage out of the chamber.
Nero had spoken his own na—his true na, Armageddon, Angel of Judgent, and gambled.
Now he just had to survive long enough to see if the gamble paid off.
***
The final binding snapped.
Ruml Abellion felt the last chain of power that had held it dissolve into nothing. The blue flas surged one final ti, a torrential flood of essence pouring into its form until it blazed with soul fire that cast the entire chamber in brilliant azure light.
It threw back its head and let out a soundless cry.
"Finally!" The words echoed through the cavernous hall, resonating with power that made the walls tremble. "After millennia... I, Ruml Abellion... I am freed from my chains!" He said in the Divine tongue.
Liberation. It was sweet and intoxicating.
Then the boy’s voice cut through its triumph.
"I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I were you."
Ruml Abellion’s head snapped toward Nero.
Then the ceiling exploded.
An enormous golden chain, as thick as an ancient tree, smashed through the stone above and slamd into Ruml Abellion with the force of divine judgnt. The impact drove it to the ground, pinning it beneath impossible weight. The chain blazed with light that burned like tongues of fire, licking the ground and turning it molten, searing Ruml Abellion’s essence into it.
"What is this?!" Ruml Abellion screeched, its four arms clawing at the chain, trying to pry it loose. "Does the heavens wish to bind once again?!" He roared.
"No, you damned bastard," Nero said, walking forward despite his injuries. Blood dripped from multiple wounds as he gazed up, his voice steady and filled with spite. "This is what you get for being a slimy prick that goes back on his words. We made a Contract of Binding."
Ruml Abellion froze.
The words sank in slowly.
Contract of Binding.
"How does a re human know about a Contract of Binding?!" Ruml Abellion roared, thrashing against the chain. "Impossible!"
It should have been impossible.
No human, living or dead, should know of such a thing, he was certain.
After all, the being’s I the heavens, regardless of their love, or their hatred, would never wish to be subjugated by the humans. Such knowledge is not one they would release. That, he was very certain of.
The chain tightened, and Ruml Abellion felt his newly regained power being locked away again. However, it was not complete this ti. The ritual had still worked, and his seals were now broken.
But the Contract of Binding created new constraints, with a new set of limitations that it couldn’t circumvent without facing punishnt from forces even it couldn’t defy.
It had failed.
After millennia of planning and patience.
Of waiting...
It had finally gotten close to freedom only to be outmaneuvered by a boy not much different from a beast.
Ruml Abellion would have laughed if it weren’t so enraged.
***
Arthur and Jacob collapsed to the ground.
The mont the golden chain struck Ruml Abellion, whatever had been controlling them seed to vanish. They dropped like puppets with cut strings, both unconscious again but thankfully still breathing. But they were both bleeding rather severely from their wounds.
Nero sagged with relief, his legs nearly giving out.
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