The Beast That was Promised ✔

THIRTY-ONE: Entwined Souls

A.N: Happy new year! I forgot to update

The Beast dropped Benj and the others off as close to the palace as they could get, which was just inside the inner wall. They had to trust that Benj and Skyt were strong enough to make it up there without dying. Isiah promised to keep an eye on them when he could and heal them with the powers he now had.

He had all of them, all three of them shared the five powers they had spent so long collecting. They were the Beast that was Promised, the one thing that could save the realm. Ishin waited for them, they could all see it through eyes that all three of them shared but only one of them could control.

It was surreal, being so connected with two other people, but there was so much going on that he couldn't focus on it. He wanted to, he wanted to learn all he could about the people he cared about so deeply, but there was Ishin, waiting to fight them with everything he had. The Beast had to win, for the sake of Vishera.

"Do what you need to, Isiah," Rina said, the same words Emrick had said to him earlier. "We will kill him, I'm sorry."

If he could have, he would have nodded. "I understand," he thought to them, his own voice echoing in their mind. It was what had to be done, if Teremtys was to be believed. Part of him didn't want to think about it. Emrick had told him once that he trusted too easily, but even he didn't trust Teremtys. But it was the only option and he had to go along with it, even if he hated it.

A wave of comfort washed over him. "It's going to be alright," Emrick thought to him, but the comfort he felt was a sharp contrast to what was going on beyond their little haven in their mind.

The city burned around them and if Isiah had been in his own body, he would have wept for it. They had arrived too late to save everyone, but there were still some people he could help. He pulled at the flames, drawing them towards the body of the Beast, which had currently taken the form of a man with a bull's head.

In less than a minute, all the fires in all of Ziya were out, swirling around the Beast that was Promised until they slowly dissolved away. Their body changed again, the power of fear morphing it into different monsters. They took the form of a hound and howled at the hidden moon as Ishin glared, preparing himself for the long fight.

If they wanted to save as many people as they could, they had to fight outside the city walls. As fast as they could, the Beast ran around Ziya, standing in the body-littered fields outside. Ishin, who had been tramping through the city let out a noise akin to a laugh and followed.

There was no time for Isiah to dwell on how strange it was to face his God again, Ishin was running for them, flames spilling from the tips of his fingers. Their whole body tensed, Rina and Emrick ready to fight together. The two massive bodies collided with a noise that would have made Isiah's ears ache if he'd still had them.

Before he could stop himself, Isiah tapped into the strength magic and all three of them flung Ishin off them, watching him roll across the snow. It had been instinct, a desperate need to survive and a side effect of being so closely connected to the other souls of the Beast. He needed to focus on another power while the other two did what was needed for the safety of the realm.

The slightest brush against the healing power Rina had given them showed all the injuries in Ziya. There were so many and he didn't know who he was supposed to heal. He could only see up to the inner wall; they were too far away for him to see anyone else, but there were still thousands of people lying in the street, waiting to die. If he healed them, would they not just get up and kill each other all over again?

There wasn't time to think. Ishin stood and bellowed at them, throwing his arms wide. Fire rained down upon them, a constant barrage of heat he knew should have been there, but couldn't feel. All three of them moved at once, accessing Isiah's memory of the last time he had faced off against the God. They threw the flames back at him, half of it thrown up to the sky by Isiah's panic. It did nothing, just absorbed back into Ishin's raging body. They couldn't fight fire with fire.