Until Death Do Us Part || Hunter the Golden Guard

51 ~ Seven Feet Over Head

She's beautiful.

Caleb, we did it. We're parents. Looks like you got what you wanted. A beautiful daughter.

She's just the most perfect thing, isn't she? The most beautiful eyes and the cutest nose. She has my eyes. And your hair.

"Mariona." I coo to her. "Mariona."

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"Emperor," Kikimora said as she approached him in her abomatron, "congratulations on this momentous day. I come bearing a gift. You had been looking for the Golden Guard, and here he is! Perhaps this act is worthy of me returning to my old post. Or, if you're looking for a new right hand..."

Belos stared into the bubble that contained his nephew, "Have you as my right hand?" He repeated, mockingly. As if he'd heard something funny. "I'd sooner cut off my whole arm."

"But, I just want to help." Kikimora begged, her spirit dying.

"You want to help?" He asked as he shooed Kikimora out of the room, "Go find a hole to wither away in."

Kikimora felt like a moron. She felt humiliated. She wanted to cry. Did she do something wrong?

Inside the bubble, (Y/n) looked at her wrist. Her sigil was glowing and her veins around the sigil were too. The more time that passed, the more veins began to glow up her arm. As they spread, her sigil began to hurt.
At first, it felt like a small bruise. Something she could ignore. But then it felt itchy, like a paper cut. Then, it began to burn.

Luz handed (Y/n) a piece of paper. "Hold your breath." She whispered as she saw the silhouette of the Emperor approaching.

"Of course she'd mess up such a simple task." Belos clicked his tongue as he bursted the opaque pink bubble. "But I am glad to see you, my fellow human." Luz fell out of the bubble. She looked dejected and hopeless; she didn't move. "What, no fight left? Or did you learn your lesson from last time?"

Luz turned around with a fire glyph in hand and a smirk on her face. "You wish." She spat as she inhaled deeply and hid herself. She ran behind Belos and stood next to (Y/n) as they revealed themselves at the same time. "Spicy toss!" She yelled and threw the fire glyph at him. (Y/n) threw thin blades of ice at him beside the fire.

"Of course not." Belos sighed. He swung at them with his staff. Luz just barely managed to dodge. He swung again, but this time his swing was stopped by another staff. (Y/n) had pulled out Pip and was ready to battle. Belos looked at the fox, immediately recognizing it. His blood boiled and he spat, with venom in his voice, "You goddamned wench!"

He swung wildly, carelessly, angrily at her. (Y/n) tried to deflect the blows with her staff, but with every blow, she heard cracking coming from the wood. She yelped and drew an orange circle spell.

Pip transformed from a staff to a fox as a transparent orange staff appeared in his place in (Y/n)'s hand. He hid in her hair as she continued to battle Belos.

"(Y/n)!" Luz yelled from across the room. She threw down a plant glyph and restrained Belos' arms long enough for (Y/n) to get away. Her heart was beating through her chest and it felt like it'd explode. She was scared.

Luz stuck an ice glyph to a pillar, and then another, and then another as the two of them ran around the chamber. "I didn't realize you're already combining glyphs!" Belos exclaimed. "You do have a strange intuition with these. It took me years to figure that out. Almost like the Titan himself didn't want me to have that knowledge." Luz activated the glyphs, sending razor sharp icicles at him, but Belos immediately deflected them with his staff. They did nothing to him, didn't even get close to touching him. "Though you're still decades away from beating me."