The Sons of Morenhill

Ch 38. Brotherhood

~Exodus~

That feeling, the cold, oppressive fear of losing one you care about. The tingle that shoots down your spine. Turns the legs to jelly, seizing you around the throat. I felt that for a split second hearing Genesis's screams, but it wasn't me alone who answered the call. All of us answered the call. The united surge of primal fury that spurred all of us together was so powerful I felt my brother's emotions. 

However, in that moment of synchronicity, one brother's emotions swallowed the others in a tidal wave of emotion. So powerful that it clouded the world around us in a thick, otherworldly darkness. Never in my eons of life have I seen something like it. The speed and ferocity of my brother shook me. It shook all of us. Those eyes of static rage burned themselves into my mind. The man who preyed on Genesis felt it first. The man was no longer a hunter. He was not prey. He simply became a casualty to a ravenous monster that thirsts for blood.

Before he could even scream, he was dead. I doubt he even had so much as a moment to understand what was happening to him. His face said it all as the end of the scythe embedded itself in his chest. He understood he was dead. But that wasn't the expression left on his face as he died. I've seen men die before. I've seen millions, billions of men die. But his death was different. It wasn't anything I'd ever witnessed before. The last expression on that man's face was something alien to this world mixed together with the primal fear of man. He died in silent agony, suffering every horror wrought upon his blood in a fraction of a second. 

He relived the worst of human atrocities and suffered every wrong imaginable as he die. But that wasn't the worst part of his death. No, men can take comfort in knowing their death is by something they can understand. What killed this man isn't something that the collective of humanity could understand over the span of a thousand years. He came face to face with the embodiment of destruction. The unknowable static indifference on his killer's face was enough evidence to affirm that. 

What killed that man had the power to ravage the cosmos itself. A shadow of that power would have been enough to wipe away everything that man knew. The twisted agony of being killed by the full manifestation of destruction was more than a man could handle. The concept of revelation of his unmaking drove him mad in an instant. The eldritch terror tainted the very air corroding the light around him. And now I stand shoulder to shoulder with this Eldritch terror. For the first time in millennia, a silent shiver runs down my spine as I look into the eyes of my younger brother.

Killian doesn't notice my gaze too absorbed with aiding Genesis. It takes a herculean effort to pull my gaze from him and do the same. Our youngest brother is littered with burns, scrapes, and gashes. A bullet wound in his knee and two stab wounds, by the looks of the gash on his head his skull was cracked by a heavy impact of some kind. Ordinarily, the wounds he has would be enough to kill if left untreated, life-altering even if treated. But these aren't ordinary circumstances. 

Natasha's power is far beyond what would be necessary for such injuries. Within minutes Genesis will be as if it had never happened. As for the fear, he must have felt in the moments leading to our arrival will require far more aid than what Natasha can mend. Perhaps not, however, if he instead focused on what he saw at the end then perhaps he will become closer to all of us. Stuck in thought I hardly notice Killian passing Genesis to me as Natasha mends his wounds. I look up from Genesis and follow Killian's movements with my eyes only to feel the hair on my neck stand rigid.

The swirling mass of white light in the sky churns and intensifies as a dark figure emerges. Killian growls low with malice staring up at the figure. Waves of invisible energy radiate off the figure as he descends from the swirling mass of clouds to the footsteps of the Obsidian Tower. I pass Genesis to Natasha who hurriedly rushes to finish her healing. Milo and Zelan seem to recognize this man as they two tense at his sudden arrival. The man seems at ease staring down the street at us bemused by the collection before him. That's until the doors behind him hiss open.