[Nexus] A Death So Permanent

[Kaelaroth]

Somewhere in some lost plane of existence, buried beneath many others, sandwiched between lands of eternal fire, and perpetual snowfall, lies this one, small, tiny, even, circle of despair.

Reinholdt sits in its centre. His tormentors do not stop hurting him, taking care to make sure each and every drop of blood they spill causes nothing but suffering. They have not stopped since he arrived, an eternity ago, denying him any taste of joy, of pleasure, and of love...

There shall not be an end.

[Reinholdt]

You'd think they'd get tired of doing acupuncture incorrectly on purpose, but nooooooo...

How many days had it been since he finally took Magtok down once and for all? Had it even been days? Was the torture so intense that it had only been hours? Or has it been years?

Thinking was hard when all he could do was wail in agony. He had sworn a thousand times over he would never even attempt to derive pleasure from pain again, if only it would stop. But it never did, though he was unwillingly beholden to his promises anyways.
Oh yes, pain, you cruel, fickle mistress.
You never left.

[Kaelaroth]

Yet behind one of his tormentors, those huge, ungainly things of flesh and stone and shivering things that squeal and bite and chitter, somewhere between live and dead, the walls of the reality Reinholdt inhabits shivers.

Slightly.

[Reinholdt]

And it goes completely and utterly unnoticed.
You didn't expect some slight shivering to catch the attention of someone being tortured in Hell did you?
Cause I did.
Stupid catman.
*smacks*

[Kaelaroth]

The shiver becomes a ripple, and the ripple becomes a crack, in the world itself, growing deeper and larger as it spirals and grows across the wall of the reality itself...

... Causing one of Reinholdt's tormentors to stop torturing, and turn its faceless head behind it.

Wondering.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt also turns his head, wondering, the pain briefly forgotten, if ever present. Had Calublufiok come to gloat over his return some more? Or was the multi-verse finally collapsing?

[Kaelaroth]

The crack becomes a tear, like a rip through finest silk, a gaping hole in the world, and something steps through, quietly enough, its entrance a chink of glass-sound upon the floor of this particular little dimensional hellhole. The tormentors are confused, their amorphous heads blooming with bluish shades, and, now, all together, turn away from Reinholdt (not without sticking a large, serrated obsidian dagger in one of his eyes for good measure, another pouring some ants onto his wounds), looking to the newcoming thing.

There is a flash of red light, effervescent and glorious, and the tormentors are dead. Or... Gone. Not here anymore.

[Reinholdt]

"GAH! ANTS." Reinholdt hates the ants. He used to be able to control them too. Oh you torturous irony.

Oh... wait... everyone's gone.
That's kinda neat, even if he does have ants in his spleen.
"Hello?"

[Kaelaroth]

Furiel walks towards where Reinholdt lies, his red flesh glassy as before, when he lived, his form pieced together from where it was once shattered into pieces innumerable, fire the glue that, while burning brightly, holds his form together. A smile, perhaps not benevolent, is the picture painted on his angelic face.

[Reinholdt]

Oh. Furiel.
Reinholdt's reaction is something like the following:

"AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! GETITAWAY! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! GETITAWAYGETITWAYDON'TLETSPEAK!! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! HELP! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHH!"

I think he's hyperventilating. And he's certainly screaming louder than he was when he was being tortured. And he's pulling on his binds, hoping he can somehow rip his own hands and feet off so that he may fly away. Or crawl away. Or even slither away. Just anywhere but here and anyone but Furiel.

[Kaelaroth]

Furiel smiles, a loving angel. Frankly I'm surprised you don't want to see him. Why wouldn't you, after all?

Fortunately, though, the angel doesn't have to approach, so tight and cruel are Reinholdt's bonds, that it's unlikely he'll get away.

He didn't manage over the last, well, eternity, did he?

[Reinholdt]

I'm not sure he was ever trying as hard before.
But nothing in Reinholdt's repertoire will enable him to undo bonds that don't have some sort of locking mechanism. Certainly not actually bust out.

So he just continues his ear splitting screaming, hoping it will keep Furiel from speaking.

[Kaelaroth]

With one, lithe, red-glass hand, Furiel attempts to stab, with his sharp, long fingers, through Reinholdt's vocal chords, its mouth a Glasgow Grin of joy.

[Reinholdt]

Oh. Well that'll cut off the screaming for a while. Until whatever magics of the realm heal it so that he may get tortured more. Not that his mouth doesn't keep trying.

[Kaelaroth]

Shush cat-child. I have come to bring you to your salvation.

Furiel says, its words not being issued from its mouth.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt closes his eye and shakes his head. This was not happening. This was not happening. This was...
Wait... salvation? What?
Reinholdt opens the good eye again and squints at Furiel.

[Kaelaroth]

You are needed back in the real world, my cat-child. Your son has spoken.

Furiel speaks, again.

[Reinholdt]

Shepherd? But he was...
Hell. Right.
Still, he had imagined Shepherd to be some sort of special Oblivion case or something.

Reinholdt looks at Furiel for a long time.
Then shakes his head before looking away.
No.

[Kaelaroth]

You have no choice. Your Son has taken Hell, and is now your and my Master.

Someone should really have done something with Shepherd's soul post-death instead of just dealing with the corpse.

Furiel incinerates Reinholdt's bonds, and grabs at his body with one vice-like hand.

[Reinholdt]

Furiel grabs him. Presuming that Furiel is strong and considering Reinholdt has always been pretty weak when it comes to physical strength, she can cart him off, despite physical opposition on his part. Though Reinholdt scowls and mouths some long winded thing as it all happens.
It's probably a good thing his voice box has been crushed.
Though now that he's free of his bonds, he can gesticulate wildly too.

[Kaelaroth]

Wave your arms as you will, cat-child. An end is nigh. You always loved to see worlds destroyed...

Furiel says, carrying Reinholdt towards the tear.

[Reinholdt]

Grrr...
If he's going to be dragged off, he's going to do it kicking and screaming.
Well... kicking.
Flailing anyways.
...
Reinholdt stops now.

[Kaelaroth]

Furiel drags Reinholdt through the tear in space-time to another world - perfectly white, chilled and almost blinding, touched by everfalling snow that kisses Reinholdt's deep wounds as he might notice that this world's so small that Furiel's shadow just touches one of its edges...

... As Furiel sets him down in the snow, his fiery form incandescent.

We must prepare you.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt says nothing.
He does cross his arms though.
He'd hmph if he could.
He's not fond at all of the idea of being prepared. This was his Astir given form. Well no... this was his Tessa given form, but as far as he was concerned, it belonged to Astir.

[Kaelaroth]

The Shadow of the Abused has failed for the most part, but succeeded in one aim. Due to unforseen circumstances, you will have to do.

Furiel says, muttering ancient words as it tries to wrestle Reinholdt's form, mystically, into that of his gorgeous human self.

[Reinholdt]

And so catboy Reinholdt is changed slowly into flaming hawt Reinholdt. Aww... we already have one of those! This isn't going to go well for his already less than stellar reputation.
Thankfully he gets his voicebox back as a result.
"Do for what?"
Thankfully he also keeps that text color change. Could you imagine trying to keep two Reinholdts separate that looked the same and talked the same?

[Kaelaroth]

You must provide your son with another body. Go to one of the Blackdust Clan, and forge him a new form amid your writhing and your moaning and your primordial sin, as, child of Time itself, I send you out from Hell itself...

Furiel says, gesturing to the sky of this snowy demense, where a portal up to the Nexus rips itself open.

Do not sway from your task. Soon your Son will have taken each and every Hellish realm, and it will not be hard for him to punish you.

Furiel murmurs, running a hand, flaming, across Reinholdt's chest, an image of Reinholdt shooting Shepherd manifesting as a reflection in the glassy eyes that stare at the catman's new, fair as day, body.

You deserve so much worse than this...

He points up at the Nexus.

Go.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt can't exactly imagine something much worse than this. What with being sent to undo the one true sacrifice he's made. The one thing he absolutely got right his whole screwed up life.

All the same, Reinholdt goes towards the portal, stopping just short. Without looking back at the angel, he adds, "Tell him... tell him I wish things could have been different," Before stepping through.

[Kaelaroth]

Whence Reinholdt hits the Nexus, Furiel shatters...


*

Before something falls onto the broken red glass, a small, broken thing, that's strung up by freshly risen tormentors.

A new torture begins, on this new prisoner.

In this darkness, Kaela wails for his daddy.

[Kaelaroth]

It seems the walls of realities have crumbled too far. Too many big things, big and bad and boisterous, have wandered throughout the realms to try and end the multiplanarscape from the Nexus's core, and holes are beginning - you may've noticed.

But here's an effect as yet unseen. A hole is forming under Kaela's prison, and, lo! He falls - down into the Nexus, sucking up so much magic(k) as he goes... :smalleek: