A Mother's Love

Hell welcomes me as I came to. With blurry senses and unstable balance, I immediately notice that something's not quite right with everything around me. I'm still at the cliff where I lost consciousness from that close-contact explosion but scanning my vision around with the help of my familiar, it's not the island I'm used to seeing. The vast greens, the uninhabited establishments, and even the bright shores are being devoured by violent flames. Panic ensues as I remember the look of my son as he's being taken over by the nymph's curse. There's no other way of explaining how he got to that state. It's her fault.

          "Mistress, are you alright?" Calista asks, trying to collect composure.

          "I am. What happened?" I feel something warm on my chest.

          "You're bleeding!" She exclaims.

          Right. The moment Vatic glared at us from before, triggers his explosion spell. The blood I carry around in my pendant must've been triggered by his curse causing it to explode. I'm terribly wounded but a little healing would suffice. On the one hand, I'm proud that he handles his magic well enough to outmaneuver me but on the other, terror lurks as it can only mean that if he lost his touch with reality, he's being controlled by outside forces and there's no denying it's Noicnusa's plan all along. I must save my son. I must save Vatic from the hands of that demon. My past failures won't be mirrored today.

          "That is not Vatic anymore, Mistress." She whispers in fear, looking at something back at the burning shores.

          We see Vatic eerily standing steadily like a statue right in the middle of the shore, arms widespread, mouth agape, and flesh still bleeding. Where is all that blood coming from? Before I can even process what he's doing, dozens of disembodied whispers reverberate from all directions. It sounds like a cesspool of grief, agony, and death. Those whispers were so loud that they started to hurt my eardrums. No matter how loud the echoes, I couldn't tell what they were saying until a deep and guttural voice chimed in. It's like the devil himself is speaking to me from beyond.

          "You made me kill my friend, you made me kill Father, you made me kill my brother!" He shrieks so loudly that the ground rattles. The demonic voice repeats it with more rage than the last.

          "Mistress, look." Calista beckons me to look at my son at the shore. We see him mouthing the words. "The voice is coming from Vatic."

          "This is not right. We have to do something." I muster my strength to stand on my feet and head to where my son is.

          His sharp eyes don't break away at us as we glide unstably down the shore as he continues to mutter his same words of wrath. I may not completely comprehend but I know that my son is overwhelmed. It's not too late for him. He can still be saved but how? I haven't broken any curses before and my spells are better used offensively than defensively. There has to be a way for me to pull him out of this monstrous state. This is not him and I know he knows it. However, the moment we land, he immediately retaliates.

          "Death!" He mouths but I don't hear him. I hear the collective voices of the people who lived and died on this island.

          A series of crystalized spikes of blood emerged from the hot sands with the intention of impaling me through my major organs but with a swift maneuver, I dodged all of them. The flames and the heat don't bother me as it's my natural affinity. What I need to be wary of is his blood and that thick fog that's starting to build up again. Calista's vision may not be too reliable once we're in that mess. I just have to trust her and our instincts if that were to happen. The next attack is coming.

          "Death upon you!" He mouths again but like earlier, it's the voices of other people saying it all at once.

          This time before the thickness of the fog fills the entire shore, I see him twitch ever so slightly, the visible red veins all over his body pulsate. In the blink of an eye, multiple streams of blood shoot out from behind him looking like a kraken's tentacles. It appears like every tentacle has a mind of its own. They attack us with all the force it has one at a time at first but then they break our momentum by attacking all at once. Streams of blood whipping violently from all directions are more dangerous than I expected. One hit can cause me my head if I'm not careful.

          I was a second late to realize that his blood tentacles have another function. They are being used to circulate fog even deeper in and around the area. This is not going to be an ideal situation. I have to pull something out of my sleeves to get me and Calista out of this pinch but what? I would want us to free ourselves from this encounter but I don't want to harm my son in the process. I couldn't decide swiftly enough. The fog is here, our sights are hindered, I can't sense my own son, and there's no telling what he'll throw at us next.

          "Let's do it, Mistress." Calista suggests.

          "I thought you never ask." I respond proudly. It's been a very long while since we've done it so might be rusty but here goes nothing. "Sulucnumoh."

          With this spell, my familiar and I will fuse into one entity with the caster's physical and mentality as its base. Aside from all my physical attributes shooting sky-high, I will be able to utilize Calista's magic as well which is Rot. Everything this magic touches will decay in mere moments. If Masid matured even more as my son's familiar, I wonder what type of magic he will possess. Alongside a great boost in my abilities, my appearance has been altered as well. I may still be humanoid with all my limbs intact but my skin is similar now to Calista's and I won't need my black cloth covering my eyes as my eyes are now of a snake's. This magic burns great amounts of energy though so I must end it as quickly as I can.

          "You better keep up, Calista." I remind my familiar as she's not physically with me now but literally a part of my soul.

          "That goes without saying, Mistress." She responded with an unquestionable confidence.

          "Let's go." We vanish from where we stand as we rush toward Vatic to immobilize him through physical means.

          Our approach was obstructed when it started raining blood. So, my son also has something else up his sleeves as well. I have to gain some distance if ever he'll be triggering his explosions again. The longer the distance from the caster, the longer the explosion will take place. Even just a second delay would be a great help to defend me from those devastating blows. However, he must have something else in mind. The blood staining my flesh isn't exploding. They're burning me. The blood is infused with something similar to acid.

          "Calista, do something about the acid blood." I instruct.

          "I'm on it." She says. I feel her magic envelopes every nook and cranny of my flesh making the effects of his acid blood nullified.

          A simple trickle of blood became a full-on tempest. It may have set the thick fog aside but everything is now drenched in crimson. Every corner of the shore, if not the whole island, became a literal picture of hell. I feel like the longer Vatic stays in this state, the harder it is for me to bring him back. There's no time to fear him now. I know what I have to do and I must do it now. Don't mind the great amounts of blood raging out of his body, set aside the anger I have for the devil nymph, and focus on my love for my son and my sworn duty to protect him. It is not too late. It. Is. Not.

          "It is." Vatic responds with his own voice which shoots right at me like a dozen harpoons. Is he reading my mind? The blood pouring out of his eyes is replaced by gentle streams of tears.

          "Vatic, fight it." I encourage him. I can't help myself but to shed tears as well. "I know you can fight it. Come back to me. Come back to Mother."

          "I can't. I can't fight anymore." He's hurting which makes me hurt more. "I now know everything."

          "What do you mean?" I have hunches but I don't want to believe it. He's not ready for all of those yet.

          "H-help me, Mother." His voice trembles but I sense that something's about to happen. "Die!" That deathly low voice came back. The curse may be stronger than I think it is.

          "Rierrab." I shriek. With all this blood around, I have to use everything I have to defend. In a heartbeat, I shook off the blood drenching my flesh clothes before I could completely cover us for safety with my defensive sphere. As expected, dozens and dozens of explosions blasted everywhere. It's almost like we're being devastated with multiple bombs being dropped from the skies.

          "Mistress, I can't see anything. Where's Vatic?" Calista asked.

          "The explosions hasn't stopped yet. Brace yourself still." I instruct. Although the amount of blasts everywhere is concerning, my barrier is sturdy enough to withstand them all.

          When I thought everything was going as swimmingly as I hoped, Vatic pulled something else from his stash of newfound skills and threw them at us. Loud bangs are being heard from random points of my barrier. With the smoke from the explosions, I can't tell what's happening but as soon as those die down and the screen of smoke subsides, I see him throwing boulders and boulders of crystalized blood at us with all his strength. I'm not sure if my barrier can take more of these blows.

          Before I can even execute my next and final move, it feels like time slows down as I see what happened to the shore after all those explosions. Blotches of blood are still scattered about and what I think are debris of wreckage thrown and are still burning elsewhere. Those pirates may have not been lucky enough to escape my son's havoc. I don't see any traces of bodies anywhere so I'm just hoping that they did get out of here somehow before Vatic could get a chance to kill them. I mustn't waver. He's probably low on energy now with all those bombardments. It's my turn to strike.

          I outstretch my arms, forming a circle with my fingers, carefully aiming for Vatic. "Ignis Vincula." I chant, making him disoriented for a second for what's about to happen. "Ianuae."

          Two gigantic burning hands emerge from the spot where he stands caving in on him to trap him inside. Concerned that his struggles will make him free himself from this bind, I immediately commence the next part of this spell. I let my palms meet, whispered ancient texts, and then watched the burning hands glow from the inside out. It's like all hell condensed inside the compact space of those hands as violent bright lights seep through giving another level of scene to the already devastated shore.

          "What did you do to him, Mistress?" Calista asks as we watch the burning hands lose their flames and crumble back to the ground but there is no Vatic to be found.

          "He's somewhere safe now and we have to go after him. We are not finished yet." I say, wiping away some of the dirt on my clothes.

          "Are you going to k–"

          "I will not. Never in my living days will I be able to take the life of my own son. Remember that."