Quoted By:
The demonic beetle walked up to Jet from behind and gave him a hug.
“That’s all you needed to say. Welcome home, Prince.”
Jet felt a thick liquid wash over him as the demon embracing him started to dissolve. His clothes started to melt away on contact and he felt the oozing substance burn his skin as well. But try as he might he could not shake it off. Meanwhile the kaleidoscopic light faded from the eyes of Banatos, who covered her face once more, gave him a bow and erupted in a rainbow blaze alongside the entire temple. The structure disappeared from beneath Jets feet and he fell into the lake, the beetle still flowing around him and covering his entire body. He felt his movements slow down as the strange substance around him solidified into a cocoon, his nerves assaulted by the sensation of burning all the way.
The boy felt lost. Like he was stuck in a nightmare that seemingly never ended. One moment he saw golden spires reaching so far into the sky they were scraping the very heavens themselves. The next he walked alien landscapes that only bore the slightest resemblance to the Creation he knew. Then he saw fire. An all consuming inferno obliterating all he ever cared about. He felt knives stabbing him in the back, flaying his skin and sawing it back on after it was turned inside out.
His heart filled with rage, pain, sorrow and the sting of betrayal. A loathing for everyone and everything overtook him. A hated the mortal men of Creation, he hated the very gods. But above all of them, he hated himself. He failed. And he paid the ultimate price for it. Now the only thing he could think of was paying back those who harmed him, who ruined him. For if he could not have his peace, then none would.
But before his heart burst from the vitriol building up in him, he saw a figure shining within the darkness. It was hope. It was… himself. No. His sister.
Jets eyes snapped open. A loud crack nearby woke him up like a rooster in the morning. He was almost completely shrouded in darkness, except for where the cracks formed. Light poured through them, and so did water. The thought of imminent suffocation woke him full from his torpor and he broke free of the thing binding him, for it has grown brittle and weak. After it broke apart Jet found himself at the bottom of the lake he fell in. He rushed to the surface and gasped for air. It was daytime already, and the sun glared at him so harshly it hurt his eyes. He looked around but saw no sign of any of the demons. He prayed deep down he just dreamt the whole thing in some trance and fell into the lake. But something told him this was just wishful thinking.
