A Blacksmith's Word Part 3

Upon seeing the boot collapse and the Minions released from it locking in on Noe, the ghosts around Noe panic for his safety.

"NEHRUMA!" they chant.

Horrified, Noe's mouth hangs open as he looks between the Minions honing in on him and the ghosts blocking his vision like pesky flies. If he starts a fire now, he risks burning down the whole city. 

The ghosts turn to Noe and claw at his robes. He tries to stay standing and think his way out of the situation but the horde pulls him to the ground and forms a fort of bodies above him. Maroon feet tapping against tar come into Noe's periphery.

"Noe!" Daniel yells from the edge of the throng of ghosts and Noe's heart lurches into his stomach, limbs tingling in anxiety. Limping, Daniel yells, "Run! Go! I'll hold them off!"

"How do you suppose you're going to do that, uncle?" Eris calls from atop of the square's monument; a bronze sculpture of architect Babatunde Khumalo, the man who proposed the structure of the dome. 

"Eris, you look like a Shakesperean villain standing up there like that," Daniel hollers, hands still clutching over his heart. "Get down from there this instant and let's discuss what's happening instead of using force."

"Talk? You make me laugh. You were about to give me minimum wage when the Prince of Ziraeth, the gateway to gaining father's approval and ascending to his right side, was standing right in front of me.  Is that why you asked me to take care of him during his time at Sympathy? You were preparing to take him to father on your own, weren't you? Weren't you?!"

A lightning bolt strikes beside Daniel. Eris does not have the valor to kill him.

The canopy of ghosts squirming above him blocks Noe's sight. Forming a barrier of oxygen over the ghosts, the Minions tear away at the nothingness surrounding them.

"Ah!" Daniel calls out, Noe's emotions getting to him even more now that Daniel has put himself in harms way.

At that moment, Noe is ready to risk it all. Humans can always reproduce anyways. 

"Noe, don't," Daniel instructs him as if having read his mind. "Listen to me this one time and don't do anything."

"A disgrace. You're a disgrace to us all, uncle. Taking the side of an Ephrene instead of your own kind."

"Well, being a Borne isn't something to be proud of is it?" Daniel remarks. "Call off your henchmen or I'll have to deal with them myself."

"Go ahead, uncle. I've been waiting to see the Great Desecrator in action!"

"If you knew the full story," Daniel says, letting go of his heart and pulling up his sleeves, "you wouldn't be so astonished."

Breaking out like a wildfire over the mountains, Daniel's blue eyes explode in a vibrant blue that almost flames towards the sky. His glasses begin to melt against the heat of his skin and his thighs ripple in sheer power. 

HISS. 

The tar beneath Daniel's feet sears. Spontaneously, his shirt rips apart and reveals the building muscles of his arms. His chest expands and his shoes burst. 

Daniel grows taller but remains slightly shorter than Noe. 

In the scalding first sun of morning, Daniel unravels his fingers and seethes - the symbolic embodiment of strength, indomitability, and destruction.

"YES!" Eris howls. "Finally, you let yourself fulfill your potential, uncle. It's been so excruciating watching yo-"

Daniel disappears with a gust of wind left behind.

BOOM!

In a flash, all the Minions vanish from their circular spot around Noe and land in a massive pile on top of Eris. 

"How does that feel?" his voice coming out in a hiss, Daniel questions Eris as he plummets back onto the ground, feet curling in balanced descent. "You're no longer a kid, Eris. Hurting people is understandable; as a Borne, you always have that urge in you. But, kidnapping a person you know to send them to the Underworld is different, a desire you can suppress. You know the torture an Ephrene would go through if they were surrounded by the purified resentful energy in the Underworld yet you wish to subject Noe to that torment!"

Eris crawls out beneath the Minions and they all rise to stand beside him. They seem to have enlarged in the few seconds Daniel took to scold Eris.

The Minions form a sea of maroon as thick and viscous as blood before Daniel.

"Uncle, you disappoint me."

All at once, the Minions launch themselves at Daniel. Daniel tenses his abdominal muscles and slightly bends his knees as to drop his center of mass.

Watching the stream of talons pressing in, the forecast for Daniel's day seems to be pain. 

Noe opens his eyes wide in desperation and catches the eye of one ghost. Ziraethean flows out of Noe's mouth before he can stop it, "Ridică." 'Stand.'

A wave passes through all of the ghosts. As if entranced, they draw themselves upright.

"Înainte!" Noe commands.

'Forward!"

Snapping their necks, they turn to Eris' squadron and lurch forward like Noe's own zombie army. A swarm of grey and a river of maroon, rushing towards each other.

Noe remembers that the ghosts have no mass to their bodies and cannot make contact with any physical objects, including the Minions. Within the millisecond he experiences that thought, he concentrates all of the air inside the forms of the ghosts and surfaces it. The air pressurizes the ghosts' outlines and enables them to be as solid as concrete slabs.

Daniel has kept his eyes trained on Eris all this time and does not understand the words Noe uttered. His muscles swell further until the Minions are breathing down his neck.

Expecting to feel the equivalent of a bus ramming into him, Daniel is pleasantly surprised when Noe's army collides with the Minions instead.

The two forces are neck and neck as they attempt to push the other down. The maroon bodies of the Minions engulf the ghosts' grey.

It seems as if Noe's efforts were in vain.

"Csatlakozás."

'Attack.'

Raising their fists, the ghosts plunge their hands into each Minion and knock out the oxygen within them. The Minions deflate, balloonish empty shells of their former atrocities.

Daniel's pupils dilate. "Eris!" 

Viscously searching the ground for his nephew's body, the fiery blue in his eyes dulls until they return to their original sky. Stalking through the city square where the bodies of Minions are dispersed, the ache in Daniel's heart returns tenfold. 

"Ah!" he trips and Noe catches him in his arms.

"Noe... Eris," Daniel voices. 

"He's over there," with his index finger, Noe points to the base of the monument where three ghosts restrain Eris by his arms, torso, and legs.

"Let me go! Let me go! FOOLS!" 

Daniel sighs in relief and lets his eyes fall, "Oh thank the Omni-" Noe clamps a hand over Daniel's mouth, "-mmm."

"Don't," Noe requests of him. "Don't thank him. If a Borne does anything to praise or honor the Omniscient, they'll be psychologically burned by the demonic fires of Chaos in their blood."

Shame washes over Daniel and he pales. 

"No, don't worry," Noe comforts him and places a hand on his cheek, rubbing away some dust that collected there. "I already guessed that you were a Borne. When you refused to let us pray before eating dinner the first night I spent at your home, I recalled a passage I read about a Borne's punishment from Chaos if they associate themselves with my father. You'll feel like you're being burned from the inside out, right?"

"You... Noe, let go of me," Daniel pushes himself off of Noe but all the strength he had has plummeted into nothingness. Daniel's shirt hangs on his arms and his feet have returned to their adorable size. 

"Can I hold onto you for just a little bit longer?" Noe asks as he brings Daniel ever so closer into his chest. 

"Just a little bit," Daniel whispers, closing his eyes. 

Some ghosts passing by grunt and absently claw at the two but Noe snaps his fingers and they fall to the ground.

Sofie looks at the soulmates from across the square and a smile crosses her face. In ghost form, her grandson holds her hand. 

Opening his eyes, Noe comes to a revelation as he watches the two, grandmother and grandson, standing hand in hand. If a person has died with innocence still in their heart, they maintain a semblance of the cognizance they possessed while living; they keep every trait that made them a good human.

The love that shines from Sofie's eyes is undeniable, as undeniable as Eris cursing Noe and Daniel out for hugging in from of him. 

"Let my uncle go! Let my uncle go this instant, you despicable Ephrene! I can't believe I ever slept in the same dorm as you!" Veins on Eris' neck pop out from beneath his skin. The Borne blood they ooze is sizzling in anger right along with him.

Inside Daniel's earnest embrace, Noe finally begins to calm down. Daniel almost squeezes the life out of Noe but Noe's body is indestructible. 

"I was so scared that you would hate me," Daniel desperately whispers, trying with all his might to make Noe understand his behavior towards him. "I was never afraid of people's judgment of us or their opinions on who you are, I was afraid you would hate me after you discovered who I really was. You are the best thing to have come into my life - my angel. I was terrified that you would kill me." A tear drips onto Noe's Ephrene robes. It warms the skin on Noe's collarbone. "Anyone else can send me to the hell I belong in but not you, not you."

"I'm an Ephrene. Do you hate me?" Noe nudges Daniel's head with his slender chin. 

"That's different," Daniel says. 

"Come on, we're both mythical creatures; existence as unbelievable as the other," Noe steps side to side, swaying their bodies back and fro. "If anything, you're more admirable than I am. Naturally, fury and destruction are what you crave. Yet, you are the calmest, kindest, and most non-confrontational individual I have ever met. When I was ready to leave everything behind, your loyalty overrode my fear. I need you more than you need me. I'm so happy you exist," Noe's cheek squishes against the top of Daniel's head and his shoulders scrunch up. 

" ... and your mother too! Both of you! You son of a ... " Eris' insults spew from his mouth, eyes bugging out.

From between Noe's warm pectoral muscles, Daniel groans, "I have to take him home."

Noe steps away and Daniel manages to stand on his own, pain relinquished.

"I'll carry him for you," Noe tells him.

"I mean, I have to take him home home," Daniel says, "back to Xeron, the Underworld."