CH 33 - Daryl's Regrets

As Caesar falls through the dark abyss and lands softly upon the world. Landing softly on the ground, he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, knowing there are two different presences from his past somewhere in this realm.

An overwhelming desire pulls him to walk forward while a regret exists in the past. Turning to look behind him, Caesar takes a deep breath and starts with ancient history.

He knows about this realm and has never been inspired to travel through his mind. He would prefer if he had never chosen judgment, but Nica exists here. He needs to find her before she witnesses the true horrors of her life.

The world is quite contemplated when you see it only through your point of view. But the moment you travel through the mind of the all-knowing, the world becomes more complicated. There are dreams and realizations that he needs to protect her from.

Caesar has no clue why he needs to protect her. It is an almost visceral response through a magic trick. She is made in the image of the first person for whom he had felt something significant. They are essentially brides of the false Gods, bred to appease the monsters who hunt their prey. Still, he can't allow them to be the pawns of his failure.

Stepping through the darkness, sadness creeps into Caesar's mind, which is overwhelming. Speaking to the night, he sighs, "I never expected you here, brother."

"Neither did I, brother..." The Carabao God, Daryl, was once known as patient, hardworking, and dependable. That is before power took hold of him as his brother stepped away from their task. Without the balance that Caesar brought, it was easy for Darian to sip into the world of desire, hunt, power, and greed.

"So what brings you here? A desire to face our father?" Caesar asks.

"No, something far more permanent."

Caesar nods, "Did you finally find a chance to be fulfilled?"

"No, as you know. Hunger is never satiable. I can feed, hunt, conquer, and consume, but I am never completed."

"That is our curse, brother. It is how we were meant to be."

"To want more than what we can have?"

Caesar nods his head. It is the cruel twist of his fate to have their father release two creatures who could never be satisfied. Living on the brink of desire, pulsing anger waiting to be unleashed on the planet. There are two courses of action; one is to embrace the darkness and to feast on the misery of others and become death, the destroyer of worlds. A path that his brother Daryl had taken in the world. To devour the innocent and plan the suffering and manipulation of the pure.

Whose pursuit of constant flesh and the world's suffering awoken the most outstanding demons and led to the death of thousands every year. As his face fell forward, the darkness of his long hair allowed his long dark hair to obfuscate his eyes.

Tears of regret fall from his eyes as Caesar knows that hunger and desire have slowly destroyed everything his brother Daryl once loved. His actions fed into the darkness his father knew he would bring to the world.

He was a monster who only needed the power to show his frailness. Rather than seeking the strongest, he preyed on those who did nothing but believe in him.

"Brother?" Daryl asks.

"Yes, brother?"

"There was nothing you could do to save me."

"I know; I already tried once."

"And I ended up killing the only woman you ever loved."

"I have loved others..."

"But she was the first that you loved."

"Yes... she was the first and the only one I ever showed love."

"And Gabriella?"

"She knows I love her. I gave up my life to be with her; she was who we were meant to kill. To destroy, but our lives aren't fated to us. We decide our path as she has changed her path."

"And I couldn't... I had to consume that which I desired most."

"My greatest mistake, brother, is realizing you could never be saved. I lost the love of my life for saving you. I almost killed who I was in my regret."

"Killed who you were?"

Caesar nods, "I finally realized for the first time in my life that everyone wasn't worth saving. That there are some people out there, you need to let drown in their blood."

Daryl nods as a wicked smile spreads across his face, "Then it is one final fight, brother?"

Caesar shakes his head sadly, "You never learn, do you? You are not seeking absolution?"

"I have raped, tortured, and killed everything that has ever loved me... I might not have killed you, but I killed the thing that made you, you."

"For the longest time, I thought you had a brother. But I am finding my way home."

"She won't forgive you nor understand you. We are monsters, and that is all we will ever be..." Daryl growls as he stands at his massive frame, the gluttony getting the best of him as he has let his prowess falter.

"I will not take pity on you, brother. Surrender to your father's judgment."

"I surrender to no one. You are no longer my savior Caesar, and I am no longer your brute."

Caesar closes his eyes as he straightens his form as evaporates into the darkness disappearing into nothingness. As the night swarms into his soul, Caesar knows in his heart he must do this. His brother is his single regret but more terrifying than this; there is something more significant.

He has never had shame, and for him to sink further on a plane, he knows that Nica does not exist; he must face the darkness. He must destroy the last barrier, the sanity he had held onto for far too long.

He has tried to live as a saint in the world of darkness as the world has fallen into ruins. Feeling the hunger of the monster before him. He is the brother's keeper, the judge and jury, and the

Dark Raven, and he needs to embrace his nature, his darkness, and his anger to save Nica. He cannot keep his lost love, but he can save the one he has now. The one who owed him a debt of guidance, the one who sought him out through the Guardian. How can he protect the living if he is unwilling to face the darkness?

Closing his eyes, a flutter of a thousand pairs of wings swarmed the abyss's darkness. Their talons outstretched as a flock of dark crows and ravens swoop past the mass. Claws cut into flesh, tearing at it as the monster strikes out, confused. His movements slow as he tries to swat at the birds which fly past in the darkness.

Even with limited vision, his mind can't see the evening of feathers against the black of night. Thousands of minor cuts tear into the flesh of the monster. Talons cutting across flesh, avoiding the veins, the nerves, the sinew, as the creature is cut, shredded without mercy.

"Fuck you!" Daryl screams as the birds cut into his flesh, tearing him apart and giving him a death of lingering pain. The meat is pulled, as birds peel his flesh from his muscles, as the creatures strike out against the demonic birds.

Caesar walks up quietly behind his brother as the beast has become too massive to fight the wicked. Its hunger made it impossible to defend itself as the eyes were torn from his face and the beaks of his eyelids.

Brazenly walking towards his brother, the fallen Oracle, with the hate that built over the millennium, Caesar growls. Extending his claws as he cuts the tendons at his brother's ankles, causing his collapse.

Forcing the giant creature to fall forward, knowing it will never have the chance to walk again. Growling fiercely, Caesar grips the Oracle's long black hair lifting his head from the ground, as he tears the remains of his shredded eyes from his skull.

Leaning forward, Caesar growls deeply into his brother's ear, "I never wanted your death, brother. Death is far too lenient for you. No, what you deserve is a life of pain and torment. You deserve to be destroyed, commanded, and ravaged all the rest of eternity."

Daryl coughs up blood, rolling onto his back, trying to grasp for Caesar, "Curse you, you fucking fiend. You would deny me a death of a warrior."

"I would deny you everything. I would deny your very existence..." Caesar laughs, "Actually, brother have something worthy of you. I have a fate so dark, so devastating that you will never recover. It is the depth of what you deserve, you monster."

"You pitiful, fucking..." Daryl calls out.

Caesar growls a deep guttural sound as the tip of his left claw pierces his brother's cheek, twisting the nail to force his mouth apart. His fingers push the jaw apart with force, a burning hatred inside him. Shredding the flesh.

As the jaw bone itself snaps. Hanging loosely from the skull, Caesar tears the jawbone and tosses it aside. A smile spreads across his lips as black blood pours out of his brother's mouth, "Nothing more to say, brother?"

Caesar grasps his brother's tongue in his clawed right hand. Digging the claw through the delicate meat. Piecing his hand as he slowly twists the muscle. Shredding it. Stretching it as Daryl's eyes beg for hopeless mercy.

There is no mercy for monsters. For creatures who prey on the weak. Pulling the tongue slowly so every fiber of muscle tears. Forcing the torment to be ripped viciously from his throat. Caesar laughs as he uses his brother's fangs to saw off the vile tongue.

A guttural howling laugh escapes Caesar's lips, "I damn you to a life of service to the Oracle. May every one of your future lives serve the monster you were once. You seers and your outliers who served your needs, who were devoured by guttural disgust, will be you. Your mind is dwarfed in the avatars of nonexistent beings. I am fucking taking your life and devouring it with disgust. You will not harm enough but torture yourself for eternity. You, my brother, are reborn and will cease to exist. Except in the ravaged mind of the demonic... and in that beast, that creature you serve. I will conquer it soon. I will eat its heart. Tell it; I am coming as you will no longer see it. Instead, you will see only the pain of your vile destruction... LONG LIVE THE ORACLE."

"Descend..." and the falling begins once more.