Arylos felt the alluring pull as Iris held him close, refusing to let him go. He refused to lose himself again, not resisting her pull. He felt warm, safe, alive; pulled back from the brink that was his fraying mind. He felt his fear overtake him like an ocean and yet fade away like a falling tide. He was lost, confused, and afraid.

“Are you alright?” he heard Iris ask softly.

“I’m alright,” he answered as his black wings pulled back under his skin and his wings of fire faded away. “I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he continued in a soft voice while holding her tight.

Iris shook her head and slowly let go of the Titan as she turned to Baldr’s broken body, twisted and malformed from Enigma’s presence. “No, I understand. I would have gotten in the way anyway,” she responded while rubbing her eyes.

“I don’t mean it like that,” Arylos corrected, ashamed of how the whole situation felt.

“What the hell is that?” Sentarus jumped in while coming up behind Arylos, examining the broken body still spitting sparks.

Arylos felt something chill as he looked around. “Where’s Frygga?” he called out while panicking internally.

“Garris took her to another room for now,” Sentarus explained. “We had a feeling this would not end well.”

Arylos sighed, feeling nothing but shame. The bargain was upheld; he tried to help but ultimately he knew that he would have to put Baldr down if the worst had come to pass.

“What happened to him?” Sentarus rephrased his initial question.

Arylos slowly rose to his feet as Iris kept checking him, worried about his physical health. “That is what he was infected by,” Arylos explained, gesturing to the mass of metal and flesh. “When they take over, that’s what happens.”

“What the hell is it?” Sentarus asked while kneeling down to examine the creature up close.

“You don’t want to know,” Arylos replied, trying to shake his own internal fears. “Just hope that he was the only one affected. If there are more, there will be hell to pay.”

Iris examined the creature as well and a part of her recognised the mass of silver and purple metal. It seemed familiar to her, but not from where. “Is it dead then?” she asked softly while holding onto Arylos’s arm.

Arylos nodded and let out a sigh as he tried to steady his breathing. “It is, but it looks like it took Baldr with it.”

“You mean he won’t reincarnate?” Sentarus asked while returning to his feet.

“It may have killed him to stop the reincarnation process,” Arylos explained while letting go of Iris and picking up Sentarus’s broken sword off the stone floor from a pool of red and purple blood. “It’s very possible that Baldr was dead the moment we tried to reincarnate him.”

“One of us is going to have to tell Frygga,” Sentarus explained with a hint of sadness.

“I’ll tell her,” Arylos explained while gripping the broken sword tight. “It was my fault. It’s possible that had we not tried to reincarnate him, the creature would have kept him alive, at least long enough for us to heal him.”

“Then I’ll tell her,” Iris cut in with no hesitation. “Reincarnating him was my idea, and it led to this. I’m the one to blame.”

Arylos and Sentarus turned to each other, both of them trying to figure out what to say as they watched Iris look to the floor while clenching her fists tightly. They knew she was hurting, but they didn’t know how to help. Arylos knew she just wanted to be of use and it led to Baldr’s death. He knew while she was trying her best to hide it, she really wanted to cry.

As if summoned, a scream filled the chamber; one of horror and pain. Arylos instinctively reached for Iris but saw that Frygga stood in the doorway, witness to what had happened. The Templarian ran into the chamber and fell to her knees next to Baldr’s twisted corpse. She found no words, only pained whimpers as she reached for Baldr’s broken body, picking up the pieces of her torn son.

Arylos and Iris felt her pain and Arylos felt his eyes sting. The distraught Templarian’s cries tore at him. He groaned and hit the back of his head, trying to get memories out of his head.

But these cries were too much. He had heard this all before, he knew this pain. Seeing Frygga stricken by grief destroyed him. He found no words for her. Nothing he could say nor do to make this right. He remembered the screams of his own people, the screams of others as they fought these creatures. The mothers grieving the sons Arylos had to cut down, all so he can prevent this exact situation from happening.

All of that blood spilt for nothing. All of those he had killed to stop this, only for it to happen again. It was an endless cycle and he could do nothing to change that. Everything he had done has only resulted in more death and anguish. He could find no tears to bring Frygga as he tore at his hair as the Templarian’s cries tore him apart.

He wanted to scream.

He felt a tight and warm grip on his hand that slowly brought him back to reality. He looked down and saw Iris was holding his hand as she fought her own emotions while not taking her eyes off of Frygga. The Titan felt her warmth, a part of him wondering if she reached out for comfort, or because he needed it. Slowly, the screaming in his head faded and the spinning stopped. He could see clearly as he took a deep breath.

“We must be better than this,” he whispered under his breath. He rubbed his eyes and prepared words to bring to Frygga. He knelt down next to her and prepared to place his hand on her shoulder as she held Baldr’s remaining hand of flesh.

A hand covered in golden blood.

If Arylos had a beating heart, it would have stopped. He realised exactly what was about to happen next. He dropped Sentarus’s sword and grabbed Frygga, pulling her away with her screaming and fighting against him.

“Everyone get the fuck back!” the Titan shouted, bringing Frygga to Sentarus for him to help. He could hear more footsteps as Garris came into the chamber, looking to offer a hand.

“What’s going on?” Iris asked, shaken aware from the sudden activity.

“He’s still alive,” Arylos told her as he grabbed Iris by the wrist and pulled her away.

Iris turned back to face the broken body as confusion took her. She saw Garris hear Arylos’s words and close the door before running to join the group as they dragged Frygga to the room to the side and hunkered down.

“How the hell is he still alive?” Iris asked while trying to get her bearings.

“I have no idea, but he’s about to reincarnate,” Arylos explained as he counted to make sure everyone was present, Frygga resisting against Sentarus’s iron grip as she cried, unable to form words. The chamber was silent save for Frygga’s whimpers as everyone watched the broken corpse in the chamber for any kind of movement.

After the silence hung, they could see a soft gold glow as embers emanated from Baldr’s body. The light grew intense as the embers became yellow flames pouring from his wounds and cracks forming in his drying skin and broken metal.

Frygga instinctively jumped forward but was held by Sentarus. They watched a golden liquid pour from his body as the glow peaked and yellow flames poured from his mouth and Iris felt her heart tremble. There was no going back. This was probably among the worst ways for someone to die, but she couldn’t change it as she clung to Arylos for comfort.

At that moment, Baldr’s body froze like a statue and the flames poured from his body like an almighty furnace as the yellow light filled the room and the flames grew high. A blast shook the chamber as the statue blew itself to pieces, the chunks spinning around in the air and grinding into dust around a bright burning ball of white fire as the dust recollected around the flame. Iris saw the dust fill itself out and begin reforming a body, containing the fires that burned bright and hot as the light nearly blinded Iris.

She watched bone reform, nerves and blood vessels grow, muscles coalesce and skin solidify. She watched the form of a man regrow with his mouth open as the roar of the fire was replaced by his pained howls as the body pieced itself back together. After the agonising yet beautiful moments, one last blast rang through the chamber, blowing out the flames as the man fell to his knees, naked as the day he was born.

The group let out a cheer before Arylos let go of Iris and reached for a towel on a table nearby and ran out of the room and towards Baldr and draping the towel around him with the group following Arylos. Arylos slowly pulled Baldr to his feet as the newborn Templarian’s legs shook beneath him. Iris saw that Baldr had indeed changed.

His skin was now a dark tan and his hair a dirty blonde and a thick beard. His hazel eyes were now green and the tattoos on his body were gone and his skinny body now fuller. He had indeed become a different person.

Frygga broke down in tears as she embraced her newborn son and Baldr let out a smile as he held his mother. Iris felt her own tears start forming as she felt a brief stroke of happiness.

“How are you feeling Baldr?” Arylos asked in concern.

Baldr held his mother tighter and let out tears and choked laughter with a wide smile. “I…I feel,” he whispered. “I…I-I can feel this…I feel this,” he repeated as if in disbelief.

“He can feel her,” Garris said aloud with a deep sigh. “That means he’s cured. The curse is broken.”

“And that means the creature inside is dead,” Arylos added, letting out his own relieved sigh.

Iris couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Baldr is free. The group let out a cheer of happiness and excitement.

“How about we have dinner then?” Sentarus called out while everyone was celebrating. “I’m pretty sure the boy here would like to experience his first hot meal and cold drink in thousands of years.”

The group cheered as they left the stone chamber and back into the dining hall as various servants were setting the table, as if on cue or under the instruction that this would work. One of them even approached Baldr with a set of clean clothes, Baldr enjoying the sensation of soft and clean clothes in his hands as the servant led him to another chamber to change.

Frygga wiped away tears as she approached Arylos and gave him a soft kiss on his cheek and hugged him as she cried. “Thank you for saving him,” she whispered.

Arylos felt blood rush to his cheeks and his stomach turn. He saved Baldr, but only by killing him; he didn’t deserve her praise. Arylos patted her back and pushed her away and gestured to Iris. “You should be thanking her,” he told Frygga with a smile. “It was Iris’s idea to try to reincarnate him. My plan was far worse and would have left him paralyzed.”

Frygga gasped and hugged the short human tightly, repeating her appreciation to Iris’s shock and embarrassment. Iris took it in, feeling Frygga’s joy warm her, happy that she was able to do the right thing and help someone.

Frygga let go of Iris and wiped more tears from her eyes. “And thank you, Arylos,” she replied while trying to catch her breath. Frygga bowed and walked away to find her son, leaving Arylos and Iris alone for the moment.

“Thank you for letting me help,” Arylos admitted to Iris while patting her head. “And thank you for your suggestion. I should have thought of it but wrote it off. You gave him a far better ending than I could have.”

Iris smiled and gave the Titan a tight hug. “I told you that you’re not a monster,” she told him in a soft voice, taking in the warmth of his presence.

And Arylos felt himself be lost in the maelstrom that is Iris once more.