Elray was waiting very patiently for the most opportune moment. He didn’t want to leave his twin brother behind in the hands of these charlatans, but if neither of them were able to escape back to their real base, there would be no one to convince Sinicus that they were worth saving. If at least one of them made it back, on the other hand, there was a good chance the cruel man would humor him a bit and let him work on a way to rescue Alroy, just to see what they would do. But there was no chance of that if Elray couldn’t at least use his luck to escape in the first place. If he didn’t do that, them and Alroy would both be doomed.

  It looked like the group Cirrus was commanding put all their young and ill in one spot with Leocadies acting as a faithful guard. Feather laid on the ground, still unconscious, while Jayce, Kya, and Kylan sat around him. Kya was growing increasingly pale the more time passed, to the point her skin was beginning to turn clammy and grey, black veins bulging from her neck as she kept having to swallow down the thick black saliva that built in her throat. Elray knew that it took twenty-four hours for the transformation to be complete, so she was running out of time, which was all the better in his eyes.

  “What do we do with these two?” came the sudden question, Achitha pointing directly at Elray as they glared at the woman, not liking her irreverent tone. “Should we question them now or later?”

  “One of us needs to go check up on the mythical beast,” Leo piped up dutifully, Elray’s dark violet eyes turning to him in a fury. “It’s still responding to me, but it sounds really weak. Want me to go?”

  Well, he’d already wrecked that creature, so it was sure to die soon. The only reason he hadn’t killed it off completely was because Sinicus said he wanted it alive, so Elray was gonna let Sinika go heal it or something. Maybe inject more of Sinicus’ black blood into it that he’d made with the concept of evil. But it was annoying to watch that plan fall to pieces when Cirrus gave Leo the go ahead, and the lion-like man teleported away. Though, maybe that was a good thing... a lucky blessing in disguise. That meant less people for him to get past when he made his grand escape. No complaints on their part. So they turned back towards Cirrus, Eve, and Achitha, the only three who remained upright and uninjured, as Elray began to carefully calculate when the best time to leave would be.

  But they didn’t have the chance to move before that damned phony prince kneeled down in front of him, positioning himself to stare directly at Elray in a way they despised. He'd always heard from everyone around him that Cirrus was a pushover of a prince who only did what he was told, but somehow, he felt immense power radiating off his larger form. They didn't know how to explain it, but it was even more terrifying than his fight with Leocadies. It didn't make sense, it shouldn't make sense. Because Cirrus' eyes were so incredibly cold as he leaned into Elray's face, questioning with a dark tone, “What is your goal? What are you people trying to do?”

  “Tch. What do you mean 'what are we trying to do?' Hell if I know.”

  “And what is that supposed to mean?” Cirrus pushed, Elray giving him a sneer as he leaned back against his bound wrists, feeling threatened by this proximity.

  “It means exactly what you think. I don’t know. No one knows what our leader really wants except for maybe Sinika, who you’ve already met,” they spat, shifting their tied shins closer to their body as they tensed. “All I know is that he promised me I’d get to destroy whatever I wanted. That’s why I joined him.”

  “Because you want to destroy things?” Cirrus clarified, which only made Elray annoyed.

  “Duh,” he snapped, already testing the tides with his wind as he had a gentle breeze brush past Cirrus’ face. Only Leo had fought with him, so he’d use that lack of experience to his advantage as he began to accustom his captors to a gentle breeze. And he kept talking, because it was always best to keep people busy by having them listen to you run your mouth filled with nonsense, so Elray lifted his chin with a haughty motion and growled, “I wanna destroy everything. Serves the world right. Everything deserves to fall, so I can guarantee you that our main goal is to make sure the apocalypse happens. Everyone has their own reasons, I’m sure, but I just wanna see everything fuckin’ burn. You got that, shitwad? I hope you die in a trash fire.”

  But Cirrus remained regal and poised, not dropping his calm and domineering posture for a moment. In fact, he didn’t even seem bothered, merely taking Elray’s fierce statements for a grain of salt as he proceeded with his interrogation. “I’m sure you do want me to die. I would assume I’m most troublesome for you, considering my role in the prophecy,” the prince agreed instead, Elray’s features completely dropping into a disgruntled scowl as Cirrus kept facing him. “Now, if you'd be so kind, tell me where I can find Sinicus.”

  And their expression did a flip at that, from an angry scowl to a look of utter contempt, doing their best to stuff down their fear of this man that they hadn't expected to have. Man, Cirrus sure was different from what he'd heard about from their oracle. Elray had no doubt that this so-called righteous prince would snap his neck in a heartbeat if he said something wrong. Though they still found his demand to be utterly naive. “You don’t find Sinicus,” he laughed, almost as if he were pitying the poor man who sought for the answer. “He finds you. You’ll only find him if he wants to be found. Otherwise, good fucking luck.”

  “I see. Then how often do you come into contact with him?” Cirrus smoothed over with a simple question, Elray giving him a defeated grimace as the bridge of his nose scrunched up.

  “I certainly don’t see how that’s any of your business,” they quickly denied, a slightly stronger gust of wind coming to hit across Cirrus’ head, lifting up his bangs to reveal the black eyepatch underneath. They didn’t know why he wasn’t using his all-seeing eye to see if they were really telling the truth or not. That would probably be helpful to him, not that Elray had actually lied yet. All the questions Cirrus had asked him, he didn’t particularly mind answering, since it wasn't like it would screw anyone over. He needed to be compliant now anyways, if he wanted to make his lucky escape so he could come back and save Alroy when he was better prepared. Still though, perhaps that could serve as a weak point...? Because... if he wasn't using it…

  Though, before they could continue their internal plotting, Cirrus merely leaned forward, getting a bit closer into Elray’s space as he gave the most sweetest of smiles, something Elray might’ve actually believed was genuine had he not felt how deadly this prince was just moments ago. A smile so sweet it was so utterly contrasted by his words of flirtatious ice, “Oh? Should I force it out of you?”

  “The hell? You gonna torture me?”

  “Would you like to find out? It doesn’t have to be this difficult if you can just answer me honestly,” Cirrus replied, angelic smile still wrapped around his face as Elray was suddenly struck with the creeps. To hell with this, it was now or never.

  “Fuck you, ya royal bastard!” Elray screamed, wind slicing at the ropes binding him as he kicked at Cirrus’ chest, a thin tornado throwing him backwards as Eve counteracted the winds with snow to protect the wounded and small child that were within its range. But Elray wasn’t having none of that, using his concept of luck to hit a lucky strike at both Cirrus and Achitha as both of them flew backwards, before he dove for the hole and jumped feet first down the ladder. Though, luckily for them, they landed it just right, and immediately dashed off somewhere within the murky depths. Thank god this was a labyrinth.

  “I’m going after him!” he heard Achitha yell, only to be abruptly countered by Cirrus’ stern command.

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  “No, don’t go back in there! It’s too dangerous, and there’s more than fifty monsters still close by that I can sense near the surface. We’re good enough with one hostage.”

  And Elray growled at that comment as he sprinted deeper into the lab, not about to let himself get caught for a second time as he prepared to think of a way to save Alroy. “Fuck you, that hostage won’t be yours for long,” he swore to himself, gritting his teeth as he guided himself deeper into the maze. Though, most of it was just empty rooms. A few of them held the pods that fed the leeches, like the one he knew Alroy must have led Feather and Kya to for the woman to get infected. But the goal hadn’t been to kill any of them, though if Sinika had managed that, it would’ve been a plus.

  The real goal here had only been to see if they could successfully force Feather into dying by making him overuse his concept of anything. They wanted to see how much power the miracle man could exert before he inevitably collapsed and died. Today had merely been a practice run to see if they could accomplish it, which, judging by the looks of things, they had succeeded. Though, if they were remembering Sinicus’ words accurately… another one of his goals was to try and recruit Feather. Alroy was also on board with that, since Elray remembered their brother openly admitting he admired Feather and wanted to be like him, so that if they could get him on their side, it would be all the better. The man had already accidentally caused the apocalypse, so… it would be fitting, Elray agreed.

  Though, when he came across the gigantic laser beam that cut through nearly twelve walls cleanly and precisely, all the way to where Sinika had been fighting, Elray was frozen stiff. Just… what in the world was this? He stepped through the large crater, following through it, tracing his fingers across the incinerated wall before he started following the trail of white blood that could only belong to one person.

  Had Feather done this? Was he really so strong? Elray knew he was powerful, of course, but an attack of this scale while he’d already been significantly drained after using the concept of good to heal a mythical beast… just what kind of monster was he? Did he have endless stamina?

  They were a bit stunned, the white blood trail eventually coming to an end where he found Sinika feasting herself on her monsters, gorging herself on one of the white creature’s flesh as she bit down on its stomach, tearing apart and swallowing large chunks of flesh with her teeth, white blood dripping everywhere. And he saw how her arm was slowly regenerating the more she ate, with it clearly having been decimated by that blast. Which meant… Feather was skilled enough to aim an attack and injure someone like Sinika without even being in the same room as her, while already weakened on top of everything else. Just who the hell could pull off something like that?

  “Um… Sinika, you good?” they offered awkwardly, shuffling their feet together as the naked woman kept desperately digging into her beast’s skin, ripping apart their bellies and limbs until they were dead and deformed on the ground, to which she would toss them aside and start devouring the next one. She really was creepy.

  Though, eventually, once her frail white arm finished regenerating all the way to the tips of her fingers from the power of her monster’s flesh, the woman eventually turned to him, chin dripping with white blood showcasing black eyes that were filled with one thing only… utter and pure delight.

  “Elray! It brings me joy to see you made it back alive and in one piece,” she grinned, moving her mouth to her hands as she began to lick the white blood off her arms and palms, giggling oddly as Elray stiffened.

  “Uh, yeah. Thanks. You seem to be doing… well.”

  “Oh, yes, I’m perfect! That tasty meal fixed me right up!” Sinika laughed airily, voice wispy and light as she laid her hands on her bare thighs, expression looking almost aroused as Elray tried to stop themselves from showing his disgust. “And oh my, Feather’s power was delightful… I’m so glad I got to experience it firsthand… even though I know he could kill me without a problem if I were to ever face him in a real fight, hahh,” she squirmed, hands moving to cup her face as she squeezed her legs together. “I’m so happy… I can’t wait to play with him some more…”

  “Sure, okay. Right, that makes sense,” Elray nodded stiffly, averting his sights from the woman and her breathy giggling, feeling a bit weird to be watching her do that. “If some dude cut off my arm, I, too, would also really like it. We must be so similar.”

  It was all sarcasm, of course, not that Sinika really understood that. But she played right into their hands as she looked up from where she’d been moving herself on the ground, standing up in a rush as she stumbled closer, immediately going to grab Elray’s shoulders with an elated grin. “Right?! It’s so amazing! Feather is amazing! Ahh, I want to turn him into a monster and eat him, wouldn’t that be nice?”

  “...sure would,” Elray nodded, going along with this just for the sake of one thing. Because if he could get Sinika on his side for even a little while before she inevitably forgot about it, Sinicus would definitely agree to help him save Alroy. So as weird as it was to be acting like he could get off to having his arm seared off by a freak of nature, he’d play along with it. “I mean, who doesn’t like eating their enemies… totally normal thing to do.”

  “It is, it is! It’s my favorite kind of meal,” Sinika sighed dreamily, before she appeared to calm herself down as she let go of him, staring at the trail of white blood on the ground before turning back to Elray. “Our opponent was strong. Anyways, where’s Alroy?”

  “Oh. Oh, uh,” Elray froze, hesitating now that the moment of truth was here.

  But Sinika saw right through him, not seeming all too phased as she gave him a dull smile. “Did he die or get captured?”

  “...captured.”

  “I see. Well, that’s no good. Poor Alroy…”

  Elray had no clue what direction this was going in the slightest, but they were afraid that if they tried to push the conversation in any one way, Sinika would change her mind and decide Alroy was better off dead. Ah, what should he say, there had to be something he could say to convince her to want to save his twin… if he could just get Sinika to want it too, then Sinicus would most definitely agree as well…

  But it was of no use. The small, frail woman merely looked down at the dead monsters on the ground that had all been gutted and devoured, her expression absolutely unreadable. “A pity. I liked Alroy, and you and him work well together. But now he’ll be just like my beloved babies who sacrificed their lives for me, dead and alone…”

  “Well, we could always go and save him!” Elray spoke up, voice tense and nervous as Sinika turned to look at him again, a small smile twisting itself back onto her features as she let out an airy breath.

  “Ahh, yes, we could. You should do that then. Your brother is your responsibility.”

  “Oh, but… surely there must be someone else willing to help…”

  “Why would there be?” Sinika asked bluntly, delighted smile still on her features as she giggled at him. “No one else cares about Alroy except you. Just like how no one cares about you except Alroy. All the two of you have is each other, it really is so sad…” she sighed, smile tilting towards the ground as she nudged one of her monster’s corpses with her foot. “At least I have Sinicus and all of my beloved children. I can’t imagine what it would be like to only have one person care if I lived or died. But, then again… that’s exactly why you two want to destroy everything, right?” she turned back to him, Sinika’s features awfully light compared to the sinister words she was speaking. “Prove to us that you have what it takes to embody destruction. Save your brother and show off your commitment to our cause. If you can’t even do that, then… maybe you can be my next meal. I think you’d be nice enough to satisfy a good craving at the very least, even though I’d much prefer to eat your brother. You know how those with the stronger concepts always taste better. But oh well, we’re not there yet. Good luck, Elray! I hope you can save the only person who cares about you!” she tapped his shoulder, her pale, clammy hand cold against his skin as she walked past, her bare footsteps making light taps against the cement ground while Elray stood there, face twisted into a murderous, trembling scowl.

  This is why he wanted everything destroyed. Because no one ever thought about anything other than themselves. Ever since he was little, Alroy was the only person who had ever gone out of his way to do anything for them. Sinika was right, Alroy was the only one who cared. Just like they were probably the only one who cared about him. It went both ways, but Elray hated that no one else was willing to extend their hands. If society had just been kinder, more generous… if only he and his brother hadn’t been dished out cruelty since the moment they were born… his thoughts wouldn't have developed to where they were today.

  But Elray knew one thing. He was going to destroy everything. He was going to help Sinicus and Sinika destroy the world by enhancing the apocalypse, and then he was going to destroy them. The only person that mattered was Alroy, and the two of them would stand on the remains of a crumbled world together. In a world that had always rejected both him and his twin, only the two of them would be left standing. No one else had been kind, so no one else deserved to live. It would be just them… just the two of them… just Elray and Alroy… for the rest of a deserted eternity.

  he/they pronouns! In his narration and/or monologue, I will switch between the two, depending on whatever feels most natural.