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fortifice · 6 months ago

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Stay behind the barricades, that’s what the Captain had ordered. The influx of high power Fragmentum creatures had been steadily increasing, & no one knew why at first, until it became clear there was a much larger one that had spawned across the ancient bridge, causing more dangerous creatures to swarm the area. Ice abominations, monsters that cruelly mocked them by donning a perverse copy of Silvermane armour.

Aventurine had intended to listen. He was good at following orders, usually. When it suited him, anyways.That changed when a wounded lieutenant stumbled in behind the barbed-wire covered fence with a massive spike of ice embedded through his torso. He was trying to make it to a medic, the blond realizes. The soldier stumbles & pitches forward, & Aventurine darts towards the man, catching him. He’s tugging weakly at his helmet, & the blond tugs it off, his stomach sank. He couldn’t be older than eighteen or nineteen years of age, & that wound… there was no chance of him making it back. “What happened?!” He asks frantically.

“…swarmed us… too many… we’re outnumbered. My mom…” he wheezes out, gripping the strategist’s arm, coughing up bright red blood as he sinks to his knees holding the boy. “Letter. In the barracks. Make sure… she…”

Aventurine doesn’t know who his mother is. “I will. I promise.” He says anyways, & the boy smiles in relief, blinking one last time, & then he’s gone… just like that. Not for the first time in his life, Aventurine lowers to the ground the body of a teenager who never really got to live, closing his eyes. He feels a burning sensation sweep over him, & doesn’t realize what he’s doing until he’s strolling through the gates. It’s a bloodbath. He can see them fighting to hold the monsters back, scattered among the corpses of monsters & their own brothers-in-arms. He hears someone yelling at him to get off the field, he’s certain he probably looks insane to them, no armour, no weapon, in the middle of a death-laden war. It’s not his first time witnessing slaughter, however.

He was helpless, just a young child, the last time he witnessed a scene like this. The one that ended with him in chains & branded like cattle. But Aventurine hasn’t been helpless in a long time. He murmurs to himself, the incantation which invokes the power he’s been told to keep secret from the people of Belobog unless given no choice. But a choice between watching people get massacred to keep his hand hidden up his sleeve, & playing that can’t, is no choice all.

Immediately, the power granted to him by Diamond, Emanator of Preservation, envelopes him in a green shimmering light, resonating from the stone in his hands. Aventurine of Stratagems. His clothing turns to armour, & he grabs the nearest monster which had pinned one of the soldiers - one of his new friends - to the wall & throws it down over the side of the bridge, golden coins drop from the sky, harmless in appearance, devastating in their effect. They pelt the monsters from above, tearing through mutated flesh & impaling them with enough force to shatter whatever passes for their bones.

“Belobog… is under the protection… of Preservation!” He throws his hands forward & a tidal wave of dice slam into the creatures, knocking several of them off the edge of the battlefield & into the abyss, shrieking all the way down. He throws up several shimmering golden shields to protect the wounded soldiers, & hears someone yell out a warning to the Captain.

Aventurine catches a glimpse of Gepard from the corner of his eye, through the mask, just in time to see some thing crash into his shield bodily, knocking it out of his hands. Everything seems to happen in slow motion. Aventurine sees one of the soldier-like creatures shift its focus to Gepard, & raise its arms, bearing a wickedly sharp sword made of ice.

He doesn’t stop to think about it, he just moves.

“Gepard!” He barrels into him from the side, knocking him backwards into the snow, & feels a splitting pain in his back as the sword rips through his armour & body alike, ice cold splitting pain tearing through him. The creature is swiftly buried in an avalanche of golden coins hitting it at terminal velocity in retaliation.

“ Got your six… hehehe… & you wanted me to stay behind… with how badass I am…?” Aventurine chuckles out a weak laugh. Then he vomits up approximately half of his blood volume into the snow & buckles under the sudden icy numbness that sweeps over him. He feels someone catch him, & through blurring vision & tears of pain frozen to his lashes, he catches sight of the Captain’s frantic expression above him, screaming something the gambler can’t hear. A bare hand runs over the soldier’s cheek fondly as his Cornerstone flickers off. “…you should smile more… your face looks so warm when you smile… pretty…” he murmurs. All he taste is his own blood. “The kid lieutenant… make sure his mom gets the letter he left for her… I promised him… I don’t… break my promises…”

Darkness pulls him under, & Aventurine is aware of nothing at all until he wakes up in an unfamiliar hospital six days later.

The battlefront was interspersed with corpses, their proud, royal blue banners undulating fiercely in the keening wind. seldom were the battles where men met death expeditiously, the harbinger’s distorted wail cleaves through the clamor of combat, enticing the fragmentum monsters to surge and slaughter. The Captain’s command heaved these honorable men to their graves, their throats slit or their stomach cavities gouged open, every fleeting image of carnage was engraved upon him, he would not forget their sacrifice. Gepard turns on a monster, his fist colliding with black, shuddering skin and it screams in agony, the force enough to cause cracks to burgeon across its stomach, thick, wet entrails disgorge from its husk, death the stillness that follows.

“ push back !” his authority rises above the pandemonium, his remaining comrades rallying themselves before their Captain’s resolve, their shouts in unison with him as they break ranks and plunge through the snow, guns fire in rapid succession, gurgling screams press at him from all sides. He cannot allow his focus to slip for even a moment, the next monster rushes at him from his flank, spindrifts of snow flying in all directions as it bears down upon him. He uses its velocity to thrust earthwork between its shoulder and body and shards of ice proliferate from the impact, it lets out a rattling howl before it’s suppressed to silence by frost. The guard fight valiantly, pushing back the encroaching fragmentum but their allies fall, crumpled in the snow as they take their last, stuttering breaths. Even if they triumphed at this rate the toll would be too great, more than anything he wanted to cast his mantle of protection over them, his men, his people, but he was but one of many upon that battle ground.

He doesn’t notice when Aventurine joins the fray, not initially, his attention confined between two Fragmentum monsters who circle him like quarry, they wear debased uniforms of their fallen brethren in mockery, their weapons raised then, abruptly crashing into the ground where a second before he stood. Swiftly he turns on one, catching the next downward arch with his shield and following it up with a sharp thrust, it buckles under the impact. the next hastily takes its place with a blunt jab, the weapon connects with Earthwork and forces him back a step, heels digging into snow. His gauntlet clenches around the shaft of the weapon, verglas tears up towards the imposter and before it can wrest its hands free it’s fixed to the hilt, a punch tears through the air and collides with its helmet.

From the corner of his eye he catches a glaring flash of gold, he doesn’t immediately recognise it, but it’s forcing the monsters to retreat further back into the snow, on their side, that was what mattered. without proper time to question who or what had allied with them he launches into the next series of thrusts and blows with renewed vigor. the cold seeping into his bones and making his muscles scream in protest doesn’t impede him, his only purpose here is to save as many lives as he can, in spite of that his gaze catches on the fallen, his heart laments fiercely for their loss. each strained breath and imminent blow is for them, in their honor.

He does not sense the imminent danger, the puncturing blow that is intended for him but is knocked violently out of its path, his senses reeling as snow rushes up to meet him. It takes only a second for the world to still, for the acrid scent of iron to inundate him, his eyes rise and they meet his savior, the IPC envoy, Aventurine. He wasn’t meant to be here, he should have been back at the barracks, this wasn’t his fight, not his war. It was. Gepard had been spared. The offending enemy is buried in an avalanche of gilded coins and he laughs, it’s a wet, horrendous sound, as if he were choking. As the arm holding the blade goes limp, Aventurine sinks to his knees, the scintillating green light around him disperses, flickers in and out as it's swept up in the wind. His stomach lurches, in the moment it takes for the other to collapse the Captain’s arms are extended, waiting, the other’s body falling into him. Aventurine had saved him. “ medic, we need a medic.” there was no one out there to offer first aid but, as the enemies waned and retreated other soldiers rushed to their aid, helping Gepard to his feet, offering to take Aventurine from him but repudiated adamantly. It takes three men not including the Captain to escort them from the battlefield, fifteen dead, many others injured, the report is distant and jarring to Gepard whose eyes are fixed upon the slack body in his arms. It was like a march to meet death, returning from the verge of it, each step laborious, he was limping on his left side.

It takes six days for Aventurine to regain consciousness, at first, he is treated by the medics on site but when they can do no more for him he’s transferred to Belobog’s hospital. The son’s letter is given to his mother who sinks to her knees before Gepard and sobs in ruined gasps, her hand stifling them. He mourns for her but his rimy gaze is distant and doleful. In the wake of the slaughter many of the men are ordered to take respite, their bodies battered and their souls weary. Gepard remains at the hospital as often as he can and when sleep finally claims him he’s often found hunched awkwardly in a chair in Aventurine’s hospital room. It goes on like this for six days.

He had not intended to doze off, sleep offered him no alleviation, the rush of lurid memories jerks him awake more often than not, now, his arms were resting across the other’s bed, his head laid upon them. His hair is disheveled and the darkness gathering beneath his lashes speaks to nights besieged by haunting repetition. He is coaxed from that dark, tormenting place when fingers trace the contours of his face fondly. Golden lashes flutter open, startled, his eyes widening as they glance up and are met with Aventurine’s mesmeric gaze. “ I gave it to her..” he says, voice still thick with somnolence. “ the letter.” it was as if he had held onto that sorrow for too long, a solitary tear streaking down his cheek. “ you saved me.. you really were a - badass.” it sounds foreign when spoken with such solemnity and he offers him a strained, exhausted, relieved smile.

#it took me ten years but we are here !!#pain suffering #i could have written another 2-3 paragraphs about him giving her the letter but i wanted to behave #。 ‧͙*̩̩❆ ✧ in character ‚ ⁱᵗ'ˢ ʷⁱⁿᵗᵉʳ﹐ ʸᵒᵘ ᵃˢᵏ ᵐᵉ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ˡᵒᵛᵉ ᵃⁿᵈ ᴵ ᵗᵉˡˡ ʸᵒᵘ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵛⁱᵒˡᵉⁿᶜᵉ / ᵃˢᵏˢ #gore cw #death cw #also i want u 2 know i was thinking about aven saying belobog is under the protection of the preservation FOR DAYS.

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