Chapter Text
Firefly
//Prologue//
Klaus, known as the Architect to his creations, stared in disbelief at the destruction his children had unleashed on the world. The trinity core that had replaced Ontos after his disappearance into another dimension had been taken to the world below along with his other two children. He had done nothing when the man called Amalthus had climbed the World Tree and stolen all three of the trinity processing cores.
The Architect then only watched as Amalthus awakened one of his three children. The icy-blue core of one of his daughters was the chosen one for Amalthus, who took no time in asking for Winter to use her powers. She wielded her world-shaking powers without restraint, leading to catastrophic levels of destruction. Whether through controlling her Siren, one of many Artifices in existence, or on the ground with her weapons in hand she slaughtered many.
Perhaps out of fear, Amalthus gave the other two cores to two people for them to awaken the Architect's other children. Pneuma, or Mythra as she called herself, used the element of light to fight against Winter. Alongside Mythra was her Driver Addam and Malos, another one of his children and was originally called Logos. His Driver was a woman named Antea, and she and Addam journeyed together to stop Winter's destruction.
In the end, Winter was defeated by Mythra and Malos. Yet it was not a happy ending. One last Titan paid the price for Winter's defeat, and it was the last of three Titans to fall during the Aegis War. Klaus could only watch as Winter disappeared beneath the Cloud Sea. He felt regret at his inaction when Amalthus had taken the three cores.
Klaus just sat there in silence, the weight of the choices he had made heavy on his shoulders.
“Winter was defeated?” The praetor of Indol questioned Amalthus while sipping on the tea the Driver had handed him.
“Yes. Malos and Mythra worked together to defeat her, and she was overwhelmed.” Amalthus explained, sipping his own cup of tea. His eyes would occasionally glance over at the praetor, which the other man seemingly ignored or just did not see.
“What about the other two Aegises?” The praetor asked, coughing right after he spoke. Amalthus said nothing for a moment, simply staring at the other Indoline's expression.
“Neither Malos nor Mythra have been seen since the Tornan Titan’s demise. I haven't been contacted by either of their Drivers.” The praetor’s ensuing nod was interrupted by another fit of hacking that jostled his entire body.
Almalthus barely was able to keep a straight face as he watched the praetor cough. Now, whenever the other man attempted to speak he would go into a spat of sputtering.
“Amalthus-” That's all the praetor was able to say before he fell out of the chair and blood came out of his mouth. Amalthus simply watched until the man choked on his own blood and stopped breathing. After being sure the man was dead, Amalthus called for the guards.
The Indoline made a show of saying the praetor had unexpectedly collapsed and had died before Almalthus could call for help. The guards believed him, and Almalthus could not help but smirk to himself at that.
With one objective out of his way, next came the Aegises. He would find Mythra and Malos, and he would do whatever it took to ensure they could not cause any problems for him.
A burning feeling in her chest as well as the left side of her body is what Winter awoke to. She was on her stomach, her face resting against the hard ground. The snow-white haired Blade just barely managed to raise her head off the ground. Looking around, her eyes widened in horror as she spotted the remains of her Siren teetering on the edge of a nearby cliff.
Winter attempted to stand up, yet her body refused to cooperate with her. She managed to pull herself up just enough, so she could glance down at her chest. The Aegis quickly found out why she was in so much pain, when she saw a chunk missing from the left side of her Core Crystal. She managed to get up fully, her left side protesting as she did so.
She looked down again at her body, and realized that part of her left side was just gone. The lower part of her body seemed to be mostly intact, yet the upper part of left leg was missing. The lower part of that same leg was still there, so she could just barely walk.
Winter limped in the direction of her Siren, seeing the immense amount of damage that Mythra had caused to her Artifice. She attempted to connect with it, yet the metallic didn't respond to her attempt. The girl then made an effort to summon her twin Aegis-daggers. Her weapons did not appear, which is the point that Winter realized just how bad her situation was.
She stepped back as ground beneath her feet began to shake, and Winter could do nothing but watch as her Siren fell off the cliff. The dirt beneath her feet continued to tremble until it abruptly stopped. Glancing to her right, she spotted a strange creature with a core in its chest stumbling toward her. Winter wanted to fight, yet she knew without her daggers and Siren she would be in a losing battle.
She turned the opposite direction and moved as best she could, just barely registering in her mind that the remains of the Tornan Titan was now behind her. Winter ducked around several more of the core-bearing creatures before she eventually made her way to one of the many mostly abandoned buildings.
The creatures did not appear to be living, yet she knew that they would be fully capable of killing her in her current state. Winter could not fathom the idea of dying after she had managed to survive Mythra’s barrage on her. A small part of her then started to wonder what had happened to Malos since she remembered destroying his Siren with him in it.
“I wonder if he's in such a horrible state as I am…. If Malos is as pathetic as I am right now, would he kill me?” Winter pondered quietly to herself, sitting on the ground with her legs resting underneath her. She said nothing else for a moment before a thought came into her mind. “I'm sorry, Father. I failed you.” Winter shut her eyes, wishing that could undo that last fight. When her thoughts went to her Driver, Amalthus, Winter opened her eyes.
She had left him, so she would be able to accomplish her father's wish. Amalthus had lost sight of their goal, so she had abandoned him. Winter felt no remorse for doing so, yet she found herself questioning if that was the right decision now. Considering how things had turned out maybe she would have been better off just staying- she quickly shook her head in disgust at herself for thinking that.
“I’m pathetic….”