"How long have I languished here, staring back at the one unmoving Sun and wanting to gouge out its Light and make it my own? Probably for too long, some might say. But I'm alone here. I watch as the battle unfolds. This dead landscape of His is engulfing the others. Their presence drowned by His own."
Caliban, Ego, Vincent. Names and nicknames standing on the edge of nothingness, clinging to their bearer's own ability to be remembered whilst his own body dissolved over the course of a century. A faded presence bending the knee to act as the executioner of His plans. New purpose given at the cost of free will torn painfully from its vessel. The memories plaguing Caliban now surgically extracted and reapplied for the pure enjoyment of a higher being, vaguely reminding him of how his rebirth took place. Faceless figures flying husks of metal shrouded in black smoke and dripping toxic venom from their wings. Hot metal cutting and cauterizing his wounds at the same time. Pain made reality over and over again.
His cracked helmet revealed nothing but the void of space staring through the visor back at the sun. The same smoke originating from within, turning from a bright orange hue to a teal merging with its surroundings. A long tendril with its tip splitting into three laid over Caliban's shoulder. A gesture of reassurance, no less.
"How do you feel, Hireling?"
He did not respond. His legs were nothing more than stumps floating above the ground, slightly bent as the mist fell touched the ground in his stead. His head bowed slightly forward. He looked down on a puddle of water spanning what seemed like several meters wide. Like a movie about himself. Through his own eyes he watched Planet New Tokyo from the comfort of his Valkyrie. Moving his hands off the controls, staring at his own palms in what seemed to be both shock and delight. He responded as the last few drips of orange essence fell on the ground with an echo, parting away the mist as they touched down.
Idon'tknow...better?Timeflowsdifferentlyhere.
Caliban's muffled voice left the shattered facade that was his helmet with a low pitched echo. His anger made his limbs shake slightly. He tried to grasp his head with hands he no longer had. Instead it was the same tendril previously laid on his shoulder that tapped on the empty insides of his visor like a pen hitting a ceramic cup.
"It does. And you have all the time in the world to explore. All the time in this world."
With one of its other tendrils it held a bright spherical object. Radiating with comforting warmth in contrast to Caliban's cold aura. In near-mockery, It held the object before Caliban's visor, blocking his view to the puddle of water.
"Two more. Surprise us."
"Test the sharpness of your sword against another. And when that is not enough, unsheathe your cunning as the hidden dagger that ends the fight."
![[Image: i3LIUth.png]](https://i.imgur.com/i3LIUth.png)