Page 31 of Bright Blinding Ruin

A twisted, golden, vengeful angel with the power to make anyone go insane. Isn’t that what they say the true form of an angel does to people? If you believe in that sort of thing, anyway. I never gave it much thought, not until now.

Invictis is older than Laconian civilization. He is a weapon now, but he had to have been more before.

“Do you think I cower in fear over whatever foolish feat you are trying to accomplish?” Invictis asks, his deep, unnervingly low voice emanating from his faceless figure. “You cannot stop me. Nothing you do will stop me from fulfilling my purpose.”

“And then what?”

I must take him off-guard with the question, because he is silent for a moment. “Then… what?” The way he repeats what I asked, he truly does sound confused. “Laconia will be in ruins, and not a single living soul will remain.”

The black tendrils coil around me a bit tighter, so it’s not too easy, but I manage to say, “Yeah, and then what? Like, what are you going to do once your purpose is fulfilled or whatever? Where will you go? What will you do? Do you even know?”

Invictis is silent as he floats before me.

“You gotta think long-term goals, buddy,” I go on. “It’s always good to have some short-term goals, sure, don’t get me wrong—those give you some serotonin boosts when you reach ‘em, but the long-term goal is what should keep you motivated behind the scenes. So, I’ll ask again: what are you going to do after you destroy all civilization as Laconians know it?”

He lowers himself to the ground—or what would be the ground, if the world around us was more than sheer blackness all around—and walks with large strides over to me. Invictis says not a single word as he lifts a large, golden hand and brings it to my chin.

The coils around my body fade away into nothing, but I’m still caught, still frozen, unable to move as I gaze up at Invictis’s true form. A warmth flows into me where his metallic fingers graze my chin, enough heat to fuel a thousand fires.

“Then,” Invictis whispers as his thumb roams across my chin in a gesture that is way too tender and gentle for a being such as him, “I will rest.” He sounds exhausted, much like I feel. I suppose bringing plagues, blights, and scourges upon Laconia for the last twenty years hasn’t been easy, especially given the fact that he hasn’t been whole until recently.

“You know I can’t let you do this,” I whisper.

“You cannot stop me.”

“Maybe not, but I’m going to try. It’s the least the people of Laconia deserve.”

Invictis’s golden form shimmers, like the metal his body is made of moves, shifting and changing, never staying the same even though his form remains. His hand moves from my chin, gliding up my cheek, where it finds a new place to rest. It’s large enough it can cover damn near half my face even with his fingertips curling around my ear, in my hair. His thumb remains near my chin.

It’s weird, and all I can see out of the eye near his hand is his golden, reflective hue. What Invictis says next reverberates from his chest, “You should’ve fallen already. No being, from this world or yours, can resist me. Why do you still stand?”

I tell him the truth: “I don’t know.”

His impossibly tall frame moves, and he lifts his other hand, cupping the other side of my face in much the same way. My head is literally in his golden hands, and the only thing I can do is stand there and listen.

Stand there, listen, and bask in his warmth and light.

“You should be on your knees for me,” he murmurs. “You should be pliant and more than willing to do whatever I tell you to. Gladus, for all she thought she was, turned on her own people so quickly.”

Because I have inappropriate thoughts at pretty much all hours of the day, all I can think is:This guy can pop my head like a zit right now. Maybe I should try stepping away, get his hands off my head. If he kills me here, in this dreamscape, does that mean I die in real life?

“Maybe,” I offer up an alternative, “you should be the one on your knees, for once. When you’re like this, it’ll bring you down to our level, at least.”

The light coming from him grows in intensity, and I take that to mean he does not particularly like the suggestion. Oh, well.

“I’ll be honest,” I tell him as I reach for the hands resting on the sides of my head. “You’re powerful. Smart. Vindictive.” He lets me pull his hands off my head, and I let them go immediately. “Impressive all around. And who am I to judge? Maybe you are the inevitable, the end of everything. Maybe you’re just an apocalypse in a pretty gold package, and maybe there’s no hope at all.”

I let a defiant grin grow on my face as my gaze slowly travels along Invictis’s ascended form. “But that’s the thing about us humans. We’re resilient. We fight until we’re dead, and just because you’re the big bad of Laconia doesn’t mean I’m going to lay down and take whatever you give me—”

Maybe I shouldn’t have worded it like that, because now I’m remembering all of those monster fucker memes I’ve seen. I don’t see a big, golden dick on him right now. Does that mean he doesn’t have one, or could he make one, form it to his will or something?

Oh, definitely not a good thought to have.

I shake my head to push the thought from my mind as I tell him, “You and me, we’re going to have a showdown. A standoff. And I’m going to give you everything I have, because, who knows? Maybe you just don’t affect me like you do everyone else. Maybe I’m immune to your power—and if I’m immune to that, I’d say that gives me a pretty good chance at kicking your shiny ass, doesn’t it?”

“When I come for you,” Invictis growls out as he takes a step forward, putting his tall, golden body a mere two inches away from me and therefore forcing me to see just how small I am against his true form, “I will annihilate you.”

“Maybe I’ll be the one annihilating you,” I whisper.

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