Mission successful
Argus slumps against the wall, eventually dragged over to a bed in the infirmary, beads of sweat running down his face. While it was no longer bleeding, there was a indiscruabable pain where his arm once was. His arm was gone, gone…
He could still feel it, it still felt like it was there, attached, part of him..but it was gone. And the pain… he could feel it burn away…it was still burning…burning..
His eyes shoot open, and its…dark.
“Well well… look at the state of you…”
Argus stood in a void, bare and without his arm, staring at a mirror.
Standing in the mirror is… Degarus. Another name, another face, another Argus.
“The terrifying Phantom, down an arm, gasping for air, nearly killing yourself for a stranger…pathetic..”
“Piss off… Im in no mood for the Ghosts of my past bullshite..”
“Ha! If you think im not still in there you’re more delusional than your weakling Apprentice, she actually thinks she got competition, i watch her, behind your eyes, I watch the spiral of her mind as she tears herself down”
“Don’t you dare! Hebichi is stronger than we ever were! She knows she’s weak, but she keeps trying, all on her own, if he didnt find us…we would have died that winter..”
“Please… weakness must be beaten and tortured out of someone, you have to break them down to build them up! You can’t build anything on shoddy foundation!”
“Enough! You were too scared to take on an apprentice, too terrified of our name to use it, you hid in plain sight, and built your empire at the expense of everyone around us!”
“You still wont use it! You cling to the name he gave us, you cling to that identity, you hate him but you cant let the name go! ”
“I made it my own! I took it back, he cant use it against me anymore, Arcturos Ebonhold is dead!”
“And what about Liam? What about your son? Are you so committed to his safety that you replace him with some Canthan streetrat?”
“He’s your son too, you could have gotten into his life years ago but you were terrified, because of what we are!”
“Say it…” The mirrored figure grins wickedly
“A monster… I’m a monster…”
“You saw it…in that golems eyes, you felt it in his soul…that Malice…that hate… the cold calculating monster you pretend isn’t there…”
“That…is the difference between us…. I accept my monster…and keep it caged, only letting it out…when I need….you were a slave to it..”
The visage cackles, clapping its hands as it changes to a new face, and older face, Barnabus.
“You’re doin well with that little thief lad….ill be paying her a visit…very soon…”
Argus shoots up from his sleep, immediately gripping his arm and snarling in pain, drenched in sweat, gasping for air. He couldn’t sit here any longer, he would get an absolute harrowing for it..but he had to be sure.
He waits for the medical staff to change shifts, and slips out the side, leaving his mask behind, still stained with blood.
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