The sky over the Sanctuary transformed completely into a giant spiralling silver-black cloud. Winds heavy enough to grind mountains to sand smothered the heavens and rent trees from the earth. The heart of the spiral approached the ground, it became as a tornado spinning without end. With a boom the spiral crashed into the soil, blades of wind rent the trees asunder as it dispersed to reveal a human form.

There stood a man clad wholly in black, with a rust brown coat waving from his shoulders. He combed the land and set his sights upon a cocoon of black matter that now lay unmoving at his side. That man was unmistakably the god known as Rognir. The cocoon, meanwhile, enveloped all that remained of Beatrix' human shell. The god acknowledged her whim, her plea made on the offer of her life, and turned his gaze towards the house where Rapture lay.

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Rapture slumbered without solace within the bedroom of the manner. Dreams, nightmares, clearly plagued his sleep but none of that held any meaning to the god. The floorboards creaked and the windows snapped open as a mist of pitch black matter entered the room. This power, far from soundlessly advanced upon the sleeping boy like something that had been pulled forth straight from mankind's darkest fears.

The black mass crawled ever closer, it smothered the walls and ceiling and reached over towards the foot of the bed. All at once the pitch black mist leapt forward, it quickly enveloped the boy's body and cocooned him in its embrace. The cocoon was formed of Ash, which then poured its way into the boy's flesh, bones and organs like water into an empty bucket. The boy groaned, he trembled in discomfort until the sensations forced him wide awake. The blackness around him backed off then as the child waved his hand to scatter it away.

The mass began to vanish then, its job now done, whether Rapture opposed it or not made no difference in the end. The boy leapt to his feet in panic and then seized his mother's trident that lay unmoving in the corner of the room. He yelled out in panic as he swept the trident towards the black mass.

"Get away!" With one swing he scattered the black matter that surrounded him. That action caused the mass to react, it took on a form, a nightmarish shape forged of human eyes, noses and lips. Countless faces stared back at him, each one disgruntled, the boy's entire being locked up, every muscle became unable to move. Hundreds upon hundreds of faces glared at him, muttering noises he could not understand. This went on until the material making those faces, the black Ash of the god named Rognir, faded away entirely.

The boy lost all strength in his legs, he fell to the floor with his mind in a state of shock and panic. He could not help but ask himself what that thing was. Then he recalled his mother's words, her intentions, her bid to summon a god and grant him power at the expense of her own life.

The boy dreaded what his own memory was now telling him. He rose to his feet in a panic, approached the window and looked outside. There his sights settled upon the raging storm of pitch black matter that covered everything in the Sanctuary like a tsunami swallowing the earth. He glimpsed upon the human figure and the pitch black cocoon that were standing side by side half way between the heavens above and the earth below.

That figure, the god, Rognir, was gazing towards him through the corner of its eye as it ascended ever slowly into the raging, spiralling sky. Rapture connected all the dots in a flash, he knew exactly what had happened and he screamed in rage at the thought.

The boy clenched the wooden window ledge with all his might until it splintered under the pressure. He backed away. His palms did not hurt one whit despite what they had just done. His gaze shifted back towards the window ledge as he clenched shut the hands which had completely crushed it into pieces. Only now did he notice the aura of Ash that was enveloping his hands, his whole body even, that had already set itself to work.

The boy wanted to deny it, he did not wish to believe this could be real, but reality refused to yield. The truth he already knew was clear as day no matter what he chose to tell himself. Finally the boy faced the stormy heavens and let loose a scream so long and loud that it dried his throat and exhausted his lungs.

Rapture advanced, his newfound might shattered the wall between himself and the lake and then he tumbled into it without a trace of grace or control. He surfaced soon after and crawled his convulsing body up onto the shore. His hand still clenched tightly the body of the black trident, the weapon wielded by his mother, now his by default.

"Come back!" He cried in anger as he leapt into the forest. The boy searched for the god, he searched for his mother, yet he found neither. Everything from the seemingly normal morning of this day to this crushing moment played back through his mind over and over again like a never ending nightmare.

The stormy clouds in the sky subsided quickly and vanished to the four winds, they scattered without care for his feelings. Rapture realised that the god was leaving, he was not fool enough to think it was afraid of his anger. Rognir had done his job and taken his payment, that was all this was to that god.

All the remaining doubts in Rapture's heart then shattered like glass. The boy shouted once more into the heavens, this time his voice was laced with boundless fury. "Come back!" The power of Ash erupted from his flesh and cratered the lakeside under his feet with a catastrophic echo. The trees around him were unearthed and blown apart, the creatures that had come to probe as the storm faded away now scattered back into the depths of the forest for fear of facing the boy's wrath.

The boy exhausted his reserves in an instant, his body was not yet attuned to the power it had gained, he fell to his knees while panting for breath. The Ash bathing his form was originally white and pure but before long his despair coloured it pitch black. This was not a shiny metallic silver-black like Rognir had possessed either but a putrid dark the likes of which men instinctively feared.

"Come back...please," He wept and begged but no matter how much he despaired his feelings alone could not change anything. Now he had the power his mother said that he needed, the power that would allow him to live well in this harsh world. However the boy himself had never desired such power, nor was he willing to accept the price of it. He did not see this as a noble sacrifice, he was only sad that the only family he'd ever known had now been lost to him forever.