Pain. Agony. Suffering.
 
Marcus’ entire world has become pure and utter torture. It’s not physical pain either, but a pain of the soul. As though his very essence, the truth of his being… is on fire. There’s no malady of the body to be cured. His suffering cannot be healed or bandaged. His anguish cannot be assuaged by a simple word of comfort whispered in his ear.
 
He thinks he might hear screaming in the distance. His? Others? Truthfully, he could not say. The last thing he remembered was laying down on a slab of metal for Camilla. Then, she began the procedure. And from there… it hurt. It hurt quite a lot. And it continued to hurt even now. He felt like he was fit to burst. Like he was going to fucking explode.
 
And yet… and yet, the longer it goes on, the clearer Marcus’ thoughts become. Until finally, he opens his eyes. Except it’s not really his eyes. He’s not in the real world. He’s awoken in a space that he instinctively knows is within himself. He stands, for lack of a better word, within his own soul. Just as he’s getting his bearings, just as he’s gathering himself and beginning to look around, a voice cuts in that is not his own.
 
“What have you done, whelp?”
 
Whipping around, Marcus comes face to face with an orc woman. Not Roka-Ra, he almost immediately recognizes. And yet, she’s clad in all black armor of a similar variety to Roka-Ra’s. She stands tall, her head held high, looking at him with accusation in her beady eyes, but also… curiosity. In that moment, Marcus’ breath hitches as he comes to a realization.
 
“M-Mother?”
 
Looking down at herself, the orc scoffs.
 
“Not as much as you would prefer. Not as little as I would.”
 
That only serves to confuse Marcus, though thankfully she’s forthcoming.
 
“I am not so much your mother… as I am the Dark Lord. She was just my last incarnation… before you.”
 
Marcus’ eyes widen at that. The Dark Lord. He’s speaking… to the Dark Lord. But also… this is his mother, or at least her appearance. This is Gral-Ra, the woman who gave her life for him. As that thought hits him, Marcus’ jaw clenches and he stands tall and firm. This is his soul. He won’t be jerked around, not here.
 
“You asked what I’m doing? I’m finishing what my mother, your last… host started. I’m ending this.”
 
The Dark Lord stares at him with Gral-Ra’s face for a moment, before her eyes begin to blaze with darkness. Immediately, Marcus feels a pressure in his chest. The burning sensation, the continual agony he’d been experiencing before… it hasn’t gone away. It’s still there, and he could be returned to it at any moment. He realizes then that the Dark Lord has pulled him away from that pain. Dulled it, maybe.
 
“Is that so, whelp? And who are you to end a cycle that has stood the test of time for a thousand years?”
 
Marcus supposes he should be cowed. That pain… it’s the worst pain he’s ever experienced in his entire life. There’s a lot he will do to not be forced to return to it. And yet… this is not one of those things. He will not back down. Not here.
 
“I’m the Dark Lord. And I’m the Destined Hero.”

The Dark Lord hisses, Gral-Ra’s lips pulling back in anger at that.
 
“You know not what you speak of, whelp! You are ONLY the Dark Lord! The Destined Hero languishes inside of you, inactive!”
 
The pressure redoubles and Marcus grunts, feeling as though he’s forced to take a metaphysical step back. And yet, the moment that it happens, he resolves to not let it be a ‘step’ more than that. He firms up his ‘posture’ and stands his ground, gritting his teeth as he clenches his hands into fists at his sides.
 
“Not for much longer. Camilla works to change that right now. She’s going to activate the Destined Hero Job. I’ll become both in truth and not just by technicality. The cycle WILL end.”
 
He’s half-expecting the Dark Lord to rage at him. Maybe even return him to the sea of unending agony he was drowning in before. He tenses up in anticipation… but it doesn’t happen. Instead, the Dark Lord flickers.
 
“Camilla…”
 
Marcus blinks at the look of… remembrance that spreads across Gral-Ra’s face.
 
“You remember her then?”
 
The Dark Lord scoffs at him.
 
“How can I not? She is there across… many of my incarnations. All of the ones who escape the Church, or who are Awakened outside of the Church’s grasp. She always turns up… like a bad copper. I can’t seem to escape her.”
 
And yet, despite the griping, the Dark Lord’s tone is almost fond. It might be Marcus’ imagination, but he’s pretty sure there’s even a hint of a smile on his mother’s lips. Seizing on that, Marcus takes a step forward, causing the Dark Lord to shoot him a sharp glance.
 
“Well she’s out there now. She’s working on activating the Destined Hero Job within me. When she succeeds… we will have ended the cycle once and for all.”
 
Scowling furiously, the Dark Lord shakes her head.
 
“End the cycle? Hah! Don’t make me laugh. You’re far more likely to die. No one was meant to have two of us inside of them at a time. Let alone me and my eternal foe. The only reason you’ve survived as long as you had was because I suppressed the Destined Hero. I’m the one who kept the Hero inactive, I’m the one who kept you alive. And here you are trying to undue all of my hard work. Do you understand, whelp? If you do not cease this foolishness, you will DIE.”
 
Maybe she’s right. But Marcus refuses to give up.
 
“Not if you help me!”
 
The Dark Lord jolts, eyes widening at his request.
 
“And… not if we succeed in what we’re trying to do, what Camilla is hoping to accomplish. You say that two Jobs cannot exist inside of me at the same time. Fine! We’re not trying to have two Jobs active inside of me… at least not permanently. The goal… the goal is to combine you and the Destined Hero into one. One Job. One Soul. That’s how it should work, right?”
 
His mother’s brow furrows as the inhuman entity wearing her face considers his words.
 
“You would have me join with my great foe? You would have me enter into a pact with the Hero?”
 
Marcus finds himself shaking his head, even though that’s almost exactly what he wants. But the key word there is ‘almost’.
 
“No more pacts. No more deals. No more schemes. Just… coexistence. My parents died for this. I intend to finish what they started… even if I have to go through you to do it.”
 
Maybe that’s a little bit too confrontational. But he’s really not sure how much time he has. Does he just need to keep talking to the Dark Lord until Camilla succeeds? Or is the Dark Lord doing something that’s stopping the Baroness from finishing her work and Marcus needs to find a way to intercede? Either way, he’s not the kind of guy to just stand there and wait. He’s a man of action if nothing else.
 
Far from looking enraged by his defiance… the Dark Lord just looks amused.
 
“Oh you think I’m the problem here. Cute. Let’s see what the other side thinks, shall we?”
 
His mother’s hand comes up and despite wearing black plated gauntlets, she snaps her fingers. In an instant someone else appears in Marcus’ soul space. Almost immediately, Marcus catches on. The newcomer appears before them as a young human man with black hair and blue eyes… just like Marcus’ own. Whipping his head back and forth, the inhuman entity in human skin finally lands his gaze on Marcus and the Dark Lord… and narrows those blue eyes into icy slits.
 
“You’re the Destined Hero.”
 
The Destined Hero’s hand goes down to his belt to grab for a pommel that isn’t there. He’s unarmed, and has no sword to brandish at them both. It’s clear that this makes him deeply uncomfortable. This in turn makes the Dark Lord all too amused.
 
“Why don’t you try to use your words for once, hm? The whelp wants us to be friends now. Or maybe more. Mm, yes… definitely more.”
 
Marcus flushes. Yes, the Dark Lord is flirting with the Destined Hero using his mother’s face, while the Destined Hero wears his father’s face. In Marcus’ soul space. Just… great.
 
Caleb’s face scrunches up as the Destined Hero wrinkles his nose.
 
“You’re the one who talks, Dark Lord. I’m the one who shuts you up.”
 
A laugh explodes from the Dark Lord’s lips, and Marcus tries not to get too hung up on hearing what his mother’s laugh would have sounded like.
 
“Yes, you certainly shut me up often enough the last time around, didn’t you? Our last iterations had just as many battles as all the ones before them… just in the bedroom instead of on a proper battlefield.”
 
Yep, more flirting. Good Light, this was not what Marcus expected to deal with when he agreed to this procedure. Huffing, the Destined Hero just shakes his head.
 
“My last iteration was… unique. And where did it get him? He forgot his purpose. No… he ignored his purpose. And we still both died, in the end.”
 
Marcus can’t keep quiet then. He steps in, speaking up.
 
“But not for nothing. My parents did not die for nothing.”
 
The Destined Hero looks at him with his father’s eyes and his father’s face… and doesn’t seem to even recognize him.
 
“And who are you supposed to be exactly?”
 
If Marcus needed any further confirmation that he’d never actually been the Destined Hero, he supposed he had it now. Despite housing both Jobs inside of himself all this time, the Dark Lord had immediately recognized him as her current ‘iteration’, while the Destined Hero didn’t recognize him at all.
 
“He’s us, of course. The culmination of our last iterations’ coupling. They conceived a boy… and then died, passing on the two of us to the one of him.”
 
The Destined Hero gawks at that for a moment, before whipping his head to the Dark Lord.
 
“But that’s not possible. He’d be dead if-!”
 
“Yes, well… obviously I shut you down to keep that from happening.”
 
“You what?!”
 
“Sorry, would you have preferred I let our latest iteration explode? I suppose you might have.”
 
“Of course not! Who do you take me for? You?!”
 
Marcus was developing a headache. And that was beyond the dull agony his soul was still experiencing in the background. He didn’t know if this was just his mind somehow processing something it wasn’t supposed to process, or if the two Jobs were really this… juvenile in how acrimonious they were towards one another. But one thing was for sure… they didn’t have an infinite amount of time.
 
“Enough!”
 
Both the Dark Lord and the Destined Hero turn to him. Marcus stands his ground.
 
“You might not want to hear it, but the doctrine that birthed the two of you… it’s wrong. The Dark Lord versus Destined Hero doctrine is horrible and never should have existed! The suffering it has caused should never have happened! My parents wanted to end it… and so do I! This… this is our one chance. And I’m not going to let either of you stand in my way!”
 
There’s a beat of silence at that, as they both peer at him. Then, the Dark Lord looks to the Destined Hero expectantly. But the Destined Hero just begins to smile.
 
“Mm. I suppose you are one of mine. I can see it now.”
 
This surprises Marcus, but not nearly as much as it surprises the Dark Lord, who audibly sputters.
 
“W-What?! Not going to give the whelp a smacking for daring to talk about working together?!”
 
Looking at her curiously, the Destined Hero tilts Caleb’s head to the side.
 
“I didn’t stop this iteration from shacking up with your last, did I?”
 
The Dark Lord’s eyes narrow, and so do Marcus’, albeit for different reasons. Was… was the Destined Hero the one flirting now?!
 
“You… you have been my hunter for a thousand years. And you think that can just be set aside?”
 
The Destined Hero steps up to the Dark Lord, and is suddenly caressing a cheek. Marcus isn’t sure he likes where this is going.
 
“I think we already did set it aside, darling. We had a child together, didn’t we?”
 
The Dark Lord’s eyes dart to Marcus, who stands there frozen in a new kind of horror at what he’s being forced to witness within the depths of his own soul.
 
“You-!”
 
But before she can speak, the Destined Hero leans in… and steals a kiss. It’s nothing too filthy or depraved to be fair. In fact, it’s perhaps one of the most chaste, lightest kisses that Marcus has ever borne witness to. It’s over as quickly as it begins, leaving the Destined Hero to pull back with a smile and the Dark Lord to look at him stunned.
 
And yet… that’s all that’s needed. The two of them begin to glow, and then Marcus’ whole soul space is glowing. The dulled agony from before comes rushing back as whatever the Dark Lord was doing to hold it at bay comes to a swift end. However, just as Marcus begins to white-out from the renewed pain… it starts to ebb away.
 
He feels it then, as he begins to come back to awareness, as he starts to wake to the actual real world once more. Deep within his soul, the Destined Hero Job has been activated. And as he becomes conscious, he feels it slotting into his very being right alongside the Dark Lord Job. And then… he feels them become one, combining just as he’s becoming cognizant again.
 
Instead of being the Dark Lord or the Destined Hero, or even both… Marcus has a new Job. A single Job. He knows it to be his just as much as he knew that day in the Chapel that he was without a doubt the Dark Lord. But he’s not the Dark Lord anymore. He’s not the Destined Hero either.
 
He is, with utmost certainty, the Destined Lord now. A coexistence of the two Jobs. A fusion if you will. One Job. One Soul. No exploding necessary.
 
Letting out a shaky breath, Marcus rises from the slab of metal he’d been laid out on, a wide smile spreading across his face despite the blood and sweat he’s covered in. He’s done it. They’ve done it. The culmination of his parents’ work, of Camilla’s work. And the end of a cycle that has lasted a thousand years.
 
Of course, just as he’s feeling satisfaction, Marcus is alerted to the sounds of muffled struggling. Looking over, it’s to find that his entire party is restrained to the far wall of the laboratory by thick, thorny vines. Roka-Ra cannot break free no matter how much rage and power she brings to bear. Erised can’t slip free, no matter how slippery the lithe demoness tries to prove herself to be. And Angelina can’t even speak, the Light unable to answer her call with her fingers individually restrained and her mouth violently gagged.
 
For the briefest of moments, Marcus fears they’ve been betrayed as he turns his gaze to Camilla, the Vampire standing nearby looking quite sinister. And then the moment passes and the Baroness of Thornswood offers him a dry look.
 
“Your lovers truly care for you, Marcus. Each of them could bear your screams no longer than a few minutes before they tried and failed to stop me from continuing the procedure… in spite of me explaining in quite strong terms that stopping the procedure at any point would guarantee your demise.”
 
… Yeah, that sounded about right. Marcus lets out a sheepish little laugh and rubs the back of his head.
 
“Sorry about that… but hey, it worked… so could you maybe let them down now?”
 
Camilla’s eyes widen and brighten with curiosity and excitement at the same time. It’s obvious that the Vampire wants to interrogate him, to question him. And yet… to her credit, she doesn’t say a word, instead clicking her tongue and waving a hand at the far wall. Within a second, the three women bound there are all released, and they quickly rush over to hug him. Even Roka-Ra wraps her arms around him, Angelina, and Erised after the first two have clung to him for dear life.
 
As Marcus hugs them all back, he makes eye contact with Camilla and wryly thinks to himself that that Vampire Hunter and his cohort really didn’t know what they were messing with…

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