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[Thugren]

Now, i want you to think aboutr your fathers flame.. .What does it do. What does he fuel it with. Remember everything about it, how he stood when he used it, the way his face was, the way the air tasted... FInd waht fueled that power and use it ."

[Armoured Priest]

He sat there, trying to remember, mostly from his childhood, as he also still concentrated on the flame. As much as he didn't want to, he would remember when his father used it on him, when he tried protecting Juliee with fear filled stubbornness. It ate away and destroyed at the smallest level, looking like it disintegrated by flames that were pitch black, but it wasn't hot.  The air he breathed in panic breathes of pain, felt cold and tasted bitter and sour, no smoke or the smell of heated air. Nothing would put it out, not rolling, not water, only if father willed it. His face, his face, it wasn't fury or plain anger, it was....like a calm disdain. .....What did father actually feel when he did it? For so long he remembered it as plain hate. But now, why does he see something different this time?

[Thugren]

Scorn

 

 

The word burns through your mind like a  a burning flame as you could almost hear his annoyance at the situation. but it wasn't scorn at you, or at any idea like weakness. it was scorn that he had to do this, that he had to push you like this. Like no amount of force he could use would teach you what was needed, and that his scorn burned him like it burned you. he knew his limits as a teacher, and was  substituting his flaws for waht he coudl teach, which was pain.


"find that spark Burias...FInd it and use it.."

Cain says calmly, watching the drachen closely

[Armoured Priest]

Oh, oh no, how often have I felt this same thing about myself? So so many times, Blake hills, almost getting Emily killed and Jessia mauled, almost failing stopping his actual blood sister from fighting Osa after just finding her, Fighting Cain on the coreus freighter so he wouldn't kill natasha, the carnival of carnage chaos, failing his trio of adopted sisters. The list kept growing the more he thought. Was he actually someone that can help or just a destroyer trying to wear another mask on top of the physical? That, like father, always resorted to putting things to the flame because it was what he knew he could do? Scorn, scorn, scorn for oneself. He knew that more intimately than he with the people he cared most. Now the greatest Scorn of all, knowing he was more like his father, the man he thought he hated most, than he would have ever admitted before. It was easy to focus on that feeling.

[Thugren]

As if something had awakened, burias felt something.. SOmething new within him. IT wasnt like THer flesheap.. Or the bear, or the chorus of voices .... IT was like that scorn, that self flagellation was given form, and from the base of his fingertip, the bright tip begins to grow dark.

 

"You get it.."

that voice says , his voice deep and sonorous, ringing in his mind like a hammer.

 

"Hone it..DOnt wallow in it or your goingto lose this feeling...Make the fire rise."

[Armoured Priest]

Burias did as the voice instructed, no longer wallowing in the feelings he held so long but poured it into the flame in front of him. He brought forth every time he felt that scorn, that self destroying hate, every time he mistake, every time he knew he could have done better, every time he failed someone he cared about. Others will feel this now. They will feel this.

[Thugren]

the fire grows along the needle,  your gloves leather growing tight as the heat generated becomes intense making cain flinch.

"thats it.... "
 

Cain says quietly, taking buriases hands and concentrating on the metal of the needle, forcing it to continue growingt as the flames eat it, his living metal defiantly rising to the challenge of the hungry flame.

"dont stop unil you memroize this feeling.... Understand oit... Master it."

[Armoured Priest]

Burias held on, concentrating, focusing, immersing himself in it. He had to master this, so many are counting on him to help them. To make a home here. To fail them, because of his own weakness, his own failings. That was added the pyre now as he continued. 

[Thugren]

i want you to write up an awakening post. I want burias to understand it, and have an epihany about waht that flame means. You decide its importance

[Armoured Priest]

"I'm sorry vater." Burias quietly. The flame, he was sure was born of self hate, flagellation, for making choices that while you absolutely hated, is what is seen as needed to do what was needed to be done. Or else just see everyone around you suffer in ways that were in your control but did not make the choice needed to prevent it. But you still live with that guilt, that scorn, that you made that choice and that you had to do it. Even if he didn't know or understand at the time, he forced his dad to take that action to force a lesson in the only way he knew how too. He was still a little kid, still making choices that hurts other people without him meaning to, their pain is his pain. He has to use it, not to prevent his pain but the pain of others, he will always deserve the pain. 

[Thugren]

insiude you, something changes. That fire of ignorance. That spark of flame is changing. The understanding of who you are and what the dragon endured has began to change you, and for a moment you see something.

 

 

YOu see the dragon, you see him sitting at papers and mumbling to himself.

 

 

He is beside himself. The people are sick and are runnng low on food.. Hes exhausted every avenue to till in the winter but food will not grow and.....You see it. He is staring at you... Not as a child, but a little nbit later, in your early teens he watches you for a long time before mubling to himself.

 

"If thats waht it takes..."

 

 

Soon, you can see the memories of battle, of the dragon in the thickest fights. it was always odd that he never shied away from the vanguard, but here you see why. This was his repentance. This was his way of repaying the blood he spilled. Yes, the dragon was monsterous, but that monster was born due to the needsw of people, and its growth protected thousands.

 

by the time you come back, cain is still holding your hands, the metal he holds... is charred and brittle and as he reassimilates it, you can see dark veins in his neck and the slight twitches of his body deasling with the after affects of his iron being used like a wick for the hungry flame.

 

"good job burias.."

he says with a smile, slumping a bit into a chair as Zozriel comes over, a concerned look on his face as he shakes his head.

 

"that was...something to see."

 

he injects the silencer with some deca can- A field supplement used by Ho siht forces that employ mutagen users, it deals with the sivckness tht can come from overusing power, but unlike normally when the user perks up, the silencer seemed to be worsening.

 

"This is.....Not good at all."

[Armoured Priest]

Giving a sniffle from under his gasmask, Burias looks over Cain and sees what Zozriel means. Burias tries to check him over to make sure it was sepsis and not the black flame entering his veins first. "He's going to need help at this rate." The Drachen said, tone flat and quiet. Someone else getting hurt because of him. "There's a force we're with just outside the City, Colonel Aberga over seeing them. Can you take Cain in the car to them? They should have the supplies and people to help."

[Thugren]

"he wont make it that far...He needs to have his sytem flushed and.."

as zozriel protests, cain grips buriases foreearm and smiles.

 

"Your doign what you do and your blaming yourself..This is just a natural by product of waht i did..... Its something Purifiers do for other users.. Its called wicking."

he sits up a bit as his suit flushes, showing his vitals improving as the silencer sits up fully.

"Im gonna be carrying those flames around for a bit....So i should be careful ."

 

[Armoured Priest]

"You saw, you know exactly why I'm doing this." Burias told him. "This isn't blaming myself, I need to walk in his steps to understand the flame, you can barely sit up." He pointed out. Burias pointed back to the building that everyone kept pointing out belong to the sorcerors responsible for everything here. "I can clear it out, I know I can. For everyone's benefit. Please, just, sit this one out." The Drachen said to him, for once his tone stern and not wanting an argument on this.

[Thugren]

i mean i cant even stand and i feel like my nervous system is burnt out."

zozriel cocks his head at cains words and huffs.

"if that was the case youd be dead..."

Cain looks at the varghen and huffs annoyedly.

"shutup.... Now...Yes bur..YOu need to run point on this. I cant stand ..I cant even move...SO i want you to go back, pick a few and go handle this...Your the only one who can now."

 

he squeezes buriases forearm gently, his face a mask of ache and a tired smile.

"you can do this, i know you can."

[Armoured Priest]

Burias put a hand over Cain's and squeezed back. "Thank you." He said quietly before gently taking his hand off his forearm. With that, the Drachen started heading back to the city and letting Zozriel take over watching Cain. 'I'll understand vater, I'll finally understand.' He thought to himself, holding back the tears and thankful for the drachen skull gasmask. Blackflame will appear once again on US soil and it won't be Adolfo's.

[Thugren]

iit takes a while, but soon enough zozriel gets cain brought back to the camp.

YOu are left alone, to gather who youd like how youd like.

How would you like to proceed?

[Armoured Priest]

Now on his own for once in a long time, Burias felt determined to keep it so. Almost everyone here was here because of his own mistakes, from Star and the rest of Ackerman's company going through everything since Blake Hills, to Cain having to suffer just for Burias to finally learn the lessons his father had learned a long time ago and tried to teach him unsuccessfully for years. His father showed the way, become the monster to protect them. The young Drachen just walked forward, intent on driving a warpath of his father's flame directly into the complex and reduce all the threats to devoured nothingness.

[Thugren]

(Sara Bausch, Faramound Roth, Klaudia Ebner, Dellinger Klemens, varian)

 

 

 

 

as you are going, and the base comes into view, you can see something .

at the outskirts of the city, sits a squad of 5 soldgiers

each one was in drachen blut colors, but one...


It was farmound, he was in the mech that you and cain had stole. Hard wired in with the company logo emblazed on the front

the others are the survivors of Blake hills and varian, all snap to attention as you get close, but its faramound who speaks up first.

"Now you werent gonna go deal with family business' without us, right boss?"

 

Sarah lets a laugh out through her rebreather as she watches him.

"Cain told us waht happened. And we knew how you think..... If your gonna do this. Well walk through the burn with you sprout."


Dellinger crouches a bit, his two tonfa igniting briefly with a sticky substance at the end.

"We weaponized the stuff quick..... This way were all going in..And Faramound has a pack of the shit if things get to a trench fight.....No way in hell im missing this one."




Varian smirks , and it can be seen that he was wearing his fathers original uniform from when he was in the company.

"Well fuck, if im gonna kill my father today and a bunch of demonic hill billies i think i m ay as well do it with yall."

[Armoured Priest]

"Of course he would." Burias said to himself, a little frustrated sigh from a smile under the gasmask. "I don't think I could stop all of you even if wanted to in the first place." The Drachen admitted as he walked into the group with them. "I'm sorry-...what am I talking about, you all already know how much guilt I still feel about what happened back then. It's really good to see all of you again, and more that you still want to join me. Thank you, all of you." He told them, hugging them each in turn, even the mech Faramound was in, determined to give the lizard varghen medic his too. "Now, we have trash to burn and a home to claim, let's go!"