[Jibril]
Jibril snatches up the flask and twists the metal cap onto it and she lays her head into his chest and throws her tail over him and slowly drifts off to sleep. Kor'da still fighting sleep, thinks about Jibril: "Good night" and Jibril is out cold, her head bobs and collapses on him. Kor'da just sits there lamenting what possible future they could have. Jibril's Marker rolls out of her pocket with the hole in her tunic exposing part of her flank. It glows and Kor'da sighs when he sees it.
Kor'da reaches down to it and he stares into the Marker's gem as the fluid inside swishes and glows in his hand. Jibril doesn't move, nor does the boys when the world turns greyscale. Kor'da rubs his eyes as the world around him is greyed out that it blurs his eyes. When Kane suddenly appears sitting on a crate lingering over them, he smiles to Kor'da.
"It seems you've gotten your desire, Slaven Claw" Kane answered, smiling warmly.
Kor'da: "I told you what you wanted to know"
"Yes. Yes, you did" Kane says nodding to Kor'da, "You wanted a second chance, she is your second chance."
Kor'da: "Does she truly love me? Or is this some kind of spell she's under?"
"Love is harder to control than you think. Lust is a different matter" Kane explains to him, "Lust disguises itself as love when really, it is a baser instinct. For her to fall for you is about as real as it can be, only time can tell if she's really worth it"
Kor'da: "I want to make a new deal"
This piqued Kane's interest, he leans forward with his dimmed eyes now glowing.
"Oh? Another deal?" Kane grins, "How delicious"
Kor'da: "You claim to be a God, but your actions lead me to believe you are an Infernal"
"Subjective, Kor'da" Kane answers plainly, "Others will tell you am just as good as any other God. Now what is this new desire?"
Kor'da looks down to Jibril and strokes her head and a tear runs down his face and turns to his boys.
Kor'da: "What must i give to protect them?"
"A curious request" Kane answers, tilting his head. "Do you desire they live peacefully without harm? To live forever without pain or suffering? Or do you desire the power to control their fate?"
Kor'da, crying: "I don't know what i'll do if i ever lost them"
Kane inhales deeply as the red faint trial of Blood Essence leaves Kor'da and he suck it in, feeding on the painful emotion of grief and suffering. Kane's eye vibrate as the essence travels into his mouth then closes when Kor'da stares at him. Kane covers his mouth and grins at Kor'da, licking his lips.
"Your emotions are very tasty, sweet words shared for a loved one" Kane coos, "You have a beautiful new bride soon to bear you five newborn young, two healthy young boys so youthful and at the tender age of one. Your wife aims to rescue your daughter, you know"
Kor'da is stunned.
"Yes, but she doesn't know" Kane answers.
Kor'da: "She can't know"
"I know" Kane says stating matter factly, "But she will find out"
Kor'da: "But ... she'll be killed"
"All the more reason to find this deal of your very interesting" Kane answers, weighing his hands in the air. "On one hand, you grant her a God's protection but her demise will come swiftly if she is discovers the truth. On the other hand, preventing her from succeeding will bring a wedge to your relationship. She made a promise to you, and for that matter, I will hold her accountable for that promise."
Kor'da: "Please, your holiness, I can't lose her"
"Shhhhhh" Kane says with a finger to his lips, "I know. I know. She cannot know, to break a promise is death, to be Marked forever. Such foolish creatures making promises that cannot be kept, why there's honor to those words."
Kor'da, sniffles: "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do"
The lizardman weeps as his mind wraps around his future family. Kane sits on the flatbed of the wagon before Kor'da.
"It isn't easy being a father" Kane states with a lamenting stare, eyes dimming.
Kor'da looks up to Kane, tears running down his snout.
"A father is asked to provide, to care, to be there when no one else will, to become the pillar of strength for his family, to be the provider, to be the one that has to slave away at a job he hates, tolerate the shit tossed in his face every day for the rest of his miserable life." Kane removes the endless flask from Jibril's hand and takes a swig of it. "Nothing we do as parents will ever be enough for them. We can try in vain but enough is never enough. Just like New Canaan"
"Getting there is not the hard part ... it's letting go"
Kor'da drops his head down and thinks: "What must i do, Umbra?"
Kane stares Kor'da in the face: "Offer yourself to me. Be a talon of my vengeance, let your claws taste the blood of humans once more. Become an instrument of my will, all debts ... will be paid and full"
Kor'da: "If it means they will not suffer for my sins, I accept"
"Excellent"
Kane rams his hand into Kor'da chest, Kor'da looks down at the hole in his chest where Kane's hand pierces through. Kor'da gasps hards as he feels Kane's fingers wrapped around his heart. Kane grins mischievously at Kor'da with his eyes burning into Kor'da's with the deep void of his pupils sucking out Life Essence and trial into Kane's eyes and mouth as the white essence leaves Kor'da. Kane's arm bleed oily shadows and submerge Kor'da in a cocoon of slither threads of flesh and black blood.
"All good things must come to an end. One life ends, another begins" Kane shifts his eyes to Jibril: "You should be proud of him"
Jibril's eyes are wide open, shimmering as she's consciously aware of what just transpired but unable move to stop it. Kane stares at Jibril.
"For all his talk of redemption, he will serve a greater purpose than a mere mouth to feed" Kane rubs the moving cocoon expectantly, "Everyone has to pay a price to live in paradise and mine happens to be flesh and blood. Oh, don't be upset. I'm doing you both a favor"
The cocoon rests and it hardens into a nice rock that rests on the ground. Jibril's eyes focus on the cocoon.
"Live. Die. Reborn Anew. Reincarnation is a beautiful thing, my dear" Kane chuckled, "Soon your husband will be impervious to anything, as for you and the children, you'll find your lives will be more enjoyable without a care in the world. His sacrifice will not be in vain, this i swear. But his devotion to me will be his first and last thought."
The cocoon cracks and Kor'da reaches out of the seams and he is no longer the same lizardman as he once was. Standing 9 feet tall, his tinted green scale have been replaced with metallic red scale, the arms, legs and newly plantigrade feet are bulkier and heavier, his once lizardman face has changed to a shorter snout with horns sprouting from his forehead and curving back, his claws are longer and the muscles within them are tougher and tightly wound. Behind Kor'da is a large prehensile tail with spike protruding behind him and up his spinal column, he looks to Kane with the same red glowing eyes as him.
"Beautiful transformation, brother" Kane says, he begins to peel off his human skin to reveal a death like version of bone plates that mimicked the shape of a human face, the rest of Kane's body mirrors Kor'da's with the exception of his two swinging cocks and two pairs of balls. Kane retract his gonads into his pelvis as the skin on his face shifts and moves to reveal that his scarlet scales underneath them and the bone plates that layer over them up and down the outside of his body. Kane's cocks retract into a sheath that bulges before Jibril. While Kor'da stands as upright as Kane, Kane's unique quill like hair stands outside their appearance as it replaces his horns which separate into individual strands, the quills raise and jut out behind him as he enjoys the freedom of movement.
"I relish the day when the whole world becomes just like us" Kane looks to Kor'da, "Protect them until the day you die, brother"
Kor'da takes a knee and bows before Kane: "Yes, Umbra"
Kane looks back to Jibril: "Enjoy your new family"
With a snap of his fingers, Kane vanishes and the cocoon as well.