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He didn’t know what to think of everything that just happened, first, he had to watch Velrisa fade to ash right in front of him, after Ob’nockshi tried to make him pick between a young boy or Vel, then somehow another deity decided to crash the party. Most of what happened afterward felt like a blur until he found himself five minutes into the past, his friends none the wiser of the tragedy their warlock had witnessed.
Br’aad did a double and then triple check, watching the world around in shock. Velrisa was here and she was alive ! Had he not been in a life or death situation he probably would’ve cried tears of joy. However Br’aad was snapped out of his thoughts as he watched Hilltree take a running leap at the Beholder.
Time seemed to slow down as the goblin missed his attack and flew past, something distinctly different from last time. The blond Half-Elf narrowed his eyes and ran forward out of the metal armor’s sword range, abandoning whatever he was doing previously.
“Br’aad! What are you doing?” He heard Sylnan ask as his brother ran at the Beholder and started to wave his hands around wildly drawing it’s attention.
“Killing this Motherfucker!” He shouted back taking aim. He drew every ounce of his power and strength into the two blasts. He took a deep breath as he released the spell. The wild purple magic was brighter and stronger then Br’aad had ever seen, nearly knocking him over from the force.
The Eldritch Blasts tore through the Beholders' decaying body, continuing to travel until they hit the back of the cavern wall breaking off chunks of rock and shaking the room. Taxi whipped his head around to see Br’aad panting heavily purple sparks popping out of his hand.
“That thing may look dead but it’s not, trust me!” He shouted after the room stopped spinning. He pointed at the Beholder’s body that had fallen down and was now twitching with the energy used to kill it. Livelock was the only one to take heed of his words launching forward and pathetically pushing the body up the stairs. The rest however ignored his shouts with little more than a confused look. Instead, they focused their attacks on the animated piece of armor.
Br’aad’s heart sank a little but he was expecting this,and he couldn’t really blame the others for not knowing the tragedy that had followed last time. Filled with fear and worry for his friends' lives he started sprinting up the stairs as Sylnan finished off the floating armor set. Just as he reached the top of the stairs, he watched with horror as the beholder’s body started to move again. It turned and started to point one of its eyestalks at Velrisa.
“NO!” Br’aad shouted, tossing himself in the way of the monster's sight, trying to make himself as big as possible. The sudden shout drew the rest of the party’s attention, watching as the Beholder turned its sights on the warlock. The Half-elf knew what was going to follow but he didn’t know if he could cheat death another time. Like Ob’nockshi said, a life for a life, an eye for an eye.
Br’aad squared his shoulders and prepared himself for the inevitable. Despite the thought of imminent death, he found himself smiling. For once since the day he gained his warlock powers Br’aad was finally doing something right, and there was no way he could fuck this up.
“BR’AAD!” Sylnan ran at breakneck speed to save his little brother. The blond half-elf glanced at Sylnan and what the rouge saw almost made him stop in his tracks. Br’aad was smiling, tears rolled down his face as the black void like beam shot out at him.
Time seemed to slow down as he watched the beam rocket straight at his chest. The faint sound of dice rolling was heard as Br’aad closed his eyes. The beam struck him head-on sending him crumbling to his knees in pain. Time sped back up as the warlock’s strangled cry filled the cavern. Everything in him hurt, like being stabbed a million times over.
Black tendrils ran all along his chest and when he tried to touch it he saw that his hand was fading away to ash. Huh, he thought numbly.
Sylnan reached the top of the stairs and immediately flung a dagger into the beholder’s eyes. After he looked over at Br’aad who was quickly fading away into ash, “nonononONONONO!” He knelt down next to his brother.
“Hey Syl,” Br’aad tried to reach out to wipe the tears off his brother’s face but most of his arm had already started to turn to ash. “Don’t cry Sylnan, there’s nothing to cry about.” He gave Sylnan a small smile that couldn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Please no… I- I don’t think I can keep going without you.” Sylnan pulled what remained of Br’aad into a hug. “I can’t lose you too.” The rest of the party reached the top of the stairs before coming to a sudden stop.
“I’m not leaving Syl, I’ll always be here. Just not physically.” Br’aad leaned his head against his brother's shoulder, “I love you…”
“I love you too, Br’aad,” Sylnan whispered as the rest of Br’aad faded into ash. Watching the ash float to the ground something in him broke, his last family member was gone and he didn’t know what to do. He pounded his fist against the stone stairs as ugly sobs escaped his throat.
Taxi walked up to where Br’aad had been just mere moments ago, there was no way Br’aad was dead right? This had to be some kind of prank, any moment now he’ll pop back into existence and make a joke right? Taxi viciously tried to fight back tears, sure Br’aad was annoying and incredibly dumb at times but he didn’t deserve to die .
Velrisa couldn’t believe her eyes, something in her didn’t sit right. She glanced over to her uncle who nodded in confirmation that something was wrong. She walked over to Sylnan and tried to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder but he just shrugged it off not even offering her a glance.
Mountain couldn’t do much else but stare, he’d seen many people die in his long lifespan, many killed by his own hand, but it never made the loss of a friend easier. It was why he so adamantly avoided friendship in the first place, they always died in the end and Mountain always lived. He reached down to grab his flask and sat on the stairs taking a large swig from the bottle, trying to hide the few tears that started to spill down his cheeks.
They stayed that way for a while, as Sylnan’s sobs gave way to silence. Taxi had tried to ask many times if there was any way for Ander of Velrisa to bring him back. Every time the answer was no, not a single piece of him remained that they could use to bring him back. Those few hours were the quietest it’s been since they met.
“I… I think we need to get going.” His voice was raspy and hollow and it startled everyone. He had pushed himself off the floor, his face was a mess of dried mud and tear tracks. He made his way over to the dead Beholder and ripped his dagger out of it’s eye.
“Are you sure Sylnan?” Velrisa asked softly, walking up behind the half-elf.
“I just- I can’t… I don’t think I can handle this place any longer.” He sighed running a hand along his face.
“What are we going to do about…” Taxi asked he motioned vaguely at the pile. He didn’t want to say his name because then he would have to actually acknowledge that he was gone forever.
“Does anyone have a container? Or a bottle?” Sylnan asked, looking around the group. He would rather rot in hell for all eternity then leave his brother in this dank cavern.
“Here,” Mountain grunted, tossing an empty flask at Sylnan who managed to catch it with his fast reflexes. He gave the dwarf a tight smile in return and started trying to scrape the ash into the flask.
Sylnan quickly got to work scrapping the ash into the flask and once again the cavern fell into silence. Once he got as much as he could into the flask the half-elf stood and simply walked away, not looking anyone in the eyes.