As the darkness clears, Harmonia finds herself in a garden of black plants with red leaves. She's on a path of black bricks, seemingly in the courtyard of some sort of castle. The castle around her seems to be made of black bricks and rubies. Though, it's not Abaddon's castle. It's different. The crimson sky and red moon loom overhead, flocks of crows flying through the sky. The vibes are off. Harmonia's horns begins to ache again.
Harmonia groans, looking around. "Claire??" She asks, rubbing her horns to try and ease the pain.
The thorns prick her fingers as they're now mostly exposed. Her voice echos as something grumbles in the distance.
She gasps in pain and stops messing with them, starting to proceed slowly. Maybe the portal had only appeared for her?? Maybe Claire was safe at home... She takes out her phone to see if she can use it, but the screen only displays this image.
She sighs. Fuck. Time to head into the spooky castle smh... And so she does. Door's locked. She hears something skittering around the above her. She looks up.
There's a figure standing on the roof above where she's standing, pitch black skin that appears to be segmented into pieces with thin red lines that seem almost randomly placed. The skin appears rocky, hard, with thorns of obsidian coming out of it. It has long, dark hair and garnet horns that appear almost like Harmonia's, but longer, sharper, and without the roses. It has a long, black tail that's maybe around 6 feet long that ends in a tuft of bright red fur.
The figure looks to be maybe 5'10, 5'11. Somewhat thin, though muscular. The ends of its limbs appear to be coated in sharp, jagged rubies accompanied by steel claws that look almost identical to the blade of a scythe. It has four wings, all draconic and black, with portions being red. Its face looks familiar, the mouth curled in such a way that fills Harmonia with dread as the red eyes pierce right through her.
"Harmonia~" it speaks, in that all-too-familiar tone, although slightly distorted. "Our Prince has given me an offer that I simply cannot pass up!~"
It jumps down, landing behind Harmonia. Its back is covered in spiky rubies. It stands up straight, cracking its back and turning to look at Harmonia.
"Let's make this quick for us both, shall we?~"
Harmonia looks over the figure in genuine terror, trying to move back but only hitting the wall. "Make what quick?? What does Abaddon want you to do???" She quickly extends her claws, panic running through her veins.
"Those horns of yours, deary~ I'm putting your position to use~" Azzie's smile lenghtens as black, thorny vines shoot at Harmonia from the various plants in the garden.
She tries to slash at the vines with her claws. "I dont- WHAT ARE YOU DOING-" The vines snap as Harmonia's vision begins to go dark, only red outlines being seen, including Azriel. Azriel's form appears far more scribbly, like a rushed drawing. The rose stems from Harmonia's horns break out of their garnet encasing, extending into thorny vines and latching onto her face.
Azriel steps closer, "Come now, lamb~" His wings extend as he walks towards her.
She tries to stumble to the right, panicking. "N-no- GO AWAY-" Harmonia yells, tearing up from pain and fear. Her horns ache from the vines reaching down, the thorns digging in and scratching her face. Azriel steps closer, vines creeping up from the ground and wrapping around Harmonia's legs. Azriel's wings seem to glitch in Harmonia's vision, appearing to be scribbled over and then formed again, though now made from iron rods, hooks, and scissors.
The wings extend with a 20ft wingspan, the hooks extending out by chains and latching into Harmonia's wrists. In the exact places where she was nailed to the cross.
Harmonia screeches in pain, desperately trying to escape but knowing it was futile. It was happening again. The smell of orange juice and death comes to mind, tears streaming down her face. "PLEASE DONT DO THIS-"
The vines from her horns start to writhe and move, forming a perfect circle around the crown of her head, the thorns digging in.
"Look at you, Harmonia~ The perfect stigmata!~" Azriel laughs, dragging a claw across her chin.
Harmonia chokes out another sob, closing her eyes so she wouldnt have to see how fucked up her vision was. How fucked up this all was. "Burn in layer 9..." She gets out through her pained breaths. Azriel chuckles with a smile before reaching into Harmonia's chest, attempting to latch onto and remove her soul.
Fucking finally. Well, he can! Nothing... feels wrong. Just a bit warm and slimy, but what'd he expect? Getting it out would be as easy as a small yank. And so he tries to remove it from her body with a small yank :]
Hm.
That's...
Weird.
The soul didn't come out!
And...
Neither did his hand. His hand is gone. He lost his hand. It's gone. In it's place, is a spurting stump. Which spurts out a lot of thick, black tar. Which burns. And is beginning to crawl up his body. And it's getting warmer.
And warmer.
And WARMER.
His eyes widen as he stares at the tar. His gaze then meets Harmonia once again. "Wh.. What the ĥ̶͘e̴̓͘l̴̈́̾l̷̈͛d̵̓̎ḯ̶̓d̷́̓ ̷̒̈ỷ̵̋o̶͑̑u̵̎̒D̴̒̆Ö̵́̕!̷̈̽?̸͂̚!̵̒͝?̸͑̏"
The tar, rapidly spreading and digesting his entire body, climbs up his arm. He's starting to stare at a melting iron rod very, very quickly. The clumps of the digestive gunk that fall to the ground begin to climb up his leg now too :)
Now, as for Harm?
Her entire body feels like she's locked in an oven. She feels like she's being cooked alive. Her brain feels like it's seconds from turning into grey liquid versus the grey matter it should be.
Her horns, wolf ears and tail begin to melt. Quickly. And, out of her torso, the 5 scythe blades which were once Azriel's claws begin to be forced out. Painfully. The wound keeps getting healed and reopened, again and again and again. But, she's not restrained anymore! All of the vines, hooks, everything restraining her? Being melted away.
The bloodloss doesn't feel great though. Nor the fact she feels like she could eat 47 horses. Harmonia is in too much pain to even scream and collapses to the ground, writhing in pain.
Azriel screams in pain, Harmonia's vision distorting more as the parts of his form not being melted starts to glitch, trying to shift into one that radiates Impurity, although failing due to the immense pressure.
"W̴̅͂H̵̊͋A̵̾͐T̸͗̌ ̵̓̕I̵̍̍S̶̔̑ ̸͠͝T̴̂͝H̷́̉I̸͊͊Ṡ̶̍?̴̈̚?̴̈́̊?̴̈̓" His entire arm is fucking gone. His leg? Going the same way! Hell, even his other foot is too. And, it finally reaches his face. That doesn't feel good. Not at all. Azriel holds his head in pain, digging into his stony flesh. As the goop continues to eat way at him, he finally manages to revert into his normal form, radiating Impurity and combatting the goop. He huffs, coughing slightly, and adjusting his suit. He's shaking like a leaf, struggling to stand. He points his stub at Harmonia. "F̸́̆i̸̾̀l̸͗́t̷̽̓h̵̍̎y̴̽̈́ ̸̽́å̶͠n̵̊̚ĭ̸̇ṁ̸̽a̶̓̽l̸͑͌.̶̀͐" /He dissolves into mist and disperses. The goo falls onto the ground with a wet plap. It becomes normal gunk.
Harmonia, now hornless and without her wolf traits, is healed of all wounds, and her vision returns to normal! Like she never came here at all. Harmonia gets to her feet, looking around for a door as tears continue to run down her face. There's four doors in the courtyard and only one is open, the one she came through the darkness with. She heads back to that door.