Episode 4: The Curse

•••Vergil•••

THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

~~~~~~~~~~~

I sat on a throne carved from the bones of the Alphas I had slaughtered.

Below me, the elders of the conquered packs knelt in the dirt, their hands bound in silver chains.

"Please, King Vergil," one of them pleaded shouting at the top of his lungs, his forehead pressed to the cold stone floor. "We have given you our gold. We have given you our lands and women. Spare us our children, please do not force them into your army."

I didn't even look down at him. I leaned my chin on my hand, bored by his tears.

It was an insult that they were even permitted in my presence. They were mere mortals, utterly incomparable to a demigod the son of the very moon goddess they bowed to.

By all rights, they should have been on their knees before me, grateful that I could find any use for their miserable existences."

"Your children belong to me now," I said, my voice echoing off the high stone walls. "Everything in this world belongs to me. If they fight well, they live. If they are weak, they die but you shouldn't mourn, to die for my sake is the greatest gift I can give to your pathetic existence."

"You are a monster!" a young warrior shouted, struggling against his guards. "The heavens will punish you for this! The gods are watching!"

I laughed. It was a loud, arrogant sound that silenced the entire room.

I stood up staring at the warrior, "Let them watch," I sneered, stepping down from the dais. "I have conquered the mortals and I have crushed the supernaturals. There is no god in the sky more powerful than the blood in my veins. If the heavens want to stop me, let them come down and try."

The words had barely left my mouth when the torches in the room flickered and died.

A suffocating silence fell over the castle as the air grew freezing cold, turning our breath into white mist.

Then, the stone ceiling above us melted away revealing the night sky as a blinding, silver moonlight poured into the room, so bright it burned the eyes of the guards.

They dropped to their knees, howling in agony as the divine pressure hit them.

From the center of the light, a woman stepped down into the bloody stone floor.

She wore a dress made of starlight, and her hair flowed around her like silver water.

My mother Selene.

The Moon Goddess.

"Vergil," she spoke, and her voice sounded like a thousand crashing oceans.

It vibrated inside my skull forcing me to take a step back.

I swallowed the sudden lump of fear in my throat and forced a cruel smile. "Mother, to what do I owe the honor? Have you come to admire my kingdom?"

"I have come to look at my greatest shame," she said, her beautiful face tight with sorrow and disgust. "I gave you life, Vergil. I gave you power beyond any creature on this earth so that you could protect the weak. Instead, you have built a throne out of their corpses."

"I did what a predator does," I argued, my voice tightening as I tried to stand tall against her divine aura. "I ruled. The weak exist to be conquered. Why should I feel guilty for being the strongest creature you ever created?"

"Strength without mercy is not royalty, Vergil. It is just butchery," she said softly. She looked around at the chained elders, her glowing eyes filled with pity. "You have broken the sacred balance. You have mocked the gods and you have declared yourself higher than the heavens."

"Because I am!" I shouted, my pride flaring. I pointed my claw at her. "Look at them! They worship you, and yet I am the one who controls their lives. Your prayers didn't save them from my blade. I am the king of this world, Mother. Not you."

The Moon Goddess closed her eyes, a single silver tear rolling down her cheek.

When she opened them, the sorrow was gone. Only cold, absolute judgment remained.

"Then you shall be a king of nothing," she said.

She raised her hand, and a shockwave of silver light blasted through the room.

I screamed as the light hit my chest, knocking me to my knees.

The pain was unlike anything I had ever felt, it felt like my soul was being ripped in half.

My black wings burned away into ash, and the magic inside me began to curdle and turn sour.

"What are you doing to me?!" I roared, clutching my chest, coughing up dark thick blood.

"I am giving you exactly what you built," Selene said, her voice echoing through the cosmos. "You love to be feared, Vergil? You shall be feared by all. You think you need no one? You shall have no one."

She stepped closer, her silver boots stopping inches from my trembling hands.

"From this night forward, you are cursed," she decreed. "You will not age. You will not die. You will watch your empire crumble into dust, and the centuries will wash your name away until you are nothing but a ghost story. You will possess absolute power, but it will bring you no joy. You shall have beautiful women lusting for you but unable to touch you. you will have sire no heirs because you will never be able to touch a women ever again."

"Just Kill me instead!" I begged, my voice cracking as the weight of eternity pressed down on my soul. "Mother, kill me!"

"Death is a mercy you do not deserve," she replied coldly. "You will live in total isolation. Worshipped, yet completely unloved. Feared, yet entirely alone."

"Forever?" I choked out, looking up at her through blurred vision.

The Moon Goddess looked down at me, a tiny flicker of motherly grief returning to her white eyes.

"​"Centuries from now you'll find a mate, and knowing you, your cruelty will kill her."

"No..." I muttered, shaking my head. "No, I would never—"

"You will," my mother said as her body began to dissolve back into pure moonlight. "Because you are a monster, my son and monsters always destroy the things that try to save them. Search for her, Vergil. Wait for her and pray that when you find her, you do not murder your only chance at salvation."

"How could you do this! I'm your son! your flesh and blood!" I shouted struggling to my feet, "You think this will break me! This is nothing! I'm a demi god, I do not need love, not from a mother and certainly not from a mate!"

"My beautiful boy." She whispered as she began to fade,

"Power and fear is all you wanted, now it is all you will ever have."