☨The Nightmare☨

Hypnosyne
_{The Dark Requiem; Ashes of a Sleeping God}

She came to life in an instant, her entry into the world of gods was a burst of dark flame. "Gennithike!" Those were the first words she would hear, 'She is born.'
From the secret love of a Titaness and a god, Hypnosyne was brought forth as a deity of the grey. She held dominion over life and death, light and dark, memory and things forgotten. Her grandmother was the Living Night, her mother Keeper of Time.
Hypnosyne grew up in relative peace living in Tartarus, knowing her father's gentle, warm embrace and her mother's soft songs that would float through her mind and bring her comfort.
It was not until she was strong enough, and had come into her powers as a goddess that she would tread upon the earth, and exist among mankind that she would see pain, strife, war, and hunger.
Moved by their plights, Hypnosyne wanted to give the people a respite from the pain of their day to day lives, so she found her calling to godhood as a weaver of dreams. She sent the people dreams of family, laughter, kindness, inspiration- even luck, and wrapped their memories of loved ones up like gifts to be unwrapped while they slept.
Night after night, she sat by the river Lethe and fished out things long forgotten to deliver back to the people whom they once belonged.
One night, as she walked among the people of Etheirys, she came across a young man who looked not much older than twenty. While the world around him was sleeping and indulging in the dreams she gave them, he stared blankly to the stars and the heavens past them. It wasn't until she got close that she could see he was crying.
Touched by his sadness and wanting to comfort him, Hypnosyne shape-shifted into a small black cat and wound herself around his legs. He petted her fur and continued to cry. "I just miss her, but these dreams won't leave me be. I can't sleep. All I see is her face." he said to no one, a soft sob escaping him.
That washed over her like glacier water. This man could not sleep and it was her fault. She felt a weight in her chest that she'd never known before. She did the only thing she thought she could to help- she stayed with him. She continued to rub and scent-mark him, but she also marked him as hers. She did not know why, but she suddenly felt very protective of this mortal man.
He eventually fell asleep, and Hypnosyne gave him no dreams that night. She sung to him the soft lullaby of her mother and gave him full rest, and a quiet mind.
From that day forward, she watched him as he worked in fields, while he did the caretaking of animals... she found herself infatuated with the Etheiryan man. She'd come as the same cat, and spend time near him. She learned his name; Samael. She watched him study animals as his friends discovered more and more creations with aether.
One particular day, Hypnosyne decided she wanted to finally speak to him, as herself. She mustered all her courage and went to see him in the city where he lived that she'd come to know as Amaurot. She did her best to blend in as a normal person, and set off to find him.Rounding a corner, Samael looking for his usually ever-present feline companion wasn't paying attention and walked head first into a woman, knocking them both to the ground. He apologized profusely, trying to help her to her feet only for his hand to slip and her to fall back to the ground making a soft huff as the air is knocked out of her once more.
He attempted again, this time getting the woman to her feet before meeting a pair of bright, blush- pink eyes set in a delicate face.
He honest-to-gods blushed, dropping his gaze to the ground and began to stutter out yet another apology before he felt soft, warm hands on his cheeks as she drew his eyes back to hers. "I'm Samael", he said in a breathy tone, his heart pounding at this stranger's intimate touch.Hypnosyne's mind raced. She did not want to give him her name, because if he had it, he could summon her any time, any place. Her parents warned her never to give that power to anyone, especially a mortal. She, in her infinite wisdom and inability to be deceptive, blurted out "I'm Syne." (sigh-nee)
She cursed herself mentally for her lack of creativity, but he accepted it.
"That's a different name. I like it." he said, gently removing her hands from his face, the accident that got them here all but forgotten.And, so it goes, the mortal and the goddess fell in love. She never revealed her true self to him, and he never cared to ask. He found comfort in her presence during the day, and at night when she would return as his cherished feline companion.All would not stay well.
Something was brewing within the Convocation, the ruling class of Amaurot. Something that would change everything.Hypnosyne woke to find herself unable to leave Tartarus, curious she went to her father on Lemnos who then told her to see Hades.
It was there that she learned under order of Zeus, no gods were allowed to descend to any of the worlds, as mankind had begun corrupting aether, attempting to circumvent natural order.
It was this very day that Hypnosyne was given a scythe, and forced to train. Her once soft and delicate body became a hardened, honed war machine. She trained for hundreds of years for physical and magical combat, while her heart shattered daily when she could not see Samael. She could hear him, because he was still marked. Hypnosyne knew his heart was even more splintered now than it was when he'd lost his first love.All of the torment, the heartache, the training, and the fighting lead to Hypnosyne being given her new title: The Final Fate, Guardian of the Black Gate and the Unrealm, where aether itself was created.
She now held power above all of the gods' heads, just shy of titaness herself. She indulged herself one last time, and went to find Samael, to tell him everything, and to give him the painful good-bye he deserved, and to know she would always love him.
...........................................Samael watched in horror at the summoning of the primal god Zodiark that his people had created with the deaths of half of all. This was to be their savior, but all Samel could feel was dread.
Suddenly, a burst of bright light and a new primal was born and so the two went to war, less a battle of brute strength and more a test of wills. The primal of light, Hydaelyn, was no match for the might of Zodiark, the deity of the dark.Hypnosyne set foot on Etheirys just in time to see the two corruptions of aether fighting in the distance as a crowd, half as dense as it should have been, pushed by her. This must have been why she'd been locked away!
She took to the streets using her mark as a beacon to find her Samael, pushing through the crowd. She inched closer and closer to him, finally reaching out to him, grasping his cloak just in time for... Silence.Samael stood and watched the two great powers clash and test their strengths of will, frozen at the horror and macabre beauty of the scene. He wanted to run but his feet would not move, until he felt a firm tug of his cloak. He turned to see a flash of blush pink eyes, and then... Silence.For Hypnosyne it was a silence so deafening she felt as though she could hear everything and nothing all at once. She came to in the place between existence, a place that should not exist. In fact, it hadn't existed before. She looked down and saw Etheriys as a cooling, red orb. She then saw Thirteen perfect copies of the world she once knew.
She also realized she could no longer feel her mark, or Samael at all.
Broken hearted at having not been able to see her love, or save him, she materialized her scythe and wandered slowly in the direction of the Black Gate where she would now reside, the last guardian to the Unrealm.
.................................
Some five thousand years would pass before they learned of it, and of her existence. The Ascians sent their own warriors, two of the seven known as the Harbingers of Creation. The one known as Wrath came with his brother, Chaos and challenged the goddess. They fought for 88 days, she first dispatched of Chaos, sending his essence back to the aetherial sea. He came and challenged her with magick where she held dominion, it was foolish, but then no one knew she existed anymore.
Her fight with Wrath, however, was a test of blades, a test of wills, and a test of skill. He fought with desperation, passion, strength, and determination.
(TW: Body Horror/Violence)
Hypnosyne, exhausted from their ceaseless battle, missed a crucial parry that cost her dearly. Wrath landed a blow that slit her from navel to sternum, thankfully not deep enough to spill her contents, but enough to bring her to her knees.
As he began circling her, Hypnosyne mustered all of her strength and will power, and imbued her scythe with all of the aether that she could wield to try and temper his. She swung up from where she knelt with all of her strength taking him by surprise. Her blade bit in to him just below his navel and slid up under his ribs, taking his heart. Hypnosyne removed her battle helm and left it on the icy ground, finally able to breathe.Wanting the satisfaction of seeing his face as he perished, Hypnosyne crawled to his side, removed his mask, and choked back a sob as she did. There, staring up at her mirroring her stunned expression, was the face of her Samael.She pulled his body into her lap and cradled him. Soft, choking sobs escaped her, her wounds searing with heat and pain from the motion. Every breath escaping her was agony, but no wound hurt worse than the one in her heart. She stroked her thumb across his cheek, looking down at the ruin of him that she'd caused. She felt sick, a wave of heat and dizziness flooded her.
"Samael... my precious Sam... how could this happen? My love, I..." another sob stole her words and breath.
....................................Wrath choked on the feel of the blade taking him, and had no fear as he would succumb to no mere blade. It was then that he felt the energy, the aether she'd put into that strike that would temper his, and she would send him back to the sea. 'Clever move.' he'd thought in the mere moments before she took his heart. He sputtered, and dropped to the ground as he felt his body desperately clinging to life, his blood leaking out into the snow like a macabre painting. He felt his aether begin to leave him.
He finally collapsed onto his back, and heard the faint crunch of snow, and the rustling as Hypnosyne dragged herself closer to him. He attempted a grin, but couldn't manage it. He was so very weak. He was so satisfied as he saw her body damaged, and barely more alive than he. Hoping the remaining of his brothers would be able to finish what he and Chaos had started, he took a choked, rattled breath as the tatters of his heart kept trying to keep him alive.
That was until her face came into view.
The first thing he saw was the familiar glow of the most intriguing blush-pink eyes that he's loved so many lifetimes ago.
He felt his dying heart leap, and skip a beat, then stutter at the realization that he'd tried to kill the woman he'd so desperately wanted to see again. The woman whom all of this was for. The woman he'd never have hurt.
His hands bloodied her. His blade ravaged the perfect, beautiful skin he'd ached to touch for millennia.
Death now seemed like the lesser punishment. He'd never be able to forgive himself.
Through it all, he couldn't stop himself from being happy to see her again, one more time. To know that she was real. To know that their love was real, and not just something he'd made up to get over the death of Na'amah.
He felt her remove his mask, and watched as her eyes filled with the same love, shock, and grief he felt. All he could feel in that moment, was joy. Joy that after it all... she loved him, too. He wanted to tell her everything, to tell her how sorry he was. He wanted to tell her about the lives he lived, and the things he'd seen. That he'd always loved her, and never forgot her for an instant. But he couldn't. He couldn't manage the strength to even pull breath anymore, but he had to touch her... just one last time.
With the last of his strength and the one breath left in his body, Samael reached up with one bloody hand to stroke her cheek. His last words were "Syne, I didn't know. I love..." before his hand fell limp at his side as he lost consciousness.Hypnosyne's heart grew a darkness that day. After 88 days of battle, after the exhaustion, and the sight of the man she'd always loved dying in her arms, something broke inside of her. Her bright pink eyes turned to black. Her eyes flickered pink as she looked at his unblemished face, then back to black when she saw the wound where she'd cut him down.A cruel, twisted cackle escaped her lips as she failed to process the pain and injustice of it all. She cursed the gods. She cursed the Ascians, Zodiark, Hydaelyn... She hated everything, and everyone.She let out a wail that shook all 9 realms and 13 Reflections as she pulled him tightly against her, and sang their lullaby as they bled out together in the snow.*****************
Hypnosyne slumbered for 7,988 years. Her wounds never quite healed. She held a deep and all consuming hatred for the Ascians and her hatred cast out terror through her neglected powers. She hoisted upon herself the mantle of Ephialtes 'the Nightmare'. She reveled in her darkness, her bitterness had all but consumed her entirely.
As she resumed her duty at the Black Gate, she felt a familiar tug from beyond and heard the echo of a voice she'd all but forgotten.

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When Syne woke from her hibernation, she resumed her duty as guard of the Unrealm. In all of that time she was asleep, something had changed behind the Black Gate. Her cousin Acheron had brought a new guardian to live behind the gates in command of an army of various types of demons.Syne paid no mind to the entity called Sevran, and figured it was his business so long as no one found their way to her throne.That was until one day a small demon, no more than the human age of 5 came to rest at the gilded black marble steps of Syne's throne. She peered down at the childlike thing and watched it for a moment. It sat, clutching a small stuffed dragon toy sniffling softly to itself."Little one? Are you all right?" Syne asked softly.The small creature turned, wide eyed, and looked at Syne with tears still streaming down its face. It shook its head and sobbed "Akri daddy said the Simi can't come through the big pretty black door. But Simi wanna see!! Akri come here all the time but he say 'No, Simi, you could touch something and break the universe' but Simi don't break things the Simi just wanna see!!"""Ah, I see." Syne thought to herself. This must be a charonte. "Simi" means "baby" in their abyssal tongue. "Simi," Syne said patiently, "Who is your akri?""Acheron!" she replied enthusiastically, her tears already beginning to dry. Simi ascended the stairs and crawled into Syne's lap as though she'd never had a care in the world and had known her all her life.
Syne looked at the small, red-skinned creature with her bright, pale yellow eyes. "Well, Simi, you can come visit me whenever you'd like."
Simi bounced in her lap with joy, and stayed until her cousin came to claim his child, apologetically so. Hypnosyne assured him that the small demon could retrun whenever she'd like, and so for the next 10,000 years, she did. Syne watched as the small demon turned into an adolescent demon, and then finally a full- fledged chaos machine.Simi burst through the doors of Syne's chambers, sprinting to her throne. "Hide me! Hide me!" Simi exclaimed.
Taken aback, Syne passed a concerned glance over the seemingly fine demon. "Simi, why are you hiding?" she said, gently stroking the smaller creature's head.
"Akri gonna give the Simi AWAY! Simi don't want a knew Akri. Akra Syne help the Simi!"
"Simi, Acheron would do no such thing." she said, folding Simi's wings in as you would do for a panicked and fluttery bird, and held her tightly.
Simi shook her head "No, Akri said to the Simi that he can't teach her stuffs so the Demon King is gonna be the Simi's new Akri."
Syne sighed, knowing that Acheron probably meant the Demon King would be Simi's mentor and handler in the mortal realm. "I'll talk to Acheron for you." Hypnosyne said, trying for comfort. It worked. ''Thank you, Akra!!" Simi beamed at her and skipped out of the room and through the door like nothing had ever happened. Oh, to have her problems.
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Hypnosyne would not hear from Simi for many years after this.

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