Blessed by Night

The giant skull that Malachi created in the sky seemed to be fueled by his own inner turmoil and negativity, and functioned somewhat similarly to a black hole.

The construct opened it's bony jaw and inhaled continuously.

A large suction force was created that inhaled all of the nearby debris, be it organic or inorganic.

Once anything entered the mouth of the skull, it was thoroughly ripped apart to only the finest of pieces and obliterated.

The longer the skull kept its mouth open, the more it started to pull into its destructive maw.

Even the impenetrable building where the blessed were being imprisoned was starting to be ripped apart, with larger and larger fragments coming off by the second.

Malachi tried to tell it to stop, but for whatever reason his mind was too cloudy to be able to properly control his new and terrible power.

Frustrated, he began to bang his head against the ground as he tried to dispel useless thoughts from his mind.

'Focus, focus, focus!!'

As he agonized over his lack of control, he missed the moment where a small pair of footsteps started walking towards him.

Finally, he felt their presence and looked up with hope in his nonexistent eyes.

The first one he saw was a woman with artful tattoos all over her body.

As always, she was every bit as beautiful as she was the first day he met her, and there was nothing that could have changed that.

She held her sleeping mother over one shoulder, and due to the fact that they were currently both skinnier and sporting shaved heads, they almost looked like twins.

And although Anna looked noticeably healthier than her mother, she still looked like she'd been through hell.

"Babe..?"

"Anna…"

Like it never happened, the giant skull in the sky finally closed up before it disappeared in a burst of negative energy.

The two lovers stared at each other frozen in place as if time had stopped, and it was clear that both of them were filled with a surplus of emotions.

"…You hurt me like hell, you know..? All of us… where did you go?" Anna asked in an empty voice.

"I… didn't go on purpose… I don't know where I even went but.. I will never be separated from you all ever again."

Anna smiled wryly as a single tear dripped down her cheek. "…You sure you weren't just having second thoughts about asking me to marry you?"

"From the second you said yes, you were already my wife. I would never have changed my mind no matter what." Mal said without hesitation.

Anna dropped to her knees in front of Malachi; showing that she had long gotten used to the sight of his monstrous form.

"…Keep your promise…don't leave us again."

"Never."

Mal desperately pulled Anna and her mother into his arms and held them both like he was afraid to be apart from them for any reason.

His head changed back to normal first, and he immediately found Anna's lips for the first time in what felt like forever.

Her lips were dry and cracked, but they were still the sweetest thing he had ever tasted and filled him with a lightheadedness that was more intoxicating than alcohol.

He never would have pulled away if she hadn't have done it first.

She stared at him with somewhat of an expectant look, and he thought that maybe she was going to say something about his disappearance again.

"…My head's cold as shit."

Laughing, Malachi kissed her forehead softly and knitted together a small beanie from the shadows around her. "Better?"

"Yea, thank you… Still just as attentive as ever, huh?"

"For you? Always."

It seemed like the two of them were going to kiss again, when suddenly a dark hole opened up in the sky and two women flew out.

"Mal!"

"Son!"

Aubrey and Nyx flew at Malachi like homing missiles and knocked him cleanly onto his back, luckily Anna was able to get herself and her mother out of harm's way just in time.

Malachi could hardly get a word in edgewise as Nyx and Aubrey blubbered all over him without even giving him an opportunity to speak up.

Nyx was crying so loudly and giving off so much raw emotion that the earth around them started to tremble.

Aubrey wasn't really much better, and she accidentally whipped up several tornadoes in the air as she cried all over her brother with a snotty nose.

'…Just gonna wait this out.' Malachi thought casually.

-

"Where were you?! Do you have any idea how worried we all were!"

"My darling boy…! I am so so sorry that I could not protect you..!"

'Cool, I can understand them now.'

Malachi held his mother and sister ever closely to his body as if they were every bit as precious as Anna and Joanne.

"I keep saying that I don't know where I went but no one really seems to believe me."

"How can that be?! You were gone for over a year!" Aubrey cried.

"Believe me I wish I could tell you… everytime I try to remember my head just gets more and more fuzzy." Mal said honestly.

"That… can't be?" Nyx muttered.

The night goddess passed her hand over the head of her son as if she were searching his body for some kind of impunity.

It did not take her long to find something, and she flinched in a rare moment of vulnerability that her son in particular had never seen from her.

"Ma?"

"A-Ah… It is nothing, my son. Another of life's great mysteries it seems. Even I do not know everything."

Tenderly, Nyx grabbed her son by the face with both hands.

She kissed him on both cheeks and barely grazed his lips with her own.

"I am… very glad that you are back. You should go home to everyone else for now… I'll return to visit you all shortly."

Malachi sensed a lot of things from his mother in that moment; not all which he understood.

Shame.

Guilt.

Confusion.

And even a small bit of apprehension.

Before he could ask her why, she vanished right before his eyes without making a single sound.

It took Malachi several seconds to blink away his surprise and he suddenly felt two gazes boring into him.

"Back five minutes and you already look like you're about to cheat on me with your mother. Manwhore." Anna muttered.

"Not saying I don't understand, but if you're going to be tempted then I recommend you at least get some proper rest first… and hydrate." Aubrey informed.

Malachi had to bring a hand to his temple as he suddenly felt like he had heard something he shouldn't have.

"I'm sorry… I hope I'm missing something here, but why does it sound like you are speaking from experience?"

Anna stared at Aubrey out of the corner of her eye, and the young girl started to look every way but where her brother sat.

That was more than enough for him to piece two and two together.

"You're kidding… You really.."

"I-It wasn't just me!" Aubrey defended. "It was Aisha and Rose too! We were all grieving together and one thing sort of just led to another and.."

"The week after was really funny. They were all so fucking awkward." Anna snickered.

"Not helping!"

Malachi said nothing and simply pulled Anna and Joanne into his arms before he started to fly away.

"I leave for one year and the whole world flips upside the fuck down… I need to lay down or something."

"W-Wait! Let me explain!"

"Stay away from me, degenerate!"

"Malachi! Stop judging me and come back here right now!!!"

———————————-

200 Chapters or any sort of milestone always feels weird for this story.

Afterall there are a lot of times where I hit stumbling blocks and don't know how I should properly progress the story, and that makes me feel insecure about my own work and I often want to drop it.

Not to mention the numerous criticisms I received in the beginning still weigh heavy on my mind a lot, and I begin to wonder what the purpose of even writing this story really is.

But! In those moments where I feel the most lost I remember that I still have a great many of you that would be disappointed if I were to suddenly drop this with no explanation, and I am able to continue by some miracle.

I think that is part of where the inspiration for Mal's new powers comes from.

Perhaps if I write about the ability to take all of the world's negativity and make it your own strength, a bit of that will motivate me and help improve my writing even further.

Nonetheless, I would like to take this time to thank all of you sincerely for your support of my novel thus far, and I hope that i can continue to churn out better, more enthralling stories for all of you who take the time to appreciate my writing.