Cal the deadbeat

[18:32] The old man had definitely heard Cordelia's plea but he couldn't help himself. From the looks of it the young magi needed help more than he would ever believe. For his family's sake and Est's sake the Wayfinder wouldn't relent.

"If you wanna be lame you could at the very least send a package for their birthday with a letter from time to time. You know, to make yourself sound heroic and cool instead of a coward when you're not one."
(Ethan Hawke)
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[18:33] The mechanism withdrew into the Lighthouse with a pull of that lever off to the side. Calael was still unseen by any sort of regular eyes, given he was under the effects of an invisibility potion, but the starlight aura emanating off of him could be felt by both Ethan and Cordelia.

Then Cordelia flicked him and the potion's effects vanished. There in the center of the Tethering chamber, Calael stood in brown rags covered in soot and dirt. He had been traveling, apparently, and probably not living in nice places. Despite his somewhat ragged appearance, there as a new warmth to him, a certain determination that couldn't be dismissed.

Calael remembered the coordinates from the initial test, and so the telescope was directed off toward her chosen star and began to take in its light as the first switch was turned on. The lenses glowed, and Cal placed his gloved palm against the metal of the cylinder to begin interacting with and manipulating the cosmic power within. Unlike Nasu's execution, he would once more be placing himself into the process as a filter through which the radiation would flow so that he could direct just how much escaped from the other end and hit the vampire.

Taiga and Anise had been, thus far, the only undead or near undead he had ever used this on, and Cordelia was to be the first successful vampire to dhampir transformation.

He didn't have time to double check his notes.

He didn't have the luxury to try another test.

It was now or never.

He looked over his shoulder and glared at Ethan. "They know I'm out there. I'll find them again someday. My Mother left me, Eiphraem left me. I don't see... why this should be any harder for them."

Calael's wings extended from beneath the cloak and shimmered with starfire light.

"...ready?" he asked Cordelia.
(Calael E. Kang)
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[18:34] Ethan Hawke says, "... Yeah, because all of those people leaving you didn't leave a mark on you."
[18:35] Calael E. Kang exclaims, "Gods for once in your life know when to shut UP, ETHAN!"
[18:37] In all honesty, Cordelia was nervous. She had waited far too long for this and it had built her nerves into a frenzy. But she had flicked the Demiangel as requested, holding back her own strength in doing so; and so when the potion's effects wore off, she settled down a bit, seemingly relaxing when he reappeared so to speak in front of her own eyes.

She took in his form quietly with a judgmental stare but she said nothing outside of that. Nails gripped against the chair now, scratching something horrible in anticipation. There was nothing else to do but actually try. If she died in the process, well....

Then Ethan would know what to do, wouldn't he? In regards to Magdalen.

She exhaled and then suddenly nodded at Calael's question if she was ready or not. She didn't opt to lecture him on him leaving his sons; she wasn't exactly a bastion of good deeds up until now, after all.
(Cordelia I. Avitus)
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[18:38] Ethan Hawke says, "..."
[18:44] "Fair enough."

Perhaps it was old age. Maybe it came from the fact he fought a lot recently, but there was this burning sensation deep within his heart that guided his motions. In a moment so tense, stressful and that needed such a great amount of timing Ethan knew that the best decision was often the worst one.

He moved up to Calael, emerald eyes meeting the young man's own. And then it came. The return. The revenge. The payback. Right now it felt like Cal was no better than the Wayfinder was back then, enough for the man to send a fist flying towards the young one's jaw - both to get him to care about his kids more and to take away all the stress, tension, and fear he felt towards Cordelia's operation. A punch between friends, the kind that had a long time coming.

The words only came a few seconds after when Ethan turned his back to the angel-blooded, cape fluttering before his eyes. Whether he jumped him from behind or not was a no-brainer; he wouldn't risk the lighthouse's delicate innards over a knuckle sandwich.

"Don't be a deadbeat just because you were brought up by some. Either you take care of those kids properly or I'm gonna tell everyone I fixed Cordelia up. You pick the kinda life you wanna live, even if you're out there trying to take care of something bigger."

An ultimatum, too.
(Ethan Hawke)
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[18:58] Calael was about to flip the final switch when he was punched. The starlight aura flared outward and his demiangel wings exploded into azure starfire that flooded the room. As Calael fell back, his elbow hit the switch, and the telescope erupted by cosmic light. The spire shard refractor sent out its concentrated beam directly into Cordelia's chest, and her last shouts to Ethan were soon drowned out by the sound of the raw starpower surging outward.

At the same time, a flare of fire whipped outward, one intent on crashing into Ethan's back. It was all chaos, lights and sounds erupting all at once. Calael hit the ground with a thump and, though no one was likely coherent enough to listen, the sound of his armor underneath the cloak clanked against the stone.

From here, however, he could not filter the starlight. He couldn't direct how much or how little escaped the telescope's inner workings. It was surging through her circuits, through her veins, changing the very nature of her blood and body. Undeath had taken Cordelia ten years ago. Her aging had stopped. Her life itself had ceased to be.

Returning to mortality came at a cost, and that cost was pain, discomfort. One does not come back from death so easily. Her physiology may change, her biology already altering and resurrecting itself like a fire in her bloodstream. It burned to be this enveloped in light.

And still it wasn't done.

The ethereal effects still hadn't even begun. The body was first, but the soul> soul came next.

What star the telescope was peering toward seized Cordelia's ghost and latched on, tugging harder than it had the first time. It was no longer a simple mingle, but something that was claiming this life essence as its own. The power was something that, if left to run its course, would drain her of her inner phantom entirely. Toying with life and death like this was, after all, dangerous.

The starlight would continue manifesting around her until it reached her open mouth and beamed outward, until it reached her very eyes and did the very same. The demiangel on the ground whipped his head to see this, the sign that now the machine had to be turned off, that now was the time. Another second and she would be dead, a body without a soul.

But he was too far to switch it off, and he had no time to think on other solutions.

A golden blade shot forth from his extended palm and pierced the side of the telescope. Partially divine magic exploded as it intersected the cosmic beam, and metal chunks of the mechanism scattered across the ground.

The starlight stopped filtering out toward Cordelia.

The process was complete,
and the Telescope of the Unseen was damaged.
(Calael E. Kang)
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[19:07] Cordelia hadn't expected Ethan to punch Calael right when they were about to start. The blonde spoke up for the Wayfinder to stop - but the switch was hit, inadvertently. That was when nothing else happening in the room mattered.

The only thing she felt was unbearable pain. The only thing she saw was light, and it flooded her entire world. Her body screamed, her mind screamed and her soul screamed all in unison. It was pain unlike anything she had actually gone through before - even starving that time in Huangzhou was nothing compared to this.

As the star that Calael attempted to tether her to latched onto her soul, she hadn't expected anything much more than the initial test. But instead of gently pulling it yanked, as if her very soul belonged to it. It was painful; and it was a pain unlike anything she had ever felt before. She felt like a piece of herself was being dragged out from her body, and she felt terribly sick from the entire thing, but the overwhelming pain was what had her attention the most.

She didn't know what was happening, if this was normal, if everything was supposed to hurt like this, but she wanted it stopped. Even if it killed her at this point she wanted it shut off. The starlight escaped from her, leaving the body of Cordelia to writhe and scream in pain until finally...

Finally something had answered her desperation. To shut it off. But she didn't know at what cost the telescope had been shut off in. She just knew all at once, the pain stopped; and Cordelia slumped forward, panting. A hand lifted itself up weakly, fingers moving just slightly before it dropped.

Was she even breathing?
(Cordelia I. Avitus)
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[19:14] If it weren't for the flames lashing towards his back the old man would have never turned around. He would have been out on his way to wherever it was - most likely a bench on Levengard waiting for Cordelia to make her way out of this mess. Instead Calael forced him to look back and face him. This was the same kid that a long, long time ago had listened to the words of the woman right behind depicting Ethan as some sort of monster, as a freak, as a mess.

Finally, he was growing up. Sure their argument was childish but... it would bring growth, that much was guaranteed. The Wayfinder's right hand was about to reach back on his staff when he noticed the process being ongoing for what seemed to be way, way too long. Was this normal? Would the vampire make it through?

He honestly was unable to tell up until Calael did something unthinkable and shot a sword of divine light directly towards the artifact he had taken so, so long to build.

What an idiot. Losing that over a god damn punch.

Ethan had the time to offer a grin. Everything, for a moment, seemed to fall in slow-motion. The whole world went greyscale. The old man's motions were calculated and clean. Twelve circles all appeared at nearly the same time, forcing two different portals to form. One linking at Ethan's right hand just behind the wooden separator - right by the staff he had been reaching for.

The other?

His left hand. This one... Wasn't so hidden. It wasn't anywhere Ethan could genuinely avoid, either, especially casting two portals at once. The golden divine energies came crashing right into his arm, ripping apart the fabric that make his shirt up clashing directly with the remains of an enemy long forgotten.

The sealed effects of death magic were still potent - it wasn't a horrible type of magic for no reason. When it and divine energies met at once it did nothing good for the Wayfinder who deemed it best to save both the telescope and his soon-to-be wife at once. The cost?

A bright light engulfed the room, gold and crimson dancing together, fighting and overtaking one another right against the old man's arm. The burns, the broken bones, the damage to his flesh. In that moment they all hurt more than ever before while Ethan was forced down to the ground, enduring the pain he had decided to take on by himself.

To save something greater than him. Than Cal. Than their kids.

It's possible to cure undead, but your master may miss you. Are you sure you wish to do this?

Elisheva's words twenty-five years prior rung through the man's head. He still didn't regret it, not one bit. Calael had turned what was only a dream, an unbelievable feat into reality.
(Ethan Hawke)
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[19:16] ** Calael E. Kang has inflicted an injury upon Ethan Hawke. ("Temporary Injury", "Temporary Injury", "Temporary", "Duration: Medium (4 days)") **
[19:27] Cal thought the telescope was damaged, he thought the sword had pierced the metallic hull of the tech. That was what all the lights and flashing going on above him had to be, right?

He was wrong again.

They were the Wayfinder's portals opening up, the diverting paths of both the cosmic beam and the sword's path caused the explosions to continue on, causing mass confusion. The blade pierced through Ethan's side while those who looked toward the Lighthouse throughout Levengard would see the great, golden spear fire through into the sky.

It would erupt through the clouds and into the atmosphere until Calael stood back up and flipped the switch off. The demiangel looked to his side to see if Cordelia was still alive, and then to the opposite to find Ethan bleeding out on the ground. This had all go so terribly wrong... He never should have come back.

As soon as he noticed Cordelia still had breath, Calael pushed thelever up and raised the telescope to the top of the tower once again. He re-runed his chest over in the corner, and then without another word, ready himself to leave, not offering anymore help to those he had deemed alive.
(Calael E. Kang)
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[19:35] Pain was there, that much was for sure, but this wasn't a reason to stop where he was, right? This... probably would be the best way to push himself further in the way he had spoken to with Satsuki and Reito. The way to extend that first breath so that a second one would not be needed. He felt his heart ringing in his ears, he felt the effects of divine magic lingering upon his skin, the endless battle between two insane forces taking part on his arm and he...

Nullified it.

His fear, panic, anger, and self-loathing went out of the window first, emotions being dampened down to nothing. Then came the mana. Another step. The divine remains of Calael's sword were extinguished. The outbreak of death magic was pushed back into the tattoo on his arm.

... And then? The pain. If he could nullify even the emotions behind a spell with this ability, why wouldn't he be able to take away this immense amount of suffering that reminded him of Isaac's burns, of the Sunyata-beast's blows, of the Ghoul King's presence. The Wayfinder focused on the pain itself to try and kill the sensation, just for a bit longer. Just enough to stand back up before Cal had the time to run off - before a battle, in theory, would be over.

A few more seconds.

"You're gonna have to send letters."

He smile, more cocky than he deserved to be. His colorless sparks began fading away, falling at last.

As did he.
(Ethan Hawke)