He had been stalking the eastern reaches ever since news of the Time God and the Bear God had spread to the Throat. Cera was privy to the information rather quickly, considering his relationship with Ranjiri and his friendship with Megaera. And he knew, he knew with a deadly sort of certainty, that this was not the end. There was no returning to the Throat, where he'd left Ilaria. Though she'd objected loudly enough for Cera not to be able to shut her out, even a red panda's swimming abilities could not carry her across the water bridge from the Throat. If Cera was going to damn himself, he'd not drag her down with him. 

When it happened, he was not close enough to get involved immediately. He took to the skies, watching as the darkness receded and sunlight flooded into the twisting labyrinthine greenery below. His wings buffeted air against his sides, eyes dark and deadened, a sick sort of hope that the Goddess lay beyond the horizon. Or, that his Lord stood there, sweeping away the darkness, so that he might steer Cera away from his inevitable path of vengeance and sin. 

The thought of betraying his Lord was nearly enough to cripple Cera, make him wonder if this was all worth it. He could not lose the love and trust of his Lord, he would simply lay still and die, wait for the void to take him to wherever his soul deserved to be. Certainly not in the light and grace of his Lord's image. 

But when midnight hide falls beneath his vision...

His heart convulses with hatred, with disdain, with an emotion so intense that he cannot name it even as it ravages his heart. "Lord forgive me for the sins I am to commit," he choked, tears in his eyes as Hototo's shyly smiling face flashed before his eyes, summoning a tidal wave of hatred and despair as he let the winds guide him towards the Goddess. "Lead me from this darkness," was whispered, and green eyes slid shut as wings collapsed inward and he let himself fall. Like an angel falling from grace he burned, an electric current with a singular target, torn apart even as his vengeance was just within reach. And his eyes flew open as a snarl took over his peaceful features, transforming him into something wild and unknown even to himself. 


"FOR MY BROTHER!" he screamed as he descended, hooves aimed towards the Goddess' spine or the main bones of her wings where they met her shoulders. It turned his stomach to imagine killing her, but there was also a primordial sort of pleasure at the idea. Hototo. Hototo. Hototo. His brother, the one who had always believed in him. The one he'd learned to fly with. The one he'd cried to, played with, grown with. His brother. His dead brother. It shredded him apart to know that Hototo wouldn't want this, wouldn't want such death and destruction. But how could he deny himself the vengeance he so needed? He was only a mortal, he could only do so much. But he needed to try. 

He only hoped his soul would be salvageable after all this...if he were even to survive this.