With Sayda’s death, all things that had been Willed to existence by her ceased to exist, including the devouring hole she had placed within Douglas, stripping him of everything that made him... him.
Currently what remained was trapped in a temporal bubble of Ana’s creation, mere inches away from Arwen, his hand stretched out in a manner that was sure to have reaped her life had it connected.
Everyone was shocked at the side, including Ulysses who hadn’t expected such an exaggerated reaction when he freed Douglas.
He’d known that Douglas would be under some sort of mental shackles placed upon him by Sayda, but then considering she was gone, he didn’t expect that he would react in such a violent manner.
It made him regretful for releasing the crazed man without warning while also grateful for the efficiency of his fellow Constellations who did well to react accordingly, reducing the risk of death.
The silence that followed stretched on for a bit before Alex muttered. "Douglas."
He had seen the latter once before now though he was barely conscious and so had doubted if he had truly seen the man he could regard as a brother.
Of course, it was easy to doubt due to his changed appearance, but at the end of the day, it was the same man that Emily had asked him to look out for, only that he was no longer in the best condition, physically or mentally.
"Alex." Ana turned to Alex, unsure of what to do next with Ulysses.
Taking a deep breath, Alex replied. "Send him into the fortress."
Then, turning to the others, he added. "The rest of you wait here, I’ll talk to him."
Though worried for his safety, they decided to trust his judgment, and so one by one, they nodded in agreement, with Ana, the last to do so, before sending Ulysses into the fortress with Alex following closely behind after he’d picked up and sheathed Excalibur.
Once the two were inside, Alex snapped, and a wall of dry ice swiftly covered up the entrance, which served as a signal for Ana to drop the temporal bubble.
Douglas finally completed his attack, only that there was no longer a target, so he swiped at the air before awkwardly slamming to the ground.
He was swiftly back on his feet, feral like a beast, with Alex watching him silently.
Suddenly, he stilled and a moment later, his eyes widened as he dropped to the ground.
An agonizing scream followed as everything that was taken from him returned in one terrifying wave that turned him into a quivering mess.
Alex did nothing to help, merely watching with a complicated look on his face as Douglas suffered excruciating pain.
He didn’t bother keeping track of time, merely snapping to keep himself afloat, and after who knows how long, Douglas once again stilled, though this time, Alex thought it the last time.
Slowly approaching, he hovered over Douglas, who had only the whites of his eyes visible, with spittle running down the side of his mouth.
Taking a deep breath, he went down to pick Douglas up before making his way out of the fortress, undoing the ice wall he’d put up to find the other members of Constellations waiting in a pseudo dimension forged by Elena to combat the fierce winter cold of Twilight.
"Alex." Nadia was the first to react, stepping out of the dimension to approach him.
"Let’s be on our way."
"What now?" Ana asked as she stepped out to speak as well.
"I agree with the dragon," Victoria said as she stepped out as well. "We lost the Pearl, Master. What next?"
"In truth, I had already made peace with the fact that we might lose the Pearl. After all, the adversary we faced was unlike any other and they are relentless. We would be hard-pressed to keep the Pearl even if we managed to get our hands on it." Alex remarked.
Then, glancing at Sayda’s rapidly freezing husk, he continued. "We may have lost the Pearl, but we dealt with a troublesome adversary. Our next act will be to wait out Astra while searching for the next Branch. If we are lucky, we find it, if not... then we move on to the next. This is only one of many setbacks we are sure to face, so do not let it make you feel like you have been beaten. We will surely get our hands on the Pearl, if not now, then later. That is a promise."
His speech served to fan the flames in the hearts of his subordinates as they all nodded in agreement with his words.
"Now come, let’s leave this place, " Alex said. "We need rest."
With all obliging, Alex proceeded to access the exit of Twilight, purely by instinct, an instinct that only a werewolf could have due to the curse they carried.
However, upon their exit from that land of ice and perpetual snow, they were faced with something far, far worse.
He appeared as a man but he was anything but, his mere presence forcing the aether into submission.
His shadow stretched out in a fearsome manner, somehow embodying the appearance of every creature in existence.
It was like a blueprint, though instead of buildings and trade routes, it mapped out the evolution of all living beings.
Just staring at it induced vertigo, causing those who had just recovered from the appearance of the Godspawn in Twilight to once again succumb to the darkness as they fell unconscious.
However, not all fell, with three still standing.
One was Alex; the other was Ulysses, and the last was Elena.
The silence stretched on until the entity broke it, its voice both soothing and harsh. "You are not of me. Thus, you can be against me."
Taking a step back while preparing to snap should the situation demand it, Alex muttered. "You are the Beast."
"I give you a single task; hunt me down, Alexander Regulus or I shall hunt you. You have till the end of Astra."
And with that, it vanished like it was never there, to begin with, its voice still lingering in the aether and in Alex’s ear.
With those words hanging over him like a guillotine, Alex realized with increasing dread that he had once again been placed in a situation he wished to avoid more than anything else, a situation that always seemed to find him regardless of what he did... a fight against an unbeatable being, only that, just like countless times before, it was one he could not escape.
For that reason, he despaired.
[End of Volume 4; Cosmic Eye]