Eternal Agony
2056 Words
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“Then why are you crying?”
“I'm not...,” she sobs.
“I'm sure he didn't mean it. That witch must've done something to him!”
“I know,” Mila sniffles. “but it still hurts when those words came from him.”
“She's... con... she's controlling him,” says Guiseppe, crawling from the lava. “They can speak telepathically so the boy thinks shexs the only one he should listen to. Why? It's because I made him drink the water from the River Lethe!” He tackles with his dry throat but coughs dry bl**d.
He's all burnt but alive. He's n*ked and half of his body is gone. His skin is rougher and dryer than the bar of the oldest tree. The sisters glare at him but he laughs at their faces. He lies down looking up.
“Don't be like that, my ladies,” he says. “Our game little game ended spectacularly.”
“If it wasn't for you,” says Aurelia. “we wouldn't have been in this mess.”
“Yeah, you're right,” he says. “But my part in this Universe is finished.” He's grinning at his petty achievement. “I've done what he told me. ”
“Who?” asks Aurelia, scowling.
“You don't need to know now. You'll find out in time. Now... I'm finally leaving this... cruel... world...” He starts to close his eyes.
“No, you don't,” says Mila.
She holds out her hand and millions of souls in Tartarus gather to snap the umbilical cord of the fetus titan. It splashes in the lava at the distance before the souls brought it to her.
“What?” Guiseppe asks in confusion. His eyes widened.
“You think I'm gonna let you run away that easily?” she growls.
Guiseppe knows that he's in trouble. “Tartarian Steel...” he mutters, realizing what this means.
She scowls at him as the souls lift the colossal metal umbilical cord. She summons a cloud for her and her sister, then slams it down upon him. He gives out a cry of regret.
The impact makes an enormous splash that spreads throughout. Guiseppe's scream can be heard along with the eruption. The souls pull him up from the lava, bringing him to her. He's dead, not breathing but still moving.
“What have you done to me?!!” he screams in front of Mila.
“You will suffer here forever, Guiseppe,” she growls. “That's what I have done to you. Your soul will never be in peace even if you crumble yourself into pieces. You can scream all you want but you cannot undo your sin! Your sins and regrets will haunt you forever!”
“NO!!!” he screams as the souls let go of him, letting him fall into the sea of fire.
He tries to swim to get out of the lava to at least keep his whole body intact but he couldn't. The lava makes ashes out of him that became one with the lava. He feels the pain of every matter that belongs to his body. Nothing could fix him now.
Hera is looking after Darius as he is now conscious and walking but he's very weak. Acheron's kind has been mercilessly tearing the ghouls into pieces as they try to let them escape. They are running beside the River Styx on their way to the exit.
While being helped by Hera, Darius grunts, “I gotta... fight!”
“No, we have to get out of here,” she says. “You're still weak. Just trust them. They're giving their all to serve Lady Mila. If they fail, they might get punished forever!”
“Let go of me!” he growls, pushing her away. He's barely standing on his feet. He turns around and sees how the horde of ghouls swarm on the much bigger and stronger. “I'm gonna slay them all in a single punch!”
“Don't!” Hera yells, pulling his arm.
“Let go of me or I'll punch you instead!”
“No!”
He growls at her and suddenly, his knees give up. “What?” he exclaims just before his bottom hits the ground.
“See? You're not fit to fight! Let's—”
Both of their eyes widen when a large blast occurs at the heat of battle between the undead creatures. The creatures scatter across the cave and give way for two people.
“LEO!!!” Hera and Darius cry.
She helps him stand up and wish they could run to him but Darius can't at the moment. Then they stop when they notice that Yanmei is intimate with Leo. Smirking, she's holding his arm as they walk.
They wait until they got close enough. Hera lets go of Darius. She runs to her brother, then hugs him. “Leo!” she sobs on his stomach.
Without a hint, Leo pushes her away, hard enough to make her stumble to the side and almost fell to the river.
“Leo?” she asks, confused.
They walk past her like she was nothing.
“Leo!” shouts Darius. “that's your sister, you knucklehead!”
They continue to walk until Darius stands on his ground and gets in their way. Like how he did to Hera, Leo does the same to Darius. However, Darius slaps Leo's hand and grabs him by the collar.
“What's wrong with you!” Darius roars in front of his face.
Then swiftly Leo punches him in the stomach, bending him until he falls forward, paralyzed.
“What's going on with you, Leo?!” cries Hera, catching up to him. “It's me! Hera, your sister!”
She grabs a hold of his arm but he pushes her again. This time, it's so hard that she slides back, on the ground, five meters away.
“LEO!!!” Darius rages. “How could you hurt your own sister?!!!” He inhales and screams, “ARGH!!!”
The miracle is on his side, allowing him to acquire strength out of nothing. He stands as sturdy as a stone.
“COME BACK HERE!!!” he screams, charging towards him.
Leo turns around to defend. Darius is gone. Behind them, he's already in place to deliver a hit. The soil under his feet is crumbling, the whole cave is shaking, and the air seems to have become heavy.
“Fist of Six!!”
Darius launches his punch but like flowing water, Leo dodges and with his power, he elbows his face. The blast blows Hera away and lands very far from them. She's crying in pain but more about her brother is acting. Darius is gravely hurt by that hit and it reminded him that he's still weak from earlier. He falls forward like a dead log.
“LEO!!!” Hera screams. This is all she can do. She's so afraid of him that she couldn't even move to catch up and plead for him to stay. “Yanmei! Give him back to us!”
“He doesn't belong to any of you,” she says, looking down at her.
“But... he promised me!”
Just right at where the tunnel that leads to the exit, Leo stops walking. His eyes widened as the last words Hera said are resonating in his mind. It all sounds familiar. Yanmei is not blind to perceiving what is happening so she does something to pull him out of it.
“Come on,” she says, pulling him to the cave. “I'm your only ally. I'm the only one you should trust. I'm the only one you care about.”
So, he walks with her until they disappear around the corner. Hera sobs even more, kneeling on the ground. Her tears dripping.
“L... Leo...,” Darius grunts in anger as his face is on the ground. He almost wishes he had the strength to scream so loud that the whole Underworld will hear.
“What happened to him?” she asks.
“I'm... sorry, Hera...,” he apologizes. “I wasn't... strong enough. Catch him... he couldn't have... gone that far.”
She stands up and walks as he said but then she kneels beside him. To make it easy for him, she rolls him on his back so he could breathe easily.
Then he asks, “What... are you... doing? Go...”
“No, he's not the Leo I know anymore. And I see the future that there's nothing I could do to make him stay.”
“Change it!” he insists. “Use your... will!”
“I can't walk further. I used my Oracle's Eyes.” She stays quiet for a second, closing her eyes. But that won't stop her tears from falling.
“Your... brother's an id*ot,” he grumbles. “I told you so...”
“Stop talking badly about him!” she cries.
“It's true... He hurt you—his only sister. I would... never hurt Guiria...”
“I told you he's not himself, okay? His... memories must've been erased by using his powers. Yanmei must be the first person he saw when that happened. So, he's got no choice but to trust her.”
“Tch!” Darius scoffs, looking away from her. His eyebrows head-butting. “When did you become such a smarty-pants?” he grumbles.
She didn't answer and just looks down, massaging right below the center of her collar bones. The memory of Leo pushing her aside is hurting her from inside.
“Don't worry, Hera,” says Darius. “When I get better, I'll find him, and punch a sense out of him. Just wait...”
All the while, an army is on the move. Helicopters with soldiers on board, fighter jets rendering the highest skies, and deities with their own modes of traveling have crossed thousands of miles. It's the army of Odin's Order. Most of the soldiers are fresh recruits. Among them are Jamie and Marco. They're onboard a helicopter and in the same squad.
Marco is sweating too much and his eyes could not look at a single spot. The noise is so much that one has to say louder if they want the person they're addressing to, hear them.
“Calm down!” shouts Jamie, slapping the back of Marco's neck.
“Ow! I'm perfectly calm!”
“So, that's your definition of ‘calm’!”
“What?!”
“I said, I'm handsome!”
“What's wrong with you?!”
They have landed in a middle of a lake. Their squad leader shouts, “Move! Move! Move!”
Jamie, Marco, and their five other comrades from the same helicopter unload the technology they're going to use. The water is knee-high but it's easy for them to traverse since they're demigods. Like how they were trained, they deploy and set up. The technology is nothing but a two-meter-tall hunk of metal with buttons. Like a pole, they hammer it to the muddy ground so it would stand.
They look around the lake, looking if the other soldiers setting up. There are five of them surrounding a dry little land in the middle. It's the entrance and exit to the Underworld. Once all of them have set everything up, the poles light up then create an orange barrier. Eleanna, Shui, Hyeon, Ruby, and Han get inside before it closes entirely. The barrier is a gigantic dome. It could fit a thousand people inside.
Then from the hole, Leo and Yanmei jump out. All of the men know him. He is notorious for the fall of Asgard and even during the Apocalypse.
“Right on time,” Eleanna says.
“Leo,” mutters Hyeon. He recognizes Yanmei. “And—”
“And who might you be?” Eleanna asks Yanmei.
Ignoring her, Yanmei whispers to Leo, “Do it, Leo.”
He keeps holding the pendant in his hand. It glows faintly but that's all it can do.
“Nope,” says Eleanna, half-smiling. “There will be no escaping. What have you done in the Underworld? Why did the whole Earth rumble? I assume you know the answer.”
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- Writer
