Escape
2019 Words
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Troubled but frowning, Yanmei prepares for battle. Leo does too. He's raising his fist, putting up his stance. The rest of the Fourth Seaters are alarmed. They know what he's capable of. But Eleanna doesn't buy it. She senses something odd about him.
She half-smiles before saying, “Surender and this doesn't have to end badly.”
“Yes, it doesn't have to be,” says Yanmei, holding Leo on his shoulder. “so let us pass and we don't have to lay waste on all of you.”
Eleanna scoffs. She goes to attack them while they're unprepared. Water and mud spread all over. Both of them get blasted away and hit the barrier. It electrocutes them before falling back to the water. It becomes murky. Yanmei realizes that they are in for a serious fight. She frowns
The part of the barrier that they landed to is where Marco is stationed.
“What the h*ll?” Jamie exclaims after the impact that shook the ground.
“So, this is how the gods fight...”
“Definitely,” Jamie remarks the obvious.
Then Marco's eyes widen when he discovers that their enemies are the people that saved his life. He looks at the machine that he helped set up to trap them. He grits his teeth in guilt, having turmoil inside of his mind.
“What do I do?” he mutters to himself.
“What do you mean?” his friend asks him.
Yanmei looks at Leo that has just risen from the mud. Eleanna doesn't give him time to recover. He tries his best to block hundreds of punches coming from her but he could not do anything to fight back. She's overwhelming him and he has no choice but to defend.
Meanwhile, the Fourth Seaters go after Yanmei. All she could do is escape. Shui shoots glass spikes, Hyeon shoots bullets, Ruby tries to tackle her, and Han narrows her escape with his Ruyi Jingu Bang. However, her evading skill is too much for them that they couldn't land a single hit.
When she lands on the water, she mutter, “I gotta go to Leo.”
Ruby comes from above, and stomp Yanmei, pinning her down.
“I got her!” she reports to her comrades. “Wait...”
She's confused when there's another Yanmei running towards Leo. Then the one Ruby has pinned down, disappears into thin air.
“Get her!” Ruby shouts after her comrades also have been fooled.
Eleanna is busy pummeling Leo to the mud, slowly drowning him. Then she chokes him. He can't do anything to get her off. He's weak and injured.
“It's better that you stay dead!” she growls.
“Argh!!” screams Yanmei, making clones of herself.
She attacks Eleanna from all directions but in a single second, they all take a hit from her. They disappear until the last one of them touches Leo's hand.
An explosion happens, making steam that covers everything. After that explosion, it's followed by a barrage of blows. Every soldier can feel their feet floating in midair for a moment because of the rumbling.
The Fourth Seaters could not join in with the clash because they can't match their speed. Yanmei has taken the form of Eleanna's boots, giving Leo the speed to match her. He secures the opportunity to land a clean punch on Eleanna's face. She crashes down into the lake but recovers instantly, returning to retaliate.
“ARGH!!!” she rages as her eyes glow yellow.
Her speed has become even faster. Leo and Yanmei are on the defensive again. The Fourth Seaters are careful not to get caught in their explosive fight. All they can do is stand on one spot and wait.
“Can't we do something?” asks Ruby.
“Unless you can fight as fast as them,” says Hyeon. He's calm as ever.
Then a powerful blow happens. The barrage stops but the whole dome is clouded with dust and steam. Outside, Marco swallows, thinking of what he should do.
“Marco,” says Jamie. “what's going on with you, man? Are you nervous?”
“Y... yeah... might be.”
“I mean, you don't have to be. Lady Eleanna and the Fourth Seaters will win.”
“We don't know about that!” he suddenly bursts out.
Their other comrades look at him as he freaks out.
“Woah, woah... relax,” says Jamie, holding him on both shoulders. He gestures that they talk elsewhere. So, Jamie takes him far from their other comrades. “Tell me what's wrong,” he whispers, looking around. No one is listening to them.
“The enemies—they're the people who saved my life. They're good people!”
“Even so, they might've done something wrong. Lady Eleanna is the law here—remember that.”
They are startled when the ground shook. But Marco continues to express himself. “I know but for me, they're good people! I don't care if they have done something wrong because I need to return the favor.”
“Are you cr*zy?!” Jamie blurts out. “Do you wanna take a thousand punches in a single second?!”
“Shh!” he shushes him.
“Oh, sorry. Anyways... I think it's a bad idea. Just let them be and think about yourself. I don't think they can hide anywhere in this world if Lady Eleanna wants it. Also, you will be executed on the spot!”
“I'm sorry, Jamie, but I have to do this. I don't wanna live the rest of my life with a bad conscience.”
He turns around but Jamie grabs his arm. “Don't be stupid!”
“I'm never smart,” he nods, smiling. Jamie lets him go.
“Tsk,” Jamie clicks his tongue as he rolls his eyes. “You're in for more trouble than me all this time.” Marco turns around in time when he says, “Right when we got a decent job... Oh, well.”
Inside the dome, the fighting has stopped for a moment, leaving Leo and Yanmei beaten up in the mud. Eleanna is panting, pushing against her knees as she bends over. She clears her throat before standing straight. She holds out her hand and Shui hands her a Tartarian Steel chain.
“Both of you are coming with me,” she says in satisfaction.
An explosion shakes the whole marsh. The barrier is gone.
“Now, Leo,” Yanmei whispers.
Eleanna could act swiftly with speed but right now, she's holding the Tartarian Steel. She can't use her powers so she's not fast enough to catch them before they disappear.
“NO!!!” she curses, throwing the steel into the mud.
Every soldier, even the Fourth Seaters feels her frustration. They have come a long way from home for nothing. Some of the soldiers panic to put out the fire coming from the destroyed generator of the barrier. They shoot at Marco and Jamie as they run away until they are out of sight behind a hill. Some of the soldiers pursue them.
Then Mila and the others just came out of the entrance. Darius is lying on the dark cloud, Hera can't move, Aurelia is down very bad, and Mila looks so guilty that she almost wants to hide her face.
“Where's Father and that mysterious goddess?” mutteringly asks Aurelia but no one could answer her.
Eleanna scowls at them as soon as she sees them. She walks towards them and slaps Mila's face. She didn't turn her face back nor touch her swelling cheek. She knows what Eleanna means without saying a word.
Eleanna turns around and says, “Restrain them,” to Shui as she passes by.
“It would be my pleasure,” he smirks.
Then she disappears, not telling anyone where she's headed.
“Alright,” Hyeon yells. “let's move out! Return to Asgard!”
Without hint of resistance, he binds the four of them with Tartarian Steel. And when he gets to Darius—who's injured for the moment, he roughly binds him with chains.
“Hey!” Aurelia complains. “He's injured! Be gentle!”
“As if I care,” he scoffs at her.
Then with his glass, he carries them with his glass. All of them are quiet during the journey. As they fly in the sky, they got a clear view of the devastation on the surface of the Earth. Tsunamis flood the shores of Asgard, buildings have collapsed, and landslides occur on the mountainsides. Even the palace isn't spared. It needs another series of repairs.
Shui takes them straight to the dungeon under the palace. They are in separate cells, dwelling in each of their own sorrows. Hera is sobbing, remembering how her only brother treated her like a stranger.
“How could you, Leo?” she mutters in resentment. But she shakes her head. “No, he would never do that to me. He must've had a reason.”
“He drank the water from the River Lethe,” says Mila from her cell right next to her at the right. “He has forgotten what it means to be alive.”
“How can we bring him back, my lady?”
“I'm sorry, Hera, I don't know.”
“We don't even know where they went,” says Darius. His cell is right next to Mila's.
“Darius,” she exclaims. “how are you?”
“I'm fine, my lady. I just needed enough time to rest.”
“Your wounds—how are they?”
“Uh... wait a minute... they're gone.”
“What?”
“Yes, they're gone. Who healed me?”
“No one. You were still unconscious and injured when they locked us here.”
“This is Tartarian Steel around my wrists, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do I still have my strength then?”
“That's impossible how can—”
“I can break out of these chains. I'll free you guys next. Just—”
“No!” Mila shouts out of impulse. “No,” she says again with a calmer tone. “Let's abide, for now, Darius. We can't cause any more trouble.”
“But we need to find Leo, right?”
“Yes, but not now.”
He wants to protest but gives up. He sighs and sits on his bed. “As you wish, my lady,” he says in a way he couldn't be more depressing.
“I wonder where Father is,” says Aurelia. Her cell is at Hera's right. “What happened between him and that mysterious goddess?”
“All we can do is hope that he's fine,” says Mila.
“That goddess... when I saw her, I felt like she's not from this world.”
“Yeah, ” says Hera. “I can't even see her with my Oracle's eyes.”
“What do you think, Mila?” asks Aurelia.
“I don't know. I'm going to rest now, and all of you should do the same. Let's continue talking later.”
Aurelia knows that her sister is just depressed or hates to talk about more as it reminds her of Leo. So, as she said, she lies down on her bed and rests. Each of them is thinking about him.
Yanmei and Leo come falling from the sky. Leo is unconscious but Yanmei isn't. She gets to him and protects him as they grind against the atmosphere, creating hot plasma around them. This goes on for a few minutes until she braces for impact. They hit a snowy summit of a mountain. The impact is softened because of the snow but the destruction is unavoidable.
“Ugh...,” she groans in pain in the middle of the crater. Leo is lying on top of her, still unconscious. “We're here, Leo,” she pants. “We're on Mars.”
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- Writer
