The Scarlet Phoenix and the Prince of Winter

Chapter Fifty Five

"What? Volo got captured? That fool! I thought he was capable enough to protect Aure on his own!" I was pissed by the sudden news that it made my flames grow brighter and hotter. "Where is he now?"

"They took him to Plumba, my dead deity! I think they are planning to submerge him into the ocean there!"

"That bastard! Is he really letting the enemies reign over here? I was just gone for a couple of months!"

"Please help us, our dear deity!" the King begged while we both hear the screams and explosions all around us. "We need you right now! The people of Aure badly need you!"

"I'll do something about this mess, don't worry," I finally told him, and then I decided to fly upward to survey what was happening on land. I could see a lot of dead and wounded people. The invaders are in large groups and I think they have executed a good strategy to defeat the King's forces. The nearest town from the castle was also in ruins and the houses were in flames. Everything there was burning down.

This was crazy. I have never thought that such a tragedy would happen to Aure while I was still hibernating. I thought I could sleep in peace while Volo was at the helm of the kingdom. But he got himself captured. I think I will never forgive him if the whole kingdom falls down to the invaders. This will be all his fault if that happens.

But I would not let that happen. Not on my watch. Now that I am here, I have to fight as well. Volo was right when he told me that I adore this place. This kingdom is my homeland and I would do everything in my power to save it from this disaster. So I did what I had to do.

I flew back to the volcano, which was just near the two large groups of enemy soldiers that were advancing to the valley where the castle was standing. Some of them had catapults that were targeting the castle and that was my first priority. I needed to topple those catapults over.

So I dived back inside the volcano through the open crater and did my thing. I activated the whole volcano and the magma started to rise at an extremely fast pace. Black smoke was already rising up to the sky to warn the people that the volcano was going to erupt. Then I flew out of the volcano again and waited in the sky. I watched as the soldiers stopped on their tracks to watch the looming disaster over them.

"What is that?" I heard one of them exclaimed as they watch the volcano release the lava in action. "That volcano just started to erupt!"

"Move faster! We have to avoid it! I believe there is a deity living inside that volcano! It might have awoken already!"

But it was too late for these poor soldiers. Lava and molten rocks were already been spewed by my volcano into the air and I maneuvered them so that they would land on our enemies. I heard them shout in horror as the huge chunks of fiery boulders hit them and destroy their catapults into pieces.

"Let's run! It is no ordinary volcanic eruption! The deity living in there must be manipulating it! Let us run away from it as soon as we can!"

I almost laughed when I heard that from them because they really did think that they can escape my wrath. But the reality is that they can't escape me. I have to show myself to them so that I can break their spirits. I have to show them who is the boss here on these lands.

So in my fiery bird form, I swooped towards the large group that was running away from the erupting volcano. The remaining catapults have all been abandoned, which only meant that I succeeded in diminishing their attacking capabilities. A lot of them were already on the ground, burnt and heavily injured from my volcano's lava and rocks, but I was not stopping there. They need to learn to never invade these lands if they value their lives more than colonizing another land.

All of them were petrified when they saw me. I was now in front of them--- the largest group of the invaders who were still unscathed from my initial onslaught. My body was literally on fire, and my wings were now made up of these hot flames. I faced them exuding heat all over them forcing them to take a step backward as I was too hot for them to face.

"Who are you and why are you here in Aure?" I asked them. "Answer me and I will consider sparing all of you."

Some of them fell on their knees upon hearing me speak, while the others really passed out too. "You r-really are a... a d-deity!" one of them gasped.

"Indeed, I am. And you just ruined the day of my awakening. How dare you come here and try to take Aure away from my people. You have no right in these lands!"

"We are very sorry!" said another one of them. "W-We are just following what our deity and our Queen ordered us! We did not expect that you will wake up by now!"

"Which is unlucky for you!" I bellowed and they all cowered at the rise of my tone. "And who is this deity that you are talking about? And you also have a queen? How nice of you!"

"Please spare our lives," they said in unison. "We won't fight anymore. We don't want to fight anymore..."

I smirked. "That is because you have realized by now that you can't win over me. Cowards! Fools! How dare you destroy Aure with your contraptions! I will never forgive you for trying to destroy Aure!"

They begged me again to spare their lives, and to be honest, I would have not give in to them if they did not tell me a piece of important information that shocked me to my core. "Please, let us just go back to where we came from," said the man who looked like one of their leaders. "We promise to no longer fight and we will accept our defeat, and we will tell you how to defeat Ketan, our guardian deity."

That stopped my train of thought for a couple of seconds. Ketan? That is the deity that led them here? I know him. He used to come here centuries ago but he was one of the first to be banished from this region because he killed another deity. That caused an imbalance with mother nature, and the deities that used to live here punished him. And now he is back here?

Still shock from the revelation that they told me, I flew to Plumba with the fastest speed that I can. Ketan wants to kill Volo! That evil deity wants Volo to disappear forever! It was a good thing that I decided to listen first to what those fools had to say to me in exchange for their lives. Clearly, they were not loyal to Ketan as they immediately used that information to get themselves out of trouble. What a bunch of pathetic and weak creatures. I hope they live in regret their whole lives, now that I used my powers to send them back to where they came from!

I arrived in Plumba after a short while. It did not take long as I could really fly fast if I wanted to. However, I loved being high in the sky that's why I idle up there whenever I fly, but not this time. I landed on the shore where Volo and I talked about silly things. It was now empty here and the town near it was also in ruins. It was clear that those fools were here too and they ransacked and vandalized this town to their heart's desire. Now I kind of regretting that I let them off the hook.

I gasped when I saw something floating at the bay. Not far from the shore was something floating in the water. It was a huge ship that looked like it was made out of pure gold. This ship was as big as five stone houses and it was glistening under the warm sun. And there were people aboard this mysterious ship.

I immediately flew over there and from the air, I could already see Volo lying on the floor of the ship as if he had no consciousness which was impossible to happen to us deities. Curious at what the hell is happening, I landed at the ship's golden floor too. I was temporarily amazed by what I was seeing, but then I also regretted it because right now I could not move too.

"What is happening---?"

"You could no longer move, Alfiora," said a voice coming from outside the water. He was there on the water, sitting cross-legged as if his weight was light enough to stop him from sinking right into the water. "The gold immobilizes deities like us."

"Are you Kentan?" I asked him because for some reason I could still talk despite the rest of my body already not responding to my command.

The new deity nodded at my question. He was indeed who I was thinking of. He was infamous before so it is not that hard to recall him once you hear his name. He made sure that he would not be forgotten by everyone so easily.

But he did not look like a normal deity though. By 'normal deity' what I mean is that he does not look like he was a peaceful and a serene being. In fact, he looks exactly the opposite. He has silky black hair and he had tribal tattoos all over his exposed skin. His eyes were like slits and he wore excessive pieces of jewelry that I suspect were made from human bones. He looked otherworldly to me.

"It's good that you can still remember me, despite the fact that we have never talked before. You were just new back then when I left this place, so I thought you would have a hard time recognizing me."

"It's hard to not recognize someone who was infamously known for slaying another deity," I told him fiercely. "And why did you trapped me here in this golden ship? Are you going to kill me too?"

"That is not my goal right now," he told me casually. "Killing deities are no longer fun for me. Besides, it harms the nature. The sea has experienced a lot because of my wrongdoings, so that is not something that I wanted to do."

"Then what do you want? Why are you here? And why did you bring your people here?"

"Do you know why this place is special?" he asked me and I was slightly dumbfounded by his question. "Do you why this place you call Plumba is an important place in our history as deities?"

I shook my head. "I don't know anything about it. And why are you telling me this right now?"

Kentan was smiling from ear to ear. It seems like he enjoys the confusion in me. "This place was the birthplace of the very first deities. It was here that all of us came from."

I did not know that, I admit. No one has told me that this place hold such an important history. "And what does it have to do with us? What are you up to?"

"Deities lose their powers in this place if they hold something that has gold in it while they are here in this bay. The sea in this area negates our powers if we have anything that is made of gold with us. So I made my people build a golden ship to trap you both, as you two are both strong enough to fight me. But now that you are there, you are no match against me."