The God of Gravity part 3: Apocalypse

Survivors

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“You couldn't be more right.” Her grin is terrifying as she prepares for another strike.

All of a sudden, the ground turns into shambles. Dozens of thick vines attack her. She flies above and away from them. While slicing them, she sees the two young deities, Arina and Viktor coming to grab Tsar and escape. Viktor wraps Tsar with vines and makes a run for it.

“I will kill you!” Arina curses at Silva. “Come down here!”

“No, let's go!” says Victor and pulls her using his vines.

“What are you doing? Let me go!” They are riding a large snake made out of vines. It is slithering away so fast.

“You can't beat her!”

“I can!”

“Behave yourself, Arina,” says Tsar lying on the vines. “Someday you will be able to. But you need to stay alive before that.”

“Lord Tsar, are you okay?” she asks out of concern.

“Yes, I am,” he smiles while grinning because of the pain. Silva lets them go as she is also feeling very weak. Her left arm is burnt. “Well-played, Silva.”

Her chest is heaving long and deep that forces her to sit. She sits on a rock and her rapier returns to being a cape hanging from her back. Tsar and the young deities have already disappeared behind the horizon. She pulls a cigarette from her pocket. With two pieces of metal, she makes them hit each other to make sparks to light her cigar. She inhales the smoke and puffs it out as she looks at Olympus Mons—nothing but a huge crater on Mars. Regret does not exist in her eyes. 

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Ugh!! My eyes! I can't see a thing! I feel heat everywhere. My skin is burning! I'm sure I'm closing my eyes but why am I still seeing the light? What happened? What is happening now? I could almost feel myself falling. The air is so cold at the same time very hot. And wait… I'm not alone! I hear everybody else screaming.

"Hang on!" shouts a lady. I think that's Lady Aiko's voice. 

The next I feel is that my face is on hot and rough ground. I still can't see a thing. My eyeballs feel like they've lost all of their moisture. I can hear crying and screaming. What happened? Did the sun fall down on Earth?

"Leo!" someone calls my name. It's Lady Mila. She grabs my hand. Her hand is so soft unlike the dirt I landed on. "Are you okay?"

"I can't see," I answer.

"Hold on, I will take you to Lord Santos."

She puts my right arm over her small shoulder and guides me somewhere I don't know. I feel scared for the first time because I don't know what is going on. Even the terrain is not making any sense. Through the soles of my shoes, I can feel some of the rocks are so hot that it is melting the rubber. I can smell it burning. As well as other things around me. As I swallow, I notice that I'm squeezing Lady Mila's right upper arm with my hand.

"ARGHH!!!" someone screams. I think it's not because of an injury but because of the sight he is seeing.

"What is happening, my lady?" I ask her.

I'm sure she heard me and for some reason, she is hesitant to say something to me. "I don't know," she utters instead.

My vision is not bright anymore but pitch-black. My eyeballs must have burned into a crisp. I've become blind. Although my throat is dry, I try to swallow. As if I swallowed sand, my throat lacks moisture. 

We stop walking and I sense deities gathering around what's in front of us. I'm sweating so hard because of this intense heat. I should distance myself from her or she will feel disgusted and be angry with me. I don't want her to get angry.

Wait…

That's right. It's not the time to think about that and she knows it. I can't think straight. Is this because I'm scared? I'm pathetic.

"You're going to be okay, Leo," she says and my chest starts to ease from its pounding beat. "It's you're turn to be healed."

I feel Lord Santos's presence. It feels the same but weaker. Did he heal too many people that it weakened him? I don't know and I don't even know much about how his power works.

"Next!" he yells.

Lady Mila pushes me forward with care. Two hands hold my head with each thumb touching my eyelids. I expected it to hurt but it didn't. The pain I feel is gone but I didn't open my eyes yet. He starts to heal me everywhere in my body. I feel my burns are gone now.

"Next!" he yells again. The chattering amplifies, as deities are saying that they or someone else should be healed next. 

"Leo!" someone calls out from the distance.

It's Darius and am hesitant to open my eyes because what if the damage is permanent? How am I going to live with that?

"It's okay to open your eyes now, Leo," says Lady Mila. It's unusual for her to be this gentle.

What she says scares me more than how much she wants to make me feel better. For I know I will see how terrible everything is right now. I only have an idea but seeing it I think will be much more unbearable.

And I was right. Deities with grave injuries are everywhere. Some of them lost legs and arms. Others are already dead. This smell is familiar… Burning flesh. Just like how I remember from Zol's memory.

I see mushroom clouds in the far distances in the middle of the night. They are like clouds made out of the fire. Red lights from their fires make the surrounding air around them, red. I look at my hands and they move as I think for them to do. Then I see the ground, I was right in thinking that the ground is blazing hot. The rocks are glowing red-hot.

"Leo!" shouts Darius in front of me. I realize just now that he is trying to get my attention. I look at his frowning face as he asks, "Have you gone deaf?"

After swallowing to try to moisten my throat, I say, "No, I'm fine."

"Phew!" he sighs, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He glances at my right arm around Lady Mila's shoulders so I let her go. "Anyways," he says. "what happened? Why is everything destroyed?!"

"We don't know Darius," I answer. It's true for the fact Lady Mila didn't say to add something. She too does not know.

"Look for survivors but don't go too far," she says with a soft and trembling voice.

I can tell she is scared - it's visible in her eyes as she looks at the ground. Everyone is scared right now but we can't stay like that and do nothing.

"We will!" I answer, putting my hand on her shoulder to try to snap her out of her deepest dark thoughts.

She needs to be calm and tell others what to do since she is a leader. She looks at my eyes and it worked. She nods. I nod back and turn to leave.

"Let's go, Darius," I say to him.

"Let's go," he nods, unsheathing his dagger.

As we run away from her and the rest of the people gathering around Lord Santos, I focus sharpening my senses to find survivors. I have no glasses nor contact lenses. All I need is my senses. No matter how small and quiet their breaths of agony are, we must save them.

I lead the way as we run along the edge of a huge crater bigger than Olympus. It is fine to assume that there will be no survivors in there - which I think a huge explosion happened. I stop running.

"Darius," I say.

"What is it?" he asks.

"Where is Olympus?" I look at the crater and I must be mistaken for what I'm thinking. It can't be…

"That's Olympus," he nods at the crater. "at least it once was."

Shaking my head that I could almost snap my neck, I say, "Crap." I got no other things to say. It's hard to believe.

"Olympus is kaput."

"I see that…," I squeeze my fist. "but nevermind. Let's find survivors." We continue searching. "We might be able to save someone."

"Ya darn right and I'm gonna kill whoever did this!!!" he roars.

Then I remember my family. I grit my teeth trying to stop my jaw from shaking. I'm sure they're fine. I'm sure… Hera… Mom… Dad… They're fine… they're fine…

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Meanwhile, on Venus, Selena is walking back to where Skadi Mons was. She is suffocating because of the volcanic ashes in her nose, throat, and lungs. Even so, she continues to look for survivors. Her every step is heavy. Injured and out of breath, makes it hard for her to even move. She trips forward and slams her face in the ashes, suffocating her even more. A meaningless death for a goddess. It does not have to be, as Rai is descending from the thick clouds of volcanic ashes with lightning happening inside it. 

"Selena!" he calls from above. He holds out his hand forward to where she is and the wind begins to blow away the ashes around her. 

As soon as he lands, he creates a shield made out of air to keep the falling ashes away. Selena is unconscious and about to die. He makes her lie on her back. That is when he puts his palm in between her chest then up to her throat. The wet ashes went out through her nose and mouth. She coughs and he helps her breathe by controlling the air she takes into her lungs to further clean the passageways of air.

"King…," she says while panting. Her voice is cracking. "Rai… I'm… sorry…"

He can put a smile on his face although he knows what happened. "It's alright, Lady Selena."

"As an Olympian…, I couldn't protect anyone… My fault," she weeps.

"No, it's not." He makes her sit up. "I can sense survivors at least, and they need our help. Can you stand?"

She nods and he helps her by holding her hand. As she breathes more, her strength is coming back, enabling her to stand on her own two feet.

"There we go," says Rai, flawlessly putting a smile to show to her everything is fine. It works and she is feeling better. They begin to search for survivors.

Coughing into a clearer consciousness, Icarus pushes against the floor to push the debris behind his back. Hera is unconsciously lying on the floor under him. He is careful not to let the debris hit her as he tilts to the side. He slides the falling debris to the side and he lies down with it, looking at the red night sky. He coughs blood and it covered his face.

He squints and bites his lips, feeling the pain all over his body. The pain is mostly around his back. Sitting up, he looks at Hera. She is still alive but her parents, are crushed by the debris. No doubt, they are dead. Recalling what happened, he remembers himself acting out of his instinct. As soon as the light blinded them, his instinct knew that a powerful explosion is going to happen and his conscience told him to protect a child.

As if all of his hair would catch on fire as he scratches it so hard, confused about why he saved her. He barged into their home with the intent to murder them all. But with a flash of light, he did the otherwise.

"What am I even trying to do?" he asks himself. "I'm pathetic." He stands up and looks at Hera's dusty face for a couple of seconds. Then turns to leave.

Hours later, he cannot stand the smoke and ashes in the air. The morning air is nothing but the smell of blood and flesh that suffocates him. He is walking in the middle of the street full of debris and dead people. His head bows down to see less of the horror. He hopes to avoid smelling the dreadful air but he could not. It is everywhere. The other survivors feel that way as he is. They do not bother each other and just keeping in mind their own pain.

He bends his knees as soon as he senses something is not right. There are screams and roaring of men. They were not because of agony but warcries. Up ahead, he sees a survivor. A human, looking at the dozens of masked men in the distance. He approaches them to ask for help. All he got is his death. A demigod punches his head with a loud crunch.

"Kill them all!" roars their leader with the golden mask.

The screams of agony become apparent in the chaos. Helpless civilians are killed left and right of the street. Icarus slowly walks backward until one of the masked men spots him. He runs back to where he came from and they chase after him.

"Kill him!" they scream. 

Adrenaline pours into his bloodstream. In an instant, his fatigue dies away. He is running for his life. On the other hand, another group of masked men arrives near the home of Hera. The demigods can sense her breath.

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