The God of Gravity part 3: Apocalypse

Cult

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*

“There's a little girl right over here,” says a man with a mask. The rest of his comrade is behind him.

“Kill her,” says the other.

The man who found her looks at her. It makes him hesitant to do it because of the peaceful innocence she has on her unconscious face. Even so, he pulls out his g*n to point it at her. 

He pulls the trigger and hits the ground after Icarus crushes his ribs with a punch from a dash. The other men are petrified in that fraction of a second before pointing their guns at him. He picks up Hera and runs away, running in unpredictable directions to dodge their bullets. Even their curses miss his ears as what he cares about now is to stay alive.

He enters a ruined building. Five demigods pursue him. His throat is getting choked by his fear that makes him pant harder. Running and leaping on the broken walls, the unburdened demigods are starting to gain on him. One of them is an arm's length from behind him.

“Come here, you brat!!” he sneers. 

Jumping then spinning, Icarus kicks him in the face. Then goes on to escape. The man falls into the rubble below but unlike his mask and some of his teeth, his consciousness is still intact. 

“He can fight!” warns another. “Careful!”

The building ends a couple of meters away and Icarus has no choice but to jump through the hole in the wall. He lands on the slanted building and slides on its glass panes. Then he senses something huge following behind him. He looks back and sees it is a car, thrown by someone. To dodge, he jumps up and goes through the glass. Hera receives not a single scratch because he protected her from them. 

He is now sliding on the slanted floors of the building, going down in an opposite direction than the glass panes. A demigod goes through the floor above and almost hits him. He pursues the boy until Icarus goes through another glass window. Landing on the rubble, he seeks ways to escape but finds himself trapped. Walls of rubble surround him. Masked men surround him afterward. Kneeling on the ground, he swallows and looks at the men around him, walking slowly towards him. 

“Well, well, well…,” grins a man behind his mask. He seems to be the leader of their squad. “If it isn't Icarus Nephos.” He chuckles. Like a sheep surrounded by wolves Icarus is. His eyes are all over the place. “After showing such disgrace, the God of All decides to spare you another second in this universe.”

“God of all?” asks Icarus as if he is interested but not. They stop walking and form a circle around him. He puts Hera on the ground.

“Yes, and be grateful for it and just die right now, boy.”

“Well, thanks to the God of All,” he mocks.

He kicks the rubble at his feet, the dust gets into the eyes of the man in front of him. With his elbow, he strikes the man behind him. He ducks, the rest miss their punches. He grabs Hera and slips through their circle. On the way to the wall, he kicks down a pillar. The broken concrete floor above collapses upon them.

“Argh!!!” they scream in pain it that is not enough to kill them.

One of them emerges from the rubble first with the fires of anger on his eyebrows. “Argh!!” he roars.

His roar suddenly comes to cease right after Icarus punches him in the throat. The others come out and Icarus is ready to face them. He put Hera where he came from so he could fight. A punch after a blinding speed, he hits a man in the abdomen. He is not able to use his Sword Breaking so he collapses on the ground. Another man strikes from behind but Icarus dodges it. He punches that man four times in the abdomen. The man retreats, feeling the pain.

It is the turn of the other three. They attack but he escapes. A man chases him from behind. In an instant, Icarus kicks him in the stomach but in time to use his Sword Breaking. He absorbs the impact, grabs Icarus by the leg, and pulling him to punch his face. With his hands, he manages to absorb most of the impact. The ground shatters under him.

Icarus's tactical mind did not faze. Grabbing the man's arm, he did the armbar choke. In the contest of strength, he will lose so he applies force as soon as possible. The man's arm has been dislocated, making him useless for the remainder of the fight. 

A powerful punch from another man hits Icarus. His back slams against a wall. It crumbles and buries half of his body. Gritting his b****y teeth, he rises from the rubble. Then spits blood to the side and puts up his stance. The expression on his face suggests that he is ready for another round of pain. There are only two of them left standing as they approach him cautiously. The air Icarus is taking in seems like it is not enough as he pants so hard. He remembers his fight against Leo and how he and his father lost to him. 

In his mind, he screams, “I will never be like my father!! I will regain my honor by defeating him! And these guys are not even a match for him!” Looking at the two men, he scoffs. They lower their stances. To their surprise, he starts to walk slowly towards them. Right after they stirred their minds, they roar as they charge.

Bursting into a sudden speed, Icarus says, “Fist of Two: BATTERY RAM!!!” He punches the men in their stomachs.

Like cannonballs, they go through the rubble, destroying the base of this rickety building. It starts to collapse. Soon afterward, he picks up Hera. He escapes the collapsing building. Unfortunately for the men he defeated, that building has become their coffin.

*

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“Help!!” a lady cries out. Darius and I can sense where she is. 

We have been finding survivors for hours until this morning. We never rested even for a second. I'm not sure if it is morning because of the thick cloud in the sky. We can only guess the time. No blue sky can be seen like the world is going to have its longest night. I feel that it is getting cold rather than hot. This is like what Lord Seok told us about the nuclear fallout. Everything is looking dead, only a handful of trees without leaves and posts that remain standing. This looks almost like a flat wasteland. Oh… it “is”.

Not only we have to wear these annoying masks to avoid inhaling the toxic elements falling from the sky, we always have to use SF to stop radiation from destroying our bodies. It's even out of luck that we found masks. I'm hungry and tired but my brain chose to ignore them a while ago. I'm sure Darius feels the same. I think these sensations aren't the things that are the hardest to endure. Not thinking about the things we lost is the hardest. We have to or else we will fail to save as many people as we can.

And my worry for my family. Every time I think of them, my legs get numb for a second… Nevermind, Mom and Dad are no doubt keeping Hera safe right now. Soon, we'll move out of the Demigod district and rescue people outside of it. Then that's when I find them alive and well. I'm sure of it. I'm sure of it… I'm sure…

“Help!!” the lady cries and it stirred me from my thoughts. 

Somehow, this landscape is all familiar for me, like I've been here before it is destroyed. This barn… Wait… Right when we enter the ruined barn, we find Mrs. Wilson!! The owner of this barn and the owner of Tiny the Bull! And… oh, no… Mr. Wilson is on the ground.

“Mrs. Wilson!” I exclaim and kneel beside her as she holds her husband's hand. I can tell he is dead because of my senses. I remove my mask. “It's me, Leo.”

Crying and sobbing, she looks at my face. I can see the sorrow in her eyes. “Leo? You've grown so much. Please help my husband.”

I close my eyes and grit my teeth. When I open them, Darius is looking at me with a stern face. Yes, he's right… we have to abandon him since he is dead. We have to save who is alive. I don't know how to make her feel better about leaving the body of her husband.

“I'm sorry, Mrs. Wilson but we have to go now. Let us save you for him.”

She cries and puts her forehead on her husband's chest. I swallow, trying to contain my tears. Mr. Wilson was a good and bright person when I met him. His death brings the opposite of that. I shake my head, trying to shake off my deep thoughts and just do what I have to do.

“Please, Mrs. Wilson, let us save you. I'm sure that's what Mr. Wilson will ask us to do.” 

I stand up and show my hand. She's still sobbing on his chest. This sight, no matter how many times I saw it while we saved people, I can't bear to see someone lose their loved ones. That's because it makes me wonder what will I do if that happens to me. I don't know if I can keep my sanity intact.

A minute later, she snuffles and wipes the tears from her eyes. Her hand is wet with her warm tears when I held her hand. Darius gives her a mask and I largen my area of SF to protect her from radiation. 

Sobbing, she says, “Goodbye, my love,” before we exit the barn. And just now, I start to wonder where Tiny is. 

We stop walking when because I sense many unusual presences. Darius' face, looking at me, I know he senses them too. There are hundreds of them, moving from the west towards here. They are a mixture of humans, demigods, and gods. Maybe they want to seek refuge. We're here and we will guide them to a safe place. We are standing in the middle of the field.

“Let's wait for them, Darius. Maybe they need help.” 

“I don't know,” he says, scratching his neck. “I feel something isn't right.”

“Me too. I wonder why they are moving so fast. Are they running away from something?”

Our eyes widen when we sense some of the presence disappear. Like… how the presence fades when a person dies! 

“This might not be good, Darius,” I say to him.

He cracks his knuckles and says, “Whatever it is, I will deal with it!”

“No, remember what we came here for.” 

He scoffs at me.  

To the west, there's a large crater and we know they are climbing it now. We wait for them to climb up. Mrs. Wilson is terrified—I can tell. Hundreds of them, humans and demigods, come climbing up the crater. Although far and my eyes are blurry, I can tell they're in a panic.

“Something is definitely not right!” I utter.

“Ya darn right,” says Darius, unsheathing his dagger.

A masked man comes out of the crater and shoots them! Men with masks like him climb up and start to kill people! There are gods with them too!

“Oh, my-” gasps Mrs. Wilson.

“We gotta go and save them, Leo!” Darius shouts at me. He is excited rather than scared or wary.

“Mrs. Wilson,” I say to her in the calmest way I could manage. “Run as fast as you can to where Olympus was. They will help you. Don't look back, and don't worry, we will stop them all from touching you.” She nods and runs to the east. She's counting on us and we can't fail her.

“These fools,” Darius growls beside me as he cracks his neck. “killing innocent people, I will kill thousands of them!”

“Play it safe, Darius. This is the real deal. We can't get a single scratch if we want to survive. So we do it fast!”

“Let's go!”