《Seeds of Evil: Rophion Forest》CHAPTER 34: THE COBRA'S DEN
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The view is so beautiful on the horizon, that it takes your breath away and the sky, of a gray-purple, enriches this outlook with blinks of light that are coming out from its paunchy depth.
“It’s raining somewhere,” Zeal whispered, barely heard, while she was watching at the sky, in the distance, which was sparkling under the piercing movement of the thunder lights.
“There is no rain there, Zeal. There is a fight, for life and for death there,” told her Island, while both were sitting on a big rock, in the center of a Glade, surrounded by the little amount of snow still seen here and there, even if it was already late April.
“Do you think that they will make it?” asked the girl again, without even looking at him, while she was squatting, a little lower on the rock, with her knees stuck to her chest, as she used to stay when she was little and her mother was scolding her for some howler made by her.
“Who?” asked Island and blowing in the distance, he managed to numb the air, making a few icicles, which were hanging upside down, without any support, similar to huge monsters from the fairy-tales into a blue-lightning void.
“I’m talking about Sephir. It's been so long, but none of them came back. I’m afraid that something bad happened to her” the girl sighed and this profound and stuffy sound was heard coming out of her chest.
“Each of us has his own destiny in this life, Zeal and you know this well. Even if we fight with Parca, giving in this fight the best we can, it does not assure us the success.”
“I know, grandpa, but I’m still afraid. I’m afraid not to lose her like I lost my mother when she disappeared” and the last word shuddered the girl till deep in the bones, because she remembered about an open wound, long time ago made, but which is still so painful, as if it was made just a few seconds ago, and not years and years ago.
“When I was still little, my mother told me once something, after I saw your grand-grandfather, Coallar, for the first time and I told her that I’d better die than to be like him.”
Zeal slowly turned her head toward him and, in her eyes, blinked the curiosity, because she adores so much to listen to her grandfather’s stories, because most of the time they are full of magic, miraculous things, and hidden lessons, which are filling her with power and dreaming, which she later is trying to figure out their true message while lying on a big lotus leaf, slowly rocked by the melodious voice of the waves. “And?” slowly throbbed in the air Zeal’s voice, who moved closer to Island, waiting the rest of the story.
“I don’t remember now the exact words my mother used then, but their message sounded like this: this world is unique, like the trees, the sky, the air which we are breathing and the lands, because even if two things seem to be the same, they aren’t perfectly identical and this makes them unique.
And when she told me this, your grandmother, Inlan Diar touched then my shoulder with her soft and cold palm and she smiled at me and what calmed me down then was her smile and I understood that not the knowledge and the lessons make us unique, but the kindness and the love of those who surround us, because they have in their beings a hidden spell, which can change destinies.”
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“But still, grandpa, what about the essence of each of us? We keep inside us the seeds of our ancestors. So, it makes sense to have some of them in us.”
“Hm,” slowly frowned Island and he moved his lips, from one side to another of his mouth, as if this movement could have brought him the desired idea, and thus to answer Zeal's question, but he didn’t know the message. “And still, what about us, Zeal? Each of us has the right to have an opinion and choice. Even if evil influences us, we still can fight with our inner world and decide if to follow that evil or not. But I don’t deny the fact that there are exceptions, as then when one is possessed by the devil…”
And Island suddenly kept silent. He remembered about Bestla’s mother, who attacked her own child, moved by the inner voice of the devil, who demanded her to take the soul of the girl and the cut the thread of her existence, but nor Island, neither Boor ever told the girls the real story of Edda, who in fact had been possessed by Ahi’s demons before her union with Boor and she seduced the God of winds with the intention to take his power, but in the night of their marriage, Inlan Diar read in Edda’s eyes her future and that she will give birth to a Huge Power, as the one Bestla had now in her being.
So, Inlan Diar decided to use her magic over Edda and she imprisoned the evil inside her, but as no evil can’t be closed forever, at the age of three of Bestla, Edda took the girl to the river with the intention to wash the girl’s body in the same waters that gave the birth to Edda and to bless her with eternal life, but when both stepped on those lands, Ahi met them and he melted the ice ring that was chaining the demons inside the Water Spirit and at Ahi’s command, after they transformed from Edda, they attacked the girl, trying to take away her power, but they faced a huge power, that none of them ever thought that can exist in such small being as Bestla.
***
Ahi’s eyes completely mirrored into the blue glance of Edda, who allowed him to possess her and standing still, a black wave entered her soul, moving slowly through her bones, flowing in the rhythm of her blood, till it got to the shining ice ring, which was closing inside its round form the edges of the sack of Edda’s soul, blocking the demons inside it.
Face to face with the dark blow, inside the sack of the soul, 6 small beings fiercely started to move and only the top of their horns could be seen, piercing the cloth without breaking it.
Then, Edda’s being started to slowly pulsate and those pulsations had intensified when Ahi’s hand touched her hand and he whispered into her ear: “So long time sleeping in captivity, my dears. It’s time to fulfill your mission, for which you had been brought into this world” and his eyes mirrored this time in the blue of Bestla’s eyes because the little girl was standing behind her mother.
But little Bestla didn’t scare at all. While her little hand was squeezing the cloth of her mother’s garment, she sent a wave of warm energy toward Ahi’s eyes, who thought that it was a kind of knowing the world which the girl was using while trying to enter his being, but he soon understood that he had been wrong.
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In contact with the retina of his eyes, Bestla’s energy made it melt the coal of his eyes and flow like a hot liquid on Ahi’s cheeks, blinding him.
Ahi’s palms covered his eyes, but it was already too late, because he had been blinded, and, roaring like a madman, he started to fiercely move around, groping for something, but his fingers could grab only the empty void. But the hatred of his soul melted till the end the ice of the ring from Edda’s soul, who stood still as if hardened, all this time.
When the last drop of water evaporated under the boiling of her soul, Edda turned toward the child … her eyes were impetuously burning, while her lips were continuously moving into a grinning, and her body transformed repeatedly from human into a demon, doubling down with each movement, till it got to six demons.
Then the six jumped over Bestla, who didn’t move from her place but, instead of grabbing the girl’s body into their hot arms, all the demons hard hit the glass wall of the box that was protecting the girl and turned upside down, rolling far away from the box.
Crazy and hurt, the demons roared infernally, shuddering the waters around. Then, Bestla slowly stretched her hand in front of her body, palm facing up as if watching the sky, and on the skin of her palm had been drawn, in one go, by a peacock feather-sized pen, an ink eye.
When the pen finished to draw the eye, it vanished, and then Bestla put the other palm above the first one, with a small distance between them and as if the palms were mirroring into each other, on the upper palm a similar eye had been drawn, and both eyes started to blink, while the girl’s lips were whispering: “let the light of these eyes bring silence here and to paint in different colors the surroundings, creating the fantastic” and then the miracle happened - the transparent walls of the box fell down, breaking into pieces and the girl seemed to be unprotected … the demons, feeling that it was their turn, started to move their hooves on the dank soil, leaving deep marks on it, and they attacked the girl again, throwing themselves toward her, but from the retina of the eye drawn on the below palm started to exit a thread of black light which quickly entered the upper eye and between them was made a change of energy channel, who at first was black, but soon it had been colored in dark-blue, intensifying its pulsations.
Feeling a magma of energy floating around, Ahi took advantage of this and, inhaling deep inside his chest that breeze, he managed to recover his sight, but when the air touched his inner throat, he spitted it out, as if it had been poisoned and after seconds of coughing, he grinned unsatisfied and looked at the frozen demons in the air, jumping fiercely over the girl and whose bodies started to liquify and to be absorbed by the vibration of the energy produced by the girl’s palms.
“Yahon,” he mumbled with hatred. “I felt that you would be reborn, but I didn’t know that you would take form from Boor’s flesh. So, you are the one who gave this girl so much power, meant to subdue me.”
A strange voice was heard, pulsating in the air and whispering into Ahi’s ear: “even if you kill me a thousand times more, Ahi, I’ll always find the way to immortality.”
“You say?! I won’t have been that sure if I was you. You are nothing more than a coward hidden inside the spirit of a little girl. You still have a long way till you will defeat me.”
Then, behind Ahi, the real Yahon showed up. However, he wasn’t a grown man, but he was a child, the same size as Bestla, completely white and only his eyes had the shade of the emerald. Clapping his palms, Yahon threw a wave of energy toward Ahi and it hit Ahi from behind, forcing him to kneel.
But Ahi still had enough power to fight. His fingers had been transformed into black dagger blades, which he threw behind him, intending the hit the Spirit of Mirrors, but Yahon was used to Ahi’s style of the fight because it wasn’t the first time they were fighting in those hundreds of years since they hate each other, so he vanished into the air when he felt the daggers approaching his body at full speed, but right away he showed up in front of Ahi and another wave of energy hit him, throwing him a few dozen of meters back.
Even if Yahon was out of Bestla, the girl wasn’t frozen as generally happens to the human shape of the Spirits, but per contra - she had her own force and, finishing to swallow the demons inside her palms, she put them one on the other, as if covering a jar with a lid and, touching the skin of the palms in a circle, as if sealing something, she watched at Yahon and whispered: “I’ll wait for you in our place, Yahon. Don’t be late and don’t let him hurt you” and the moment the mirror box had been formed again from glass ashes she disappeared.
Yahon just nodded in approval and, watching again at Ahi, who stood from below and was slowly approaching him, he smiled.
“So, you didn’t reborn, but you hid only.”
“To be reborn I had to be dead” answered Yahon in mockery and, lifting his body from the ground, floating in the air, with his legs under his body, as the Oriental style of sitting on an invisible carpet, and with the palms touched in a pray, he vanished too, and then Ahi saw Boor and Island running toward him and he decided that it’s the perfect time to hit the pike and, roaring as if he was a mad beast, he transformed his body in burning ashes and the wind blew him all over.
***
Yahon’s shape had been projected into Bestla’s world, in the same position as he disappeared from in front of Ahi and he was so amazed to see how from those eyes, drawn with ink, blue water is flowing on the mirror land as a stream.
“Edda,” Yahon whispered with sadness, staring at the water flowing out of the girl’s palms, and the same sigh had been heard behind him, and when he looked back at the one who whispered the same word, Yahon saw Boor, sad and desolated, and how Island was touching his son’s shoulder, trying to give him relief.
“Everything has its own meaning in this world, Boor. Edda fulfilled her destiny. Let her breathe a sigh of relief now and rest in peace” and Edda answered him, using the slow rustling of the water, washed by the blinking of that mirror world: “I’m happy, Boor, that our little girl is sage and that I didn’t hurt her. At least for this, I’m happy that, leaving the real world, I can stay here, in her inner world, and be with you forever.”
Boor approached the girl and she right away asked him to take her into his arms, when the last drop of ink transformed into water and reached the stream’s surface and after hugging tightly her father’s neck, laying her head on his shoulder, she fell asleep, while around her was heard a lullaby, slowly sang by Edda’s voice coming out of the waters, while its surface was gently touched by Boor’s hand.
***
“What are you thinking of?” Zeal asked Island when she saw him so deeply immersed in his memories, and his eyes, staring at a blind spot, were blinking strangely.
“At nothing special. Only … thoughts that are crossing now through my mind. Let’s go back! Bestla probably is worried that we are absent for so long already.”
“Of course, let’s turn back!” Zeal said and, standing up off the rock, she first moved toward the forest seen in the distance.
Island continued sitting on the rock for a little bit more, staring at those two pieces of sky, illuminated by thunder lights, and his heart twitched because of fear … there is a part of his soul there, in the presence of Sephir who is in danger and he didn’t know if Dike and the others will manage to save her and to bring her back home safe and, if they will bring her home safely, Island intended to hug her tightly to his chest and to whisper to her that he loves her, because he so many times hid this from her, pushing her away deliberately while trying to punish her for her explosive nature and to make her understand her mistake. But this decision is pressing his chest now, under the form of remorse, but Island finally stood up, when he saw Zeal stopping and waiting for him and, approaching her, he put an arm on her shoulders and kindly smiled at her and in that smile, Zeal could see the kindness of a father that wishes nothing else than happiness for his children.
Behind them, nature came back to life and the frail strands of grass, slowly shook by the wind, were stretching their small and prickly bodies toward North there, wherein the distance the sky was sparkling, under the tight hug of the devilish thunder lights and from those feeble blades of grass, similar to a thread made from the soul, a thin thread raised up to the sky and when it joined the black-purple of the clouds, it had been moved away on the limitless surface of the sky till it finally reached the place of the battle and when it finally got into the center of the thunder lights avalanche it had been spit on earth and that fireball, in which the thread of life had been transformed, didn’t scorch the soil around, but it lifted up, like a poppy flower, which was floating in the air and, spinning slowly around, on two of its petals showed up eyes, painted with ink and which were watching in the distance.
At about one hundred meters from the poppy flower, floating in the air was seen something still burning, even if the flames were so weak, a sign that the burning body was about to vanish. And it was so, because that body, which was transforming into ashes, was Ian Gyar’s, who couldn’t escape from the trap of chains and caught inside them he saw how his life is leaving his body and reaching its end.
Dike and Nathaniel were not too far from him, watching his end in silence, but none of them was happy with the death of the enemy, who finished burning at the moment when a Portal, made from fire, opened from nowhere in front of them and through it, came back to the real-life Baradar, Sephir, and Fenrir on the back of Navaro.
Seeing his son practically without any power on the horse’s back, Dike approached him in a hurry, while behind him the wind blew all over the ashes of Ian Gyar’s body.
“What happened there, Minikin? Why is my son more dead than alive and why did he return on the back of Navaro?” and helped by Nathaniel, Dike laid Fenrir on the ground and his hand moved above Fenrir’s body, healing him and trying to bring him back to life.
“We just … just…” slowly stuttered Baradar, not knowing what to answer and he looked at Sephir, with pleading eyes, who saw herself forced to explain something, only slowly grinned unpleasantly at the minikin and, taking a few steps in front, she intended to leave, but Nathaniel stepped in front of her, stopping her. “Master Dike asked you something.”
“And why should I be the one to answer?” she answered cantankerously, sinking his eyes in the man’s glance, but she right away understood that she can’t control him with her Magic and she frowned.
Nathaniel smiled instead, understanding the reason for her upset. “There had been others too,” he said and took a few more steps toward her. “It seems that your Magic isn’t working on me. Let’s say I’m a kind of magnet, with minus resonance, like your magic is, and this is a problem for you.”
Sephir also took a step in front, ready to fight, but right away they felt how Baradar’s palms touched their body while standing between them and trying to end the argument between the two. Watching them with a furious and reproachful glance, he wheezed through his teeth:
“You better keep your energy for others. Here are enough demons lurking on you and waiting to break your bones or I can step back and allow you to kill each other and this way you will do me and the demons a favor, because this way we will have a minus problem and more energy not wasted” and, finishing his speech, on an irritated tone, the minikin approached again Dike, who finished his spell on Fenrir and the young man finally opened his eyes.
“Welcome back to life,” the minikin tried to provoke Fenrir, but to the young man Baradar’s joke didn’t like and, lifting his body on a sitting position, helped by Dike, he watched Sephir and, understanding that she’s fine, he smiled and a sigh of relief came out of his chest: “Thank God she’s fine! What a release!” but a slap on the back of his head awake him from his daydream and, looking into his father’s furious eyes, who understood that Fenrir acted foolishly in the battle with the snake Ian Gyar, risking his life, the young man foolishly smiled and, stuttering, he slowly whispered: “it happened to others too,” but Dike disliked his son’s remark and nodded reproachfully, but when he was about to start his long speech about safety, he usually tells to Fenrir in such situations, he had been interrupted by a body, rolling in front of him, while turned upside down, through a Portal showed up from nowhere and they all saw how Tenebre hit, in the end, the front legs of Navaro.
Looking up in the horse’s eyes, who was watching her furiously, Tenebre grinned, whistling a “no offense. I have nothing against you. Only against him” and her arm stretched toward the Portal, which was still blinking in the air and they could see a furious Jar, showing his anger through the blinking of his eyes.
“Jar” slowly Dike whispered. “How is it possible?” but his amazement had been felt even more when watching Jar, who was so furious that was hearing and seeing nothing around, how he stepped over the threshold of the Portal and his body, in contrast with the semi-blue light of it, had revealed for a few moments Samaya’s silhouette, and it forced Nathaniel and Fenrir to whisper her name at the same time.
A sudden neigh pierced the dusk and a hove hit, well fixed on Tenebre’s back part of the body, forced her to fly back through the Portal, as if the horse decided to answer her and the message “then go back to him if you have nothing against me” had been received and the black Queen flew through the Portal, past Jar, who stepped aside not to be hit by the sudden flying creature and he grinned unpleasantly, watching behind her.
Then, Jar turned his back to the others and, heading toward the place where Tenebre landed in her fly, after the horse’s kick, he made the light of the Portal blinking fast, while it was fading off.
“Find the entrance into the cobra’s den. See you there!” Dike yelled to the others and, running toward the Portal, he jumped through it, being swallowed by it for a few seconds before closing.
Behind him, the four were quickly moving from the eyelids, amazed and confused, because none of them knew what kind of devilish event had been that, but they returned to reality, when Navaro’s snout, touched Nathaniel’s back, pushing him to walk and neighing unhappily, and standing up they prepared to leave the place, but they saw then a smile sketched on Sephir’s face, that amazed all.
“I didn’t know that cobras can smile,” Nathaniel whispered, upset while feeling that he is the object of the others' mockery.
Sephir watched amazed at Fenrir. “Now is it my fault?” her eyes were asking him.
“Don’t pay attention to him. He’s just envious,” whispered Fenrir and, slowly tapping with the palm on Navaro’s back, he gave the signal to move further, and the horse, at a slow step, passed them and, approaching Nathaniel, he slowly puffed from his nostrils, conciliatory.
“Now are you looking for peace?” Nathaniel mumbled and, even if he wanted to pretend to be upset for more time, he gave up to the idea, seeing the horse’s glance staring at him and, stretching his hand, he touched Navaro’s warm snout. “All right, let it be as you wish,” Nathaniel whispered and they continued their path together as if they were friends as old as the hills.
“I thought that Navaro is nobody’s friend,” whispered the minikin, amazed to see a fierce horse and a man becoming friends so easily.
“Maybe you don’t believe this, but this bad-tempered horse has a soul even more kind than I have. Traitor!” Sephir mumbled unpleasantly because Navaro usually acted like this only in her presence, but it seems that he liked Nathaniel too.
“And it seems to me that we have another jealous person here,” Fenrir joked and, passing next to her, he grabbed her hand and forced her to follow him and this gentle touch of the young wolf, made Baradar look at the sky and to joke: “youth, you - playing pranks on hearts, where you went without a story?” and at a slow step, he followed the others.
***
Jumping through the Portal of Jar, Dike felt how his inner energy is unbalanced as if controlled by a hidden force and, instead of stepping normally on hard soil, the Titan turned upside down and rolled on the floor, right away he reached Tenebre’s den.
Landing on all four, Dike sighed, happy that at least this time he didn’t hit any stone, whose hit will be later felt, on rainy days, deep inside his old bones.
Then, he raised his glance and looked around … it seemed to him to be too quiet there and only a light gust of wind was slowly moving the lit of the small torches, stabbed on the walls, similar to candles, a sign that inside was entering the fresh air of life, even if around no alive creature was seen.
“Where have they vanished?” Dike mumbled, standing up and, taking a few steps in front, he carefully watched the den.
The place seemed to be something not out of the ordinary. On the contrary, it was too ordinary for Dike’s taste, who used the eye of his mind to watch the place from outside: a hollow inside of a huge tree trunk, whose roots entered deep inside the earth and which also could be seen in the den.
There were also a few wooden tables, on which were seen many small bottles with liquid of different colors in them and a few books of magic. But what caught Dike’s sight, was a big bottle on the table from the center, with a kind of reddish liquid, in which was kept a cobra and even if Dike could see that the soul of the cobra left that body a long time ago, it still was moving inside the liquid, as if controlled by an inner strange energy.
“As usual, she can think only about evil things!” Dike mumbled unpleasantly and approached the table, attracted by a black cloth which was covering something floating, and this made the edge of that cloth slowly vibrate under it, while the floating thing was slowly spinning in the air as if it was the Planet Earth, which was spinning around its axes.
“And what’s this now?!” he wondered and stretched his hand to uncover the object, but a sudden pain pierced his brain and, bringing his hand to his temple, the titan closed his eyes for a few seconds, as if bothered by the light around, and then he saw, passing in front of his inner eye, a deplorable view of the world in fire and two huge eyes, all-seeing, were burning in the sky.
Even if those eyes were similar to Chaos’eyes, something was telling Dike that what he was seeing was nothing else than an illusion. To see it better, Dike completely closed his eyes, while his hand touched the black cloth, without uncovering the floating object and, sinking again into darkness, he entered again the world which was burning and, reaching there and leaning with both feet firmly on the ground, he raised his glance and watched those eyes.
Looking like two fires in full force, those eyes were strongly illuminating the surroundings, feeding with their energy the fire that was “eating” the world around. But when they felt a glance piercing them, the eyes moved the trajectory of their look and their retina, of a heated black, stared on the titan’s body, who saw how behind those eyes a huge being was forming his shape and soon a large demon, black like all the nights, of which was burning his eyes, his horns and his 6 tails, bent a little toward Dike, while his big fingers were hitting one of the other and there was a thud, all around.
“Master Dike, glad to see you again, even if after so much time,” but Dike didn’t hurry to answer, because even if the body and the voice of the demon were remembering him about Mannar, something was whispering to him that it was only an illusion and soon he finally understood with whom he was talking to, when he heard Eris’s grin, laughing slowly in mockery.
“It was you!” the titan grinned furiously and suddenly his hand tightly grabbed the cloth and revealed the Palantir, hidden under that material, and Eris’reflexion could be seen floating inside the sphere.
She was still imprisoned in Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, but her power grew up so much, fed by the force of her followers on earth and, pulling the huge and heavy chains after her, she approached more of the wall of the Palantir and watched deeply inside of Dike’s soul.
“Did you finally understand now that you have wrongly chosen your master, Dike? Chaos isn’t more than dying energy, while I am the future. Join me and I promise to make you king.”
“A king ruling from your shadow?” the titan whispered angrily. “I’ll better burn this world with my own hands than to leave it at your mercy.”
“Great words are you saying, Dike, but will you be able to burn it knowing that this way you kill your offshoot? I don’t think so. Your heart isn’t yet able to feel the evil. But if you join me…”
And Eris’ hand had been stretched toward him as if she wanted to pass it through the dark-red wall of the Palantir and to grab the titan from the throat. Dike, as if blinded by the magic of her eyes, harden, because he saw himself in her place when he noticed the burning sand under her body and his mind played a prank on him and for a few seconds he teleported himself on those lands and felt on his skin the arson of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi.
He shuddered and turned back to the life, when Jar’s hand lifted the cloth from off the floor and threw it above the Palantir, covering its all-seeing eye. Watching him, Dike didn’t understand at first who he was seeing in front of him: the Spirit who lives inside his daughter or Samaya and he slowly whispered: “Who are you?”
“Jar” the Spirit simply answered. “Samaya isn’t still capable of showing her real shape and of using her immense power which Chaos gave her, but she will manage it after passing the last of the pranks this life will play on her.”
„A prank? What kind of prank?”
“I couldn’t figure it out yet, but I feel that it will happen soon, because Mannar is about to be settled free from the dungeon in which he had been imprisoned, a long time ago, by Lodur and Gaea, and we still don’t know what he is capable of. Not for nothing, Tenebre is gathering power here.”
"Tenebre gathers power? For what?
"I don't know yet. All I could find out is that she is looking for the three elements that can open the Gate of Aeon."
As if enchanted by a sudden revelation, Dike took a few steps, while the fingers of his right hand were tapping on the left palm and his eyes were staring at a blind spot, seeing nothing else around.
"The Gates of Aeon ... but this is ... this is Eris'chance to escape," he finally answered and the titan turned his body and looked deeply into Jar's eyes.
“If evil manages to open those Gates, then we will be all lost forever because they will kill the Prophecy and the birth of the One will be delayed..."
"Delayed no, Jar. That soul won't be ever born, because both Eris, and her followers and the army of evil know that the One will be who will control time and all the parts of the Balance, if he will restore it, and if he does it Eris will be destroyed and for sure she won't ever allow this and will chase him forever. And us too."
"I agree with you, but ... according to the Chaos'prophecy, The One will be born from humans and wolves and even if Fenrir and Samaya have the same blood flowing in their veins, I couldn't see who of them has the energy of the One, energy that I felt first still being in Aeon when Moirae just started to weave that prophecy, at Chaos' command.”
"Moirae!" whispered feverishly Dike, still looking around for something, but he couldn't understand what he was looking for. "We need to find those three weavers. Only they can reveal the future.”
"But we aren't sure that they will be by our side, Titan Dike. Remember that they cheated once on Yggdrasil and Lodur, when they stole holy water from the Fountain of Truth, looking for Immortality. I'm sure that they will try it once again when they will smell that chance."
"Then, let's take advantage of this" whispered Dike, decided, and a cunning smile had been sketched on his face. "If they want immortality they will have it, even if just as a promise" and furious, Dike threw the Palantir on the floor, breaking it into three equal parts and, moving his hand above it, the titan forced the Palantir to show him what he was looking for: the hidden den of Moirae and the projection of the Palantir showed them the entrance in Arkadia Cave, on Kyllini Mountain, there where Moirae had been imprisoned by Ian Gyar.
"Let's go!" he ordered Jar and he was the first to exit out of Tenebre's den.
Before following Dike, Jar threw above the three pieces of the Palantir the black cloth and then he left the room, advancing through the long and arched tunnel, seen in the distance.
Behind Jar, the Palantir took again a spherical shape and, touched by Tenebre's hand, who all this time spied on Dike and Jar from inside of the Cobra's body, kept inside the bottle, and the Palantir again started to float.
Tenebre decided to hide from Jar, after she had been thrown through the Portal, at Navaro's feet, because that had been the moment when she understood that Jar and Samaya's power started already to join in one, while she's still so weak.
So, taking advantage of the horse's kick, who threw her deep inside her den, she hurried to hide before Jar turned back inside the hollow, and she managed it because when Jar looked for her, he couldn't understand where she is and Tenebre could cheat on him, sending her voice along that tunnel, as if she was there, while she was spying on him through the eyes of the cobra.
When she finally managed to send Jar away, using her cunning and he ran toward there, mad to find her, Tenebre decided to run, but she had been forced to keep silent and remain in the cobra's body, as a moving wave of dark fog, as she entered it, when she saw Dike approaching the table.
"Thusly, the Gate to Aeon," she said, gently tapping the Palantir's bottle awkwardly. "Then let's use that to our advantage and find Mannar this way. Only then we can begin what we have been planning for centuries.”
"Let's not hurry!" said Eris, who reappeared in Palantir. "We will not find the gate to Aeon alone. Those who are able to find it are the ones who formed it. "
"So, what should we do? Shall we sit and wait for them to take our laurels for which we have fought for so many hundreds of years?”
"Patience, my daughter, patience! Everything has its own specific time!”
“But, mother, how can you speak so calmly knowing how the sand of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi burns you every time you move your body on it? You should be the one in a hurry to exit it.”
"I rushed up once, Tenebre when I sent my heart to Earth and I was defeated. This time I'm going to wait and win. So, listen to my plan and do exactly as I say.”
Eris's voice began to whisper, speaking again in a long-forgotten language, and this whisper increased the Palantir's energy, which essentially reflected in its shape the moment when Dike and Jar came out of the hollow and joined Fenrir and the others, who were waiting for him.
And Eris was amazed to see how Jar turned into Samaya in the rays of the sun, for he saw in Samaya's face the creature that Chaos had shown her many years ago and who he had predicted to be the one to destroy her, cutting off her head.
"The executioner!" Eris said with hatred, and this hatred from distant Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi spread over Samaya like a mist of black air, and the girl lost consciousness in her father's arms.
"Now they'll have an extra concern for them," Tenebre grinned. "And it will slow them down, while we will have plenty of time to perfect our plan," and her laughter, echoing around while being accompanied by Eris's laughter, shook the surroundings.
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7 Killers
Dragon Fifth is a powerful lord with incredible martial arts, and yet is wasting away from a fatal disease. The only medicine which can cure his sickness lies in the clutches of his venomous ex-wife, Madam Lovesickness, and is guarded by seven dangerous killers, fugitives of the martial world. Into this treacherous love spat tumbles Liu Changjie, a skilled martial artist who loves drinking and women, but has a mysterious past. All is not what it seems in this wuxia heist story. Can you decipher the mystery before the final reveal? (There are only seven chapters in this novel, but they are very long chapters. In total, the story is of equal length to roughly 20-25 average web novel chapters)
8 269Heavenly Monarch
Ray died a miserable death on earth and got reincarnated into another world with a system that will support him in his journey to become the strongest cultivator in all the heavens, but he felt like he did not fit in and want to return to the world he came from. In order to do that he will have to embark on a dangerous journey.
8 422Villainous
DROPPED // ABRUPT ENDING -------- Being born a slave is unquestionably one of the most monstrous situations a person can find themselves in. Being reborn into the body and memories of a child slave abused and killed by her peers is something one step further. Thrust into an alien world with magic and science bound together and maintaining the social hierarchies of aristocracy, Li Mei had one more go at life, a brilliant shining opportunity. Burdened by a lifetime and a half of experience with the worst kinds of people, filled with an overwhelming desire for freedom, and granted a generous user interface, Li Mei will not just wreak havoc upon her murderers. They will call her ‘villainous’, but they can’t comprehend her drive to take vengeance one step further than was even wrought upon her.
8 138Until Forever (ROYAL RIDERS SERIES BOOK #1)
Vince Hunter. The rich, famous, and world-known hockey player and my asshole of a boss. People see his charming smiles and game moves on the ice. I see his tantrums and irresponsibility. What I never imagined happening between us was a drunken one-night stand. And even worse? Getting fired because of it. But now, six miserable months later, he's back to ruin my life and he's at it again except this time he needs me to play the picture-perfect girlfriend. As it turns out, our scandal left his reputation more damaged than mine and if he can't redeem it, he can kiss his spot on the team goodbye. The worst part of it all?I'm stuck with him, bound by contract, until... forever?...ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDTRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of parental abuse
8 199MOONLIGHT SONATA . . . regulus black
MOONLIGHT SONATA ━━━ Regulus Black is the embodiment of bad juju but Hecate Lovegood deserves it. © solntserises cover! @vintagegrace
8 164QUIRKY! (MHA x Reader)
(Continues in books 2 and 3!) (Y/N) Kayama is attending one of the greatest hero schools in the world... UA!The faculty this year consists of a variety of well-known heroes, like freaking ALL MIGHT - the NUMBER ONE hero - Eraser Head, and, (Y/N)'s very own aunt, Miss Midnight.(Y/N)'s quirk makes her a powerhouse, with all the potential to succeed along with the rest of her class. It's her dream to help others and make her aunt proud. However, Aizawa is ready to expel her if she doesn't learn how to use it. It isn't an issue of breaking her fingers like Midoriya. Or a crap attitude like Bakugo.Nope. (Y/N) has to kiss people... ⚠️ Some sexy content ⚠️ Language ⚠️ Some descriptions of blood/violence AN: I do not own any characters from My Hero Academia - just a big fan! Most of the plot will intermingle with the anime/manga but some I made up! There are a couple OCs that are my babies, and then crossover characters from other fandoms!
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