„Underwater again and so cold! I feel that I'm freezing when I’m not in your arms, my beloved man! Where are you? Why don’t you come? Why aren’t you here to warm me with your strong arms and protect me from evil?” Sephir’s voice murmured while she was sinking more and more in that swamp’s water. Yet, it seemed so crystalline in front of her eyes at that moment.

And Sephir saw something more while sinking in that swamp: a big white she-wolf was seen in front of her eyes. And that she-wolf had her eyes closed and seemed to simply float down in that cold water while her fur, as white as milk, was so beautifully illuminating the surroundings.

„The She-wolf!” Sephir thought, recalling that before falling into that water, she saw someone approaching her to impede her fall. Yet, she fell. But did she fall alone or along with someone else? It was what she couldn’t remember. Then, she closed her eyes and fell prey to… death.

Yet, she winced, feeling cold hands touching her skin, and that unpleasant thrill, that entered deep into her bones, made her eventually want to live. Thus, she opened her eyes and, turning back to look at the one who touched her, she saw, instead of Ian Gyar who she expected to see, a… Barefaced.

And, feeling those cold hands squeezing the flesh of her arms, Sephir struggled to release herself from the Barefaced’s trap, and his unpleasant grin, somehow devilish and hostile, revealed small teeth, sharp and stained with blood.

Thus, the moment the Barefaced from the water pounced on Sephir to bite her by the neck, she tried to defeat him. And then she also grabbed him by the neck and while she was fighting with him, she understood that that time was the first time when she actually could fight underwater while by then she had felt so powerless, so unprotected as if she wanted to die or allow Fate to act up at its will while having Sephir as a target. That time, however, she wanted to live and that’s why she pushed hard the Barefaced away from her while he was dragging her with much more force toward the bottom of that swamp, trying to suck all the power of her life out of her body.

Understanding this, Sephir tried to scream and ask for help. But… from who? And her mouth only opened several times, looking for air, but, instead of fresh air, she felt the water entering her lungs, asphyxiating her, and taking what she had more precious - her breathing.

And namely while looking for more air did Sephir understand who that she-wolf was. That's why she screamed telepathically:„Samaya, wake up!” Yet, her attempt to connect with the she-wolf's brain has been unsuccessful and, when she didn't receive any answer, Sephir shuddered inside. But... Sephir wasn't ready to give up. More: when she felt madness taking over her, a madness awakened from her desire to live and also save Samaya. That's why she gathered all the power she still could use in her right leg and kicked the stomach of her enemy.

When she managed to release herself, at least for a few moments, Sephir tried to move away from that place, fighting against those water currents that were trying to drag her to the bottom of the swamp. But no matter how hard didn't Sephir fight against the water, the currents were stronger than her and their force made Sephir eventually feel that she lacked power. Thus when she finally understood that she couldn't fight against the impossible, Sephir stopped fighting and allowed the water to drag her more and more to its bottom.

Her eyes instead were wide-open, looking at that immortality, colored in the shades of the depths of that swamp, and, the more she sunk the more she saw the dirtiness hidden behind the mirage and she understood once again that the world had deceived them with its fake perfection.

Yet, when she less expected this, she felt strong arms wrapping around her body, from behind, but she didn’t have enough power to look back and see who was there and neither to understand if that person was trying to help her or to end her life. Thus, the moment Sephir gave up in front of Fate and closed her eyes, starting to walk on that unknown path toward eternity, those arms, that wrapped around her only a few moments ago, squeezed her body even more and pulled her up, to the surface of the water.

The she-wolf kept falling instead: more and more, heading toward the bottom of the swamp and having no power to even open her eyes. Yet, even if she seemed unconscious, she was aware of everything, just as she felt that coldness of the water so harshly cutting her skin. And she also heard Sephir’s voice calling her name. But she didn’t have the power either to answer her or… will... to fight against everything that happened to her.

Suddenly, she winced and opened her eyes, seeing light in that swamp of sins. Thus, she saw Upprisinn right in front of her eyes, smiling at her and summoning Samaya to approach her. But that summoning made Samaya shudder, for she didn’t consider this a blessing, but a curse - a call to death.

Yet, she kept staring at the young lady in front of her, waiting for at least a few words of comfort, words she heard very soon: „don’t give up, Samaya! Death is nothing more than a rebirth!”

„And still… I feel that I don’t have the power to do that!” Samaya told Upprisinn telepathically. „I feel that I’m tired to fight! I feel that I need rest, a silence which this water seems to give me.”

„Don’t allow water to deceive you, Samaya because this water is only the personation of pain, death, and despair, and if you give up, then you’ll take with you that young man’s love and hope, feelings that he keeps inside him and which made him jump into the water just to save you.”

And the she-wolf looked in the distance at that place where Upprisinn pointed her to look. There she saw Nathaniel fighting with his empty hands with those 6 Barefaceds that surrounded him and were trying to also sink him into that water and take his life. But the young man had a great mission there, besides the one of his own survival: to save his life and his soulmate. That’s why he wasn’t ready to give up.

„Help him, Samaya!” Upprisinn told her confidently. „You’re more than able to help him with this!” And the last words said by Upprisinn made Samaya look thunderstruck at her and she saw, once again, that young woman’s death, but she saw that moment so clearly that time, how she fell to the ground and how she stretched the hand with the dagger toward her. And Samaya also saw the Barefaced’s Forest in that image: she so clearly saw it and she understood that the world isn’t like one knows it or it seems to be. Also, the she-wolf saw another woman that looked exactly like her, taking the dagger from Upprisinn’s hand, to later go away, leaving the body of their leader to lie in a forest of shadows.

„Grandma?” Samaya asked in amazement, recognizing in that young lady, the one who took Lifid Ibloma from Upprisinn, the nymph Metope, who joined Upprisinn in that journey because she felt the danger lurking on those Virgins. Eventually, she couldn’t save them, but she managed to save the dagger.

„That’s right!” Upprisinn said. „Metope took the dagger that day and kept it for the next master: Samandra - the one predestined to the stars. Then, Lifid Ibloma chose you as its new master.”

„But… why? As far as I recall, Lifid Ibloma is the half of the twins.”

„And you are Fenrir’s twin.”

„If it's so, Eftir Daudann should have also been our dagger. Fenrir’s dagger in fact.”

Upprisinn shook her head in denial, however. „Eftir Daudann as Lifid Ibloma can be owned only by a woman’s soul. That’s why the dagger of death is now in Mayar’s hand, who’s the one who controls the mirage where you are now, and who controls you all in fact. Even Dike fell prey to her charming at this moment.”

„My dad? Influenced by Mayar? But… how is this possible?”

„I also don’t know this, Samaya. But it seems that’s because of the dagger. That's why allow Lifid Ibloma to fulfill its aim in this world and also show its real power.”

And Upprisinn vanished eventually while the she-wolf continued to sink and sink, with her eyes closed and having no wish to live, even if she also didn't know why exactly she felt this.

Behind her, Lifid Ibloma showed up from nowhere in the middle of that swamp and this has been possible only because Samaya gave up on it to give Nathaniel another chance to live.

Thus, a single moment has been enough for the dagger to get into Nathaniel’s hand and this gave him the strength to fight. Yet, he stared for a few moments at the she-wolf, frightened, seeing her falling more and more.

***

„She’s not breathing! She doesn’t breathe!” Fenrir shouted feverishly, kneeling and feeling so powerless while his eyes were looking with terror at Arion and Nathaniel, who were fighting with death to revive Sephir and Samaya.

But all their efforts seemed to be in vain, for the bodies of the two women continued to be so cold while their breathing wasn’t felt too, and their hearts seemed to have stopped breathing.

Even so, none of the two men seemed to want to give up. That’s why they pressed hard on the young women’s chest, into a fight against the clock with the death, trying to make a heart, that seemed to have given up in front of death, beat again.

„Father, do something!” Fenrir shouted with sorrow, seeing that Dike was just staying and staring with empty eyes at that water while they were already on hard soil after Arion’s power brought them all to that shore, next to the swamp.

Dike instead wasn’t able of anything at that moment - he could only look in the distance, with his eyes bathed by tears while his lips were continuously murmuring: „why, Maranam? What problem did you have with my daughter? Why did you take her from next to us?”

And, at that moment, Dike wasn’t talking like that because madness took over him: he was talking to the real Maranam, seen right in front of his eyes, in a twilight world that was surrounded by smoke and fog from everywhere, a world that replaced the Forest of the Barefaced when it was already gone. Also, Dike saw, on Maranam’s both sides, the two panthers, and, on their backs, Sephir and Samaya, who were unconscious at that moment, could also be seen.

After a few moments of total silence, Maranam decided to answer Dike and he said: „I only took what’s mine, Titan! I didn’t take anything that belongs to you! And you know that!”

„Yet, do you think you won?” Dike suddenly snarled, feeling the hatred taking power over him. „Even if you took my child from next to me, I assure you that you won’t have peace ever because I’ll hunt you all over and I’ll make you lose everything in the end, just as I’ve lost everything!” And Dike tried to throw Ionas toward Maranam after he had turned it into a spear.

But his arm has been suddenly grabbed by someone and his power couldn’t face the power of the person that was squeezing his hand, and, when he looked back, Dike has been so amazed to see Jar, only a step behind him. And Jar was also staring at Maranam. Yet, even if his eyes were focused on someone else at that moment, Jar said: „It's not the right moment, Dike! Not now!”

„But when, Jar? When is the right moment? He has Samaya and…”

„I know, but… yet: your power isn’t strong enough to take her out of there. There’s one single person that can do that,” and everybody looked in amazement at Jar.

Hearing the Spirit talking like that, Fenrir suddenly jerked to his feet and approached Jar. Then, while staring straight into his eyes, the young man asked: „Who?”

Yet, not Jar answered Fenrir, but Yellen, who suddenly shouted: „Out of the way!” And everyone listened to her command.

Only Arion and Nathaniel didn’t move from their places because two lives and two hearts depended on them to beat again.

***

„Where are we?” Sephir asked in amazement while she and the white she-wolf were slowly advancing onto a road surrounded by darkness, a path guarded on both sides by water.

„I don’t know!” Samaya said while staring at the ground and having her head bowed. „It seems that we’ve lost this fight, Sephir. But it hurts me a lot to know that my dad and Fenrir will suffer a lot because we died.”

„Then, let’s turn back! We must, Samaya! There must be a way to revive!” Sephir insisted, stepping in front of the she-wolf and forcing her to stop too.

„But there’s no way, Sephir! No other way!” The she-wolf said, staring into Sephir’s eyes. „We don’t even know where we are. We don’t have how to turn back from an unknown place.”

„Then? What do you suggest? To willingly give up on hope?”

„And? What else can we do?”

„I don't recognize you,” Sephir murmured, disappointed, seeing that for every solution suggested by her Samaya came up with an excuse, something that made the she-wolf seem as if she has already given up on everything, even if she had always been a fighter. „Will you really let the world vanish just because you’re scared?”

„What else can I do, Sephir? Me, a little human being in front of Death? I can’t fight against Maranam. Not here and not looking like this. Just look at me: my fur is white when it was grey before. This means I've lost my power and that’s time to turn back to Aeon because… white means purity. White means the end.”

„Or maybe it's just a new start,” they heard Yellen’s voice, something that made them look in amazement around, not understanding where the voice has been heard from.

But suddenly, a blinding light has been seen around them, something that made them both close their eyes. Then, they felt how something was wrapping around their bodies and, from one single movement, they have been dragged out of that world, leaving only the Eye of the Devil to illuminate behind them while a sphere was seen behind that Eye: it had the size of planet Earth, with two faces reflected on it - Samaya and Mayar’s faces. But those faces weren’t one next to another but reflected at opposite sides, which meant equality and duality of powers.

***

Coughing while touching her chest with her palm, Samaya could eventually sit on her hams, being helped by Nathaniel, and, when her eyes saw everything clearly around, she look at Sephir and saw her also awake, held by Fenrir to his chest, who tried to warm his wife's body this way.

And Sephir was awake and also scared because Nathaniel needed a few minutes more to make Samaya come back to her senses, and this was due to the exchange of powers from inside her, something that made her not being able to control herself anymore.

„What’s going on?” Samaya asked in amazement, seeing everybody staring at her with pumped eyes. „Why are you all watching me?”

„Because not everybody revives from death,” she heard Jar’s voice and she looked thunderstruck toward the place wherefrom she heard his voice. And, so soon, she saw him showing up from behind Dike, who kept staring at the forest.

„You… here?” Samaya asked in amazement. „I thought that you and I are a whole.”

„And we’d been a whole. To this moment when you turned into the white she-wolf and, when your power increased, I had no place in your soul anymore.”

„But… why? I thought that I’d been born to be your human body, here, on earth.”

„No, Samaya,” Jar said, calm. „Eris was right when she said that I only hid in your body. But I denied an obvious fact all this time. It seems that I’ve been wrong. Just as everybody who knows you has been wrong too because… you have a different aim to reach, Samaya. Which one… I don’t know yet!”

But his words only made Samaya even more confused than she has been before. Then, supporting herself on Nathaniel’s arm, she managed to stand up, to later, staggering to her feet, she approached Dike.

The Titan instead didn’t look at her, but he kept staring at the woods.

„Father?” Samaya asked, touching his shoulder. Dike instead didn’t look at her even that time as if he didn’t feel her touch. „What’s wrong with him?” Samaya asked, scared, looking at the rest. But she also didn’t see Gaea, Lodur, Island, and Boor there. „And… the rest?”

„They have another mission now,” Jar said randomly. „But I can't tell you now what mission, for… we can endanger them thus.”

Then, Jar turned his back on Samaya and headed toward a small hill, where he sat down eventually, looking at that strange horizon, colored red and which was so visibly different from those black clouds that were covering the sky.

***

Five black wolves were slowly advancing, side by side, through that enigmatic Forest of the Barefaced.

Thus, they saw that nature, seen all around them, was so strange, even if it has been suddenly surrounded by a thick fog, thrown over it, a fog that made the leaves of the trees be slippery, the dark brown of the trunks have the color of the rottenness, and the soil which the wolves were stepping onto be similar to the swamp.

„I don’t like this place,” the wolf from the middle said, having Gaea’s voice. „The forest didn't look like this a few hours ago.”

„It’s because Maranam passed by here,” said Dike, who was the wolf from her left and the first in line.

„What seems to me is that Parca has something to do here. Or the one known as Samaya’s copy, my nephew Mayar,” added Boor.

„No, here’s the curse of the Barefaced,” said Lodur, who suddenly took his real face, making the four Titans shout:

„What are you doing? Do you want to give us away?”

Lodur, however, didn’t pay attention to their shout but kept walking further. Yet, he continued his thought: „now that Samaya and Sephir are safe, Maranam doesn’t have why to be here, for the power of the white she-wolf keeps him away from her.”

„Speaking about the she-wolf,” intervened Boor, who suddenly took his real shape too, seeing that nothing happened when Lodur took back his real body, and this gave him some confidence. „I don’t understand how this has been possible and Samaya turned to be a white she-wolf. I thought that the story of the white she-wolf is just a legend of Aeon.”

„No, Boor. The white she-wolf has nothing to do with the legend. There’s Life’s power involved here,” said Lodur, who stopped and looked back, forcing the other three wolves and Boor to look at him in amazement. „I don’t know how exactly this started, but I have the feeling that the white she-wolf existed before our Universe and… I don’t know why I think that she had a twin too, a black wolf.”

„A black wolf and a white she-wolf,” Gaea thoughtfully murmured and also turned into a human. „Fenrir and Samaya!”

„Yeah, it’s possible!” Dike murmured and he has been the only one who continued in his wolf shape after Island also took back his human body, and this happened because Dike left his human body on the shore of that lake of shadows, just to deceive Parca and Mayar in case they continued spying on them. „Baradar told me about this once.”

„Baradar? Where does he know this from?” Gaea asked.

„He saw Fenrir’s destiny when he was still very young and they met for the first time.”

„The day Fenrir visited the village of the foxes, but they were already gone,” Gaea said thoughtfully. „Yet, how’s this possible that none of us or Jar, who’s the Guardian of Aeon, knew this?”

„It’s because there’s a mystery in this world for everything, just as exists a mystery behind any creation of this world. That’s why Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi and Aeon have also been created.”

„The two wolves!” Boor said as if understanding a big secret.

„That’s right! The wolves are the material representation of the two stars. But why they showed up here, on earth, for what purpose, when, how, and what's the story behind all these weird phenomena… I can’t tell you. I just have the feeling that we’ll find out this and very soon!”

„What I think is that we must find out the secret behind this one’s death first,” Dike said, showing his wolf’s fangs, for it was the first time when he could do that, having a beast’s body. But unlike Samaya and Fenrir, who couldn’t divide their powers, Dike could: separate his two powers and bodies, cheating on Fate thus.

And, when the four friends of the Titan turned their heads and looked where the wolf motioned with his head, they saw the Barefaced, lying on the ground, lifeless, right in the middle of the forest.

„This is really strange! Did Parca choose the betrayal? Once again?”

„Nea, he’s dead and since long ago,” the wolf snarled again. „But I think that he also didn’t know about this,” and the wolf confidently headed toward Laṟṟa.

Also arriving next to the Barefaced, the other four Titans looked for a while at him and they saw, in amazement, minutes after this, how the cloth of Laṟṟa’s shirt started to turn red, on his chest, as if he has been hurt just what.

Eventually, Lodur squatted and moved the cloth to the side. Thus, they all saw the deep knife wound on the Barefaced’s chest, a wound that was still bleeding, even if hundreds or maybe thousands of years have passed since his death.

„How is this possible?” Gaea asked thoughtfully. „I thought that he was alive.”

„I also thought so. But it seems that Parca still has a lot of secrets hidden from us, many more than we thought she had,” Lodur said, disappointed, for even if they all thought that they've created Parca to keep the Balance, they’d been wrong and created a monster, in fact, a double-edged weapon, which could kill them too, eventually.

„Shouldn’t we also tell Chaos about this?” Boor said while staring at the Barefaced.

„Let’s first find out the story behind this tormented soul,” Lodur said, and, after touching the wound, the five friends vanished.

Soon, behind them, the forest also vanished, and this amazed Fenrir and the others a lot, those who were still on the shore, watching the horizon. Especially, they’ve been amazed to see that the place, where the forest had been before, has been surrounded by water again, to be later turned into a swamp.

„But… how is this possible?” Malon asked, thunderstruck. „They were… were… just there… just what…”

„Everything turns back to the earth's womb,” Jar murmured, approaching them again. „Earth is round, child, and each start point is also an endpoint. Thus: each change can turn back to its origins.”

„Not everything,” Nathaniel murmured, staring at Mayar and Parca, who kept standing where the forest had been before that, also staring at them.

And Nathaniel was right, for if nature has another chance to revive itself after a big storm, not the same happens to humans or other alive creatures, for… no matter which path they choose to walk onto, the events they've lived in the past have left deep marks in their souls, scars that won’t ever vanish.

***

„Great Lord!” murmured Gaea, covering her mouth with her palm, for the amazement to see a skeleton, almost destroyed by time, on the bottom of the gulf, made her unwillingly shout.

„What’s this?” Boor also said. „How can it be? We… we have just found him, in the forest, and… he seemed alive,” he murmured, staring at the skeleton.

Only Lodur and the wolf Dike kept silent, for they also didn’t know why, but only they had the power to see the truth hidden behind that image painted in the shadows of the lie: the skeleton, that was lying on the bottom of the gulf, had his hands and legs tied, just as Laṟṟa has been taken out of the grotto. But he couldn’t survive thus, for his friends made sure that he won’t escape and that’s why they killed him with his own dagger: and, because of this, he had a knife wound on his chest.

What he saw after this: the danger of falling into the gulf and that he had been helped by Parca, was just an illusion created by someone’s power, an invisible being, but who seemed not to be by the Titanide of Fate’s side yet.

Parca, however, hadn’t been deceived by that fake image, for when she stretched her hand to help Laṟṟa and take him out of the gulf, she saw him lying on the bottom of it and she understood that what she actually grabbed by the hand was the image of his soul, that was stubborn and was still denying the fact that he was dead.

Thus, also because of that stubbornness, the Barefaced invented the fight with the scorpions, just not to accept that his life ended, and this happened due to the liquor which his friends put in his drink and which didn’t take total effect on him, and, when the dagger deeply bit from the flesh of his chest, Laṟṟa grabbed death by the coat and fought with it, swearing that he won’t be ever defeated by her.

That’s why he created the mirage, that’s why he made Parca propose that pact to him… only because he considered that he was still alive.

But that lie had been perfect for the Titanide of Fate, for she had the vision of Upprisinn passing through a forest later, in her attempt to defeat Parca and make her give up her madness. Yet, Parca disliked that thought and that’s why she looked for allies. And what other ally can be more perfect that a dead soul, ready to exchange everything for the illusion of life?

And she gave the perfect illusion to the Barefaced. That’s why she created a forest of dreams. But she failed eventually, for each lie has short legs and, sooner or later, it vanishes when the light comes.