Now, What?
2325 Words
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“You can do it, Dyami,” says Juliet to encourage him.
Hilde is getting restless as he takes too long to heal her. She turns to look to the east. Thousands of debris get shot into the air. Explosions higher than the buildings and blasts that their shock waves make their way here.
“Hurry, boy!” she demands but Dyami could not answer. He is concentrating so much. “Argh!!” she rages in pain. He lets go of her arm.
They look at her arm and the injury has gotten worse. “I'm sorry, my lady!” he apologizes, feeling that his lowest bow is not enough.
“It's alright!” she says. “I forced you to do it anyway. But I'll go now!”
“No, my lady,” says Santos.
“We're the only Olympians in this place! It's our job! Now, let me go, Santos!”
“Calm down, Lady Hilde,” says Seok. He noticed the fuss earlier and decided to check it out. “Lord Damon will-” He stops and looks above to the east.
Everyone looks there too and sees something flying towards them. No one makes a sound. It is a moment of silence as they wait. Closer and closer it comes to them until it crashes into a building. The ground shakes, screams of panic fill the air. The demigods tasked to guard them have it hard to keep them calm. Others went to find out what was that thing that crashed. Santos and Hilde watch a demigod appearing from the dust cloud with his eyes widened.
He says, “Lord… Damon,” He swallows. “is dead.”
For their eyes to see, the dust cloud clears up, and see the men pulling out the dead body of Damon from the rubble. Squeals pierce the walls and souls of the people. Hope is shattering like mere glass.
“Everyone, please calm down!” yells Heron, the God of Art and one of the Fifth Seaters. “They won't listen,” he mutters to himself. Then an idea pops into his head. “Let art calm your souls!” His eyes glow white and he creates a mural to cover Damon's body from everyone. “Look, everyone! It's a masterpiece!” His way of calming them does not work.
“It's not working, Heron,” says Emma beside him, sniffing the air. “I can smell each of their fear—it's maddening me. I wish the King is here.”
Heron puts off the smile on his face and looks down like her. “I can't believe i'm so useless as an Olympian.”
At the far end of the street, footsteps echo louder than the screams. They stop their screaming and the footsteps become louder and clear. Hilde with the help of Santos puts herself between the people and the man who makes those footsteps.
“Did you already sent a message to Ashe?” she asks Santos.
“Yes, my lady. It's only a matter of time until he gets here.”
“Good. In the meantime, I'll buy us some time. I might die this time.” She smiles at him.
Gritting his teeth, he knows it could happen but they have no choice. “Please don't die, my lady. Give us a miracle.”
She scoffs. “We'll see.”
He lets go of her and she stands without crutches, looking like a small breeze can send her crashing down on her own weight. Her right arm is not working anymore so she holds her axe with her left hand. Santos joins the others to retreat feeling as if a hard chain is pulling him back to Hilde. He breaks it to move on.
“Oh, Hilde!” exclaims Dragunov from the distance. “My old friend!” He takes off his mask to smirk at her.
“Nice to see you too, Dragunov!” she answers. “Still ugly as ever, I see. Oh, you just got uglier.”
“Mind if I end Olympus starting with you?”
“To think that you're the one I've been finding… makes my axe eager to split your skull.”
“You're gravely injured. Just die.”
“I will but not yet.”
They glare at each other. He charges but she stands on her ground, unable to move that much.
“What?” he asks in surprise when a slice makes a tall wall of violet fire between him and her.
“What's this?” asks Hilde, falling onto the ground.
She looks up to her right. Sayuri is standing on top of a building with her eyes glowing violet. Her frown is more intense than the fire she summoned. Jasper is sitting on a ledge, smirking at Dragunov.
“Jasper… that brat,” Hilde mutters.
“Mind if I help you, Lady Hilde?” says Hyun approaching her from behind.
“Seok's nephew?”
He nods and carries her away from the area that will soon become a battlefield. Putting her down to a safe distance, he heals her just enough so she could walk.
“We'll handle this, my lady. Please go back to your people.”
“No, you kids sit back and watch!”
“I can't let you interfere.” He controls her body and throws her far away to the west.
“Argh!!” she screams in frustration.
The demigods catch her and Santos immediately goes to her. “My lady!” he lets out a yell of worrying. “Are you alright!”
“I am! Those brats!”
He notices her injuries already healed. “You're healed… who do you mean, brats, my lady?”
“Seok's nephew and Narada's brat!!”
Juliet is there when she said it so her eyes widen and turns to look to the east. “Jasper?” she asks herself.
She could not see from this distance, obstructed by buildings and dusty air. She only feels he is there and she could almost cry from happiness and sadness at the same time.
“Oh, what a nice mask you have, my man!” Jasper compliments Dragunov—who he does not know yet because of the mask.
Sayuri is waiting, holding the hilt of her sheathed katana. She knows his strength so she could not act carelessly.
“And you must be Narada's son,” remarks Dragunov.
“You're right! What a splendid deduction! Ten points for you! Let's see if I can guess who you are.”
Dragunov takes off his mask and shows his smirking face. “You don't have to.”
“That's disappointing. I thought you'd be looking a lot cooler.” He laughs.
Stopping his smirk, Dragunov wears his mask back again. “You're laughing because you think that goddess beside you will protect you.”
“Nah… she's not all about protecting me. She's all about killing you.” He narrows his eyes.
“Not that she can.”
“Let's see about that, Dragunov,” Jasper hisses. He steps back and Sayuri jumps down.
Rolling to the side, Dragunov dodges her strike. He seeks to punch her side but she is too fast that she recovers in no time, making him switch to defending himself in the last second. With his gauntlets, he blocks her fiery slice. The whole place explodes in violet fire.
Hyun arrives and stands beside Jasper just to observe the fight. “Aren't you going to help her?” asks Jasper.
“No, I think she's gonna be fine. She needs to face him alone to become stronger. I want her to grow.”
“Suit yourself. But just in case, be ready to help her if she gets into trouble.”
“I intend to do that.”
Leaving the dust cloud of the blast, Dragunov walks back as he watches the dust being lighted up by her violet fire. A horizontal slice bursts out. He ducks but then a large sword from the sky descends upon him. He gets blasted away from where he stood and she is quick to pursue him in the air. She goes for a slice from below to keep him in the air. His gauntlet saves him from her deadly strikes.
“You've grown a lot haven't ya, girl?” he remarks while defending, getting flung up into the sky with a huge distance from her. “Strength of the Universe:” His eyes glow red.
“I will make you suffer!!” she screams. “Sword of Nine!”
“Golden Brawl!!”
She disappears and he predicted her slice. His gauntlet goes against the slice so she stops in front of her. The next thing that happens is a huge explosion of violet fire as powerful as a nuclear bomb.
Jasper and Hyun got blown away from the top of the building they observe from. The flash of light almost blinds the people of Olympus. Screams are dominating the air. The blast finally reaches them, making everyone fall. Ashes violently fly everywhere, buildings crumble once more, and clouds above clear up for everyone to see the blue sky. The demigods protect the people from falling debris. Not all of the debris has been taken care of. Some of them fall onto innocent humans, killing them instantly.
*
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We saw that explosion happening in the distance. It's violet and I don't know why. “What the-” The blast scrambles all of us in mid-flight.
It's not that powerful because of the distance. We recover right away. “Is everyone alright?” asks Mila.
“Yes, my lady,” we say.
“Maybe it's that powerful lady,” says Darius, standing on top of Mila's cloud.
“Could be,” I add.
“What lady?” asks Ruby.
“We'll explain later,” says Mila.
We fly around where the explosion happened and witness how it made a hole in the clouds. The mushroom cloud is violet and bright. It reminds me of what happened. Then down below, I see Jasper and Hyeon's brother on top of a building, noticing us.
“Hyun!” growls Hyeon, seeing his brother smiling from the distance.
He is about to dive down but “Don't, Hyeon,” says Mila. “We need to go and protect our people first. Making him pay goes second.”
“Yes…,” he grunts in anger. “my lady.”
I sense where Sayuri is. She's far away from the blast and also the man with the golden mask. They must be the ones who created that explosion. We passed over them in no time.
“That way, my lady!” I say to Mila as I point a little bit to the northwest.
We change course and a moment later, we are near but cannot see where they are. It's Lord Heron's doing. A part of the illusion opens up for us to go inside. We are met with a lot of noise and panic. The demigods are barely keeping everyone calm. As soon as we enter, their panic dies down very slowly. Some of them carry their dead that they think are still alive. What happened here? Right… the explosion. Damn it.
“Mila!” cries Lady Juliet, running toward us. “I'm glad all of you are fine.”
“Yes, but we need to keep moving!”
“Lord Seok already has a plan and now that you are here, he's gonna start.”
“To what?”
“Focus the prayers for Lady Aiko to teleport all of us to Asgard.”
“Okay,” Mila nods and sighs in relief.
Another series of blasts and earthquakes happen. The fight between those two deities is destructive. I've never seen such a fight like that before. The panicking starts to take over again. Debris from the buildings around us start to fall.
I hold out both of my hands as if I'm reaching for the debris. They fall slowly. The people stop panicking and avoid where the large concrete pieces are going to fall. The other demigods help me by getting rid of them.
“Thank you, Leo,” says Lord Seok beside me. “Now, everyone! Please pray for Lady Aiko so she can take us to a safer place!”
All of the humans calm down into murmuring, clasping their hands to pray. Some of them hold the hands of their loved ones while praying. It reminds me of what our family used to do. I try to find Lady Aiko. The yellow light she makes from her eyes guides me. She's in the middle of the group, gathering power using her relic—which is a staff she's always holding.
“Any second now,” says Lord Seok. “We'll be out of here.”
Then something crashes on the street far from us. Their fight is getting closer to us! This is bad! She's losing! Hyun is helping her but they couldn't take him on! They need help!
As soon as I take my first step, Mila grabs my arm. I look at her and she shakes her head. Darius is about to do the same thing I was about to do. I nod at him and he nods back.
She says, “Both of you, don't-”
She disappears along with them. Darius and I are left behind. Lady Aiko teleported everyone except both of us because we used our Immunity.
“Now, what?” asks Darius.
“I can't stall enough time alone but now that you're here, we might be able to.”
“Easy enough.”
“Be careful.”
He hits his knuckles against his palm. “He's the one who's got to be careful!”
- Writer
