The God of Gravity part 3: Apocalypse

Golden Mask

Just as when I return to my room to prepare, a powerful rumbling happens above us. I almost tripped because of it. I finish putting on my armor so I grab Darius's armor. I exit the room. The rumbling is still happening.

Damn… I hope he's fine.

Lady Mila is ready for battle with her battle suit too. She summons a black cloud. “Let's go!”

I nod, jumping on the cloud. We fly in the passageways on our way to the exit. Jia guides the evacuation by speaking to everyone no matter where they are. The bunker is echoing with squealing, screaming, and rumbling. Thousands of footsteps desperate to get out of this bunker alive. 

Both of us have to lie down to avoid the ceiling because people are running from danger while we go to it. We float above them like they aren't noticing us. Finally, the passageway is empty and we can fly swiftly without worry. But this is too slow. I can go faster than this.

“I have to go ahead, Mila!” I tell her. “I have to help Darius!”

She nods and says, “Be careful!”

Boosting myself, I go ahead of her. Like skating in the air, I kick and alternate the exploding force under each of my soles. The airlock is already busted open by Darius. I enter it and go upwards. I sense hundreds of unknown presence! Darius is there fighting them all alone!

I leave Darius's battlesuit near the entrance. Then I fly up to have a better view at this high altitude. I can't believe what I'm seeing… Hundreds… No… Thousands! There are thousands of them! They're a mix of humans, demigods, and deities! 

Darius is right below me. He's being attacked by all of them. They cannot catch him as he goes appearing in every part of the plain. I have to stop him from using his power too much.

“Darius!” I shout. He did not hear me. “Darius, stop!”

It is clear that he is nearing into his madness. The way he moves from one place to another, he doesn't give any regard to the limit of using his power.

“Kill him!” they scream.

The masked men fire their weapons at me. I dodge them by diving after to the ground, shattering it, and blowing some of them away. The ash cloud gives me cover but unfortunately for them, I can sense where they are. Taking them out one by one in the ash cloud, I feel even more concerned about Darius as a second passes by. Even I, couldn't catch him. Unless…

I close my eyes, focusing to predict the future. He will appear there! Flying low, I fly to the west where there are dozens of enemies. They notice me coming so they attack. Damn, I got to get there or I will be too late to catch his dagger! It's hard to travel fast while dodging their attacks.

Luckily, I'm in time to catch his dagger. He appears at the same time and glares at me. I glare back to show I'm not afraid of him. 

“Stop, Darius!” I yell at him.

“Let go!” he grunts, kicking me at the side.

“Argh!!” That was painful!

I still have the dagger as I get blown away. He appears in front of me again and I don't let him grab a hold of it. With my knee, I hit him under the chin. He goes up, two bird deities with flight ability go after him. As expected, he repels them away with his sheer strength.

“I'm fine now!” he stirs. “Give me my dagger!”

He's fine now!

Still busy dealing with enemies on the ground, I find a moment to throw his dagger up. I leave the ground after finishing a man with a punch to his stomach. I get near Darius as he fights against the two deities. 

They sweep down to take us out. “Do it!” I yell at him.

He does his cessation and although they have relics, for a moment, they revert to their normal form. That lag makes them too late to dodge my punch. Darius attacks the other. It is not enough to kill them but buy us time to get us out of this unfavorable surrounded position.

Mila and the other Olympus Mons Fourth Seaters just got out of the entrance. Hyeon fires at them, Shui makes a wall of thick yellow glass around the entrance, Ruby and Han attack the nearby ones, and Mila keeps the rest of them at bay with her black storm. We land near her.

Her eyes are pure black when she asks, “Are you guys okay?”

“Yes, my lady!” I answer, panting hard like Darius. He puts on his battlesuit I left near the entrance earlier.

“Good! Now, listen,” she says, looking around. “We are going to hold this position for a little longer until Lady Aiko gets everyone out of here. It'll take a while but we have to! Make sure they don't use their destructive weapons or power to destroy Shui's wall! Go!”

“Yes, my lady!” we affirm and turn to take our positions.

“And Darius,” she says so we look back at her. “don't use your Cessation at the moment!”

“As you wish!” he nods.

“Now, go!”

We fly up and over the high glass wall. We stand on it and see how Mila's storm is devastating the fields. Even with not enough prayers, she's still this powerful. 

“I'll watch the other side!” says Darius to me, tapping my shoulder.

“Okay!” I nod.

They are shooting us with their guns and projectiles, but Shui's yellow glass wall is so tough. I hate to say it but I think his power is so useful this time.

-

*

Chuckling, Jasper says, “Well, what do we have here?”

He and his companions are watching the battle from miles away. They are flying with the help of Sayuri's wide blades and heading towards the tall wall of glass in the distance. Philip is flying with his boots and Hyun with his power. They follow behind Sayuri—who is sure that the man she wants to kill is there.

“Oh, Hyeon is there,” says Hyun, squinting his eyes.

“Yeah, but my sister is not,” says Jasper beside him. “It's better she's not there. My lady!” he calls her. “Let's lay low for a while.” He smirks when she turns to look at him. “Let's wait until that guy shows up.”

“But they're surrounded,” Philip argues. “they need help!”

“Both of your friends are there along with the kids I know who are capable of fighting. They'll be fine!”

Jasper grins and puts his arms over Philip's shoulders. Sayuri listens to him so they land on top of a hill where they can still see the battle. 

*

-

I sense someone outside the dark clouds amassing a dense power! I can't see but it could be something bad so I have to check it out. That means going out of Mila's protection and into thousands of evil men who want to kill me. 

In this part of the wall, Hyeon is with me so I ask for his help. “I sense something bad! Cover me, I'll check it out!”

“Go!” he agrees, summoning a sniper rifle.

I get off of the wall and dive to where I sense the power is. Then the ground suddenly ripples like water, swiftly going to the wall. I don't have a thing to stop it so I just watch the part of the wall shattering. From where that ripple comes from, hundreds of them flood in, going through the storm. All of them are demigods. I fly over them and through the dark turbulent clouds. When I got out, I find a man with a golden mask.

His presence is alarming! Like… he's as strong as Lord Enzo! He's looking at me as I fly and does nothing. I can't act carelessly. Then he explodes. Hyeon hit him using his rifle from this far distance. The smoke clears up and he hit the bullet with his knuckles. Hyeon shoots again. This time, multiple times. 

Meanwhile, I need to finish him with my “Fist of Seven: Millenium Punch!!!”

I'm right above him when I launched it. The smoke clears up just before my punch hits the ground. He is preparing his punch. No use, my punch will go through-

Surprised I was when a dark cloud grabs a hold of me, making me avoid the large shock wave in the air going towards me. Mila saved me!

“What?!!” I exclaim out of panic. He nullified my attack with a far stronger punch! If I was hit, I would've died. She can see me from here?

“Leo,” says Mila through the radio. “Retreat!”

So I did and the golden mask lets me go. It's very strange that he does that. I'm his enemy but why isn't he seeking to finish me? What is he planning? 

When I got inside the storm, I see Darius and Ruby taking out every demigod that made it inside. Shui is rebuilding his glass wall. It's very strange that the deities I sensed earlier are gone. Where are they? 

“Who was that, Leo?” asks Hyeon.

I land on top of the wall and answer, “I don't know but I better tell Lady Mila.”

“Alright,” he nods and continues to shoot at the enemies.

I fly down and Mila is still there beside the entrance with her Bident, channeling her powers to protect us. She holds her relic with both hands, raising them to the sky.

“Leo, thank goodness I was in time to save you.”

“Yes, thank you, my lady. How long shall we wait?”

“A little bit more.”

“That man… his presence is powerful.”

“I can sense that too.”

“We need to take him out. He's might be the leader of the enemy!”

“That's also a reason for us to be careful and stand our ground. We don't know if we are enough to defeat him! Our objective is to save everyone first, Leo. If he comes to attack, that's when we will have to face him head-on.”

“Okay,” I nod and go back up to see what is happening. 

They finished off every demigod that got through the storm. The man with the golden mask and the rest of them disappear from my senses too. Could it be…

“They are retreating!” Shui reports using the radio built in our helmet.

“I don't think so,” says Mila. “They might've found out where our people are. We have to figure out their movements!”

She stops her storm so we could see far. We scan every direction around the wall but could not even see the horizon because of the fallout and mist in the air. All we see are white and grey clouds above. The enemies are nowhere to be found. They are even out of my range of sense. My normal range is a mile away and everything was too chaotic so I wasn't able to make out their movement before they got out of my range. Where could they be?

“Everyone, regroup,” says Mila so we jump off the glass wall. We gather around her and she looks at us one by one. “Are you okay, Ruby?” 

“I'm fine, my lady,” she says, returning to her normal form. “Just a scratch.”

Her “just-a-scratch” is a long slice on her right arm. She doesn't show any signs of pain on her face but she's bleeding hard.

“Shui, cover her wound,” says Mila. Ruby grunts a little when he did. Her blood is staining the glass from inside. “Carry her with your glass.”

“I'm fine, my lady,” she insists.

“No, you're not until we patch it up properly. In the meantime, I don't allow you to fight.”

“But-”

“Don't let me repeat it,” Mila commands as a real commander should. She has the power over us and the smartest so we must follow her.

Sitting on the floating glass chair, Ruby says in submission, “Yes, my lady.”

“Alright, follow me.” She rides on her cloud and we follow her. 

We fly to the west. As we go on, not only me but all of us are confused why we couldn't find any trace of the enemy. It's like they just disappear into thin air. What kind of deities do they have?

Lady Mila flies faster than before so we keep up.

“What's the matter, my lady?” asks Hyeon.

“Ivan found the enemy closing in on them with his map!”

“How did they find them?” asks Han.

“I don't know but we got to hurry!” she says so we did.

Then I wonder how the enemy found out where Lady Aiko teleported everyone. The idea in my mind is what Philip told me when I last met him. Just like Lord Seok told me a month ago: “There might be traitors anywhere.”