Where The Dead Ones Go Book 4 -Union-

Chapter 4

"Incoming!"

Asher and I ran for our very lives when we saw countless spears made of wood, iron, and steel raining down from the scarlet skies as we near what seemingly a large hodgepodge settlement in the middle of nowhere.

Try as we may, we can never outrun this many missiles, so we just decided that instead of running away from them, why not just charge head-on?

I caught up with my canine companion, and as if Estelle is guiding my every movement, I rode the back of her fiance fluidly as he began sprinting at near top speed.

"Not too fast, Asher!" I warned him as the spears began to miss us entirely, "I want to breach their walls, not pierced past throughout their entire settlement!"

He howled in disagreement as the spear throwers adjusted their aim, and instead of targeting us directly, they redirected their barrage to our expected trajectory.

"That's the Pagosian Spearers for you, Asher!" I said in an impressed voice as the next wave of attack will now hit us directly, "Not that I don't know what to expect!"

I raised my right hand defiantly, "Athena: Pallas Shield!"

The owl goddess's famed shield appeared in a flash of gray light as I caught it deftly and willed it to defend our charge.

But not for long...

"When the spearers failed, it's the mortars we have to fear!" I shouted in a panic to my friend as frozen ice boulders began raining down on us in a bombardment that will surely earn the respect of Scythians.

Heck, as their reigning Emira Regnant, I am impressed right now as they began to destroy the replica of my mother's shield easily.

Or maybe it's because I haven't recovered fully yet from our sea crossing.

But I have nothing to fear, for I am not alone in this journey of mine.

My niece sent her beloved to be my companion, and he surely delivered.

Without stopping or slowing down at all, Asher summoned all the air in his body, and with a howl that echoed throughout the expanse of the barren hinterlands, he destroyed all the incoming ice mortars and the launchers from the parapets.

"Now that's Lytta for you!" I exclaimed proudly as he barked in agreement while we close in for the kill, "Now, to breach that gate of theirs without destroying it.

He yelped as if that's an impossible plan but really.

There's no such thing as an impossible plan for Athena.

"Now, I want you to trust me, okay?" I said carefully as another wave of barrages, and this time, spears and mortars combined were sent on our way, "The Aegis will not last any longer. It has been pushed to its absolute limit lately and hasn't recovered fully. It is only as good as my own capabilities. So what I am going to do is use my last stand to protect you as you make your entrance on top of that gateway bridge!"

I pointed at the only entrance of the settlement now being barricaded by a gigantic makeshift door of iron, bricks, and planks.

Asher barked in agreement as he let out another howl and probably his last, to destroy the incoming bombardment and reposition our direction towards our target as I summoned the silver spear my mother gifted me and poured my very own life force on it as it glowed with the very aura of the war goddess.

This technique of mine is on par with what my demiurge friends did. Maybe even more so when it all comes down to hard facts and statistics.

It lets my direct companion and me in the immediate vicinity shrug off and deflects any attacks of all kinds and

magnitude.

Mother even said that I can survive King Zeus' lightning bolt once if I use this.

But there is a catch.

I am effectively trading my own lifeforce to use it, effectively reducing my very lifespan by a decade each use since the owl goddess is also reduced to a severely weakened state when she uses this herself and cost the lives of my siblings to protect civilians from the rampage of Typhon.

"No price is too high for victory..."

Mother, you are right.

If I am to push through, I have to risk it all, just as my husband and friends did before me.

I may fail in the end, but I will not be caught for not trying to triumph!

"Athena: Finest Hour!"

The divine aura of the war goddess herself enveloped me and my steed with its defiant glow as the settlement unveiled its last resort to us.

Hidden in its walls are countless ice cannons trained at the two of us before unleashing a massive frozen artillery shelling so vast, it covered the entire view of the settlement and its high walls out of our sight.

A few seconds later, the ordinance hit us, and it just bounced and shattered in our aura as we charged head-on without any care for our wellbeing.

Only to breakthrough.

For words obviously are not an option here.

The moment they see Asher, they opened fire, and I cannot blame them in the slightest.

Any remotely unhuman to them is an enemy that needs to be destroyed with a vengeance.

I am already seen consorting with this beast, so they might as well vanquish me with him.

What seemed to be an eternity finally stopped as they ran out of ammunition, and we are still charging straight ahead unharmed from everything they have thrown at us.

"Jump, Asher!"

And with that, my companion leaped as high as he can, and we landed squarely on top of the gateway to see the vast entirety of the settlement that is attacking us with everything that it has just now.

This is a hundred times bigger than the village near Asher's Howling Forrest.

To call this a town or city is not a remotely accurate description at all.

It is a walled conglomeration of houses, if you can call them even houses but more like shacks made of light materials built next to and on top of one another in a tightly knit pattern to protect its inhabitants from the severe cold of the northern reaches.

Even without a sun before the fall, the magistracy has always been unforgivingly desolate and freezing. But now, with the little heat has already gone from the skies and the gift of the goddess of dawn gone, everything is just a whole lot worse for the survivors from Pagos and Auralia.

The people are understandably panicking in fear as they saw us looking down at them, maybe rather menacingly with the aura of my mother, her spear, and my feral companion.

Asher suddenly growled as several soldiers, or what looks like militias composed of teenagers barely old enough to handle the weapons they are pointing at us with trembling hands.

"Get back!"

"We are prepared to die just to kill you!"

"You are not welcomed here!"

"What are you!"

"Don't be fooled!"

"Surely a trick from the being of catastrophe!"

"Defend the children!"

"We mustn't let them get to His Eminence!"

"Inform the temple guards! Evacuate them!"

We are not getting where.

As a Pagosian myself, I know that words won't matter much if I can't back it up with proof.

That's just the way the magistracy works and, to some extent, Auralia.

They also prefer actions over mere talk.

So I willed my steed to jump over the fearful militias and into the ground where I raised my spear as high as I can and, using all the remaining strength I have left, summoned the gigantic vision of the patroness of the Magistracy together with Asher, who raised his head up high and willed his mother's familiar feral form for the Auralians to witness in bated breath.

"Athena: Pallas Parthenon!"

Beside Lytta, Athena's gray vision towered over the settlement bathing it with a reassuring glow and aura as if telling their patrons that everything will be all right in the end.

"It is our patroness!"

"Lady Athena!"

"It's a good omen!"

"After all these years! Finally!"

"Deliverance!"

"Rageful Lytta, please be with us!"

"Glory be to the owl goddess!"

"Praise be her feral visage!"

The fleeing civilians and wary soldiers dropped everything they were doing and hurried in our direction, and cried out to us in joy and reverence.

"The prophecy was true! An omen of the past will bring us to the future reborn!"

I looked at what seems to be the head of the militia and, like the rest of his companions and presumably all of the citizens living here, too young for this unforgiving world we are all forced to live in.

"Are you the leader of these children?" I asked him carefully as the kids around us earlier carrying spears and swords are now playing with Asher around the two of us.

He shook his head sadly, "I am not and will never strive to be. I am merely here because I am the eldest."

"But why are you all not electing a leader? Where are the adults? I saw no men nor woman older than me."

The boy didn't answer and instead looked at his feet, only barely covered by his worn-down shoes.

I looked around us once more and tried to sense powers similar to mine around.

As undifferentiable as we are to the normal appearance sometimes compared to regular mortals, demigods still have a certain aura of power that can easily be detected even when not used in large distances if someone knows how to look for it.

But in this place, it is bereft of those powers, or someone is hiding them deliberately.

"I refuse to believe that there are no adults around in this place. Where are the demigods? The magistracy has a slew of demigods in my generation. The viceroyalty even more. I refuse to believe that they will just leave you all here undefended on your own with these kids."

He bit his pale lips as tears well on his blue eyes, "They are gone, my lady. We only lasted this long because the adults and demigods before us sacrificed their lives to defend us all. All the children and teenagers here are all that is left of Pagos and Auralia."

Asher barked pointedly at the familiar temple ruins at the center of the settlement.

"Wait, is that the Pagosian Heran Temple?"

The boy beside me quickly nodded as if he just remembered the importance of it, "Yes, my Lady! Though I doubt you will be able to feel their presence as weak as they are."

"Their presence?" I asked carefully that made not just him but the ones around us look at me sadly and worriedly.

"It's best if you see them in person, my Lady. You too, my Lord," he said to me and my companion as he waved his soldiers goodbye after instructing them to return the civilians to their houses quickly as the night approaches, "After our parents and demigod guardians perished slowly in the following years after the Second Fall, it is left to the eldest of the underage to take over handling the walls and learning how to fire the defensive weapons the fallen have left for our defense."

Asher growled to me in sadness as he glanced at the measly fortifications and weapons the children are hiding once more.

"What did the Lord say?"

"Please, call us by our names; I am g*****a. g*****a Wilkins nee Alchimea. This here is Asher Dwight-Esmeralda," I said kindly to the boy whose youthful eyes widened when he heard our names as I looked at the wedding ring at the right paw of my friend, "What's your name? If it's okay to share with vagabonds like us?"

He didn't answer my question but just looked at the two of us in utmost disbelief, "g*****a Alchimea, the prized daughter of Athena, beloved of her siblings. Asher Dwight, the premier son of Lytta. Members of the fabled Auxiliary Class! I thought you are just one of their surviving children but to think that you are members of the group that saved us is truly a surprise for me!"

"Fat load of good our titles and group has done for us all, huh?" I said with utmost guilt and resentment, "We failed to do the only thing we set out to achieve miserably."

The boy quickly shook his head as he stepped in front of us to stop us from walking, "No! That's not what our parents and guardians told us! They said that we are only even alive after all that happened is because you sacrificed yourselves to give us a chance to live after the Second Fall when we should have been all dead!"

"But..."

"They made us promise an oath to take care of His Eminence no matter his condition is until his friends came for him!" he said with utmost sincerity and belief, "There is still hope! Until the last of us breathe their last, there will be hope! The demiurge of Lady Elpis said so when we were kids, and we believe in her! Even if our parents and guardians have left us, they reminded us not to give in, to hope for a better tomorrow and fight for it to the bitter end, and that's what we will do!"

He then looked at the two of us in disappointment that made me and Asher embarrassed of ourselves.

"If you can't even believe in hope, in yourselves, then I don't think you should meet His Eminence. He is already weakened as is and will not need any more discouragement from the very friends he needed the most!"

I quickly shook my head and stepped forward with my companion, "We must meet him; we beseech you. His Eminence, it can only mean one thing. One of the Olympian Princes and son of the Heavenly King himself. My countrymate, friend, and comrade. Zenith Mycenae, the Heavenly Queen's champion and prized High Priest."

"It is, Lady g*****a and I am Volker Romanov, Heritor of Chione and Aurora, and guardian of His Emenince."

Asher sniffed him and nodded approvingly.

"Heritor, spawn of the demigods of two deities," I said sadly that somehow offended him.

"Yeah, what of it, Lady g*****a? I may not be like you or my parents in terms of sheer strength and powers, but I can still hold my own."

I shook my head as tears fell uncontrollably from mine and Asher's eyes, "No, nothing like what you are thinking. It's just if our better halves are still with us, our children would have been just like you, Volker."

He just looked at the two of us quietly for several seconds before hugging the two of us quickly that didn't give us the time to react.

"Sadness is not the dwelling of the sea god, unending and endless, it is the realm of the primordial night mother, chased away by the breaking of dawn..."