Chapter 23

Selene...


After Selene watched in horror as Marcus ruthlessly brought down his sword on Artemis' body after encasing it in stone, effectively executing her in front of everyone, he then turned asked for their payment.

As if on cue, Mayor Anderson waved for some of the guards and a few minutes later they came forward with a large bag of gold coins.

Marcus looked at it for a minute as if examining the quality of it. The expression on his face was so calm and collected that you could almost believe he didn't murder someone a few moments ago.

Selene didn't know what to do or how to react to what was going on so she simply watched him with a pointed glare.

"You couldn't have switched these out for platinum coins?" Marcus asked in annoyance.

"Ah I'm afraid not. Platinum coins are far more rare and usually only minted out as a means of conveyance of storage so that a kingdom's wealth can be better maintained. They are not minted for far off small towns like this one to keep in its banks. You will simply have to make due with hauling what you have. That is...unless you'd like to refund some of it back to me to ease your travel back?" Mayor Anderson asked with a sneer.

Marcus scoffed at him and swung the heavy bag of coins over his shoulder and said, "I'll manage."

As he was about to walk towards her, Mayor Anderson then asked, "Are you alright sir? Your skin looks quite pale. Did you happen to lose too much blood during your fight with her?"

Marcus stiffened slightly but Mayor Anderson didn't seem to notice.

"I'll be fine, I just need some rest," he said as he nodded to Selene for them to get moving but she flicked her head to look away from him in disgust. She was so angry with him that she could hardly stand to look at him but she knew she had to keep an eye on him.

As they were making their way through the town to head back to the inn Marcus stumbled a bit and had to prop himself up against a wall to keep himself standing.

"We need to hurry back to the inn quickly. I don't know how much longer I can stay awake like this," he said.

At the very sound of his voice addressing her directly she was so filled with anger that she drew her sword and rested the blade against his throat as he pinned him against the wall.

She then said with a grating tone, “I don’t want to hear another word out of you. I never would have thought you would do something so inhuman! After I file the report, I don’t want to see you in the guild ever again. As far as I’m concerned you are banished from all brotherhoods.”

He simply replied, “That’s fine with me if you feel that way, especially after what you just saw. However, we need to hurry back because I feel like I'm starting to slip away. Is there anything you can do about that?”

She furrowed her brow in anger as she then pulled back her fist and punched him in the gut. The moment her fist landed on him they disappeared in a burst of fire and were teleported right outside their room.

She had expected Marcus to hunch over from her punch but he simply looked down at her with a look that said, Really? Is that the best you can do?

Determined not to be shown up by him she placed the point of her sword on his throat and said, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't just stab you and kill you now for what you did?"

His eyes did not falter as he gave her the same look as before while he moved his hand to the door handle and twisted the door open.

As it opened slowly she tried her hardest to stay focused on him as to not let it distract her but she couldn't help herself as she looked into the room and found...

Artemis.

Artemis was in their room, sitting on her bed, in chains but completely unhurt.

“Is that a good enough reason?”

Her voice got caught in her throat and her sword arm went slack as she walked inside. Selene then looked towards Marcus who had a smug grin on his face and then looked back to Artemis.

He had faked her death. But how…

Marcus closed the door behind him and stood next to her. Artemis sat on Selene’s bed chained to the bedpost in obsidian shackles with the flame seal still burned on her forehead, and her magic still sealed.

“How is this even possible?” Selene asked.

“Well I had learned during training that I have the ability to travel within a conductor as a current of electricity. I can even make a conductor with my Dragon Glass for some reason. I just drilled into the ground and sent it all the way up to our room here. After encasing the outside of her body with it I sent her on her way," he said plainly.

“But...but the blood. Why was there blood from all the stone?" she asked.

"I used some of my own blood for realism and dramatic effect," he said as he slowly walked over to his bed and sat down.

"You used your own blood...? Oh no, that's why you're so pale! Are you okay?" she said panicking as she walked over to him and looked him over.

"I'm...I'm okay, for the most part. I just need to rest for a bit," he said before he laid down on his bed.


Marcus...


After close to an hour he started feeling a little bit better as he sat up straight and pulled a chair from the table in the room. He then walked over to Selene's bed and then started nervously rubbing his throat. He reached out to touch the chains on Artemis' wrists and she was set loose as they disappeared and were absorbed back into his body.

As soon as her shackles came off she jumped off the bed and ran to the other end of the room getting as far away from them as possible. She must’ve known that if she tried to leave he’d just catch her and bring her back. Not only that but if it were found out that she was still alive, the town would continue to hunt her down, so she stayed put in the room but kept her distance.

Selene simply smoothed out her sheets and said under her breath, “Thanks for tossing her on my bed and messing up how I had it.”

Marcus rolled his eyes as he sat in the chair in the middle of the room and started speaking to Artemis.

I think you and I got off on the wrong foot, so let’s start over. My name is Marcus, and I’m guessing you are Artemis. Is that right?”

She was trying to ignore him but as soon as he said her name, her head snapped up in surprise and she said, “How do you know me?”

He smiled as he said, “Daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister to Apollo and goddess of the moon and the hunt?”

Artemis was speechless for a moment until she finally asked, “Who are you?”

I’m nobody special, but I grew up hearing about the stories of the Greek legends and of the gods, demigods and monsters from those legends. I grew up reading about heroes like Perseus and the gorgon Medusa, Heracles and his twelve trials, Achilles the invincible warrior. I know these things because like you, I am also from Terra.

Does that mean you are from Greece as well?” she asked with a look of hope.

He shook his head as he said, “Greece still remains but its people are in poverty and its old empire fell well over two thousand years ago. However, many of the stories and monuments of the Greek era still exist to this day. They have not forgotten about you.

Two thousand years ago...But that's not...

Artemis mumbled something under her breath that he didn’t quite catch but shook her head as if to push the thought aside.

"Now putting all that aside, I want you to explain to me why you were out killing the guards. Not only that but why did you seem so hateful towards Mayor Anderson? Judging by what you said, it wasn't you who kidnapped all those children correct?"

"I did not take those children! I did not!" she said.

"Marcus, what is she saying?" Selene asked.

"She says that she's not responsible for the missing children."

"Although, the missing children weren't even the main reason I came here in the first place," she said.

He blinked in surprise when he heard that.

"What? They weren't? Then why did you come to this town?" he asked.

Artemis went silent as she walked to the window and he followed her. She pulled aside the curtain revealing the massive landscape of the town and the mountain that towered over it. She then said, “I came here because of that.

She pointed to the mountain and stepped aside for Marcus to look.

Selene noticed this and came over to do the same. She followed his eyes and looked directly at the mountain and her face suddenly paled. She looked at Artemis and asked, “Malthael...But what does the Archdragon have to do with the missing children?"”

Artemis just stared at her blankly, not understanding her.

“Marcus, can you translate?”

He repeated the question to her, and Artemis replied, “I'm not completely sure but...I had been hunting a target when I sensed a surge of energy coming from this place that felt very similar. When I also heard that people have gone missing here as well I came to this place as fast as I could and tracked the ones responsible to the mountain but before I could do anything to stop them, someone attacked me and placed a curse on me. Every time I tried to approach the mountain and came too close I was sent back to the edge of town and yet when I tried to leave town as well I was pulled back. I am trapped here. Then, when I sensed the two of you..."

"You thought that we were working for them and that we were their reinforcements?" he asked as he slowly realized where this was going.

Artemis nodded, "I tried to approach you but was sent away as well so I decided to draw you out by killing the guards. The guards are the ones responsible for the kidnappings."

He repeated that to Selene and then she asked, “The guards are the ones responsible...? That would explain why I didn't recognize any of them. Also...there's something else I've been meaning to bring up but the way Mayor Anderson was acting doesn't seem to match the person I remember. He seems like an entirely different person.”

Marcus then returned his attention back to Artemis as he asked, "That man, Anderson, what do-,"

"Anderson?! That man is not Anderson. He may share the appearance of him but his scent is not the same at all. I could tell from the very moment I saw him."

"What is she saying?" Selene asked.

"She says that you're right. The man we spoke to isn't Anderson at all," he said before switching back to Greek, "Well if he isn't Anderson then who is he?"

His name is Jiroh, Jiroh Aderlynn," she said.

Marcus translated and Selene said, "Jiroh...?"

"Do you know him?" he asked.

"I do. He was one of the princes belonging to the Mordran Royal Family but its been over fourteen years since anyone has last seen him. He's been hunted for so long but he he disappeared without a trace to the point that everyone thought he was dead. He is a war criminal that went so far to win that he made a bargain with Malthael to decimate Duranell's armies but failed."

"I believe that Jiroh is attempting to resurrect Malthael and attempt another attack on Duranell through a ritual of some kind. One that I've seen during the war many times.," Artemis said and Marcus translated.

The moment Selene heard that she went very still and she held her arms close to her chest as if shivering. She went silent for a while which made Marcus think about something. If Jiroh really was planning on bringing back Malthael, something that even Selene is afraid of, then they will need all the help that they can get to fight against him, including Artemis.

The only problem with that however is that there was a language block between them. Artemis can only speak Ancient Greek, a language that only he can speak as well. He needed all of them to be on the same page.

He then looked at the rune formula on Artemis' forehead that Selene had placed on her and then thought about his ability to manipulate electrical signals through the neurons in the brain.

"Artemis, give me your arm. I need to try something," he said and she looked apprehensive about it but she obeyed.

He then collected what little energy he had left and burned a small scar in the shape of a rune formula designed not to seal her magic but rather to transmit and store information to her. It was something he had learned how to do during his time training with Selene. Sadly she only had minimum level knowledge about it but it was more than enough for what he needed to do right now.

Artemis groaned in pain slightly but did not jerk back as she let him burn a rune formula into her forearm.

"What is this for?"

"This will allow you to speak our language," He said as he then collected all the information that he could muster of the English language and transmitted it into the marking on her arm before saying, "Now...how is that? Can you understand me?"

"What are you...am I...?" Artemis traced her hand down from chin to sternum and Selene looked at her in shock.

"Did you just...?" she asked him and he nodded.

"This will make things a little easier so that we can communicate with each other more properly," he said before he started to feel a little dizzy and stumbled backwards with Selene placing her hand on his back to keep him steady.

A few minutes later he managed to regain his bearings and asked, "Artemis, you had mentioned that someone had attacked you and placed a curse on your body that limits your ability to travel to certain places correct? I want to see if I can remove it. Can you show me where on your body it is placed?"


She stripped off her trench coat and then began removing the wrappings around her shoulders and breasts before moving her hair out of the way of the pitch black curse mark on her neck.

He was a little surprised to see Artemis, the goddess of virginity and maidens, so easily exposing herself in front of him. What surprised him even more though was the fact that Selene didn't flinch to it either.

Well...it doesn't seem like an issue to either of them. No use bringing it up and starting an argument over it.

He moved closer to her to get a better look at the runes making up the curse mark and noticed something odd about it.

"Selene...I don't recognize these runes here. Do you know what they mean?"

She walked up next to him and looked at the curse mark on Artemis.

"Ahh I see. I've read up a little on curse marks. Apparently there are three kinds of curse marks. There are those that work by draining the person's spiritual energy to keep it going until they die, ones that contain a preset amount of spiritual energy within them until the curse wears off, and then this one that pulls spiritual energy from nature to keep it fueled. They are the most difficult to remove because unless it can be removed all in one go, it will simply reform and continue cursing her."

"Right...Okay, here we go then," he said as he reached out his arm and placed it on Artemis' neck.

She flinched slightly but relaxed so he could resume helping her.

When he placed his hand on the curse mark and tried to absorb it at first it felt like nothing was happening.

All he could feel was a vast sense of emptiness. It felt like there was nothing there at all. It was very different compared to when he felt Selene's magic that was heavy and had real substance to it. This curse however felt like a chasm of cold nothingness as he tried to absorb it.

Then, not even a moment later, he felt a rush unlike anything he had ever experienced before. It was an overwhelming force that made his entire body tense up in fear but instead of pulling away he kept his grip firm on the curse mark. The amount of energy stored within this curse mark was even greater than Selene's well of power. 

If he hadn't been almost completely drained of power in his fight with Artemis then he would have been overwhelmed by it instantly. However, despite the fact that he had been nearly drained of all his energy prior to this, the curse mark had revitalized his well of energy so quickly that he had to find a way to get rid of the extra energy being absorbed.

He was forced to convert what he could into Dragon Glass making up his entire right arm as he absorbed it. With all the energy being absorbed into him he compressed it further and further, harder and harder until he could no longer compress it any further.

"Marcus, you're almost there, keep going!" he heard Selene say to him but it felt muffled.

Since he could no longer compress his magic within his arm he decided to use it like a battery and began storing electrical energy within it. As he did it began to glow with blue energy and it started humming violently.

A few seconds later and he had finished absorbing all the energy within the curse mark but...he could no longer understand anything. Everything felt...fuzzy.

He could hear Selene shouting something to him but...It was like walking through a wind tunnel. Everything she was saying...he couldn't make it out.

He then raised his head to look at her and tried to read her lips but his eye sight started to blur.

He took a moment to think and then realized that he had forgotten an important step. He had to release the energy that was contained in his arm or it would-

Just as he looked down at his arm, he lost all control over containing the energy inside of it and it exploded sending him crashing into the wall behind him.

The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Selene rushing to his side as he slid to the floor with blood pooling out of his shoulder where his arm used to be.


Selene...


"No no no! Please, don't bleed out on me. No!" she said as she frantically worked to try and keep him from bleeding to death.

She brought her hand up to the wound where his arm was and tried to cauterize it with her flames but his skin wouldn't burn.

"No no, damn you Marcus! Why won't your skin burn! I can't save you if you're immune to my flames! Dammit!"

She started panicking and her mind went into overdrive to try and think of anything to save him.

She then tore off his shirt and ripped it into rags to tie around the stump of his arm to stop the bleeding as much as she could before straddling him from behind as she let his body go limp against her chest. With her left hand she pressed her healing flames against his chest while she pressed a large wad of cloth around the still bleeding stump.

"Please...please don't die Marcus," she said under her breath.

She had already seen more than she was comfortable with in the span of one day. While she had panicked about her inability to preform in her home town because she felt overwhelmed by her past, he had managed to help lead her. When Artemis had overwhelmed her in their fight, he managed to raise himself seemingly from the dead to fight her all on his own, and he managed to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem by faking her death to hide her from Jiroh.

Now, he puts himself at risk once again to solve everything and puts his own life at risk, AGAIN while she could do nothing.

She would not let him die.


Within his dream...


Instead of seeing the world through Lucifer or Cain's eyes, this time he saw someone different.

It was through the eyes of another angel, one who had six pairs of forest green colored wings and bright golden shining skin. His brown hair was also grown long past his shoulders.


Gabriel...


He was sitting upon a ledge overlooking the clouds in the sky and the oceans and lands below. It was a beautifully crafted world but all the angels were forbidden by Father to roam amongst the world unless given explicit permission to do so or unless ordered to do so.

And yet... even though he obeyed Father's orders and wishes without question he still wanted to go down there and see what the world has become.

After Lucifer desecrated Father's creation...he knew that his punishment was the only way things could be resolved...surely but...he couldn't help his curiosity.

So every day he sat on that ledge overlooking the world with the humans, roaming across the land, evolving, learning, adapting, creating, and surviving against the harsh elements.

As he lost himself staring at the world below him he failed to notice as Azrael had walked from behind before sitting next to him.

"Gabriel brother, daydreaming again are you?"

"Ah...well, yeah I guess I am," he said dejectedly.

"I don't understand why you are so interested in the powerless humans down there. Father is capable of shaping the very universe into whatever he wants and here you are staring down at the world below us all the time. What is it that you see in them?" she asked him.

"Well...I don't know. Maybe it has to do with what Lucifer did to them...," he said and Azrael did not respond.

He waited for her to say something but when she didn't he turned his head to look at her and noticed that she had an angry look on her face.

"Gabriel...brother...listen to me, will you?"

He nodded.

"I know how interested you are in Lucifer's creation but do not forget, he betrayed our Father by interfering with his work. A crime so heinous that he ended up banished from our silver city forever...I don't want your interest in the humans to lead to you being banished down there as well...What would I do without my little brother if you were stuck down there forever and I was up here?"

Gabriel's eyes widened as the realization struck him.

If he lost himself in his curiosity in the humans...he wouldn't be able to live with his family, especially not with his caring older sister and his brothers.

Surely, he didn't want to lose them in exchange for fulfilling his want to know more about the humans.

Hmm...

He would definitely regret being banished to the earth just to see the humans if it meant he could no longer be with his family.

For now he will simply put the thought to the back of his mind and enjoy the time he has with them now.

Azrael stood up and turned away while holding out her hand as if to beckon him to come with her. He smiled and stood up to join her.


Cain...


The dream shifted and he once again found himself looking through the eyes of Cain, or rather, Cain through Abel's corpse body.

He had been wandering the earth with Lucifer for the last fifty or so years, although he wasn't sure because he stopped counting.

The two of them were resting in a village and he had to cover himself so as to not frighten some of the villagers living there with his deathly pale skin and lifeless eyes.

Lucifer had told him not to go anywhere without him for fear of them being forced out of the village if Cain's appearance was exposed but during the night when he and everyone else were asleep he would go outside and he would run into the forest looking for animals to kill.

Every now and then he would come across rabbits or deer and even the occasional wolf pack. He didn't care either way, he was just hoping to find something that he could either kill or let tear him apart.

He had been running off into the forest to fight against anything he could out of his feelings of guilt and self loathing but rarely did he ever find something that would stay after seeing his appearance. It seemed that even the predators that he was once terrified to face off in the forest wanted nothing to do with a walking corpse.

There were the few times he had been approached by the same pack of wolves numerous times and the third time they found him they had banded together to tear him apart.

Then...there was the bear.

A large burly animal, larger than any man Cain had ever seen, absolutely destroyed him and tore him apart. Although his body felt no pain, he still felt so powerless with his weak child body that could do nothing to fight against such threats.

If Cain could not even kill a pack of wolves with his undead body then what chance would he have if he tried to fight against God himself?

As he had left the hut that Lucifer and himself were staying at and headed into the forest once again he couldn't help but notice that things had gotten much quieter since he started wandering inside at night.

Was it because of him that the predators were avoiding the village now...?

No, surely that wasn't the reason.

As much as they avoided him, they didn't see him as much of a threat. Clearly something else was going on.

He continued to wander for hours on end and still couldn't manage to find any activity at all in the forest. Usually everything was much more active at night but it was dead quiet...

"Looking for more wolves to tear you apart?" a voice said behind him.

Cain turned around suddenly and although he couldn't see her very well he knew where the direction of the voice was coming from. His eyes focused on a large rock and on it was a girl in a white clothes but he couldn't make out her features very well.

"Um...no. I'm just walking through the forest. But what about you? What are you doing out here?"

"Watching. Watching you getting torn apart every night. I can't say its been all that entertaining. I wish I could see you put up more of a fight," she said with an amused tone of voice.

He looked down at his right hand and clenched his fist as he said, "There's...not much I can do with this body."

"Yes, I know. A corpse body of a child that cannot die. Its quite weak but resilient," she said as if she could see him clearly with so little light.

"Wait! You can...you see that my body is...," he said as his breath was caught in his throat...or it would have been if he was truly alive.

"Yes. I know that your body is not your own and that it is a corpse," she said.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Come closer and I will tell you," she said.

He was apprehensive about it but he decided to obey her as he walked up to her. After all...what could she do to him if his body could not die and could not feel pain? He had no reason to fear anything at this point.

"Close your eyes, I don't want you to see me at the moment," she said.

At the moment...?

"Alright," he said as he closed his eyes.

He could feel her getting closer to him as her hair grazed the skin on his cheek and shoulder and she said, "My name is Apophis. Now...When you wake up, you will feel that your body has grown and you are stronger than you were when you were alive. Use this strength and finally win for once."

She then grabbed both sides of his face and he could feel his muscles relax so suddenly as if his body was shutting down and he fell to his knees. As she kept him firmly in her grip, he could feel warmth spreading from her hands seep into the rest of his body.

When he opened his eyes to look at her he could tell that she was not human. She had yellow irises with slitted pupils and surrounding them were...stars. Countless numerous stars, too many to count that he ended up finding himself lost staring into them.

Apophis then leaned forward and pressed her lips against his own and kissed him.

Soon after he could feel his consciousness fade away as he stared into her eyes.


When he awoke the next day he found himself lying on the ground in the same place that he had met her but...Apophis was no where to be found.

He then noticed that it was daytime and he hadn't made it back to the village yet.

"Oh no..., I need to hurry!"

He then scrambled to get to his feet and as he was pushing himself off the ground with his arms he realized... that his body had aged. He was...older? Whatever it was that Apophis had done to him, it made his body not unlike when he was alive. His body was built with muscle and he was taller now.

How was he supposed to hide himself now that his body had changed so drastically?

It didn't matter. He just needed to return back as quickly as possible and tell Lucifer.

The moment he turned around however he was met face to face with the bear. The same one that had torn him to shreds every time he came across it.

As he looked up into the eyes of the imposing animal he then remembered what Apophis had told him.

'Use this strength and finally win for once.'

He intended to.


Lucifer...


He knew about Cain disappearing into the forest for some time now but he didn't have it in him to stop him from leaving either. He knew that it was most likely his way of dealing with the trauma of not being able to save his little brother. Since none of the villagers were foolish enough to go in at night and he knew that no humans from other villages would either so he thought nothing of it and let Cain wander into the forest.

However it had never lasted all the way till morning. Something was wrong and he knew that if the villagers found him then they would be driven out.

While no one else was looking, he rushed off into the forest after Cain...

Only to find a tall muscular man, one who's skin was pale as a corpse and hair dark as night...standing beside the corpse of a bear and staring at his blood soaked hands.

"Cain...? Is that...what happened to you?"

Cain slowly turned his head to look at Lucifer before giving him a pained smile but said nothing.


Marcus...


When he woke up he felt incredibly weak and in so much pain. However he could feel a strange warmth emanating from his chest.

He looked down and realized that Selene had propped herself up against the wall and was holding him close to her chest as she pressed her flaming hand against his chest to keep him alive.

"Selene...," he said weakly.


With her eyes barely fluttering open, she looked down at him and said, "Don't...ever...do that...again."

With those last few words the flames coming from her hands sputtered out and she passed out from exhaustion.

As the flames disappeared, pain then flared up in his shoulder and he looked down at the ground...realizing that it was stained red with his blood.

Even though his body was weak he could feel that most of his spiritual energy had been replenished. He quickly created a new arm out of his Dragon Glass before converting it back into normal flesh.

As the blood started circulating through his arm he felt dizzy and stumbled to the ground, taking him a few minutes to adjust before he could stand up again.

He then turned around and looked at Selene who had stayed by his side the whole time as she struggled to keep him alive with a seeping wound.

"I'm sorry you had to put up with me for so long," he said as he walked over to her and picked her up in his arms before setting her down on her bed.

The moment he set her down he collapsed back onto the floor. As he sat down on the floor he could see Artemis in the corner of his eye staring at him. She then traced her eyes over Selene and had a solemn expression on her face.

Marcus then looked out the window and realized that dawn had broken.

Selene had worked to keep him alive all the way from dusk till dawn without stopping for rest.

He took in a deep breath as he struggled to understand what he had involved himself in.