As Athena came in and sat inside the car, Remial asked without wasting a second,
"Was it him?"
Getting rid of the tacky accessories that she had been carrying to identify herself as a commoner Goddess Athena affirmed,
"Yes, definitely yes!"
Hearing her words Remial could feel the blood dry inside his veins. Suddenly his throat became parched just with the thought of what repercussions could this whole recent set of events lead into. He looked at Lord Lazarus whose grip on the steering wheel had tightened. He could see a definite distraught expression in his eyes, which he was trying to hide with fake unperturbedness.
Athena looked at Lazarus from the rearview mirror and she could see that he was trying hard to maintain his composure by gritting his teeth.
Getting a bit worried Remial asked,
"So are we trapping him up?"
"Totally!" answered Athena confidently because as per her study of human behavior, she was one hundred percent sure that Morpheous would come. She had spread the net and all that she had to do now was to wait for him to fall into her trap. A part of her was still unsure but seeing the way Lazarus was getting affected, she masked her words.
Mustering up a bit of courage, Remial asked,
"Did you? Did you feel the pulse?"
"Yeah. A small tingling sensation," she replied, trying to cover up the truth because she didn't want to spook out Remial. As she opened the bracelet she recollected how intense that pulse was.
"Oh! Good to know!", said Remial and took a deep breath, because a small tingling meant that the intensity of opposite charges inside Morpheous's body was less. This revelation brought a great sense of calmness into him but Lazarus wasn't pacified.
A moment before seeing the man, he couldn't believe that he was the destroyer that his father had crafted, but now that it was affirmed, somehow that made him feel uneasy.
Neither he was pacified knowing that it was a mild tingling, nor he was pacified to know that he had fallen into their trap. He could feel a strange pit in his stomach. A pit that grew continuously as the moment passed and started getting etched inside his mind. Even after hearing Athena's words, the premonition persisted in his mind. He gazed at her from the rearview mirror and muttered,
"You better pray to your stars and make sure that it works," because in no way he was going to let anyone come in the way of his ascension to the throne.
After a perennial wait that had lasted over centuries, the portal had been opened. He finally was able to meet with one of the fours who stood next to him and had dared to go against his father. The identity of the one who was capable of destroying his dreams had finally been revealed. Things had started to fall in place, of late, So he was not going to leave any stone unturned to get rid of him.
So without telling a word to his co-passengers, he sped through, tailing the jeep being driven by his so-called nemesis.
Seeing that Lazarus had started following the jeep, Athena's asked,
"Are you that nervous of being defeated?"
She had never seen Lazarus this edgy. Although that was centuries and centuries back, still the Lazarus she knew was the most confident, most witty, and undoubtedly the most wicked of them all and these were the very reason why she had been smitten by him ever since she knew him.
The centuries of separation couldn't lessen how she felt about him and now that she was back with him, her feelings grew stronger than before. So seeing the man getting affected by Morpheous, was something that she couldn't digest.
He was confident and solid like a stone even on the day they had planned to go against God, and Morpheous was just a creation. So she couldn't understand how could he, Lazarus the lord of Midgard be fazed by the mere presence of Morpheous.
Over that outspoken and carefree demeanor of hers, she possessed a side that was only known to her and her alone. Behind that taunting question of hers lied a deep concern. Yes, she was scared of Morpheous, but she had faith in Lazarus. She had faith that together, the five of them could easily finish him off. She knew that the ordeal was going to be grueling because she didn't feel just a tingling sensation. It was more like a surge. But seeing Lazarus getting disturbed, she decided to take things into her own hands.
Closing her eyes, she recollected all the books about the prophecies that she had read, and then all of a sudden she opened her eyes.
"Remial!"
"Yes, Athena," replied Remial and turned back to look at her.
"Doesn't the prophesy say about The bolt of death?"
"Yes, it does!"
"That means, it could be either Nubeous's bolt of death or Morgana's right?"
"Yes, Athena. But there is no way to know," replied Remial and sighed.
"Assuming that the bolt was from either of these realms, so it means that Morpheous is either from Niðavellir or Asgard. I could access the portal because of some energy surge from either of these two places right?"
"Yes, Athena. But what are you trying to insinuate?"
"What I am trying to say is, if it was from Niðavellir then Nubeous has probably failed to suppress him and if he is from Asgard then probably Lord Morgana is his ally."
Taking a deep breath, an impatient Remial asked,
"What are you trying to insinuate here?"
"What I am trying to say is, either way, he already possesses the capacity of obliviation or the power of harvesting the thunder. So if we want to outrun him, then we need to think of a way to suppress these capabilities. We need to create a scenario where he cannot invoke any of these powers."
"So what do we do?" asked Remial.
"We make him turn against his own moral compass. We make him do something that would trigger the curse, otherwise, his capacities can be lethal."
Lazarus, who had been quietly driving all this time, looked at the rearview mirror again to have a glimpse of her and she looked up at the same time. As their eyes met, she could see a wretched smile carved on his lips.
That smile gave her a strange solace.