"You have realized, I can not be resisted by mere strength." A voice echoed with determination.
As the rain of fire poured down, followed by mere ashes, he stood up against that figure. "And yet, you met my stare profoundly. Tell me, puny human, do you truly believe I prevail wrong?" A silence fell thick into the air itself as his throat felt havoc with the answer.
'Sometimes you will go on a journey. It will be the longest journey you have taken. It is the journey to find yourself.'
"Someone said to me and now I could say; yeah, I understand it… There once was a time when you prevail as an undefeated warrior within my eyes, and then, prevail as a villain, but today, when I stood before you, before the mighty God, I do not know the answer." His eyes untied from its as it views the beauty of a smoulder horizon, ashes, dead, red as scarlet fire burning every single ounce of life and yet it didn't frighten him in the slightest, rather it felt like a sweet bitter end. "All I have now is a purpose," A most beautiful smile curled up his texture, brilliantly reflecting deep in the eyes of that God. "Purpose to slay you."
***
"Remember my little Hatim, fight for what you believe in, but never hurt the ones you care for, even if it means going up against your beliefs. There are very few people around us who truly care, and so do we. We care about others far too less than we think."
....
A splash of water sprinkled throughout his lengthy hair. Untied and soaked wet as his thoughts were mystified, his hair let go of the droplets into the river. "She's His daughter?!" Frightened he was by the fact he learned minutes ago, the truth of Zera's father. "What the hell?!"
***
It was when they all walked along and the wise lady waved her farewell gesture to them. They all had departed from the Red-Light District to follow the destination that bronze coin spoke. "Well, what a journey!" Zera finally let out her breath of relief, after all, there wasn't any extreme stuff that happened this time, though, there were some horrifying phrases spoken by Dodona. "Well… not good but not bad either…" There was a faint echo thriving up and down, it was a lake as their footsteps walked, the more gentle it sounded just as when even silence doesn't feel stressful. Suddenly, Zera's eyes widen, after all, she just realises something. "Though Athena, you seemed to know about Dodona, have you met her before." First off, Athena sneered her eyes, after all, how does this child not understand her moral infinite knowledge? "That woman was an oracle. They possess a talent that even Olympus admires." She glances at Hatim, who walked before her. "However, they need an ounce of your blood to carry the voyage deep into the fortune." A question mark appears upon her head, after all, Zera didn't see the old lady asking for blood in return for the fortune. "Wait, what?" She let out in an exchange for confusion, however, as suddenly her eyes met Athena's; she somehow understood what the lady from Olympus was trying to say to begin with. "Wait, then you mean, she never needed any kind of that information, like about, family and stuff…?" She lapped a hand on her chin. "Yeah, now that makes sense, once after asking a person, she could know how wealthy the person is from their surname!!?" Athena takes a long blink as confirming the words the child has spoken are indeed true. Likewise, Hatim recalled that unique kind of cuts at Dodona hands and small needles attached to it, the ritual of blood exchange happened right before their eyes and yet none could ever tell but think of that wound at hand as a result of a sharp wood or something similar. Though, even after then, one question mark remained in Zera's head. "Then why, you tell her your valuable information?" Zera's eyes widen, ceasing the reason why Athena believed Dodona more than her and Hatim. Despite, the answer was quite easy, Zera's little head didn't walk that path. A sigh, Athena let out, as if willing not to answer, but those snake-ish eyes were fixed at her like gunk. "I did not tell her the truth in the slightest." Clear and simple it sound, it was enough to bring back the sparkle in Zera's eyes in a matter of minutes. "Oh my god! I can't believe you lied!!" Zera overflowed with joy. "Why would I not lie? It is the key to victory." Athena replied with a calm tone, though taking all the joy out of the moment. Zera spun her gazes at Hatim. "You also lied, right?" She asked with a kind tone, and yet it didn't wither the thick feelings Hatim held near to his heart. "No." He replied with a thick echo. "I told the truth." As the echo faded each and another second, her smile faded along. She could feel an emptiness in his cold stare. 'Who is he, and what in the hell he hates so much?' She could not help but merely wonder, after all, this is the person she chose for her destiny, for her mother.
'You are the End of This Era!'
The words of Dodona slid in her head riding upon a train of thoughts. "What are you?" She asked as the cold winds fluttered her hair just as it peeks at Athena's ears, followed by a gigantic silence. Hatim continued his steps. "Someone once told me that I'm only capable of hate, that I hate everything, that I only can hate everything… Now you tell me, what does that make me?" Followed by a heavy quote, Hatim said while smiling wryly. Zera was just a child at the end of the day, she couldn't understand what it meant, yet by that smile, she could just feel it, how painful it was. "I… I am sorry." She apologises after giving her words little thoughts and yet seeing Hatim's painful smile, she could remember a face, the face of her mother.
"Death can change a person till to the point of no return."
Quote, she spoke out loud and peeked Hatim's glance, though as she came to realise words her tongue let out, Zera instantly overlapped a hand upon it, flustered, however, it was too late, their eyes fixed on her curiously, after all, in this journey she didn't quite tell her side of the story yet, despite it was clear as crystal, she felt a little guilt deep within her. "Well, I read that quote in a book…" By the word 'Book' Zera recalled Cleo, after all, it was him who gave that book to her in the first place, though, in his defence, it was Zera's mother book that she gave to Cleo. Before she could once again regret her ambition, she shook her head, as if willing not to give up just yet. She knew there was a choice; whether she can remain silent regarding herself because the two will never force something that Zera doesn't want to say, or she can tell all about herself from the scratch. She chose the difficult one. "My father was some kind of Royal Guard in the Kingdom of Artelia, though I never met him, yet when my mother passed away, she told me all about him and gave me this pendant, not personally, I got it from my aunt, and also not that she was my real aunt, but a friend of mama, she let me stay in her house after mama passing, she said it was the last thing my mama wants me to know about, but here I am…" She pulled out a pendant, a horn looking pendant from her pocket made out of pure bronze that one glance could notice. A tremendous shock Hatim came to know as anxiety overfilled his eyes, his breaths became heavier, and despite all he's trying to be calm, his nerves weren't believing the truth. "…there is a lake nearby, I think we should stop for water supply." Hatim cut off Zera's talks and pointed at the faded echo the lake was throwing off, though little Zera didn't comprehend the weird behaviour of Hatim, Athena could disclose even without looking at him.
***
"Adrian?!" Adrian was once a royal servant who served Royals quite well, he even once looked after Hatim when he was just a measly child. Back in days, Hatim was terrified from most of the strangers, and so couldn't look into someone's eyes properly rather, he found a signature for each person in the castle, like a red shawl for mother, the raven outfits for maids and Adrian, his bull horn pendant made out of pure bronze, once gifted by Leocus himself. Hatim lost all words as warm water droplets sprinkled his hair. "You appeared to be anxious." A gentle vocal echoed, earning the right to make this calm moment tranquil. "What do you want now!" Hatim's rudeness did not startle Athena. Athena stood a little far from the lake, and yet her eyes met Hatim's. "Going to force me in another of your games? After all, I Am your slave but listen with open ears, I will only help you get whatever this 'Godslayer' is, but the second after, I will not hesitate to slice your throat!" He pointed at her with his desperate gaze, and yet, it did not startle Athena in the slightest bit. "You are falsifying yourself. You are running." Athena only spoke two sentences and yet it was enough to bring Hatim to the peak of fury as his step walked to her with haste. "You 'Gods' will never know what it's like to lose, to feel despair. You shits are living hundreds of years, what will you know about life!?" An insane smirk curved upon his face. "Tell me, who have you ever cherished?" His face came right before Athena's. Their eyes met deep but the little Hatim knew Athena grasp was set upon her weapon when his step turned to her, she would not hold back to slice his throat, or so she thought. His eyes flooded with rage, proving that just spelling their name made him sick to his stomach, and yet he merely trembled, he didn't even lift a single finger against her.
'Who made him?'
Athena's grasp tightens upon the spear.
'Why?'
"W—what the hell are you guys doing!!" A scream howled through the jungle as a storm of birds flew away with haste. "What are you doing?" Her voice echoed down, seemingly as a weak cry. After all, what that little child could comprehend more? "Zera…" Hatim spelt her name as his fight of the past continued. Meanwhile, even with her infinite knowledge, Athena couldn't say anything to that sobbing child.
***
Far beyond dusk, late after sun prevailed, the darkness overwhelmed all amid the night. Hidden in a cave, they set a campfire. Zera kept her eyes locked upon the two like a creep while covered in her blanket. She thought 'that' would happen again if she took her eyes even a slight second off them. But the two remained unspoken as only burning woods sounded within this thick silence. Hatim watches the hidden moon as he sits upon the edge of the cave, while Athena merely watches the burning woods' fire. For the first time, they all could agree, this silence wasn't terrifying but calm and gentle to the ears, and as it was gentle, it didn't take so much for Zera to fall asleep while sitting, and soon after Hatim rolled his eye upon the kindest child, he watches her sleeping while sitting and a smile embraced upon his texture and once again the scenery vanquished with warmth, though it didn't stay for long as he remembered the begging Zera did for them, kneeling before them in the morning. Hatim let out a heavy breath of disappointment within himself while Athena saw all that in a fraction of minutes, of how the emotion changes. He soon then laid his back next to a wall as removing the dagger scabbard belt, to approach a wink. But, the little world ever knew the legendary Warrior hadn't slept for the past ten years, and how could they? He never let them.
As soon as his eyes went deep into the dark, a figure appeared right before his eyes, smouldering no less than as a volcano, meeting eyes with little Hatim. Only burning grounds till to the edge of the horizon could be seen, crumbled till crypt and screams of the dead, vanquished the air itself. "Why did you do this?" Hatim asked a question, an innocent one at that, yet that flaming figure stood unspoken, gazing deep into Hatim's sunflower eyes. Suddenly the air shifted as he stood in a field of countless flowers, filtering the shade with endless colours
"Find motives," He once said. "Motives?" Hatim replied confusingly, but he smiled. "You see, motives are the source of peoples' doings. In very kind words, find their motives and help them resolve, so that there will be no doings." But Hatim came to be even more confused. "But brother, aren't 'doings' change the world?" And again, he simply smiled. "Say little Hatim, then how might you clarify 'doings' are going to change the world for only greater good?"
Once again it haunts him, in a repeated pattern. Waking up with his nerve lost for a fraction of a minute, Hatim's breaths became heavier as his eyelids opened in a flash, but only it stayed for a second and another was his regular face as if he had encountered it infinite times that he now knew what to do. Before much could he thought, his eyes wandered upon the marvellous sky as it was just before dawn, orangy pink brilliance reflecting against his sunflower's eyes, a breath of relief he let out as it relaxed him a little. "The world is more fabulous than one could ever imagine, just as why life is so attached to it." Athena, yet she sat gazing deep into the fire, said with her usual blank facade. Though Hatim did not reply to her but rather watch her startled, after all, his brother never told him that the Gods never sleep. He blinks a few times to comprehend the situation, but then wanders his gaze to Zera and fixes her blanket, which was all over the place except herself. "You have slept a few… sleep a little more so that there shall be no unrest in the journey."
"Quit acting like my mother!" Hatim did not yell because of Zera, rather he whispered aggressively, but sure it was rude, though once again it did not startle Athena. Calm and cold breezes sway his lengthy hair but are soon tied by Hatim. "Never heard that God doesn't sleep." It sounded bluntly directed at Athena. "You have quite the knowledge of Gods, your brother taught you well…" She unlocked her eyes from the fire, which she kept going all night, to Hatim. "However, God sure does sleep once in a span." For the first time, Athena did not know her choice of words. "Well, good for you then." Hatim rudeness did get the slightest bit warmer. Athena watches him for quite a duration as he merely meets eyes with the mighty sun that has begun its journey to shine for the sake of day once again. "You are similar…" Though her words remained the same, risky to understand, and yet Hatim turned his gaze upon her. "Don't delusion me into your some kind or whatever." Quite a silence occurred not in exact words because birds chips were echoing deep and above the jungle, silence couldn't be found. "Why did you save my life in the path of Marina?" Athena asked, solemn, however, it wasn't a question he wanted to answer. Yet a sudden figure, his brother came to light in his thoughts. "Warriors do not go back on their words. My brother told me once. So worry not, I will keep my words till my last breath."
"Your brother must have seen quite the world to bring those manners into you."
"What do you mean? Am I hard to teach, huh?!"
"I do not answer foolishness." Her tone remained blank as always. "Tsk!" Though Hatim bit his tongue as if admitting defeat, after all, no man could gather knowledge as Athena has, so arguing with her is perhaps similar to teaching the master how to teach. All of a sudden, warm rays entered the cave and so there was no need for the fire anymore. As the firelight overshadowed by the sun, Athena merely gazed at the last shine it gave. Lifeless her eyes became. "Why do you chase the impossible?" Hatim did not avert his watch from dawn. "Gods are absolute, no man can pierce through them. Even the weakest link within them is enough to wipe an army of thousands, so let your nightmare be forgotten; one could not ever stand against one of the mightiest Gods to ever exist, God of War." Athena's eyes simply gawk at that moment of his silence. "I will defeat Him, that's my destiny." Sun finally reached him while his front shone white and bright, however, his back dazzled by a dark black shadow, and as his silhouette reflected thick in her eye, and a deep memory struck her as lighting does.
"I will change the World."
But soon realization slapped her back and that blank facade came back in a matter of seconds. "Two men, wanting the impossible, hm?" Hatim whirled to her unusual reply, but Athena rose to her feet, barely not hitting her head to the top. Though it was blank as ever, her tone was as if filled with determination. "He will come to mankind with the bell of chaos, ringing. The Godslayer is the only truth that could stop him, and we have to find it before too late!" Though even after a massive warning she just spelt out, Hatim texture curled with a wry smile. " 'Stop' eh?" But soon his stare rolled at sleepy Zera, and fury devastated his eyes never as before, rage occurred upon his facade, and old memories flash deep as if darkness consumed upon his shadow. "I will kill him!"
***
Sun was right above their head, after all, noon was. "Aargh, I'm tired. Just tell me how long do we have to travel more?"
"Hey! You are not even walking, how could you be tired!?" Hatim said aloud, after all, it was him who was carrying Zera on his back for more than four hours while she carried his dagger. "But it's hot! And this is your punishment for fighting yesterday!" Though, there wasn't any penalty at Athena which quite annoyed Hatim. "But I'm surprised that you can walk with that hood, Athena." Athena glanced from the corner of the hood she wore. "I do not feel the weather." It surprised Zera to know a person who can not feel the weather. "Well, it's so funny, like, in Melidiona and Marina have such hot weather, but on the other hand, Helot has winter all the time."
"Helot, hm?" It glimpsed Athena's attention. "Oh yeah, you are not from Artelia… though I also haven't been out from Melidiona too, I have read it in a book that says there is always snowing and cold, I wonder what it feels like." Sombre crawled deep in her eyes. "But still, I will see it, together we all will." A pure smile curled on her texture and once again the warmness shoved the atmosphere. It was then when it happened.
'The bell of chaos has rung.'
A massive fireball appeared above their heads, as everything for a fraction second became slightly slow. "TAKE COVER!!" Winds smash the ground with hefty gales that fireball scattered. Hatim tightly grabbed Zera and ran for any kind of cover which was deep into the forest with mighty speed, however, the fireball was passing through over their heads but not exactly hitting them and that was the first thing Athena notices just as why her nerves weren't frightened, after all, she has seen the far more terrifying fire. Her step began towards some kind of heel in the pursuit to glimpse of higher ground, she found a massive boulder that she easily jumped over and saw what that was all about. "So, this is the Navi of Marina." Although it was too far, Athena saw the battle of ships between Pirates and Navi, launching cannon parades upon each other with howls. She blinked with a long pause.
"Humans' nature…"