Nikola kept on going ever forward. His bow a reassuring weight on his back. He didn't know what the mine held within itself.
A part of him wanted to go home. To get Dimitri, Jack, and Jean, and to go through this with them.
But another part of him feared. It feared for what the future would hold in store for Timmy and Vera should their parents perish.
If he died, Nikola knew, then he was going to just leave his family behind, but in Dimitri's capable hands.
And if he survived, then he would finally be a hero.
"Oh, how naive you mortals are," the voice that came from the depths of the mine was sweet like honey.
Nikola didn't know if his thoughts were read or if he was simply followed and was mumbling to himself.
At any rate, he didn't want to wait for whatever was in the darkness to make the first move.
Nikola took off his bow, aimed, and waited for a telltale sign of a mana wisp. Or even something like the faint song of life, which coursed through all living beings.
Only to see him.
He was just as tall as he remembered him. His dark hair and dark eyes told him a story.
Tangra was leaning on a wall. A smirk on his lips.
"The system banished you to the mine, didn't it?" Nikola asked as he aimed. Even though he knew that it would be pointless.
"Sure did! Bad for your business, I take it?" The deity asked as he took off his bow.
They both aimed. Nikola knew that he had no chance against the being.
He still let the arrow loose.
The deity let his arrow loose as well.
Nikola dived out of the way. Tangra caught Nikola's arrow in his hand.
"I don't get it. What does he have that I don't?" Tangra asked as he slowly began to circle Nikola. "What is so special about him that you think that you can turn your back on your country?"
Nikola slumped against a wall. The arrow had grazed him. Letting only a trickle of blood be the only proof that he was hit.
"I haven't turned my back on anything!" Nikola roared. "It is you who has!"
The two fired another round of arrows. Nikola looked at the dark tunnels.
Tangra was standing beneath something that looked so, as if its support beams were rotten to their core.
Nikola took in a deep breath.
He tried to think about it all. He tried to think about Timmy and Vera. About why he wanted to be a hero.
He let the arrow fly. Giving it all the mana he had to spare.
The sound of falling stones was like music to his ears. The fact that the stones had blood gushing through them made him want to sing.
Only for him to see Tangra right behind him, unharmed.
"What?" Nikola asked as he tried to make something out of it all.
"You passed the test!" The deity said, as he ruffled his hair. "I don't want servants, I want warriors! And you were a servant at the start, not going to lie."
The deity flicked him on the nose.
The next thing Nikola knew, he was in his new house. Dimitri sleeping on the couch with the children.
"You are free now," Tangra said, his voice as soft as a summer breeze. "Make sure you don't waste my generosity!"
Nikola nodded. He went and snuggled with his husband. Knowing that he might never be the strongest, but he had something that mattered more:
A family.