No… no, no. Why? They had absolutely nothing to do with this. How could they die like that?
"It is your fault, Hero." The Lamia's voice was nothing more than a laughing whisper, yet it echoed as if bouncing off the walls of a locked room. "Their blood is on your hands."
"No… you killed them, not me… it was you." My words came out trembling as I watched Luke slowly push himself up, wiping a trail of blood from his face with the back of his hand, while Clarisse retrieved her spear from the ground with rigid, artificial movements. Her eyes, usually so imposing and expressive, were completely milky and vacant.
"But you started this. Your very existence is a sin. Your race is cursed. Everything you people touch is destroyed." Her voice seemed to crawl out from inside my own ear. "You are powerful. You could have protected the two of them. And what did you do? Nothing."
"Lie… you won't trick me. I…" The air vanished from my lungs. A violent sting ripped through my head, as if a nail were being hammered straight into my brain.
The system warnings flashed, alerting me of a mental assault, but I could barely focus. I felt the heat of blood trickle warm down my nose.
"Those beautiful eyes of yours reveal something else, demigod. How many lives did you have to take to earn such beautiful eyes?"
The wolf exhaled sheets of vapor into the cold, its eyes locked onto me. It was studying me. There was a glimmer of pure mockery in that creature's jaws.
"You are weak and unworthy of the weapon you possess. But I can spare your life if you hand it over." The voice that boomed from the wolf's mouth was deep, dragging across the frozen ground.
I stayed silent, holding its gaze. The wolf bared its fangs once more.
"Make your choice, demigod. I will kill everyone here and you can run—just hand over the axe."
Luke and Clarisse twisted their heads in the monster's direction, like puppets pulled by invisible strings.
Leviathan materialized in my hand in a sudden flash. Without hesitating, I hurled it forward. The axe sliced through the air and embedded itself deep into the ice, vibrating.
"It's right there. Take it," I growled through my teeth, biting my lip to contain the shaking.
The wolf snorted, running its rough tongue over its fangs.
"I am no fool. That weapon has accepted you as its master—even as weak as you are, it will return to your hand with a single thought." The beast took two slow steps in my direction. "I wonder if you can actually bring yourself to kill your friends, or if you will prefer to die attempting to protect them from me."
"Well, well… the little wolf can't find me." The Lamia's voice reverberated through the trees once more. The wolf kept staring at me, completely ignoring her provocation. "Join him, Hero. Come try and find me—and I promise I'll keep your secret."
A piercing laugh cut through the wind. I looked over at Clarisse; thick tears began streaming down her cheeks, contrasting sharply with her blind gaze, as she muttered nonsensical apologies to the empty air. Beside her, Luke began to shake entirely, his eyes flickering frantically while a growl of pure frustration and rage escaped his throat, fighting against his own mind.
"I wonder what she is seeing? Hee hee hee… poor thing, so stupid. Now the blonde one… he should wake up, but will he even be alive? What's the matter, Hero? Did the wolf catch your tongue? Speak up, I am listening."
The Lamia's monologue finally shattered the wolf's patience. It growled toward the dark woods.
"Silence, you Draugr, before I change my prey." Its gaze shifted back to me, ravenous.
"I'm tired…" I murmured.
Leviathan vanished from the ice in the blink of an eye. The wolf immediately darted its gaze to the bracelet reforming on my wrist, but before it could leap, I burned through every single remaining drop of my divine power.
The world fell dead silent. The wolf's breathing, the rustling of the leaves, the voices inside my head… everything vanished. And then, a deafening crack shattered the winter.
The layer of ice beneath us exploded. Thick, twisted roots and a violent surge of vegetation tore through the earth, erupting into raw trees in a matter of seconds, forcing the wolf to make a clumsy leap backward.
My mind was dragged along with the growth of the flora. My consciousness leaped from trunk to trunk, from leaf to leaf, as if the entire forest were a third eye spreading across the battlefield.
"It hurts… it hurts."
"Please, stop."
"You're hurting me."
"Don't kill us, please."
The voices of the plants echoed directly in my ears. The agony… they were begging, crying, complaining.
Warm tears streamed down my face, mixing with the blood. My body felt heavy. My eyes burned so intensely that the pressure ruptured the vessels, staining my entire vision in a dense crimson.
I hoisted one of my hands. Thick, knotted roots stretched out like whips toward the wolf. The beast unleashed an echoing howl, utilizing all of its agility to leap and dodge every single strike tearing out from the ground.
With my other hand, I directed the growth backward. Tendrils and vines climbed up Luke and Clarisse's legs, binding them firmly to the ground to keep them from getting hurt or advancing.
The woods turned dense, suffocating; exotic flowers bloomed in the middle of the chaos, and massive trunks rose up, locking down the wolf's escape routes.
That fresh vegetation intertwined brutally with the ancient pines of the area, creating a sealed web. And through that connection, like a live screen inside my head, I saw everything. I saw the forest I had forged, I saw the trail of dead ice behind me, and finally, I found what I was searching for. Concealed right at the junction of one of the old pine trees was a translucent silhouette.
She wore ordinary, casual clothes, but the rest of her was hideous. Her eyes glowed in a sickly green shade with vertical snake slits. Her hands were wrinkled, dry, and deformed, ending in sharp reptilian claws. On her face, an overly wide grin displayed rows of serrated teeth, sharp as a crocodile's.
"Found you," I murmured.
Her smile vanished in that exact instant. Her slit eyes went wide, her amusement completely giving way to shock.
I raised both hands at once. Colossal roots smashed through the soil right beside her with a resounding crash of shattered earth and wood. With a focused shout, I twisted my body, tensing my fingers as if grabbing the very air.
The impact of the roots hit the Lamia's body full-force, launching her far away. Before she could crash down, I commanded another thick branch to wrap around her waist and whip her straight in my direction. Her body pulverized the foliage along the way, but mid-air, the Lamia spun herself around, dissolving into a grayish mist to escape the grip. She hovered erratically, dodging the following branches until she touched the ground, materializing right near where Luke and Clarisse were immobilized.
"I don't need to know your names. But make sure you remember mine." I pulled in air with difficulty, my chest heaving up and down. I activated Sap/Energy Drain, feeling the energy stolen from the flora dull some of the pain and knit the deepest gashes shut. "Caleb Thorne. Remember well the name of the man who is going to kill you."
"Impossible… how can you possess this much power?" the Lamia sibilated, her voice coming out shrill as she scanned her surroundings, horrified by the green barrier boxing her in.
The wolf, locked in place, delivered a violent bite to the root trapping its paw, shredding the wood with its teeth. It took a step back, dropping into a mutual guard, shifting its tense gaze between me and the snake-woman.
My heart hammered against my ribs, so hard I could have sworn it would tear straight through my skin. My divine power bar was completely flatlined. I had acted on pure impulse, but I had found her.
Slowly, I forced my blood-soaked eyes to lock onto the floating system screen glowing before me.
"Are you sure about that, Wolf?" I asked, causing the creature, which was about to leap and shred me to pieces, to stop abruptly and look me down. "If you attack me right now, the Lamia is gonna tear you apart. She won't just end up with my axe, but with my entire body too." I let out a heavy sigh, feeling my mouth flood with the metallic taste of blood.
The wolf slowly twisted its head toward the Lamia. Her sadistic smirk vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, analytical glare.
"You must be Norse, right? A Draugr... That's a Norse tongue. How about we make a deal?" I asked, earning a guttural growl that exposed his massive fangs.
"Are you that desperate, hero?" the Lamia taunted, recovering her poisonous smirk. "But don't forget: I hold your friends in the palm of my hand."
I remained in absolute silence. I ignored her provocations and locked my eyes on the wolf, waiting for his reaction.
"I can kill everyone here, worm. I don't need your help," the wolf fired back with pure mockery.
"First of all: she wants me alive. Or at the very least, she wants to play with all of us, since my friends are still breathing even under her control." I took a deep breath, feeling a sharp pang of pain, and kept going: "She wants me, and you want me too. But at the end of the day, she's the only one who wins."
My words seemed to hit home. The wolf hesitated, narrowing its eyes to process the math, while the Lamia's smirk died for good.
"If you help me without killing my friends and without betraying me, I'll owe you or your master a favor in the future," I negotiated quickly, earning a bizarre, shrill laugh from him.
"You are nothing but a coward who is now begging for my help. What a joke!" the wolf countered, lowering its head, ready to pounce.
"Yeah, I am! An eleven-year-old kid facing you, a Lamia who must be older than time itself, and my two demigod friends who are infinitely stronger than I am!" I snapped right back.
Before the wolf could make a choice, the Lamia whispered something incomprehensible. In that exact fraction of a second, Luke and Clarisse charged toward me like arrows, while a wave of flames roared in the wolf's direction.
"If you help me, I owe you a favor! Think about it! Contact your master! I'm eleven years old... imagine what I can pull off when I'm sixteen, or when I'm an adult!" I screamed in desperation, tightening my fingers and gripping the handle of my axe with all the strength I had left.
Luke moved at a terrifying speed. I had to channel every single milligram of focus onto him. I spun my body, hoisting the axe, and executed a rapid sequence of parries against the frantic onslaught of his sword. Even so, I felt their blades rip into my skin. Searing gashes opened across my stomach and my arms. Clarisse materialized from the flank and carved a deep tear across my ribs. I stumbled from the impact and the agony, and Luke capitalized on the opening to deliver a brutal strike that slashed my chest wide open down to my waist.
I gasped for air, taking a desperate leap backward to retreat. The axe remained gripped tight in my hand. All around us, the wolf and the Lamia had turned into violent blurs of speed, fire, and ice. More than half the forest I had just forged was now burning, crumbling into ash.
But Luke gave me zero breathing room. He charged again. I spun my body. I parried the first strike. I parried the second. The third cut straight through my guard and ripped into my shoulder. I felt the hot blood pour down in a heavy stream.
Clarisse lunged right after, her spear releasing a deafening electric crackle. I dove to the side at the very last second. A lightning bolt exploded exactly where I had been standing, searing the asphalt. She advanced once more. I hoisted the axe and blocked the direct assault. The electric discharge surged violently up the metal shaft, making my arms shake entirely. I gathered my strength and delivered a violent shove, forcing her back.
Luke had already positioned himself behind me. I ducked instinctively. His sword whistled right over my head. Capitalizing on the momentum, I spun my body and rammed the pommel of my axe straight into the side of his ribs. He didn't drop, merely staggering back a single step before launching himself right back at me.
I couldn't attack them. My only options were to dodge and parry. I dodged. I parried. A slash caught my thigh, another my flank. Clarisse's spear passed millimeters from my neck, leaving my skin raw from the sheer heat of the electricity.
My breathing turned shallow and agonizing as my HP bar plummeted drastically. But I cracked a sideways smile. I didn't care about the state of my body; as long as I had a single point of HP left, I was gonna surv
Clarisse attempted a frontal thrust. I took a sidestep to evade it, but I fell straight into Luke's feint.
His kick landed square on my hand. The impact sent my axe flying away, crashing into the thick brush. I spun frantically to the side, narrowly escaping Clarisse's spear, which descended with the clear intention of pinning my skull to the ground.
"Return!" I commanded mentally. Leviathan flew right back into my grip.
Luke advanced, unleashing a heavy vertical slash. I parried the blow using the beard of Leviathan's blade, ducked my head, and with every ounce of my strength, drove an upward motion, slamming a violent headbutt straight into his jaw.
The impact snapped Luke's head back violently, making his nose bleed instantly. Even wounded, he surged forward and grabbed the collar of my chest piece. My body was launched through the air and I crashed hard on my back, my ribs slamming straight against the solid ground.
He threw his body weight over me, pinning me down and bringing his sword directly toward my throat. That was when, out of nowhere, a spear intercepted the blade. Metal collided with metal, ripping bright sparks out of the darkness.
"FINALLY!" I heard Clarisse roar. She delivered a brutal kick to the side of Luke's head, launching him away as he rolled heavily across the ground.
Clarisse planted her boots firmly, clutching her spear. Her eyes had changed, fully recovering their lucidity. She looked down in confusion at her own hand, then at me, and finally at Luke. She dropped into a rock-solid stance right in front of me, pointing the tip of her spear directly at him.
"I've got it from here. You can rest," Clarisse said, never taking her eyes off her target.
"Can't... we still have way too many problems," I replied, forcing my body up while leaning heavily on Leviathan. I locked my eyes on Luke, who was now on his knees, trying to recover. "Nice kick, by the way," I commented with a weak smile.
"Thanks... And are you okay? I'm sorry for being a total burden," Clarisse murmured. Her voice was low, but I could hear her clearly above the chaos.
"It's fine. I'm just genuinely glad you're back," I said, taking my place right beside her.
All around us, the sky glowed with the crimson reflection of the wildfire. Terrifying howls and war cries echoed from every direction. Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently with deafening roars that completely interrupted even the battle between the Lamia and the wolf.
Emerging from behind a destroyed bus, a giant standing eight and a half feet tall materialized. If it weren't for his extreme ugliness, he would have looked like a thuggish basketball player. He had long, hairy arms, and his biceps and chest were blanketed in tattoos that resembled ancient war symbols. Right behind him, three Dracaenae emerged—reptilian monsters I had already faced before. Up in the sky, shrill shrieks announced the arrival of two Harpies that began circling overhead, identical to the ones living back at camp.
The wolf and the Lamia interrupted their combat immediately. Both backed away, assessing the approaching monster horde. The scene turned into absolute chaos, but the two of them made a move I never would have anticipated: they turned their backs and fled. The Lamia bolted toward the frozen forest, her face completely consumed by sheer terror, before dissolving into a dense mist, ignoring me entirely. The wolf sprinted in the opposite direction, turning into nothing but a blur from his sheer speed.
Luke dropped to his knees a bit further down, vomiting blood. I opened my mouth to say something to Clarisse, who was already turning around to face the giant, but I shut up as I felt a fine rain of golden dust cascade over us. I looked up quickly: the two Harpies were gone. In fact, all the monsters had vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving behind nothing but the crackling sound of flames consuming the trees.
"What... what happened?" I asked, completely confused by the sudden disappearance.
"By the gods... I think your plan actually worked," Clarisse replied, her eyes fixed on a specific direction in the brush.
Girls began to emerge from the shadows of the trees. There were at least a dozen of them. The youngest must have been around nine or ten; the oldest, somewhere around fourteen. All of them wore heavy-duty ski jackets, jeans, and carried long, imposing bows. They advanced in our direction with severe, un-friendly expressions.
"The Hunters..." Clarisse whispered, her voice tight with tension.
Beside me, Luke approached with stumbling steps. He placed a hand on my shoulder, examining my wounded body with a deeply guilty and worried look.
"I'm sorry, Caleb... I... please forgive me," Luke whispered, his voice cracking. I simply shook my head, letting him know it was fine.
One of the older archers took a step forward, slightly tensing the bow in her hand. She was tall, graceful, and had skin in a warm copper tone. Unlike the others, a silver tiara glinted, braided into the top of her long black hair. She looked like some kind of warrior princess from Disney or DreamWorks.
"Permission to kill him, my lady?" her voice echoed, cold and cutting, with her eyes locked dead on me. I felt a thick shiver crawl up my spine. Instinctively, Luke and Clarisse took a step forward, positioning themselves as shields in front of me.
"No. At least not right now," another girl answered, emerging right behind her.
She had auburn hair tied back in a practical ponytail and eyes that were completely out of the ordinary: silver-yellow, glowing like the full moon itself. Her face was delicate and cute, but the aura she emanated was almost suffocating. When her gaze locked directly into my eyes, I was hit by an overwhelming sensation, as if I were a prey cornered by a ruthless predator.
And deep down, it made me deeply irritated.
"They don't make heroes like they used to," Artemis spoke with disdain, stating the obvious. In the same fraction of a second, Clarisse and Luke bowed, bending their bodies in respect and, most importantly, lowering their eyes before the deity.
I tried to do the same, but my body simply locked up. It locked up completely. I tried to force my waist, strained to try and kneel, but my muscles wouldn't obey me. Seeing my immobility, all the Hunters raised and notched their bows in unison, aiming their silver arrows straight in my direction.
"Caleb, bow!" Luke whispered, his voice tight with panic.
"I can't," I replied in the lowest tone I could muster.
The goddess seemed to catch my words, and her expression immediately turned even worse.
"Idiot, do you want to die?" Clarisse murmured, visibly terrified because I wasn't showing respect. I honestly had no fucking clue what was happening to me.
Suddenly, my axe began to vibrate. The vibration was so violent I felt my own bones shaking inside my flesh. The palm of my right hand grew so hot that a sharp, high-pitched hiss of boiling metal echoed through the air.
"I will never bow. Above me, stands only my crown!" A thundering, ancestral voice snapped inside my mind, as if a lightning bolt had dropped right beside me.
"What...?" I stammered, in complete shock.
I watched, horrified, as my own right hand, which was gripping Leviathan against my will, began to raise the blade toward my own neck. I tried to stop it using my left hand. The sharp blade touched my skin, and my eyes widened as I saw, through the system panel, my HP plummet from twenty points to just five.
"How dare you wake me? How dare you think of kneeling, you worm?!" the voice roared in my head again. I grabbed my own wrist with all the remaining strength I had, fighting against my hand that was trying to slit my throat.
"LUKE, HELP ME!" I let out a desperate scream.
Luke stared at me, and his eyes went wide in pure comprehension. He broke protocol, pushed himself up rapidly, and yanked my right arm back with all his might, trying to pull the blade away from my neck.
"What is happening, Caleb?!" he asked, sweat pouring down his face.
"I don't know!" I replied, genuinely terrified.
"My Lady!" the girl with the silver tiara, Zoë, called out to draw the goddess's attention.
I watched Artemis calmly walk in my direction. In that exact millisecond, Leviathan became so absurdly heavy that the bone in my arm shattered with a horrific crack. My HP plummeted to just 1 HP. I let out an agonizing scream of pure physical pain.
"Interesting..." the goddess murmured.
With an agile movement, she yanked my broken arm back herself, freeing me from being decapitated by my own weapon.
"Step back," Artemis ordered. Her firm voice left no room for questions. Luke and Clarisse immediately retreated, positioning themselves near the other Hunters.
"You should know your place, creature," Artemis's voice echoed with overwhelming power.
Her presence caused the entity inside Leviathan to roar in fury, and curses echoed in my mind, mixing Ancient Greek with another completely unknown language. Artemis then began to pry my fingers off the weapon's handle, one by one, until Leviathan finally crashed to the ground. The moment the blade embedded itself into the soil, a crater opened around it. My right hand was raw, almost blackened from the energy generated. I looked at my wrist and saw that my seed bracelet was gone, replaced by a deep burn mark, like a permanent tattoo.
"I'm sorry... I..." I tried to argue, but the system screen began flashing frantically in red, displaying persistent alerts about Divine Overload. I was about to black out.
"Thank you..." I murmured with the last of my strength.
Artemis looked me up and down. From her expression, I think she was surprised—not necessarily by the thank you, but by something else. However, my brain simply shut off, as if someone had flipped a switch in my head, making me pass out on the spot.
Right after blacking out, I felt like I was in a forest again. I heard the sweet singing of birds. The environment was so comfortable and warm... I think that would be the exact definition of peace. Until I woke up.
The sunlight hit my eyes, nearly blinding me. I tried to lift my hands, and a sharp groan of pain escaped my lips.
"Sleeping beauty finally woke up," I heard Clarisse's voice.
I slowly turned my head. She was sitting next to me, holding a roll of white gauze, surrounded by several cloths completely soaked in blood.
"Are we... alive?" I asked in an extremely weak voice.
"Yes, we are," Clarisse replied, flashing a genuine smile. She really should smile more often; it suits her.
"One question before I try to make any movement to get up," I said, feeling an uncomfortable chill in my stomach. "Am I still fully human? Like... no animal parts or some kind of divine punishment?"
Clarisse arched an eyebrow, clearly holding back a laugh.
"I would quite like to try a mix of deer and goose on thee. Or perhaps a turtle? What thinkest thou of that, Zoë?" I heard the clear, youthful voice of the goddess echo nearby, sending an immediate shiver down my spine.
"Whatever thy Lady desires, I shall gladly accept, my lady. My person and my loyalty belong entirely to thee," Zoë promptly responded.
I forced my body to sit up and stared at the girl with the tiara. It's truly hard to understand why she insists on speaking in such an ancient way.
"Good morning... My apologies for... well, everything. Is there anything to eat?" I said, trying to mask the tremor in my voice as I looked around.
We were in a camp made of seven large tents woven from shimmering silver silk, arranged in a perfect curve. Next to a central bonfire, the Hunters were gathered. All of them carried their bows and stared fixedly at me. I could perfectly feel that most of them wanted me dead. Luke was sitting a bit further ahead by the fire, calmly eating a sandwich, sporting several bandages scattered across his body.
"How art thou still alive?" Zoë asked me, her voice considerably bitter as she narrowed her eyes at me.
"Ah, you can't kill a bad weed, you know? And my mother is Demeter... she's really quite strong. But I suggest not bothering her this month, things are a bit complicated over there," I replied with the utmost casualness I could fake.
My response made Zoë, the girl with the tiara, raise an eyebrow in pure suspicion.
I tried to get up from the ground, but my body simply refused to obey the command. Clarisse noticed my effort, firmly held my arm, and looked at my chest; the white bandages covering me are starting to bleed through with fresh red stains.
"Thank you, Clarisse," I said, genuinely grateful.
She simply nodded in silence and helped me walk over to a rustic wooden bench located right in front of the bonfire.
"Here, drink this," Luke said with a welcoming smile, handing me a steaming mug. It was hot chocolate.
I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye at Artemis, who remained seated a bit further away, staring fixedly at me with those silver eyes.
"Am I allowed to eat?" I asked her directly.
The goddess merely made a brief gesture with her hand, signaling for me to make myself at home—an attitude quite different from the death glares her Hunters kept throwing my way. Clarisse handed me a chicken sandwich. I stared down at the hot chocolate for a second.
"Is there any juice?" I asked. Luke just shook his head, indicating no.
Everything followed in a deathly, tense silence. I kept eating the sandwich and sipping the hot chocolate; a combination quite different from what I had envisioned for a situation like this, and for my palate, definitely not the best mix. The biggest problem was that Artemis didn't break her gaze from me for a single second, which was making me deeply nervous.
I had truly kept faith that my desperate plan would work. But seeing that it actually succeeded brought a whole new meaning to danger. Like… she could be furious behind that calm demeanor and just be fattening me up before the slaughter. Or who knows, maybe she plans to use me as live bait for some monster. I might be a bit of an idiot, but I know full well that in all of Greek mythology, Artemis despises men. But this version in front of me seemed… different.
I forced myself onto my feet. My entire body protested and burned with the agony of the effort, making me stagger for a moment. I left the hot chocolate and the sandwich untouched on the wooden chair where I had been sitting and took a deep breath.
"My apologies, but… would thee excuse me?" I asked, directing my gaze toward Artemis, who watched me with her calm, silver eyes.
"What troubles thee, demigod? And why dost thou carry such a cold gaze upon thy face?" Artemis replied, examining me with gravity. I merely let out a heavy sigh, with zero desire to explain myself.
"The fight was… difficult," I said, discreetly checking my status panel. My divine power had finally returned to normal, and my HP and stamina bars were starting to stabilize as well. "I just need to go to the bus."
"We already grabbed our luggage," Luke intervened, pointing his finger in the direction where our belongings had been piled up.
"It's not about the bags, Luke. It's about the people who died inside there. The least I can do for them is give them a proper burial," I replied.
Luke stared at me, surprised and silent. Beside him, Zoë Nightshade crossed her arms and let out a disdainful huff.
"They were merely mortals, boy. I do not recommend thee gaze upon the final state of their carcasses," Zoë said, her voice dripping with contempt.
I spun around and locked my eyes dead on her.
"They are lives. And lives, even if they are those of mere insects, matter. I feel responsible for the end they met, and the least I can offer them is a proper burial before their families find them in that deplorable state," I answered firmly.
Zoë just stared right back at me, narrowing her brown eyes. Artemis, however, made a smooth gesture with her hand, formally pointing in the direction of the bus and granting me permission.
I began to walk through the woods. The air was crisp, but something felt strange: the heat of the sun was melting the surrounding ice at an accelerated pace, revealing flowers of a much more vibrant green. Out of the corner of my eye, I clenched my right hand; it was completely healed. The relief I felt was incredibly satisfying.
As I crossed the epicenter of the battlefield, the scenery turned desolating. The surrounding trees were dead, their trunks twisted and nearly collapsing from the trail of the wildfire. The ground was entirely blanketed under a thick layer of ash. I observed Leviathan, which remained embedded at the bottom of the crater, but decided to ignore it for now.
I went straight to the bus, which now looked like the set of a horror movie. The crust of ice that had previously covered it had melted completely, blending with the blood of the victims. The people's bodies were dissolving, reduced to a slimy mass mixed with the reddish liquid. I swallowed hard and focused on my stock of divine power.
"I apologize to you… innocent lives that I failed to protect," I whispered, feeling a painful knot tighten in my throat. I looked toward the dead trees and the sandy, dry earth. "And I apologize to you all as well, who suffered because of my choices."
The scene was so agonizing that hot tears began to stream freely from my eyes. My mind possessed a natural protection against any kind of external psychic attack, but what I was feeling right now came from the deep depths of my own soul. It was a spiritual pain so genuine that it made the physical burning and my recent scars look like just an insignificant drop in this ocean of suffering.
I hoist both of my hands. Every single fiber of my body protests instantly, warning me that what I'm about to pull off is pure stupidity given my physical state, but I shut out the system alert.
Robust roots begin to sprout from the earth. They don't emerge with a violent crash, but rather in a slow, controlled manner, carefully enveloping the bus chassis. The wooden knots shift the vehicle close to one of the scorched trees. A cloud of ash scatters through the air as the bus is laid down on its side against the earth. I feel a sharp pang of pain and notice that a bit of blood has started leaking from my chest wounds again.
I ignore the physical pain. I close my eyes and concentrate all of my remaining divine power. I feel the energy pulsing inside me like a slow, heavy heartbeat. I open my eyes and watch the magic unfold.
The gray, dead earth begins to be swallowed by a fresh wave of life. Looking back, I watch the asphalt of the empty gas station crack beneath thick roots blanketed in exotic flowers, which begin to embrace the structure of the abandoned buildings. The tree beside the bus sheds its bark right before my eyes; a fresh, healthy layer emerges, binding to the old trunk and restoring its wounds, leaving it strong and imposing once more. Where blood and the slime of dissolved bodies used to be, the earth absorbs it all, sprouting beautiful rose bushes loaded with red buds in its place.
Everything around is rejuvenating, defying winter itself. What used to be a gray, sterile, dead area is now transforming into a lush, damp grove. Trees grow in seconds and the grass sprouts tall and dewy. Witnessing this scene, I honestly don't even care about the blood starting to trickle down my nose from the exertion. I clasp my hands together and close my eyes one last time.
"Hades, lord of the dead... I know you and my mom probably have your differences, but if you could guide or send someone to look after these innocent souls, I'd appreciate it. I can even send you a chicken sandwich in exchange... But if you can't do it, I completely understand."
After finishing the prayer, I open my eyes and limp over to Leviathan, which is now completely covered in delicate violet flowers. I sit on the ground right next to it, just staring at it, without touching it or pulling it out. I lock my eyes directly onto the floating system screen that rises before me:
[ARMAMENT]
* [BRONZE LEVIATHAN]
* [Class]: Epic | Evolving
* [PROGRESS]: 10%
* [POTENTIAL]: LEGENDARY — LOCKED
* [ORIGIN]: UNKNOWN
* [NAME]: UNKNOWN
* [MOOD]: IRRITATED
I lie back on the soft grass and place my hand over my face. Tears continue to stream from the corners of my eyes as I feel the warmth of the sun heating me up. The scent of damp earth, the aroma of violets, and the entire forest—now alive thanks to my sacrifice—seem to whisper around me, as if they were trying to comfort me.
Knowing those deaths were my fault creates a horrific weight in my chest. And worst of all is remembering that, in the middle of the fight, all I could feel was rage and guilt, as if those people were just... disposable lives. My mind is terrifyingly calm due to the system's mechanics, but my soul is crying out for help.
Am I becoming a monster?