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Chapter 3 - Your Own ExecutionTime - Morning
Location - Underground Crystal Cave
"Kill them. . . what!?" Aaron pondered those words in his mind as he saw the attack dog like woman vanish in a purplish black void of energy that felt so unnatural it almost made Aaron want to hurl. Isra soon screaming for him and Aleria to run didn't seem to help his anxiety at all. . . the man stayed in front of them, as if he wasn't even bothering to attack with the woman. Before he could blink however, or even process what was going on. . . he noticed the tip of a scythe just inches away from his throat all of a sudden, as if everything was moving in slow motion now. . . and time seemed to freeze.
"How did she move so fast. . . ?" Aaron thought silently to himself. . . he couldn't dodge. . . he wasn't fast enough nor did he recover enough to even attempt to block it. . .
"AARON!" Aleria screamed out but was too slow to close the distance, even she knew that herself. . . all she could do was watch in slow motion the scythe nearly touching the skin of Aaron's neck as that bastard known as adrenaline made everything look slow enough for her to process clearly. Aaron was going to die. . . and there was nothing she could do about it. . . oh how fate had a sick way of repeating the past. . .
There's a splatter of blood that hits the ground in a crescent shape as the scythe left a clean thin cut right across the young Infernics throat. Aaron's light brown eyes went dead, his pupils dilated, his irises living glow disappeared. . . and he fell backwards in a pool of blood as Rin stood over him flicking the blood off her scythe. Aleria went silent, her voice disappears. . . her mind seemed to go blank as she clearly witness the event that just happened in front of her. Her pupils widened from the shock and stress that surged through her as she looked at Aaron on the ground in a pool of his own blood. The males eyes were slightly opened to where you could see the blank deceased look in his eyes barely as he laid there without a shred of movement.
Aaron was dead. . . . his murderer stood over him like the Grim Reaper itself as her blank pale expressionless face showed not even the slightest remorse for the taking of his life. This woman was a stone cold heartless killer.
"ALERIA RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Isra cried out in tears to Aleria, but her words fell on deaf ears. Aleria dropped to her knees. . . black long hair covering the hopeless expression in her eyes as she stared at her now deceased friends corpse. She couldn't believe it. . . no way she could believe it. . . tears streamed down her cheeks as she sat there traumatized at the murder of her friend. Isra began to run over to Aleria but was stopped as Rin manifested in front of her and swung her scythe at the woman's throat.
"You're my next victim. . ." Rin mumbled under her voice quietly, her violet glowing eyes almost shining brighter from the glow of the crystals surrounding the cave. The scythe slices through the air but hits nothing as Isra managed to dodge barely losing only a chunk of the hair on the right side of her face along with a shallow cut across her ear. Isra seizes her right ear with the same hand, feeling the warm blood running down her fingers. Aleria still sat there traumatized, if her body didn't breathe on its own she'd probably have forgot how to breathe and died too with the shock running through her mind.
"Does it hurt? My dear child?" The mysterious man walked over to Aleria, his feet not making a sound no matter how they touched the ground underneath the heavy cloak covering him. He seemed to ignore Rin and Isra some ways behind them. Rin attacking relentlessly while Isra was barely dodging and weaving. For every dodge, a wound was inflicted on Isra, it was only a matter of time before those shallow barely contacted wounds would accumulate and slow the girl down enough for the final blow to be dealt. Aleria didn't reply to the man's question.
"This is reality, my sweet sweet young one. . ." the man hissed happily as he walked around her and over to Aaron's corpse. "Your friend is dead, see?" He reached down and placed a scarred palm on the drenched in blood black sleeveless vest that covered the bodies chest. "His breathing is no more. . . and look at his eyes. . ." he continued his autopsy and pointed to the half open dilated and lifeless eyes of the young man. "The eyes have lost their life force. Reality is cruel my dear, death happens more than you think. . ." he smirked under his hood as he walked back over to Aleria, who still could not speak. The sounds of blood and air being cut whipped in the background as Rin was ever more gaining ground over Isra.
"ALERIA! RUN GODDAMMIT!" Isra screamed out pleadingly as she was hit by the butt of Rin's scythe sending her crashing into the cave ground and into the stream of flowing water with a blood splash. Rin briefly paused, then vanished again.
"Your other friend will die too. . . you should blame her honestly for your friend here's death. . . for if she had not became your friend you wouldn't have been dragged into this." The mysterious man said in a false sense of assurance. Aleria suddenly snapped to her senses with that. What did he mean Aaron is dead because of Isra? No way that was true. . . Aleria looked slowly but surely towards the black cloaked man looming above her distraught face, tears still streaming down her yellowish skin from her watery hazel eyes.
"You look confused. . . Rin, bring Isra here." The man then ordered waving a hand through the air. A few seconds later Rin and Isra appeared before Aleria, between her and Aaron's lifeless corpse. Isra was on her knees, pants cuts up showing skin here and there with her hands bound behind her back by what looked to be violet aura tethers from magic. Rin held the inside of her scythe edge to the young girls neck in a reverse guillotine fashion. The pole part of the weapon held with one hand as Rin stood behind the subdued woman. Aleria gasped quietly, she wanted to scream. . . she wanted to scream for help. . . normally she could stay calm in any situation bit this. . . this was too much for her. The once cool clean air of the underground cave system now smelled of death and sadness. The blue crystal cluster nearby now painted over with blood altering the color of their glows.
"This is no ordinary woman, my dear child." The man spoke to Aleria, he pointed a finger to Isra right after his sentence. Aleria's eyes followed closely the movement of his hand towards her friend. "This girl is the Goddess of Fate and Sealing." He said calmly with a smirk as he let those words swirl around in Aleria's head for a moment. Aleria looked confused, her tear ridden face turning to look at Isra only for Isra to avoid looking her back in the eyes.
"Now, you're probably wondering why a God is my friend? Or how did Rin manage to subdue a God. . . a all powerful being without so much as a scratch on her own self, correct?" The man asked rhetorically. Aleria didn't reply. "Well, the answer is simple . . . she sealed herself up long ago to avoid being destroyed. . . as well as a couple of other gods. You know them as Deraga and Aeritotle. However recently. . . she's managed to weaken the seal she placed on herself slowly and surely. . . this explains why the other gods haven't noticed it yet." He tapped a finger across the inside of his hood. One could assume he was tapping his actual face.
"DON'T TELL HER DU--" Before Isra could finish her sentence the scythe edge right under chin began to cut into skin. Blood trickled from the small superficial cut in her neck that Rin did simply by pulling on the hilt of her weapon while behind Isra.
"If you want to live a few seconds longer. . . I'd suggest you keep quiet." Rin said in a soft ominous tone. Her expression was blank as was her tone. Almost as if she weren't human. "However. . master, why are you telling that girl all of this?" Rin then asked looking towards the man. The male chuckled darkly and then tossed his arms up quietly and dismissive.
"Since we're going to kill them all anyway, I'd figure I'd break this girls mind and spirit as much as I can. You killed her friend in cold blood, so let me have my fun my dear." He ordered in a more serious tone. Rin nodded quietly, chin length black hair hugging the sides of her face and eyes with each movement as she acknowledges the request and fell silent. Aleria still didn't speak.
"Now as I was saying. . . this Goddess here has been looking to break her seal more by finding a human to inhabit in spirit and share life force with. Because as of now, she's still weak and powerless as long as over 20â„… of that seal still stands. I'd say she's still got around 90% of that seal still binding her to Chrysalis. A pity, the butterfly doesn't even escape its cocoon yet before the hornet takes them as prey to fuel their ambitions." He finished laughing more. Aleria gasped quietly to herself.
"Chrysalis? Is he talking about the moon?" she thought to herself. Before she could speak however the man suddenly cringed over in agony and began to writhe as if he was in pain. Rin also began to grab her head with her free hand as if something inside her skull suddenly caught on fire, the bindings on Isra vanished. Isra took this chance and with a quick movement pushed away the weapon at her throat and wrapped a powerful gust of pressurized air around her leg as she jumped to her feet and spun around aiming a kick to Rin's head. The shinigami like woman disappeared before the blow connected and reappeared by the male she'd arrived with. Both of them seemed to be in agony all of a sudden.
"I can kill him!!!" the thought streaked across Aleria's mind and with a second to spare she forced all her agony and anger of seeing Aaron killed before her eyes and her body blazed over in white hot blue fire. The flames so intense they began to char the on shoulder sleeved black shirt and pants she was wearing. Even scorching some of her skin as she attacked. Her right arm extended and gripped the hooded part of the males cloak as her left palm was stuffed into his face preparing to unleash a point blank flamethrower of energy into his face.
"I'LL BURN YOU OUT OF EXISTENCE!" Aleria screamed in rage. Rin suddenly mad a move to kill Aleria but Isra interfered and managed to deal a punch to the woman's skull causing her to fly back and get impaled on a stray crystal sticking out the ground. The gem pierced through Rin's torso from behind and she laid there limp and motionless. Meanwhile Aleria had finished charging up and let loose all her energy into that one blow.
"Burn. . . forever. . ." she said quietly before the entire vicinity near them blazed bright white from the massive inferno unleashed at point blank into the man's face. Scorching even the air as skin melted bones popped and tendons were cooked to a crisp. The heat was so intense the air started to distort before a few seconds later the flames died down leaving behind a smolder skeleton bare of all clothing in front of Aleria. Her left hand scorched and melted from the power of her attack to the point the bones of her fingers were nearly visible. Her shirt was burned to a crisp, only tatters still wrapped around her. Her pants were smoldered revealing third degree burns on her thighs and shins. Isra ran over to Aleria to catch her as she fell out nearly unconscious. Returning her body over to a deceased Aaron's. As she was placed on the ground beside him, Aleria would turn to look at a dead Aaron. Her scorched left arm reached out to touch his lifeless face. Tears streaming down her face once again.
"Aaron. . . I'm so sorry. . ." she cried like a little girl. Isra had a solemn expression. She could tell Aleria was really traumatized at the death of what she assumed was one of her best friends. Â Isra's now green eyes turned to look at Aaron's half open lifeless ones. And she began to break down crying too.
"My my. . . that was a great combo. . Â take advantage of your enemies brief weakness." A familiar male voice cackled in laughter behind them. Isra froze solid, Aleria noticed as well but was too injured to do anything but lay there still touching Aaron's face.
"Rin. . . we are retreating for now. . . our condition is in critical states. We'll let them live. . . for now. . ." the male said. Isra didn't dare turn around, but she heard what sounded like a void open up and vanish. When she finally gathered the resolve to look behind her. . . the bodies of the man and woman were gone. Isra swallowed hard, and then looked at the heavily injured Aleria and dead Aaron.
"I'm so sorry, Aleria. . ." Isra cried hunching over onto of Aleria. Her head buried in the burned girls stomach. "I didn't mean to get you involved in this. . . I didn't know he was still alive I'm sorry I'm sorry!" She cried profusely. Aleria just watched the girl cry onto her. . . she felt genuinely sorry and distraught over what she had brought her into. A burn palm patted Isra on her sandy brown hair. The Goddess in human form froze up and looked to Aleria with bright green eyes of sorrow.
"It wasn't your fault. . . " Aleria said quietly with a weak smile. Isra stared in utter amazement. . . Aleria didn't seem to hate her in the least. . .
"You didn't run. . . even when me and Aaron wouldn't listen. . . you were willing to die with us for your mistake. . . and not run away. . Â and for that, I forgive you. . Isra. ." Aleria said dryly. You could tell she was heavily injured herself. Isra was silent for the longest. The sound of the flowing stream a few feet away took control of the air. Finally. . . after what seemed like deep thought. . . Isra raised her head and placed her hands on Aleria's body. A soft white light began to emit from them. Aleria looked from under her scorched hair at the woman's light.
"What are. . . you doing. .?" She asked weakly. . . soon she started to notice her burns were healing at an alarming rate. . . and her strength was returning. . .
"Don't talk. . . I'm healing you. . . and then. . ." she said quietly. . . a long pause followed once again before she spoke. . .
"Just. . . don't die on me. . . I want us to still be friends. . ." she sighed quietly as slowly but surely the heavily burned Aleria was recovering. The damn near melted off left hand that unleashed that fiery inferno slowly was reformed back into its original state as the white light shone on it. The burns lining her entire body began to fade away completely into brand new skin and flesh.
"How are you doing this?" Aleria asked quietly. . . she was able to talk again without feeling like she'd been stabbed through the throat with how badly she was burned. Isra didn't look up. Still focused on the wounds at hand and healing them.
"I'm the goddess of fate. . . I can reject what fate has placed on anything if I deem it necessary. . . however it hurts me in return as well. . ." she said quietly. "I'm rejecting from your fate that you received these burns a few minutes ago. . . you'll be good as new." She continued. Aleria stared, her face feeling better as the burns were vanishing.
"Reject fate. . . so you can bring Aaron back?" She asked as if that wasn't on her mind the minute it was spoken to her. Isra didn't answer initially. Finally her lips parted and she spoke.
"Once a person dies. . . their fate is no longer under my control. . . that part of deal belongs to Nevram. . . the God of the afterlife." She said solemnly. Aleria fell quiet, and then looked over to Aaron. His lifeless body still in a pool of blood, a clean deep cut across the jugular was the cause of death.
"So he's gone then. . . for good. . ." Aleria began to cry again as she was being healed. Isra just listened to her for the longest, the regret building up inside of her. Aaron died because of her. . . the goddess of fate meddling in the affairs of humans. . . it was her fault.
"No. . ." she finally said. "He can be brought back to life. . . but it has to be agreed upon by me and Nevram. . ." she paused. "Something that has only happened once before. . ."
Aleria looked back to Isra. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Aaron could be brought back!?Â
"And. . . Aaron has to find his way back to the mortal realm from the afterlife if his soul made it across to Nevram and his realm. . ." she finished her explanation. Aleria sat up, nearly healed to full strength as she gazed upon Isra.
"Then do it. . . let's bring him back. . ." Aleria said with newfound determination and hope. Isra and her looked each other in the eyes for a brief moment before the goddess stood up and walked over to Aaron's corpse. Aleria watched quietly as the woman bent down into the pool of blood spilling from the bodies throat and placed a hand over his severed jugular before the wound was healed over and rejected as if it never happened. But Aaron still didn't move.
"I thought you couldn't bring him back!?" Aleria said confused.
"He's still dead. . . I just fixed the wound on his neck. . . his soul has already left the body." She said motioning for Aleria to come help. "Help me pick his body up. . . we'll get out of here or find help or something. . Â and I'll explain how we can bring your friend back. . ." she said in a calm and solemn voice. Yet there was hope deep in her words as well. Aleria hurried over with new found strength and helped pick up Aaron.
"I'll phase us out of this cave to the surface using my power. . . hang on. . ." she said before a sudden bright light enveloped the three and they vanished from the cave.
"And the pieces fall on to the board. . ." a disembodied female voice speaks.
To be continued. . .
Location - Underground Crystal Cave
"Kill them. . . what!?" Aaron pondered those words in his mind as he saw the attack dog like woman vanish in a purplish black void of energy that felt so unnatural it almost made Aaron want to hurl. Isra soon screaming for him and Aleria to run didn't seem to help his anxiety at all. . . the man stayed in front of them, as if he wasn't even bothering to attack with the woman. Before he could blink however, or even process what was going on. . . he noticed the tip of a scythe just inches away from his throat all of a sudden, as if everything was moving in slow motion now. . . and time seemed to freeze.
"How did she move so fast. . . ?" Aaron thought silently to himself. . . he couldn't dodge. . . he wasn't fast enough nor did he recover enough to even attempt to block it. . .
"AARON!" Aleria screamed out but was too slow to close the distance, even she knew that herself. . . all she could do was watch in slow motion the scythe nearly touching the skin of Aaron's neck as that bastard known as adrenaline made everything look slow enough for her to process clearly. Aaron was going to die. . . and there was nothing she could do about it. . . oh how fate had a sick way of repeating the past. . .
There's a splatter of blood that hits the ground in a crescent shape as the scythe left a clean thin cut right across the young Infernics throat. Aaron's light brown eyes went dead, his pupils dilated, his irises living glow disappeared. . . and he fell backwards in a pool of blood as Rin stood over him flicking the blood off her scythe. Aleria went silent, her voice disappears. . . her mind seemed to go blank as she clearly witness the event that just happened in front of her. Her pupils widened from the shock and stress that surged through her as she looked at Aaron on the ground in a pool of his own blood. The males eyes were slightly opened to where you could see the blank deceased look in his eyes barely as he laid there without a shred of movement.
Aaron was dead. . . . his murderer stood over him like the Grim Reaper itself as her blank pale expressionless face showed not even the slightest remorse for the taking of his life. This woman was a stone cold heartless killer.
"ALERIA RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Isra cried out in tears to Aleria, but her words fell on deaf ears. Aleria dropped to her knees. . . black long hair covering the hopeless expression in her eyes as she stared at her now deceased friends corpse. She couldn't believe it. . . no way she could believe it. . . tears streamed down her cheeks as she sat there traumatized at the murder of her friend. Isra began to run over to Aleria but was stopped as Rin manifested in front of her and swung her scythe at the woman's throat.
"You're my next victim. . ." Rin mumbled under her voice quietly, her violet glowing eyes almost shining brighter from the glow of the crystals surrounding the cave. The scythe slices through the air but hits nothing as Isra managed to dodge barely losing only a chunk of the hair on the right side of her face along with a shallow cut across her ear. Isra seizes her right ear with the same hand, feeling the warm blood running down her fingers. Aleria still sat there traumatized, if her body didn't breathe on its own she'd probably have forgot how to breathe and died too with the shock running through her mind.
"Does it hurt? My dear child?" The mysterious man walked over to Aleria, his feet not making a sound no matter how they touched the ground underneath the heavy cloak covering him. He seemed to ignore Rin and Isra some ways behind them. Rin attacking relentlessly while Isra was barely dodging and weaving. For every dodge, a wound was inflicted on Isra, it was only a matter of time before those shallow barely contacted wounds would accumulate and slow the girl down enough for the final blow to be dealt. Aleria didn't reply to the man's question.
"This is reality, my sweet sweet young one. . ." the man hissed happily as he walked around her and over to Aaron's corpse. "Your friend is dead, see?" He reached down and placed a scarred palm on the drenched in blood black sleeveless vest that covered the bodies chest. "His breathing is no more. . . and look at his eyes. . ." he continued his autopsy and pointed to the half open dilated and lifeless eyes of the young man. "The eyes have lost their life force. Reality is cruel my dear, death happens more than you think. . ." he smirked under his hood as he walked back over to Aleria, who still could not speak. The sounds of blood and air being cut whipped in the background as Rin was ever more gaining ground over Isra.
"ALERIA! RUN GODDAMMIT!" Isra screamed out pleadingly as she was hit by the butt of Rin's scythe sending her crashing into the cave ground and into the stream of flowing water with a blood splash. Rin briefly paused, then vanished again.
"Your other friend will die too. . . you should blame her honestly for your friend here's death. . . for if she had not became your friend you wouldn't have been dragged into this." The mysterious man said in a false sense of assurance. Aleria suddenly snapped to her senses with that. What did he mean Aaron is dead because of Isra? No way that was true. . . Aleria looked slowly but surely towards the black cloaked man looming above her distraught face, tears still streaming down her yellowish skin from her watery hazel eyes.
"You look confused. . . Rin, bring Isra here." The man then ordered waving a hand through the air. A few seconds later Rin and Isra appeared before Aleria, between her and Aaron's lifeless corpse. Isra was on her knees, pants cuts up showing skin here and there with her hands bound behind her back by what looked to be violet aura tethers from magic. Rin held the inside of her scythe edge to the young girls neck in a reverse guillotine fashion. The pole part of the weapon held with one hand as Rin stood behind the subdued woman. Aleria gasped quietly, she wanted to scream. . . she wanted to scream for help. . . normally she could stay calm in any situation bit this. . . this was too much for her. The once cool clean air of the underground cave system now smelled of death and sadness. The blue crystal cluster nearby now painted over with blood altering the color of their glows.
"This is no ordinary woman, my dear child." The man spoke to Aleria, he pointed a finger to Isra right after his sentence. Aleria's eyes followed closely the movement of his hand towards her friend. "This girl is the Goddess of Fate and Sealing." He said calmly with a smirk as he let those words swirl around in Aleria's head for a moment. Aleria looked confused, her tear ridden face turning to look at Isra only for Isra to avoid looking her back in the eyes.
"Now, you're probably wondering why a God is my friend? Or how did Rin manage to subdue a God. . . a all powerful being without so much as a scratch on her own self, correct?" The man asked rhetorically. Aleria didn't reply. "Well, the answer is simple . . . she sealed herself up long ago to avoid being destroyed. . . as well as a couple of other gods. You know them as Deraga and Aeritotle. However recently. . . she's managed to weaken the seal she placed on herself slowly and surely. . . this explains why the other gods haven't noticed it yet." He tapped a finger across the inside of his hood. One could assume he was tapping his actual face.
"DON'T TELL HER DU--" Before Isra could finish her sentence the scythe edge right under chin began to cut into skin. Blood trickled from the small superficial cut in her neck that Rin did simply by pulling on the hilt of her weapon while behind Isra.
"If you want to live a few seconds longer. . . I'd suggest you keep quiet." Rin said in a soft ominous tone. Her expression was blank as was her tone. Almost as if she weren't human. "However. . master, why are you telling that girl all of this?" Rin then asked looking towards the man. The male chuckled darkly and then tossed his arms up quietly and dismissive.
"Since we're going to kill them all anyway, I'd figure I'd break this girls mind and spirit as much as I can. You killed her friend in cold blood, so let me have my fun my dear." He ordered in a more serious tone. Rin nodded quietly, chin length black hair hugging the sides of her face and eyes with each movement as she acknowledges the request and fell silent. Aleria still didn't speak.
"Now as I was saying. . . this Goddess here has been looking to break her seal more by finding a human to inhabit in spirit and share life force with. Because as of now, she's still weak and powerless as long as over 20â„… of that seal still stands. I'd say she's still got around 90% of that seal still binding her to Chrysalis. A pity, the butterfly doesn't even escape its cocoon yet before the hornet takes them as prey to fuel their ambitions." He finished laughing more. Aleria gasped quietly to herself.
"Chrysalis? Is he talking about the moon?" she thought to herself. Before she could speak however the man suddenly cringed over in agony and began to writhe as if he was in pain. Rin also began to grab her head with her free hand as if something inside her skull suddenly caught on fire, the bindings on Isra vanished. Isra took this chance and with a quick movement pushed away the weapon at her throat and wrapped a powerful gust of pressurized air around her leg as she jumped to her feet and spun around aiming a kick to Rin's head. The shinigami like woman disappeared before the blow connected and reappeared by the male she'd arrived with. Both of them seemed to be in agony all of a sudden.
"I can kill him!!!" the thought streaked across Aleria's mind and with a second to spare she forced all her agony and anger of seeing Aaron killed before her eyes and her body blazed over in white hot blue fire. The flames so intense they began to char the on shoulder sleeved black shirt and pants she was wearing. Even scorching some of her skin as she attacked. Her right arm extended and gripped the hooded part of the males cloak as her left palm was stuffed into his face preparing to unleash a point blank flamethrower of energy into his face.
"I'LL BURN YOU OUT OF EXISTENCE!" Aleria screamed in rage. Rin suddenly mad a move to kill Aleria but Isra interfered and managed to deal a punch to the woman's skull causing her to fly back and get impaled on a stray crystal sticking out the ground. The gem pierced through Rin's torso from behind and she laid there limp and motionless. Meanwhile Aleria had finished charging up and let loose all her energy into that one blow.
"Burn. . . forever. . ." she said quietly before the entire vicinity near them blazed bright white from the massive inferno unleashed at point blank into the man's face. Scorching even the air as skin melted bones popped and tendons were cooked to a crisp. The heat was so intense the air started to distort before a few seconds later the flames died down leaving behind a smolder skeleton bare of all clothing in front of Aleria. Her left hand scorched and melted from the power of her attack to the point the bones of her fingers were nearly visible. Her shirt was burned to a crisp, only tatters still wrapped around her. Her pants were smoldered revealing third degree burns on her thighs and shins. Isra ran over to Aleria to catch her as she fell out nearly unconscious. Returning her body over to a deceased Aaron's. As she was placed on the ground beside him, Aleria would turn to look at a dead Aaron. Her scorched left arm reached out to touch his lifeless face. Tears streaming down her face once again.
"Aaron. . . I'm so sorry. . ." she cried like a little girl. Isra had a solemn expression. She could tell Aleria was really traumatized at the death of what she assumed was one of her best friends. Â Isra's now green eyes turned to look at Aaron's half open lifeless ones. And she began to break down crying too.
"My my. . . that was a great combo. . Â take advantage of your enemies brief weakness." A familiar male voice cackled in laughter behind them. Isra froze solid, Aleria noticed as well but was too injured to do anything but lay there still touching Aaron's face.
"Rin. . . we are retreating for now. . . our condition is in critical states. We'll let them live. . . for now. . ." the male said. Isra didn't dare turn around, but she heard what sounded like a void open up and vanish. When she finally gathered the resolve to look behind her. . . the bodies of the man and woman were gone. Isra swallowed hard, and then looked at the heavily injured Aleria and dead Aaron.
"I'm so sorry, Aleria. . ." Isra cried hunching over onto of Aleria. Her head buried in the burned girls stomach. "I didn't mean to get you involved in this. . . I didn't know he was still alive I'm sorry I'm sorry!" She cried profusely. Aleria just watched the girl cry onto her. . . she felt genuinely sorry and distraught over what she had brought her into. A burn palm patted Isra on her sandy brown hair. The Goddess in human form froze up and looked to Aleria with bright green eyes of sorrow.
"It wasn't your fault. . . " Aleria said quietly with a weak smile. Isra stared in utter amazement. . . Aleria didn't seem to hate her in the least. . .
"You didn't run. . . even when me and Aaron wouldn't listen. . . you were willing to die with us for your mistake. . . and not run away. . Â and for that, I forgive you. . Isra. ." Aleria said dryly. You could tell she was heavily injured herself. Isra was silent for the longest. The sound of the flowing stream a few feet away took control of the air. Finally. . . after what seemed like deep thought. . . Isra raised her head and placed her hands on Aleria's body. A soft white light began to emit from them. Aleria looked from under her scorched hair at the woman's light.
"What are. . . you doing. .?" She asked weakly. . . soon she started to notice her burns were healing at an alarming rate. . . and her strength was returning. . .
"Don't talk. . . I'm healing you. . . and then. . ." she said quietly. . . a long pause followed once again before she spoke. . .
"Just. . . don't die on me. . . I want us to still be friends. . ." she sighed quietly as slowly but surely the heavily burned Aleria was recovering. The damn near melted off left hand that unleashed that fiery inferno slowly was reformed back into its original state as the white light shone on it. The burns lining her entire body began to fade away completely into brand new skin and flesh.
"How are you doing this?" Aleria asked quietly. . . she was able to talk again without feeling like she'd been stabbed through the throat with how badly she was burned. Isra didn't look up. Still focused on the wounds at hand and healing them.
"I'm the goddess of fate. . . I can reject what fate has placed on anything if I deem it necessary. . . however it hurts me in return as well. . ." she said quietly. "I'm rejecting from your fate that you received these burns a few minutes ago. . . you'll be good as new." She continued. Aleria stared, her face feeling better as the burns were vanishing.
"Reject fate. . . so you can bring Aaron back?" She asked as if that wasn't on her mind the minute it was spoken to her. Isra didn't answer initially. Finally her lips parted and she spoke.
"Once a person dies. . . their fate is no longer under my control. . . that part of deal belongs to Nevram. . . the God of the afterlife." She said solemnly. Aleria fell quiet, and then looked over to Aaron. His lifeless body still in a pool of blood, a clean deep cut across the jugular was the cause of death.
"So he's gone then. . . for good. . ." Aleria began to cry again as she was being healed. Isra just listened to her for the longest, the regret building up inside of her. Aaron died because of her. . . the goddess of fate meddling in the affairs of humans. . . it was her fault.
"No. . ." she finally said. "He can be brought back to life. . . but it has to be agreed upon by me and Nevram. . ." she paused. "Something that has only happened once before. . ."
Aleria looked back to Isra. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Aaron could be brought back!?Â
"And. . . Aaron has to find his way back to the mortal realm from the afterlife if his soul made it across to Nevram and his realm. . ." she finished her explanation. Aleria sat up, nearly healed to full strength as she gazed upon Isra.
"Then do it. . . let's bring him back. . ." Aleria said with newfound determination and hope. Isra and her looked each other in the eyes for a brief moment before the goddess stood up and walked over to Aaron's corpse. Aleria watched quietly as the woman bent down into the pool of blood spilling from the bodies throat and placed a hand over his severed jugular before the wound was healed over and rejected as if it never happened. But Aaron still didn't move.
"I thought you couldn't bring him back!?" Aleria said confused.
"He's still dead. . . I just fixed the wound on his neck. . . his soul has already left the body." She said motioning for Aleria to come help. "Help me pick his body up. . . we'll get out of here or find help or something. . Â and I'll explain how we can bring your friend back. . ." she said in a calm and solemn voice. Yet there was hope deep in her words as well. Aleria hurried over with new found strength and helped pick up Aaron.
"I'll phase us out of this cave to the surface using my power. . . hang on. . ." she said before a sudden bright light enveloped the three and they vanished from the cave.
"And the pieces fall on to the board. . ." a disembodied female voice speaks.
To be continued. . .
Kevin Gates - Told Me