The forest was filled with noises within the shrubberies. Gasping, wheezing, looking for air as they squeezed through the forest darkness—trying to find their long-lost target. “Come on!” Aden shouted. “Almost there!” Almost where? He had only heard the rat’s noises but he still couldn’t pinpoint how far… or how close.
More sounds emanated from the forest as Aden watched the tall plants and branches fall apart beneath him with his ritual blade. They had hit it. Again. With an arrow. And with enough desire to just end the night and the hunt, Aden and the others were chasing it down.
The dog relied on its instinct, on its senses. The beast’s blood was putrid enough for the hound to detect it and stream it with his noise. Between those gaps for air, and those wincing from the shrubberies, another voice like thunder disseminated in the air. Aden wasn’t sure if the others heard it, too. But it was there, for him.
Ailan Dei Kastrel. Datu of the goddess Ledanai’i. The goddess of domination. He looked at the orb positioned rightly below him, with shaking hands. He had to do it, he thought. Otherwise Ledanai’i would just keep coming for him. He had to kill Dante, and the others. But honestly, he knew, Dante in particular.At least if he leaves the tribe of Leadanai’i for good, there was a fighting chance. He had already resurrected Nukasuni from the void’s grave. All that was left to do was to commit to it. What was one soul more to him, right? What was one more death to the champion of the goddess of domination?Everyone had gatherer within the temple walls. A secret location Ledanai’i had purposefully made for them, where—with one push of the stone button—Ailan could end it.After all, everything had gone according to plan, hadn’t it? Ailan asked himself. The ‘hypnosis’ of it all. The manipulation. The mental illu
Maria looked over the sunset that shined thoroughly on the village’s overlooking bluff. Aden—Ailan—didn’t understand, she thought. To the man beside him, this was the second or third time they met here on the bluff. To her, this was one of many. With Ailan. She let the morning breeze pass through her for a second, as she thought of what to say. It was approaching noon. Pretty soon, Aden—once again—would need to go. She felt like she was talking to a different person right now. And she was begging, in her heart, for a way to carve Ailan Dei Kastrel out of him. How she felt about him… was still there. And Ailan hadn’t died… but the memories. She hoped, that at some point while they were in that forest: Aden remembered the same memories as her. She looked to him, smirking—squinting and turning away from the sunlight. Maria crossed her arms, “Why delay?” she asked. It was the only words that came to her mind. It had been hours since Aden came back from the hunt, and they
Even if the day was blessed with a weather and a kind of sunlight that would only come at least once a month, even if the village and the forest, and the mountains, had it pleasant; wherever Aden went—it seemed—something else would always follow. As long as Ailan and those who knew him were still alive, uncertainty would always be there for him. Leven stepped out of the black car on the privilege of pressing sunlight. His sunglasses gleamed against the pleasant rays as it also hid the agenda in his eyes. Still, though, his smile and just the fact that someone else—someone other than Aden—was there gave it all away.Leven approached the old, overgrown, yellow house on the side of the highway within the forest. It had remained as conforming to the woods as it should be, and they had preferred it that way. Leven’s grin, however, had easily changed things. Easily changed the air.Abel stepped out of the house, the wooden stairs creaking at the
The forest. The forest of the ancient, resurrected dragon, had remained at peace, still. The anciency intact and the silence and the solemness remained. The clouds were still gray, but it had still perfectly completed the green under. The cave had remained with its purpose. To keep Aden safe, while everything ravaged on. A fight he did not even know the scale of. A war to end all things—or to fix it.Aden had almost curled up so hard that he would almost hit his head on the ground. He continued to grit his teeth and close his eyes in constant pain. Unimaginable pain. It wasn’t in his body. It was sort of... mental. His soul was reshaping. Purposely burning to become better. It was how he explained it. It was how the void had taught him to explain it.Everything was coming back to him. He in no sense a god, but he felt like he was slowly learning how to be one—with all the memories, knowledges, and power that was coming back to him. Aden, it seemed, wa
The afternoon birds sang across the now-timid wind moving across the forest. Their tune—their chirping—now set to a mood of watching? And waiting? It gave off thee sense that the forest itself was humbly the audience of Leven and Aden. In the distance, a faint sound of the river could be heard. Then the occasional bend of the trees and the flow of the leaves as the wind met them. Light seeped into the forest cave.Then the handgun sang. The cave boomed with the gunfire’s vibration, and the singing birds were now sent flying away. The distant sunlight from the sun, now challenged by the simple break of gunpowder.Leven’s eyes had widened. He unconsciously had parted his lips… as if to say: How could you? Almost instantly. As he watched his own blood spray away from his body, onto the fresh flat floor of the temple. Aden pulled the trigger again.The shot whizzed through him, piercing Leven’s lower chest. He stumbled down and c
The Kadlum clan was practically the Urrutia clan. For so long, decades and generations long, it was the Urrutia that had always kept the tribe safe. When it was time for Alice’s father to take the place of Datu, the circle of the tribes was at its peak of peace and unity. The peak of understanding. Alice could still remember the day he held her hand when she was just a small child, as they went to one of the most important tribal councils in her father’s life. At the time, she had no idea. But she remembered and realized now. That was the day the clans properly agreed on peace and unity. An agreement to halt their own advances and intentions for the throne, and live as equals instead. The gods would live in prosperity and take on different cities and areas around the place to take hold and flourish. And they were going to do this, until a better way would be established to put a god on the throne. They were starting order. But little did poor Alice know: she was one of t
Alice never really knew why it all came apart. Why it had to go the way it had. Wasn’t it just right, she thought. Wasn’t it just right for the peace to continue? Yet there they were, scarred and damaged by the people they thought would do anything to protect the accord. Bayi, for that matter. “I thought you’d keep to the treaty,” Alice said, as she raised a finger to touch the memory of the god-creature in front of her. “You, of all people,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter anymore. You’re as good as dead. You and your ‘safety’ around you.”Despite, Alice’s feelings, the memory still continued to play. Her head turned back to her father as he brought the agenda to the rest of the god council. Perhaps, she thought, the very first one since centuries.At the center was a round table. “Shall we sit?” her father said, motioning for the stone table in front of them. “Now,&
The morning was slowly shattering. Its rays of the sun gradually fading away as it gave way to the moon. The clouds were losing its yellow shade, but the sun was still there. As the cave had slowly lost its radiance, so too did Alice leave the place. She had asked for power. More power, that is. Kadlum did not complain. “Go,” Kadlum said. “Go and make things right for us. We both want the future the path paved for us, Alice. Make it happen.”Alice’s sharp footsteps echoed across the hallway of the gods as the statue platform at the center lost the human presence—now once again confined within the guardian waterfalls and cave darkness that had always been with it. The darkness seemed to follow her, trail and trace her tracks as she walked towards the exit. Or maybe, it was the other way around. As she went for the exit, maybe the light was going out with her, too. Either way, the temple was to be left alone again.As she crossed the s