Medio: Sometimes, the only option is to fight

“First of all, let me say that I share Leucothea’s opinion here, violence is not my specialty.”

The priest happily got closer to Ases, whose legs had now healed and was with one knee to the ground, trying to catch back his breath. The poison Halia had used still coursed through his body, its effects hitting him fully.

“But even then, when she told me the story I thought I had to see that kind of thing for myself. An army of winged monstrosities that combined into a single entity that never dies? What a fascinating thing it must be!”

The gigantic telchine was still grasping his hand that was no longer bleeding. Judging by his angry face, it probably wanted to hit Ases against the ground again and again, but didn’t dare to do it while the priest was nearby.

“Several beings become one, a single mind, the strength of everyone combined into a gigantic entity. It’s almost like a dream. We have some decently sized guys on our side, but it’s nothing compared to the things that we have to cohabitate with. Isn’t that right, little guy?”

The priest patted the giant telchine in the knee, which the beast didn’t seem to quite appreciate, but didn’t resist nonetheless.

“So, like a proof of concept, why don’t you go transform back into it so I can study it a bit? Don’t even try to deny it, even if I have not seen it, I know that you can do it. I heard the legend of the hunt, so how about you prove to me that there is actually some truth in those tales?”

The priest said his spiel with a gleeful voice that betrayed the grim meaning of his words. Ases was doing everything he could not to burst in anger just from listening to his ramblings, a task that was made easier by the fact that the poison made him too weak to act.

He was trying to evaluate his options, but until he could get back on his feet, he would not have a chance against the two of them. The damage from the poison had gotten a lot worse, his now blurry vision had degraded into being almost completely blind and his muscles were starting to stiffen together as if they were made of wood. His regeneration was kicking in, but for the moment, and the foreseeable future, the poison was stronger than it. Whatever action he did now, would probably be his last one before total paralysis.

Without any good ideas, and against all the instincts of self preservation he had, an horrible plan formed in his mind. As he was, the gigantic telchine would crush him back into the ground before he could even touch the priest, but perhaps…

Dizzy and unable to stand straight for more than a couple of seconds, he didn’t doubt when throwing himself forward. Just like before, he put all his strength in a burst of strength and unable to see, just launched himself in the general direction the voice of the priest was coming from.

“Finally a bit of enthusiasm from you!” Said the priest, not moving from his spot. Ases had launched himself slightly wrong, but would still catch him with his arm if he was not stopped.

The gigantic telchine, furious and unwilling to contain his strength, tried to punch Ases down into the ground. It knew that it was not supposed to kill him, so it aimed to attack his legs again, but Ases suddenly threw himself back, pushing his entire body under the fist of the telchine before it hit the ground.

A sickening crunch reached them through the rain. The priest still had his mask on so his face could not be seen, but even then his body betrayed the shock he was in for a moment. Suddenly, the person who he came to face had now been completely broken against the ground.

The giant telchine seemed just as surprised, raising his fist and giving a couple of steps back in disbelief, seeing clearly how he had killed one of the only two persons he had been ordered not to kill.

A second went by, another one came after. Each one felt like an eternity, but suddenly, from the pool of blood and the broken body that laid in the ground a man sprung back to life. With unparalleled speed, Ases was standing upright where a second ago he was only a corpse.

Ases was hyperventilating, confused for a moment without knowing where he was. The darkness of the twilight and the rain that covered the sky only made matters worse for him. It was only when he recognized the priest and the giant telchine looking at him in surprise that he remembered what had happened.

“So the blessing of undying is this powerful, truly magnificent!” Screamed the priest, raising his arms in adoration, the rain starting to become a hailstorm.

Death was something that no person could come back from with his humanity intact, that was a conclusion Ases reached a long time ago. An overwhelming sense of dread, directed towards himself and the monstrosity that his body was now overwhelmed him for a moment, but he forced himself to concentrate back into the fight. The storm outside had no comparison to the one that he was going through in his own mind, but at the very least, that was the one storm he had experience navigating. As long as he had someone to fight for, he would refuse to let it sink him down again.

The world seemed to freeze for a moment, but suddenly, Ases threw himself towards the giant telchine. The enormous beast tried to grab him, but reacted late and couldn’t reach him before Ases's fists went through his tunic and sunk deeply and painfully in his stomach. The strength he had launched himself was so massive that with his seemingly human hands, he had managed to penetrate the thick scaled skin of the beast.

The telchine could not stay on his feet any longer and fell back, yelling out of pain, grabbing its stomach in an attempt to stop his bleeding. Ases was back into the ground, his entire fist covered in blood, but instead of attacking him again, he launched towards the priest just as he had done in the start.

The priest robed beast had watched the attack with absolute marvel, and when Ases went for him, he somehow seemed overjoyed. His glee was evident through every single movement of his body, as in a moment, he was covered in a black mud that hid everything until only his mask was peeking through.

When Ases' fist, which had been aiming towards the head of the creature, touched the black mud it instantly burnt down as if he was punching a vat of acid. Even then, his hand managed to get through the black liquid, breaking the mask of the creature and sending him a couple of steps back.

Ases looked at his hand that had now lost every single of his fingers. He didn’t feel any pain, as all his nerve terminals had been singed off by the noxious liquid, but he knew that he could not repeat an attack like that again.

“Magnificent! Not any creature can withstand the waters from the river styx! Faced with death and only getting a small burnt from it? Maybe we two aren't so different after all.”

The mask of the priest fell to the ground, revealing the eyes full of love that they were hiding. When Ases saw them, he felt his own soul abandoning his body and died right where he was standing. His own body, inhuman, hardened and moved by the strength of the entire dying race of the Keres, took a couple of seconds before starting to fall back. Those seconds were all it took for Ases’s soul to return to his own body and feel himself falling backwards to the ground.

He crashed against the floor and for a moment got a peek of the few remaining spots of sky visible through the stormclouds, a orange visage in which a couple of stars shined with a strange powerful glow. Those stars reminded him of the eyes he had seen, those whose mere view were enough to finish him over.

With no idea how to face the monster he had in front of him, Ases rose again with a jump and without looking at the priest again, he ran.

The giant telchine had regained its footing and when it saw Ases run away it gave chase, furiously, uncaring of any orders it had been given. Ases had to pay for the pain he caused, and pummeling against the ground would no longer suffice to quell its anger.

Behind the priest, a white and black aura emanated and covered the city. From where he was standing, he thought its strength was quite feeble, but had no doubt of how powerful it must be on the epicenter of it all. In that spot, two women were hugging in a show of lights that rivaled with the sun that was setting behind them. The light was coming through the clouds, unstopped, as the aura of decay soon collapsed the mansion of the lord of the city and with it all the houses surrounding the square.

“Nobody really understands, do they Leucothea? All the problems they cause trying to resist, it’s so backwards. I wish everyone could see the world through my eyes, see the beauty of everything just as I do.”

The priest followed the trail of destruction the giant telchine had left at its wake, without any rush, almost dancing through the chaos. In his mind, there was no problem, the resistance of Ases was not even a setback, more akin to the tantrum of a kid that he knew better than to get mad by.

“What a joy it always is, helping the blind see, setting the crooked straight and letting the tired sleep.” The beast in priest robes started singing, with a low voice, only for his own ears and comfort. Even when his nose had been broken and blood went down his face, for him it was as if everything in the world was as it should be.

The entire square was now covered in rock dust and black mud, an inhospitable space that was spreading quickly and would in a matter of minutes cover the entire city. On the border of this deadly place, the priest simply walked away with the confidence of a man who has nothing to fear in life.