Yatro: So many things left unsaid ~ Present

What decides who lives and who dies in a battle? Strategy? Strength? Courage?

No, in the end, the only thing that can save a person’s life when life clashes with life in such a manner, is luck. The bigger and more chaotic a battle is, the more luck you need to survive in one.

If you asked him, he would definitely assert otherwise, but if there was something Ases always were, is lucky. As the first show of it, was the fact that he entered the pillar of light last. While every other soldier had had to fight for their lives as soon as they came out of the light, he had a moment to look where he had just arrived to.

The ocean was split apart, now forming walls that extended to the sky beyond where his eyes could see. What probably used to be an ancient city, eroded decades, if not centuries ago, stood out of the ground. It looked as if it extended through the horizon beyond the water wall, but out in the open, there were only a couple of kilometers.

In that column of air created by light there was an enormous structure at its center. It looked like a palace, majestic, even when covered by grime and algae. Pillars of stone rose steady everywhere, even if the intricate designs that were once sculpted in them had eroded long ago.

Surrounding it there was a cacophony of screams, both human and beasts alike. Hundreds of beings clashed in battle, their weapons were now the only thing that mattered in that moment, as they were the only thing that could grant them even one more minute of life.

After recuperating for a moment, Ases gathered himself and started running towards the enormous structure. Along the way, he found the shape of a man who seemed as if he had been turned to gold.

“Atalan…”

The hero of the sea had died. His body maimed by hundreds of wounds, but his posture firm as it always were. In his hands, a spear he stuck in the ground, liberating waves of power that created the pillar of air they all were fighting in.

“Seems like you truly were a hero to the end, then.”

Ases looked around, fearing that he would see what remained of the rest of the pantheon, but he could only see battle.

A battle the humans were losing decisively.

The telchines had just come out of a battle with the remains of the pantheon, the ones that gave their all to create the portal the army had now come out of. They were caught by surprise, and were surpassed in numbers even in their own turf. By all means, they should have been greatly overpowered by now, but somehow, they were not.

The spears and swords cut their flesh, but the wounds closed soon after. Their bodies would collapse into the floor, only to soon rise again fully healed and ready to keep fighting. It was as if they had been blessed by the Goddess of death herself.

That image in Ases’s mind was absolutely nightmarish. Seeing the beasts rise the same way he had done so many times before was like a confirmation of all of his inner fears. That fear that he was not human anymore, that one day he died and became a monster, just like all those telchines were.

Did Mors bless them too? No, that was impossible. But if the telchines managed to share the blessing too…

People were screaming, trying to call him, trying to get him to help them in the fight so they could have even a chance to come out alive… but it was useless.

That was Ases’s second stroke of luck. He managed to recognize that it was useless, and refused to involve himself in the first place. He was right when he went through the portal, he had to find a way to make the telchines mortal again, or everything would be lost.

But why were the telchines inmortal? That’s what he had to find out.

While deep in thought, he hadn’t noticed a telchine grunt separating itself from the battle and jumping to impale him with a spear. The weapon went through his torso, causing him horrible pain that made him collapse in the ground immediately. The telchine did not stop, taking its weapon and attacking again and again.

In the midst of that pain, Ases could not react at once, trying to do all he could to stop the attack of that spear. Just a moment after, maybe adrenaline, maybe it was his blessing that brought him back to life, but his mind cleared. He didn’t have to stop the spear, he had to stop its wielder.

And like that, ignoring the weapon that was now piercing his chest, he grabbed the telchine’s neck and raised it into the air. The creature squealed, trying to free itself, letting its weapon go, but Ases refused to let go.

Killing it would be useless, but instead, Ases observed it carefully. It was just like any other telchine, but there was something different in its outfit. There was a red bracelet firmly stuck in its arm over its tattered blue clothes. A red armband that he tried to rip apart, but could not.

Well, there’s another way to do this, then.

Ases ripped the arm of the beast, which squealed in pain again, only to shortly die out after. Permanently this time.

“All the beasts have a bracelet in their arm! Cut their arm off and they won’t come back to life!” He screamed, as loudly as he could. Hopefully, everyone in that space would have managed to hear him.

Ases let the beast in the ground and grabbed the bracelet. It was red, wide, and had a series of runs written in light that emitted a very faint light. He has to squint, but he noticed that all the runes were written with a single string of light.

A string of light that extended out of the bracelet, fell into the ground and went inside the enormous building in the center of that place.

“I got you”

There was a third stroke of luck, he found the light that showed the path forward. He was right. There was hope. He tried to cut the wire but found it impossible, but if he followed to its source and cut the Magic from there he could stop the telchines. He could get some more time for his beautiful daughter.

He followed the string of light and entered the structure. He didn’t even have to squint anymore to see the thread that indicated the way forward. It didn’t matter how many telchines stood in his way, he was not capable of saying dead, and Even if the telchines tried to imitate his blessing, they all went down in time.

The beasts could not Even slow him down. He was in the zone, they no longer had enough numbers to push him back as they had once done. The battle agaisnt the pantheon had dwindled their numbers enough for him to bulldozer his way through.

Finally, he reached the source. If he destroyer the source, he would be able to stop their immortality.

In the room there were two people. A telchine he had seen before, the one who let them escape from Medio. At her side, there was a kid, a teenager, bound with chains and with the thread of light coming out of his arm. The kid looked at him, eyes wide with surprise.

“I thought Electryone would be the one to come here. Why are you here, hero?”

Ases looked at them, stopping himself to analyze the situación. He had once tried to fight the telchine and he was not going to commit the same mistake twice. How can he reach her while avoiding the poison?

“Don’t bother, I’m not going to stop You.”

The telchine sat down on the floor.

“I came here to talk with My grand-grandson. I had never met him before, to be honest, I don't Even know he existed until I returned to this world.”

She didn’t look at either of them, simply looking at the ground. Ases looked at her, still wary, walking slowly towards her, fully alerta to tey and avoid the cloud of poison dust he expected to appear at any moment.

“Please, can you just let me be? I know what you came here for, and I’ll know stop you. All I ask you is for you to let me live a little longer, I want to see my granddaughter one last time.”

She still refused to look at him, Even when Ases was standing at her side, towering over her. He had it in his mind to kill her anyways, knowing how dangerous she was.

But… she did allow them to escape from Medio. He owed her, and if she refused to fight, he could not bring himself to kill her.

He said nothing, instead getting closer to the boy bound in chains. There were two of them, one for each arm, not allowing him to rest on the ground.

“I’ll guess that you are Ases, right?” Asked the boy, looking at him with hope in his eyes.

He took a moment to answer, Ensure if he should do so. He simply nodded in the end.

“I knew it. My mother talked about you a lot, Even when she refused to let me meet you. She said that the less I involved myself with the world of the Gods the safer I would be, but look where I ended up anyways. No matter how much she tried to shelter me, she could not change anything at all.”

The kid tried to move his arms, but he could not. The chains were too tightly bound. Ases frowned and moved towards them.

“I was about to ask you to do so, thanks.”

Ases grabbed the chains in his hands, and by canalizing the strength of the Keres, he managed to crush them to dust. The kid fell to the floor, with a sigh of relief.

“Thanks, those pieces of shit telchines had me on those things for days. The blessing heals me a little bit, but it still hurt, you know?”

“The blessing?” Asked Ases. His expectations of what he would fine had been defied again and again ever since he entered the room. He expected to fine a demonic ritual, a monster, the telchine priest doing malevolent chants, but this was nothing like it.

The single telchine in the room did not put up any fight and the light seemed to come from a kid they had prisoner. What the hell was going on?

“Yeah, the blessing against death? You know, right?” The kid asked, but the lack or response from Ases was enough of an answer.

“I can’t believe she did not even mention him. Haven’t you been her hero for more than a decade now?” Commented the telchine, still not daring to look at either of them.

“I know! She keeps doing stuff like this all the time! She keeps stuff hidden from others, tries to do everything herself and then everyone has to deal with it once everything explodes. She should have learnt to have a little trust in people by this point, how old is she?” The kid said, now going on a rant.

“I’m sorry to say, but I may be the one who made her like this. At the very least I don’t want to blame her for this.” the telchine said, tried to calm him down.

“Wait, I still don’t understand, who are you?” Asked Ases, more confused with every response they said.

“Sorry, sorry. I know, but I still can’t believe my mother did not tell you. My name is Todo, I'm the son of Mors. You know, your boss?” The kid said, putting his arm forward as if to shake Ases’s hand. He did not respond in kind.

Once again, he had been stunned into silence. The rush of adrenaline had faded, and in some part of himself, even if he could not understand why yet, he felt that his luck had completely run out.