Yatro: Hope it was worth it, Leucothea ~ Present

“The baby, it has to be. Did she get born just now? It must have been so. But what were the chances? This is astronomically improbable”

Wisdom was pacing around. When Ases appeared she was already out of herself with surprise, but the moment he entered the portal she felt as if she had seen the world end ahead of time. It was as if her knowledge of how the world works always became useless when faced with Mors and her underling.

“Hadn’t he already found his answer? This can only mean…”

The Goddess turned around, looking at Mors who was still looking at the portal deep in surprise.

“Mors, we have no time, so I’ll be concise. First, if you enter the portal you’ll die, even if the telchines don’t tear you apart, it will soon close and you’ll find yourself trapped in their hideout.”

Wisdom now had reached Mors, speaking as sternly as she could at mere centimeters from her. If she had a physical body, she would probably have grabbed her by the shoulders to start shaking her.

“Second, if you don’t enter that portal in the next minute, your son Todo will die.”

The absolutely murderous eyes that Mors had in that moment would have freezed the blood of anyone, but to her, that kind of sight was nothing new.

“Save it for yourself. I know you don’t trust me but if you care about your son even a little bit you’ll stay completely still while I put my spell on you so you’ll be safe. I’ll explain it all when you return, for now, simply don’t move.”

Without any further explanation the Goddess started a new chant. Unlike when Halia or Mors chanted, her voice did not transform into an otherworldly language nor did she seem to lose her humanity while doing so. It looked divine, a showing of the true power a God could have.

Mors did stay completely still where he was, but not because she listened to her, but because she was absolutely livid. She had it in her mind to run into that portal the second Wisdom mentioned Todo, but her shock had frozen her in place. How dare she mention Todo, the Goddess who mutilated her soul so many years ago? Who knew the world was going to end and did nothing to stop it?

Who even now acted beyond her understanding, acting as if she cared for her?

No, she could not obey her game, not anymore. She moved forward to try and stop her, unaware that the moments she had taken to decide had been enough for Wisdom to finish her chanting. When the spell took effect it was like suddenly entering an out of body experience. She felt dizzy as her body collapsed into the ground, but she stayed completely upright where she stood. She could not move, but she could see her own body all too similar to a corpse.

“Follow the string of light towards the seal I put on Todo. You can use your powers, but you are incapable of touching anything physical. Run with all your strength, and avoid the priest. He’s the only one who can kill you right now.”

Everything was happening all at once, too quickly for her to even start processing anything. Her mind was starting to give up, trying to get the fact that what looked like her own corpse was now at her feet. She looked up just in time to see Wisdom grabbing her by her clothes and then throwing her into the portal.

A second out of body experience followed the first one. As she got translocated hundreds if not thousands of kilometers away in a single instant. The moment she came out she found herself in the middle of a battlefield, one where humanity was losing, and those monsters she was a part of were killing the last soldiers humanity had.

She looked back, thinking about returning through the portal and telling Wisdom a piece of her mind, but something far, far more troubling had found way to the forefront of her mind.

Todo is in danger.

She was running with all her strength towards the light, not because that’s what Wisdom asked of her, but because that’s what her instincts were screaming at her right there and then. If her son’s life was in the line, any grievance she could hold against the Goddess became completely unimportant. Running towards that light that always accompanied him, that one that she could always see with her soul and that was not spreading to every telchine in the area.

Both humans and telchines were too busy in the fight to register the ghost that was running through them as if they weren’t there in the first place. Nothing could stop her, in a matter of minutes the battlefield transformed into a dark room that led to confusing hallways that swerved around, full of telchine’s corpses. It was like a trance, one that only broke off when a familiar face appeared in front of her.

It was Halia.

The light was going through her, ignoring her. She had not taken the blessing, but she stood on the path Mors was following, looking at her with unreadable eyes.

Any other person she would have ignored. Any God could have tried to stand in her way and she would have run through them all the same, but this was not any God nor any beast. This was her grandmother, the one she had once loved when she was little, and hated for decades after it. If there was a single person in the remainder of the world that could have stopped her just by being there, it was she.

“Electryone, you should not be here. It’s too dangerous.” Said Halia, the unreadable expression giving way to what was now more predominant in her mind. Worry.

Mors did not see it as such, after all, that kind of feeling was surely beyond what she could feel. It was condescension, pity.

“You are the one who put me in danger’s way and now you feign worry for my safety?” She said, vitriol spewing in every word.

“Yes. I did put you in danger.” She said abruptly, stopping Mors who was about to use her ghostly body to run through her.

It was something completely new for her. She thought she had heard wrong, followed by the idea that it was simply a ruse. But how could it be when she sounded so heartfelt when saying it. Seeing that she had stopped, Halia went on.

“And I don’t mean only because I returned, bringing all of this with me.” She said, opening her arms to show everything around them. “I tried to make you a Goddess, to make you powerful, someone that none of the other Gods would dare to try to trample like they did with our kind so many times. And what did I accomplish with that in the end?”

How could she sound apologetic? She, who was the sole responsible of every bad thing that had happened in her life. How could she? How dare she?

Why does everyone who hurt her always act like they care?

“I see it was all a mistake now. In a way, I think the only good option would have been to run away. To leave this land and their Gods behind, to disappear somewhere far away where the concept of a God or a telchine is something never heard before. But I did not, and for that, I’m sorry, Electryone.”

No.

Just, no.

Without saying a single word Mors ran away. She could not listen to her anymore. Why did even her apologies only worse her ire even more? If they were going to hurt her, then they should stand by their actions and let her hate them as she should.

After going through Halia the path of light was clear again, going towards the room from which Halia had come out a while ago.

Halia did not move, closing her eyes, and preparing for what he knew was inevitable.

It took a moment, one that stretched as she remembered her life in Desrho. He remembered the day the Gods released their wrath on her and destroyed most of her family, back when Electryone was but a child.

She remembered the years he spent exiled in the bottom of the ocean, losing her name as Halia, and returning as Leucothea.

And finally, she remembered the tears in Mors eyes when she ran through her. Tears that would soon disappear along the entire underwater city in the hurricane of death that exploded behind her.

A scream resonated through the entire hole in the ocean as everything collapsed, bringing down the enormous structure they were in, the buildings around her, and the barrier that kept the water away.

What happened that day was buried in the bottom of the sea, the only thing the remaining humans would know of it, was that they had lost the battle for survival.

How naive to think they had a chance, mourning a chance long lost, when the world for them had long since ended. They were now on the epilogue of the world, the reality of everything now fully sinking in for everyone who still remained alive.