Chapter 112: Chapter 112

As soon as Shia cut through the kraken’s tentacle, she found herself falling helplessly down. She screamed. She had forgotten the fact that she could not fly. She was really a useless goddess.

Thankfully, the feeling of falling suddenly stopped, and Shia was turned upright by an invisible force. When she craned her neck to see who it was that helped her, she spotted a familiar face. It was Marmie, and she was staying some distance away, manipulating her fall.

Almost instantaneously, a cry emerged from up above her, and she saw two flying entities swoop down into the center of the kraken’s head where Sirion was.

Finally they came! Gilyan and the Commander were perched at Chibi’s back, and a black winged puma, who could only be Gavil, went into the courtyard to help them.

“Sirion,” Shia shouted. “Let Danterion go! It’s over! You are outnumbered!”

Sirion simply laughed at her, seemingly unfazed. “Do you think you and your puny friends could kill me?”

“No, but we could unleash hell for you,” Shia said. As soon as Marmie had put her back into the ground, Shia hoped through the tentacles of the enormous kraken who intended to pulverize her, successfully dodging its attacks. She was holding two sharp light beams in her hands, ready to strike Sirion in the chest.

When Shia had gone near enough, she tried to stab Sirion overhead. However, he was able to effectively sway himself away from it.

“Freya, you wanted to fight me, eh? Too bad though. Your light power isn’t strong enough! You have to try harder!”

“Maybe I’m not strong enough, but he surely is,” Shia hissed as she slashed into Sirion. She was able to tear into his clothes, but not into his flesh as he again managed to slide away behind her.

“And who would that be?”

Shia leaned closer to Sirion’s ears from behind her. “Danterion!”

That’s right. Sirion wasn’t the owner of this body, and while he was falling, she and Langrey had heard him scream.

“Danry, fight him out! You can do it!”

Sirion laughed once more, this time, his tone was drier but more diabolical.

“Who on earth are you talking to, Freya? They’re not here... I’m the only one that remained!”

Shia slashed through Sirion’s face, but he was quicker. He was able to dodge away from her attack.

“Liar! You’re a liar through and through!”

An idea occurred to Shia. She needed a diversion. She let the swords of light disappear from her hands, and instead, she wielded tinier light balls and let them float close by.

Perhaps, just like Gaf and Commander Rus, Sirion was trying to control Danterion by putting a veil against him... She just had to find an opening so that she could lift that veil away and destroy it, just like what Eily did to the commander and just like how she was able to destroy the veil that shrouded Gaf a while ago.

Sirion laughed. “Going soft on me now, deary?”

Shia snickered. “Aren’t you getting sick of this cycle of meeting me? I am not your ‘deary,’ and I never will be that to person to you!” She hurled balls of light against him, hurting him shallowly.

In truth, she wanted to find it – that place where the veil was thinnest - and if she could just find that, she’ll do everything to destroy it.

“Foolish Freya! How long do you think you could keep this up? As long as you entrap yourself in this mortal form, you cannot kill me... Only a god can kill another god!”

“Right, you are, you bastard! Now, let my brother go,” a voice thundered from the rear.

Up ahead, Langrion was coming to Sirion fast. His left fist was enveloped in a dark violet flame that landed on the left side of Sirion’s face successfully.

“You are no god if you hide behind my brother’s form. Why don’t you show us your real self? Or it is because you can’t?!”

“Bastards! You and your brother’s body – they’re just vessels! You serve me by being my shells!”

“You don’t deserve to be a god. You deserve to die,” Shia said, sending a more powerful ball of light into Sirion’s side.

“Shia, we have to hit him in the heart. That’s where the weakest part of the veil resides!”

Shia nodded. She didn’t know how Langrion knew that they should look for the weakest part of the veil, but it didn’t matter. She was willing to try anything if it will mean that they can defeat Sirion.

Up ahead, Gavil, Commander Rus, and Gilyan were succeeding in cutting the kraken’s tentacles. Only three more remained attached to its body.

Indeed, it looked promising to Shia, except for one thing... If they play their cards right, maybe they can kill Sirion... However, it must mean that they should kill Danterion too...

******************

‘Brother!’

Langrion could hear the familiar call of a small child as his body collided with numerous tree trunks and bushes right after the giant kraken had hurled him away...

‘Brother,’ it called softly again. ‘Brother help me...’

Langrion’s heart ached at the sound of Danry’s voice. Even with the borrowed powers inside him, why can’t he seem to be of help? Why can’t he do it?

He had been hearing Danry’s voice inside of his head as soon as he rescued Shia from the Ancient Evil earlier, but the words he heard were too hard to swallow.

‘Brother, didn’t you say you would help me?... Then, you have to kill me... Hit me at the heart where his power is the weakest...’

Kill? What the hell did he mean?!

‘Brother, you have to kill me...’

‘Danry... What do you mean,’ Langrion answered back his brother’s voice bitterly. ‘I am here to rescue you! I will not kill you!’

‘If you want to rescue me, you have to kill me... Otherwise, the desires will consume us...’

‘Desires? What desires are they?’

‘The desire to possess Shia... and the desire to kill you...’

Langrion fell speechless. He couldn’t understand what the young version of his brother meant with his words.

‘If we live, the cycle continues... You have to destroy my body... There’s no other way...’

That was the last he had heard of Danry. He knew his brother had meant his request. But, can he do it? Can he really kill his own flesh and blood?

His conscience tugged at his heart. All their lives, he had been a nuisance to Danterion, a painful thorn in his side. He was the reason they had lost their mother and father’s love. Now, must he be the reason for him to lose his life too? Is there really no way for him to live?...

‘Perhaps there’s none,’ someone else said inside of Langrion. It was the god who was loaning him his powers.

‘Why? How could there be no other way?’

‘If he feels there is no way, it must have been because he had already accepted him. Only the person who had accepted Sirion can compel him to come out... No one else can do that for him.’

Was it true? Did Danterion really accept the God of Darkness? But, why?

Danry’s words came back to him. ‘If you want to rescue me, you have to kill me... Otherwise, the desires will consume us... The desire to possess Shia... and the desire to kill you...’

Two strong desires... Did Danterion sell his soul to the Devil to kill him and possess Shia?

‘Don’t be deceived... Those desires were Sirion’s... Your brother’s desires may be something else. If you can find that out, maybe you can save him...’

Now he has come face to face with Sirion again. It felt like he had no time to get to know his brother’s desires...

Can he still save him? Was there still enough time to figure out what he really desired?

Sirion, using Danterion’s face, laughed at him.

“Silly boy! Did you doubt your brother’s words? Do you really think his desires and mine would be any different?”

Langrion looked at him in shock. Did the Ancient Evil just read his mind?

“Go ahead, and kill me, boy... See for yourself that Danry did not lie...”

Langrion felt confused. What the hell did this madman want? Did he really desire to die?

“Of course! Only in my death can your death take place too!” As the Ancient Evil spoke these words, he drove the sword he was holding in his own body and pierced himself in the chest.

Langrion could not believe it! He just plunged a weapon inside himself! Did he really just do that?

“Danterion!” Shia shrieked in utter surprise.

As soon as the metal collided with Sirion’s flesh, the monstrous kraken writhed in pain too as if its body was also stabbed somewhere. It thrashed its three remaining tentacles about, creating massive fissures against the earth and sending violent waves like that of an earthquake.

Chibi was able to dodge the heavy blows of the monster’s tentacles. Unfortunately, Gavil was caught by one of the ferocious tentacles. It was able to coil successfully around it’s torso like a vine.

The kraken was standing near a ravine, and its wild actions caused a big gash on the earth’s surface, making it tumble downwards into the unknown.

“No,” Langrion screamed. Shia had been tossed aside as the kraken fell. She had been hurled into the sand away from the breaking fissures of the earth. It seemed that she lost consciousness, but she was safe.

Now, Langrion was the only person who could watch as his brother went down with the monster towards a dangerously high pit.

“No! No!”

He could save him... He still has time... He could still save his brother!

He reached his hands towards his tumbling form.

He could do it! He could fly and take him upwards again. If he could just reach him, he could save him!

As soon as his hand touched Danterion’s falling body, a great, gray light surrounded them, and he, the gigantic kraken, and everything near him was consumed by the bright and scorching ball of dangerous light.