Chapter 3 part 7 : The Permanent Smile (Chapter 3 surprise Finale)
Ralph and Dragon run as fast as they can towards the large circular clearing where Venn and Egar are locked in a fierce battle of epic proportions. Eventually, they start to get in range of the sound of thunderous blows and metal-on-metal collisions. Ralph leads Dragon towards the sound but he is stopped by a heavy punch from Bino, who was hiding behind a nearby tree.
Ralph lands on his back and slides into another tree, his armored fur absorbing the impact and protecting him from injury. Bino walks over and his shadow casts over Ralph as his head hangs over Ralph.
“None may interfere with my master!” Bino’s says with a distorted and deep voice, signifying that he is not in control of his own body.
“Venn is fighting with Egar right now!?” Dragon yells with a very worried expression
“Yes” Bino answers with a creepy grin. “And it my master’s destiny to defeat Venn and return him to his Father!”
“Wait.” Dragon interrupts. “I thought Egar was fighting with Venn because of a grudge?”
“You lesser beings are so naïve. Only fools would keep grudges. My master has been tasked by the Dark Lord himself to bring
Venn back to the shadowlands.” Bino says as he picks Ralph up by his shoulders and pins him against the tree behind him
“The dark lord…You can’t mean--”
“Yes, Venn and Egar are the creations of the Original Messenger of Heaven, The Grim Reaper, Hades himself.”
“No wonder he didn’t want me to know about his father…Hades hates love because he was cursed to a life in the underworld.
“Bino stop this! I know that you are not the friendliest dog in the world, but this is taking things to another level entirely!” Ralph yells as his eyes start to turn red
Bino responds by shoving Ralph back into the tree and shattering the trunk into millions of wooden shards. Ralph immediately recovers behind the blinding screen of wooden debris, the black silhouette pattern of a centipede and his eyes glow fully red. Ralph runs up to Bino and punches him in the chest, sending him sailing through the air and crashing through several trees.
Ralph is practically seething with rage as he walks over to dragon to talk to her:
“Dragon, go put a stop to this, I can handle Bino. Venn has shown me everything I need to know about my abilities and I can hold my own.”
With that, Dragon takes off running into a small clearing where she sits down cross-legged and Draws the image of a Magic circle in the dirt. Dragon closes her eyes, folds her hands over each other, and recites an incantation that causes the magic circle to glow red with heat. Dragon finishes the incantation and when she opens her eyes, she finds herself in the middle of a desert road. The desert is not of earth because it is made up of a featureless plane of black sand. Dragon looks down and sees the she is sitting in the middle of a newly paved road that seems to go on forever in both directions
“Hello? Hades, I need to speak with you now!”
The only response dragon gets is a quiet whisper of a steady breeze that creates an eerie ambiance to the blackened realm. Dragon looks up into the grey sky and starts walking down the endless road, she keeps looking around the sides of the street to make sure she has not missed anything. All of a sudden dragon jumps up from fear when she hears a raspy and hollow voice behind her:
“AH, a visitor!”
“AAAH” Dragon screams when she hears the voice.
Dragon quickly turns around to see an incredibly scary image of a metal man with red eyes and a smile made up of spiked teeth extending from one end of his jaw to the other so that it takes up the entire area of his lower face. The smile is permanently shaped and when it opens, it reveals a long metal tongue that lashes all around when he speaks. The metal man wears a black and tattered cloak that covers all but his face, but something bulges from his back underneath the black cloth, maybe a concealed weapon
“Hades, I presume?” Dragon asks
“Correct, but I suggest that we continue this conversation on the road…”
“What are you talking about? This road doesn’t lead anywhere.”
“I know, it’s not supposed to. This road is for the hordes of restless spirits that I must keep occupied lest they return to your world and end it.”
Dragon looks around the empty and featureless plane of black sand; there were no restless spirits to speak of. “Um, where are they?”
Hades takes a step to the side to show an endless line of irritable humans and all manner of pets that have their bodies decorated with the injuries that caused their deaths.
“I have to keep them moving or else they get restless.”
Dragon nods her head and walks alongside hades as they continue their conversation. As they talk, the endless line of dead spirits follows with angry looks on their faces.
“Hades, why are you using Egar to hurt Venn?”
“HAH, that’s a good one! I don’t want to hurt Venn at all; I just want him to come home so that I can… attend to some business.”
“But Egar and Venn are slugging it out as we speak!”
“So what? If Egar needs to weaken Venn so that he will cooperate, the so be it!”
Dragon thinks for a moment about what Hades had said about his intentions for Venn. “What did you mean by: ‘Business’.”
Hades chuckles a little before responding.
“I am going to revoke Venn’s spiritual powers and return him to the life of a mortal insect. I made him, and now I am going to ‘Un-make’ him. don’t look so mad, you can still love him for the three short years of his mortal life an them lay him to rest with the ability to say: ‘He lived a long life’.”
“BUT WHY, what did Venn do to deserve this!?”
Hades stops walking and rips the black cloak he was wearing off of his shoulders, revealing his metal body and a long sword strapped to his back. The sword is curved slightly, like a Katana, and it has a large barbed hook attached to the end of the hilt. He lifts his arm up and points a clawed finger into Dragon’s face.
- hades.jpg (147.38 KiB) Viewed 15628 times
"YOU…You’re the reason.”
“What in the name of Heaven are you talking about!?”
“You have indulged my sons’ petty beliefs in ‘Love’. No warrior should succumb to something so petty; it’s what I taught all of my sons while I raised them. It is love that landed me in the underworld in the first place! Long ago, while I was still assigned as the messenger of Heaven, I was tasked with vanquishing an evil spirit, but I ended up falling in love with her instead. Over time, she earned my trust and told me everything I wanted to hear…until she betrayed me. She used me and get past the Gates of heaven and she hurt many people. I was then sentenced to this demeaning life of appeasing restless spirits in the underworld as punishment!”
“Some father you are! Teaching your children that love is bad for them!
“To love is to trust, and no warrior should ever trust anyone! It’s the code me and my sons live by. Venn took it upon himself to break this code, knowing that it would result in a short life of mortality.”
“Venn is right to express his love for me! I’m sorry that you had a bad experience, but that is no reason to abandon love altogether. Love can make a person stronger and give them a sense of purpose, there are countless stories about warriors that have risen above their peers because they fought for what they loved, be it their home or their families.”
“No! You are a liar! You don’t love my son; you are just using him to get what you want!”
“Hades, I love your son with all my heart and I would gladly bet my eternal life on it.”
Hades narrows his red glowing eyes and Dragon does the same. Their eyes meet in a stare that would send a person of weaker constitution running back home to their mother. The staring contest continues until the restless spirit’s complaints break the silence:
“Come on, I’m getting bored. Can we do something else besides walking? How about a song? It’s been so long since we heard the sweet sensation of music…” The leader of the line says
Hades looks at the spirits and then back at dragon with a raised eyebrow.
“So you would bet your life on your love for Venn, huh? Tell you what, Prove to me that you love him and I will reconsider my beliefs and leave you two alone.”
Dragon stands straight up and holds out her hand for a handshake. “Deal.”
Hades reaches out and shakes her hand, sealing the deal.
Hades then waves his arm in a presenting motion to the restless spirits.
“Sing about your love.”
“Wait…what?”
“Sing to the spirits! I want to hear what you think about my son. If you can do that and put your heart into it, I will be convinced. This realm will respond to your song and play music accordingly”
“Fine, I will do your job for you, but only for Venn."
Dragon turns around and faces the eager spirits. All of the spirits have excited expressions and gather around Dragon, pushing each other around to get within earshot of her voice.
Dragon takes a deep breath and opens her mouth to let out her beautiful voice in the form a song. The empty air around Dragon then starts producing the sound of instruments and amplifies her voice for all the spirits to hear:
https://youtu.be/onNbcnDmsME
Forsaken by reality
taken by dreams
Through the bridge made of stars
Through the space and time he flies
Dreams full of wonders
Journey in his mind
Drifting in whirls of stars
Blessed with dreamers mind
Shielded by frost
Fire burning within
Dreaming a sky of his own
Forger of skies and seas
Enchanter of dreadful wind
Through the whirls of
Thundering storms, frozen rain
fire burning inside dreamers mind
Staring through the time
With his searing eyes
reaching with his frozen touch
beyond eternity
Darkened skies will fall
They are here no more
With his drifting memories
He has forged his own
Shielded by frost
Fire burning within
Dreaming a sky of his own
Forger of skies and seas
Enchanter of dreadful wind
Through the whirls of
Thundering storms, frozen rain
fire burning inside dreamers mind
Seeker of endless dreams
weeper of crystal clear seas
Searching for
the land of his own where he might belong
He's blessed with fire and frost
Hades stands there dumbfounded, if he did not have a smile permanently on his face, his lips would have been quivering with tears of joy.
"Alright." Hades says as his voice breaks and a tear falls from one of his eyes.
"I'm convinced..."
Hades wipes away the tear and snaps his metal fingers, making him and Dragon disappear in a cloud of Black smoke.
=============================================
Meanwhile, Back in the forest clearing:
Both Venn and Egar keep throwing punches and kicks into each others bodies. Their bodies are covered with many grey cracks in their fur, but Venn is falling behind because he was starving and therefore low on Mana. Egar delivers a final blow to Venn's face, sending him flying backwards and landing on his back. Venn lies on the grass, out of breath and energy as he sees Egar walk over until he is standing above him. Egar raises his paw and extends his purple claws for a killing blow.
"This is for ratting me out!"
Egar thrusts his sharp claws down and Venn winces, preparing for the painful strike. Egar is then surprised when Venn disappears in a cloud of black smoke, his claws dig into the dirt below and he almost looses his balance. He pulls his claws out and retracts them with an angry look on his face, he looks around to see that Venn had been teleported to the opposite end of the clearing by a third party.
"Who dares to interfere!"
A metal hand then falls on Egar's shoulder and it turns him around to see the face of Hades with his glowing red eyes and creepy smile. Dragon stands behind him and she sports a very angry look at Egar
"Father?! I don't under--"
"the deal is now void, im returning you to your prison so that you can atone for all the harm you brought upon the mortals."
Egar tries to pull away but it is useless, Hades has a tight grip on his shoulder. He raises his other hand and snaps his metal fingers
"NOO--"
Hades and Egar then disappear in a cloud of black smoke, leaving Dragon alone with Venn. Dragon runs over to Venn's lifeless body that has numerous cracks of varying size on it. She grabs his shoulder and pulls his body into her arms, supporting his head with one of her hands. Venn opens his eyes slightly and gives a small grin.
"Its over..." Venn's eyes close, his head drops to the side, and his mind falls unconscious in Dragon's arms. He is completely worn out and severely hurt
Dragon gives a small grin too and she snaps her fingers, teleporting both her and Venn back home.
End of chapter three...chapter four coming soon...
(There's actually 6 eggs, but I ran out of links)
