Oliver opened his eyes to see himself alive and well again. He checked for the marks on his arms and there were none.
"Father?" He asked, heading outside. "Yes, Oliver?" His father asked, patting his head.
Oliver looked at him in disbelief. Oliver pulled up his father's sleeve, and there was nothing there. "What happened?" His father asked.
"Nothing. I just had a dream." Oliver sat down on his chair in the dining room and ate with his family, just like he would have any other day.
Even though he had gone back to a time when everything was perfect, his world hadn't regained its colors.
"This isn't fair." He whispered, placing the hay in Max's stable. "What happened?" Walking out of the stables, he put his hand on his face.
It was warm, smooth, and full of life. He was in the prime of life. Yet he still felt empty.
"Why am I still like this? Everything's perfect now. Everything's fine."
"But why can't I see those colors anymore?"
---
Jupiter had chewed the skin off of his lips. "Are you nervous?" The void asked. "I will survive this. Do not test me." Jupiter declared. "What confidence you have, even when you're stuck in this rotting dungeon."
"If I die, it would be a disgrace to my name." Jupiter made a disgusted face when he saw a rat pass by him. "Told you had to get used to it." The void said.
Water dripped onto Jupiter's hair. "I'll get back at him for doing this to me once I get out."
"Are you mad at him for doing this to you, or are you mad at him for your own selfish reasons?" The void asked.
"Why can't I do both? I have always been selfish, so why can't I be it a little more?"
"You mean that you've always been immoral. A man with zero principles in his soul."
"Immoral? That's because I was never taught to have morals."
"Then can't you change for the better?"
"That's what I'm trying to do. I've been trying for my entire life."
"But you still feel...?"
"Empty."
The sound of a key rattling the rusty bars that confined Jupiter filled the air. The door creaked open and the soldier who opened it looked at Jupiter bitterly.
"Damnit. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have to be here on my break." The soldier spat, roughly pulling Jupiter out of the dungeon.
Jupiter wanted to break all the man's bones, but it was impossible as the body he was in didn't have the strength or the magic.
"You don't know what to do now, do you?" The void asked.
Jupiter turned his head in surprise. It hadn't asked it normally, but with a voice of satisfaction. It had been the same voice that the Emperor used when he locked Jupiter in that room for so many years.
<<<
"Father? Where are we going?" Jupiter asked, holding tight onto his father's hand.
"We're going to a place where you'll be safe. Everyone else will be safe too. It'll be perfect."
His father was the man he trusted the most. It had been the man who raised him, who wouldn't feel an immense amount of respect towards him?
The one who taught him how to use his silverware, how to read, how to live. Jupiter had even adopted the same manner of speech and hand movements as his father.
Jupiter trusted him wholeheartedly and believed the place they were going to was truly divine.
But when they arrived at the rundown manor, Jupiter felt anxious.
"This is the place where I'll be safe?" Jupiter asked. "Of course. You trust me, right?" The Emperor asked. Jupiter nodded his head.
"Then come on."
When they got inside, cobwebs and rats filled the house. "Father, I don't think that..."
The Emperor had looked at him with such belittlement that Jupiter immediately stopped talking.
But out of all the horrible rooms that there were, the Emperor had chosen the worst of all to confine Jupiter in.
Cockroaches, rats, and spiders all wandered in the room. The walls were moldy and old. A blood stain lied in the center of the room. The only thing that looked remarkably strong was the door.
"This is your new room."
Jupiter looked up in surprise. A grin lied on the Emperor's face. Pure satisfaction and gratification.
If the Emperor could have grabbed Jupiter's throat and choked him to death, he would've. That was what he got from the look the Emperor gave him.
His stomach fell and his eyes welled up with tears. "What do you mean?"
The Emperor only smiled and shut the door.
"Wait...!" Jupiter whispered, but he knew that no one was there to answer.
>>>
Both the void and the Emperor came off across as saying, "You are helpless against me. If I were to murder you in cold blood here, you would be able to do nothing."
"You are weak."
---
"...Dead? What do you mean she's dead? You killed her? Did you kill Anastasia?" Saturn asked, widening his eyes.
"Why wouldn't I kill her? She wasn't fun anymore... all of her beauty had been wasted. That beautiful Anastasia you knew was gone. Only a shell of who she was before." The man mocked, grinning.
"You piece of filth. When the time comes, I swear on my name as a Royal that I will be the end of you!"
The man laughed, "Try if you can. You're merely an annoying insect to me. You aren't deserving of my attention, anyways." The man turned away and faded into the air.
"And who are you to talk!?" Saturn yelled.
The sound of the air breezing past the open windows was the only thing Saturn could hear.
"Trash!"
Saturn declared and stomped away from the statue.
"I'll destroy that bastard with my own two hands."
>>>
As they stopped by and rested at an inn, both Ayden and Chazia were overcome by their thoughts.
They both slept in separate rooms, yet were thinking the same things. The worries that they had from before continued on into the night.
Ayden flicked on the light and sat up. "I really can't sleep like this." He murmured.
He opened the windows to see the stars twinkling. The stars looked at him with the utmost affection. They came to comfort him.
They came to bring bad news.
"What happened?" Ayden asked, opening the windows. The stars twinkled and Ayden put his head down.
"He has disappeared. That is true."
The stars dwindled and dimmed. They seemed unhappy, maybe even scared?
The stars finally declared something.
"You mean the person who did this to him was...?"
>>>
Chazia lied in bed. He couldn't fall asleep, but he couldn't bear to stay awake either.
He was stuck, waiting for the next day to come. He held no ambition or happiness towards seeing the next day as he usually did. On the contrary, he felt hopeless.
Ever since Jupiter had left, the world had been devoid of something gluing it together. The world could manage on its own, but only for a bit.
"This is all you're fault, Jupiter. So why won't you come back? Are you really that determined to make life harder for all of us? The Empress, me, and Ayden?"
"Or is something holding you back?"
Chazia laughed bitterly.
"Holding the Emperor back? I must be crazy. If you heard me say this, chances are you would furiously execute me."
"You don't like being looked down upon, after all."
"But you must feel terrified at the moment, if I am right."
---
The soldier slapped Jupiter. "What are you looking at?" He asked.
Jupiter turned his back in front of him, but not because the soldier told him to. He didn't want to look at the darkness again.
"Answer me, Jupiter. What are you going to do now?" The void asked. Jupiter stayed silent and kept his eyes off the void. Eventually, the void floated down in front of him.
"You're being dragged to where you're going to be executed. Are you sure you should be so carefree? You could die." The void inquired.
"No. I'm not going to die."
"Yet you are. Inevitably. Either here, or another time."
The soldier slapped Jupiter again. "Stop talking, you roach!"
"But I'm not. I won't."
"How? You're so weak against death."
Jupiter clenched his fist. "Weak?"
The sound of bones cracking and screaming echoed in the room.
The soldier lied on the floor, devoid of all life. Dead.
"See? I'm not weak. I will live."
"But does that mean you'll win?"
"Of course it does. I'll win no matter what."
Footsteps grew closer and closer, until they reached the spot where Jupiter was. Saturn stood staring at Jupiter.
"How dare you look down on me like this?" Saturn asked. Suddenly, Jupiter was caught in strings that were wrapped around him. Once the strings grew closer to him, they began to slice through his skin.
Jupiter couldn't move, since they were all around him. "You'll die like this then, you bastard." Saturn gave Jupiter a satisfied smile.
"You'll die first." Jupiter declared, grabbing at Saturn's throat. An invisible force began to choke Saturn, leaving him grasping at the transparent hands that were killing him.
Just as Saturn was about to die, a sharp knife-like object was thrown at Jupiter, making him stumble. "Fuck, who the hell-"
When Jupiter looked down at his arm, the "knife" had melted and the water that was left infected his wound with a poison. "Shit!" Jupiter yelled.
He turned his head to look at Saturn, yet there were two men standing there.
Another one of Jupiter's siblings stood there, Neptune.
In the past, Neptune had been the Empress's favorite. The most notable quality about him was his intelligence. He usually helped the Empress and Emperor with their work.
That was until he met a maidservant and fell madly in love with her. He knew that the Emperor would disown him if he found out about their relationship, so they ran away together.
The only person that Neptune told was Jupiter. Yet Jupiter never told the Emperor, because he was already planning on overthrowing him.
"This is childish behavior from you as usual." Neptune looked at Saturn in contempt.
"Don't wait to kill him, do it as fast as possible."
"But he deserves to be tortured! Think about how much I suffered searching for my jewels..." Saturn lamented.
Jupiter frowned. "They didn't act like this before, did they?" The void asked. "Not at all. Quite the opposite actually. Saturn wouldn't hurt a fly and Neptune wasn't this callous before."
"Neptune even ran away for someone else, he would never be this indifferent."
A burning pain flashed inside Jupiter's arm. Jupiter groaned.
"Hey! You!" Neptune yelled. Jupiter looked up. "You have poison in your arm. It'll slowly kill you, so just sit there and die."
"You mean that he's going to feel pain while dying?" Saturn excitedly asked. "Excruciating pain." Neptune said. "Perfect!" Saturn grinned.
Jupiter held his arm. "If I was going to die like this, I wouldn't have lived so long, you know?" Jupiter laughed.
Now that he had his magic back, he was sure that he would live.
Jupiter dashed across the strings that Saturn had arranged and got behind them. Neptune turned his head back in surprise, seeing Jupiter's egotistical smile.
Screams of pain ricochet across the room. Both Saturn's and Neptune's arms were broken. "You're the one whose going to die here."
A voice of authority suddenly shouted.
"What is going on here?"
The Emperor stood before them.
It was the first time that all of them had been filled with such fear. The look of open disdain and disgust made them all feel small.
"Is this what I think it is? You two lost against a commoner?" The Emperor's voice boomed.
"Father, but he wasn't a normal commoner, he has...!"
"I don't want to hear any excuses. You two are pitiful. I can't believe both of you are my sons."
Neptune and Saturn were crestfallen. They simply sat in their misery and listened to the Emperor insult them.
"As for you, young man, come here!"
When Jupiter killed his father, he felt as though he had abandoned all feelings for him. He only looked at the Emperor with the same belittlement that the Emperor had shown him years ago.
But now, Jupiter could do nothing but follow the Emperor. He felt weak.
Once again, he was merely the loyal son of the Emperor.
---
Oliver looked at the sky.
"Who brought me back here? Why? Why are you so cruel? I know I was supposed to save the world but you could've given that job to someone else..."
"Someone stronger than me... can't you do that? Please? Or do I have to do this? But I'm so weak. I can barely do anything."
"...If the Gods can hear me, I want to tell you to curse me. Maybe then I won't have to save this world. It's hopeless anyways. I don't know what to do..."
Oliver prayed, looking up at the sky again.
Oliver's tears fell down his face. His life was filled with agony. He couldn't see colors, he couldn't laugh, he couldn't even frown at times.
He was empty.
He was alone.
He was a lost cause?
"Fine. I'll die again if you want me to."