Chapter 14: Wisdom vs power- welcome to Snake Island (1)
"Wake up, you sleeping head! How long are you going to keep sleeping for?"
A bright feminine voice called out as she shook Apolo's body violently.
Groggily opening his eyes, the first thing that came into Apolo's sight was a wooden square ceiling and a rotating wind device humming softly above.
Confused, he looked to the side and saw a young woman who looked to be in her late teens. She had dark hair tied back in a messy ponytail, sun-tanned skin, and wore simple fishing village clothes—practical, worn, but clean. She stared at him curiously.
Nothing about her stood out, yet something about her felt... strangely familiar.
Frowning, Apolo blinked a few times and shook his head to be sure he wasn't imagining things. He hurriedly looked at his hands and found they'd been bandaged all over.
But surprisingly, the pain he'd felt before hitting that ocean was gone. He tried to lift a finger.
It was effortless. No pain.
He then tried to lift his entire hand.
The same. No pain.
Excited, he looked at the girl again, wanting to say something, but found that even his mouth was bandaged.
"Hey, little guy! You've been asleep for a while. How's your body?"
The girl opened her small mouth and said.
Blinking, Apolo raised his hand and removed the bandage from his mouth, then sat up slowly.
After a moment, he blurted out a lot of questions.
"Where am I? How did you find me? Where did you find me?"
"Relax! Which one should I answer first?"
The girl covered her mouth and giggled.
Apolo froze for a moment, then the vision he'd just seen resurfaced in his head.
Trying to frown—only for the bandage to stop him—he reached out and used his bandaged hand to caress the girl's cheek.
Completely oblivious to her blushing face, Apolo squeezed it a bit hard and muttered,
"This feels real."
He then proceeded to punch himself in the face.
The result was—
"Arrgh..."
He seemed to have used too much force and accidentally bruised his lips.
"Heheh..." Laughing lightly, the girl extended her hand to clean the blood from his lips and said,
"You're not dreaming. This is real. My grandpa found your body floating in the water when he was fishing. Curiously, we brought you out of the water, but you were basically supposed to be dead. Your body was riddled with injuries, all your bones almost broken. But surprisingly, my grandpa said your body was in some kind of hibernation."
Then she walked to an old rusted chair in the corner of the small room. She sat down and looked at Apolo's face. Seeing his intrigued expression, she continued,
"That was over four months ago."
As if struck by lightning, Apolo immediately stood to his feet, shocked.
"I've been out for over four months?"
Clenching her fist and wiggling it in the air, the girl shouted,
"Hey! Don't break my room! And besides, you were completely exhausted. You used yourself too much and were totally drained. Anyone in your position back then would have died for sure, but your body went into some kind of hibernation and you survived. We only helped bandage your injuries and straighten your broken bones so your body could heal."
Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Apolo sat down on the bed with his eyes closed as the image of his parents appeared.
He thought:
"Mom, Dad... what would you do if your son appeared before you?"
Seeing Apolo suddenly go silent, the girl pouted her lips childishly and said,
"My name is Allison."
"Allison? Have I heard that name before?"
Apolo thought as he evaluated Allison again.
She looked kind of average but gave people an easy-going temperament. There was basically nothing special about her. But he felt as if he might have heard or known her somewhere.
Throwing the thought out of his mind,
Apolo responded,
"Just call me Red Scale."
Apolo almost choked by the name but tried his utmost best to maintain a straight poker face.
"Red Scale? Trying to sound tough, huh? What are you, some kind of lizard hybrid? Did your parents hit their head on a door and give you that name, or did you give it to yourself?"
As expected, Allison complained with her fist clenched.
Ignoring her tantrums, Apolo closed his eyes and started replaying the phoenix vision again. He felt as if he was missing something from it, as if he was overlooking something there.
That blood-red form—it had looked exactly like what he'd become in Sky City. The scales, the wings, the overwhelming power. Was that vision real? A memory from his bloodline? Or a warning?
The Phoenix had erased entire armies without hesitation. It had called them peasants and destroyed them as if they were nothing. Is that what I'll become? he wondered, a chill running through him despite the warm room.
Is that what power looks like?
The voice had said his potential was limitless... but after seeing what the Phoenix did—erasing civilizations without a second thought—he wasn't sure if that was a promise or a curse.
Opening his eyes again, Apolo asked in the calmest voice he could muster,
"Allison, where's your grandfather?"
"He's out fishing. Why?"
Allison responded.
Staring at her deeply, trying to recall where he might have seen her but giving up when he still couldn't, Apolo answered,
"Thank you very much for saving my life. I honestly thought I was going to die that day, and if not for you and your grandfather, I probably would have become chaos beast dung or a supplement for plants. Thank you very much."
Apolo then stood, almost shocked enough to sit back down, but he still shakily remained on his feet. He went down on one knee and made a promise:
"Allison, I promise you—if you or your grandfather ever need anything, or are in any need of me in the future, I'll do anything I can to help."
"Hahaha..." Allison burst out laughing. Then she sat up straight, brushed the hair from the corner of her face, and said seriously,
"My grandfather only bandaged you and gave you a few supplements. That's all. You healing completely is because of your bloodline, not us."
"Still, you saved my life. Do you know that I'd basically accepted death? Being alive right now still feels like a dream to me."
Apolo responded as he sat down on the bed again.
"Who knows? You being alive simply means you haven't completed your mission yet."
Allison responded.
Sitting quietly, deep in thought, the Phoenix's last words started resonating with Apolo. Thinking about something else, he thought:
"Four months. Four months of my life, gone. Derek probably thinks I'm dead. My parents might have really forgotten about me entirely and moved on to other threats. Or maybe they sent even more hunters."
"But that vision... what did it mean? Was I really meant to become something like that Phoenix? Or was that vision just a dying hallucination?"
"If I'm meant to be more powerful than that... what am I meant to fight? What could possibly require that much strength?"
He flexed his fingers, rolled his shoulders experimentally. Everything moved smoothly—too smoothly for someone who'd been at death's door. His bloodline had done more than just heal him. He felt... different. Stronger, maybe. Or maybe just more aware of the power sleeping inside him.
Seeing Apolo lost in thought, Allison raised an eyebrow and said loudly, almost yelling,
"Hey, Red Scale! You okay? You've got this really intense look on your face. Bad memories?"
Snapping out of his thoughts, Apolo looked at Allison and asked instead of answering,
"What does it mean to be powerful?"
Caught off guard, Allison frowned but then, putting a finger to her mouth, she said,
"Being powerful isn't just about having the strength to defeat your enemies. It might also mean having the wisdom to control it so you don't use it to hurt your loved ones in the process."
Frowning, the image of the Phoenix appeared in his mind again—the blood-red wings and scales, the red mist capable of erasing creations from existence.
"That Phoenix is the embodiment of destruction. Is that what power without wisdom is?"
Apolo thought as he ripped the bandage off his hands, exposing his fresh, tender but elastic skin beneath.
"That voice sounded from within me, as if it was coming from somewhere in my soul. Could it be true? Could I really become more powerful than that?"
Seeing that there was no way for him to get answers, Apolo turned to Allison, who was also observing him, and asked,
"Where am I?"
Laughing, Allison answered,
"Heheh... I was waiting for this question for a while now. Anyways, welcome to Snake Island—the land full of mysteries."