Aries lay unconscious on the bed, tubes and drips tethered to him like fragile lifelines. The steady rhythm of the machines filled the silence, broken only by the shallow rise and fall of his chest.
Alexa sat close, her eyes fixed on him. 'Do you think he'll be okay?' she whispered, her voice trembling.
Thadeus squeezed her hand firmly. 'He'll pull through. He's tougher than anyone I know.' He forced a faint smile, but inside his thoughts churned. 'Aries… what have you gotten yourself into? Who could possibly be strong enough to do this to you?'
Alexa rose slowly, her hand brushing against Aries's cheek. The warmth of his skin was faint, almost fading. Her thumb lingered there and memories surged, the last time she saw him, the moment he told her he didn't feel the same way. The ache of rejection mixed now with fear twisting inside her.
'i should go… work is waiting,' she murmured.
Thadeus's eyes softened with concern. 'I'll stay. If he wakes, he shouldn't be alone.'
As Alexa left the ward, the sterile hallway felt heavier with each step. At the hospital entrance, she was met by Eve and Luthour.
'Alexa, long time no see,' Luthour greeted.
'Yeah… it's been a while,' she replied, her voice subdued.
'How is he?' Eve asked urgently.
Alexa hesitated, casting her eyes down to the floor. 'He's still critical. The doctors don't know when… or if… he'll wake.'
'i have to see him,' Eve replied rushing past Alexa.
'You don't even know which room he's in, slow down!' Luthour called ,chasing after her.
Days ago.
Aries wore a long black jacket, unzipped, with red stripes along the zipper and hem. He paired it with black cargo pants, boots, and a black shirt. He stood atop a towering tree in a vast forest.
'What's going on with me? Have I been like this the whole time? Or have I changed? No… I guess I've always seen the world like this,' said Aries, staring at his hand before clenching it into a fist. He stopped, looked up, then closed his eyes and let himself fall backward.
He embraced the cold air as he descended. Moments later, he crashed against the ground. 'Argh, that stung, heh. Looks like I'm still alive,' he muttered, scratching his head.
Suddenly, he heard noises. Looking around, he found himself surrounded by twenty goblins.
'Uhm… hi,' he greeted them with a sinister grin.
He took a battle stance. The goblins hesitated then charged. Aries waited until they were within striking range. With cold calculated precision, he grabbed one goblin's hand and ripped it off, kicking the creature away. He seized another, pressing his thumbs into its eye sockets until they burst. His fighting style was brutal and merciless. Blood spilled everywhere as he continued his rampage.
Moments later, Aries stood alone in a pool of blood and torn limbs. 'Hah, that was fun… Evil has no place in this world. Now, time to hunt what I came here for,' he said, advancing deeper into the forest. He summoned two sabertooth tigers to track the monster he sought.
The sabers caught a scent and dashed forward. Aries followed, then heard their roar. Using a new ability, he swapped places with one of them.
'Human!' growled an Ogre.
'Remember me? I finally found you. Are you ready to pay for the children you devoured?" Aries demanded.
'Me don't remember you… but one of my tastiest meals was three kids, hahaha,' the Ogre sneered rubbing it's round, jiggly belly
'It's trying to bait me into rage. Smarter than I thought… but no matter,' Aries thought to himself charging forward. He kneed the Ogre in the belly and kicked its chin, sending it crashing into trees.
The Ogre staggered up, coughing blood.
'Man, you're weak,' said Aries, grinning sinisterly.
The Ogre roared and charged but two sabertooth tigers appeared biting into its arms. Its painful screams turned into Arie's favorite sound.
'Hahaha, more! More! Scream your guts out. Nothing brings me joy like the pain of evildoers. I am Justice!' Aries declared.
He tortured the Ogre relentlessly, driving a blade in ,twisted ,pulled. again and again. Finally, he forced it to its knees, held its head, and whispered: 'Conjuration Level 3,Lightning.' obliterating it's brain into pieces with a bolt of lightning. But then, unexpectedly, Aries felt a blade pierce his stomach. At first, he felt nothing,only the sight of blood dripping down.
The strike came from behind, For a heartbeat, it didn't register as pain but an intrusion,like something cold and jagged forcing its way into a place it should never be. His breath hitched as if the air itself turned solid in his lungs. The world tilted, his knees weakened, his stomach clenched around the foreign presence. Every nerve screamed, yet his mind lagged, stunned by the betrayal of his own body. Heat spread out, not just pain but a sickening awareness, he was unraveling from the outside.
He turned slowly and saw another Ogre with a group behind it. The earlier roar was a call for reinforcements.
Aries was too weak to fight or run,but his sense of justice spurred him forward to keep fighting one ragged breath at a time.
Hours bled into days,and those Days became weeks as Aries fought a horde of Ogre's. The forest became a bloodbath, and he moved through it like a man who is possessed using his lightning to desintegrate them. blood painting the leaves red, Oger after Oger
falling under his hands.
When the last of them broke and fled, the silence that followed was worse than the screams. Only the wet, ragged rasp of his own breathing filled the air. His muscles had locked into stone from the endless slaughter.and Seven days without sleep had frayed his mind to threads. By all reason, he should have been dead. But his will refused to let go.
He looked up and a yellow-eyed figure emerge from beneath the spreading roots of a great ancient tree. It's back was hunched ,it's fingers twisted , and it wore a worn out brown leather jacket covered in swamp mud . It moved quickly through the trees until it came to a pile of bushes dotted with swollen,frost- sweetened berries, but it ignored the fruit in favor of the flies flocking around the Ogers corpses.
Aries's looked at the blade snagged at it's hip and noticed that it looked identical to the one that had stabbed him, The one that had torn through his stomach.
'It was you…'
The words rumbled out of him raw. He gathered the last of his strength, forced himself upright and summoned Two sabertooth tigers. They materialized at his sides, muscles coiled, breath hot against the cold air.
'Attack!'
He ordered them ,but they didn't move.For the first time the beasts hesitated. Their furr rose, low growls dying in their throats. They knew. Whatever stood before them was beyond prey, beyond predator.
The sabertooth tigers didn't hesitate, they scooped Aries up and ran.
'What are you doing?! We need to fight!' Aries thrashed cursing but the beasts didn't slow .
The yellow-eyed monster cracked it's jaws open into something that wasn't quite a smile. Its voice was a rasp, like dry bone scraping stone.
'Don't look too deep into the darkness,' it whispered, 'or else the leviathan will look back.'
The words blurred and before long the world swayed dimly with every heartbeat. He pressed his shaking hand to his wound, feeling his life seep through his fingers.
'Ahh… I'm losing too much blood,' he gasped. 'Boy… take me to Thadeus. Follow his scent.'
Aries jolted awake gasping for air. Thadeus and the nurses flinched back as he sat upright, eyes wide with fear and panic
'The leviathan is coming!' he shouted.
'The what?' Thadeus started to ask.
The answer came before he could finish. A roar split the air , no source, no direction, just sound that felt like it came from inside their bones. The windows blew outward in a hail of glass. The whole hospital shuddered.
Aries sank back against the pillows, voice barely a whisper.
'That… is the leviathan.'