"N-no, no... let go of me!"
My small body fell on the ground with the chains pinning me once again. The mortal gave me a disgusted gaze as he trembled away.
"Y-YOU!" He took the dagger he dropped and pointed it at me as his lips quivered in fear.
I looked at him in daze, my lips pursing as my brows slowly knotted together. My orbs reflected his bulging eyes, almost exploding in angst as he looked around.
My eyelids drooped down silently and then resisted on the chains shackling me, my small bones easily broke, cracking loudly as blood spilled from my wounds.
My young skin stretched and immediately tore as my eyes bulged in blood; the chains on my neck were much more ruthless now that I am nothing but a tiny child.
To make me regret abandoning my adult vessel, this realm does know how to anger a God. I licked my lips, blood dripping from my eyes
The heat and pain that I overcome on my earlier descent once again find my consciousness. My current vessel is fresh, soft, supple, and frail... so frail, to think that the realm would be so cruel to tear up this child.
Ro En's soldiers quickly dove into the scene, dragging their commander back. The mortal was livid, not taking his gaze away from me... no mercy could be seen from those disrespectful eyes.
Why? I thought humans treasured their saplings? Blood, masked as tears, flooded my face as the rain poured on me.
I can feel my consciousness wavering due to my vessel's young age.
My small limbs staggered as the chains ruthlessly tore my feet away, earning a wretched scream from my pitiful lips. Cries echoed as I fell on the ground, reaching my arms to the mortal.
"Father... " I wailed.
The chains pulled my arms down heavily, snapping my bones, sending my small hands to the mortal whose body weakened deliriously as the soldiers cried against the rain, pulling him away.
"D-Don't come near us! " They were shouting so many foul, mean words. My lips trembled as an uncontrollable child-like voice echoed in despair.
"Why?" I sobbed.
Ah. This body...
" WHY ARE YOU TAKING MY FATHER FROM ME!?" I screamed, my energy quickly dispersed, beheading thousands of humans around me.
The soldiers taking the mortal froze, their heads rolled into the ground as blood shed and flooded the soil along the rainwater. The mortal dropped his dagger as the soldiers helping him stand collapsed.
My eyes widened, and afterwards a smile escaped my lips, crawling towards him as the smoke slowly reformed my limbs. The chain quickly encircled my waist, tightening to the point of snapping my body in two.
"N-no... no. no. no. no. no. no. " The mortal started chanting this word, making me halt and tilt my chained head to the side.
Ah.
Before I could do something, a thick blade sliced my head away from my body, letting it roll into the ground. The world spun, with my orbs greeting the dead soldiers' heads on my way.
"ESCAPE!" Ferlon's voice echoed, but my thoughts were elsewhere.
I can hear their hurried footsteps, the fairies crying over someone using a bright light from afar, clearing off a path to flee. The mortal I am fond of was dragged by Ferlon's hands and thrown first to that path... far away from me.
"THIS PATH IS CLEARED! HURRY AND RUN!" Once again, a calm yet almost trembling voice echoed, one that I have been forced to listen to for the past centuries...nagging at me.
But my gaze remained on the souls that left their bodies. The souls of these corpses are from Ro En... that kingdom of Ares.
Ah.
A young vessel does make one reckless.
I inhaled, and life found my weak head filling it with heat and fullness... but I immediately blew it back, sending a tainted breath of life towards the corpses surrounding me.
Their souls that no longer have living vessels cried as they slowly darkened and dispersed along my breath. Smoke-like energy appeared from their bodies, consisting of their dense essence, gently encircling their heads and attaching itself to their necks.
A black tint slowly formed around their necks. A brand of their extended lives.
"Pfft... Haha," A laugh echoed as my head exploded with life. As if death were so afraid of me, smoke immediately formed to imitate my face and revive my current vessel.
My consciousness returned to my pinned down body before I looked around, eager to share a beautiful news.
But no one was left.
The smile on my lips quickly pursed into a straight line. My tearful eyes flickered, darkening; smoke seeping through my body... angered enough to almost melt my chains.
"I let them escape." A voice echoed from behind, making me snap my head towards the wretched god that went against my will.
His face was pale, injured, but determined. He was looking straight at me as if he had seen a ghost in my child form.
Ferlon dropped his sword and slowly knelt in front of me. He took a grip on the chains, gently amplifying their heaviness to torment me even more.
As if we were never friends.
"Your Highness, I will play with you..." A gentle tone filled his voice as he reached out to touch my cheeks, wet by my bloody tears. His green orbs flickered, almost vulnerably, before he showed me a smile.
"—just like before? When we were still in Sidron?" He mumbled. His frail body convulsed against direct contact with me, his skin eroding.
My breathing hitched... my young vessel was torn with his words. After all, our plays in Sidron had always been fun.
Blinking, I looked all around the battlefield before my tiny fingers touched his beating chest, calling out my servant's name, "Ferlon... "
Ferlon nodded, he pursed his lips, and then patted my head despite the evident pain he was experiencing just by simply acknowledging me.
A cold drop in the temperature made him halt, my essence felt his beating heart as tints as dark as night found their way deep into his soul bearer.
"I sense a lingering hatred deep within your soul... " I mumbled.
Tilting my head, with an innocent smile on my lips, I pierced his vessel, unleashing the dark, hidden secret deep within.
"—Why don't I help you release that? "
Just like when we were still in Sidron... when we were both Gods that needed no leashes.
A tremor reached the heights of the sky. A burning hatred seething deep under the shackles of the Kingdom of Heroli found its way to their deity's vulnerable vessel.
The vessel's limits broke under my command. His soul, oh so forgiving and patient, was triggered by my innate tainted essence.
Ferlon greeted hatred.
His frozen body, unable to move as it seethes through all of the malicious thoughts circulating inside his mind, felt cold to my touch.
The amplification of the chains around me vanished. Ferlon's warmth slowly burned hot as the chains weakened by another God's resistance.
I couldn't help but smile.
How unfair that fortune has such free command in this realm... good thing that this one's a bit foolish.
Freed from the unbearable heaviness of the chains, that is now simply an accessory to my youthful body, I caressed Ferlon's blackening face—then planted a gentle kiss on his forehead.
"You've been wronged."
Bloody tears fell on his cheeks—my tears. My lips quivered as I pointed my fingers towards the cleared path that he made for the mortals to escape.
"They took my father..." I wailed.
Ferlon's eyes flew open. Tall greenish borders as tall as the heavens appeared in a snap. His hands and arms raised as the mortal realm's air condensed, collecting all minerals in the sky. Slowly, thousands of sharp blades lay in-waiting for the Great God of Fortune's command.
"Your Highness, what have you done this time?" He softly spoke and stood up, patting my head, his hand eroding.
The roots of his hair are turning white; the same strands that usually touch my face whenever he carries me around Sidron.
I slightly pouted my lips. The young vessel of mine flickered and slowly converged with my ancestral consciousness; both existed at once.
Looking up at Ferlon, I whispered. "Are you mad at me?"
Ferlon's green orbs gazed upon me before a long sigh escaped his lips. My eyes focused on his flickering soul, green with a seething, malicious glint, that pushes him to a rampage.
"Who am I to be angry at my Lord?" A weak voice trembled, the barriers surrounding the forest doubled, as the minerals under the ground slowly formed another dome.
The blades shone brightly in the sky, and the moonlight appeared in the presence of another God than death. The balance was temporarily evened, as now there are two forces out of control...
"—besides, these mortals disgusts me as well." Ferlon's lips quivered, his hatred unable to fully takeover his kindness.
But I simply tugged his armor, which made him look down once again at me, "What is it, Your Highness?"
"Drop the mask, we both know fortune's never that pure." I mumbled and turned my back on him.
I walked towards the corpses of Ro En that I forcefully revived and let them move mindlessly. My young body is too small and easily exhausted, so I gently sat down on a random spot and looked up at the sky.
The blades mercilessly fell like a pouring rain. It was followed by screams of the mortals, stabbed by their ever-so-kind God. The smell of living blood filled my nose, warming up the whole forest. The land is hidden from the outside realm due to Ferlon's tight barriers.
I closed my eyes tightly. The black energy dispersed, searching all mortals marked with inescapable fate tonight. It crawled and travelled from body to body until it found a familiar face... a grin appeared on my face.
My father has so many loyal soldiers...
The mortal was still being supported by his living soldiers. They were showered by beautiful red stains on their bodies... one even has a shiny blade stuck on his nape.
"Pfft!" I immediately held back a laugh and slapped my sinful lips. My vision spread throughout the whole forest; most lives were lost with a simple rain of blades.
Luck never misses, huh? Ferlon's abilities are always fun to witness. No wonder, Ares hates his guts.
My smoke jumped in glee, dropping on my father's head, flickering, almost waving to Ferlon's blades that were supposed to hit him straight to his skull.
A frown immediately appeared on Ferlon's face, and then he smiled gently, turning to me, "Is that the mortal you wish to play with?"
"Hm, hm." My eyes closed as I nodded, almost humming in response.
Before I could brag about my new father, Ferlon's blade quickly stabbed him on all of his limbs, and he was forcefully dragged back to us by an invisible force.
My eyes flew open in anger as I raised my tiny hands and swiftly motioned it down, slamming Ferlon's mortal body to the ground. "HOW DARE YOU!"
"Do not be upset, Your Highness. Your Father can only be the Lord, how come this mortal could compare to him?" Ferlon, struggling to stand back up, pulled my father in front of him.
A tall, long sword appeared right on top of his head, ready to behead him.
"He shall die quickly, I never miss," Ferlon muttered.
Before the blade could even touch my father's neck, I immediately fisted my open palm, grabbing Ferlon's heart from a distance.
The heart tightened to the point of exploding.
Ferlon's blades dispersed as his soul flickered, almost in death. I paid his agony no mind and slammed my tightly closed palm in the air, throwing him far away from my frail little father.
Hah, what a nuisance.
I ran my hands against my fingers and then crawled onto my father; his eyes were dull and unfocused. I tried to tap his cheeks, but his mortal vessel was too frail; it immediately eroded under my skin.
"N-no, no... Forgive me, Father." I whispered and then blew a bit of my breath onto his cheeks, returning a piece of his soul that eroded along my touch.
"— I have yet to acquire a body safe for you," I added, and then looked at the corpses of Ro En and helped my father sit down with a slight command of my fingers.
He was in a daze, almost as if he had lost his consciousness, but with eyes still wide open.
The soldiers' bodies were ravaged, limbs missing, necks broken, flesh and bones in sight... their vessels were no longer supposed to live, but to honor my father, I made sure to extend their lives.
"See? I made sure to honor my promise." I smiled and then looked at my father, who was unmoving. His eyes were tearing up but no sound nor movement came from his weary body.
He must be happy.
I leaned slightly towards his body, careful to only touch his armor and not his skin.
"My adult form must've been mean, huh, Father?" I mumbled and then chuckled as screams echoed from around us.
Ferlon must've been making a mess. The ground keeps shaking, and every time, blades will form, fly, and pour from the sky. To think he'd craft so many weapons when he is not even capable of missing his shots; he must've been happy tasting blood.
What might've angered him so?
"You like me more than him, right Father?" I whispered in my father's ear as he continued to weep silently.
Soldiers of Ro En continued to die under Ferlon's blades, but I tirelessly patched up their bodies and had them march back for Father to see.
They were walking, moving, and acting so lively around us. Their blood pooled on the ground as another thousand blades pierced into their eyes. A soldier even lost an eyeball, rolling down to my father's sight.
" Oh, he's eager to say hi?" I muttered and picked it up, inspecting the beautiful eye, and then showed it to my very silent father. "—his eyes were blue, just like Osiris'. How pretty..."
A sob suddenly echoed from beside me. It was from my father, who had been quiet, enjoying how I kept my promise to him earlier.
No death shall find Ro En.
A wail escaped his mouth, body trembling deliriously with his head shaking as if he couldn't take in his joy. He snatched the eyeball away from me that started to melt because of my essence and hugged it so hard that he crushed it on his arms.
He was really loud. Too loud.
"R-Roy.... Geron... Kale. Bren. Morque. H-Hak." He started chanting words that I couldn't comprehend, making me purse my lips into a straight, tight line.
He was crying, and crying, and crying. What for? I was way too kind compared to my adult vessel. What more can he ask for?
"Derek. Sisi. Qu Ha. Leron. Gav—" A loud crack of jaw and blood spitting echoed along the screams of tortured mortals from afar.
The broken jaw was of my father's. My small hands itched to silence his nonsense ramblings that I almost snapped his head off.
"Why? Why? Why?" He started convulsing and grabbed my robe, his hands eroding. He slapped and hit me, but it is him who cried so loudly.
"HEROLI STARTED THE WAR! IT WAS THEM! I DIDN'T WANT TO— I DIDN'T WANT TO... WE- WHY?! "
Mortals are hard to understand. Truly, the most confusing beings.
"What are you weeping for? I kept them alive, are you blind?" I asked coldly and snapped my hands; the moving corpses suddenly collapsed with their poorly attached limbs and necks falling and rolling into the ground.
Their souls went outside of their bodies, escaping from my hold, "Is this what you desire?"
I hissed at my father's unmoving and unfocused eyes before I snapped my small fingers again, putting the souls back to their ravaged vessels. Their corpses moved, and their lips cried a helpless," Your Highness... "
My father's eyes swelled and broke into a mindless cry again. I took a step back, my mind full of questions as I suddenly hit a tough body on my back.
"Mortals' greed knows no bounds." Ferlon's voice echoed, his eyes still flickering deadly black tints, delirious from a forceful release of his deep hate.
I don't understand. Ferlon... Father... everyone. I don't understand. No one makes sense.
Ferlon is filled and tainted with blood; his armor that bore the symbol of his own temple was stained by his own people's flesh and lives.
"Jaron. Lai. Bai Li. Roli. Yakin. Xian. Fran. Que. Deri. Lara. "
"All they do is ask, ask, ask, ASK!"
"My people. My people. We didn't do anything wrong. "
"You give them gold, they ask for a kingdom. Next, they demand—"
"T-No god, they're not gods... m-monsters. D-Demons—"
"—one even prayed to be a GOD! How foolish—"
Ferlon's head rolled to the ground. A tall black scythe stood beside me. The blood of my own kin was dripping from its dark blade as my tiny hands gripped it tightly.
His head rolled over to my father, who seemed to have always been silenced by heads rolling to him. A cold sigh escaped my lips, and I walked over to him.
My orbs were glinting in serenity as I picked up the head and laid it on my father's lap.
"Here, I brought the head of Heroli's commander... " I smiled and then found my father's eyes eyeing me with no sign of blinking away.
A warm beat found my unbeating heart.
"What more can this son do for you?" I mumbled softly.
Mortals always respond gently to those who speak softly to them... Ferlon taught me back in Sidron.
My father's eyes no longer looked sane as he opened his mouth, smiling foolishly, "S-Son?"
My eyes widened as I excitedly cupped his face, his cheeks quickly melting against my touch, but my father simply laughed at me.
This young vessel of mine couldn't contain such joy.
Truly, mortals do love their saplings dearly.
_____