Exa displayed images directly in my field of vision like AR glasses. Seven portraits of different ethnicities were presented. Their clothing each matched one of the images on the doors.
But what stood out was that they all looked eerily like .
It was as if they were all my doppelgangers or twins of sothing. And they all had the sa fierce glow in their eyes. Just from their eyes, you could feel that these seven n were of the sa nature.
[Each of them is a prominent figure who existed in the sa mythology as the goddesses the Sirens had investigate. From left to right, they are:]
[Tyr, the Norse god of war and justice.]
[Nergal, the sopotamian god of death and war.]
[Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed in Welsh mythology.]
[Perun, the Slavic god of the sky, thunder, and war.]
[Mars, the Roman god of war.]
[Montu, the Egyptian falcon god of war.]
[Takemikazuchi, the Japanese Shinto god of thunder and martial arts.]
As I heard the nas of the seven n, sothing clicked in my mind. Suddenly, the faces of the seven warriors in my dreams were no longer shrouded in shadow. Like pieces of a puzzle, I now recognized the lives I had lived in the past. Your next read is at empire
These people were all as powerful as Revenants. Yet for so unknown reason, they all failed to close the Hellsgate. In each of their ends, they lay alone on mountains of corpses. And each ti, their enemy, the "Serpent", tried to persuade them to abandon their struggles.
Yet they had refused to do so.
Who the fuck was this fucking serpent? And why did they want to kill it so badly?
I didn't understand everything yet, but I felt that there was sothing there. What's more, another fact made wonder. It was like an itch I couldn't scratch.
'What were they all trying to do? Was it just to kill the serpent? Why? How could they fail when they were so powerful? Why did they fail? Was I supposed to follow in their footsteps?'
Adding to the mysteries were the Sirens. Why were we all connected in our past lives? I saw them all die horrible deaths.
Did they see their own deaths like I did? If I understood correctly, they rembered their lives even earlier than . Why was that?
I once looked into the nas the girls used for their Graveyard Ids. I thought they were just using the nas of goddesses for kicks. But it seed that was not the case.
If anything, Exa's words confird that they were looking for answers even before we declared our love for each other. At this realization, a fear began to fester in my heart.
What if the girls approached because of these fucking bastards?
'I an, I felt sohow partial to the Sirens. Was it because of the dreams I had? But the ones I love are the ones that exist in the present. Not the ones who lived in the distant past.'
Why didn't the Sirens tell ? Did they see as the reincarnation of their dead lovers? Was that all I was? A substitute? Did they even love ?
My body began to tremble as my chest tightened. It was as if soone or sothing was crushing my heart in their hands. In contrast to the silence before, a low hum began to ring in my ears. And with it, I slowly felt like I was drowning, my movents slowing to a crawl as I could no longer breathe.
[My Lord! My Lord!]
Exa's voice echoed, but similar to my other soul collapses, her voice was distant. As if I was underwater and she was not. So kind of static prevented from hearing her properly.
My thoughts began to spin out of control as my fear consud . I felt dark whispers suddenly begin to reverberate in my mind. This feeling was the calm that preceded a soul collapse. The final countdown before a violent eruption.
A glint from my suit caught my eye. A cufflink with the image of a reaper was staring right at . Rembering what they were, I summoned them with a roar.
"{Never Alone}!"
I shouted quickly, calling upon my benevol. The cufflinks instantly transford into bracers that wrapped around my forearms.
A pleasant, calming sensation wrapped around my body like a blanket, driving away the whispers.
The heaviness that had been plaguing slowly dissipated. It was as if I was slowly being petrified and my benevol was removing the status effects.
I waited a few monts for my body to return to normal. Within minutes, my senses and the strength of my body ca back.
Regaining my composure, I stared at Exa's portraits again and belatedly noticed that sothing was different. The faces of the n I thought looked like were... not like .
'Did I see wrong? Earlier, I could have sworn that we had the sa face.'
The fierce glint in their eyes was the sa, but that was all.
Montu in particular had dark skin. Tyr, Nergal, and Pwyll, while all blond, had different shades. Perun and Mar were redheads while Takemi had dark hair to match his Asian features. So had beards, so didn't.
I have no idea why I thought we were all the sa.
But sohow that was what I really believed before. The only thing that was different were the whispers I saw and...
I raised my fist and studied the benevol covering my forearm. The only difference was that I could be considered shielded by my benevol .
As I tried to rationalize, I could only co to the conclusion that malice fucked with your brain.
'Must be careful in the future. I should also check if the {Sirens of Sin} can do the sa thing. '
[My lord, are you alright? Your heart rate and blood pressure spiked earlier.]
"I'm fine," I lied while concentrating on my thoughts.
Rewind said sothing earlier. Sothing ominous.
{Things finally started moving. And now you are at the sa starting point, John Smith. All that you seek is through those doors. I await for your answer the next ti we et. Farewell. Buddy.}
Every phrase in his farewell was loaded with aning. Like what the fuck began to move? The reapers? The dissolution of the Armistice? There was so much going on, I have no idea what he ant.
And what the hell does "you are at the sa starting point" an? It sounded like I was in competition with soone. I had too little information to even make an educated guess.
It was like getting a cut scene from a video ga and being left to decipher the NPC's aning.
But perhaps what bothered the most were his last two sentences.
"Everything you seek is through those doors."
and
"I await for your answer the next ti we et."
"Ugh, this is not what I needed at this mont. There are already too many things happening. Now I have to deal with this shit."
As I stared at the doors, despite my complaints, I sohow knew what I had to do. Each of the seven doors would tell sothing. And after I passed through them all, I would have all the answers I was looking for.
I stifled my questions and prepared to leave this place. I didn't know what was worse, being scared that I was standing in space or the shit Rewind had just told .
"Exa, get all the material you have on all fourteen deities. After my campaign. I will co back here and check the doors."
[I understand, my lord. How will you go back?]
"Will myself to go ho?"
[...]
"It worked last ti, honest."
With those words, I closed my eyes and returned to earth.
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