End Of The World: Blessed (3) | (???)

Compacting the road on the other side of the lake, I'm sent flying through a small forest.

I hammer the ground, smack against trees, grind along a sea of stones, skip over a river and halt atop a boulder.

My body remains in one piece while my clothing is left shredded all over.

As emptiness floods my mind minutes prior, a faint glow appears.

Being one with my thoughts, I hear a voice. A voice of complaining.

"Who are you?" I ask in a faint and weak tone.

As the voice fades from a haze to something more clear, I notice the warrior sitting upon his cloud. In a void of any shape, size or colour, all that was before the two of us were the glow of ourselves.

Mars exhales deeply, clearly not happy with the situation he's in.

"You know me," he begins.

"I am a god,” he rears his head.

“A deity.”

“Athen.”

Athen?

“You may have heard of me."

I may have not.

“Well, this is where my story ends…”

Athen explains what he knows to have taken place.

"So, my home is… gone?"

The pain I can feel welling up inside of my unconscious body just knowing that

"And what of the room people were entering? The large dome made to protect us from storms? Are there survivors?"

I feel my heart pound against the stone my body stopped upon.

A few hours have been before a trio of travellers discover my unusual trail.

The trio follow the trail to investigate.

Soon enough they reach me and turn me on my back.

Though the damage I took was great, and severe if I remained normal, there are no scars or scratches on my body.

With no result of waking me up, the three set up camp and rest me near the river.

More time passes before one of them returns with a floating bubble from the lake.

My body is put into a panic, with my mind finally returning to control.

The three crowd around me and ready for my awakening.

I force my eyes to a violet night sky sprinkled with stars every which way. The silhouettes of the presence I've been feeling lean in above me.

One dons rugged shorts but a tidy jacket - he's clearly been through a lot. The other two wear tidy and interesting attire with out-of-place accessories - appearing as if commoners. Rich commoners.

The three attempt conversation when I rush to my feet and allow my eyes a quick sweep of the area, my breath unsteady.

Taken by surprise at my sudden burst of worry, they try to calm me.

Visions of what had just taken place flood my head. They send me into a frenzy.

I spot a trail of destruction I assume is my doing. I take a quick assessment of the condition of my body - just fine. Without thinking much else, I speed off down the track of ruin.

Scanning the area for oncoming obstacles, I notice I'm moving significantly faster than normal. There's more spring to my jumps. My thinking and movements are quick.

I stop at the road to assess his body once more, shocked at how I'm moving this comfortably after all of... that.

As questions fill my head, I feel the god's presence return.

"With us connected right now, you're passively given similar abilities to me. More agile and stronger comparatively. However, invulnerability or skills specific to a deity require power from me to actively translate."

I calm myself (only a bit) and slow to a jog.

"There are a few requests I must make if we are to continue."

I ignore Athen’s dialogue to regain my bearings and bolt in the direction of the lake.

Remembering the cyclone, the water should've decreased in size quite a bit but it looks just as it did before, but lonely and abandoned.

I launch into it and copy the movements I've seen from others to swim across.

My three followers chase after me, falling a fair bit behind. They come to a stop at the unpopulated body of water.

The three would wait there to spot my figure powering through the middle of the lake toward a charred village, the flames only just now dying out.

I believe this should provide enough answers to their concern.

I claw my way out of the water, coughing and spitting up liquid, simultaneously disgusted by the struggle of that obstacle.

I rush into my devastated home, firstly, only to find our room and everything I'd come to know in ruins. I'm reminded of my satchel, what would be the last of my life here. It's gone.

I stagger outside feeling defeated and sick to my stomach, looking for any survivors at all.

Any life that I would come across was retired only hours ago, and the fire surrounding the world only confirmed that.

I try jogging to the bunker but as I turn the corner, it's clear to me that the place didn't hold up.

The top of the dome was caved in, and the extra defence from their mayor's spell was shattered - twigs and branches were scattered throughout the village.

The pacing of my feet slows and my eyes filled with horror as the closer I get, the more death I find myself wrapped up in.

At the gate of the sanctuary, the mayor sits, frozen in time as his body fails to show any life. Charred and torn apart by the winds, leaving a grotesque figure peacefully meditating among the rubble.

Phistas still sits guarding the front of the door. The door is closed to a pile of bodies. Too late.

There's not much he could have done against this. I kneel to our mayor for trying. Even with vines as tough as concrete.

I stand again and try to step toward the sanctuary.

A vine wired itself around my ankle. I look down and notice a flower budding at the end.

By now, my emotions have done the rounds and I kneel again with tears stained at my cheeks.

I feel the mayor used his last amount of life in waiting for survivors. At least the confirmation of one. Me. I have to make the most of this.

Calmly, I pat the mayor on the shoulder as I stand again. This time, the vine allows me forward and uncoils with the speed of my leg.

I drop to my knees and peek through the door, only to stare into an abyss of the dead.

Not one life was saved.

The tempo of my heart picks up into a song of despair.

Athen notices this and tries to calm me down. And I only just remember Athen is here. Permanently.

The emotional impact stands too much for me to accept, and my cry tunes to the song of my heart as I faint at the shelter's foundations.

The three travellers turn the corner and make their way over to me in a hurry, quickly noticing the horrific display of survival forever displayed with bones, bodies and the dead frozen in positions of desperation.

I feel the presence of each of the travellers as I'm returned to that void. I feel their presence weaken and return at various paces. Likely also being sick to their stomachs and scarred for life.

I return before Athen on his cloud but can't hear him anymore. I'd better get used to being two with my thoughts instead.

With the nine moons fading from sight, sunlight pierces the sky and the world turns to daybreak.

"Jun."

| Author’s Notes |

~ Glossary ~

Mars: son of Jupiter and Juno, was the most important god in the Roman pantheon because he was father of Romulus, Rome's founder. As the god of war, red, the color of blood, was his color, and the wolf, the symbol of Rome, his animal. [Roman]

Ra: the king of the deities and the father of all creation. He was the patron of the sun, heaven, kingship, power, and light. He was not only the deity who governed the actions of the sun, he could also be the physical sun itself, as well as the day. [Egyptian]

~ Happenings ~

Yes, Khali was mistaken for a boy. Characters can make mistakes and assumptions as well.

Phistas remains in his physical form after death.