The Second Phase

The howling winds blew hard against his bare skin, each coarse grain of sand like razor sharp blades cutting through his skin. He could feel the mocking sun blazing upon him mercilessly with its barrage of heat.

He felt very demon, the power he’d possessed as a demon was gone, the interior tugging sensation of the demon was gone, his oath to Krale and the Empire was gone. He slowly came to life, opening his eyes he found his sight at decreased greatly, he’d never had good vision as a mortal.

Monstarmos kicked him in the side, howling over the powerful winds, " The golden boy loses his robe, loses his power. How things have changed for the worse in your life, I leave you to die in this sandstorm Ares the mortal, I hope you suffer."

Monstarmos vanished in a wisp, the wind was really beginning to pick up. Suddenly Ares began to enter convulsions, his vison changing to complete darkness he felt power like he’d never felt before enter his body, he howled in pain before losing consciousness under the constant barrage of the storm.

He awoke in a small bed of hay, someone had dressed him with an old pair of baggy pants, leaving him bare back he felt like a complete different person. His extra-sensory vision reduced to blindness his other senses were increased to an unbelievable level.

He could hear a heartbeat, wind hitting what must be a hut. He heard a voice, " You have the curse, it has finally reached its second phase Ares, I don’t understand how you can still be alive."

Ares grinned, " I am not alive, I died once but I was sprung out of death by one I loved very much, I became a necromonger. Why am I blind? In all my time on this earth I have never heard of this second phase."

Ares could smell some sort of brew, hearing water boil over a fire. " The curse, I have studied it and I can track it. It has five phases, the first one you’ve lived with for over five centuries, however the demon within you stopped its growth, but once the demon left the curse was enabled to mature."

" Phase two, your power increases but you lose your sight, however your other senses become supernaturally strong, enough lecturing, I give you a pair of travelling pants and all I own, my purpose is now accomplished."

Ares walked out of the hut, ignoring the old man he breathed in the air with his new senses, smelling the water in the air like if he was immersed under water. He could hear the scarce animal population around him.

Suddenly a noise joined the desert calm, Monstarmos was calm. Ares stood immobile as he heard him growl in excitement, getting close Ares laughed out loud, " The mortal didn’t die so you came to try to kill him yourself?"

He heard the noise of Monstarmos’ arm going toward him, Ares quickly ducked and hit the demon hard in the gut with his elbow. Monstarmos backed away in pain, Ares then chopped him in the neck, snapping his neck in one shot.

Monstarmos grimaced in pain, he’d not expected much of a fight from Ares but his underestimation had cost him his life. As he staggered to the ground Ares smiled, the pain associated with his old powers was now gone, but he was ten times more powerful than before.

He had no need for food or water, smelling into the air he caught the scent of a nearby population and checking his belt he felt different pouches filled with various items. He began to walk across the desert toward the scent, he knew where Adonis would be and would resume his original plans, Adonis would die.

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This was outrageous, Aldon still could not believe all the events that had begun occuring since the arrival of Adonis the chosen one. He’d always been a great skeptic of the prophecy and anything and anyone related to it, and he always made it very clear.

This only confirmed it all, since the arrival of the prophesied chosen one all he had managed to accomplish was bring danger upon them all, he was no hero, he was a Jynx to them all.

For once Cyranos was correct, each time an outsider entered the forest trouble came on their tails, it had occurred many times in history but no one ever learnt, no one defended the forest better despite all the trouble.

Now here they stood, all of them in the room assigned to Adonis waiting for Cyranos to reveal to them all how they were going to solve this problem, another thing Aldon remembered from the other events, each time they got in a mess Cyranos always got them out of it.

Cyranos finally spoke up in his usual obnoxious voice, " Now as I was saying, it is possible to kill these beings using the blood of Adonis." Dominic rose to his feet, standing in front of Adonis he took out his scimitar defending him, " Your not going to lay a claw on him, I won’t let you."

Cyranos rolled his feline eyes, now nothing but a small slit, " Not kill him, Dominic always makes wrong assumptions ahead of time without thinking. If Adonis would be willing to part with some of his blood one could cover their swords with and that would be able to hurt them."

Of all the ideas Aldon had heard this was the stupidest, mortals had no power in their blood, there was nothing special about mortals. How could he be the only hope they had, " How can that be Cyranos? How can his blood possibly hold power here?"

It was evident Cyranos was enjoying this, in normal times he received nothing but scorn. But their lives were on the line and he had all the answers, " To ease Aldon’s doubts, I must first inform Aldon that Adonis was not always the chosen one, Ares was once the chosen one."

They all gasped in shock, Cyranos grinned, " Aye, he was born on the same day as Adonis, over eight centuries before Adonis himself. But he swayed off the path of the chosen one, he became the anti. Many chosen ones were born in between, all failing to meet their goals either ignoring the call or dying."

" Strange its called chosen one, anyway, when Adonis was born the other realm was created of his blood, as some of you may recall, it was on the day of his birth that the began to assault us. The reason for that timing became clear to me, they didn’t exist before that, that was why they were so clumsy, they were newborns."

Adonis was surprised by all of this, so much news all at once. He could not believe Ares had shared the same destiny as himself, what if he turned out bad like Ares, how did Ares turn out bad? And the thought of being a creator of an entire race and not know it, he was a god himself.

As he was about to cut himself Dominic said, " Hold on a minute, who’s blood is on that axe Ado?" Adonis thought for a second at the night of the attack, Jolene had struck Ares in the side with it, the next day it had been covered with his blood.

Dominic seen the answer in the excitement of Adonis’ eyes, grabbing the axe Dominic said, " Let me take care of our little guests, Cyranos, don’t get full of yourself, your not smarter your just older."

Before anyone could protest he walked out of the room, holding the axe over his shoulder. The large realm lizard was patrolling the halls, sniffing the air of what it considered to be an alien world. Suddenly it stiffened, catching a scent showing it was no longer alone. Turning with its long neck it looked back and locked with Dominic’s gaze. Its reptile eyes meeting Dominic’s confident eyes Dominic patted the axe, " Come get some of this you oversized Iguana!"

Right that second it turned 180 degrees, facing Dominic it growled and charged Dominic full speed. Its large jagged teeth oozed with realm essence, the noise resonating like a broken up wolf howl.

Dominic readied his axe when the creature tackled him, sending him to the ground. He quickly got to his feet and hit the creature in between the shoulder blades, the axe lodged in a bone. It howled in pain and shook its head, not expecting this turn of events.

It began to run furiously, Dominic held on and finally getting it dislodged he swung the axe down upon the creature’s long neck like an black masked executioner. The metal cut through the swirling skin, meeting resistance with the alien bones they snapped under the impact, blue fluids bled out of its neck as the head fell hard to the ground.

The dead lizard fell to the ground, squirming even after death the others caught up with him. Ares’ blood had worked phenomenally, the creature was dead at last. Now there was only one to go, suddenly the realm noble walked in, spotting the dead lizard and the prisoners fear filled his body.

How had he managed to kill it, the realm people were invincible in this world and yet the creature was dead, and he could die as well. He vanished into the air, the vortex leaving simultaneously. He would return, and with a much greater force, it was only a matter of time.

Everything began to return to normal, the Queen faced Adonis, " I fear if you remain here any longer your life will be in too much danger, therefore I am sending you off immediately. I shall send Aldon and twenty of his elites to be your personal bodyguards."

Turning to Kulos and Dominic she said, " Bring forth your army to this castle and we shall re-arm them with new weapons and armour. But you cannot stay for long, for the destiny of the world depends on the success of your mission."

With that they departed from the elvish citadel to rejoin the army, Adonis was now filled with more of a sense of importance. He was the chosen one, unlike Ares he would not turn evil, he would follow his destiny and save the world.

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Ares had walked for what would have seemed like days to a normal mortal, but Ares knew it had only been a few hours. Despite the fact he’d lost his sight he had made extremely good progress and had reached a small town of Nitrito.

He knew by the little bit of noise that there was a population, but it was not a large population. There was a distinct aroma of food coming from his left, apples and grains and meats, all in their natural forms, Ares turned and entered the market place.

Two stalls stood in this market place, one man sold corn, fruits, vegetables and meat while the other sold beer. The pungent smell of the alcohol was a disgusting scent, Ares no longer require nourishment but beer had always been disgusting to him.

As he approached the man selling the corn the salesman asked, " And how may I help you today my good sir, the corn is half off." The shopkeeper looked at him strangely, although his eyes were an extremely bright yellow it was evident he was blind. He smiled, thinking he could make a little bit of extra profit that day.

Ares answered, " Yes you may help me, I have not come for mere food however but if you would have a stead or..." He stopped mid-sentence and snatched the hand of a child reaching for his pocket.

Placing his neck between his arm he twisted it 360 degrees, neck snapping leaving a dead stare on the child he threw the child over the stall counter hitting the store owner. The shop owner was appalled at his coldness, " You killed my son! I oughta kill ya where ya stand murderer!"

Ares smiled, showing his sharp teeth, his cold nature being evident in his bright yellow eyes, " And tell me something thief, how do you plan on doing that? Tell me where to find a horse and I will forget this recent transgression, maybe even become your friend. I can be a good friend, but if you try to avenge your son’s death I shall kill you with your own hands."

The man was going to kill him alright, but pretended to co-operate, " I do indeed you lousy bastard! I have a horse at my house, the last house at the outskirts of this town, I could lead you there."

Ares heard the noise of the metal butcher knife being pulled out, Ares smiled at this fool for forfeiting his life in such a manner. As the knife descended upon him Ares grabbed his hands and yanked them off his arms completely.

Blood spurted out, the shop keeper yelled in agonizing pain and terror looking where his hands had once been, the pain burnt through his arms and body like salt over a wound. He began to fell to the ground, Ares jumped on the counter and pulled him up, shoving his hands down his throat, forcing him to swallow them.

The man tried to spit them out with the devotion he had never given to anything else in his life before, the strong urge to puke overtook him. However, even as it formed it could not get out for the hands jammed his throat.

He gasped for air, begging for mercy but none came to him. Life had forsaken him forever, given him up to the grim reaper that was now Ares. As blood began to seep out of his ears Ares yanked the hands out violently, letting the man fall to the ground. Hands out of the way he puked violently, making a large pile upon his chest as his guts followed.

Ares said to the dead man, " Thank you for your assistance" He grabbed an armful of corn cobs he placed them in the pouches for his horse, catching the vigorous smell of horse flesh, he approached it. The saddle was already in place, jumping on the horse he placed the corn in its pouches and rode to intercept Adonis.