World Unknown

Ares now gone Jolene was now alone, facing Adonis and Cyranos she was amazed at how things could change so quickly. Ares/Symbolsian had put up a hell of a fight, the corpse of Athena still lay in front of her with an emotionless face, eyes staring right at her.

How could a goddess die, they had survived Kronos, they had survived war after war but Ares/Symbolsian had managed to kill her in his last moments of free rage, she felt like killing them all now. They were not worthy of the thrones they sat upon, once again Ares/Symblosian had taught her a new lesson, the most important lesson of all.

Not even the gods were permanent, even they could die. All one had to do was become more powerful than them, if the gods could die than anyone could die, everyone and anyone was fair game. Dark Fairy spoke at last, " Quite an interesting advisor, now as promised you choose the fate of these two armies."

"You realise if they engage in battle they will all die, if they remain on the island they will die. So choose now." The frozen image of the two charging armies filled the wall again, Jolene walked closer examining all the faces and emotions.

She smiled, " Aye, here is something interesting. The sevenfold, other than myself, send them off the island on a fast sail ship, not only away from this island, away from Eradonia completely to a new land."

Dark Fairy laughed at this, thinking it was a joke. But realising she was serious she continued, " You mortals are so random, very well. But first, you know what comes next so if you would both come with me we’ll let you choose your weapon of choice." Before continuing she said, " Cyranos, we won’t need you anymore. But for your services, is there anything you’d like in return?"

Looking around he simply grinned showing his sharp cat teeth, as though reading his mind she replied, " Aye, thought so. I suppose you have been punished long enough for your transgressions, this might hurt a bit, here’s some clothes."

Tossing some clothes beside him he fell to his side meowing in pain as his fur began to fall off his body, showing the gross lumpy pink skin that hid under the beautiful orange coat. Stretching out he began to metamorphosis, skin turning into human flesh his body formed into a muscular elf torso.

Short cat legs looking strange on him the began to change into elf arms, first the arms and then the paws growing into large palms with fingers in them. The last change, his head, finally caught up with the rest of him returning him to his glorious old self. Long straight white hair going down to his mid back he rose to his feet, piercing green eyes with a well structured face, he was indeed handsome as he claimed to be.

Putting on the new clothes he looked at his hand, moving his fingers he said, " Aye, its hard to believe one can miss fingers that badly. I hate talking in the third bloody person, its a gibbering cat thing. Now if you’ll all excuse me, I need to be going."

Teleporting him out of the temple she turned her attention to the new table that was now there, Jolene and Adonis admired the two weapon belts with the weapons of choice. One belt had two horizontal sheaths on each side containing 75 cm long Scramsax blades. The other belt was a falchion on the right and a spatha on the left.

Jolene smiled at this, she’d been trained in the use of virtually every bladed and blunt weapon on the face of Eradonia, as good as swords were daggers were always the best weapon to use in a one on one duel such as this one. Picking up the belt with the daggers she placed it on.

Feeling her Coronian Empire armour she walked into the dark half, daggers drawn awaiting Adonis. He looked up at her, looking at his armour he suddenly remembered a key part of the armour set, something that would finish it all. Pulling the mask out of his belt he looked it over, he’d been hesitant of wearing it because of the malice it contained.

However he had a feeling it would help him more than it would hurt him, placing the mask on it fused with his face, spreading like a million snakes across his skin. As he fell to the ground the intense pain spread as well as the new source of power, fully covered something unexpected occurred.

A voice came into his head, it was Ares’ voice, " Ah, its about bloody time you use the gift I gave to you back in the golden forest, a small part of me remained in this mask and now a small part of me is in you." Getting back to his feet Dark Fairy seemed surprised, " Nice make over, now put on the belt and lets get this party started."

"Now let me take hold for now, My power will be limited but I will make sure you win this fight, I have confidence you will make the right choice when you win, make your choice."

Adonis/Ares stared at her, smiling arrogantly he said, " When my full self escapes one again, we will be coming for you." Placing the belt on he walked to the dark side of the room, swords drawn he faced Jolene.

Not giving her a second’s notice he went into motion, falchion swinging ahead in a demi circle motion he rolled forward, blocking both daggers. They both glared at each other and Jolene seen it in his eyes, it was no longer her brother, the moment he’d placed that mask on his face her brother had died, in his place was a new monstrosity.

Although it was very small, there was a small yellow speck in the dead centre of his ice blue eye pupil , with time it would spread. She did a back flip, dodging an attack by barely a fraction of an inch.

Before she could regain her defensive posture she was kicked down to the ground, hitting an invisible barrier that separated the dark half from the green half of the chamber, sending her forward with an electric jolt.

All her training thrown out of the window, she bounced right into the falchion, the tip of the sword emerging from her back. As blood spurted out of her mouth she looked at him with sadness, she had lost everything. But she had always had her brother, and she had driven him away.

She had killed everything she knew and loved, she’d killed her innocence, she’d killed children and families, she’d killed her family. She smiled with relief, the pain was oozing out of the open wound, her memories of her life evaporating like gas as the blade was pulled out.

She fell to the ground, putting her hand to the open bleeding wound she looked at it, Adonis/Ares walked over her and said, " I bet your sorry you didn’t accept me back when we first met for the first time, now you will die."

Rather than replying with an oath for revenge she muttered, " Please forgive me" she let out her last breath, life leaving her eyes Adonis/Ares turned to Dark Fairy and said, " Now for the moment of truth, what do I do to bring forth the end of the world as I know it?"

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The ocean was extremely violent that day, rowing hard Mal cursed and said, " Maybe this ain’t such a good idea, ever occur to ya that maybe that elf lady left us back in this piss poor excuse of a town for a reason, because we’re not fighters."

Jacob smiled, " Its just a gut feeling I’ve got. Actually I just wanted an excuse to get off the bloody island, I just have a feeling something bad is going to happen." Putting his back against the large crate filled with army supply food he said, " Besides, we got enough food to last us an entire month."

Suddenly the barge began to rock violently from side to side as the waves got larger. Looking back at the island Jacob said, " Holy fajita! Mal, look at that!" As they held on with their lives as the entire continent side began to crumble into pieces.

Filling with large cracks they could hear shrill screams of panicking people, many merchant ships to leave from port only to be hit down by large rubble. Buildings began to fall into newly born chasms, landing with loud splashes inside the ocean. In less than five minutes all the sea front part of the city had crumpled down to nothing but rumble.

Rowing faster while barely keeping the barge afloat Jacob held the food crate down, ocean finally settling down they looked back in complete and utter shock. Not only had the town fallen to the sea, but as far as the eye could see Eradonia was crumbling down into the sea, creating a new island of pure rock.

That was all the world Mal knew, and he’d never even explored that small bit, never got out of his small region to explore the small world of Eradonia. Now it would be gone, facing Jacob he asked, " What the hell was that all about, did we piss off the gods or something? All I gotta say is I owe ya one buds, do you know what’s out in the ocean?"

Jacob looked forward at the bright glaring sun he replied, more to himself than to Mal, " A whole new world I reckon, I’m outta a job here, and I don’t think you will have much to do so how bout we just head straight toward the sun, and hope to the gods there is something out there."

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Adonis/Ares smiled as the destruction of Eradonia was shown on the wall. Houses became nothing bur rubble, castles and mansions of great beauty falling victim to destruction just as easily as small huts of hay.

No more Royal Kingdom, no more Coronian Empire. They were off to a new start, Queen Tania was dead and the Emperor were dead, and he felt good that he was the one responsible for all this destruction. Speaking from behind him Dark Fairy said, " Ares I see, or more like a remnant of Ares. Nice move, you knew all of this would happen."

Adonis/Ares turned in a theatrical fashion, mirror like face in a large grin, " Aye, I wasn’t expecting myself getting arrested but the moment I wore that mask I became part of it, anyone who wears it I become a part of. So Ares still lives, and Ares still gets his victory."

The view suddenly changed from the once flourishing, magical land of Eradonia and focussed on a new place, a grandiose city of beauty and marvels unlike any he’d ever witnessed before. Men and women walked around the city wearing togas holding scrolls at their side talking about war campaigns and the next coliseum event. Dark Fairy said, " Meet your new home, meet Rome. This is the modern world, humans only, there is magic but no one to access it, making it a utopia"

" No chaos, there is war with metal and brains but not with magic, this is how Eradonia could have been like if not influenced by magic, the culture is at its highest in this new world. There is not only Greece, but whole new continents filled with new joys and mysteries to unravel."

Adonis/Ares smiled at the sight, it was at this moment Dark Fairy said, " Now leave this place, this island will always stand and will be forever hidden from all, even yourself. Go and see this new world, I recommend you take that mask off for the moment." Mask removed he was back to normal.

The mask had lost its power, having accomplished its purpose it was now nothing but a decoration, the small remnant of Ares was free in this world, Adonis tried to fight the little voice inside the head, not believing that he was responsible for the death of over a billion people he was teleported out of the temple.

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It had been so confusing, they had been minutes from killing each other in a medley of blades and magic when suddenly they’d been transported onto this simple sail boat, wind pushing them in the direction of the sun.

Cyranos was with them as well, in his elf form they all turned to him, " Let me explain it all, Adonis lost the trial of knowledge and therefore it must be that Jolene has risen victorious. And yes, the punishment was lifted from me."

As he was about to be attacked with a flurry of questions Adonis suddenly appeared sitting beside him, looking around confusedly, Dominic asked, " Maybe you’ll have a good explanation for this, what did you do you human idiot!"

Adonis looked in back of him and said, " I don’t know, all I can tell you is we are heading for a whole new world, I just hope we’ll find our place in it." They all went silent, pondering those words and the destruction of Eradonia, heading for a new future in the unknown distance ahead of them.