The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter VIII
By: Prappies
Finding the souls had been a breeze—not too hard. However, saying that they found the souls would not be the correct word. The souls saw Hestia and attacked her. Hestia and the god spent a few days “finding” and fighting the roaming souls in the Underworld.
…and it wasn’t going so well.
The god had a habit of waiting for the last moment to strike an opponent. When the attacking soul was a hair’s length away from gouging out her eye, the god swung the sword and killed it in one strike.
This did not fare well with the human vessel.
“Idiot!” Are you trying to get me killed?!” She admonished in anger and shock. In her moment’s hesitation and admonishment against the god, just as he sliced one soul in half… the other soul went scattering away.
“This is a practice of trust, m’lady… I am testing your trust for me,” the god said coldly in defense.
“But there has to be other ways to practice trust between us rather than nearly having me killed…!” Argued back Hestia.
“That is a foolish argument, and you know it, child…”
“Child?… so now I am a child for being petrified of death, oh dear god of mine,” she mocked him in complete fury.
“Yes, you are nothing but a mere child. YOU agreed to this quest… and this quest you must see through! You have no choice!”
Hestia flinched. The anger radiating from the god was nothing she could imagine. She felt her heart tighten, as if it were his own, as if she were feeling the physical stress of his anger on her own body. She felt her forehead constrict and her breathing shallow out.
If one of them did not back down, this argument would continue for much longer, ruining what little “trust” stood between them.
So, she decided to take a deep breath.
“Ok, I am sorry. I’ll try to do better,” she conceded.
She felt her heartbeat slow down, and her breathing became normal. The god, too, was calming down. The feeling of his stress began to wane on her own heart. He forced himself to relax much like she was doing.
“Yes… yes… I am sorry I lost my cool with you.”
“No, we have to do this. Come on…” she gripped her sword tightly. She was breathing hard. She had control of her body right now… but after this… she would not lose her head over small, trivial matters.
Hestia stood tall and grinned. The god, noticing a change in her demeanor, laughed harshly. She could feel his new determination from inside of her.
“Ha! This is why I picked you out of the billions of other people. Come on, we have many souls to defeat!”
Of course, both of them quickly realized that it was much easier to talk than it was to do. For all her talk, Hestia struggled not to let fear take hold of her.
“NO! Don’t jump back, you idiot! Give me the wheels! Stop forcing your way into control! I’m in control! You should not be in control!” the god was screeching at the tops of his lungs. Hestia kneeled, dropping her sword. She clutched her head; the screams of the god in her head were too much to bear.
“PICK UP YOUR GOD DAMN SWORD! FOOL!” yelled the god. The woman made no movement.
“I can’t…” said the woman. “I truly just can’t do this… you’re gonna get me killed…”
The god yelled cruel obscenities from inside her head as she fought against his control.
Shut up… can this damned man just shut up…
Hestia felt a throbbing headache form from the god’s boisterous insults. After a while, she gave in to his requests. She felt her arm quickly grab her sword, which had been laying at her knees, and she felt her legs jump up back to her feet.
A screeching soul stood in front of the god and the woman—one singular soul, a new one that had appeared. The soul saw her rise to her feet once more and charged in. Hestia’s arm raised to the side, the grip on the sword tightened.
The soul closed in, and Hestia could feel the god inside her getting ready for the swing. The soul got closer and closer. The god was waiting and waiting for the soul… and when it was in the perfect spot for the god to swing… the god smirked.
And at that precise moment, fear took over the once confident and determined girl, and Hestia closed her eyes.
“YOU GODDAMN..!”
The god tried to back up quickly. But it wasn’t quick enough; the unexpectedness of her closing her eyes made him lose balance. The soul saw a chance of salvation and revenge, and unlike how Hestia had let her chance to hit him go, the soul took full advantage of what had been given to him.
Hestia screamed as the soul’s claws swiped into her front side, leaving behind a deep gash.
She once more dropped her sword. She pressed both hands against the bleeding wound, but even then, the blood continued to leak out. She seethed from the pain.
From the side of her vision, she saw the soul run toward her once more, going in for the kill. Hestia could do nothing but watch and accept her fate as it was.
For the love of the gods… please be quick.
She gasped when she felt something on her back. She turned around weakly to see the furious face of the god.
The god was not looking at her. Much like he had done days before, he reached down and grabbed the sword. He walked in front of her just as the soul came in.
He screamed.
His swing when the beast nearly killed Hestia was what defined grace, calmness, and experience.
The swing he now threw at the soul was experienced, very experienced indeed. But it was neither graceful nor calm.
Instead of graceful, it was rash… instead of calm, the sword was swung, propelled by his anger and rage.
The god’s mouth was fuming, his grip on the sword so tight that Hestia could see his veins, his teeth were bearing, and his eyes were wide.
His swing was so strong and rash that it nearly toppled him off balance. His arms flew up at the same time the soul’s head spiraled into the air. Realizing his mistake, he used his arms to rebalance himself before he could fall over.
The soul’s head landed on the ground with a squishy thud. It was still screaming.
“SHUT UP… FOR THE LOVE OF MY FATHER…SHUT UP!” The god howled at the still-screaming decapitated head of the soul.
The soul quickly snapped its mouth shut.
The god walked over to the now silent head and picked it up. He held the back of the head in his palm, staring down the soul. Hestia could swear she could hear the soul start whimpering silently.
He then clocked his arm back and threw the head back to its body, which laid 20 feet away. The head screamed the entire time it was in the air… Hestia almost felt bad.
The head crashed right on top of its body, and the arms rose from the body’s sides. Hestia saw the arms feel around for a bit, looking for the head. When the hands landed on the head, they picked it up and placed it on the neck. Hestia winced as the hands adjusted the head’s position on the neck, reattaching the head.
When it was done, the hands pushed the body up. The soul stood up and stared at the god, who had been regarding it with a stone cold look.
“Be gone,” the god sneered darkly. The soul ran off in the opposite direction.
Hestia turned to look at the god, who had crossed his arms over his chest. She seemed to be taking continuous, very large breaths. Hestia quickly shrunk in fear. She felt that nothing that she had encountered here in the underworld could come anything close to the fear of the angry god in front of her. She didn’t even see his face. She simply knew she was in for it big time.
The god didn’t turn around for a good two minutes. Hestia hoped that he was content with watching the empty air where the soul had been just minutes prior for the rest of eternity… that sounded like a much better proposition than him turning around and dealing with her.
Of course… no such luck occurred.
When the god turned… Hestia felt a chill down her spine. She looked down towards the ground, choosing anywhere but the eyes of the incredibly enraged god.
She could hear his footsteps near her. He walked with each footstep resonating with a loud thud. Hestia put her hands to her face.
The god stopped uncomfortably close to her, Hestia could see his shoes very clearly even though she was looking straight at the ground.
“And so… here we are…” she heard the god’s voice announce. Hestia failed to hear any emotion from the man. He said those words as if he had no care in the world… but they still managed to send a shiver down her spine.
“Up… get up.”
Hestia felt his words reach her brain, but she failed to do the action.
She then felt something grab the back collar of her shirt and drag her across the underground floor. She squirmed, her knees scraping against the rocky ground. Noticing this, the god lifted her up a little higher.
He continued to drag her until they reached their camp, which the god had put up days before so they could practice their coordination using his godly magic. When they reached, he screamed a sling of curses before throwing her onto one of the tents.
Hestia landed hard on her back, choking on her breath. She cringed from the hard landing.
Before she could react, the god was suddenly in her face, staring her down. He was crouched so that his face was evenly leveled with Hestia’s, who lay on her side using her arm to hold her up.
She sucked in her breath.
“Do you know how long we’ve been doing this for?” He asked through gritted teeth.
Hestia remained silent
“8 days… we have been doing this for 8 entire days…”
Once more, an answer neglected to come out of Hestia’s mouth.
“We have been doing this for 8 days… and have been failing… for 8 days…” At this point, Hestia was scared that the god was slowly losing his sanity.
“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LISTEN… LISTEN TO THE ONE GODDAMNED THING I ASKED OF YOU!” He screamed into her face. Saliva splattered onto Hestia’s face. She didn’t bother to wipe it off of her. Fear immobilized her firmly into her spot.
“You came here to save Wally… but you aren’t willing to do what it takes to get him back. You… are all talk… you have nothing behind the empty words you say… you make empty promises and continuously fail to fulfill them.”
The god, after his little rant, stood up quickly. He walked away from her before he turned his head to her. His body was still facing away from her.
“I have met and interacted with very few humans of his time period… and even in every time period they have been around… but I can say this with full confidence, that you are the definition of ‘scum of the earth.’ I have never seen nor met anyone as pathetic as you.”
And with that, he walked into his tent, leaving Hestia alone to her thoughts.
<–The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter VII The Reviver’s Passage: Chapter IX –>
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