BXBX NOVEL Chapter 87: Arise.
In contrast Eris ran toward the trench in the ground and started preparing [area heal] while her mentor and the other healing mages did the same. "How do we confront something so powerful?" He asked again, trembling from his shoulders down as all will to fight left his body.
"Why...?"
"Ikaris..." Dina wanted to approach her, but her legs had lost their strength, she too was shaking from shock, she would simply fall if she tried to move just yet.
"Why is this happening again?"
"Fuck, I have to check on Sol quickly!" Eris healed another wounded soldier and took off running toward the deepest part of the ditch.
"Eris, we still have wounded here!" Idria called to her, but the girl did not look back even once as she jumped into the crater.
"What did I ever do to have this happen twice?"
"...Dear..." Ikaris blinked and held on to her shoulders as her tears welled up, but before any tears were she\'d Sol crossed her mind again and she wiped her moist eyes and turned to the ditch in the ground. "Sol!" She screamed, taking off in a sprint toward the barrier after Eris where Sol had stopped crashing just before the obelisk in a crater that was so deep water was in the bottom of it.
In that same crater, Sol\'s eyes were glazed over, his face held a vacant lifeless deadpan and his breathing was shallow, he was bedded into the rocks with his arms and legs bent as if he was in a throne of sorts, at his feet there was water, and slowly flowing down his stomach and joining the water there was glowing white blood, lots and lots of it, his entire chest had been caved in, and the shock had been so great that he was still unable to move or even begin to recover.
Ikaris with her vastly superior speed reached first, landing before him and reaching for his face with her own look of terror. "Sol, wake up!" She gently slapped him several times, but nothing, he was still dazed and zombified.
"Ahh." She let out a groan in panic, grabbing his shirt and tearing it the rest of the way open, his heart had exploded, and his lungs were torn completely, had he been human with these injuries he would have died immediately.
"Please," Ikaris\'s body transformed and she hovered her hands above his wounds, but for whatever reason, he was not healing, as if he himself was giving up on life his body rejected the divine healing.
"Sol!" Eris finally arrived after following Ikaris\'s bright display of divine magic seconds earlier, wasting no time as she cast a sphere of emerald magic around him.
[Heal] She paused for a second when she realised that nothing happened and then cast it a second time, a third, a fourth, and yet nothing, the healer held her mouth in horror, he was clearly still alive, his mouth was moving and his body still had slight function, but he wasn\'t healing no matter how much power she put into it.
"Ikaris... What do I do?" She asked, but when she looked at Ikaris she felt a shattering wave of depression, unease and shock as Ikaris\'s eyes were wide, crimson and unblinking, her black hair was flowing around her head, and her teeth were peeled back into a terrifying grimace, she looked even more sinister than the demon-god did.
[I will kill-] Ikaris was about to stand, but then her eyes fell on Sol again and her appearance reverted to that of a human and she fell to her knees again. "N-no, Sol..." She took his arms and pulled them free of the rubble, placing them one on her abdomen and the other on her cheek. "Please... please, please!" She shook against the touch of his cool palm.
"Don\'t leave me alone again, I beg you, wake up, you have a baby in conception, remember, and... I just said yes to marrying you, please!" She tried granting him magic, but the sigils on her body were black and cold, there were no exchanges, mana between the two had been cut off as well. "Darling...no~" Her voice turned into a whisper and then faded entirely as she began speaking inaudibly.
In her throne room, Dr\'ul stood, holding on to the window and staring speechlessly with her mouth agape and her eyes wide in shock.
The pantheon was quiet
The kingdom of Argom had a shadow cast over it, a shadow that spelled doom as they felt the moment all hope vanished from their presence.
In the presence of the queen and princess, Renia had fallen to her knees knocking over their tea and clutching her head as tears slowly flowed down her cheeks.
And in the north, Sitri had a look of disappointment as she watched them through the same system window on her own throne. "Did I kick him too hard?"
The camp fell silent upon Eris\'s return, her face was smeared with white blood, and her tears flowed like a river as she hunched forward with Sol on her back, while Ikaris walked behind them with her eyes shadowed and her hands clasped as she continued whispering inaudible words.
"No... No way," Dina finally moved, and she did so with a blood curdling scream as she rushed toward them. "No, no, no, no!" She repeated the word continuously as she approached, coming to a halt as she stared at Eris, and then at Ikaris before looking at Sol again and holding her fingers under his nose.
No breath.
"This is hardly the time but if Sol dies, I might have a chance with... Wait, no, how can I think of that at such a time?" Han debated with his degenerate thoughts as he stared past the girls and Sol at Ikaris who was physically in a state of complete defeat, from her eyes and how dead they looked, to how her fingers quivered. "No, this is definitelyy chance to comfort her..."
"Ikaris!" Usami ran past everyone else and grabbed Ikaris in a hug, a tight hug and held her for several long seconds before she finally started shaking.
"Don\'t hold it, don\'t fight it..." She rubbed Ikaris\'s back and felt her final walls crumble as she broke into silent tears, and there right next to her in a matter of seconds was Han, hugging the both of them, and Ikaris in her grief accepted the hugs as her hands hung limply at her sides and she cried.
"One strike... Even though he has fought the gods and even defeated them... It took one strike from the demon god," Arla fell on her ass and hugged herself. "It is hopeless, if even master Vestic stood no chance, then what can we ever hope to accomplish?"
"His blood is white... He is a Demigod." Lyra stated, staring at Sol after Eris laid him next to the countless people who had died before the healers could get to them.
The hero did not stand though, she stayed there on her knees with her hands holding his and cried casting heal over and over again despite his clearly lifeless state.
"Maybe I\'ll plea to the demon-god to make me a part of her army, I don\'t want to die like that." One soldier stared at the hole in Sol\'s chest in horror.
"I\'m not fighting anymore," Another threw down her mace and rubbed her head. "What\'s the point of fighting if even this guy who turned out to be stronger than the heroes didn\'t stand a chance, aren\'t we doomed already?" She asked.
"This is terrible, he just found out he\'s gonna be a dad, and he proposed too... It\'s heartbreaking...
I can\'t die like that, I\'m going back to my wife, I at least want to die in the arms of the woman I love!" One more random soldier threw down his weapon but this time the poor man took off running in the direction of Argom, and not just him, several hundred soldiers had already started an exodus to the last standing city, less than half their numbers stood idle and watched everything unfold.
[I believe it is my place to say; I have not seen or collected the soul of Sol Vestic] Another god approached Dr\'ul through a veil of black divine magic, he was hooded from head to toe in a robe that hid his appearance, and in his grasp was a small curved wooden knife with a simple carved sigil on it.
[Azrael: god of death and the afterlife]
[Azrael, what do you mean?] Dr\'ul asked him confused.
[His soul remains tethered to his body, he is by definition dead, but factually speaking, his body still holds the essence of life]
[Sol] Dr\'ul looked at him again, watching as Han held on to Ikaris while the others approached and stood over him with Dina on his other side with her forehead rested against his palm crying her eyes out, an idea spread through her mind and a smile graced her red lips.
{The goddess of war, Dr\'ul, is sending a private message}
[Sol, your time has not yet come, let go of this temporary death and arise, lest your wife and child be defiled at the hand of Han Young] Dr\'ul spoke, and then watched with her breath held.
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