While advancing through Succubi Forest, heading away from the places that had been the ghouls’home once, Gaea kept staring behind Kalimērā, who was only a few meters in front of her, walking side by side with Zorrota, who decided to be always by her side and impede a possible attack of Izkina or of any other ghoul on her, who could have craved for Tomai’s post, once he was dead.
„What kind of being are you, Kalimērā?” Gaea wondered in her head, staring behind the woman, who, even though she killed her husband with her own hand not long ago, managed to keep calm and not even sighed or shed a tear for the dead one.
„You didn’t cry even when Lodur turned the one killed by your hand into ashes, you didn’t even sigh because of lament, just as your hand didn’t shake at all when you grabbed the handle of that sword and turned the defense into attack.”
As if reading the Titanide’s soul, Kalimērā looked back and stared into Gaea’s eyes. The Titanide instead didn’t look elsewhere but straight into the young woman’s eyes, who was touching her round belly, giving some comfort to her baby, with the same hand she used to take a life before this.
And, in that glance, Gaea saw again the child that had lived long ago, in the camp of Siar People, staying by the pyre along with Karina and others, one warm, summer evening while they were happily laughing, singing, and their hands were crafting Dreamcatchers.
Then, the child’s eyes were shining because of happiness, reflecting Hestia’s flames, which were warming their souls, on their black retina and a kind of magic has been also reflected on the innocent soul of the little girl.
„You had had a similar glance then too, you, oppressed soul,” murmured Gaea, something that made Island, who was walking by her side, stare thunderstruck at her. Then Island grabbed the Titanide’s hand, asking her by a glance what she was talking about. The Titanide instead only slowly shook her head, letting him know that she wasn’t eager to talk about this. Then she gently pushed Island’s hand away, that was holding her wrist, and she kept her way in silence while, in front of her eyes, she was seeing the same little girl leaving the camp of Siar People the same night when they made the Dreamcatchers when everybody was already asleep, holding that magical object to her chest. And… that girl approached another girl, that whispered later into her ear that she must show her something interesting and that she should follow her.
And, even if that other girl wasn’t from Siar People, a stranger, the little girl followed her and the two sunk more and more into the depths of the wood. But only Gaea understood who that stranger girl actually was: Parca, under her child shape.
Then, Gaea saw the girl from Siar People inconsolably crying while advancing through Rocu Forest, but not toward the camp, but opposite to it. And when she finally felt that she was lacking power, the girl sat next to the trunk of a big tree, wiped her eyes of tears, and looked at a red squirrel that was somehow spurring the girl to follow it. Thus the girl followed the fluffy animal, forgetting about her sadness, and, while she was following the squirrel, her crystalline voice was heard everywhere: „Ratatosk, wait! Where are you rushing? Wait for me!”
„That’s right, Gaea!” She heard Lodur’s voice, telepathically talking to her. „Who sent Parca that day to Rocu Forest have been Life and Yggdrasil and, with Ratatosk’s help, they saved an innocent soul from being poisoned by the Yātrīkars.”
„But… what happened to her eventually? Where did that innocent child get?”
„In the same village of humans where she has been reborn again like Kalimērā, for her destiny was to give birth to a new ghoul, but these ones will be on the side of good now.”
„Let’s not rush with guessing,” Dike intervened in their telepathic talk. „Even if Tomai is gone, there are still plenty of ghouls that crave for more victims,” the Titan added and, with his arms crossed on his chest, he passed by Lodur and Gaea, heading in a hurry toward the front of the group, which was quickly approaching the edge of the woods, not being aware of what was waiting for them there.
„Dike is right, Lodur! I also think that the ghouls will still fight on two different fronts from now on and for long, for their devilish nature doesn’t allow them to become good and so suddenly,” added Island.
„Not if they are born from humans,” said Gaea, „and now, with Tomai dead, his power was transmitted to Kalimērā's child, the one from her womb. Thus the reincarnation of the evil ones has been interrupted, and… let’s not forget about a mother’s love: it works like a charm while educating a child.” Then Gaea moved further from the two Titans, intending to approach Kalimērā, and read into her eyes what happened to her after that girl left Rocu Forest.
***
Far behind the group of ghouls and of Titans, Sephir and Izkina were walking side by side because, after Tomai vanished like burning ashes blown by the wind, Izkina’s soul calmed a little bit, understanding that even if a period of time of their life ended, there was still a lot to be lived by them till to get at the end of their life.
„What you showed me at the edge of the forest wasn't real, was it?” Izkina asked Sephir eventually.
„Of course, it was really. I just… rushed things a little bit.”
„Did you rush them? How?” The ghoul asked her, confused, stopping and forcing her to stop too after he had grabbed her by arm.
Sephir instead didn’t scare and looked straight into his eyes: „it was the Yātrīkars who should have ended your life and it would have been in this forest, in about 10 days approximately, passing through this forest onto their way back from the Mount of Fear.”
„But… I don’t understand why because Tomai got to an agreement with them.”
„No, Izkina. Tomai made a pact with Moirae, just as it had happened more than 600 years ago when the Virgins of Siar People turned into the Yātrīkars.”
„Did the Yātrīkars born from… humans?”
„That’s right and namely Tomai’s power betrayed you then, and this happened when he forced you to sleep in this forest of shadows and he sent your power to Moirae, like a fire lance, a power used later by Parca to enter the Rocu Forest and deceive the Virgins of Siar People. But… accepting that pact, Tomai had also sentenced you to loss.”
„Yet… we are also lost now,” Izkina hissed through his teeth. „With Tomai’s death, the ghouls…”
„Have a new chance to survive, for… being born from humans now, your children are free of Moirae's curse, those who broke the word given to Tomai when they signed that pact. That’s why you've killed the females of your tribe with your own hands and cursed your soul to eternal reincarnation thus. But, you see, everything has an endpoint in this world, like a start one too.”
„I don’t understand what you mean,” Izkina said sadly.
„I talk about the tiredness of the soul, about the desert that started to take over you, for, taking its natural gift, the one of having a natural course: birth, life, and death, your soul opted for self-destruction and, because of this, Moirae intended to end with your lives.”
„But… it’s insane what you say. How can the soul, which isn’t more than a simple substance, decide something like this like influencing someone’s Fate?”
„And… how do you explain then the fact that Tomai has been so easily killed by a woman, even though he had a huge power and could easily prevent Kalimērā’s attack?”
„Coincidence?!”
„No! Love!”
Izkina smiled: „Love? Of a ghoul for a woman?”
„No. Tomai never loved Kalimērā, just as she has never had feelings for him. But when the two became husband and wife, even if it has been a forced union, Tomai’s soul started to love itself again and that’s why it did everything to be reborn under a different face, like Kalimērā’s child, even if this meant to forget what it lived like Tomai. Anyway, I don’t intend to convince you of anything. I only told you what I think, as I think that you are the only ones able to choose your Fate.” Then Sephir kept her way, leaving Izkina in the same place, staring like an idiot at a blind point - the vision of his own body turning to ashes after he had been defeated on the battlefield.
***
„Back!” Boor gave the command in a whisper when he saw the black clouds gathering in one place in the sky, forming a kind of stairs, as if those clouds have been sacks with corn, put one on top of the other, but in reverse.
„What’s this?” asked Āṇmai also in a whisper while being to Boor’s right and he slowly put his hand on the handle of his sword, squeezing it. „Is this that Maranam?”
„It doesn’t seem so! I’m more tempted to say that's one of his fellows. Who instead: we’ll find out soon,” answered Boor, taking his sword out of the scabbard. „And remind me next time not to jinx, for it seems that I had had a bad thought when I said that this will be a damn long night,” Boor added, unhappily grinning.
Āṇmai smiled instead because what Boor said was like a child’s excuse told to his parents when he has been caught doing something bad, for God wasn't a believer in fairy tales, more in superstitions.
„Did I say something comic?” asked Boor, confused and a small notch appeared between his eyebrows when he frowned.
„Nothing. Just a thought that crossed my mind. Nothing important,” Āṇmai rushed to answer. But he did this not to calm down the spirits, but because it wasn’t the right time for long talks. „It’s started!” The soldier said, taking also the sword out of its scabbard when he saw that stair made from paunchy clouds, that started from the sky and ended on earth, suddenly cracking because of the thunderlights that were piercing it like blades of fire swords.
Then, everywhere, on the bodies of those purple-to-black clouds, that seemed to be formed from thick smoke gathered in groups, they saw eyes, like the one Mayar often saw in her inner world: the eye of her mind. But those eyes were at the same time different from her eye because, instead of the yellow and green, the abyssal dark from its center was seen, with a huge flame reflected on their invisible retina, and where should be the eyeball, it was colored into a dark red, something that made them seem a huge zig-zag if someone had had a bad idea to consider those eyes as being contour points.
„Parca!” Boor suddenly hissed through his teeth, seeing the reflection of the Titanide of Fate blinking in that sparkle of thunderlights. „How didn’t I think about this before?! Expectedly, she had to be here, more being aware of her love for these lovers of blood, named ghouls.”
Boor’s words made Parca hysterically laugh instead, something that made the surroundings deafeningly resound. Then she has been seen approaching Boor and the rest of the soldiers while she was slowly advancing through a kind of Portal, that appeared on those stairs of clouds.
„Interesting hobbies do you have, great Boor,” Parca ironically said. „To be honest, I didn’t expect to be received so well: rolling out the red carpet,” and she laughed again, for, seeing the frightened faces of the soldiers, she considered that battle an easy cake to eat.
But… surprise: Boor widely smiled, seeing her happiness, and that smile made Parca alert, not understanding at all what was going on.
„A surprise you say, huh?!” said Boor. „Rolling out the red carpet?! Well, I won’t deny that I thought about this when I heard that we’ll have an important visit tonight. But… I make a pardon for this meager receiving, with no bread and salt, for… being far away from our home, we didn’t have woods and a stove to bake it.”
„What are you planning?” asked Parca, piercing the God with her glance and forcing herself to read his mind.
„You’ll see!” said Boor, turning his face toward his soldiers, kindly talking to them, even if it was a command: „you can relax now! Our visit isn’t as important as I thought!” And, as if they were dolls on a big screen, Boor’s soldiers took a normal standing position, but still with a tough and serious glance, something that they got from those many fierce battles they've crossed in the past. And… their faces of „ui… we are so scared of you,” which Parca saw at first, was just a strategy of Āṇmai to confuse her before attacking them.
„So, a trick, huh?!” Parca ironically said. „Then… allow me to use one too!” She added and, when she snapped her fingers, hundreds of Parca exited that Portal and lined up behind the Titanide, like a fierce and skillful army.
But her trick seemed not to be something to amaze someone, for not even a single muscle moved on Boor’s face or on those of his soldiers.
„Are you all here?!” said Boor in mockery when the Portal has been suddenly closed, a sign that all Parca’s copies crossed over its threshold.
„Aren’t they enough?” Parca said, also in mockery. „If it’s not clear for you, I’ll tell you a secret: one single Parca is like ten,” and, as an answer, Boor made a wry face, a hint that he wasn’t at all convinced.
„We’ll see them in battle if they are so worthy as you say,” added Boor, making another sword appear in his other hand, and he squeezed both handles, slowly rotating the swords through the air and taking an attack position.
But… Parca seemed not to rush to attack them… as if she was waiting for someone while her glance was focused toward the woods, even if she tried not to allow others to catch her discreet glance.
Āṇmai’s keen glance instead caught her glance toward the forest, past his soldiers, and he also looked over there. „She’s waiting for the Titans!” He whispered, and this sketched an ironic smile on Boor’s face.
„Let her wait then! Thus, she gave us the chance to have our backs protected!” And Boor took a normal standing position, waiting too.
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But Boor’s movement hasn’t been a clever one or calculated, for Parca’s glance toward the forest was only a trick and, with a sudden jerk of her arms, Parca threw, toward Boor and his army, a thick smoke like the one used to form the Portal of clouds.
Even so, that smoke hurt nobody, for Boor, holding Imagus in his hand, formed a small tornado, which rotated the smoke into a funnel, to later turn it into a hurricane, which Imagus’s breathing moved in the distance, sweeping everything it met in its way - herbs, dead leaves, even broken branches.
„Ah, I forgot who I’m dealing with!” Parca hissed through her teeth, moving her head from one side to the other. „That’s alright! I make a pardon: my bad!” And, in the hands of all her copies, lances, similar to the one used by Tomai in the fight with Dike, appeared, and those few hundred Parca took an attack position too, moving in a single rhythm.
Boor instead made a wry face, seeing that movement, for what Boor hated the most was to fight against fakes. So, without waiting for Parca’s game to end, Boor raised his hand up, and the last line of soldiers prepared their arrows and bows, pointing to the sky.
„An attack?” asked Parca in mockery, seeing God’s movement. „I expected a defense! But… be as you wish!” And she has been the first one who ran toward the army of the God of Winds, closely followed by her fighters.
„Attack!” shouted Āṇmai when he saw Boor’s squeezed fist, a sign that it was time, and a rain of arrows passed above the soldiers, heading toward Parca’s army.
When the arrows hit the target and entered the body of a few fighters, they right away turned into smoke. A few seconds later instead, they revived, right into the middle of the soldiers, forcing them to defend themselves with their swords.
But… no matter how much didn’t the swords bit from Parca’s soldiers's smoky bodies, those fighters seemed to be immortal. They even started to multiply, and so quickly, threatening the soldiers with destruction while being much more than they were.
„Be careful with the blows! Don’t lose the rhythm! Attack!” Āṇmai kept yelling, encouraging his fellows and protecting himself, in a fierce battle with those weird beings, someone they'd never met before and who they had no idea how to defeat.
The only ones who weren’t fighting were Boor and Parca, who were standing a few meters away from each other, staring with hatred at the opponent while the battle became even harsher than before around them, with each blow of wind made by Imagus.
***
„Shhh!” Izkina suddenly shouted, raising his right hand up and giving the signal to the others to stop.
The ghouls, feeling blood smell everywhere, started to sniff the horizon and rub their palms together while looking everywhere to find the source of food. But… around, was only green grass, bushes, and trees sunken into darkness.
„What’s going on?” Kalimērā asked Zorrota, looking around, but even if she wasn’t afraid of those weird sounds heard all over, yet, she didn’t know what to do: neither to defend herself nor to protect others.
Zorrota said nothing instead. He only crossed his arms on his chest, with squeezed fists, closed his eyes, and sent the eye of his mind to the edge of the forest. But the image of the void quickly turned back to him, and this amazed him a lot, for it has never happened before.
„Tomai’s effect!” Sephir told them, passing by them and hurrying toward Dike, who was stopped a few dozen meters in front of them, along with Island, Lodur, and Gaea.
„Tomai’s effect? What the hell is this?” asked Zorrota, confused.
„It means that dead the captain, the war is dead too,” Izkina snarled, catching up with them.
Zorrota instead only glanced at him with hatred, showing him his sharp fangs, a hint that he would have been delighted to taste Izkina’s throat. But they have been forced to end their stupid fight, seeing Kalimērā’s reproachful glance focused on them. So, they took a few steps back, gnashing their teeth and swallowing their hatred and pride, keeping it for „later,” for each of them was more than sure that it’ll be a „later” to make the other one pay for something.
„Parca has attacked!” Dike told the other Titans when Sephir was only a step from them. „But this time is something weird at her.”
„Weird? Like?” Island inquired.
„The Yātrīkars!” Gaea answered when she turned back from her short teleportation to the edge of the woods, where she saw the fight between Boor and Parca’s army while they were standing in the middle of the fierce fight, lurking on the other one like the cat and the mouse. „Parca’s army is formed from ghosts. But… where she took them from… I can’t say. Just: they don’t seem to be after us or kneel the People of Ice. They are looking for something else!”
„Something else?” Dike asked, confused. „Like?”
„Transforming other Virgins into Yātrīkars,” intervened Lodur, calmly saying each word.
„But Parca didn’t think well who she attacked,” said Sephir. „There’s no virgin here to take her body after chasing her soul away.”
„Are you sure?” Gaea asked her, staring into her eyes, and, after a few seconds, Sephir looked at Kalimērā and the other women.”
„The children!” murmured Sephir and, unwillingly, she shuddered.
„That’s right! To perfect her creation, Parca needs bodies made from flesh and blood, and the most suitable for this is the body of an innocent child,” said Gaea.
„And… for this, they need the ghouls’s children because they have, flowing through their veins, the great power of a famous People of Hunters, the most feared one actually on these lands,” murmured Lodur.
„Let’s them try,” Zorrota hissed through his teeth, squeezing his fists, and intending to go to the edge of the forest. He stopped, however, feeling Kalimērā’s hand touching his shoulder.
„Wait, Zorrota! This isn’t that simple!” The woman said. „Even though I would like to turn back time and have nothing to do with you, yet, I’m a mother now and I must think about my child, even if I don’t like to know whose body he’ll be born from.”
„Kalimērā is right,” said Lodur. „Parca must be defeated before getting these young women and forcing them to follow her, for, if they get the ghouls’s power too, then we’ll be at a loss.”
„Then… let us show them what the famous ghouls are capable of,” said Izkina, showing his fangs.
„No. It’s better to let them behind us,” Gaea confidently said, taking them all by surprise.”
„To let them behind? What the hell are you talking about?” shouted Izkina. „They are our women and our children! Our bodies! How to let them behind us?”
„Then, do you prefer to lose everything without the possibility to fight against Parca and Maranam?” Gaea told him harshly, staring at him. „Anyway, even if we leave them behind, they won’t be unprotected, for… we’ll use the same trick we'd used to imprison Mannar and hide him from the world’s glance.”
„The black magic used in Succubi Forest will kill us all,” said Island, afraid. „Let’s not forget that this forest has been created by the blowing of the underworld once, from the winds that serve Savaṉṉā. This wind is…”
„…the most feared one from the three uncontrolled winds by Boor or Sephir. But… Gaea is right: a cell, similar to the one inside of which Mannar is closed, will be perfect to protect them from falling prey to Parca’s madness,” said Lodur.
„But, brother, if not to use Black Magic, then… how will you create another Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi… here, on Earth?”
„By using Ionas, Dike!” said Lodur. „Not for nothing Shiman gave you this sword: it was Hestia’s idea, the one who saw this moment, for one of Ionas’s functions, besides being in your service, is the one to protect the innocent souls wished by Maranam. So, it'll be enough to join our power with Ionas’s power to make that cell.”
„But you forget one thing,” said Kalimērā. „In that cell, they can die because of hunger, for… being closed, they won’t have the chance to eat and…,” she kept silent instead, seeing Sephir smiling.
„Per contra: they won’t feel the hunger there, inside of Ionas’s cell, for each of those found inside of the bubble of this magic sword doesn’t feel the passing of time, hunger, or thirst, just as he or she doesn’t feel the fear. Thus, they’ll be safe, hidden right in the depths of Succubi Forest.”
„There’s no time to waste!” Gaea harshly said. „Boor and the rest of our army need help, Dike and, soon, another trustful ally will join Parca in that fight to help her to fulfill her madness. Meanwhile, I and Lodur, with the help of Ionas and Sephir, will finish what we’ve planned and, later, if it’s still necessary, we’ll join you in the battle.
„But, Gaea, you forget that Dike can be vulnerable without Ionas,” said Island.
„Not if he has Kuasa with him,” and, saying this, Gaea took her sword from her girdle and threw it to Dike, who grabbed it on the fly.
Then Dike released Ionas, which slowly flew toward Gaea, and, after that, the Titan headed toward Succubi field while the fierce noises of the fight were heard around them.
Right behind him was Island, followed by Izkina, who motioned to the other ghouls to follow him immediately.
„Let’s go, Queen Kalimērā!” Zorrota told the woman, who was staring at her comrades in suffering, who were looking at her, frightened, for they didn’t know what was going on or why they were left behind.
Yet, Kalimērā went away when she heard Gaea’s voice whispering into her ear, even if the Titanide didn’t use her lips for talking. „It’s time to turn back to your people, child! The times of wandering are gone, and, for the Fate of these souls don’t be afraid, for they’ll be safe.”
But, even if she was heading in the opposite direction, dragged by Zorrota to follow him, who grabbed her by the wrist, Kalimērā kept staring behind her, seeing how Gaea, Lodur, and Sephir formed a kind of isosceles triangle while sitting in three different places, face to face, while Ionas was vertically floating in the middle of the ghouls’s women, who were forming a circle, at Gaea’s spur. Then Kalimērā saw, how from the hands of the two Titans and of Sephir, the projection of an illuminated cell was taking form, and the blue power of Ionas unified it, creating the famous cell.
***
With a precise hit of the right hand while he was squeezing, with his left hand, the handle of a second sword he kept at his back, Boor managed to stay against Parca’s unexpected attack, who wasn’t using only one fire lance, but 3. Yet, even if he threw them away, hitting them with the sword, Boor didn’t manage to break them, and the lances, controlled by Parca’s power, jerked in the air, from off the ground, and lined up between him and the Titanide, with their top headed toward his chest.
„Now it’s better,” said Parca, cunningly smiling. But when she suddenly pushed her hands in front, to send those lances toward Boor and force them to pass through his body or at least to hurt him, she saw in amazement how the two crossed swords in front of God forced her lances to stay in place.
„What devilish thing is this?” The Titanide furiously shouted, a roar that actually made not only the ears of the soldiers, sensible at sounds, buzz, but also of her copies, who stopped fighting for a few seconds. „Something devilish is floating around!” She snarled, carefully staring around. Then, as if she smelled that somewhere was burning, she started to sniff the horizon. However, a punch in her nose made her turn upside down, landing on all four. „Hestia!” She eventually growled, gnashing her teeth and staring with hatred in front.
At first, Parca saw only how a fire fist was outlining in front of her, to later see a huge pyre under that fist that seemed to float in the air, and only then did Parca see the body of the Titanide of Fire outlining from the flames.
„Good Shot!” Hestia bragged, admiring her squeezed fist, and this made Boor smile and relax a little bit. „What do you think, dear nephew, do I still have enough power to fight? Even after millennia of burning in flames, I can still punch someone’s nose and damn bad, from one shot!” And Hestia beautifully smiled, with her red-like-fire lips.
„Playful as always!” murmured Boor, smiling. But his left hand suddenly jerked in the air, grabbing one of Parca’s copies by the throat, who approached him too much. „Didn’t anybody ever tell you that your mouth stinks?” The God hissed through his teeth! „Go and clean your teeth first!” And, from one single movement, that body turned into smoke when he twisted her neck… just a little bit, by the way.
Soon instead, three Parca showed up not that far from him, taking a body from the smoke of the one killed by Boor. „Ah, Parca, you never learn!” Boor furiously hissed through his teeth and tightly grabbed the handles of the swords, preparing for the attack.
But he stopped instead, hearing a strange rumble around as if the entire world has been set on fire and not only the flames under Hestia’s soles. And when he looked at her, he saw Hestia so calm, blowing warm air over the flames that were dancing around her fist, intensifying their rhythm.
„Aaaa,” Parca shouted with hatred, pouncing on Hestia.
But her reckless movement made Hestia rush toward her, carrying her pyre after her, for, being cursed, Hestia couldn’t leave those flames and barefoot step on earth anymore. Thus, she could touch only the earth on flames or her pyre. But she decided not to be reckless and wisely use her huge power. That’s why, in time, she learned to fight even if she was forced to drag that pyre, from which she was forming her body, after her.
Thus, face to face, Hestia and Parca grabbed the other one by the throat, squeezing it and, pushing the rival with the other hand, they were trying to destroy her But… when two equal forces fight, there’s no place for compromise.
Soon instead, Boor has been forced to move his glance from off the two Titanides grabbed in the fight when he heard, all around him, burning wood cracking, as if huge logs have gotten life in the sweet embracement of the fire and, everywhere, all over Succubi Field, hundreds of small pyres, like Hestia’s, showed up.
„Tineimu!” (the fighters of fire) Āṇmai feverishly murmured, seeing how, from those pyres, Hestia’s soldiers took form, all of them having their eyes closed at that moment, waiting for being perfected from flames.
„Everybody to the shelter!” Boor suddenly shouted, understanding Hestia’s plan. „To the edge of the woods! Now!” And he has been the first one to leave the battlefield, running with his back toward the forest and trying not to be attacked by Parca’s fighters thus.
But, even if those smoky ghosts followed the People of Ice, intending to finish what they’d started, Parca’s copies didn’t catch up with Boor’s soldiers, for if they were taking a step in front, more and more pyres appeared in front of them and, very soon, they saw themselves caught in a round trap, a circle of pyres in flames and, inside of that circle, was seen a kind of labyrinth, like the one created by the Cretan architect Dedal, where the legendary Minotaurus lived.
„Mighty fine view,” a ghoul hissed through his teeth, seeing that apocalyptic view of hundreds of Parca, surrounded from everywhere by Tineimu.
But a punch in his nose threw him away, making him turn upside down and when the ghoul furiously looked at the one who dared to punch him, he saw Island threatening him with his fist, a hint that he approached the Titan too much, breathing with his stinky breath right in his nose. Yet, even if the ghoul badly wanted to scratch the Titan’s back and teach him some manners thus, he gave up on the idea when Izkina suddenly appeared in front of him, snapping his fingers, a hint that the scratched back could be his if he couldn’t stay still.
Even so, the ghoul was right: the view of Succubi Field was really impressive, if not terrifying, for Tineimu and Parca’s fighters, grabbed in a fight, seemed mystical creatures carved in smoke and flames while hitting with swords, lances, and other weird objects appeared from nowhere in their hands. Others instead were fighting with empty hands with their enemy. Yet… the fight didn’t finish even when Lodur, Gaea, and Sephir joined the others. Per contra: it seemed that that battle has just started while the whole field was burning in flames, covered by the black thick smoke of Parca’s fighters that fell prey to the fury of Tinemu’s fighters.
***
The dawn slowly appeared on the sky's vault, which was still covered by black clouds, making that morning seem like a huge sunset in fact.
But that sensation of weirdness was even more outlined by the black, thick smoke that kept spreading all over, moved from behind by the winds controlled by Boor and Sephir, who decided this eventually only to give nature a chance to breathe fresh air, at least a little bit.
And that light blowing of wind dispersed the smoke, revealing, one by one, the Titans’s faces, with Dike and Lodur in front, with Sephir and Island walking side by side with Kalimērā, Zorrota, Āṇmai, and the rest of the ghouls, led by Izkina, who were right behind the group, and their bodies, that appeared and disappeared in that smoke, made them seem like weird creatures, that came there from the underworld.
Still, on that field, where she eventually defeated Parca and her fake soldiers, Hestia smiled, carefully looking behind those that were moving further and further onto that field of pain, and her lips murmured in a whisper: „there will be better times to meet you, my brothers! This war isn’t over, just as it didn't start yet, and my help will be always welcome, like my fighters Tineimu’s, those born from my breathing to defend this earth. Take care of yourself! Take care of Life!”
After this, Hestia blew some warm air in front and her body turned into flames, just as it appeared, and the same did her fighters, who disappeared one by one, leaving a lot of pyres still burning on that huge field, like a testimony of the recently finished fight, but also like a symbol of protecting those lands, informing evil that it can’t pass over there, for it will be meant to die eventually if it does this.