We had been riding on the chariot for the last two days. We had passed through the snow fields with ease and already a lot of the desert. Lory held my hand, she was restless. The same goes for me. We just wanted to be in time to safe Haley. Funk had raised the point that we had not gotten any messages from her again. And that worried me a lot. Maybe it is hard to get a message out, something bad could have happened.

Or perhaps, she is already dead, and we are just trying to save a corpse. I let out a deep sigh, it is best not to let such grim thoughts enter my mind. Abby has been sleeping a lot lately, presumably to preserve energy, while she is not having decent meals to convert into energy. This golden chariot with two horses that drove us would save us some time.

While I had my eyes closed, suddenly something hit our chariot, and we all flew through the sky. I landed with a loud thump in the desert sand. As I slowly got up, I saw Lory in the distance had landed safely. Funk seemed to be cursing as sand fell out of his shell that had been regrowing. Out of the ground came two hands, someone dug her way out, a woman grunted as she shook off sand, she had a long dress, one side white, and the other black.

I gasped, “I killed you.”

Melin brushed off her dress, “I am the ghost queen, idiot, what did you think that I would stay dead? Hades is my fucking father.”

“Well, yes, I thought you would stay dead.”

She chuckled, “I am still going to kill your friends and make immortal slaves out of them.”

She shot two beams with skulls in them at the horses, they started changing, morphing and splashed together. It formed a gigantic demon like monstrosity.

It grew ten times bigger, and I did not even have words to properly describe it. This monster had four gigantic arms, as black as the night, a white body, looking at it, made my vision blur, as if it could make me insane if I kept looking at it. I just stared at it, I felt my mind filling with insanity. Someone slapped me, I looked at Abby. “Don’t look at it too much, it is going to drive you nuts. You handle the woman, I will handle the demon.”

Abby ran towards the demon and flew forward, they launched far away and they started trading blows. I looked at Melin, she smiled, “what is that thing even doing, traveling and helping you?”

She shrugged and drew a long slender blood colored blade. I ran at her as I drew a red blade, and she easily twirled aside from my slash. She just smiled at me, “I am still angry at you for rejecting me, not many men can do that, I am just, so lonely.”

Lory ran my way and shot energy beams at Melin, she started to deflect them. Funk came my way. Melin wanted to punch him, but her fist stopped in front of Funk. “Really? That is just my luck.”

Both Lory and I looked at Funk. He smiled, he punched her in her face, full on. She grunted, “That is nasty, I am not allowed to punch you, but you can punch me? Stupid universal laws!”

Lory and I charged at Melin, and we started trading blows. As one of my hits was about to land, she turned into mist. The mist bashed into Lory and she flew away. She ran after Lory, I looked at Funk, “Go help Abby.”

He nodded and ran her way. Then I chased after the mist. When I found them, they both looked like Lory, and they were trading blows. They ended up in a bind. One of them called out, “Help me, Steve.”

I looked at the other Lory, “No, help me, I am the real one, she is the faker.”

Captain spoke up inside of me, “One of them is an illusion, you know Lory very well, Melin might have seen things in your mind, but she does not know everything.”

I nodded, I understood what I had to do. I drew my sword, “Hey, Lory’s?” They both looked at me, “There is a spaghetti tiger next to you!”

One of them answered, “How is there a restaurant?” while the other responded, “What is a spaghetti tiger?”

I threw my sword at the one that asked about what a spaghetti tiger is. It hit her left arm and white and black blood streamed out. Lory managed to end the bind and kick her to the ground. She chuckled, “Nice trick, Steve.”

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I shrugged, “I felt like that was the best thing to do.” Melin started waving her hands a huge dark fist hit me, and Lory, she got launched, and I got smacked to the ground.

I tried to grab my red sword, darkness waved it away and grabbed my arm. Melin walked over, now looking like Haley. She adjusted her sword and put her bare feet on my chest. She sighed, “What a waste, you would have been a fine specimen. But, if I kill you, Countless people will be proud of me, I will finally be a savior!” Despite me struggling, I could not reach my sword, or make a new one. I saw the sword come down, but then it stopped right in front of my heart.

A demonic arm had grabbed it, “That is enough, Melin.”

“This is not the right time to interfere, while I do get it., the situation is not dire enough that you are allowed to interfere with the timeline.”

Melin backed off and returned to her normal form. The man in golden ancient Greek armor stretched his demonic arm out to help me up. I slowly grabbed his demonic like claw, it had long blue nails. He pulled me up with ease and I looked at him. Blonde, perfectly groomed hair is pulled back to reveal a fine, menacing face. Piercing silver eyes, set wickedly within his sockets. He looked at Melin, she looked back, as if they were conversing without actually talking.

The man in golden armor looked at me, “We really cannot kill him, Melin.”

Lory slowly walked over and looked at the situation unfolding. “What is going on here? Why are we not killing him?”

“Lory! You are supposed to be me on my side!”

“I am, but, I do wonder why these beings do not want to finish you.”

Melin sighed and walked over to stretch her hand. I took it, “Can we put this to rest?”

Melin shrugged, “Fine.”

Lory spoke up while pointing at the man, “You saw my dad, you came to our village.”

The man nodded, “If you are Lory, then yes, I saw your dad. It has been a long time, you were just a pup back then.”

Lory nodded, “You look the same.”

The man nodded, “You look different, yet, many things are different from when we met, you are hiding secrets,” The man grinned, “Gods, huh?” Abby and Funk came our way.

Melin pointed somewhere, I looked at a demon that had been tied in knots. She spoke up, “They harassed my demon, don’t they get problems with that.”

The man chuckled, “What a fun sight, that demon has no feelings, no harm done.” He looked at Abby, she stared back. Then she looked at me. Then back at the man.

She nodded, “Thanks for the help,” she stretched her hand. The man seemed to hesitate for a long moment before taking her hand.

Black tentacles came out of Abby’s wrist. They had a staring match. The black tentacles retreated and the man smiled. “Thank you for showing me you are trustworthy, Abby, I will call upon you when the time is dire.”

The man made a portal, he pushed Melin through. He looked back at Funk, “Oh and Funk?”

“Yes?”

“I know what the void told you, don’t listen to it, while I understand her reasoning, you need to save him. You are the savior.” Then the man walked through the portal without ever sharing his name.

I sighed, “I have learned two things today.”

Lory looked at me, “What did you learn, Steve?”

“One, tussling with gods is not a good idea, they will kick your ass unless you get lucky. Secondly, everyone knows Abby and Funk.”

Abby shrugged, “I get why people know me.”

Funk looked at me, “I am just a handsome, dashing Insectine.”

Lory grinned at me, “I never thought we would meet the man from the fairy tales in real.”

I looked at her, “He is not a fairytale. And Zeus is real too.”

Abby shrieked out with joy, “I love Greek gods!”

I looked at her, “One tried to make me submit, the one that saved me, I liked him. He was a bit snarky, though.”

Funk sighed, “We have some way to travel, and our chariot is broken, and both of the horses are dead.”

I nodded, “It is getting dark, but we should keep on walking, we might make it there in the morning.”

Lory smiled at me, “I am glad you could distinguish who the real me was.”

Abby looked at me, “What happened?”

I chuckled, “Lory met her doppelgänger.”