Helios's cloak flapped behind him loudly, the necklace around his neck jingled as the wind tossed it and his hair all around. Currently, he was flying faster than the speed of sound, the wind whistled in his ear acting as a calming agent which gradually got his heart rate stabilized.

Helios suddenly arched upward and tore through the clouds; the sky gradually lost its luster as he got higher. He stopped just as the sky reached its zenith; his eyes reflected the light as they focused on the stars just beyond his reach as he observed them silently.

They faded and reappeared almost instantaneously but Helios' eyes caught each one as they were snuffed out and replaced all in the same moment.

Helios lost himself in thought, he had just severely injured and possibly killed a lot of innocent people, anger flared within him directed at no one but himself. The memory of him losing control replayed itself over and over in his mind; he was weak, not physically but mentally.

Helios glanced down at the distant ground, his eyes easily pierced through the clouds which would be a hindrance to any normal person but to him, they were no obstruction at all. With a mighty sigh his shoulders relaxed and he allowed himself to fall backward.

His fall started off slow but he gradually picked up speed as he freefell through the air, tearing holes through the clouds as he fell through them. Helios however seemed not to care whether he fell to his death as he showed no indication of halting or even slowing his descent,his eyes suddenly snapped open and his body quickly turned just as his back was about to touch the treetops.

A vacant look was on his face as he stared at the sea of green in front of him yet not registering their existence, he spent several hours just hovering in place when the sound of footsteps suddenly entered his ears.

Turning his head slowly in the direction of the sound, Helios's eyes strained to see through the thick blanket of leaves he only now seemed to notice. Irritation flashed across his face at his inability to even get a glimpse of the one causing the entire ruckus through the gaps of the leaves.

As he was about to descend, however, a familiar itching sensation could be felt coming from behind his eyes, a sense of trepidation filled Helios as recalled the instance where he melted innocent citizens with uncontrolled eye blasts. Helios prepared to ascend into the sky before he could cause any damage to the surrounding area but paused as his color spectrum was suddenly plunged into a sea of blue.

Helios glanced around the surroundings and noticed that he could see not only the oval outlines of the leaves but through them, he could see a variety of insects scurrying about but what truly made him confused was the fact that just moments before, he was unable to gaze past the leaves but now he could see through them as if they weren't even there.

"How curious" he murmured as he brought his hand before his face and into view, the same blue color was there as well as the outline of his hand but he could see the shiny white almost silver bones beneath his skin despite his singular color schemed vision.

Helios was interrupted from his musing by the sound of a surprised shout, his head snapped in the direction of the voice and thanks to his new sight he saw the cause of the noise. A blue woman, or maybe she wasn't blue but he knew it was a woman by the two mounds on her chest and the long hair cascading down her shoulders to her lower back though all of it seemed to meld into the woman, torn clothing wrapped her body in the form of a makeshift dress which stopped just as it reached the middle of her thighs but that might be because she was currently in a kneeling position.

Helios examined the woman closely but otherwise made no move to approach her; she wasn't his concern after all. The woman got to her feet with some effort and wobbled as she took a step forward before falling face first in the dirt, Helios couldn't help but to chuckle at the woman's clumsiness but the laughter died in his throat when the woman looked up angrily in his general direction and shouted "Stop laughing and help me you pansy!" while shaking her fist furiously.

Needless to say, Helios was more than a little surprised at being discovered so easily, even though he wasn't trying to hide in the first place. Helios continued to silently observe the woman who in turn continued to glare angrily at where he was currently floating idly, a few minutes of silent staring transpired between the two in that manner.

The woman quickly lost her patience however and sprang up before swiping at the air in front of her, the temperature in the area fell several degrees and blue wisps began forming in the air in front of the woman before quickly flowing together and solidifying into three one-meter ice spikes which shot off in Helios's direction.

Seeing the incoming projectiles, Helios quickly flew backwards, the sudden attack surprising him "A bit of an overreaction, no?" he asked the young lady "No!" she replied immediately sending several more ice shards at him. Helios easily dodged them while wondering why she was even running around in the forest, after all, he had not seen anyone else around.

A particularly large shard of ice knocked him out of his musing as it slammed into his left shoulder before shattering into pieces and dispersing into mist. Helios hissed as he felt a stinging pain where the ice spike hit him and dropped below the leaves and heavily landed on the floor, sending mud flying in all directions.

The young woman smiled triumphantly "Finally decided to show your face have you?" she asked, Helios simply grinned savagely and prepared to attack the woman when suddenly, the necklace around his neck began shining before transforming into an ancient looking gray hammer with cracks in the stone head which was attached to a wooden handle, the hammer had no distinguishing marks and nothing that made it look special but Helios couldn't help but feel that wasn't the case.

Both Helios and the woman stared at the floating hammer in shock, the sudden emergence of the weapon surprised him even more than the woman given the speed at which she regained her bearings and summoned a weapon of her own from thin air. What the woman now held in her hands was a long silver spear with a purple streak which spiraled along the shaft till it reached the black spear head.

Helios snapped out of his confusion as the woman summoned her weapon, not wanting to be caught off guard again; he snatched the hammer out of the air and immediately felt the impressive weight of the weapon which was enough to make even him grimace.

The woman opened her mouth to speak but she never got the chance to, she hurriedly dodged to the left out of the way of the incoming hammer which Helios threw directly at her head which heavily impacted a tree behind her causing it to topple to the floor and break into several million pieces.

"Are you crazy!?!?" the woman asked, exasperated "That could have killed me you dolt!!" Helios looked at her indifferently "So?" he asked almost innocently "When you attack, you must be prepared to kill" he replied before shooting off toward her with his fist raised above his head in an overhead swing.

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Seeing the incoming attack, she raised her spear above her head in defense but just before Helios reached her, he spun to the right in mid-air and kicked her in the ribs, not enough to kill her but just enough for her to know the difference in power between her and him. A loud cracking sound could be heard as his foot came into contact with her side and blew her away into a tree which caused her to drop her spear. 'Should I kill her?' he asked himself inwardly, the woman coughed up a bit of blood as she slid down the tree slowly before falling to her hands and knees.

Helios frowned and a look of genuine confusion showed on his face "Why pick a fight when you're this weak?" he asked the woman who was too busy coughing up blood to answer his question. His new vision easily saw through her flesh and he noted six of the twelve bones in her left rib were broken; the woman clutched her side in pain while grimacing as she gasped for breath.

The pained expression on her face killed all the battle lust Helios was feeling causing him to stare at her in disappointment "I suggest you take a deep breath and calm yourself before making a decision the next tie you're.....riled up" Helios advised before turning his back to her and walking away in the direction the girl had come from.

"Wait" a soft voice came from behind him, so soft was it that he would not have heard her if not for his enhanced hearing. Helios turned his head to look over his shoulder at the woman who was now on bended knee, her shoulders rose and fell slowly and one of her eyes were closed as she stared at him through the other "My name.....is Mariah Wintercrest" she managed to gasp out while grimacing.

"I don't care who you are" Helios replied calmly before walking off, he lifted his hand with his palms open where the hammer was and it flew into his awaiting hand. He looked at the weapon in curiosity while wondering where he would place it when it suddenly disappeared in a white flash; Helios frowned but continued on his way.

"I apologize....for attacking you" said Mariah through gritted teeth, clearly, apologizing was not her area of expertise. Helios however, kept walking and showed no indication whatsoever of responding or even hearing her apology.

Mariah clenched her fists in frustration "No need to be a dick" she hissed, Helios's brows raised as he slowly turned around, an empty chuckle escaped him "Come again?" he said as he cupped a hand around his ear "I apologized" Mariah repeated.

Helios paused at he stared at her in disbelief, suddenly he burst into a fit of laughter, the air vibrated as he lost himself to the ridiculousness of what came out of Mariah's mouth "Yes, that makes everything that happened a few minutes ago inconsequential" he responded sarcastically "Would you like to go for tea and crumpets now?" he asked as he placed a hand behind his back and the other across his stomach and did a small but awkward bow with a smirk on his face.

Mariah didn't understand half of the phrases that came out of his mouth but she could tell from the expression on his face that he was not taking her seriously, she snorted and winced with the action, completely forgetting about her injury though the constant throb in her rib should have been a reminder.

She was about to retort when Helios spoke again "The real world doesn't work that way, girl" Helios purposely chose to not say her name, he was not sure of the reason but her thinking everything would be okay once she apologized irked him "It was within my right to end your life, however, I did not" Helios replied seriously, no trace of his joking manner to be seen, the look on his face was as if he expected Mariah to catch his meaning.

He was met however, by a blank stare and a pale face, whether her face was pale because of fear or the blood loss he did not know but neither did he care. With a feeling of disappointment, Helios turned away from the injured woman and once again continued his journey into the forest "it's not safe in this forest!" Mariah shouted after his retreating figure, Helios raised his hand slightly and did a flippant two-finger salute showing his acknowledgement.

With difficulty, Mariah bent down and picked up her spear. With resolve in her eyes, she limped after Helios.

***

Helios silently and slowly strolled through the forest, although his new vision allowed him to easily scout his environment and minimize the risk of an ambush, he still chose to proceed cautiously though it was hard to tell due to the calm and relaxed way in which he walked.

Behind him was Mariah who was growing increasingly paler by the minute, Helios noted her broken ribs punctured her lungs and to his knowledge, she should have collapsed or died by now. He was not too surprised by his knowledge being wrong however, after all, the sky in his memory was blue not purple, though how he knew what color the sky was supposed to be and not what he did for a living or his birthday left him with a lot to ponder on.

"You should get someone to look at that" He commented in an attempt to take his mind off of that train of thought, Mariah scoffed weakly in reply "I'll....be fine" she managed to rasp out between clenched teeth "So I'm not wrong then' Helios thought to himself as he heard her shallow breaths now that he paid attention.

Helios shrugged and turned his attention back to surveying the area, for some reason he found no traces of any animals anywhere, it was almost as if the forest was deserted.

He paused, something wasn't right; aside from the smell of blood from Mariah the forest smelled strangely clean, like if a group of janitors came and mopped it down. Helios's eyes narrowed as he carefully scrutinized his surroundings and focused his hearing, faulty memory or not, a forest was not supposed to be this quiet and devoid of scents.

His carefree attitude fell away as a sense of danger fell on him like a blacksmith's hammer. His eyes rapidly scanned the area, his new vision however revealed nothing out of the ordinary in the vicinity, yet he could not escape the feeling that something was wrong.

"What-" Mariah was cut off by Helios as he thrust his open palm in front of her face, she however, did not have the energy to feel insulted by the rude gesture as it was a struggle to even keep her eyes open at this point.

Helios squatted and placed his hands on the grassy floor, the blue blades of grass flattened under the weight. His face came close to the floor as he inhaled deeply, the action similar to that of a lanag in Mariah's eyes, She chuckled as the image of a four legged canine creature sniffing the ground overlapped with Helios, she summoned her energy and gave a weak chuckle before her vision went dark and she collapsed like a puppet whose strings were cut causing her to let go of her spear which hit the ground with a dull clang.

Helios spun around at the noise like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on and glared at Mariah's prone form; his shoulders fell slightly in relief and he got up from his crouching position slowly while eyeing his surroundings.

He began making his way over to Mariah's unconscious body when all of a sudden a sense of foreboding came over him, Helios's muscles tensed as he prepared his body for an attack.

"Huuuuuumaaaaaaansssssss" a hoarse, venomous voice drawled in his mind. Helios spun around, eyes frantically searching for anything other than the color blue, his heartbeat elevated slightly as he was unable to locate the origin of the voice but the sense of foreboding only got stronger the more frantically he searched.

Suddenly, Helios found himself cartwheeling through the air and barreling into several trees, demolishing them as his body slammed into and through them.

With a force of will, Helios halted his tumble and stopped midair before he began spinning in all directions searching for his attacker. However, his search proved fruitless. Helios flew back to the area where he stopped previously, following the trail of demolished trees he left in his wake.

Helios froze as he arrived at the scene, there stood, hunched over Mariah's body was a formless creature shrouded in shadow, its blood red eyes examining the unconscious girl before it with mild curiosity.

Suddenly, as if now sensing Helios's presence, it lifted its two sanguine orbs at him and a flash of surprise shone in its eyes, almost as if Helios surviving was surprising "Deeeeaaaatttthh" the voice sounded in Helios's mind once more who was now sure the voice was coming from the creature before him, Helios gritted his teeth and bent his knees slightly, the familiar flash of light from his necklace made itself known and In front of his face floated the hammer from before.

Helios snatched the hammer out the air and allowed the hand which grabbed it hang loosely at his side while the other was held in front of his chest with a clenched fist.

“Fuck you bitch” Helios spat and with a push from his muscular legs he shot off, causing a series of webbed cracks to form in the area where he was previously standing, his hammer raised above his head ready to crash down.