ROAR...
Too close.
Samuel jerked his head up, whimpering.
Glanced at it.
It was tall, dark, and slender, it was stretched to the point of not being human. Eight arms reached toward him with jagged edges; its mouth was filled with teeth like razors. Eyes? If they were any.
Samuel plunges to the ground. "N-no..."
It launched at him.
Samuel swiftly rolled to avoid the claws at the edge of its arms, The ground exploded under where he'd just been standing.
Samuel hastily ran.
"Why would you tell me this was safe?!"
He tumbles on a ribcage the size of a high school bus, slides down the cascade of fractured skulls, and lands hard. He scraped his elbow. Eyes crimson from the dusty weather.
The creature howled again and leaped.
Exhausted. Miserable.
Samuel shut his eyes...
Hope it will all end.
Only to open them to something sparkling below him.
A gentle glow.
Strange symbol. A sigil.
While the creature descended for the kill..
The sigil detonated in a blinding light.
THOOM!
Shockwaves of pure energy surged upward, swallowing the beast in mid-air.
Even Samuel doesn't know what is going on.
Its screech was deafening, It evaporated into ash, scattered by the winds of the graveyard.
Suddenly...
"Young one…"
Samuel was alarmed and horrified.
"…What was that?"
The dust slowly cleared. Beneath him, the sigil glowed a bright golden, and then the ground splinted into two, revealing stairs that spiraled downward into the unknown. Symbols begin to illuminate the entrance.
"Come."
The voice echoed again.
"Come down, young one."
"I need your help."
Samuel anxiously stepped back.
"…No," he muttered.
"Sorry, I'm waiting for someone…"
Samuel responded softly.
"I appreciate you saving me thank you but I don't know you or what you are," he explained.
"Plus I am not really from this place nor this world."
"I was summoned here."
"I was... we..."
Tears falling from his eyes, red and swollen.
Lips Trembling.
"I wasn't the only one who was summoned."
"But now... They are gone."
"My friends."
"Even my little sister."
"She was never supposed to be part of this, he shouted."
"Fucking gods."
HMMM...
"I see so you hate the gods." He asked
"With my life" Samuel replied.
"You see young one, I was in Caged in the runes by those same gods." He explained.
"For how long?" Samuel questioned.
"For more than 1.5 billion light years."
"I'm sorry," Samuel replied softly.
"Don't be young one." He giggled.
"I haven't talked to anyone in over a billion light years, You're doing the favor."
"Still don't want to come down?" He asked.
"I still won't, like I said I'm waiting for someone," Samuel replied tensely.
"Suit your self young one." Giggles
"What so funny?" Samuel murmured.
Then he waited.
Minutes turned to hours. Hours turned into a day.
The day after.
No one came.
The mysterious and unfamiliar woman, who saved him, is nowhere to be seen.
He curled up against the spine of a dead giant, knees drawn up to his chest. His stomach ached. He hadn't eaten nor slept. Yet still, he refused.
"She said she'd find me…" Samuel murmurs.
Day two.
Still nothing.
The wind grew stronger and colder. His lips began to crack.
His throat was dry.
RUMBLE....
CRACK!....
The skies crack open.
Raining.
But it's not water, it's.....
Blood.
Samuel stood up slowly, raising his arm.
"Is this a joke?" he screamed at the skies.
"…Was this just another lie?"
No answer.
He stood there, covered in blood, soaked in it. Dripping.
He wiped his eyes. His mouth twisted into something between a cry and a scream.
His jaws and hands clenched.
He turned around shifting his focus towards the glowing sigil.
"I don't know what to do?" Samuel lamented.
"Young One, do you want vengeance?"
"Do you want revenge?" He questioned.
Y....
Yes!
Yes!
"Please help me, I Really don't know what to do anymore." Samuel howled.
"Then come." He stated.
Samuel bit his tongue. Clenched his fist.
Stepping toward the runes.
Looked back one last time.
And then...
The doors closed behind him.
"I'm in what next," Samuel asked with a disparate tone.
"Follow my voice, Young One." came a dark and eerie tone replying.
While walking for what felt like minutes, the silence stretched thin with each footstep.
At last.
Samuel entered a vast hall, filled with dimly lit torches.
In the center of the hall, knelt a towering figure, to be at least seventeen feet tall, bounded by thick chains that pierced through his flesh. Golden blood dripped from his wounds, soaking the stone floors like molten lava.
The man slowly lifted his head. His eyes, filled with rage and sorrow, locked onto Samuel.
"This," he uttered in a deep, and spiteful tone, "is the state the gods left me in."
Samuel took a cautious step forward. "Who… who are you, really?"
A bitter chuckle echoed through the halls.
"I am Arithmos, the God of War. Betrayed… and caged by my wife, Luminara."
"Luminara the goddess of chronokinesis."
"She cast a time essence, known to the people of your world as magic."
Clenching his fist against the chains. "The only way for me to be free… is when welder of the essence dies."
"I just have one question, Samuel uttered."
"Does The goddess of chronokinesis have a hand in the death of my little sister and the others?" Samuel demanded.
The god leaned in closer, golden blood dripping from his skin to the chains.
"YES....."
His dark green eyes fixated on Samuel.
Samuel stood there for about a couple of minutes, but this time he was in utter rage.
And just like that, he had to face the reality that everyone he had loved, everything he knew... Was taken away from him.
He let out a huge exhale, faced upwards stared into the eye of the seventeen feet tall god.
Deep down Samuel knew he had been used, but his rage consumed him.
He responded, "Then please Grant me your powers." With an intense tone.
"GOOD..." The god exclaimed.
"That's why I chose you, Young One. Now Drink my blood. Take my powers. And together… we shall break the chains."
Samuel serenely got on all fours, in other to perform the ritual, only to be interrupted by the god.
"Young One..."