Chapter 142 - The Soul Slayer

The sun had risen in the skies of Aeros and its servants have begun to prepare for their daily tasks. Orion was already awake, practicing sword with his uncle Kyle in the courtyard while waiting for breakfast to be ready. 

Christopher and Amanda, however, were still in bed, sound asleep. 

Amanda rested well on her husband's chest when she noticed how his chest was heaving, dramatically. She fluttered her eyes open to gaze at Christopher and saw how droplets of sweat had formed on his forehead. 

"Chris," she called. 

"Stop - stop it!" He yelled in his sleep. "Don't kill them!"

She instantaneously got up to wake him, "Chris, wake up! My love!"

"Ahhhh!" He screamed as he sat up, nearly smashing his head against his wife. He panted heavily as he lowered his head against his hands. "My love. It was so horrific what Abasi and I saw."

Amanda immediately hugged Christopher and repeatedly kissed on his face. She said, "Sshhhh... It's okay now. You are home. Everything is okay."

She promptly climbed on top of him, sat on his lap, and held his handsome face to hers. She kissed his lips and said, "I'm here. Forget about whatever you saw out there. You are home."

Christopher buried his face in Amanda's bare chest. He embraced her tight, feeling the warmth of her skin, and said, "I think Abasi and I have seen the worse kinds of horrors, my love."

"I hope they will never reach our world," told Christopher. 

When Christopher settled his emotions, he told first about the planet they settled in on the fifth galaxy, even before acquiring power for Abasi. 

Resting back against the pillows, he said, "At first, it was fun, rather, the knowledge gained was exciting, meeting different alien life forms. Many of them were incredibly friendly." He then sneered and said, "Many, just attack outright, but a good thing, Abasi was always quick to take us away from danger."

He turned to her and pecked on her forehead before saying, "I told you, right?"

"Yes. Yes, you did, until we lost touch," she reminded him. 

"We did not find what we were looking for during the first year of searching and most of the time, we spent it in a wormhole, traveling through space," he added. 

"After twelve months of jumping from one world to another, Abasi required rest. We ended up settling on a planet named Enwor - almost similar to earth, my love. Except their people also had unique abilities. They were warrior-like with amazing strengths."

"A family of prestige welcomed us to their home, provided us with food and rooms to sleep well at night. I have to admit, we overstayed. We should have left early, but we were incredibly tired, my love. We probably spent two weeks of rest."

Amanda frowned at that. Every day was nerve-wracking for her, but apparently, Abasi and Christopher spent two weeks of vacation. She sighed and said, "Anyway, it's fine. You just make up for the lost time."

"We were about to leave, bidding goodbye to the family and villages who welcomed us, but all of a sudden, monstrous forms attacked out of nowhere."

Christopher gasped and closed his eyes, recalling the frightful image. He said, "At first, they simply looked life oversized men in black ink around them, but apparently, the bodies were the host. The alien life was a fluid-like matter that created protection if its host."

"They could live inside you - take your shape, consume your flesh, or live with you - but your senses are completely controlled by it!"

"Those things - they - they were merciless, just eating on flesh and cared only for their hunger! They killed nearly everyone in that village. Blood was everywhere and our powers were no match to them, considering their number."

He massaged his temples, recalling the cries of those who saw their loved ones died. He gulped before resuming, "I even summoned Akurra back then, but twenty minutes only halted them temporarily."

"The great sea serpent could not kill them," added Christopher with a sigh. 

"My love... It was a massacre and we could not help. We did not have the knowledge to put those things down," he told with regret. 

"We relocated the remaining villagers who survived, including the family who helped us. In the end, we spent a month more aiding them. We moved them to a different planet, which was equally habitable."

His brows furrowed as he said, "It was the only resort. Their planet, Enwor, may as well be considered doomed for whatever it was that attacked their world."

"Chris, at least you and Abasi helped them," said Amanda. "Those that survived at least."

He nodded and said, "I just wished we know what they were and how they could be defeated. All those lives would have been saved."

"Anyway, my love. One tragedy led us to another that granted Abasi cosmic ability. The new world where we moved them is called Solace - a very rocky kind of planet and dull, much similar to Pelagy, but the structures on the planet were abundant."

"Their life-source apparently was said to be a previous guardian of gates of heaven," he revealed, making Amanda look up to him. 

"What?" She asked, startled by the news he shared. 

"Yes, and that's why he had cosmic abilities. He granted Abasi with a fraction of his powers, further strengthening Abasi's capability to jump through time and space," Christopher narrated. 

The power cosmic is the name often referred to as the limitless, godly, cosmic energy and power. It merely was a tale to the masters, but Agatha told it was true. Hence, it resulted in Abasi and Christopher to have ventured a long journey. 

It was told that such powers can manipulate the user's size and mass, could teleport, have telepathy, can time-travel, have superhuman strength, immortality, and much more. Or it could be just one of a few.

"Anyway, the life source was an old man who had lived on the planet for three hundred years. He said to have guarded heaven for two hundred years before that," added Christopher. 

"Woah, you must be very lucky to have met a man," told Amanda. 

"Very lucky," he echoed. 

"It was the same old man that told us to go to the gates of heaven and hell, which were apparently, only a galaxy away from where we were." 

Seeing Amanda's frown, Christopher had to explain, "The old man said, it was faster to travel back to earth from either of the gates. They had open wormholes ready for access, which could cut down our travel by nine months! So of course, we had to try."

"In any case, the old man gave us a charm to prove to the guardians of both heaven and hell that we were his pals."

Christopher paused out of the blue. He looked at the light coming through their window before he spoke again, "My love. When we arrived at the gates of hell, the guardian there told that Hades had escaped his prison in hell years ago. They were certain he fled back to earth as a soul."

"What did you say?!" Amanda sat up in horror, shocked by the revelation. "You mean Hades, the first master of the earth?"

"Yes, the same one who made himself immortal but died either way after being killed multiple times by the spirits," confirmed Christopher. 

"Oh my goodness," said Amanda as she placed her hand on her chest. 

"It was another reason for us to stay longer. Because the old guardian of the gates of hell wanted us to prove ourselves that we were worthy to be given another weapon," Christopher said. He also sat up with his wife. 

"The guardian assessed Abasi and me, but he determined that it should be me to receive the weapon." Christopher then showed his right palm to Amanda. It reflected a diamond mark at the centermost part of his hand.

He said, "the old guardian of the hell gave me... the soul slayer."

As soon as Christopher said those words, his hand instantly sprung out a black sword, in the length of two meters! It was practically the longest sword Amanda had ever seen. 

"Souls do not die, Amanda. For they are already dead. They are different from immortals. Thus, Orion's sword could not kill Hades, should he be around, lurking on earth," narrated Christopher. "But this sword could permanently kill souls."

"Well, thank goodness for that!" Said Amanda in relief, but while he had the power to take care of Hades, Amanda noticed how he was still silent. She asked, "What's wrong?"

Christopher forced a smile and said, "Nothing, my love. I just hope that we won't have to encounter Hades."

He opened his palm and gone was the soul slayer blade. He hugged Amanda and said, "We can talk more about the adventures Abasi and I had. In fact, I'm sure we will have a gathering for all masters to cover everything, but for now. I want to see my baby boy."

"He is not a baby anymore, by the way," said Amanda. 

With a smirk on his face, he said, "In my eyes, he is still a baby."