Chapter 149 - Tophet#8

A FEW MOMENTS EARLIER

CLEMENTINE'S POV:-

How long have we been fighting here? I think as I kill another dozen Guardians at once. I don't know, I honestly don't remember. Maybe it has been a century already, but we are just at this stalemate where we are neither properly alive nor we can afford to be dead.

I kill another one as I take a deep breath before letting my partner take over my place and start killing the Guardians.

'What was it before I came here? Yeah..it was running and running so that we could gather enough divinity to escape from this place. but….but we were caught..' I clench my fists as I think about what happened back then. Someone made a mistake and then, out of anxiety or fear, he snitched on us before being killed by the Guardians. It was a new guy back then. After getting captured/ killed, our souls were transferred here. Funny how we thought it was all over as soon as we were caught by the Guardians. Still…when we came here, our divinity was boosted…like our restrictions were lifted, and we could use both mana and divinity here.

Given our already existing strong divinity, we started our struggle as soon as we came here and got the ability to move. In the beginning, there were 3 of us who could actually fight against Guardians as a team. We ran and fought and ran and fought…until another one joined. Then…we took breaks in between the fights…one took a break while the others just fought. A cycle of breaks and fights was established.

Then 2 more joined us at once…they weren't as strong as us but we kept them with us because of their unique abilities. This made our team finally complete. We entered a stalemate against the Guardians at that point and established our fore ground here. We kept fighting and fighting, hoping to get out of here someday. hoping another powerful person will come and join us someday and we will be able to get out of here.

Another strong person came….yeah…strong, eh?.... he actually is too strong. After all, the 1000s of Guardians against which we were at stalemate after using the best of our techniques…he killed them all in just a few moments.

I saw that person coming along with a few other familiar faces.

'He is a God!' I thought when I first saw him. That guy…I am pretty sure he is a God or else it does not make any sense.

I saw Marcel coming towards me with a smile on his face as he ran and we hugged each other. He was one of the young ones in our group back then. I still remember how I took care of this wimpy kid who always cried. Then there were Arlin and Ozlo too. 

'So they too died, huh?' I think as I look at them.

Then Marcel explains his situation to us and the more I heard his story, the more I reached the conclusion that he is a God. 

After the story ended. I pondered over the things a bit more and then sigh before speaking.

"He is a God!"

Marcel had a confused expression on his face as he looked at me before looking at Morpheus. He looked like he wanted to explain something, but I didn't have time to listen to his blabber, so I directly confronted the guy, Morpheus. I asked him what it was that he wanted, and he answered the same thing before, but as I used my ability, it told me that it was a lie, so I raised my voice at him, asking him to get to the point.

He then gives a sad smile before starting to speak that I would have never thought to hear from the mouth of someone as powerful as him. As he was speaking about finding his family, he sounded…so weak..it's as if he was crying inside to meet them. He wanted to see them so badly, and could do anything to see them again.

'So strong….yet so weak. How?' I think as I look at him before gaining my composure. Well, let's at least confirm whether he is a God or not. 

"Are you a God?" I asked him and waited for his reply.

I wanted the answer to be 'no' . I honestly didn't have the will and power to fight someone like him. We would just die. Actually, the first time he came here killing all the guardians, the only thing in my mind was that I was going to die, but listening to his story…I think there is still hope.

"No," he answers and a smile forms on my face as I console him that he will surely get his family back.

He then thanked me and asked me if I could show him around the area and tell him any concrete information about this place.

'Well, so we finally have another great ally, I guess. I thought before, wondering if he really is our ally? What if….'

"Are you an enemy or friend?" I ask him with a bit of hesitation in my voice. Though…it's a question I must know the answer to before I can be sure of our safety.

He looks at me with narrowed eyes before smiling and answering,

"I am against the Gods right now."

At this answer, I narrow my eyes at his face and see that he is telling the truth. He is careful with his words, I guess, but…

"Well, that should be enough to trust you, I guess. Given especially our condition here ," I speak as I yawn a bit before looking back at the rest of my party members.

"I guess we should begin with the introduction."

—

LIGHT'S POV:-

Right now, we are preparing to leave Alfheim. I see the familiar faces of my party members in front of me before observing the other people standing there. There were the 10 Kids who were taught by Aether and then there were the Alfheim branches who were still alive, finally coming to Istan and Lia, who were standing there with tears in their eyes.

"Is everyone here?" I ask as they all look at me before nodding and I once again do a headcount.

'Chase, Kaneto, Leraye, Lilith, Lucy and Yavanna,' I sigh as I look at our current party strength.

Corey is gone. Aether is Gone…it feels so…empty, damn it!

Back when I heard that Corey was missing, and he had possibly been kidnapped, my mind blanked out for a few moments. The first thought that came into my mind was, 'Aether will go on a rampage.' I was sure about that, but then someone explained that the Devil King spoke of something about Corey being safe. It was directly from the late Elf King himself that the Devil King and Aether knew each other from before.

'Did they?' I don't know honestly, but if they did, then I have a few names that could possibly be close enough to Aether to make a bold claim and use their name to guarantee the safety of Aether's family members.

'Since it is by someone Aether can trust. I will let things flow in the direction where all of us can survive. But how are we supposed to do that?....Well…let's search for Corey, I guess.' is what I thought back then before casting a spell.

It was more of a spell that guides you to the correct path rather than showing you the exact destination and what it told me was,

"Save the Winter Elf King's third daughter."

The Elves of Alfheim were too shocked to know that we would be visiting that place as there is nothing but snow in that area.

Our destination was the area on the other side of the tree of Yggdrasil this time. I sigh as I look at the people in front of me who are meeting us one by one before finally leaving us.

I then look at our new party member, Yavanna. Well, Aether really wanted her to be a part of our group for some reason. I tried looking into his memories to understand this, but there were no such thoughts or plans regarding Yavanna. 

'Weird. But if Aether wanted her to be a part of our group, we might as well let her in.'

I think as I then look at the flying caravan right in front of us.

'Another journey is going to begin, huh? I wonder how different it would be without Aether.'

I think as I sigh before looking at my party members and hopping on to the caravan. The caravan started flying towards the direction of a particular city within the forest. As we flew, everyone was silently doing their own work or just being quiet. Zwain was there too, just to drop us to our destination.

After reaching the particular city, we were brought closer to the teleporter there. We entered the teleporter, and the circle started lighting up. I see Zwain carefully observing me before he speaks.

"Take care of Aether."

And I smile and nod at him.

The view changes, and a new place comes in front of our eyes. snow…too much snow..I think as I look at the area in front of me.

The country of White ice and Winter Elves.. Our next destination, Winter Alfheim, was right in front of us.