47 Finding the ingot - 4

Morpheous looked in the direction of his village, his nerves shaken but loaded with a resolve. Then turning back towards them he said,

"I need to go. You take care of them, Nicholas," he said and walked towards his horse but halted when he heard,

"We are coming with you!"

He turned back to look at the two fallen angels who could barely stand and a mortal man supporting them, whose head barely reached their shoulders.

They understood the look in his eyes and said,

"We will not be a burden!"

But then Damianos turned towards Balthazaar and said,

"You shall stay here. You shall not take a step ahead, for I know you are not the one who is going to help."

His eyes looked fierce and his tone had utter seriousness for he knew that it was them who had given the wolfsbane to Morpheous and moreover since Damianos now shared the same energy that Balthazaar's body had, he was somehow able to sense his thoughts.

Taking a stance back, Balthazaar said,

"You do not want this Damianos. Not now. Your village is in danger. We can save it together."

But Damianos let out a sarcastic laugh and then looked at Balthazaar and asked,

"It was you wasn't it. It was you who flipped the time. It was you because of which Nubeous is still alive. You have seen it all with your own eyes. Then why? Why did you do this?"

The angered voice of Damianos echoed through the woods, splitting through the pockets of silence.

"He has seen what?" asked Morpheous but without answering him anything, Damianos turned towards Morpheous and touched his temple with his index and middle finger.

"Don't do that Damianos. Don't enrage him," yelled Balthazaar and marched ahead to stop Damianos but that split second was enough for Morpheous to know everything that had happened in the past.

The moment Balthazaar was about to pull Damianos back, he found him gripping his hand. A grip that was so strong that he could feel his blood vessels clogging up under pressure. And then he looked at him.

His ember eyes were burning. He could see his chest rising and falling as his breath had turned haggard.

"Morpheous try to understand. I had to save him. I had no other option."

His blood was boring for he had seen the dead remains of his parents. He had seen the tortured tear laden eyes of her sister who kept wailing endlessly. He saw the fight at the coliseum and he saw the bolt being cast on him just like it was cast today. But most importantly he saw how Balthazaar tricked him using the baton.

"You, why did you do this to me..."

"Why did he deserve your help when my family didn't deserve mercy."

Gritting his teeth, Morpheous held the neck of Balthazaar and hoisted him up but before could inflict any more pain on the man, Damianos held the hand of Morpheous and said,

"He is bound by an unbreakable promise. He cannot help it. Even if his heart would one day cry for you, he still can never help you."

Hearing the words of Damianos, Morpheous yielded and put Balthazaar back, but his anger had not receded. He looked at his godfather and then looked at Nicholas and said,

"You will take this man back to the kingdom and you both shall never dare to set foot in my village again. I am sparing your life because you saved him, but if you dare to mess with me again, then you shall never be able to even seek forgiveness."

The winds slowly started howling and everything started turning a bit cold. An eerie feeling started encroaching everyone's heart for a herd of souls were approaching close.

"Morpheous!"

"You are late Morpheous!"

Said the souls and wandered around Morpheous.

"Late for what?" mumbled Morpheous as he closed his eyes trying to listen to them.

But the next voice that he heard after, shattered every bone of his body,

"Rush Morpheous! You need to save Nefeli and Eva. Save them Morpheous. The sword of death lies above their head."

And when he opened his eyes and they weren't amber anymore. There was a flash of blue and Balthazaar took a step back in fear because he had seen those eyes before and he knew what mayhem he could cast upon.

"Arrrrggggggghhhh....."

Roared Morpheous. His hands clenched in a fist and his eyes looked up at the sky for that voice was none other than Leonidas's.

"What did you hear? What did the voices say my child?" asked Damianos with a tone filled with worry because he could see that he was in pain as if his soul was being tormented.

He then looked at Balthazaar with murderous eyes before mounting atop his horse.

"Hiyaaaahhh...."

And galloped his horse before Damianos could even ask anything to him.

Balthazaar slumped on the ground and looked at Damianos and muttered, "What have you done? Why did you show him the past? How could you do this when you know everything Damianos? Why now? You knew about it before, you could have told him before, but chose to stay silent until now. What changed Damianos? What changed?"

"The winds have changed Balthazaar!" said Damianos and then looking at Nicholas he said,

"Help us mount the horse."

"But he clearly told me not to follow him. I do not want to enrage him. His anger will do no good to Nubeous."

Damianos looked at Balthazaar for a moment, unable to believe how his brother could turn into a coward just to keep a promise.

"Then do you think you will be able to save Nubeous by standing here? The last time he had to save me, so he disappeared along with me for my sake, but do you think he would do the same when he has nothing to lose?" asked Damianos.

"Hoist me atop the horse Nicholas," said Balthazaar.