The blood of the true blood giants still clung to Samuel's clothes, as he stepped off their bodies, his boots splashing into puddles of crimson blood. The battlefield was now quiet, and save for now.
The atmosphere was thick with the stenches of blood and flesh, shattered bones, and the True Blood-Giants limbs lay strewn across the valley like a fallen mountainside, their once indomitable forms reduced to carcasses.
Lira stood up in the ruins of the battlefield, her divine essence shield was flickering faintly from the damage, Her silver hair clung to her cheeks, damp with sweat and blood. Her eyes locked onto Samuel, wide with disbelief and awe. She had seen him fight before, but this was different. This was something else. Something monstrous.
"You okay?" Samuel responded. With a calm tone, his eyes still locked on the horizon. He didn't look at her. He didn't have to. He already knew the answer. But he asked anyway.
She slowly nodded, unsure of her own tone. "I thought... I was going to die."
"So did I," Samuel uttered.
They both stood in silence for a moment more, the wind brushing through the tall grasses, Then Samuel turned around sheathing Aegirion, its blade still glowing with a faint dark green heat.
Without another word, they stepped back into the Eldoria forest, the thick canopies once more cloaking them in shadow again. They moved quickly, avoiding any detection. The clash had drawn attention. More giants might come. Samuel didn't have the strength for another battle. Not yet.
Navigating through the Huge ancient trees, they snuck around the outer rims of the remaining True blood-giants' city. The towering walls loomed ahead of them. Their spires stretched so high they scraped the sky itself. Clouds drifted apart, moving around the tallest towers like celestial serpents.
"That wall's too high," Lira whispered with her hand on her hips.
"Brace yourself lira," Samuel muttered.
"What," Lira uttered in confusion.
Before she could question him, he swept her into his arms and, focusing his essence on his legs, jumped at high velocity. The force of his leap cracked the ground beneath them. They soared into the air, over the fence, past the runes carved into its walls, landing silently into a vast garden hidden inside the city.
The sight stole their breaths.
A huge Garden.
The garden was unlike anything they'd seen. Flowers of different colors bloomed in every direction, their petals pulsing faintly as if they were breathing. Alive. Vines draped from crystals. Pools of luminous water reflected not their faces, but fragments of memories. A faint, otherworldly music seemed to echo out from nowhere.
They walked slowly and cautiously.
Samuel didn't say a single word. Lira trailed slowly beside him, watching him with eyes full of questions. After a while, she finally spoke.
"If you kill all the gods... what then?"
Samuel stopped in his tracks.
She waited. But Samuel said nothing. He looked ahead, jaw clenched. Then he started walking again.
Lira frowned, following behind him, trying to understand him. Before she could ask again, the ground beneath them shifted intensely.
There was no sign nor warning.
The trees moaned in synchronization. The flowers closed. The atmosphere turned cold. The garden shook violently, and the vines recoiled. Samuel looked around, immediately alert.
"It's changing," he explained.
The trees twisted intensely, re-rooting into new shapes. The pathways beneath their feet warped and stretched. The once beautiful garden began to writhe like a living being. Before Samuel could reach out to Lira, a massive thorned wall shot up between them and slammed into his chest, throwing Samuel across the garden with the force of a battering bull.
"Samuel!" Lira screamed in fear.
She rushed forward, but the paths twisted again, dragging her away from him. The garden groaned, vines whipping across the air, rerouting trails and corridors. She was now alone. The silence had returned, eerie and suffocating the atmosphere.
Lira got on her feet slowly, coughing, dirt and sand clinging to her robes. Leaves were tangled in her hair. She pulled them free with shaking hands and looked around, lost.
"Samuel?" she called again.
No answer.
She moved cautiously, her hand ready at her side in case of an attack. The trees here were darker and older. Their bark was almost black, and strange faces seemed to form in the knots of their trunks. The flowers didn't bloom anymore, they looked dry.
Then she heard his voice.
"Lira. This way."
It was Samuel's voice. Calm. But low.
She turned around, her eyes wide open. "Samuel? Where are you?"
"This way." The voice uttered
She followed.
The voice echoed softly through the trees. She pushed through thick vines and stepped into a clearing. It was quiet here.
"Samuel?"
No response.
Then the ground split open.
Roots burst upward like spears, twisting into shape. From the earth emerged a creature not of this mortal realm. It towered over her, Six arms made of thorny roots stretched outwards. Its head was a collection of skulls screaming, twisted together like a crown. Glowing crimson-red light oozed from its eye sockets. Bones cracked as it moved.
Lira stumbled back, eyes wide.
The creature roared.
A sound that shook the atmosphere itself.
Lira tried to summon her essence shield again, but her hands were shaking. Her heart thundered into her chest.
Then the beast lunged at a high velocity.
It moved at an impossible speed for something so massive, its six arms tearing into the earth, causing an earthquake, as it surged toward Lira. Each arm was twisted like gnarled roots, thick and sinewy, dripping with red ichor that hissed as it touched the grass of the garden. Its skeleton-covered face split open, revealing a vertical mouth lined up with teeth like splinters of bone, rows upon rows of them, grinding, twitching, hungry. From deep within its throat, it screamed, not from rage, not in pain, but from hunger.
A soul, starving hunger.
Lira's breath pitched highly. Her legs, frozen from the shock, finally obeyed her just as one of the beast's root-like arms came crashing down where she had stood. She threw herself aside, her body hitting the grass as the earth erupted beneath the strike. Flowers, dirt, and broken stones exploded into the atmosphere like shrapnel. The entire garden trembled.
"Samuel!" she screamed intensely, rolling on her feet, her voice hoarse and cracked with fear.
No response.
She reached into herself, calling upon what remained of her divine essence. A faint shield shimmered into place around her, cracked like a broken glass. It flickered weakly, wounded from the battle with the giants, unstable, nearly spent.
The beast's lidless eyes locked onto lira, It took a step forward, its long arms dragging behind like claws of a wolf. Then it lunged again.
This time it didn't miss.
One of its arms snapped out like a whip and grabbed her by the leg mid-jump. She shrieked as the dry, bark-covered grip wrapped around her ankle. It lifted her high into the air like a ragdoll, bones creaking, her hair falling loose around her face.
Then, without pause, it slammed her into the ground at high velocity.
Once.
Twice.
Her essence shield cracked with each impact. On the third slam, it flickered violently and almost shattered. She gasped as her breath left her lungs. Blood spilled from her lips, staining her teeth red. Her vision blurred.
Still, the beast wasn't done. It reared up, lifting her higher, preparing to break her.
But Lira was not broken, not in the place. Not in This manner.
Through the pain, through the fear, she reached deep within her spirit. Past the trembling limbs and the cracked ribs. Past the memory of the giants and the dread of the gods. Past everything.
Into the source of her essence.
"I won't die here," she whispered slowly.
With a cry, she channeled all of her divine essence, a raw, unfiltered outburst.
Light exploded from her chest. Essence surged out in a wave of blinding energy. The garden itself recoiled, trees bending, The shield shattered from the overload, but not before the force of the blast surged outward.
The beast screamed. The sound tore through the glade as it was launched backward like a leaf. It crashed through the hedges, smashing into statues and sending shattered stones flying in all directions.
Lira dropped to her knees, coughing. Her hands trembled. She could taste metal in her mouth. Her body screamed in agony.
The air was silent for a moment, then, the earth shook again.
The beast began to rise.
Still alive.
Scarred.
And now, enraged.
Lira's eyes are beginning to feel heavy, wanting to shot close.