BXBX NOVEL Chapter 132: Abandoned.
But along with their strength increasing so too did the strength of the demons they fought, they evolved faster than Atla did, and they fought harder than they did, almost desperately in fact, there was an ever-abundant feeling of pressure and doom, it never eased, what strength they had would seem negligible if they took even the shortest break.
Sol and Jun also grew closer, going beyond just comrades as they became an envy even amongst their peers for being able to fall in love in the middle of such a disaster, while he and Griffon became best friends after sharing deadly battles alongside each other for years, the three of them formed what the Atlan army endearingly called the heroes' party, the unstoppable trio, Sol with his hammer and spears, Griffon with his sword, and Jun with overwhelming firepower, having an even larger reserve of raw power than Sol did.
Wherever they went there was a victory.
But then on the sixth year, that winning streak took a hit, taking a nap with his spear inside of a demon's head and the holy mages standing guard around him after his most recent battle, Sol was invited in spirit to the heavens.
"You have done well over the years, Sol." Ikaris smiled at him, standing on a high platform while he stared up at her after taking a knee.
"I've survived, and I've grown stronger, but I have to keep asking, why don't you do more, you're the god of this world, why haven't you intervened yet, don't you see the thousands that die every day?" Sol retorted seriously. "I've already seen so many friends die to those demons, I've stopped taking names simply because nobody is sure to live beyond the next fight..."
"I cannot intervene in this war."
"What can you do then?" Sol stood and balled his fists. "You granted me this power, I've survived thanks to it, but what about them?" He raised his palms to her, exuding waves of magic around his body.
"This is not enough to save these people, it's not enough to defeat the demon king, his generals are starting to join the fight, I'm not enough anymore, if it's only just Jun and Griffon; if you blessed them as heroes as well we would be able to easily win-"
"No." Ikaris answered him passively, and Sol's expression dropped from desperation to irritation. "I ca-"
"... useless."
"Excuse me?" Ikaris leaned her head in confusion staring down at him with her eyes wide in shock.
"I said, you're useless." Sol raised his eyes at her again bending his knees and leaping up to the platform with her and grabbing her arm before she could move from being shocked speechless. "What the fuck have you been doing, what do you mean by "no" aren't these your people?" He held on to her.
"How dare y-"
"Hundreds of millions... Billions have died over the last six years, what the fuck do you mean no, why is it so hard for you to get the fuck up and do something!?" He shook her, grinding his teeth. "You don't get the luxury of being spoilt and entitled, I don't give a fuck if you're a goddess, I don't give a shit about why you can't, I'm telling you something has to be done!"
"Sol," Ikaris slowly raised her hand to his cheek. "Let go of me-" see more NovelFire mp|y|r
"Why the hell should I, does it change anything, aren't you just gonna run off and hide away again?" He asked, and she stared at him with a blush and lowered her hand again. "No, I don't feel like letting go just yet."
"I will not run away from you." She answered, finding this assertion attractive after experiencing it for the first time, it was also the first time anyone had touched her, and the first she had been told "no".
"Do something, your people are dying."
"Then... Do you desire more power?" Ikaris asked relaxing her hand in his grasp. "Sol?"
"Not just me, everyone, if you can-"
"If I grant more power to them, they will grow stronger, yes, but they will eventually die in a few years, a decade at most, it has been tried before, their souls and yours are not the same, they are too weak to endure my blessing." Ikaris countered his argument.
"Then I'm right, you're too limited, you have to do something, you can't just sit here and wait, it's not enough." Sol calmed down and released her hand when her face registered an emotion he could not translate.
"You're the goddess, everyone looks up to you, find a way to help, Atla is in danger, Ikaris, you can either idly watch us fail, or get up off your ass and do something about it -that's a decision only you can make."
"You are... giving me a choice?" Her eyes widened as she stared up at him.
"Of course I am, choose for yourself, what is most important to you?" He asked, and without hesitation the goddess replied:
"You are."
"For fuck's sake." Sol slapped his forehead. "I'm going back now, this is a pointless conversation." He closed his eyes, and without her permission he vanished, and a few seconds later he woke up back on Atla.
"Are you rested, hero?" The priest who stood directly next to the dead demon asked, watching Sol remove his spear and stand with a frown.
"There's no time for rest priest, we're in the middle of a war."
"O-of course, I simply meant-"
"That goddess is a piece of work, isn't she?" Sol asked, looking at the priest who stared at the golden light from the skies above fall on him like fairy dust. "More strength..." He stared at the majicul being absorbed by his body.
"Blessed is the hero, chosen by the goddess herself." The priest held out his hands in worship, and along with him the others all did the same. "Blessed is he who converses with the holy goddess on equal footing, we humbly ask your guidance, Hero Sol."
"Your prayers are wasted on that one." Sol stepped off the carcass and stared forward as rain clouds began gathering.
"But if you want my guidance then I'd say you better get ready for some dark days, I don't know why but the way she speaks gives me the impression that she wants to leave or at the very least doesn't plan to help for a while, it's as if she's not as invested in this fight as we are; as if this suffering is beneath her."
"Such blasphemous words coming from the blessed one." The priest shook his head. "If I had not witnessed you converse with the goddess multiple times and receive her divine blessing repeatedly I would consider you a heretic and curse the ground you tred upon." He mumbled as cold winds blew through the armies.
"I couldn't care less about any of that, I was promised anything at all I could imagine after I repelled the demon army, you best believe I'm gonna do it, whatever it takes, I'll survive and get it done." Sol cancelled the spear summon and rubbed his tired eyes.
"There's another wave of demons on the Southern horizon, I'm going back to the frontlines, I have a bad feeling about this winter." He leapt onto a large reptilian mount and started off. "Send word to Griffon, tell him to be on the highest alert and use his strength sparingly."
"As you wish."
"The hero is marching Southwards, support lines advance, vanguard Advance!" The priest raised his sceptre and a multitude of thousands of soldiers started forming up and marching behind Sol.
It was during this march to the south that the endless rain began, it was within the next few weeks that something strange happened in the heavens, five times Sol came close to death, five times he sought Ikaris, and five times she did not respond, the heavens had gone silent.
His concerns grew by the day, and after a month his patience dried up and as soon as he killed the last of a wave of demons he leapt into the air, using the authority of force; Telekinesis, to ascend until he was so high the armies below were hidden between him and clouds, and there with the sun on the cloudy horizon he continued ascending, higher than ever before until not even the winds could reach him...
the height of the world, mere metres away from the edge of the atmosphere where he could feel the gravity of Atla at his feet and the pull of the cosmos above him.
Sol took a deep breath, and then with all the majicul he possessed, and with all the power he could force out of his magically amplified lungs he screamed at the void before him.
"IKARIS!!" he called out and his voice caused the air around him to explode several times travelling through the skies and back to the surface where everyone heard him above the warring and the screams and roars, above the rain and thunder Sol's voice made waves across all of Atla, but there was nothing, no resounding divine power.
"IKARIS!!
ANSWER ME!!" Sol screamed with all his power again, and again there was no response, and in a singular moment of enlightenment before he started falling from exhaustion, Sol's consciousness was pulled to her abode, there the white that represented her divinity had been replaced by grey, her throne was empty, and there was no noise, complete emptiness, complete soundlessness, total nothingness.
As Sol's consciousness was sent crashing back into his body with a migraine he stared upward as he fell through the clouds and plumetted back into Atla, causing a crater much like his first arrival, decimating an entire section of the demon horde as he was overcome with rage and began absorbing magic in mass quantities forming waves of majicul that traversed the skies in visible leylines and crashed into him.
"Sol!" Jun caught up to him first, and then Griffon and the priest afterwards. "Sol, what happened, why did you do that?" She asked.
"She's gone."
"What?" The priest froze, and the sceptre slipped from his grasp, hitting the ground with a dramatic *Doon!* And causing the rainfall around them to freeze in place as he immediately recalled Sol's warning from a month prior.
"The goddess... Ikaris, she's gone; there's nobody there." Sol raised his hand before him, his expression fell and the water on his face trickled and stopped moving. "Without her, we can't grow in strength, our majicul will stagnate, the demons will grow stronger and surpass us completely.
"We will all die."