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Chapter 96: Risen From The Ashes "Where am I?" I looked around in surprise. I was hovering in the air above what appeared to be a corpse of a winged woman. Her wings were dull gray in colour, and there was a mutant porcupine-scorpion monstrosity crawling out of the room. "Who am I?" I wondered, then took a look at myself. My body was pale gray, as if I was a spirit of some sort. I descended to the corpse and tried to roll it over to see who it was, but my hands passed through it. "Am I......?" I stared at the now vaguely familiar corpse. "Dead?" Everything came back to me now. My name was Artemis. I was fighting the Ragnarok, otherwise known as the human Saevio, King of all demons. Previously he had used some kind of suppression magic to disable my fighting spirit and then kill me heartlessly. So how was I still in this world? I should have ascended to Heaven or descended to Hell by now. "You are not dead." The ...... My eyes flew open and I stood up, flexing my fingers. "Thank you, mum." I whispered as my previously dull-gray wings burst into flames and melded together into two long flaming wings. "There's a problem. I'm the only Inner Beast you have now since none of the others are capable of living through death except if the host gives birth. You'll have to make do with solely me. AND the goddess Artemis." Fielda explained. My hair turned orange. "She's here too?" I asked in surprise. "She's a goddess! She's immortal. Use your common sense." Fielda groaned. I chuckled lightly and flapped my After a few fruitless punches, I fell back and summoned the Godion Bow. It was the name of Artemis's Goddess Bow fused with my own Archaeion. The goddess's strength filled my arms as I nocked one single Soul Arrow to the string, aiming right for Saevio's heart and firing. The moment I released the string, the arrow had hit it's mark. Unlike my previous efforts, this one actually cracked the shell. The terror particles stopped. "Looks like you hit him where it hurt." Fielda chuckled. "I'm serious now, so don't get on my bad side. Oh, right, you ARE on my bad side." I smiled devilishly, and unleashed another flurry of arrows. This time, Saevio conjured up a magical barrier to protect himself, but every single one of my arrows caused the shield to crack wherever they hit. He grunted and abandoned the shield, utilizing the heavy armour on his claws to deflect the arrows. "I've got you now!" I shrieked, flying right at Saevio's neck and reaching out a blazing fist imbued with the I could feel the difference in power between me and Saevio now. My anger only increased my powers, and it grew with every punch, kick, or arrow I managed to land on the hulking beast. He was being cornered slowly now. Finally, with a mighty roar, Saevio flung me into a wall, but I was back on him in a second. He was getting offensive now, snapping his claws and pincers at me. It was getting harder for me to close in on him. Every now and then, Saevio managed to nick some skin off me, but it wasn't such a big deal. In fact, the wounds automatically healed themselves in a few seconds, accompanied by a small flash of light. My eyes were blazing with power now, and I was practically dancing around Saevio, dishing out punches, kicks and arrows on the fly. Finally, I managed to back Saevio into a corner. "This is for Alexis!" I shrieked, landing a hard punch on Saevio's chest. The shell cracked. "THIS IS FOR ARES!" I punched him in the exact same spot. The crack became wider. Then, I lost control. My body started moving by itself, completely punching up the cornered beast even as it roared in pain. The shell cracked entirely, and a couple of arrows easily sliced off the spikes. "GRAAH!!!" Saevio shrieked. I saw him trying to form a seal with two of his remaining claws and quickly cut them off. His eyes widened in horror. "IF YOU THINK I'LL LET YOU DO MORE MAGIC, YOU'RE WRONG!" I yelled, totally berserk. The Harbinger suddenly appeared in my hands as I flew down under Saevio's body. One quick stab pierced through the weakened shell and I flapped my wings as hard as possible, flying straight upwards. The Harbinger cut through Saevio's armour like a hot knife through butter, and sliced through his head. My wings relaxed and I started hovering in the air a bit further away. "Invincible my ass." I chuckled and loaded two huge arrow bombs. Both had power comparable to that of mini-nuclear warheads. A few seconds later, both halves of Saevio's body were burning. "Not...so...fast..." Saevio's voice suddenly rang through the air. I looked around, trying to find the source. There was a lone skull helmet hovering in the air. I nocked and arrow to my bowstring and shot at it. It simply dodged it and flew towards me, clamping onto my head. "Mental hijacking? I don't think so." I snorted, trying to tug the helmet off even as black veins started to creep down my forehead. This thing was slow, so it wasn't much of a problem. "Can't blame a guy for trying." Saevio shrugged as I tugged the helmet off and stamped on it, finally nocking another arrow to my string and blowing the helmet to pieces. I sank to the ground, exhausted but triumphant. "There's still something you need to take care of." Fielda said softly. I nodded and got up, aiming a shining arrow at the open Demon Gate. The arrow hit the Demon Gate's opening and went right through, causing the energy on this side to dissipate. Just as it went through, loud roars could be heard from outside. As the Demon Gate disappeared, I turned around and walked a few steps towards the exit before collapsing. ...... I woke up in a soft bed. "Huh?" I looked around. The Harbinger and the Godion Bow were lying on a nearby table, glinting in the sunlight. I smiled and caressed the bow's shaft. Suddenly, I noticed that someone was sleeping beside me. I rubbed my eyes. "Ares?" I mumbled, surprised. A low yawn from the mouth of the person confirmed it. "Hey, you know what time it is? I'm trying to get some sleep......" He moaned, getting up. I chuckled lightly and got up, noticing that I was wearing a pair of pink pajamas with a set of black lacy underwear underneath. I felt my cheeks turn red as I turned around. "Did you dress me?" I asked. Ares got up, rubbing his eyes. "Couldn't have you going out of the subway like that. You okay? Where's Alexis?" He explained sleepily. A solitary tear streaked down my right cheek. "She...... She took a magical bast for me." I started crying and Ares hugged me tightly into his chest. "At least you two did what you came to do." He patted me on my back. When I had finally stopped crying, Ares offered to bring me out. "The city was pretty much decimated, but the survivors are doing what they can do fix things up. The house we were in was the first one they managed to fix, and they insisted that we have it. You did save the world after all." Ares explained as I started taking off my pajamas. A quick thought produced a black vest and black shorts, which I put on quickly. "When I got down there, I found you lying on the ground naked. Sure looked like you had a big fight, the entire subway was demolished." Ares added as we opened the door and walked out. I flexed my arm tiredly. My entire body felt sore. The first thing I saw when I took the first step out of the house was a snowflake landing on my nose and a snowy white landscape. "It's Christmas by the way, and there's a present waiting for you." Ares laughed as "I've already been to Ellinia. It's ravaged, but Grendel survived, and the trees are growing back. The demons just...... fell over and disappeared after a sudden earthquake." Ares explained, reading my mind. "What about the other cities?" I asked. "All of the job masters survived and the towns are being rebuilt. Quite okay." He replied. Everyone the 9 of us passed by had their eyes wide open and were usually staring at me. Most of them cheered as I passed by. "A lot of people that evacuated to Orbis are coming back. The ships were too loaded." Kagome said. "Everything's fine now thanks to you. You should be happy. I'm sure Alexis would want you to be too." Timmy said. I had explained to the others about the big fight earlier on. At the mention of Alexis's name, a tear streaked down my cheek. "Yeah...... I guess she would." I looked towards the sky. An image of her face seemed to appear in the air for a moment. Suddenly, I vomited on the ground. "What?" I gasped. As far as I knew, I didn't have any health problems. Ares looked like he had seen a ghost. He quickly placed his ear to my stomach. The rest crowded around. He finally stood up with a happy expression on his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a baby." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A week later...... "Artemis, congratulations." Kagome announced. I nodded appreciatively and swung around, admiring my wedding dress. It was a long, flowing white one, with white roses all around the hem of the skirt. The white veil contrasted my black hair, but it was really nice. Ares walked into the room in his own wedding suit. He held his arms out. "Well?" He smiled. "Very nice." I laughed, hugging him tightly. This cathedral was the very first one in Kerning that the survivors had managed to rebuild. Of course, it was a little patchy in a few areas, but it was fine. For the occasion, almost the entire city was present. My friends were in the very front rows, while the surviving Heaven's Elite members milled around behind them, chatting in excited tones. The Three Brothers were all in casts and they couldn't wave without hearing something crack. Lightning and Fury were professionals at dodging and only suffered minor injuries. Dray had his right arm in a cast, and waved with his left hand. Kyrios was bouncing up and down in his seat, and he fell off a few times to the other people's amusement. Lopez wasn't present again. He had been missing for the past week and had been presumed MIA. Most of us were to reluctant to pronounce him dead, but I believed that he had probably gone off to train. Somewhere in the "Acchooo!" Lopez sneezed as he was loading a crossbow bolt into place. Okay, enough with all the sneezing stuff. Back to Kerning...... The wedding went on rather smoothly, although there were a few accidents every now and then. One involved me stepping on a rotten floorboard on the floor and nearly getting my foot stuck in the resulting hole. Snow continually fell into the cathedral through the bad roof, but the residents put up with it. The ceremony ended rather quickly, and Ares and me were soon walking out in our wedding clothes. "Sorry, all the cars were hunks of smoking metal." Ares apologized. "There's nothing we can do about that." I sighed, and Ares escorted me back to the house. 9 months later...... I was panting really badly as I was wheeled into the hospital on a gurney. An extremely worried Ares followed beside, calling out my name. "Don't give up!" He cheered me on. I felt the baby in my oversized belly kick again, and I bit down the impulse to scream. My vision was blurring too. "Are...s..." I moaned painfully as the gurney was wheeled into the operation room. "Is this the end for me?" I thought as an attendant sent a sleeping potion down my throat. I fell asleep. ...... Ares paced outside, really worried. The operation lasted several hours. One of the best surgeons in the city had agreed to perform the operation, but still, he was worried. Artemis wasn't in her best condition, she was still recovering from her big fight last year. When the "Operation In Progress" light finally turned off, he waited at the door anxiously. There was a baby crying inside. "Yes!" Ares rejoiced. Suddenly, the door burst open, revealing a saddened procession of nurses and surgeons with Artemis's gurney following behind. One of the nurses was carrying a baby. Ares's mood instantly changed. "Your daughter made it, but......" The nurse carrying the baby handed the baby to Ares, who accepted it cautiously, staring at the face of his wife. "Artemis......" He caressed the cheeks of his wife. Her eyes and mouth were closed in an eternally peaceful slumber. "Sleep well, my love." Ares whispered, tears flowing out of his eyes. "The baby's a she, right?" He asked the surgeon. The surgeon nodded. "Then we'll call her......" The image of a tall, silver-haired woman came into his mind for some reason. "Reika." |
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