The God of Courage (boyxboy)

Chapter 18: Punishment

2 WEEKS 1 DAY

Raja thought it was all just some cruel joke.

He woke up in a sweat. He felt like he had been set into a stone oven to cook alive but in reality, he was in the healing ward again. The stone was definitely aged, an old wing of the castle yet to be remodeled? The beds around him were torn and scattered about. The torches on the walls were made of a misty white flame instead of a normal orange hue.

No one was there with him. It looked different from the other one he was in. 

"What . . . ?"

"Okay, um . . . don't freak out again," Said a timid voice.

Raja looked to his side. It was Leo again, but it wasn't.

He waved, clearing his throat as he pointed to Raja, "You just passed out! I recognized what was happening to you . . . You were getting sick. I know that feeling. I felt it too."

Raja stayed quiet, trying to get a good look at him. He had the same markings as he did on his face. He wore tattered clothes. He had horns. 

"You felt it?" Raja repeated, blinking as he tried to understand, "Why . . . why do you look like Noble? Or Leo . . ."

The Leo lookalike walked over and sat at the end of the bed, pulling his legs to his chest, "Because I am Noble. I was. You don't really know about the reincarnation cycle, do you?"

Raja nodded, "I mean, I do. We know that there were a few gods who chose to walk with mortals at the cost of continuous reincarnation. Scholars have managed to deduce that there were twelve gods on the lunar pantheon, but the first three haven't been discovered . . ." Raja then caught himself, "Sorry . . . I learned about it in school."

The man hummed, "Well, it's true. I am . . . Luna's first child."

Raja blinked, "You are?"

"I was the first to fall down with mortals. I split my being into two because I was lonely. Kanatos. It's his . . . real name. I haven't heard that name in a while," Leo chuckled.

Kanatos. That struck a chord in him. It felt familiar like the cold.

"Your brand prevents a lot, does it? Hurts like you're burning in a blazing sun. I've had the power to call upon him to aid me. We are split but when we are together, we are always fluid as one . . ."

"You didn't answer my question . . . entirely," Raja spoke up.

"Oh! Why do I look like your Leo? That's because that is me in a different life. You see, Luna died. Her life force was yanked out of her by the villain Raidon, or Valider in my time. He diluted the bloodline. He was my descendant to the throne, but he abused it. Luna's power . . . rejected him. The amount made his being explode. Naturally, the power befell to me in her passing. I . . . I couldn't handle it.

"Do you know how hard it is to look at you? You have his voice, his name, his body. You look exactly like him . . . but the Raja I loved is dead and has blossomed into you. There is another version of me walking around that, knowing myself,  will follow you until the ends of the earth. I'm just baffled at how you are not the lion. You were always the lion . . ." His words trailed off.

Raja stared down at him. He had been the one to turn into a great being like a snow lion? The thought was crazy to think about.

"So you're saying that . . . the roles have switched somehow?" Raja questioned. 

Leo nodded frantically, "Yes! I do not know how! I don't know if it had to do with Raja killing me or . . ."

Raja held up his hand, "Wait a second . . . so you're telling me that the guilt he wrote down is from him killing you?"