-Oliver-
'Oliver?'
'Yes...?'
'You can hear me?'
'I can,' I muttered, feeling... I felt like I had no body. I was nothing floating in nothingness. 'Hades?'
'It's me,' the old god said, his voice heavy. 'I wasn't sure if you could hear me. I've tried to get through to you for quite some time now, but that man was disturbing our connection.'
'You were able to hear me the entire time?' I asked.
'I did, yes,' he spoke quietly. 'To think he was able to sever our connection like that...'
'How can he be so strong...?' I whispered, but he didn't reply to me. 'Did you see what he did to me?'
'I watched when he took the part of the Echo. And your soul. I wished I could've stopped him.'
'Same... It didn't feel great...'
'But he couldn't take your strength,' Hades said with pride in his voice. 'I have a feeling he did not think this through. Your spirit cannot be controlled, especially the shadow part. He will soon learn that.'
'So if the shadow part of me is gone...?'
'That means you lost your shadow powers.'
'Fuck...'
'Indeed. But now your soul is safe from the corruption.'
'What is left of it...' I muttered. 'What happens to me now? My spirit is still in pain.'
'The wound will heal, but you will feel the emptiness inside you.'
'Can I get the other half back?'
'Yes, but... It won't be easy. The corruption is in control now, and I doubt it will want to return to you. The Echo has to be removed first, but... No one has ever managed to split an Echo like that before. We have no idea what that will cause.'
'Great... This is just great...'
'I'm sorry, Oliver. I wish I'd been there to protect you. I wish I could give you tools to protect yourself.'
I stayed silent and just floated for a while, trying to wrap my head around what had just happened.
'It happened so easily... He just kidnapped us... I know he's strong enough to defeat me. I couldn't even hurt him! He made a mistake this time but there is nothing we can do to actually stop–'
'No. You stop. He made more than one mistake today. Mistakes that cost him a lot."
I doubted his words. 'What mistakes?'
'One, he let a champion into his home,' Hades whispered, his voice almost victorious. 'Not understanding how big of a threat the Son of Fenrir really is was a stupid mistake on his part. He should've known better. Champion spirits will survive death if they want it hard enough. Jack could've destroyed the entire fortress. Did you see the fear in the enemies' eyes? They are not equipped to fight something so powerful.'
'But we didn't destroy the castle. We hardly even put a dent to it,' I noted.
'Oh, you did enough. Sending you back home was his second mistake. Understandably, he had no choice since he underestimated you and your friends. He had to cast you out to protect his home. That place is too important to him.'
'What do you mean? How do you know that?'
Hades laughed. It was a very evil laugh. 'Because thanks to his mistakes, we now know his secrets.'
'Secrets? What secrets?'
'You had to know what you're looking for,' Hades said. 'He was surprised when Fenrir was able to enter the castle. He was even more surprised when you were able to use your powers. The castle must be surrounded with powerful protections, but his own men were able to teleport in and out as they pleased. And not all of them were Spirit Walkers.'
'So what does that mean?'
'It seems like the enemy has drawn inspiration from the peacekeeper fortress. I'm not an expert on this matter, but in my eyes, his castle is similar to the fortress of Arlona. I think you should tell the peacekeepers about my suspicions.'
'I will. But that is only one secret. What else did you learn?'
He let out a deep, long sigh. 'I now know who he is. And what he is.'
'What?! You do? Why didn't you start with that?!'
'Come on, like you don't already know the answer, human,' Hades said, and suddenly, my senses blew up.
Not literally, but I was suddenly surrounded by loud, panicky voices, bright lights, and pain all over my body, not only my spirit.
"Oliver? Oliver! Can you hear me?!"
"I wish you had no voice right now..." I muttered and managed to focus my eyes enough to see Jaden right above me, staring down at me with fear in his eyes.
"Are you all right?" he asked, helping me to sit up on the snowy ground.
"Define all right," I said, taking a short look around.
We were back where we got kidnapped. Everyone was there: Jaden, Arch, Tilly, Jack, Cedric, and Cameron. They were exhausted, but unharmed. Our little group was surrounded by what looked like hundreds of people. All scared, but all ready to fight.
"I'm fine. Ish. Kind of... My head hurts," I muttered. "Among other things..."
"What happened?"
I looked up, and my eyes were met with Rayleigh's. He was absolutely furious.
"I could use a moment," I muttered, closing my eyes again. I was exhausted. Thinking was a struggle. It was still hard to understand what had just happened. "I could use water."
"Are we under attack now?" Rayleigh asked.
"I... don't think so," I said. "He's busy with his new toy."
Rayleigh nodded and turned on his heels. "Take them to the Hall. Make sure they get everything they need. Make sure they're unharmed."
Jaden picked me up in his arms, and I let him carry me. I had no strength to even argue back. I laid my head on his shoulder, closed my eyes, and pressed my hand on my chest. I could feel my spirit bleeding and trembling. I was not unharmed. I was badly hurt. How could I heal from this? I was missing half of my spirit! How could I heal from that?
I forced that thought out of my head. I didn't want to think about what happened. I didn't want to think at all.
Then there was the fear. No matter what Hades had told me, I was still afraid. The enemy had kidnapped us so easily it scared me, and after a short battle in which I couldn't even hurt him, he'd sent us back like we were a mere nuisance. Unwanted guests.
What did it matter that we knew what he could do, or who he was? We had no means of defeating him.
"You're all right, Oliver," Jaden whispered. "You're strong. Stronger than you think. You fought so hard. You could've defeated him if he hadn't sent us away like the coward he is."
But he was not a coward, we all knew that.
Even Jaden's strength didn't help this time, though it had a lot to do with the fact that he was just as scared as I was. We all were. I could feel only fear in this big mass of people who followed us to the Hall. They all felt just as helpless as I did.
How could we win? How could we even fight? My blast did nothing... It destroyed a big chunk of the castle, but I didn't even scratch him.
"Oliver!"
I heard Natalie's voice somewhere close by. I heard so many scared voices close by. Ben, Aurora, and Alastair calling for Tilly. Arch's parents calling for their son. Thisalee. So may others. I heard the whispering growing louder as the fear took over. I assumed my friends hadn't had the time to tell anyone what happened, but they could tell something horrible had happened.
They all could tell we had no hope.
None.
"Oliver!" Natalie spoke my name in horror when she reached us. Jaden had to stop to let her hug me, but he refused to let me down.
"Are you all right? What happened? What did he do?" Natalie asked in a weak, trembling voice.
"I..." I'd lost my voice. I just wanted to cry and hide. I was so exhausted... I felt like the darkness of the world was slowly wrapping me into its cold, deadly embrace.
"We need to get him to the Hall," Jaden told Natalie. "Bad things happened."
"What...?" Natalie breathed out and followed us closely as Jaden continued walking.
We didn't get far.
"Stop."
Jaden turned around. Jack stood there with Arch, looking a bit timid, especially when the rest of the people stopped to see what was going on. Silence fell, so Jack took a deep breath and put his chin up, looking directly at me.
"What he said just before he kicked us out... He was just trying to play tricks on us. You know that, right?" he said. "That is all he can do. We've been through this already. He wants us to be scared. He wanted to throw you off balance, but in reality, he couldn't do anything to you."
"He stole half of the Echo. Of my spirit," I said.
"He did, but we still have you," Jack said. "Do not let him scare you."
"You saw him, Jack. My powers did nothing to him, so what can we do?" I said.
He gave me a sad smile. "You get up. That's all you have to do. You get up. And you fight."
"How can we fight someone like him?" I whispered.
"That's easy," he said, and turned into a wolf.
And he grew. He grew big.
"Oh, yeah, he can do that now," Jaden said and smirked at me. "Forgot to mention."
I and the rest of us stared at Jack with wide eyes while his size grew so big we had to crank our heads all the way back to see his massive form looming high above the tallest trees. He howled, his voice deep like mountains. The earth shook from the sound of his voice, sending birds and other animals scurrying to safety.
When he fell silent, the world fell silent with him.
"That... should take care of the physical army," Rayleigh muttered, his eyes just as wide as mine.
A Champion. I was looking at a champion in his true form and strength.
And his spirit...
"Imagine an Alpha spirit that has been pushed to the limit for months and months."
That's what Selene said to me months ago. She also said the enemy would regret their decision to try to break Jack's spirit.
Jack slowly brought his nose closer to us. I was the size of his nose. Just the tip of his nose, not even the whole muzzle. When he breathed out, I had to hold on to my clothes.
Get up, Harbinger.
I stared at him, but not for long. I nodded, and Jaden helped me down on my feet. I carefully reached toward Jack's nose with my hand, and he lowered his head even more so I could touch him.
"Thank you," I whispered.
Jack lifted his head back up, nodded at me and started returning to his regular-sized human body, while I turned around to face Rayleigh.
"We were attacked. The enemy managed to steal half of my soul and use it against us. We had to fight him, but... We couldn't hurt him. He had to kick us out in order to protect his home. That's how we got back."
"He stole your soul?" the Alpha repeated as we continued walking.
"Part of it, yes. He had a machine that could steal the Echo from me, but Jack broke it. He can probably fix it, but he'll settle with the dark half for now. And he made a new body for the part of my spirit he stole. It looks exactly like me, but has no color."
"Wait, wait, wait. What?" Rayleigh asked with a frown.
"I know. Things are getting crazier. Again. But we have news, and I have to speak with the peacekeepers," I said.
"Are you sure you don't need to rest first?" Rayleigh asked.
"I'm fine. I only got bruises when I was thrown down a set of stairs," I explained. "I don't know what we can do about my spirit."
"We will find a way to heal it," Natalie said, her voice much stronger now as well.
This was not the right time to worry over my spirit. I was alive, and the pain was slowly subsiding.
"I also lost my shadow powers," I said, feeling something nasty in my stomach.
"Does that mean... You're free from the corruption?" Rayleigh asked, and I nodded. "So at least that's one thing less to worry about."
"Indeed. I can still fight against shadows as a Spirit Walker."
I really didn't miss that part of the Echo. Behind the pain, I felt... free. Like it was easier to breathe. I didn't need to fight against murderous tendencies anymore.
"Maybe he did me a favor," I muttered.
We reached the Hall a moment later. Jaden and Natalie refused to leave my side as we climbed up the stairs. The second we reached the top of it, five peacekeepers appeared in front of us, and only a second later, a handful of gods joined us too.
"We are deeply sorry. We were unable to follow you," Aadhil said, looking concerned and apologetic. "We tried, but we couldn't even find you. We found no traces to follow."
"You were just... gone," added Selene, clearly trying her best to stay composed. "Where did he take you?"
"Hades has a theory," I said, gesturing for them to follow me inside. "And you're not going to like it."
My words did not ease up their minds – on the contrary – but they didn't ask anything until we had privacy. I stopped next to the table and stared at its surface while the rest gathered around. I tried to remember every single word the enemy had spoken to me, and what Hades had told me as I waited for everyone to settle down.
And I kept Jack's words close to me. It gave me the strength I needed. He was right. Getting back up was all we could do. We still had to keep fighting, no matter how small our chances seemed to be.
"When he took us to the castle..." I began when silence fell in the hall. "At first, I couldn't use my powers. I couldn't even feel them. Cedric and Cameron were gone. He said... He said it was his world. That there we had to play by his rules."
"Did he take you out of this realm?" Rayleigh asked, trying to understand my words.
"I'm not sure. It was like we were on Earth. Snow. Trees. Air. Hades wanted to point out that the castle seemed similar to Arlona. The Shadow Walkers and others were able to teleport in and out as they pleased, but the protections were heavy enough to keep everyone else outside."
I looked at Aadhil, whose concern was growing. He glanced at his friends, then at me.
"There were werewolves and vampires who could teleport in and out," I added.
"When I attacked them," Jack said slowly, "They vanished the same way you peacekeepers do. Into a dust cloud."
"That castle..." Ben muttered. "Could it be another peacekeeper fortress?"
"There's no record of another one," Aadhil muttered, but he was clearly considering the option.
"Even we don't know how Arlona came to be," Ben noted.
Aadhil frowned and let out a deep breath. "This enemy... If he was behind the attack against our fortress years ago... What if his plan was not to take our fortress, but to build one of his own?"
"If he knew how to power it..."
"But he would need..."
All the peacekeepers perked up at the same time.
"The stone," Aadhil gasped. "We need to inspect the heart of our fortress."
"If he took a piece, he could power up another fortress with it," Ben said, and everyone except for Aadhil vanished.
I gave him a moment to recover, but when he seemed to have forgotten the rest of us, I cleared my throat.
"I'm sorry," the peacekeeper said. "We may have made a terrible mistake."
"What is the heart of the fortress?" I asked.
"The source of our power. It's a big stone. A gift from our creator," Aadhil muttered. "It is possible to power up another fortress with a part of ours."
"What does that mean to us?" Rayleigh asked.
Aadhil took a deep breath. "Bad things, but also, if it really is made of our power, we know how to deal with it. We just need to get to it."
Rayleigh nodded, and the atmosphere rose up a bit.
"Is there anything else you can tell us?" the Alpha asked me.
I nodded. "I think I know who he is," I said quietly, and if I hadn't already gained their attention, now they all held their breath as they stared at me.
"Did he give you his name?"
I shook my head. "Like I said earlier, when he stole half of my spirit, he made a new body for it."
"What? How?" Rayleigh asked.
"He took his own rib and turned it into one," I said.
My words were met by groans and disappointed sighs. Every single god in the room reacted to my words. And they were not happy. Helios let out a deep breath and rubbed his temples. Selene rolled her eyes.
"Are you kidding me...?" muttered Sekhmet.
"For the love of..." someone else cursed.
I took a deep breath. "His name is Adam."