After my sanity was regained from that hellish nightmare. I needed to escape. But I was still injured, my ribs pulsed against me. I groaned, "Come on." My wings were burnt, my legs were weak, I was alone.
I managed to prop myself against a gravel wall. I know I said that my sanity was healed. But I stood at the dead center of my dream. A bead of sweat rolls down my panting face. My heart almost in my throat.
A vague image of Pittoo fighting me plays out in my head.
He held onto my Raptor Claws with the full intention of slaying me. I started into his eyes, like looking into a lion. Pent-up rage and conviction swelled in him, I could tell. He was hurt. His body trembled, with what emotion I couldn't tell. All of these things reminded me of when we first met.
Why was he so mad? What did I do?
That wasn't me.
I couldn't move without hurting myself, but I had to get out. I was lost. No goddess to save me or an idiot brother to rely on. This was the first time that I was genuinely alone.
I was lost.
That's when it hit me, I stopped breath for only a second. I checked on my wings.
My wings weren't burnt, they were gone. I saw them. -or where they were- blackened by the ash. They were only the bones, everything else was scorched during the fall. The sound of wind echoed in my mind. I couldn't fly. I was a wingless angel. I was a human with an inhuman fantasy of flying.
My wish would be, to fly by myself!
My strength left me, I collapsed on the ground. I tried to hold myself together, but I couldn't I was cradling the broken angel, me. "Palutena!" I cried. I wanted to hear her voice. I wanted to hear her encourage me to go on. I wanted to hear Viridi's cheery voice help me on the way.
And I wanted to hear Pittoo lecture me on what I did wrong and what he could do better. I wanted to leap into their arms, to know that what I did was for the best. I wanted me and Pittoo to fly away, feeling the wind by our side, smelling the fresh air, and overhearing children play and birds sing.
Nothing.
Only my screams to keep me sane. But I was even losing that.
I had no wings to fly on, only faint memories to be nostalgic by. The wind was against me, whipping me and breaking me down. The fragrance of this area was of ashes, smoke, and blood. And all that I heard, was the cackling of rogue fires, the hiss of smoke, and the echo of tears.
I wanted to continue on. My legs weren't the damaged part of me, it was me. My body burned inside, but I shivered. My eyes were wet but they were on fire. My heart was here but not my hope. My figure tensed, but I was weak.
I was hopeless without someone pushing me. Or dragging me.
I looked around, blocking the image of the battlefield. The floor was of red of some type of gravel, or maybe it was just dried blood. I was standing in the center. All around me , the floor slowly ascended into spike, protruding in every direction. I looked up at the sky, or where it should've been. The clouds were ebony. The stars weren't there, neither was the moon or sun.
Was it day? Or night?
"Come to me.... Come to me.... COME TO ME O' SACRED ONE!"
My throat clenched. I stopped shaking. The small noises around me ceased. I turned, watching any movement. Nothing. I was slowly losing my sanity.
This world was messing with me. Or was I already mad?
The ground broke beneath me, but only to reveal the spiny creatures that made this all happen. The Chaos Kin.
It wriggled and hissed, its wings flapped profoundly. I gritted my teeth at the sight of this horrid creature. He's the reason too many things happened to Pittoo and me. I reached for my Raptor Claws. I simply grabbed air. I tried to make distance between us, fully ignoring my newly made injuries. I haphazardly collapsed in a heap on the crimson gravel.
It twitched and crawled closer to me, it's hissing intensified. I had to act fast. I looked for anything to help me. All that was at my beck and call were some rocks. I had to make use of it. Once my fingers wrapped around a medium sized rock, I turned to face the creature, who was too close for comfort. The monster inched its way closer. I threw the rock. Bashing its side, it stumbled back howling, growing even more ferocious than before. I readied myself with another stone, and for another strike.
It staggered with its dragon-fly wings beating repeatedly. "Come at me you sick bastard." I taunted. Apparently the Chaos Kin can understand human language. The Kin's movement were more agile.
It took of to the sky, leaving me to only follow the Chaos Kin's pattern. But it was too fast. I watched their actions as accurate as possible, but I wasn't fast enough. It descended with haste. It doesn't usually fight like this. What's going on?
I hated it when my enemies improve when I'm gone and or unconscious.
It landed on my blindside, my broken back. I turned chucking a few rocks in its eyes. The skeletal tail lashes out, piercing through my hand. Blood pools out as I scream, having my voice echo in the never ending chasm, my sanity was in pieces. Now, it's only a battle with me and this hellish creature.
No weapon. No other worldly powers. Just me and it.
I clutch my bleeding arm, but this parasite didn't back down. The Chaos Kin swung its hook at me once again, cutting my cheek, I winced, but seized the hook with my unharmed hand. The creature was now in a blind panic. It whipped itself back and forth, trying to have me let go.
My grasp on the monster loosened, but not just because it died, it vanished. Fear came down like an uneasy tidal wave.
I'm an idiot! Why did I forget it could make replicas!
I listened closely, hearing only my pained gasps. I ignored my cheek wound, but I tried to tenderly heal my hand. It was shook involuntarily. I waited and my tears couldn't stop.
I was terrified. I was alone, I even wished for Hades's annoying cooes now. My legs were barely keeping me up. "Palutena... please."
".... COME TO ME O' SACRED ONE! THE HEAVEN'S NAIVE LAPDOG! YOUR FATE IS SEALED WHEN YOU DOUBTED YOURSELF! DOUBT YOUR VERY EXISTENCE!"
I couldn't react in time. The ground cracked and broke behind me, the real Chaos Kin emerged. It leaped into action, its tail curving an arc around to collide with me. I yelled.
"No!"
It made contact.
It slid effortlessly through my stomach and latched to my soul. The feeling of it was that unsatisfying feeling of hot wire and cold butter. It eased past my chest, past my ribs and organs. The feeling of my soul being ripped out of my chest, it was unbearable. I tried for words but none came. It was so slow. The pain nagged my throat, my chest. Tears were my response for this mutiny.
"P-Palutena." I choked.
But it didn't pull it out, it changed it. My whole being tensed. I was being changed. The colors of my eyes reddened. New strength that I didn't want came to me. I screamed, my old memories fading away. I tried to clutch to them with fondness, but they slipped past my grasp. I crumpled to the ground, clutching my chest. There was no wound, only the sensation of my insides burning. My tears burned my eyes.
I pleaded for help, crying to the invisible person who might be watching. My weak voice reached out for nothing. I attempted to reach out for something.
"Help... please."
Once the creature was done, it shaded into an ashy gray outer layer and crumbled in a pile of dust. I felt someone, something, inside me. It was the Chaos Kin. A new weight took my chest. I felt the presence of a man standing in front of me. I looked up.
"Hello." It introduced. It wasn't the flimsy skeletal monster that I remembered. It was me.
It had beige ruffled hair, with a bloodied tunic. Red beady eyes that watched me with eagerness. I was overshadowed by the blood-soaked wings. That was me. The eyes glowed dimly, his wide eyed expression was frozen to the touch.
Bit by bit, my dream was coming into a reality.