by N. P. Martin
But I wouldn’t let him relinquish his grip as my power not only blocked his vile poison from entering my body, but also began to surround us both in a semi-transparent bubble that swirled with many colors against the black backdrop of the valley. Gripping his hand tighter, I pulled him closer toward me. "The only thing assured here is your arrogance," I said. "And where you’re going next."
"No!" he shouted, realizing his mistake, but it was too late. Even as he swung his other arm toward me in an attempt to knock me away from him, we we’re already flying through time and space inside the bubble created by my power, and within a matter of seconds, we were standing in the lush green environment of the Eternal Forest. Letting go of his hand, I took a few steps back as he remained standing where he was, for the first time a look of fear on his darkened face as he looked around aghast at where he was. "Where is this place? Where have you brought me?"
"To a place where the life-force is so strong that even you can’t negate it," I said.
Quivering with rage, Erebus tried to use his dark power to blacken the lush vegetation around him, to poison the earth as he had done in the valley. But even as his darkness spilled from him, it was immediately cancelled out and overwhelmed by the vegetation that was already beginning to grow around him, fastening him to the ground so that he could no longer move, no matter how much poison he pumped out or how much he struggled. The greenness soon covered almost his entire body, and roots began to grow out of his feet and legs, roots which made their way down to the ground and burrowed deep, effectively chaining Erebus to the ground itself. He screamed and struggled as more and more roots and shoots not only grew over him, but through him, entwining around his body until the blackness of his skin could no longer be seen. The only thing that was visible now was his face, and that was because I commanded the vegetation to hold back.
"You can’t do this!" he roared, his voice not only full of rage, but also despair, for he knew he would never escape from the green bonds that held him rooted to the earth beneath his feet.
"I just did," I said as I stepped close to him. "You will remain a prisoner here in the Eternal Forest for, well…eternity, I’d say."
"This can’t be!" he cried. "I was supposed to destroy it all! The prophecy…"
"Was wrong. You see, Erebus, even fate can be changed, something you were too arrogant to realize."
"I’ll escape these bonds!" he bellowed as the greenery began to cover the rest of his face. "I will kill you! I will kill all—" His voice was cut off as a thick shoot went down his throat, and more wrapped around his face, until there was nothing left but something that resembled a natural sculpture, standing in the middle of a clearing within the vast forest.
"Goodbye, Erebus," I said. "Enjoy eternity."
Chapter 20
When I teleported back to the valley, I saw that both armies—or what was left of them—were still standing at opposite ends of the battlefield, as if they were unsure of what to do now that Erebus was gone. Apep, though, was still peering through from his own dimension, his enormous black tentacles poking through into this world as if to gauge the energy here. Looking up at him, I began to address the great god. "The battle is over!" I shouted up to him. "Your son is now imprisoned in the Eternal Forest. Leave this world now!"
In response, Apep issued a mighty roar that hurt the ears as it reverberated through the still dark sky, following up the roar with something that sounded like speech, and which could’ve been the word, "Die!" though I couldn’t be sure. At any rate, the rift in the sky began to get bigger as Apep seemed to begin to force himself through, his great tentacles slithering through like angry cosmic serpents. There was no doubt he was pissed off, and he intended to show us all just how pissed off by destroying the world by himself.
As Mirahorn and his remaining army came to join me in the center of the valley as if for protection, I stood gazing up at that titanic monstrosity as it continued to force itself through the rift. I may have managed to outwit Erebus, but I wasn’t going to do the same with his father, nor did I think I would have enough power to stop him coming through into this world.
But just as panic began to spread from me to those standing around, a voice suddenly boomed in the darkness behind us. As everyone looked, a colossal figure emerged from the black smoke, standing perhaps two stories high.
Cernunnos. My father.
He came striding forth on cloven hooves, bare chested, his great antlers spanning the width of an average airplane. In his hand, he held the biggest sword I have ever seen, which he pointed up at Apep. "Get back you foul abomination!" he commanded. "If you come through to this world, I swear I will strike you down! Then I will imprison you in the Eternal Forest along with your son!"
Apep roared in response, but his roar didn’t contain the same rage that it did before. This one sounded more like frustration, born from the knowledge that he would have to retreat. I’m not sure if the dark god could’ve taken on Cernunnos and won, and neither was he, which is why he soon started to retreat just as I came to stand next to Cernunnos. "Thanks for coming…Dad," I said, looking up at him with a smile on my face.
Cernunnos, for all his ferocity and godly arrogance, managed to smile as he looked down at me. "That old goat up there isn’t playing fair," he said. "I just came to see that he does."
"Lucky for us," I said.
Apep continued his retreat, and soon the last of his abominable coils disappeared into the rift in the dark sky, before the rift itself closed completely. When it did, a long silence settled across the valley, as if no one knew what to do next. When I looked around, I saw that Mirahorn and his remaining band of soldiers had all gathered nearby to gaze upon the bearded majesty that was Cernunnos. Then suddenly they all cheered at once, many of them crying tears of joy, not only because the battle was finally over, but also because they had won. We had won.
As I stood smiling over at them all, a figure suddenly broke from the group, and as they came running toward me, I saw with great joy that it was Amelia, though I hardly recognized her she was covered in so much dirt and blood. As I stepped forward to meet her, she immediately threw her arms around me and hugged me tighter than anyone ever has. There were tears in her eyes when she pulled back to look at me. "I thought you were dead until you showed up again," she said, then punched me in the chest hard enough for me to cry out in pain. "Don’t ever leave like that again, do you hear me?"
Smiling, I nodded. "I hear you."
"You better had."
I looked up at Cernunnos, then at Amelia. "Amelia, I’d like you to meet my father, Cernunnos."
Amelia stared up at the towering god and nodded once. "Thank you," she said.
"Yes," Mirahorn said, who had now joined us. "Thank you, Cernunnos, and thank you, Corvin, most of all."
I smiled and nodded, but I was hardly looking at him. As everyone else came forward to gaze upon Cernunnos, I was looking for Dalia and Monty. It wasn’t long before I spotted them both at the back of the crowd, seemingly holding each other up. Moving past the crowd, I went to them, and as I did, Dalia punched me hard on the shoulder. "Nice of you to show up," she said.
"Jesus," I said rubbing my shoulder, even though it hardly hurt. "Why’s everybody hitting me for?"
"Because you’re an asshole for going off and doing things on your own without telling anybody where you are going," she said.
"We thought you were dead, bro, that Erebus had killed you," Monty said.
I shook my head. "I did what I had to do. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again."
"Bullshit," Dalia said. "You know it will."
"Look, just shut up and give me a damn hug…both of you," I said, pulling them both into me and holding them for a long moment. "I love you guy’s."
"Yeah," Dalia said, her voice softened somewhat now. "We love you too."
Chapter 21
The great battle in the Valley of Death, as it soon became known, claimed many lives. Most of Mirahorn’s Order of the S
erpent was wiped out, leaving only Mirahorn, Adrina and a dozen others still standing to tell the tale. Of course, the Disciples suffered casualties as well, but not as many. After Apep made his exit, so too did the surviving Disciples. However, before they even left the battlefield, Adrina and Constantine vowed to hunt them all done, killing them until there were no Disciples left in the world to taint it with any further evil. As for Erebus, his poison was still working its way through the land and sea, continuing to turn everything black as it negated the life-force within. Along with Cernunnos, however, I managed to use my powers to put a stop to the spread of the poison, and together we both restored the life that was taken from the Earth. By the time we had finished, the valley we were standing in was lush and green once more, and in the surrounding hills, full grown trees exploded from the ground as people watched on in astonishment. Soon, the land and sea were back to how they were and teeming with life once more. When we were done, Cernunnos simply walked off into the forest like a rockstar who’d just finished his encore on stage. Before he left, however, he looked down at me and smiled. "You truly are my son," he said, an unmistakable note of pride in his voice. As he walked away, I had to wipe tears from my eyes, for it felt like I had a family again, even if it was a father I knew I would barely see, but time would time would tell.
Amongst the casualties on the battlefield was Benedict Bonneville. He lay in the newly emerged grass covered in blood, having been attacked by one of the eldritch creatures that he had a hand in bringing here in the first place, which I thought was sweetly ironic. "I can’t believe I thought you were one of the good ones," I said to him as I shook my head.
"I still am," he said as blood spilled from his mouth. "I can help you, Corvin, we can work together to—" He stopped talking when a bullet entered his forehead, killing him instantly.
"What the fuck?" I said spinning around to see Iolas standing there with a small pistol in his hand. Compared to everyone else, he seemed relatively clean, as if he had escaped the worst of the battle. "Why’d you kill him?"
"A man like that will never change," Iolas said. "He will always be a threat."
"One could say the same about you, Iolas," Mirahorn said as he came to stand next to me.
Iolas smiled slightly. "I can assure you, I am no threat to anyone anymore. I just want to live peacefully from now on."
"I suppose we’ll see about that," Mirahorn said.
"I suppose we will," said Iolas as he walked away, leaving Mirahorn to turn to me.
"The world owes you a debt," he said.
I tutted slightly and shook my head. "The world can just buy me a pint if it wants. That’ll do."
Mirahorn smiled as he put a hand on my shoulder. "I never doubted you, Corvin, and I never will. The future of this land is in your hands now. Where you lead, others will follow."
I looked around at all the people in the valley for a moment, all of whom seemed happy and glad to be alive as the sun broke through the clouds in the blue sky. Mirahorn may have been right, but it was still a scary proposition knowing that many would be looking to me to lead now. Though to lead where, I still didn’t know.
"Don’t worry," Mirahorn said. "You won’t be alone. There are many of us willing to help. The world needs someone as fearless as you to put it back on the right path."
I nodded. "Let’s just start with this country first, and then go from there, shall we?"
Mirahorn smiled. "Deal," he said.
Chapter 22
Later that night, I held something of a private party in the book shop. In attendance was Dalia, Amelia, Monty, Davey and even Adrina, who had, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to come along, even though she hardly knew the others. Monty seemed slightly afraid of her at first, but as the drink began to flow, I couldn’t help but laugh as he made clumsy attempts to come onto her. When Adrina smiled at him with her fangs, he looked like he came in his pants.
Davey I hadn’t even seen on the battlefield. It turned out he was there, but after getting injured by one of the Disciples, Mirahorn found him and teleported him off the battlefield back to the safety of his house. There, Davey tended to his own considerable wounds. "I wish I had been there to see you in action," he said as she sat in a chair next to me behind the desk, puffing on his pipe as he held a glass of whiskey. "I hear it was magnificent."
"I wouldn’t go that far," I said. "Though it felt pretty damn cool to defeat Erebus and Apep."
"I’m sure," he said, now staring at the tree in the middle of the shop. "You mind telling me why you have a tree growing out of the floor?"
I laughed slightly and shook my head. "I was experimenting with my powers. I think I might leave it there, though. It makes for an interesting feature, don’t you think?"
Davey shook his head as he resumed puffing on his pipe. "Whatever floats your boat, son."
We drank and sang and played music long into the night, and for the first time in a long time, I felt truly relaxed and happy as the picture on the wall of my mother seemed to look on. Everyone in the room was family to me. That’s how I looked at it. And as long as I had them, I would never be alone. Even Amelia looked happier than I’d ever seen her as she laughed with the others, occasionally coming over to sit on my lap, or to whisper in my ear what she was going to do to me when we were alone, which…I can’t even tell you. Rest assured, I couldn’t wait.
Dalia, too, seemed happy and content, her usual prickly personality subdued, for the time being at least. I think she was just glad I was still alive, and that everyone else was still alive as well. Perhaps more than me—and perhaps more than I ever realized—she yearned to have a family around her, and standing laughing in the shop that night, I think she believed she had truly found one at last, just as I did.
As for me, I wasn’t sure what the future would hold. Given my new status as demigod and protector of these lands I called home, I was well aware that people were looking to me for leadership and guidance, both of which I intended to give to the best of my ability. Erebus and the Disciples had left a lot of wounds in their wake, wounds that would have to be attended to and healed over time. Which is how I was beginning to see myself—as a healer. I had these powers now, the power to affect great change if I wanted to, and as I saw it, it had become my responsibility to do so.
But changing the world could wait for the time being. The only important thing to me right then was the people I called family, and for those people, there was nothing I wouldn’t do. I may have been blessed with supreme powers, but the people around me were my true blessing.
That, I would never forget.