The King, The God, And The Huntress

It was a beautiful day; the sun rays showered the world with light, picturing a beautiful sight in this beautiful place...it was what a particular person would like to say, but what in the name of God was this situation?!

"Hey, are you okay?! Hey! Are you alive?! What do I do, what do I do?!" The panicked voice of a young man resounded on the shore of an island as he poked someone's body, the one of a bleeding male with tattered clothes. He couldn't see his traits since it was face down.

"Will thou calm down?! What is the use in panicking?!" The young man heard a feminine voice with a slightly masculine edge as he felt something impacting on his head.

"...Sorry. I can't help but feel nervous when something unexpected happens. More importantly, what should we do with him?" He asked the girl behind him after rubbing his head, trying to cope with the pain.

The woman used her foot to turn the body around, revealing a man she knew too well. "Well, this is certainly a surprise. I didn't expect to meet him here. However, he sure looks worse than the last time we met. As for what to do with him, let's bring his body to a safe place first, we will decide what to do later."

"Do you know him? Setting that aside, can we trust him? You know I don't like surprise factors in my plans. If something bad happens because of this, we are screwed!" He didn't seem very convinced of her plan, that was a fact.

"Aren't thou a King? If so, quit thy whining. Rather than complaining, thou could use that time to carry this man." After addressing the supposed King, the woman started walking toward the center of the island. Even though the woman labeled as such, he didn't have any royal aura or even magnificent robes and rings filled with jewels for the matter. Instead, he adorned clothes one would attribute to a farmer or a person of low upbringing.

The green-haired man couldn't help but sigh, seeing how she was treating him. 'In my era, people usually had some degree of respect for me, you know?'

Despite his internal complaining, he went on to pick him up. However, the moment the youth touched the unconscious man, he immediately pulled his hand back and jumped a few steps away. 'I am starting to have my doubts, but I suppose this is God's will.'

The moment he touched the man's body, an eerie feeling assaulted him. If he had to describe it, he would call it sinister. 'Were someone to tell me he was the devil, I would believe it without a doubt. That aside, I better get going, or Atalanta is going to hit me with her bow again. Good grief, women in my era were more respectful to Kings, as much of a disappointment as they were.'

Even though he would love to keep complaining about how lovely the times when he was alive were, he still had a task to do. So, without any delays, he picked the man up, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation caused by that action.

He didn't take long to take him to what looked to be a dungeon in the centermost part of the island. It might not be a pleasant place to take a wounded man, but at least it was not the beach.

Placing him in an altar inside one of the dungeon's rooms, he turned to the woman, Atalanta, who was resting her back against the wall. "Couldn't you choose a better place to do this? It looks like we are going to do a ritual to a Pagan God. Anyway, what do you want to do now?"

"Start by taking off his clothes and using your harp to heal his wounds. I am going to wait outside. Seeing a naked man is the last thing I want to do, after all." Atalanta responded offhandedly like this didn't concern her in the slightest.

"Oka—Huh?! Wait, wait, wait. That is wrong in more ways than one! What makes you think I want to see it?! Not to mention that I think using my harp would have the opposite effect." The young man was utterly opposed to the idea. Sure, if it were a beautiful woman, then there would be no problems, but they were talking about a man here!

"Why the need to act bashful, David? And what do you mean with the opposite effect? Isn't your harp supposed to heal wounds?" The girl inquired, not understanding why he was making such a fuss about her previous words.

The young man, now revealed to be David, sweatdropped at her question. He didn't know if she didn't have common sense or what the problem was. Considering that she was kind of tomboyish, he expected her to understand that one man looking at another man's naked body is weird on so many levels. Of course, he wouldn't say the tomboyish part out loud. He liked his head without any extra holes thank you very much.

Ultimately, he just sighed and turned to Atalanta with a helpless expression. "My harp can indeed heal some wounds, but it also has the secondary effect of warding off evil spirits. And let me tell you, this man reeks so much of evil that I have the urge to gag."

"So that means using your harp would have the reverse effect? That indeed is troubling." Atalanta pondered something for a second before coming to a decision. "Okay, wait here. I will be back shortly."

David didn't know what she planned to do, but in the end, he nodded at her, letting Archer do whatever she wanted to do. As he was left alone, he looked at the unconscious man resting on the altar. "A man who should belong to the sky, but was brought to earth instead. That is the vibe I am getting from you. You also have the aura of a demonic snake, kind of like "that guy" does. I have never seen his face, so the possibility of you being him is not zero."

Fate sure worked in mysterious ways. Although there were times where he wondered if it liked to play with men's lives as if they were toys. The absurdity of the situation was something else.

Atalanta came back carrying water in a makeshift bowl after a few minutes, interrupting his inner thinking. However, her actions only made him look at her with a puzzled look. "What are you going to do with that? And tell me you didn't use ocean water."

The Huntress shot a nasty look his way. "Do I look like an idiot?! It is water from a nearby lake, not saltwater. As for what I am going to do with this..."

She didn't finish her sentence. Instead, Atalanta approached the man on the altar and started pouring the water all over him, causing the said man to stir slightly. David, who was watching this from the sidelines, couldn't believe what he was seeing. He expected her to have a bit more...delicacy when it came to the treatment of a wounder person.

"...And that is supposed to help him heal...?" That question was the only thing that came to his mind. He didn't understand what sort of master plan she expected to accomplish with her actions.

"I refuse to take off his clothes, thou as well. Then the only remaining option is to let the man himself do it." She sounded so convinced that he didn't have the strength to retort. However, there was a slight problem with her plan. How was a man with multiple open wounds and perforations going to do that?

"If you were going to do this, then maybe I should have gone for the idea of me using my harp. At least we would get something out of that." Seeing her recent actions, he didn't feel as bad about being rejected about fifty times when he asked her to be his queen. Who knows what she would do were he to fall ill.

"Is there a problem? If it works, then there is no reason to complain about it." Atalanta didn't turn back; she merely emptied the bowl of what little water remained before throwing it away.

As the water was getting rid of all the blood, dried and fresh, she was able to have a better look at his injuries. To say they looked terrifying was an understatement. Well, she at least had to give it to him, he had the resilience of a cockroach. Any other person would be dead in these instances.

Still, there was something that caught her attention. Some parts of the man's body looked...unusual. There were cracks in some places as if he was just a porcelain doll that someone accidentally broke. The most noticeable of them all would be the one that extended from his left shoulder to the corner of his left eye.

"You come here. Do you have any idea what this is?" Ignoring the man who was seemingly taking forever to wake up, Atalanta motioned David to take a look as well.

Curious as to what she was referring to, the King Of Israel also approached the man. The moment he observed those cracks, a frown made its way into his face. Noticing this, Archer decided to ask. "So? Thou seem to know what is happening."

David sighed before shaking his head. "I am not sure. Remember that King or not, I'm just a shepherd, so my knowledge is not that vast. That said, I can at least offer you my opinion."

"It's better to work with an opinion than with nothing at hand, so go ahead." Although he sold himself short, Atalanta was aware of the many things David knew.

"Right. It might be slightly different, but this looks like a vessel about to break, and not in the physical sense, independently if it affects this man's body or not. Being a Huntress for your Moon Goddess, you should be able to feel his Divinity as you can with mine, as faint as it is." David shared his opinion, making Atalanta fall silent for a few seconds.

"Although the idea is a little absurd, I suppose you do have a point. It's not like we haven't realized this person's "origin" at all, so the notion of his vessel breaking might not be that far from the truth. Still, it leaves the question of why he didn't disappear if it reached its limit." Regarding her doubt, the King merely shrugged his shoulders with a weak smile.

"You can ask him; he is about to wake up." As if to confirm his words, the wounded man opened his eyes with some difficulty. There was something that surprised them, though. And that was the lack of light in them.

"Are thou able to hear us? See us?" The Huntress asked with her arms folded, having dematerialized her bow some seconds ago. She didn't expect a response, but it was worth the try.

Turning to her, he sniffed a few times before frowning. "...Stinks."

"..."

What was that? Was it the sound of the wind blowing? David doubted even that passed through here, but there was no other way to describe the feeling of what his words caused.

"What a great day to enjoy the sun and the beach! If you don't mind, I will take my time to appreciate the Lord's creation. See you then!" Oh no, he was out of here. If the rapidly increasing dark aura that was surrounding Atalanta any indication, then things were going to get ugly.

'May God welcome you with open arms.' Offering a silent prayer, he immediately made a run for it.

"...Yes. It is the duty of a Huntress not to let the prey suffer, so I think I need to put him down..."

For a while, the agonizing screams of a wounded man resounded throughout the dungeon, giving David chills. 'A man is responsible for his words, so please bear with it. Also, if you can, make her waste all her anger on you, so I don't have to be the next one.'