Prologue V

"Doctor Nina, I came here to ask you again about…" BANG!

Nina smacked the door closed immediately. She didn't want to hear more of this man's words.

KNOCK! KNOCK! "I urge you to think it over again, integrating the clinic into the church will provide your business with both validation and a steady income." He said from behind the door.

"Listen you, idiot, I'm not working for validation or money!" Nina kicked the door open again, "I'm working to prove you shit asses are scammers, we don't need your miracles nor protection."

"Is this island really that cursed, do people here not see the truth? Is this how much their hearts have swayed?" The priest said shaking his head in disappointment.

"This island is neither blessed nor cursed, it's real, clean from your illusion and bullshit," Nina growled at him, "You said without your holy and divine arts the island will fall. Now look, twenty years and it's still floating like beauty." She waved her hands and the priest's face grew sore.

"Hit a nerve? A single man is rivaling your god's power, how aren't you clergy a scam? I here perform your work at a fraction of the cost, and everyone is fine." She glared down at him. The people on the street looked to see what was happening.

"A single Mage couldn't hope to achieve this without resorting to dark demonic arts, neither is your cheap fixes healing the wounds immediately like us. We aren't even taking that money for us, everything is always funneled toward the expeditions to reclaim the infested ground." The cleric growled with a sharp glare.

"Aren't you just feeding the monsters? How many returned, speak! None, they all got eaten and you expect us to believe in your idealistic cause?" Nina growled.

The people started gathering around them to hear what they were saying.

"All but nobles sacrifice for the sake of a greater good, we can't sit and do nothing." The priest growled.

"Look behind you, see all those faces? Beautiful and full of life, won't be that way had they followed your idiotic cause." Nina pointed behind him to all the people watching.

They started shouting, yelling at the priest to leave their village.

"In the past, you said we will not last a year. Look we lasted twenty, and we shall last forever. Get out of our faces and never show up again, scamming liars aren't welcomed between us." As Nina and the whole crowd shunted him. The priest had no choice but to storm away, "I hope you one day see the light of the truth,"

…

After the long exhausting day, Nina returned home to find her father had already prepared dinner.

"A tough day? Go wash and come eat." He said with a smile.

"Yeah. But I probably need to check on the patient above, he didn't wake right?" She asked.

"No, was with him a few minutes ago, sleeping like a baby." Her father replied.

Nina walked upstairs to check on the young man, as her father said, he was still asleep. But upon a closer inspection, his wounds seemed a bit better. The recovery rate has slowed significantly, he must be starving.

She grabbed his hand and checked his heart rate, he was doing great. Checked his breathing, it was steady. Inspected the reaction of his black eyes to the light with a candle, they were healthy.

She then combed his black hair with her fingers to see if his scalp had any bruises appearing. She found none. She as well gauged his temperature and found it normal.

She took his shirt and inspect his chest and stomach for any swelling or discoloring that might indicate internal bleeding. She even listened to his stomach trying to hear anything strange inside.

"Everything seems fine, except your beaten limbs. If you didn't wake up by tomorrow morning, I will have to feed you with a tube so better get up quickly." She said with a smile, "But I doubt you will walk for a week so just stay in bed when you wake up." She waved her hand and left.

A few minutes passed, and it was already dark outside.

CRACK! The ground shook violently as a loud snapping noise echoed across the village. The vase fell to the ground and the table lifted from the ground.

As all the utensils got flung to the ground, Nina's father fell on his face while she held onto the wall.

"Father!" She yelled seeing his nose bleed from the impact.

"I'm fine, what was that?" He growled standing.

"Don't know, we must check the village. How is your nose?" She rushed to him with a piece of clothes.

He took it with thanks and whipped the blood off his face, "Tis but a scratch, let's hurry."

The two of them rushed toward the village to see what it was, with such an impact, a lot of people must have been flung around. Nina was especially worried about the children and the pregnant women.

…

BAM! As the ground shook, Hades opened his eyes. A vase was falling directly toward his face. [Repulsion] The vase direction diverged and fell to the side.

Immediately standing up, he was in an unfamiliar place with sharp pain across his limbs. 'What is this place?' He reached the door, but it was locked.

'I'm confined again? And this beat up on top of it?' He thought with blood pumping to his head. The only nice this is that he was wearing clean and decent clothes.

Brown pants and a sleeveless white shirt fitted him nicely, he thought. But in reality, they were a bit wide as they belonged to Nina's father.

Not wanting to stay locked up again for the rest of his life, Hades rushed toward the window [Repulsion] He smashed it open.

As he leaped out, he saw a big tree in the distance, [Attraction] reaching with his hand he pulled himself toward it.

"AGRA!" He growled landing on the branches, his limbs hurt and he stepped on a pointy branch of all things. He quickly whipped the pain from his head and focused on running away.

[Attraction] he kept leaping from one tree to the other until there was none left. In the distance, he could see the raising fire and hear the people's screams.

Wanting to avoid them as much as possible, he took a detour and decided to go around them. As he rushed around the left side of the village, the ground shook again.

CLANG! The sound was so loud it hurt the ears, the ground cracked, and he could even feel it tilting to the back.

Ahead of him and beside a large tree, he could see a woman with tens of people lined on the ground. She turned to the side and saw him coming in the distance without a sign of stopping.

Hades's eyes were focused on one thing: a cat falling from that big tree due to the previous shaking.

As he reached Nina's side, BAM! [Repulsion] he leaped over her and toward the falling cat.

"You!" She turned around and saw him catch the cat and rush away without even trying to look back.

On the other side of the village, people gather pushing to get past the bridge leading to the next floating island. The ground was moving and the bridge was getting strained, it was clear as day, the island is shifting and this was bad.

"You people aren't allowed on the island, we can't let you through!" Two armored knights held their spears and blocked the people's path.

"Let us through!" the people started screaming, this wasn't the time for such procedures.

And then, the priest walked ahead from among the people, wrapping his forehead in bandages.

The two knights opened the way for him, "Sir, you can pass." They said.

"They as well, get out of the way." The priest growled.

"Sir, even if it's you. We can't let them through, they are confined to this island as they refused the church's protection." The two knights replied.

"I'm here with them. I managed to convince them to accept the protection. So open the path." The priest growled.

"That's an obvious lie, evening we saw you getting stoned by them. Your head is still wounded." The two knights glared at him.

"It doesn't matter, I told you to let them…" As the priest was about to start talking. "GRA!" He heard the people behind him cry in pain.

As he looked back, a young man was jumping on top of their heads with a cat in his hands.