3 The death of Dragon

1 year slowly passed and no great revelation was brought . She in all her beauty had to go to imperial academy soon , so she was even more merciless to poor Marcus. Marcus on the other hand grew more accustomed to the torture and in the strange way enjoyed it . Finally young Maria had an idea to bring him to his old clan s shrine .Maybe there she could use him to break some secret formations ,or to find some hidden rooms.The old shrine was already searched by old men from her clan but she was desperate .Soon she had to go to Latin capital and she spent 1 year for nothing in god forsaken province of Moesia.

It was strange thing indeed - a good for nothing laughing idiot in rags and young beauty .

They were on the way to the clan of Draconicus ancestors .

They slowly came in . Marcus was still doing his thing and than he noticed his family s shine in ruins. They even went for the graves of my ancestors :"Oh what shame did i bring to them! All our history is dead , all our teachings and arts are dead! Even our pride and dignity was trampled upon by these monsters!"

As he was lamenting over his fate he saw the statue of the ancestor . Only that bronze statue was left alone .Probably they skipped it because it was made of bronze and it was rather small compared to large grave statues. "Hhaha they did not desecrate the most important statue in our shine . What fitting end it would be? "-he thought as spear was visible to him .His eyes shined with strange light , light of true madness .

He had no chains on, as everybody taught he was insane . He taught it for minute and firmly nodded ! "I will not betray the pride of my fallen clan and jumped towards the spear."

Maria was absentminded in the moment and noticed Marcus when he was to far away from her reach .She jumped in order to grab him but the mad waste was faster and already s upon the spear.

She was shocked to the bone .. All this time with all the torture he never showed her anything ., He was a doll , a mad doll for sure .Nothing but a plaything in her hand and now she found out that he was sane all the time and endured all .All the times she used to clip his nails with hammers and pull out his bones until dislocation went trough her head . She asked herself:" Who the hell could have put on the smile on such torture ?Who would smile on stabbings and fire branding !?" but that all passed in just a second since the bronze spear already had pierced his flesh.

Marcus was now choking on his own blood and still every cell of his existence defied her !He with last dying breath smiled and said :" You bitch will burn with your fire constitution !! I will wait in Hades for you forever smiling !"

He was dead and finally free, in a sense he felt that he made his family proud and did that little them that little justice that he could.

Maria on the other hand felt lost. She Heavens proud daughter lost for first time in her life .Well it was time anyway to leave this forsaken place and go to her clan and later to capital of the empire.Hopefully she will forget those last maddening words !!..

Marcus was in strange place , he saw many people but none of them had the light in the eyes.

He found one group of people.They were all soldiers with battle wounds .They didnt let the rest of common folk to go near them only Marcus. It was very strange place but since he was scared of losing his soul he followed them.Soon they were in front of great hall .The large sign said

:THE KARMIC HALL OF GREAT PANGEAN EMPIRES !

He didnt know anything about it but anyway he mastered some courage and went in!Three tall man in their grey togas were sitting and waiting for him..They were 3 judges that helped mortals with their earthly business and held three trials : of truth, of karma and of soul.

Those three old men , had their whole face blurred and no matter how hard Ivar tried he could not see anything .On them they wore three large togas with words Truth , Karma and Soul engraved on them.

First trail was the trial of truth.One would not be able to ascend the heavens or even move on if he did not know truth about his very core!

First judge asked :"Who are you?"

Marcus responded with :"I am Marcus DRACONICUS!"

Second asked : "No ,who are you?"

Marius sighted : "Well i was Marcus Draconicus !"

Third asked ; "We are not asking who you were but who you are at the moment you come to our hall ?"

Marcus pondered a moment and remembered . Once he was Marcus that is the truth but in last year something changed. Marcus was no more , all what was left was hate for everything the gods the fate but mostly himself!

HE finally answered :"I am Hate !!"

Three old man chuckled to his response .Yes that was the right answer and also the only truth they sought from him.

The hate was that young man s true nature , and his core truth!

Their whole job was to help mortals ascend to heaven or descend to hell .They usually needed more time to help soul deal with the first trial but it went fast for this young man- Too fast.

He found his true self and passed the first trial.

The second judgment was judgment of karma .He was brought to his wrong doings ,to his mistakes and his past grievances .He smirked to the judges and thought :"I am not saint , but this should be easy !"

The middle judge said as he could read his mind ;"Oh poor young man how wrong you are !"

The shades were coming and many of them. First the young boy servant of the clan came than followed him was his mothers -old cook that Marcus loved and then agter many came .The whole family was in front of him , was resenting him, hating him for his stupid mistakes!

"We died for your lust! We died for your youth fantasy , " they screamed

Than the old clan steward came and he was so disfigured that Marcus didnt recognize him at first," Young master how much love did i give you and how you returned it to me ".This was first time Marcus had his eyes swollen with tears .He didnt know what to do he just embraced the shadow and cried slowly and hoped it will be over soon. Only way to go trough all the pain was by embracing it and that was the true essence of the karmic trial.

Than came Mother and Father.

She said : "Yes we tried to persuade you not to go to her many ,many times and you still went for it, i hope you are happy right now" as her beautiful dress was starting to become red and the arrow wounds showed on her white skin .

Father could not say anything He just stood there and watched his son as fire slowly was consuming him..

The pain was to much to handle but he still embraced it and just wept as he held first his mother and than his father in his arms. The fire raged and burned his soul but still he hugged his father until the end .Souls of his loved ones eventually forgave him but he did not , he didnt forgive himself and his hate grew ..

He was supposed to find peace but now he was so far from happiness and saw only darkness ahead of him.

The judges finally nodded and said :"You have passed the second test !"

The third test was the easiest one but also the final one. In Front of him was small Libra .On one edge of was a feather so light that any wind or even a blow would move it .Other edge was empty!

Third judge finally said ;"If you have anything to offer , do it now or regret forever."

Marcus this time was scared. He knew what it meant .On that empty scale would put his soul and any earth offerings he had with him . He panicked checked his pocket and noticed the shard of the spear that pierced trough his hearth.

"Bronze ancestral spear "-i bet this !"

As He placed it on the edge of the libra the judges stood up and yelled : "Why do you have the sword of the ARES?"

Than the rumbling came spirits in woman forms - the spirits of vengeance furies came and stood side by side with Marcus.

"My prince did you just place the sword of Ares on Libra scale ?" one asked.

Marcus just nodded .

"By wielding the god artifact you are allowed to pass trough this test without approval of the judges."

Marcus had his eyes shining for the first time after the wedding ."He asked is there any way for me to escape death ?"

"You want to go back? Are you sure? One mortal can only use one god artifact in his soul s path to rebirth and karmic peace !"

"That means when you die again you cant use the sword ! Not even as test free pass! Are you sure you want to give away your eternity in heaven for one more chance to be killed? "asked another.

He felt confidant and just said ":Yes!"

"The bones of my forefathers will again rest in ancestral home and i will piss on phoenix s feathers and eat soup of Chimera heads i swear it! "

"So let it be ": Bought the furies and judges said it and light embraced him.His soul was going for rebirth , for revenge, for hate !