Chapter 21

"Please take us to the nearest hospital!" the coach of Tuberculosis High screamed. He grabbed the shoulder of the driver as they ran through and put everyone inside the ambulance.

The driver nodded and stepped the lever at the bottom of the car. The ambulance burst out running, with its lights and siren ringing on its loudest. The ambulance almost hit people on the road until it reached the bridge expressway.

A loud sound of explosion drummed their ears. The ambulance had a sudden deceleration. The people inside bumped over each other and scrambled to get up.

Flaming rocks rained the atmosphere. Some landed on the ambulance window. A huge one struck the driver's window and crashed on the driver's head, a metal bar impaled him on the torso.

The ambulance drifted many times. It bumped many cars and trucks running on the traffic. Then, it rolled until it hit the edge of the bridge. The cars and trucks it bumped followed until the ambulance was tinned. All of the window glasses were crushed to pieces. Its metal walls were all crumpled. Along with the pieces of glass was the blood sprinkled. Below the ambulance, the blood floods out of the road.

A 10-wheeler truck fuel carrier drifted on the road. It hit all the cars dumped on the side of the bridge. The driver's head bumped on the window and lost his consciousness. The tank was punched with holes from the flying molten debris. The red-tinted gas from the tank spilled until it flooded with the blood.

The cigarette of the truck driver fell on the gas flooding.

The flame sparked.

Then it exploded.

Huge ball of fire swallowed every car dumped. The sound of explosion thundered everywhere.

Later on, the flames grew and danced with the wind from the sea. Everything down below slowly charreds, and turned to ashes.

From her point of view, Psyche was watching the flames devouring everything underneath it. The wind blew. She felt a mix of hot and cold wind. Everything around her was devastated as the smoke from the explosions rose above the atmosphere.

Psyche stood for few seconds while standing in the edge of the expressway. What happened made her think for a while. For her, it is strange that she could use her mythical powers at this world. It is the Chrono's core after all, the most powerful thing in the void, and now she is its master.

What bothered her so much was what she did. She knew Tom Dylan will die that moment if Lungs had a grip on him. She knew he'll be in trouble. And she didn't know why she cared—for him.

She knew she should not intervene with this. After all, all of these things should happen for for a cause, and if she intervenes further, she might herself suffer the consequences. She has to stick with her plan, to finish her aims.

Everytime when she watches everyone fighting to death through her giant sphere, Tom's face can't leave her mind. She wanted him to be with her, and do that again. She imagined him smiling to her, spreading his arm to grab her and pull her towards the flowers, and then, they will kiss. She can't stand against her thoughts, as if she was, struck by Eros' arrow.

Eros, the cupid, the son of Ares and Aphrodite. That is all she knew. Psyche didn't believe everything is happening right now. She remembered the times when she was just a lowly girl, helping her father and mother to farm the fields together with her sisters. She was a human, just like everybody else, but not as ordinary as everyone, as her beauty is beyond compare, that even the mythical beings of Mount Olympus got jealous of her.

But the story changed, when Ares, the strong mythical being, the prince of war visited their humble home, changing the course of her humble life. Little did she know, she will embark herself on a mythical affair that she never expected. And here she is.

Despite the mess she hosted right now, she never really knew the extent of the power of the core with her. She didn't even know it was Chronos' property. And that gave Tom the greatest advantage, as he holds the greatest weapon he never realized he had.These are books, the relics of Chronos' existence.

Little did everyone know, it was Ares who started everything.

"I gather you here, my royal subjects to discuss the course of our existence. This is indeed shocking, but this decides the rule of this world as most of our people were consumed by blights." Zeus stated.

Everyone who was not yet stung was there. They formed a circle as each of them stands on a Parthenon post.

Zeus sighed and said, "I am holding the most powerful weapon, the emblem of the great ruler of Mount Olympus. And the time is come for it to choose another master who deserves it power."

"Really, Father? Then I am humbly accepting it." Hermes, the prince of trade and the royal messenger of the Olympians blurted out on his post.

"And what makes you think you deserve it, brother?" Apollo, the prince of music said. He added, "It is mine. Isn't that right, Father?"

"No! It is mine. I am the wisest among here. It belongs to me." Athena, the princess of Olympian intelligence.

"Would you all be quiet? I believe Father has another thing on his mind. Perhaps, better than you propose." Ares, the prince of war smirked. He leaned on his post and crossed his arms. He kept his agitating smile and closed his eyes.

Zeus began to feel nervous and looked Ares. He knew what exactly is on his mind. These Olympians, his children, never really knew what happened, and that they were already second versions of their original selves died in the first oracle game.

"Do you know, my children why there are no longer oracles here in Mount Olympus?" Zeus said. He walked through the middle of them and continued, "Because they knew they are of no purpose, as I hold their power, the power to tell the future and travel back in time."

Everyone gasped. Their eyes bulged out.

"The time has come, my children. We will meet again in the next world. And this time, I won't make the same mistakes as I did on this." Zeus turned his back and walked back to his post. "Let the games begin. Kill, and prove to me your strength, and you'll have my power."

The core floated and its surface was cruhed into tiny bits. It flew through their hands and became bracelets.

Ares laughed hard. He laughed and spread his arms in the air. His brothers and sisters can't have the grasp of what they heard. Their eyes bulged and their jaws started to trembled.

"This is insane, Father. It isn't fair." Apollo screamed.

"Very well, I'll start." Zeus said. He grabbed the spear on his side, and stabbed Hera on the neck. Hera gripped the spear, and she fell on the ground. Zeus pulled the spear and her blood gushed out.

All of them screamed.

"We have to escape!" Hermes said. He wore his winged shoes and flew. Zeus threw his spear and he was impaled on air.

He fell, and crashed on the ground. His flesh was torn apart and his limbs ripped off from his body.

"They'll be back, right? They'll reincarnate!" Athena screamed to her siblings. All of them huddled together at the middle of the court. They cried and trembled, baffled to this situation.

"Unfortunately not." Zeus replied silently.

Thunderbolts arched in the skies. The waves of the seas roared and bellowed. On the other side of the court was where Ares stood, and Zeus on the other.

"This is going to be bloody." Ares smirked. He waved his hand and a ball of flaming coals floated. Then a quiver and bow appeared on his back.

Ares ran. He stretched the bow loaded with fiery arrows. And shoot it among his siblings. Zeus circled the same, throwing huge bolts of lingthing arching from the grounds of the royal court.

Blinding lights obscured the scene. The screams of the Olympians infiltrated, more powerful than the sound of thunder. Ares continued shooting arrows, arrows swallowed by the power of the lightning. Zeus grunted, as his hand continued to wave, summoning bolts again and again.

Then they exploded. Ares was thrown by the wave of explosion.

Then the screams stopped. Ares wiped his eyes and saw nothing was left of the bodies of his siblings. They are gone without a trace. The lightnings faded and he saw Zeus standing on the other side against him lying on the ground.

He stood. And flashed. His hand grabbed Zeus' neck. Zeus just smirked. He replied the same.

"You are full of rage, my son." Zeus said. He continued, "Your attitude is fitting for your name, prince of war. Bloody and violent."

Ares felt the blood in his veins enraged. He shook and nodded his head, smiling in front of his father. Then he screamed.

And stabbed an arrow in Zeus' right eye. Zeus fell on his knees. Ares thrusted the arrow down through his skull.

"I don't let my guard down, Father." He replied. "You took away everything from me, and now the tables have been turned."

Slowly, the core floated above Zeus' body and flew through Ares' hand. Once Ares holds it, the volcanoes erupted. The skies raged with thunder and lightning, and the waves of the sea bellowed loud.

Ares smiled cynically right in front of his father. He grabbed the books in his father's coat and the crown on his head. He walked through the throne. He stood and looked his dominion, the land of Mount Olympus in full chaos, as blood, bones, flesh and lava flooded everywhere, and dark smoke floated above the atmosphere. No one there is alive.

Then, a crow flew and rested on his shoulder. He wasn't surprised. He touched the tip of the bird's beak and all of a sudden, the bird is in flames. The bird flew above Ares' head as he watched it fly in circles. Then it turned to ashes.

The ashes lit and flew above his shoulders. It turned back to flaming crow and rested on his shoulder.

Ares walked through the center of the court and looked the bird the last time and told the bird, "Crow fire rose from the ashes. Let us burn this world with coal and brimstone, and lightning."