Chapter 8: From the Half

Along the trees, a long narrow pathway made of soil and rocks on each of its sides, a lady is walking on it with a boy beside her. The streams of sun are hitting the soil and the cold breeze are gliding everywhere.

She looks at the boy whose little hand she's holding, then the boy looks at her before he utters a soft adorable laugh. The lady speaks, "You must be having the time of your life here, right? Helkrias?"

Helkrias, the little boy laughs. "Yes, mama! Thank you for taking me here."

"My pleasure," she closes her eyes and it mimics a smile as her lip remains smiling, "you love your mama, right?"

The boy chuckles while staring at his mother. "I will do anything for you mother."

The lady asks, "If you have an important friend that you cherished, would you risk anything for that person?"

Helkrias moves his head gently up and down. The lady expresses a soft laugh and both continues to saunter. The orange light paints the skies as the sun is descending from the horizon.

After some time has passed, inside of a large orange house. A jar hits the wall as a woman falls to the floor and she holds her cheek while her eyebrows are knitting. a man is ambling towards her and his face expresses a calm mood.

"What did you say?" he stops in his footsteps and closes his hands, "I don't have any son other than him. So shut your mouth."

The boy from earlier scrambles toward the lady, then he stumbles over a pencil. The man swings his foot and it hits the boy yet a hand grabs his foot.

The man narrows his eyes at the boy, then he takes a look at the woman. "Remember this, I won't refrain from that offer of yours."

The little boy narrows his eyes at the man whilst the man walks away. The woman shifts her eyes to Helkrias.

"Are you okay, mother?" his eyes are being filled by tears, "I don't want anyone to hurt you."

She curves her lip upwards as she caresses his cheek. "You know your mother is strong. I will not be easily overwhelmed by anyone. I promise that I'll be by your side."

His eyes mimics sadness as he tightens his embrace to his mother, and whispers, "I'll look forward to that promise of yours, mother. I love you."

The man from earlier is standing in front of a counter in the kitchen, and he's wielding a cup of hot cocoa; white visible smoke is flying from the cup and the twirling milk can be seen on the cocoa. The sound of footsteps echoes closer to his ears, thence he shifts his attention beside him and sees the eyes of a boy gazing straight to his eyes.

"What do you seek from me?" the man sighed.

"I'm begging you, please! Don't hurt your wife, father." he folded his forelegs as he moved his head downwards.

The man moves his cup towards the counter beside him, he begins to move and did not speak as he crosses the boy's direction. The boy remains kneeling while bowing down.

"Your love for her is sturdy," the man mumbles, "but if it surfaces upon your very eyes, would you still be pure?"

At present, Helkrias' eyes gaze upon Chrollos. Helkrias jumps from his position and holds the handle of his sword.

"I see," Chrollos lifts his hand and points it at Helkrias, "aren't you just imbecilic?"

Helkrias closes his eyes a bit, he's sealing his lip as little of his breathe is leaking from the open part of his lip. He envisions a humanoid in front of his eyes as he begins to speak. "I wield my mother's will. Through the blade of this sword, I must surpass any hindrances and destroy any obstacles that shall come."

He closes his eyes. "Can I do this? Can I be like her?"

A fragment of his memory envisions in his mind. Helkrias improved in terms of growth as his mother continues to improve in age. On a narrow pathway of dirt; surrounded by stones and trees on each side. A young man is walking on it while holding the handles of a wheelchair.

"Everything changed, Helkrias," the lady who's sitting on the wheelchair spoke.

Helkrias utters a low continuous sound. He looks upward and sees the movement of the clouds, and the sun which is radiating a bright warm light.

"Yes, everything is evolving, mother," Helkrias said.

The lady moves her eyes everywhere. "Thank you for bringing me here. I remember, this is our spot since you were a child."

Helkrias' teeth go toward each other as his hands are trembling, and fluids are filling his eyes. He moves his eyes downward as the fluid in his eyes begin to fall. "Why did you let him…? He treated you badly… why do you always let him off…!"

"It does not matter if he hurts me…" the lady closed her eyes.

He opens his hands and marches all the way to his mother's eyes. She looks upward and sees the narrowing eyes of Helkrias as fluids are falling from it. Helkrias falls to his knees and stares at his mother's very own eyes. "I always despised you for being feeble towards him!"

She gazes at him and every word that he utters didn't enter her mind as if she's in a silent place. She raises her hands until it reaches his pale soft cheeks. His eyes widen as he touches his mother's wrinkly hands.

She smiles softly. "I'm sorry if I made you feel that way, but I hope you don't despise him because of the way he treated me. You must be kind even to the worst people that you'll come across with."

"But… but you suffered so much, isn't that a bit too much?" Helkrias holds her hands and move it away from his cheeks, "I won't let him lay his hand upon you."

Her eyes narrow as she looks down and Helkrias begin to walk behind her as he pushes her wheelchair. Later on, in front of a small and cozy detached dark house with thick walls and a thatched roof, Helkrias stares at it and he gulps. He walks further towards the closed red door of the cottage altogether with his mother whom is sitting on a wheelchair.

The red door flies from its frame, Helkrias steps aside with the wheelchair. Helkrias shifts his eyes to the red door which hit the cemented pathway.

His breathe goes faster as he moves his eyes to the opened entrance, there he sees a man standing while gazing at them.

"All these years he never treated us like his own family," his hands are closing slowly, "he put us so much in pain. He is truly the affliction of our suffering! I-I will put this to an end!"

She moves her eyes beside her and witness Helkrias scrambling towards the man. Hence, she moves her eyes to the man that she adores and raises her hand at Helkrias.

"WAIT!" her eyes widen, "STOP!"

Helkrias glares at the man as he goes closer to his position, and then the man starts to float as blood falls from the corner of his lip. The young man halts as his eyes widen at the man then dark long spikes emerges from his abdomen; his blood spreads everywhere even on the face of Helkrias.

"What… is happening?" Helkrias spoke to himself.

The man's whole body is pull onto half; his flesh, organs, and bones are exposed. The lady pushes herself as she scrambles toward the stunned Helkrias.

Behind the deceased body of a man was a tall humanoid with monstrous appearance; its head is red and a pair of long horns protruded from its cheeks, its body is skinny but large in terms of weight, and its hands and feet are bigger than his upper body and thighs.

The humanoid tosses the man from his sharp dark fingernails, and it jumps toward Helkrias.

Presently, Helkrias' eyes go wide as a fist land on his cheek. Chrollos holds Helkrias' neck and throws him aside, then he laughs at Helkrias whose body is deepened on a red stone wall.

"I can easily overwhelm you. I thought you were going to give me a hard time?" Chrollos began to amble towards Helkrias.

Helkrias holds the part of the crater that he's in then he pushes himself; pushing himself from the crater. Helkrias stares at Chrollos as he grabs his arm.

"How can I defeat this guy?" Helkrias mumbled.

Outside of the unseen cube, multiple gliding aircrafts ranging from heavy to small are flying everywhere while firing bullets against flying entities. Inside one of the aircrafts, a muscular young man is gazing on a window.

Another person wearing a complete set of white armor walks toward him and the muscular young man looks at him.

He speaks, "Speak your objective, amateur."

The armored young man raises his hand to perform a salute and the muscular young man nods. The armored man gulps. "Sir, may I go pee?"

The muscular young man looks at him from head to toe. "You should have thought about that before joining this job, soldier. If you want to pee then go but never face me again."

The armored young man turns around and a hole appears on his forehead, and his whole body fall to the ground. The muscular young man moves his pistol towards pocket of his bottom hardened clothing.

He moves his eyes everywhere and none of the people around are staring at him. He looks at the deceased armored man and spit at him. "Someone gets this shithole away from my sight!"

Multiple footsteps go toward his direction and it was men wearing a complete set of armor, thence they kneel down and altogether lifts the deceased armored man.

The muscular young man shifts his eyes to the window beside him. "I hate men who don't have what it takes to fulfill their duty. They better just die if they cannot perform their words."

Meanwhile, Helkrias runs toward Chrollos and Chrollos remain standing on his position. Helkrias swings his hands and multiple curved blades appear right in front of Chrollos' eyes.

"Weak," he raises his hand and the curved blades stops moving, "you're pathetic."

Helkrias jumps and he witness Chrollos facing his immobilized curved blades. Helkrias swings his hand and multiple long cracks appear underneath Chrollos' feet.

"What?" Chrollos moves his eyes downward, "is he-!"

Gigantic sharp blades emerge underneath Chrollos' feet and he jumps from the ground.

Helkrias shouts, "HAYA!"

The curved blades fly towards Helkrias whilst Chrollos moves his eyes upward. "YOU FOOL!"

Helkrias lands on the curved blades as they formed a straight pattern towards Chrollos, then Helkrias leap from it. Helkrias is heading closer to Chrollos.

"You lack the power to overthrow me!" Chrollos pointed his hands at Helkrias.

Helkrias swings his hand and then Chrollos looks at his chest and there he witnesses a blade pierced on his chest. A wave of laughter echoes behind Helkrias but he swings his hand and at that time: a flash of red light appears on his palm thence it manifests onto a sword with a long blade.

Helkrias swivels himself and he faces Chrollos who's floating right in front of his eyes. Helkrias swings his sword, Chrollos' eyes go wide as half of his body separates from his upper body.

Helkrias gazes at him with dead eyes. "You won't defeat me-!"

Chrollos' lip curves upward. "Let me take that back… you won't defeat me. Time movement: reversal of occurrence."

Helkrias' upper body separates from its lower half; his eyes broaden and Chrollos flies closer to him and he swings his foot; striking Helkrias' lower body. Helkrias' lower body flies away from Helkrias and it hit the red ground.

"You won't defeat a god like me," Chrollos declared.