Finding the ingot - 5

Morpheous galloped as fast as he could but he was miles away from Ambracia.

He had never accepted Leonidas and Nefeli as his parents, never called them as father or mother, but deep in his heart, he had always revered them. After all, they were the ones who had taken care of him when he had no one else in the world.

He reached the angel oak tree at the entrance of his village, but there was no one around. So he galloped with speed towards the pond area but was shocked to see two funeral pyres. He already had a bad premonition about Leonidas, but seeing two pyres, his heart came to a throbbing halt.

As he alighting from his horse he saw Erastus coming running towards him,

"Where were you Morpheous?"

"What is happening Erastus? Where is Eva? Whose pyre is this?" he asked without taking a breath in between.

Erastus broke down and said," I am sorry I couldn't protect them Morpheous. Your parents are dead. But Eva is still alive but she has gone towards the croplands to fight against Nubeous. You need to go and save her first."

As tears ran across his cheeks, Morpheous looked at Erastus in disbelief and then looked at the others who were busy collecting whatever was possible so as to relocate to a neighboring village.

"You let her go alone?"

Erastus had no answer to it. He hung his head low and said,

"No one can fight Nubeous and you know that. He is the reason your parents are dead. I tried to stop her but she didn't listen to me Morpheous."

Without saying another word he rode back on his horse but before galloping ahead he asked - "What you would have done if he had killed your father?" He shot a look at the apothecary and then looked at Erastus with disappointment in his eyes and rode away.

"Hiyaaahhhh..."

"Hiyaaahhhh..."

.

.

As he reached close towards the cropland, he could see the whole area lit up with hundreds of torches. He moved faster and then heard a particular voice,

"My brother will come back from the dead..."

"You will see!"

But then the voice was distinctly muffled as if someone was attempting to silence the voice. He was alarmed but relieved for a second to know that she was unharmed.

A grating evil chuckle echoed with all its monstrosity and he knew it was him.

The next second he pulled the reins of his horse and his horse came to a standstill halt, rearing both its legs up and it neighed loudly as if it was announcing the austere presence of Morpheous.

Disturbed with the loud noise, Nubeous turned back.

Amidst the shadows, he could see the figure of a man alighted atop that horse, but he couldn't see his face as the legs of the horse were reared up. It looked exactly like the image drawn by the clouds atop the mountain.

Feeling unsettled he asked, "Who are you?"

The horse neighed loudly again before resting its legs down and it was then that he saw a mysterious man, hidden in the shadows whose eyes burnt with a fire of blue.

That sight was enough to scare the battalion of soldiers for he looked like a reaper of death. That grating smug smile that had prevailed on the face of Nubeous for long, disappeared in a second when he heard the little one scream.

"Brother!"

"How on earth is he alive," he muttered. The momentary happiness of finding that ingot faded away.

Eva looked at Nubeous once more and then closed her eyes to have that moment of relief for herself. Now it was her turn to adorn that smug smile on her face. With a smile of victory on her lips she yelled,

"Nothing can change what has happened in time."

"It's your time to die now!"

Hearing which an enraged Nubeous looked at the two soldiers who had earlier been dragging her away, standing next to her like statues and ordered them,

"Silence her!"

But the soldiers didn't dare to because it was the same man who had killed three hundred men alone with his bare hands. They couldn't dare to touch her.

Seeing the reluctance on part of the two, Nubeous screamed at the men behind him,

"What are you watching? Bring them down else I will kill you myself."

His order was a death sermon for the soldiers because either way, they were going to die so Morpheous alighted from his horse and said,

"My fight is with you. Not with them," and then looking at the soldiers he yelled, "If your life is dear to you then you shall leave this place at this moment. You shall scatter for the heavens are witnesses, this time I will not regret shedding any blood."

His words echoed like a threat of peril, a threat of ineffable mayhem and thus they decided to flee, but as they moved an inch, and enraged Nubeous turned towards them, ready to reduce them into ashes with a snap of his finger but then he abruptly stopped as he heard,

"Really? Are you that coward that every single time you would resort to your soul ring for help?"

The veins on his head popped out visibly as his blood boiled upon hearing the words of lament. Every word that came out of the mouth of Morpheous, stung him and as he flinched and fisted his hands, he suddenly realized that the vibrations in his hands were almost gone.

Even the arrival of this man had turned into a bad omen for him.

Morpheous inched closer and finally, Nubeous could see his face clearly. It was the fearless face of a man who was brimming with anger and his eyes burnt with the flame of revenge. He could feel chaos and eerieness springing in and around him.

Those narrowed and rigid cold eyes of Morpheous were shielding that insurmountable amount of pain that was searing his heart. That fire that burnt his village, that fire that flamed the pyre of Leonidas and Nefeli, was all because of that uncouth creature in front of him. And right at that juncture of time, he sought nothing less than revenge, he wanted blood for blood.

With a murderous expression on his face, he reprimanded with a tone that could make every hair on anyone's body stand up in fear,

"Why did you kill my parents? How did they ever wrong you?"

Eva couldn't believe what she heard. In all those years, it was the first time that Moepheous had acknowledged them as his parents.

Tears rolled down her eyes, for her parents would have had traded anything to hear those words that came out of the mouth of his brother, but alas, it was an ironical destiny!