Chapter 13

Goddess Artemis had a dream.

In that dream she saw a crying boy hugging the body of a dead dwarf.

With hesitant steps she walked toward the boy.

Finally she arrived in front of the boy, but it seemed as if the boy was unable to see her, holding the dead dwarf in his arms, he continued crying.

Goddess Artemis silently stood in place and observed him.

His figure seemed familiar to her, very similar to someone else she knew, but this boy's crying face was just world's apart from the him.

With hesitant movement, Goddess Artemis raised her hand and tried to pay the boy's head as if to comfort him.

But then just before her hand was about to touch him, the boy stopped crying.

With slow movement, he raised his head.

And what appeared next was a scene Goddess Artemis will never be able to forget for the rest of her life.

Indifference.

A lack of sympathy for life, especially to one's own.

The scene scared Goddess Artemis making her involuntarily take a step back.

But then she regained her composure, after all she was a god.

Standing up, she saw the boy pick up his metal sword and start walking.

And after that he never stopped.

He kept walking.

He kept killing monsters.

He kept injuring himself to no end.

Many times Goddess Artemis wanted to stop him, she wanted to tell him to take a break, it wouldn't matter even if you take a day off, so just stop injuring yourself.

Stop bleeding, stop treating a shoulder deep injury as if nothing, stop trying to kill yourself again and again and again......

Just stop....

Please Orion.

Of course she knew better than anyone that her pleas were useless.

But then she couldn't help herself, not after seeing him being so ruthless on himself.

After a little while she finally managed to calm her emotions.

It's okay, Orion is still alive and safe, what she was seeing now was but the memory of his past adventure.

When she gets out she will make sure to tell him thoroughly, to take care of himself more in the future.

She managed to console herself, saying that he was alive and well, there wasn't anything to worry about.

But then.

She saw it.

Ottar driving his sword in William's chest.

Goddess Artemis's mind went blank.

She couldn't understand what just happened.

She couldn't understand how something which shouldn't have been possible happened.

She couldn't understand why Orion, who was alive, died.

At that moment, the emotions she have been doing her best to control, burst out like a dam.

Why?

A fundamental question.

But no one was there to answer her.

Burying her face in her hands she stopped looking, more like she couldn't bring herself to watch on anymore.

It happened when she was drowning in sorrow.

"With a sword in hand......"

'Orion?...', The voice made her stop and quickly put down her hands, looking for his figure.

And then she saw it.

".....I am invincible."

A sword.

"Begone."

A will undying.

A blinding white light covered Goddess Artemis's vision, it washed away her feeling of sadness and despair, leaving behind a single thought.

'What a beautiful sword.'

She blankly thought to herself.

But even after such a brilliant attack, she saw him die.

Not even leaving a corpse behind.

Perhaps because it was the second time, but Goddess Artemis didn't react much this time, it was because she had a connection that there was more than what meet the eye.

And she was right.

The next moment her vision was shifted to a pitch black space.

And at the centre of the black spec she saw William, quietly practising his sword, he swung it again and again and again.

For a very long time, he did nothing but to swing his sword.

Seeing all of this, Goddess Artemis came to a realisation.

His dedication.

His self-sacrifice.

His unbendable will.

His adventure.

Her heart started beating faster.

She loved it.

All of it.

Perhaps it was the instinct of a god, carving for her child's adventure.

Or it was her own selfish feeling.

Perhaps even both?

She didn't know.

It was the first for her as well.

But what she did know.

Was that her feelings were real.

This hurriedly beating heart couldn't possibly be wrong.

Was this the things that pervert Hermes always preached about?

She wondered to herself.

After watching for a long time, the pitch black world in front of her vanished.

And when she once again opened her eyes.

The scene in front of her changed completely.

But the person standing in front of her, looking down at her was still the same.

"You're awake?"

His apathetic voice sounded in her ears, making them turn red.

Extending her hands she closed the gap between them and went in for a hug.

Feeling his body heat Goddess Artemis knew, that she had indeed returned to reality.

And that her feelings were indeed real.

"What's the matter?", William tilted his head in confusion as he looked down at her burying her head in his chest.

Goddess Artemis's face turned beat red and instead of replying she she just tightened the her grip even more.

But his next words seem to drop cold water on her burning feelings.

"We're about to arrive at the dungeon City."

William turned his head away from her, staring straight at the massive fortress like city in his vision.

It was finally here.

He was finally here.

Too occupied with his own thoughts William didn't notice Goddess Artemis who was biting down on her lower lip and muttering a name in an almost inaudible voice.

"Soma......."