I Hate You

As Ken and I slid down the slight hill toward Zeus, we made eye contact and I began as Fuki slowly moved away from him.

"One last chance. Will you stop this?" I asked Zeus. He shook his head and to everybody's surprise, the temple collapsed with a wave of his finger, killing all of his Disciples.

I sat in confusion as they all died with the same feeling I had. Everybody was confused.

"What the...?" I looked at Zeus and realized that he had a plan. That was right. I didn't consider what his plan could be because I was so confident with mine.

"What? What's wrong, Anima? Now, you're not split three ways. You can all fight me now. Isn't that easy?" He asked me.

"Three ways? Mess up on your speech there? Everybody here is what you need to be worried about." I told him, hoping he wouldn't see past my deception.

"Excuse me, as I'm still learning names... Ruby, and Hex, I believe?" He said, and I felt shudders.

"You've really brought me down to my last limb. I'm all in now. I don't care about this city, I don't care about the people inside of it, and I don't care about anything anymore. All I care about is your vessel, as it's the only thing I need. I can restart elsewhere. Can you?" He asked me.

The more he spoke, the more underprepared I realized we all were. Why does he know so much? Who told him?

"You don't care about anything? Then, it must not be Ono talking." I tried to comment back, but Zeus retaliated with a magic skill. [Bullet 8], to be exact. When it shot, it hit me in the leg and pushed me to the ground.

[Cripple], a new status effect, apparently shut off control of my legs. I could've figured out what that meant, but falling to my knees in front of Zeus wasn't something I wanted to do.

"Reincarnated from Earth as Anima ---------, you were sent here to be the Third Magic Hero. Your skillset involved skills called Bullet, Absorption, Blessing, Impale, Slash, and Clairvoyance. All those skills aren't effective against a Patriarch like me, so you were hoping for your more powerful friends there to do the work. Do I have that down correctly?" Zeus said.

"How do you... know all that?" I asked him.

"When Yggdrasil set you back in time, he told you that you were too weak. You were a useless Hero and your pathetic demeanor wouldn't get you anywhere. You're a failure, simply put. You let Jerry and Albert die, you can't save Ruby's father, and you can't do anything correctly. Not even save her." Zeus said.

I couldn't explain what I felt. Maybe it was the sixth sense, but as Zeus shot another [Bullet] straight into Soul's chest, chills shot up my spine and my eyes opened widely.

You're crippled, you can't get to her. But, don't worry. If you can, then I'll let you save her. If anybody else moves, I'll put another one in her head." Zeus told me.

As soon as I heard that, I desperately crawled toward Soul as her health began to drop. I couldn't focus on the fact that this was stupid, I just wanted to get to her.

My arms moved at the fastest rate they ever had before. My lack of athleticism was showing as I grew tired, but the strain in my muscles was nothing, nothing compared to losing a comrade! To losing... Soul!

My fingers dug themselves between the cracks of the stones as I closed the distance, and just as I got close to her, Zeus slammed his foot into her chest and kicked her back even farther.

"Look at that! It looks like she doesn't even want to be healed! I'm not sure, Anima. I think you should get to it." Zeus said, with a laugh. [Cripple] wore off as I slowly healed and I stood back up, looking at Zeus while walking backward toward Soul.

This sadistic asshole... he thinks he can get away with this? You have to be kidding me...

"You should hurry. Her health is in the double digits now." Zeus told me. I turned around and ran toward her.

From the shadows of the temple, behind the debris of the small pillars lying around, came out the man I talked to during my time in the temple. He wielded the Axe. The Axe Mortal, as he called himself.

"So, this is the girl I have to kill? Fine by me." The Axe Mortal said.

Before I could scream out toward him, Fuki stuck his sword through his chest and just like Soul, the Axe Mortal coughed up blood as well.

"I may not know these people well... but if you toy with Anima anymore, I'll have to really kill you," Fuki whispered in his ear.

"I've already won." He replied back.

In that same second, the ground beneath everybody started to swell like it was a living thing, and before I knew it, rocks exploded everywhere with the force of meteors, even overtaking my position and sending me flying in a random direction. I hit a pillar and lost the air in my lungs.

The ground turned into a huge crater filled with the structural support that used to hold up the temple. I was injured a great amount, and everybody else was scattered.

"Anima... I don't think Soul will make it much longer if you just sit there!" Zeus shouted out to me. I furrowed my eyebrows and tried to get up, but yet again, [Cripple] was on me.

"Let's play a new game, I'm bored," Zeus told me.

A loud noise shot into my ears and it sounded like rocks just exploded above the crater I was stuck in. Zeus looked down at my crater with a wide, creepy smile and then explained his new game.

"So, you'll climb out of that hole and you'll heal the person I just injured. But, you only have thirty seconds before they die! On top of that, you have to guess who I just killed. If you do, I'll bring Soul back from the dead." He told me.

Huh...? What Person did he injure? Thirty seconds to save them? Soul's dead? He killed somebody?

What the hell... what's happening right now? Why is my plan falling apart?

I thought I planned everything well... but he crumbled it before it could even start.

That's right... I made a plan to fight somebody of my level. Zeus wasn't of my level. He was far above me. A Patriarch, as I've learned from Amaterasu and the others. This wasn't just an opponent, it was like a God...

"Your count down starts... now!" Zeus told me.