Strena The Dark Gods Part Five

 The Goddess Of Darkness 

Strena woke up the next morning. She noticed that she was being carried by Chashathrophogh. She felt a hand on her shoulder and everything from the day before came back to her the moment that she caught a glimpse of Cerpheres. 

“I wanted to carry her!”

“As if I would trust you with a child! I know that she’s fifteen now, but I still don’t trust you with her.”

That was when the hand retracted before letting out a giggle.

“What?”

“Our little beauty’s awake!”

“What?”

That was when they saw that she was awake.

“Are you alright?”

She nodded.

“He did it. He used me to take out Darkector and Orion.”

He nodded.

“Don’t hold it against you. It was not your fault.”

“How many died?”

“All of them?” 

Her eyes widened.

“Cerpheres!”

“Fine! The ones that were near Augued.”

She nodded as they looked on and spotted a black cloud ahead of them in a long line. She looked to the left and right to see that it seemed endless.

“Should we find a way around that?”

“We don’t have the time.” Spoke Chashathrophogh with a curled lip. 

“What?”

“Can you walk?”

“Should be.”

He then looked at her as he laid her down gently.

“Why?”

“It’s Auzdara, the goddess of darkness. That dark line is her trademark.”

“So, regardless of if we have the time, we will have to face this one?”

“Yes.”

She looked down and nodded.

“So, we need to prepare for a fight?”

He nodded.

“Then I think we need to get a move on. After all, we have lost too much time.”

So they walked on and they entered the darkness. They all had to be on guard as they all kept an eye out for any attacks. Yet, as they walked on and on, the darkness became thicker and thicker however they could still see. Yet soon the darkness became heavier and heavier.

Suddenly Strena saw people in front of her. She thought that that looked familiar. So she took a closer look at them and her body froze, like she had been caught with her trousers down. They were all the people that Zaryb or Wolfox made her kill in her training to become an assassin, including the gang she killed!

Then they all turned to smoke and shadow. They all dived at her. The man pulled her back as Cerpheres stretched his hand out and pulled her back as the shadows dived back and hissed.

“What was that? Why did-”

That was when Cerpheres pulled her close. He placed a hand on her cheek.

“Do you have a good memory as in a moment that you found good?”

She looked down and shook her head. He smirked.

“Not one?”

She looked down and pulled out the violin.

“When you taught me how to play this?”

He closed his eyes as he let out a chuckle.

“Then play it! Don’t worry. I will play it too.”

Soon he too pulled out his violin. Then they started to play a happy tune that sank in deeply. Like her soul was getting a deep bath. Letting the music clean and cleanse her soul. She suddenly felt clean inside. 

Yet there was something that was fighting against this feeling. It was like a tick in her body or a leech that was gripping her body tightly, refusing to let go. Refusing to let her become completely clean. Yet as she played it, she felt the grip become harder and harder. Soon it felt more like a python wrapping itself around her. Crushing her soul, strangling all the peace of the music. Yet she pushed on and forced herself to continue to play. She kept her determination and gripped it like a snake, gripping its prey.

That was when she heard a lady’s lyrical laughter which surrounded her. She looked around as she spotted a shadow in the body of a female. She could see white glowing eyes in the head.

“I see…”

“Who is that?” she asked as she nodded at her.

“Auzdara, the goddess of darkness.”

That was when she felt a cut under her eye. She looked down at the cut to see a shadow there. She looked up and saw the shadows coming from her feet.

She put the violin away and pulled out her blades. She cut the shadows coming at her. This cut the shadow and it burst into flames.

That was when she let out a hiss as more and more shadows raced at her and the group. Bash fired an arrow at her but it went right through!

So Strena ran up to her. She saw a shadow coming at her. She slashed left to right. She then felt something around her ankle and her head hit the ground causing her to hit her head as she slashed down. 

Then she dived to her. She slashed to the neck, which she dodged. She slashed from left to right again and again and again and she dodged again and again and again. Yet she kept this up and her focus too. Then she saw the shadow coming up and she slashed down. Then she flicked her blade up. The woman dived out of the way. She then pushed on and on as she slashed from left to right again and again and again, keeping her eyes on the shadows. 

Then she slashed at the stomach. This caused her to bend over and she drove Orion up and stabbed the head. 

Soon the darkness was wiped out and light reached the ground to reveal that there were corpses all around them! Nothing was alive, not even the bugs.

“What?”

“Divide and conquer. Her specialty. She would go from place to place and spread darkness. Use people’s darkness to kill each other, thus littering the streets with corpses.” Cerpheres explained, smiling and licking his lip slowly.

“Oh.”

“Could you explain in a way that doesn’t sound like you need a little alone time?”

“No.”

Chashathrophogh and Bash growled.

“But why does she do it?”

“Weeeeell!”

“Calm down!”

“She takes delight in it! The way people turn on each other - tear each other apart! Especially those that love each other! The deeper the more pleasure she gets when they kill each other! It’s just irresistible to her! And- and-”

“Cerpheres!”

He let out a long and shaky breath.

“Alright! But still, I just can’t help but flutter at a woman like that!”

“You would!”

“Anyway! As everyone is dead, I think we could collect some supplies before we leave.” Spoke Bash, loudly. “And Cerpheres, you better calm down! Strena is-”

“Almost the age you were when we first met!”

“Only by two years!”

“By the way, I think Mr Cerpheres could go around and heal everyone that may be still alive. I mean, it can’t be the whole village!”

Yet he found none, so they all buried the dead and Leonardo gave Strena another art lesson. After Strena wrote her next entry they left the dead village behind.