BXBX NOVEL Chapter 178: Home Sweet Home.
"I am fairly excited." Ikaris hugged her from behind. "I have spent less time on earth than anywhere else, it is drastically different and far less hostile than everywhere we have been thus far." She added, and Sol nodded in agreement.
"I am a little nervous, what if human society there does not accept me, or I am too estranged?" Arla asked, and Sol shook his head and covered her ears with his palms causing her sigils to shimmer in crimson.
After a few seconds had passed and nothing seemed to happen she looked up at him with her brows furrowed. "Master?"
"If you managed to adapt to somewhere like Zola-Prime, then earth is going to be a breeze, just as an added measure, only those of us who bare the same marks and bonds can see your ears."
"I can still see her ears, though." Sara leaned her head.
"You\'re an exemption." Sol turned to her. "I did it without your permission, look at your forearm." He walked up to her and held up her hand, causing a slight huff from Ikaris when she saw a small crest on her hand resembling a cross with sharp edges. "It\'s to keep you safe, you\'re connected to me now, not on the same level as Ikaris and the others, but I can at least protect you like this."
"I don\'t think there\'s a single weapon on earth that can harm any of us." Dina shook her head. "Honestly speaking, earth is the safest place we could possibly go."
"Earth is not as simple as it seems at first glance, you\'ll notice things that you never did when you were there last." Sol responded to Dina and then looked at Eris who was sitting in a sofa with her child silently observing them. "Eris, have you decided?"
"I will stay." Eris answered as soon as he acknowledged her. "Its both my desire and my punishment for what happened with Usami..." She looked down at the little sleeping boy and smiled kissing his soft red cheek.
"You are right, Sol, I did alienate her, I ignored her because she didn\'t want to be here, she didn\'t want to fit in I shunned her when she needed a friend the most, I don\'t have the heart to face her after I did that, but can you at least tell her I\'m sorry?" She raised her gaze.
"I will, as soon as I see her." Sol answered, taking two steps to the side while Ikaris pulled Dina away just in time for Dr\'ul and Sorath to appear in their midst, and along with them came Gadriel and Gabriell, Renia and Adonai and the goddess of Love, Ana\'el.
"The time draws nigh." Dr\'ul stepped forward and extended her hand and Sol reached out and grabbed her\'s in a firm shake smiling brightly at her. "I wished your stay was longer, but you are still young, there is much to do and many dreams yet to become reality, I wish you a healthy departure, Sol." She grinned at him patting his shoulder. "And do not forget-"
"Don\'t worry, I\'ll swing by every now and then for a fight." Sol nodded patting her shoulder as well and then looking around as Renia tackled Dina and Ikaris in a hug spreading all six of her arms around them and pulling Arla into it as well.
"You three, I will miss you dearly!" She rubbed her head in Ikaris\'s neck.
"How beautiful~" Ana\'el swooned. "So much love in the air, it is so beautiful~" She hugged Adonai, causing the god of creation to shudder.
"Sister, please do not interrupt my thoughts with your... Feelings." Adonai peeled her off himself and watched her run over and hug Sol.
"Oh my dear Sol, I will miss the intrigues of yours and Ikaris\'s tale so much!" She dramatically wept while he raised her off himself and held her out like a stray cat.
"I don\'t recall myself or Ikaris having any interaction with you before." Sol raised his brow to the max as the intrusive goddess tried hugging him again. "Dr\'ul?"
"Ana\'el is an even bigger fan of your progress and story than S\'mael is." Dr\'ul chuckled and held on to her sister\'s head raising her off her feet and turning her like a doll in her grasp. "Do you want me to flog you again in front of everyone?" Dr\'ul asked, smiling as a vein popped up beneath her right eye.
"A-absolutely not!" Ana\'el went still with a blush and chuckled nervously. "I will behave."
"...anyways." Eris broke the awkward silence. "I thought a lot more people would have come to see you off, Kris was even one of your best men."
"I spent most of the last two weeks saying farewell to everyone." Sol stood in the middle just as Dina\'s timepiece went off marking midnight. "Time\'s up."
"Then, until we meet again, Godslayer." Sorath smiled at him, and he did likewise, sparking up a glow as his powers manifested in glorious gold around him.
"Until then." Sol stood and waited as Ikaris and the others gathered around him.
"You didn\'t pack anything?" Eris stood after realising they were all empty-handed.
"We have all we need." Dina smiled at her as all five of them were engulfed in golden light. "I\'ll be seeing you Eri-"
"Wait!" She called, but they were already gone, and with the surge of Sol\'s mana the babe in her arm started crying casting the room in just his voice as the gods stood and watched her. "...what kind of goodbye was that?"
"You had two whole weeks to say goodbye to them, why did you not do it properly?" Adonai asked while all the others left consecutively. "What held you from it?"
"I don\'t... I don\'t know," she sunk to the floor and cradled her child, and the god of creation looked to Dr\'ul who had remained with them, and then sighed and left.
"You are strong, Eris, but strength without direction lacks purpose, you let guilt dictate your actions, you refused logic and acted upon emotion, I cannot console such emotions, this is something you will have to overcome on your own." She spoke to her, resting her hand on her head and then leaving as well.
"Lady Schneider." A maid entered upon Dr\'ul\'s departure and knelt next to her. "I will prepare tea to help you sleep after I have put Issac to bed." She took the child from a crying Eris and stood with him. "Is there anything else you might require?" She asked.
"No." Eris raised her hands and covered her face, sinking further as she felt her stomach go tense from a rise in frustration and her head ache from stress. "I couldn\'t ask anything else of you."
"Thank you."
In a small damp room with the roof leaking from a rusty pipeline in the floor above, the air was musty and the ground full of dust and miscellaneous debris along with a muddy black puddle, in one corner a small bed with the legs broken, and close to the door a single table with an old TV monitor on it, and right next to the bed there was an old foam cup with black residue inaide of it and a fork next to that.
The window was nailed in from the inside, as was the doors, and sitting on the bed were two skeletons holding hands with one holding a gun, by the clothes they wore, one was male and the other female, and both skulls had bullet exit holes in them.
The air bubbled, and the atmosphere distorted and shifted around as the laws of light and time were manipulated, a small storm of dust travelled through the room and then a bright flash of golden light appeared, and from that light Sol, Ikaris, Dina, Arla and Sara walked forth, the bulb in the ceiling flickered upon their arrival, and then turned on when Sol held up his hand and pointed at it.
"What the fuck?" He looked down at the two skeletons. "Double suicide."
"Dear, it seems we are not in the same time yet again." Ikaris looked around his old apartment and then at him. "More dilation."
"It can\'t be that long though, the bed and ramen are still there just as we left them."
"But there are also fully decomposed corpses." Ikaris countered his argument.
"I don\'t sense any danger anywhere though." Dina looked around and then rested her hand on the first barricade on the door, peeling it off with a single finger. "I can\'t believe you used to live in this little shit hole... No offence."
"None taken, I hate this place." Sol replied when she tore off the other four with a wave of her hand and pushed the door open, but on the other side there was a wall barring them in as well.
"Something is very wrong." Ikaris commented, and as she did Sol waved his hands again and all of them vanished a second time, appearing where the roof was supposed to be, by what they were met with instead was a jet soaring over their heads and another fighter jet chasing after it, the skies were blacked out with smoke, burning buildings, littered from one side to the next, and below there were people hiding as best they could in the debris of the entropy.
"What the-" Dina\'s words were cut short when a massive explosion drew all their attentions westward where they saw great metallic dragon rampaging through a burning building and firing off lasers from its mouth.
"What the fuck is happening here?"