Men Have Sides, Women Have Secrets pt.1

Wrath's petite body was suspended in the middle of the pyramid, her purple hair floated graciously by her shoulders, her hands exposed on her sides.

"By the power vested in me, reveal thy words!" Wrath's eyes glowed red.

A groundbreaking shockwave rumbled through the earth as the water around her convulsed outwards. The tremor caused the walls of the inverted pyramid to break away; exposing embossed runes. The foreign writing spanned throughout the whole surface of the lake banks. She had successfully entered the Inferno. Her glowing ruby eyes scanned the walls, each letter glowed as she read them.

The more she read, the brighter her ambience became. After some time, it illuminated a great portion of the lake. It allowed Wrath to pinpoint the shape of the pyramid. It had always been her castle in the sky, and after all those years of practice, she was finally ready. She dove deeper and deeper into the dark pit of void, but it seemed to be going forever. It felt bigger than she had remembered.

The pyramid had doubled in size since her last visit. She hadn't known about the lore written upon the walls back then. Lilith hadn't mentioned anything about the Inferno to the young child, but instead had written many ambiguous instructions in a book she had gifted to her only granddaughter. This revelation baffled Wrath, nonetheless.

A longwinded story– or a historical legend– was scribbled all the way to the unseen tip of the pyramid. It told a tale of two powerful souls that were cursed to search for each other for eternity. Neither could live nor die without each other. Both souls had roamed the earth to find new vessels to find each other and reunite as a whole again. The two opposing souls must work together to free themselves and proceed to their rightful afterlife; hence breaking the chain.

But their reincarnated bodies would forget their original goal and past lives, making the goal near impossible to attain. As a result, the two vessels would eventually turn against each other and experience a fall out that had been proven to be catastrophically severe to the magical realm. Once in a century, a war would break out as two opposing forces went against each other to subdue the other. The casualties ranged from mere mortals to the strongest of demons.

Years after years, cycles after cycles and yet none of them had attempted to end the curse. The power they received from the souls allowed the mortals to gain inconceivable capability. It corrupted them with the seven mortal sins and consumed them with darkness. One of the souls would always find the other, and aimed to rule the dimension as a sole ruler.

The story always repeated itself after every few decades or even as long as a century. Once both reincarnations had perished, a new cycle would start. Wrath struggled to dive deeper as the water pressure started to strangle her. She calmly built a water barrier to act like a protective layer as she pushed further into the Inferno. There was a small gash on one side of the pyramid. A chunk of rock had been taken out of it.

Suddenly Wrath remembered a passage from her grandma's spell book. She had mentioned her most fruitful and last trip into the Inferno. She marked the wall by sinking an enchanted blade into it and left a mark. A warm feeling spread from within her chest. She had surpassed her own teacher. It boosted her confidence to pursue her goal. The answer to the beginning and the end of this curse was at her arm's reach.

"Eliza…" she stopped at her track.

The obstruction caused her to lose her momentum. Her concentration was disrupted, and the protective barrier broke and burst. The immense force of water surrounding her propelled her body upwards. She was sent shooting at a great acceleration to the surface of the water. The motion gave her a whiplash. Her head surfaced as she coughed up water and blood before passing out.

"Wrath!!!" Lust called out from the shore.

He jumped into the water without any hesitation and yanked his friend's unconscious body away from the lake.

"Wrath! Please! Why are you bleeding so much?" he pumped on her chest.

After few failed attempts, she finally coughed up the rest of the water and blood in her lungs before trying to sit up straight.

"No. No. Don't," the petrified boy supported his friend's back.

"Oh God!" she rubbed her neck.

"What were you doing? I can't leave you for just a few hours without you getting into some sort of trouble."

"Hahaha… Sorry, I was trying to swim. I was doing fine 'til a hit a rock or something. It's pretty dark in there," she lied.

"Yeah, it's pitch black. What were you thinking?" he flicked her forehead.

"Ouch! Lesson learned!" she pushed her friend off and hobbled to her feet.

He couldn't see the runes light up, she thought to herself. Wrath looked back into the lake as the water had started to revert back to its original cobalt color. Everything went back to normal. For all she knew, she was the only person who could enter the Inferno for the time being. She eventually realized that Lust being there could jeopardize her plan.

"Wrath? You look so pale. Let's take a break before our next lesson. I can just meditate here and– "

"No, let's go home. I can't trust Pride with the house for another day," she wiped her bloody nose.

"Are you sure? I'm sure Simbi's doing just fine."

"Yeah, I'm tired."

"Okay. I guess I can focus on meditating for now," he agreed.

Wrath gathered enough strength to walk on top of the water and limped her way to the entrance of the cave. Lust unexpectedly came up from underneath her feet and carried her the rest of the way back to where they had parked the bike.