78. The Land of Grieve

(A/N: Check out my YouTube Channel. Link and description in author notes. Thank you.)

Me and Kratos were exhausted from that bout. Kratos was bruised up from that collision and sustained some internal injuries. Even his energy reserves were low. "You know, that was a good fight". I said to Kratos with a massive grin on my face. I was still lying in the pool of blood.

Kratos was sitting next to it with a Bonfire, DarkSouls style. He looked bloody cool doing it and it just looked natural for him. I was floating on top of the pool of blood. Once, you get used to it, its not that bad. I was reminiscing about the time with my family. Been a while since I last saw them. I have never been away from them for this long.

You only cherish something, once you lose it. I can imagine the sorrow and loneliness that Kratos feels, maybe, that's why he just tried to forget all that and just go on a murdering rampage on the Gods. But at least I have a being to talk with, otherwise this loneliness can get pretty overwhelming.

"Hey Kratos". "Hmm". "You know, all that loneliness that you keep inside you. We can always have a talk and you can let it all out, we had a life and death battle together. So we can be considered somewhat of Friends, don't you think". I said to him, still feeling nostalgic.

(A/N: Vegeta's soft to people near him. If the original Vegeta still had his planet. He could've had a better personality. Kratos and him can be considered friends, after all they went through.)

He in return just grumbled and closed his eyes, not saying anything. I know, its hard to open up. It was for me as well but you get there with time. We just sat there stayed there in comfortable silence, reminiscing and recovering from the battle. All that continuous battles and the hard fight was mentally tiring. I just closed my eyes and slept.

After waking up, I found Kratos still sitting there in the same position and the blood pool had already dried off. I could feel the Divine energy inside had grown bigger and I could actually control it but it was not enough for a transformation. So, I will probably kill more or wait for it to accumulate and probably try if I can transform.

Getting up from the ground, I just heated up my body with Ki and destroyed the dirt and grime stuck on my body. Not the cleanest feeling but it'll do for now. "So, where to next". I looked at him and asked.

"To the Land of Grieve, it is a land, where you have to tread on a path flowing with corrosion and monsters. Probably harder than the Forest of sorrows as it is hard to find a footing there". He said all that, still in the same position. Without even opening his eyes. I just gulped a little in anticipation of the coming fight again.

'The fight with Crius had given me a good boost to my Base power. It wasn't the biggest Zenkai boost as I didn't physically go after him but it was still something. The blood actually helped more with energy than anything else'. I was monologuing to myself and thinking about the changes in my body.

Following his proclamation, Kratos just stood up and looked at me. Giving a nod to each other, we started marching. First on the list would be to find some food, I had finished everything. Then we will go the next destination.

Quickly finding some edible monsters, we hunt them down and started cooking good feast to ourselves. After the food and making our bellies full. We marched onwards to our next destination.

The land of Grieve was a massive land of flowing ravines with little to no footing and flying was not an option here in the underworld. The Lava was hot as well as had corrosion properties. So, even if you protected yourself from the heat. You will never be able to protect from the corrosion effect as it slowly corrodes your energy as well.

We had to leave here fast and carefully. Otherwise getting seriously injured would be the least of our worries. I could already feel the presence of monsters and eyes spying on us. We were just a bit out of the perimeter to where it starts. There were monster hidden in the flowing ravines and they were not friendly.

"Make sure to not step on the lava, even a little bit. There are monsters here like Gorgons and other that can petrify you through various means. So tread and fight carefully". "Like I couldn't see that myself". I replied to him with sarcasm laced in my voice. Hearing me, his lips twitched a bit. I knew to keep my mouth sealed for a bit longer after that.

"You know, this might really be quite difficult. As I can sense beings without my eyes but I can't really see the terrain without them as it doesn't really have Ki inside it". I was actually thinking of a way to pass through, all the while mumbling to myself.

"Let's go, we don't have too much time". Saying that Kratos started to enter the area. I quickly followed behind him. Getting separated here is not a wise choice. As we were treading the land. The land to hold our footing was slowly decreasing. Making it harder to tread these ravines.

As we got a bit deep into the Land of Grieve, the attack on us began. Lizards, Gorgons, Gargoyles and all kinds of things descended upon us in hordes like an animal stampede. This just made it harder to tread the land, all the while killing these and creatures.

This was going to be a long journey out of this hellhole. Looks like, me and Kratos were in for a tough ride.