Chapter Eight.

The air was cold and intense as soon as Chantara uttered her first statement. Nothing but the truth spew from her mouth and she had never been more proud of herself. Those two humans were her part of her goal at restoring the hearth of the gods magic so she reckoned they needed to know the truth. It hadn't been up to a minute since she started her explanations before she was cut off by Tina's booming laughter. Her eyes paused and fixated on her to see whether her human friend was alright upstairs.

"Is everything fine with you?" Questioned Chantara.

"Is everything alright with YOU?" Tina replied with yet another loud chortling, panting in between. Chantara changed her focus towards Lucius who at the moment tried so hard to keep a straight face. "I mean, gods? The heavens-"

"The High Realm." Frowned Chantara as she corrected.

"Yes yes, that one. For heaven's sake, Moon, you are a comedian." Tina commended, but in a way that displeased Chantara.

"A comedian?" Puzzled Chantara asked with rather a confused stare on her face.

"Yes!" Shrieked Tina. "You know how to construct your jokes so well." She rose up, briefly paced the room, mumbling things to herself neither of them could make do of, before silently finding her way to her seat again. 

"It is official now that this girl human is running insane". Chantara pointed out to Lucius beside her, noticing he too showed no sign of belief in her story, spanked him hard before he'd even saw it coming.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"You too were already going insane, I figured to save you."

"You're the one that needs saving." He massaged his back, hoping the piercing pain from the suddenly hit would subsidized.

"I am not lying. I can assure you of it." Chantara jumped off the bed and straightened her gaze. "Mundus is under a big threat, same as us up at the High Realm."

"You know," Tina managed to say from her churning stomach. She'd laughed so much than she wanted to. "You are so thoughtful with your lies. Mun—dus?" She called out the name with a mimicked voice of Chantara, and that sent her on yet another journey to laughter universe.

Soon Lucius followed in Tina's way, but he only chuckled and snorted at minimum intervals.

"How do I prove myself to you?" Chantara asked out of frustration.

"What do you mean how?" Asked Tina. "You mean, you have magic as well?" She tightened her lips and prayed they won't open up again into another roar of laughter.

"Moon, I know you're highly trained in combat. But magic as well?" Said Lucius, sounding agitated by her claims already. "And also, try as much as possible never to mention the name of the gods ever again. It is considered a blasphemy to Shadrack and his men. An offense that is punishable by death." Explained Lucius. "I've seen dozens of people get slaughtered in the hands of these so called men."

"Are you out of your mind? How dare you try to condemn me?" She pointed her fingers directly at his chest.

"I am not trying to condemn you, Moon. I'm only trying to be reasonable here."

"Reasonable?"

"Wait wait, hold on," Tina stopped and they both turned to stare at her. "Could you please come up with a better name that, Moon?"

Chantara faced Lucius again, completely ignoring Tina. "How about what happened at the river bank the other day? How can you explain what I did that sent dear old Tina here, straight into the water?"

Lucius frowned a bit as he tried recalling the eventful thing that had happened but Tina had already remembered.

"What incident had occured?" Asked puzzled Lucius.

"Try to remember, human boy."

The thought of that feeling she'd experienced then, sent a shiver down her spine. "Was that... Magic?" Asked Tina from a low tone. All of her hollering mood had seemed to calm just at the mention of what happened.

"Yes. The magic of the Orb lives inside of me." Confirmed Chantara.

"Wait, magic? Tina," he turned to face Tina, who's face had transformed into a disoriented one. "You felt magic back then?"

"Of course she would." Replied Chantara. "I caused the river's spirits to swallow her whole."

"You can do that? Did- did you speak with the spirits?" Lucius asked to satisfy his curiosity.

"No you moron," Chantara rolled her eyes at his question. "I possessed the spirits, all at once and they obeyed."

"You can do that?" He asked again, then it hit him hard like a heavy rock had just been thrown at him. "All those while you threatened to kill me, you were serious?"

She smirked at his question and more because of the intimidation that danced freely in his eyes. She did not reply.

Lucius swallowed hard. "Then, what is your mission here? And what is your real name?"

"Do you have any further questions?"

"Yes. Tons more." He replied and just as soon as his lips parted to form words, she cut him off.

"Then keep them to yourself." Her tone was cool and friendly, but almost eerily threatening.

Lucius swallowed hard again and thanked the gods he was still in one piece. If she truly was a goddess, then he had really trespassed at her presence.

Tina had not spoken any word for a while now. If truly Chantara was truly a goddess, then she had to carefully reconstructed her words more wisely. "I feel something inside of me." She finally said, confining in that moment to spill out her deepest fear she'd never uttered to anyone before, and both their gazes fell on her. "It's powerful and alive and it constantly flourishes every day."

"Really? Are you sure you're not under some spell?" Asked Lucius.

"Shut up Lucius, I'm serious. Back then when I was suddenly attacked by a wave of water, I thought I would die. Though it was in such a brief moment, but I was wholly swallowed by the bloody river."

"I can't believe what you're saying. I feel it's under the influence of one of your ethanols." Grumbled Lucius, folding his arms in disagreement.

"Doesn't matter, you moron." She frowned. "You weren't the one swallowed whole under water." Whispered Tina to herself, thought a little louder to had been heard by Lucius.

"Hey, don't call me moron. I do not take up on such offenses."

Chantara took her time to process what Tina had just said, ignoring the hibby-gibbies that they'd both been acting. "What is it exactly? It could be some powerful dark magic or something more-" her eyes widened in realization. If it were true, then her father's spirit truly still blessed her. "What is it? Does this power controls you?"

Tina took her time to process it. "It's not something I can explain." She said, causing both faces turned on her. "Sometimes, I can..." Her words faltered as she spoke, then came back on track making her voice to coarse a bit in a raspy frightened tone. "I can create a sort of spell, or rather, cast a spell on people."

"Have you also hit your head, Tina?"

"And does it work?" Impatient Chantara questioned.

"Well," Tina thought for a while. "It didn't always work all the time."

"Try it on me." Chantara rushed forward to grip Tina's hands tight.

"Wait, if truly you are a goddess, then there's absolutely no way it'll work on you."

Tilting her head a little she fumbled over what Tina had said. Maybe it was true. "Try it on the Lucius boy." She pointed her fingers towards Lucius on the bed.

"Hey! I told you to stop calling me that."

"Yes! I can do that."

"No. Wait, do what? I'm not some sort of experiment you can try out?" Lucius scanned both faces and saw the glimpse in their eyes, realizing that they didn't care. "Girls, please. Don't try anything stupid-"

He was still talking when the entire house grumbled into a thunderous shake, and next, a thunderous boom captivated the air, causing both Lucius and Tina to scream out loud in excruciating pain. Their hands clapped tight on their ears to lower the deafening noise.

Only Chantara was not vulnerable to the noise. She heard it too, but it did nothing to her.

All the screaming soon stopped as the noise became less hazardous to them.

The strange phenomenal halted them off speaking, causing them each exchanged bewildered glances, as they tried to process what the unknown incident was all about.

Everything inside the room—the roof, to the bed and chairs, all shook with great force like the house would collapse soon. Immediately as it had started, it stopped, yet again.

The look on their faces revealed a devasted terror and Chantara couldn't blame them.

It wasn't long before she felt it. More than any of the humans could. Because she was a goddess, the concentration of dark magic reeked more and it was because of it's number one ingredient.

Blood.

Lots of blood. It all happened faster than they'd imagined because before Chantara could screamed they'd rushed out the building, the deed had already been done.

The entire building smashed it's hard rock on them, crushing everything under it's path into squished particles. The magic that had caused such havoc was indeed powerful it assured it's master of no survivals. Seeing his deed had been done, he lowered his head and took to his heed before anyone else could notice him.

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