Monarch

She was there.

The queen that should have her subjects' interest as a first priority, was there.

Approving of people being turned into slaves, turning a blind eye to the use of curses to bind them to such a fate.

"Merlin. I don't think I can resist much longer."

My blood was boiling, my Archana raging. The atmosphere around me grew with a deep sense of bloodlust, but I knew it was only an effect of my concept, whatever concept it was.

Merlin wasn't faring any better then me. He too was furious and the combination of our emotional instability was showing effects on reality.

The night sky lost all its shine, the moon, the stars, everything was covered by pitch black clouds filled with electricity, rampaging upon themselves.

Nature all around us was screaming in pain. The flowers were dying at a visible rate, all greenery was turning grey. The world was loosing its colors.

Then the door of the market sprang open.

The queen, Daphne, accompanied by a man wearing a black coat urged out of that slave trade.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? HOW DARE TWO FOREIGNERS ATTACK MY KINGDOM!?"

Kingdom? She has big enough balls to call this a kingdom?

"You disgusting bitch are brave enough to call that atrocity a kingdom?"

Merlin and I were completely in tune.

"YOU!"

I didn't care about consequences. The man in black was completely surrounded by purple mana, and I could feel the paragon that were tracking the queen were starving.

"Is it him?"

I forced my thoughts to Merlin through my earring and his nod was enough of a testimony to me.

Flowery disperse.

The man, or in better terms, the abomination was right in front of me, with a startled expression on his face. I didn't miss a beat and clutched his throat as tight as I could.

The baffled Queen was screaming something, and Merlin was answering back in a calm but threatening tone, however nothing entered my mind.

The abomination in my hands was trying to cast a spell or skill on me and I kicked his groin before he could complete whatever he was trying to do.

"You are filth."

I looked at the queen then.

"You are also filth, but it's not my place to judge you. For this creature however…"

My emerald eyes shining with rage had already pass judgment.

This creature couldn't be allowed to live.

But it needed to suffer.

"How many kids have you enslaved with curses?"

My voice a silent threat, but no answer came to me. It didn't even occur me that the creature before me was gasping for air while crying from my kick.

I turned to face Daphne again.

"Answer me. How many kids."

"IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! RELEASE MY SERVANT IMMEDIATELY!"

"Merlin, bring them to me."

With a snap of his fingers, 11 children aged between 6 and 10 years old were in front of me.

Shuddering with fear and my heart broke.

Merlin removed my little princess to let me act without restraint and hurried all the kids behind him.

My heart shattered with every weak step they took.

Every stumble they made.

Every sobbing that echoed.

I was crying.

The pain they had gone through.

The desperation they had felt.

The fear of never being able to truly live.

I was absorbing every speck of pain these kids had suffered.

[garden of illusory flowers] only heal the children.

The doors to Avalon opened on my command, but the usually colourful flowers were now only white.

A reminder of the stolen innocence and purity.

"It's time. Paragon."

The entire flutter came to life, swirling and dancing around my and the abomination I was still holding.

Some were already eating the cursed marks on the kids, freeing them of their fate of suffering, but the others were waiting.

Until thunder struck.

The lightning previously dancing only around the clouds, started to hit everything around me, not actually hurting anyone, but giving the sign the Paragon was waiting. And not even a second later it started to eat at that monster's mana.

Joyful tears born from freedom.

Painful screams born from consequences.

A beautiful resonance, a reminder that everything comes at a price and more commonly than not, you're not ready for that.

"Th- the p-p-para-paragon?!"

The once powerful Queen, the monarch of these lands, was stumbling and making various steps backwards.

"HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?! THE FIRST GUARDIAN IS ITS ONLY MASTER."

I threw the body of the abomination to the sides, my familiar would take care of it.

"Is he? Because that is my familiar."

"That's nonsense! How can a fateless person like you hold such a familiar?!"

The thunderstorm, was still rampaging, the flutter happily taking turns at feeding. The petals from my illusory garden started dancing in the air creating a beautiful picture. But I was not done.

I didn't even notice the notification from the successfully completed mission.

I was on a mission of my own.

"You have to take responsibility Daphne."

"What are you talking about? It's in my power to make slaves of orphans."

"She probably made those children orphans, but it's just an assumption."

Merlin voice resounded in my mind, fuelling my already enraged thoughts and breaking my heart even more.

My Archana, erupted everywhere, invading the air, claiming the territory and completely destroying all the mana in the air.

I started to understand my concept a little more, but what was really important now, was that the spells Daphne was secretly positioning all around herself, shattered.

Every circle just disappeared.

Daphne started to gasp as well.

For the first time in her life, she was breathing air devoid of mana. For a mage, that was akin to poison.

Merlin was also impressed, but since I was only focused on Daphne, my Archana didn't reach him nor the children in the slightest.

Should I kill her? Will Hali hate me?

While debating, I didn't realise my bident was already in my hand, crackling with electricity.

"YOU CAN'T KILL ME! I'M THE QUEEN! EVERYONE, ATTACK THIS BASTARD!"

But nobody moved.

What they saw, was not their queen being attacked.

They saw the bane of their existence.

Most of the people in this village, however shady business they traded with, knew very well where those slave children came from.

They were the sons and daughters of her opposition.

Simple people that were against their rule, but didn't do anything to change things, they just thought it, but the Queen seer said they would ignite riots in the future and her peace couldn't be disturbed.

And the man who was finally extorting vengeance, wasn't a foreigner attacker.

He was the holder of the Paragon, and nature seemed to respond to his simple breathing.

He was the true monarch.

"I SAID ATTACK THIS BASTARD!!!"

The Queen was losing her composure and the mana deficiency was getting to her, but she still was a demigod, and had plentiful of aura to defend herself, and that's what she did.

She started circulating her aura, finally getting a grip of herself, and retrieved a dagger from her tunic, launching herself at me.

But before she could even come close to me, the world seemed to stand still.

The clouds silently parted, leaving space for the moon to shine upon us all.

Watching all our actions, judging us.

[enough.]

An enraged voice came from the sky.

A woman was furious and she wanted answers.

[I was told that an interesting show was happening on the island I was born on, but I see a man trying to kill the queen of these lands?]

Daphne's face recovered colour.

Of course the Huntress of the moon would come and save her, she was her twin brother's daughter after all.

"Sexist. Prejudiced. Blind by your standards."

My voice cut the night. Unbothered by what I was accusing a famous androphobic goddess of.

[you dare-]

"I do. You only saw me approaching the Queen of these lands with a spear. What about the children currently sheltered by my master?"

[…]

"And what about enslaving children made orphans by her own killing?"

[…]

The goddess and the queen were shaken by my accusation; while one was thinking of what was happening here, the other was questioning how I knew, at least until she saw Merlin's smirk.

"And to add on. What about using a curse mage, that thing my familiar is currently feeding off of, to enslave those children?"

"It is still alive right?"

"Yes, it's just that the Paragon managed to break one of its circles and it passed out."

In the brief moment of mental communication with Merlin, the queen started to try and defend herself.

"I DID NO SUCH THINGS! I AM THE QUEEN WHY WOULD I KILL MY OWN PEOPE?"

"Because of future riots."

Hali's voice came from behind me. She was with Odysseus, both wearing ice cold glares.

I ignored everyone and got back to the kids. Not without stabbing the heart of the abomination and sending its soul directly to Asmodeus and Co.

"Kids. My job is done. Let's get you fed and healed."

They all encircled me and once I got back the little princess from Merlin, we started moving towards the town.

They could do whatever they wanted, if the queen died, all for the better, Hali was certainly a better queen then her.

My priority was get something to feed those children.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING?! HALI KILL THAT MAN THIS ISTANT!"

I didn't turn, that was not my problem anymore.

Daphne could scream all she wanted, it was none of my business.

[that man is free. Whoever touches him tonight shall face three times the pain.]

That sounds ominous, but I'm glad she finally opened her fucking eyes.

"Let's go kid, we need you to eat something."

I walked with the children holding my pants, slowly making my way to find any food in town, unaware of the stares everyone was giving me.

_____________________

-Odysseus' POV-

Seeing Dimitris leave everyone behind, giving venomous glares to everyone, but soft smiles to those children, reminded me of the first time fissure we had been together.

That was the same glare he gave me in the Arena.

"You seem to have finally understood."

Merlin reminder came as a cold dagger strait to my throat.

"The value of live, it doesn't only refer to killing."

"It does not."

The decree issued by the Huntress of the moon had basically paralysed everyone from taking actions against Dimitris, at least for tonight, but there was still judgment that needed to be passed.

We had all heard what he said.

The accusation he made.

The truth he revealed and how Hali herself had backed him up.

[It is time to pass judgment.]

"BUT I ONLY EVER ACTED ACCORDING TO THE LAWS!"

[you didn't.]

"THOSE PEOPLE WOULD HAVE KILLED HUNDREDS IN THEIR REVOLUTIONS! I AM EXPECTED TO PROTECT MY PEOPLE!"

[this is the problem with seers, and why the oracle is forbidden from taking or asking to take actions.]

"What?!"

At that moment another voice resounded, a young man, clearly enraged, but managing to uphold composure.

[fate is volatile, malleable. It flows like a river, but not like a river it's not bound by its course.]

Daphne's eyes shook and both Hali and I exhaled a breath we didn't know we were holding.

[that's why I usually remove any prophetic powers from my children, but I made the mistake with you, thinking that the Queen of my hometowns needed some perks. Yet you didnt even realise you tried to enslave your own brother.]

Apollo's words froze everyone once again.

In between the children Dimitris had rescued, there was a demigod. A demigod not yet claimed. Did he know?

[he doesn't even know who the kid is, I wanted to tell him, but when is brain was only thinking of one thing, do you want to know?]

Nobody answered. Everyone's blood was running cold just from the presence of the two constellations were emitting.

[nobody?]

He asked again and this time, Merlin answered.

"He was thinking: children need to play."

He then snapped his fingers and the once dead nature started to bloom again.

"He was also probably thinking something like: they need love."

[mage of flowers, you are right, but wrong.]

"What?"

[he was thinking: children need to play and to be loved, to grow happy. Not like me.]

[ah, he was also cursing each and everyone of us, rightfully so.]

Apollo's declaration hit too close to my fears. I didn't want Dimitris to go back in a dark spiral and yet I couldn't even recognise the problem.

I had naively thought he just was against slavery, that might still hold true, but in Itaca, the only slaves are criminals that swear on the Styx voluntarily to avoid death.

I'm a fool.

[now, to punish my own child.]

Daphne started shaking once again.

The reality of the events had finally started to hit her and even if she had been freed from whatever concept Dimitris was subjecting her through, she didn't even try to move.

[I hereby strip you of my ichor. You will die slowly and painfully, in a body that can't contain both mana and aura.]