Memoirs of an Immortal (The Immortal Series) (16 page)

“These are the things that you will be fighting. I hope you watched closely because they tend to get bigger and harder to kill.” Akhilles had yelled at us from across the camp.

He cleaned his blade off, but instead of sheathing it he placed it back into his body. He then walked with purpose to Agape. She watched him closely, her eyes held a slight hesitation in them, as he reached for her hair. She backed away, grimacing at me.

“Prometheus? Why don’t you leave us now? I need to properly train these girls.” Akhilles smirked and didn’t look away from her face, almost as though he accepted her challenge.

“I would be very careful Akhilles, these girls are not mere slaves. They are special. They may even be better than you.” Prometheus said with a smile.

Somewhere along this journey, I realized that I wanted Prometheus to be proud of us, to see how much we could accomplish. How good we actually were.

“Fine you can stay, it’s your choice.” Akhilles waved his hand in the air.

“Now girls, I at least know that one of you has seen a beast like this. The rest of you will start to familiarize yourselves soon enough. I’ll teach you their strengths and their weaknesses. How they think, how they move, everything. These creatures that you will be forever fighting with are what we call, the Diavolis. The others call them various names, but we have picked this one for them. They are created solely to destroy what is harmonious in our world, created by a resentful god from a place called Tartaros.” He shuddered at the word. “Just as there are various sorts’ people in this world, there are different kinds of Diavolis that you will deal with. Most are nothing, but mere foot soldiers, while there are others that are far more intelligent and skilled, just like you. We are at war and if you can believe it, we are on the good side. This war started long ago, before any of us was aware and the world of the gods was asked to fight. We were not created for this, but we do it anyways, for whatever threatens the peace among humans, also threatens our realms.” Akhilles ran his hand through is short blond mane.

“Enough talk, now it is time to work. Thanks to Hephaistos’ brilliant little mind, we can now recreate various kinds of these creatures for practice.” He smiled, wiggling his eyebrows at us.

Akhilles had finally stepped away from a very flustered Agape. He walked over to a small copper box that had small toothed rings that intertwined together.

We watched as he began to crank a large dial on it, making the gears inside move. He finally let it go and placed it down onto the ground.

From the small hole that was on the copper box, came out five different Diavolis, one for each of us.

We sat there still, how was it possible that something so large could appear from a small copper box? I have never experienced anything like this.

“What is this?” Eva asked as she ran up to him to examine the instrument.

“This?” He asked as he picked it up and passed it on to her.

“This is called an Ofthalos. How did Hephaistos explain it? Oh yes, it lies to your eyes and tells you something is there when it isn’t.”

There would no longer be anything that would surprise me in this world.

I watched as these hideous beasts wailed, growled and grunted as they stood watching us. They were giants. Their bodies were human like, but were malformed and unnatural. Their faces were distorted as though their flesh were cut up, while their eyes were without colour. In this world now that nothing surprised me, how could there be an evil that even the gods themselves could not handle? The notion honestly scared me.

‘
You have to be kidding me, so they can’t handle these things, but we can?’
Eirene was right.

I looked at her and as she shook her head. We were still trying to be careful with our behavior in front of the gods, but our façade began to crack. Eirene’s exasperated face seemed to intrigue Akhilles.

“What is it? Too scared to fight?” He asked.

She didn’t bother to hide her annoyance. Usually when we were about to do something deemed inappropriate, Eirene would step in or she would allow me to see what she saw, so that I would stop the future behavior. But even Eirene’s emotions got the better of her.

“So this is why we were brought here?” She waved her hand in front of the monsters that did not move, but simply stood waiting for us to engage them.

“We were brought here to help you fight these things, but if you as gods cannot do this, what can five young girls do?” She cried out. “This is lunacy!” Eirene had had enough, enough of the training, enough of the rules, enough of all this. I could hear her inner monologue and I didn’t disagree.

“Are you bothered by this? Annoyed that we had to do this to you?” His eyes were wide and his nose began to flare. “I am so sorry to have inconvenienced you,” He hesitated, his anger growing. “but I am also bothered by it.” Akhilles voice began to grow louder.

“Do you think we like to admit that we gods can’t do this? That we have to wait for you to come and salvage what we have done?” He pounded on his chest. “I am Akhilles. I may not be a full-fledged god, but I am more capable then they are. But because of their selfish disdain, because of their insolence, I have to allow you,” He pointed at her now “You five little girls to do this for us.”

Akhilles was now talking down to Eirene’s face. I could sense that he wanted to fight to prove his worth, but it was Agape that stood next to him, she grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He turned to face her and then turned back to Eirene, with Agapes simple touch he was able to calm down. He lowered his head and began shaking it.

“This will be enough for today, now leave my home. I will see you all here tomorrow. Tomorrow I will make you understand how difficult your paths will be.”

Akhilles reached for Agape’s hand and held it for a moment longer. He looked into her face, a look of regret passed through his eyes. With his body stiffened and angered, he proceeded to leave us. Agape looked at me, her face sorrowful.

‘He so upset… I couldn’t help, but want to ease his pain, but our abilities don’t work for them, I think…’
Her voice trailed off and she began to follow Prometheus out the camp.

I was again the last to leave. I watched as he reached his home and closed his door loudly, making it a point that we were no longer welcomed here for today.

“You must be diligent!” He cried out as we fought each other. “Your opponent does think. It’s not some mere beast that flares its arms. It’s a creature that is brought here,” He emphasized the last word. “to try to get a stronghold. You must use all the senses that you have in your disposal. Humans are only able to see them when the Diavolis decided to attack. However, the Diavolis do send small minions to haunt the humans and terrorize their realities.” He barked. “You with your new eyes can now see the world in a different way and it’s you that must protect the human world, it’s you that must stay constantly in control.” Akhilles often spoke while we sparred. He would yell over our grunts and groans. Telling us what we would expect and what our world was going to be like.

The first few weeks he started us with basic training drills, but as weeks passed, it quickly became more intense. He pushed us as far as we could go and then pushed us further.

I was saddened as the weeks went on. Prometheus told me he was not needed as much as before. He would only come once in awhile, to watch us, which broke my heart. He said we were in Akhilles’ hands now and no one was a better choice than him. He was right. Akhilles helped us explore our strengths and skills, building our confidence in our new found abilities.

“Tomorrow, you will no longer use these weapons.” He pointed at the weapons that we were still using from our previous teachers.

“You will now use the weapons that have been given to you. Tomorrow, you will finally fight your first Diavolis.”

That night all my sisters’ thoughts were in my mind, let alone my own. How were we to use our weapons? How are we supposed to get them out? I have to admit that at that time, I was nervous to say the least. The reality behind these weapons was not something I truly understood.

I spent the whole night trying to wrap my mind around tomorrow’s events. I was hoping that I could maybe see through Eirene’s premonitions, but she didn’t have any, even her mind was too preoccupied.

When morning came my sisters and I were apprehensive, none of us spoke or even had a thought. Either it was from sheer exhaustion or just from fear. Either way, I don’t think it mattered at the time.

We stood in the Akhilles’ camp and waited. He came out of his home half asleep, without a care in the world. He began to sniff the air.

“Ah I smell fear. What Nikephoros’ daughters are scared? Why?” He laughed.

None of us answered. He looked at us perplexed.

“Alright if no one is going to answer, let us proceed with today’s events.”

As he stood in the middle of the camp, he used the Ofthalos and called forth five very large Diavolis, each more disgusting than the other. The smell of rotting flesh surrounded us and nearly blocked all our other senses.

“Now call forth your weapons” said Akhilles.

My sisters and I stood staring at each other, wondering what to do next, before we could even try, Prometheus showed up with Hephaistos.

Hephaistos was the last person I wanted to see now and yet here he was in front of me. I waited for him to walk over to me, but he merely passed me by. He didn’t even look in my direction. I grew angry, wondering what game he was playing now.

“To call forth you weapons, you must reach and touch your backs, with your minds call them out. It will be painful, but it’s nothing an immortal can’t endure.” Hephaistos’ voice was as calm as ever.

He didn’t even look concerned. Hesitation kicked in, as I remembered thinking how painful it was going in, but my curiosity got the better of me.

I reached and placed my arms on my back and closed my eyes. I could feel the sensation of my weapons, calling me. They were cutting through my body, but not harming me. Whatever cut that appeared, closed almost immediately. I could feel the handles of the swords as I grabbed them and pulled them out.

Finally, I had both swords in my hands. On my wrists, were these beautiful bracelets that were made of the same metal as my weapons. They had detailed engravings that mimicked the designs and cravings on the swords. I could feel the pulse of weapons through the bracelets as they were tethered to them somehow.

My first thought was that they would be heavy, but as I held them they were as light as air. I felt very comfortable with them as though they were always mine. My sisters had similar thoughts.

I could hear Eva. ‘
Nice, this I really like.’

Even Zoe was quite happy.
‘I can’t wait to use this, I want to get started.
’

I could see Eirene wielding her double axe as though she was waiting for battle, while Agape seemed to be quietly mesmerized by her spear.

Akhilles called for each of us. He then paired us up with our Diavolis. I stood there watching this giant of a beast, his skin black as coal, his eyes white as snow, as he stood there waiting. Each breath he took, sounded like a grunt, his face was scarred and gnarled, his teeth sharp.

Akhilles then spoke.

“Each of you will become familiar with both your weapons and the Diavolis. You must know that the Diavolis are never the same. There are some that are quicker, others may have abilities that you know nothing of, and on a rare occasion you will meet one that may even be clever, so never let your guard down, always be aware. Now go!”

We were signaled to start our battle.

Here stood before me, an animal that I could never dreamed of. I stood there and waited. I didn’t really pay any attention to my sisters and what they were doing. My mind was on the creature in front of me. I listened and I could hear it speak. Its inner voice was hard to understand. It was a language I have never heard before. It sounded much like hissing and sucking in air. I then tried to see what was on Eirene’s mind. I could see its attacks. He was going to just lunge at me and try to knock me out. I ran towards the Diavolis’ lunge and I deflected it. I took my right sword and threw it at him. It hit him in the gut. I then took my left sword and ran it into his ribs. I could feel a strange feeling in my wrists, it was a slow burn, but I had no time to stop, so I ignored it. With each attack, I could feel the pain in my wrist grow stronger. I needed to end this quickly. My swords were still imbedded in his body. I needed them back. I looked down and felt the pulse through my wrist bands. I pulled on my wrists and out came the swords. I stood amazed as the blades ended up back into my hand. The guts and blood of this creature was still on them, it smelled putrid. It looked down towards its belly and then back at me. He charged at me with his eyes wide.

I dodged, but he got me with his other hand, he reached for my neck and bit down. I felt his teeth sink into me. His saliva ran down my back. I used both of my swords and gutted him. He released his mouth from my neck and yelled.

As I fell to the ground, I pushed down my swords and allowed gravity to take over. I had carved out two large gashes. His blood spewed everywhere. He then turned to dust.

I remember standing there, breathing heavily and his blood spatter all over me. I suddenly felt pain all over my body. A burning surge enveloped me and then my body took over. I vomited. A feeling like hot burning coal came through my mouth, but only a green goo came out. As it hit the ground, it created holes and began to smoke. Hephaistos was there holding my hair back,

“This is why I told you that you needed to end it quickly.” He barked

“You have been poisoned. What you’re throwing up, is his miasma. If you were not immortal just his mere bite would have killed you. Why can’t you be more careful? Are you too slow to understand?” Hephaistos was yelling at me and I truly wasn’t in the mood. I could only hear ringing in my ears and my body was convulsing.

Zoe and Prometheus tried to make him stop, but he wouldn’t allow anyone near me.

“She must understand this pain and be smarter with her moves, only then will she be able to be called a fighter.”

Zoe ignored his tantrum and reached for me. She began to use her skills to heal my body. As I began to feel better, she took my wrists and looked at them intently.

“Why are her wrists like that?” Her question was directed to Hephaistos.

Hephaistos didn’t respond, he merely kept glaring at me. I had no strength to argue.

“Answer me! I need to know why?” She hissed.

Hephaistos finally took a breath.

“The weapons I created were specific to your personalities. Her personality is the most driven. She can take on more and do more. Therefore, her weapon needs to be the deadliest. In order for her swords to deal the most damage, she will have to suffer. Each attack she inflicts takes from her strength.” His face never left mine.