A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter 153

Book Two – Ch.# 44

“Is that…?” I tried to ask.

But I didn’t get the question out as I heard Clarissa begin cursing next to me, doing so whilst struggling to get out of bed.

“What are you doing?” I gasped, seeing her shaking with the sheer effort required.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” she snapped. “Fucking help me up already.”

“Hey! Stop being so rude to-.”

“No!” she yelled, cutting me off. “From here on out you shut up and listen to my instructions. Now pick me up.”

“What?”

“Pick. Me. Up. Onto your back. You’ll need to carry me for this.”

Stunned, I started to help her out of bed, but couldn’t stop myself from asking another question anyway.

“What’s happening, Clarissa? Are those howls…?”

“What’s happening is that we’re going to run and get Myra,” she said, speaking as if I were a child. “Hopefully before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what?”

And she paused then for a moment, just long enough to look up and allow me to feel the full gravity of her words.

“…They’re here,” she said. “The hunt begins.”

I didn’t ask anything else after that, simply following her instruction. Something told me that I probably needed to listen to her if we were going to make it out of this.

“Myra is asleep on the couch,” she directed as I lifted her up onto my back. Her arms immediately wrapped around my shoulders to hold on. “Once we find her, we’ll only have two minutes to get out of the house.”

“How do you- Nevermind.”

And I started running down the stairs to where Myra’s tiny frame had passed out, just as Clarissa had said.

“Myra, we need to go,” Clarissa yelled.

They’ve found us. This idiot led them to our doorstep.”

“…What?” Myra mumbled, waking up. What’s going on?”

“We’re running. Come on, we don’t have much time.”

Myra’s eyes instantly became alert, the situation finally settling in. “Who?” she asked.

“Silent Forest.”

Evidently, Myra knew exactly what this meant without further explanation and nodded her head.

“Okay, let’s go.”

But I hesitated, unsure how best to leave here safely, especially noting that I had Clarissa on me.

“I have a car,” I provided. “It’s parked a few streets away. If we can make it there, I can

“No,” Clarissa cut off. “We have to go out the back and into the forest. They find us before we get to the car, not to mention it’s too easy to track.”

“They find us’…? Didn’t she mean ‘they *will * find us’?

The way she kept speaking, it was almost as if she knew what was going to happen. But that was impossible, right…?

Unless…

And Myra’s words then came to mind, listing off the different abilities of the original children.

‘…One child held the ability of strength… another with foresight….’

Foresight.

Could she really…?

“MOVE, RHEYNA,” Clarissa then yelled in my ear, snapping me out of it. “Time to run.”

And I found my legs kicked into gear automatically, sprinting towards the back door where Myra was heading.

We ran into the night, the crisp air holding a chill within it, and at the pace we were going, it wasn’t long before we entered into the forest. The branches and sticks tore at my clothing and skin, stinging me. But all I could really feel right now was the adrenaline pushing me to run faster.

“About one minute,” Clarissa then said suddenly.

“One minute…?” I huffed out. “Until what?”

“…Until the first encounter.”

I swallowed back my discomfort and kept my head straight, forcing my legs to keep moving.

Was I meant to fight the person off? That was going to be difficult with Clarissa on me. Maybe Myra was stronger than she looked?

But as I recalled her defensive greeting from the other day, I realised she hadn’t appeared that natural when holding the dagger. Perhaps I could give her Clarissa to hold instead?

“Can we maybe swap-.”

Only, I didn’t get the question out.

The sound of twigs snapping and leaves rustling quickly caught my attention, coming from somewhere to our left. Just as

Clarissa had said.

“Myra!” I yelled. “Get back!”

She had been running ahead of me to lead the way, her clearly knowing the woods far better than me. This had been the place she’d grown up, after all.

At the sound of my voice, she slowed down to regroup and turned to the direction of the noise.

“Someone is here,” I said, my eyes scanning the area.

The only light source was dim, coming from the moon above through the leaves. It wasn’t nearly enough to spot anything through the thick brush.

“Where?” she asked.

But the question was then quickly answered as a wolf leapt towards us.

“MYRA!” I screamed

She noticed the wolf a second after I had and reached towards it, grabbing it by the throat mid-air. Despite her looks, she did seem to have a lot of strength in her small body. It was just her skill that was lacking in terms of actual fighting technique… as was evident in how she clumsily put the dog down.

“Time to keep going,” Clarissa hurried once it was done.

And Myra quickly nodded her head, running to the front to continue leading the way.

“The others find the body soon,” Clarissa said, a few minutes later. “We need to make sure that we’re already past the clearing by the time the main group finds it.”

“And if we don’t get past the clearing?” I asked.

But Clarissa didn’t reply.

I took that to be an answer in itself.

Faster and faster, I pushed my body to move. Putting more into this than anything else I’d ever done, the weight of their lives on my shoulders. Because I had done this. It was my fault. Clearly, whatever I’d done at the Silent Forest pack hadn’t been enough, leaving a trail right to our location. It probably hadn’t taken long for my claim of being a Lycroft to be proven false, it then bringing a revelation from Ashwood that a devil was still alive.

…And why else would a devil be heading south?

No, I had to keep going… keep moving… but, just as I saw the clearing up ahead, I then heard Clarissa’s voice behind me. Words I hadn’t wanted to hear.

“…We’re not going to make it,” she said quietly.

And my heart dropped.

“What do you mean?” I asked, panic rising inside me. “What’s going to happen?”

But she didn’t reply, her silence incredibly foreboding.

“…Clarissa?!” I yelled. “What’s going to happen?!”

However, she just wrapped her frail arms around me a little tighter.

“…Keep running,” was all she said.

And I tried to do just that.

…Holding on to hope that she was wrong and things really would be okay.

Because everything was going to be fine. …Right?

A chorus of howls then sounded in the far distance behind us, assumedly finding the body we’d left there. They were only minutes behind us… and their numbers were large. I didn’t need to see it for myself, the noise

alone was enough to tell me that we were outnumbered.

Severely so.

“…Myra!” Clarissa then called out.

“We need to keep moving,” I insisted. ”

Don’t distract her.”

But she didn’t listen.

“Myra!” she yelled again.

And I watched as Myra came to a stop in front, turning around to face us.

“What’s wrong?”

“An ambush,” Clarissa apred. “Up ahead, behind those trees. They’ve been hunting in two groups and now the second one has caught up, cutting off our escape. We’re trapped.”

“Well, then… Myra can look after you, Clarissa,” I said. “Let me fight them off.”

“There are too many. Before you’re even halfway through, the rest of their pack shows up behind us. Fighting all of them takes too long.”

“Then what are you saying?!” I yelled. “Just speak plainly, goddammit! I don’t know-.”

“…Okay,” Myra said quietly, interjecting with a nod towards Clarissa. “I understand.”

There was something in the way they looked at each other, as if saying something without speaking. Something I wasn’t privy

“Wait… what’s happening?”

But everyone seemed to ignore me as Myra began walking towards the trees ahead of us. To where the ambush was waiting. The only thing I could do was follow behind, the sounds of howls still catching up in the distance behind us.

Just as Clarissa had said, a large number of wolves then emerged to block our way as we approached the tree line. An impressive number that must have been at least half their pack.

“Don’t make this difficult, Devils,” someone then shouted from within the forest. ”

Surrender to your death peacefully.”

This didn’t seem to deter Myra though.

No, she kept walking confidently, her head held high. Almost like a shimmer around her as the moonlight streamed down, now bright in the open space of the clearing.

“…What is she…?”

“Shhh,” Clarissa said. “Just… wait here and let her do what she needs to do.”

Apparently, what she ‘needed’ to do was continue walking towards the enemy, completely unarmed and allowing herself to become surrounded. The wolves encircled her with warning growls and bites snapping towards her, though all of them were too afraid to get close to her. It seemed they were just as confused as me.

But then before too long had passed… it finally happened.

Just as Myra had majority of the ambush wolves around her… something impossible occurred.

“…Myra,” Clarissa whispered quietly. “…The forgotten second Saintess.”

And I watched as Myra then planted her feet firmly on the ground, breathed in deep… and yelled. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

Only… it wasn’t any normal kind of yell.

“*DISARM YOURSELVES AND YIELD*!” she ordered, her voice ringing out clearly. “*I COMMAND YOU ALL TO KNEEL*.” 1

…Immediately, the air rippled with her authority, waves of pressure washing over the wolves surrounding her. Something that

I could feel the weight of despite it not even being directed at myself.

And it worked.

One by one, the wolves slowly surrendered, submitting themselves to Myra. It was truly amazing to see, to watch her power as she commanded so many at once.

Such a thing seemed impossible, too powerful for one person to possess. Was this the ultimate authority she had spoken of? The true power of a Saintess?

It was… incredible… yet terrifying.

However, not everything was apparently as it initially seemed.

Because after a minute went by… it was as if an exhaustion overcame Myra.

She fell to her knees, her legs giving out from under her. Even from the distance I was behind her, I could clearly see her breathing heavily, struggling to cope with whatever she’d just done.

“…Myra never wanted to be a Saintess,” Clarissa said. “She never learnt how to harness its full power; her caring nature loathing the true authority it gave her. She believed its potential for oppressing others wasn’t her place to dictate. History now only remembers her as a Luna, as an Angel of Death… yet always forgets Saintess.”

“We need to help her get up,” I said, starting to move towards her. “We need to….”

Though, to my horror… I then saw as a man appeared out of the woods, running towards her with a dagger in hand. Clearly unphased by the order Myra had given, or, at least, able to have broken out of

it.

“…MYRA!” I screamed, my pace quickening. “MYRA, GET UP! YOU NEED TO GET UP!”

They were gaining on her, clearly going to make it before I could. But I couldn’t allow for that… I couldn’t….

But as Clarissa’s grip then tightened on me, her head moving closer to my ear… she proceeded to speak words that made me momentarily forget how to breathe.

“…Don’t watch this part,” she whispered.

And as her hands tried to cover my eyes, I was forced to wrestle her off just so I could resume running.

“No, stop! NO… No…. I….”

I had to do something… This couldn’t be… I…

But the second I turned back around… the worst possible outcome happened.

A literal waking nightmare.

Under the moon and stars of the night sky above, the bodies of frozen submissive wolves surrounding us…

…I was forced to witness as the man’s dagger came crashing down towards Myra’s weak body. Now too exhausted to even raise a hand in her own defence.

There was nothing I could do.

“NOOO!” I screamed, the sound blood- curdling.

It had really happened. It really…

And I watched as my last living family member was killed right in front of me.

…No… no… no… this wasn’t… I can’t…

My vision then quickly turned red… my body beginning to shake… as if reality itself was slipping away.

…But the universe cruelly refused to give me even one minute to breathe.

Because it was then that five others emerged from the forest slowly, some shifted, others. not. Assumedly stragglers who hadn’t been in range during Myra’s order. But all of them now looked towards me as I approached, readying themselves for combat.

Except I didn’t see them*….

No… I only saw their deaths.

“*Don’t move another fucking inch!*” I screamed, feeling the spark inside. “You’re all going to pay… I swear….”

And, like a woman possessed, I found myself moving on instinct with lightning speed.