Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 446: Hope again (1)

Arial open his eyes. It was heavy like it takes everything in him just to open his eyes. Exhausted. Tired. Cold. That is what he is feeling right now

Slowly it opens.

He sees…..nothing. Black. Dark. Cold. Only darkness. Only coldness. Dark and cold.

It has been a long time since he feels cold. 

He couldn't even see himself. It was only darkness. Then slowly the feeling of coldness disappears leaving only the darkness.

He feels nothing, not the cold...nothing.

Is this it? He mused.

Is he finally dead? After all these years…..is he dead? These question echoes in his mind. Then his mind thinks of the dragon he shares his heart with and he thinks to himself, did he die too?

Then he thinks about the people he left.

What about his daughter? His family? His mother and father? Would all of them be alright? 

What about his empire and its people? Would they mourn him? Cry for him? Pray for him? Or will he be reviled in history for all that he has done? 

Or might he be called a great hero of his time? Or will he be forgotten in the annals of history?

But slowly such thought disappeared. 

The passage of time here is incalculable. He did not know whether he is in the darkness for a second or did he stay in this darkness for a century. josei

Time means nothing here.

Whether time passed or not, he keeps his consciousness. Opening his eyes but seeing nothing. 

It feels like infinity but also feels like only a second just passed.

This is his moment. His death. 

He heard nothing, feel nothing. Only the silence. Only the silence that creeps. And darkness. Darkness that envelopes and suffocate.

He is dead. He mused. 

He is finally dead. His dreams shattered, his hopes dashed. So he waits. He waits for the fire. 

He knows what he has done. He had done many terrible things. 

He still hears the screams of the people he killed, the shrill cries of mothers and daughters that met his cold steel, the pleas of brothers and fathers.

He remembers it all, he hears it all. 

He was blinded by rage, by such wrath that he could only regret after the deed was done. He has done everything he could after the war to offset the cruel things he has done, but nothing he has done, nothing good and kind things he done, could offset the evil he has committed under the name of love.

He feels this deep down in his heart. He was a monster. He became the monster he tries to stop. He became the Dark Lord.

So he waits for the fire to burn him in the darkest and deepest hell. He waited for the fire, ready for the pain.

Yet, the fire did not come. The pain did not come. Emptiness, silence and darkness. No fire…only darkness.

He then thinks to himself…. could he be granted entry to Heaven. So he waited for the blinding light, and the gates of white.

There is no blinding light, nor gates of white. Could this be his punishment? To be sentenced to this inescapable darkness, this tormenting silence?

Is this his Hell?

Or is there nothing after death? Just emptiness? No heaven or hell? Just crushing, tormenting emptiness?

Time passed or did it? He could not tell in his current state.

Is he floating or is he lying? He could not tell the difference. Arial close his eyes. Even if he opens it, he can't see anything. 

Until he feels a soothing aura envelops him. It was comfortable, it was pleasant. And he opens his eyes.

And then a blinding light came from above, so blinding that Arial had to close his eyes. And then he opens his eyes again. 

He is in bed. He feels the comfy bed. He recognizes the bed. It is the bed of his ship. The ship in which he began his expedition. 

He could feel the rocking of the ship; he could smell the ocean airs and hears the shrill cries of dorvinn and the croaking of the Sea birds. 

He get up, clearly confused by all of this. 

He open his cabin door and he look at the deck. There is no one, but the sails directing itself, the steer of the ship spins like it is govern by some invisible force.

Arial went to the helm and look in front of him. Vast sea opens up in front of him, blue and vast.

And he somehow feels elated. Just now, he is in utter darkness, now he is in an open sea. Is this Heaven?

The blue ocean, the blue sky and the white clouds, the winds that blow, all of it feel real. For that brief moment, Arial wanted to believe that all of this is not in his head.

'It's beautiful isn't it?' suddenly a voice can be heard behind Arial. Arial was startled of course. He quickly turned back.

And suddenly Arial was tongue tied.

He looks into a perfect beauty and he could not but help be speechless. An innocent face with mischief in her eyes and the image of shyness. 

A fleeting moment of eternal beauty shone itself upon Arial. 

A wonder of beauty. 

A woman that only appears in the dream of men, the grace of the clouds and seas for she is nature itself, Arial could not help but think of such, when faced with such beauty surpassing of everything he has ever seen.

It was like her face was the image of perfection of the world, that nothing else could match her beauty.

Her arm is clad in the purest shimmering samite, with hair white as light, shining, glowing like the sun and her dress is a dress clad in glowing blue hue. 

Her eyes are true blue, blue eyes that seem to even pierce Arial soul; her skin was to Arial eyes, like silk. 

Yet that her blue eyes show coldness and fury, and obsession. 

There was also a trace of kindness, compassion. It was like all this feeling could be surmised just by looking at her. 

Multi-faceted feelings emerge in Arial hearts. 

She has hair that flowing long until it reached her hips. Her hair is bizarrely white just like him, pure white, glowing with ancient power.

An otherworldly beauty

But what make Arial believe that this woman is an otherworldly being is that she is floating, in the center of the deck.

Not the kind that he would do, not manipulating energy, but energy bends themselves for her.

It doesn't have to take an explanation to explain what she is or what she is. She is a goddess.

A goddess like those in the old stories, in songs and tales of gods and demons.

'I..I…'for the first time in a long time Arial stammered in his word, shocked and finding this whole situation surreal.

The things of myths and legends. And to think that once he was only a farmer son. He could not believe it. 

The blessings of the Divine only happen to great heroes, great man and woman. His heart beats erratically, beating like a thousand war horses running through the Plains.

The woman chuckles.