Last of the Greats
By: Aubrie1234
He leaned against a tree, glancing back. No hunters, only the landscape of Darkquaver Woods. But they would be back on his trail soon enough. He had to keep moving. Taking a step, however, he staggered. His staff was the only thing preventing him from falling. He leaned heavily on it, wheezing painfully. He could feel the pain everywhere, but because there was so much of it, he could barely feel anything else.
Move. his mind ordered, so he pushed off his staff and used it like a crutch to help him walk. He didn't know the extent of his wounds, but he knew that, if he had been human, he would have been dead for sure. He was glad he had the healing powers attributed to the gods. Or god, as it was now.
He thought back to what had started this hunt. Didn't the other gods already learn their lesson during the Divine War? But no, Thulsa and Akasha had to start up the old feuds again. And look where it got them. Icaruna and the other gods were gone, he was the only one left. Not even Father was able to survive Mystel's and Zenobia's part of the war. And once the morals had discovered that he was the only god left, they went into a frenzy, wanting him dead more than anything else. Honestly, he didn't blame them, after what he had done. But without him, they wouldn't know anything else of the past, which the Mysterium loved to discover. But they were indifferent, thinking they could discover the past on their own. The b*****ds...
He gasped as a pain in his side made him seize up, unable to move. He closed his eyes, willing the pain to go away. He was too weak to use his magic, which was why he was so injured. And with his side hurting whenever he tried to move, he couldn't go anywhere. He began to look around as best he could, keeping an eye out for hunters, and blinked at what he saw. He was in Darkquaver Woods, wasn't he? Well, it looked more like he was somehow in Seeliewood. How did he get there so fast? But if he got there ahead of time, then he could rest for a while, right? They would still be searching the Susurrus and Darkquaver Woods before they ever found out he went to Seeliewood. And yet, there were also those who knew Seeliewood was created by his sister for Isren, so he couldn't even be safe here. But the plants and grass look so soft...
His tiredness seemed to increase tenfold. He wanted to keep going, but couldn't. He was just too weak. Just a small nap... Closing his eyes, he was quickly overcome by sleep and knew no more.
"Catch me if you can!" Icaruna laughed, zipping by her siblings and cousins. Some of the semi-gods were playing tag together, or what they called Touch & Go. There were some who watched them play while others were elsewhere. The paradise the Original Twelve had created was amazing. In the middle was a giant castle big enough to hold them all, and around them was the garden created by Seren, Isren, Icaruna, and Balder. No mortals could get into their paradise, leaving them be.
With the garden always growing, a few of the adventurous ones were off exploring, including Arachne and Yurian. Yurian had made it his job to keep Arachne out of trouble, which is almost impossible to do. Doesn't stop him from trying, though.
"C'mon, keep up!" Arachne laughed, swinging overhead by her silk threads.
"Then slow down!" Yurian cried, running as fast as he could. She laughed even more, swinging farther away, until her laughter suddenly became a shriek. Worried, Yurian ran faster, soon finding her on the ground, hands over her mouth as she stared. When he saw what she was staring at, Yurian gasped.
"...G-get the others." Yurian ordered, kneeling down and feeling for a pulse. He found one, but it was quite weak, "Get them right now, especially Elinu." Arachne was already swinging away; Elinu was the best god or goddess to go to when you're hurt, as she's the best healer. They had found someone, gravely injured, but what caught their attention the most was the similarities he held with their cousin, Killian.
"How can you even be alive...?" Yurian questioned aloud in shock when he examined the extent of the boy's injuries, or at least what he could see. One entire half of the boy's face was bruised and bleeding, as if he had been in a fight. And it certainly looked as if he had been in the fight for his life. Blood soaked the boy's clothes everywhere, and Yurian felt disgusted when he found bones sticking out of a few patches. There were probably more injuries under the clothes, and a trickle of blood seemed to have dried on the side of the boy's mouth. Glancing up, he found a staff beside the boy. The top of it had a scary-looking head, and the other end had a curved spike. It looked similar to the spike and mini-shield covering the boy's left pinky, actually. And the fake wings on his back added to the disturbing, fallen angel look.
The question was, though, if this was another version of Killian, where had he come from and why was he so badly hurt?
"Yurian? Yurian, where are you?" Elinu called. Arachne must have alerted her, probably everyone, as the spider-like goddess wasn't exactly quiet.
"Over here!" Plants rustled as they parted for the giant elin. Her eyes widened at the sight of the injured boy, but she quickly overcame her shock and began to examine him.
"It's a wonder how he's alive, isn't it?" Yurian voiced her thoughts. She nodded, then turned behind her.
"Arachne, I'll need your silk to help this boy." Hesitantly, Arachne came forward.
"Okay, use your thread here and here..." Eventually, all of the boy's visible, bleeding injuries were covered, allowing Elinu to pick him up at last.
"Head back to the castle, both of you, and make sure neither Killian nor Icaruna sees this. Especially not Killian." The children nodded. They had known that right at the sight of the boy. To make sure the other children would be distracted, Elinu sent them on ahead. Looking down at the child in her arms, she could only wonder whether they would get good answers from the Killian-lookalike.
"You're back!" Ishara cheered, "So what did you need Mom for?" Arachne was about to answer when Yurian silenced her with a look.
"It's nothing. At least, nothing we need to worry about." The other children gave him skeptical looks.
"Are you sure? You both look spooked." Akasha pointed out.
"And you know we'll investigate anyway." Kaia added. Yurian and Arachne shared a glance.
"We can't let you do that." Arachne sighed, "We barely know what's going on ourselves."
"So we can't see or know anything?" Iannis asked incredulously.
"Not now, anyway." Yurian said, "If we let Elinu do her job in private, we might have a chance to find out later." This interested the others. Some may be more well-behaved than others, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't snoop around once in a while. With that prospect on their minds, many of them left, following Yurian and Arachne as they left. Balder was the only one to glance back, and what he saw shocked him, but he made no sound and continued walking. He then understood why Yurian and Arachne were keeping it a secret for now.
"Stop giving me strange looks!"
"What? What do you mean?"
"You, Yurian, and even Balder have been staring at me! Is this about that secret?"
"Er..." Before Arachne could speak, Yurian silenced her again with the same stare as before. Killian sat back, crossing his arms. They were sitting in the Meeting Chamber, as all of the Twelve were involved with what was going on.
"Your looks seemed anxious and worried, actually." Seren added, "What is going on that concerns Killian?"
We are NOT good secretkeepers. the three thought before Balder answered.
"Well, I just looked back and caught a glimpse of what was going on."
"But how does it relate to me?"
"Egotistical much?" Velik prodded, where Killian gave her a withering glare. It was at that moment Sikander came in. His four-legged bird-like body was stiff, as if he hadn't moved for some time. He gave them all somber looks, especially Killian and Icaruna.
"Come, children. Though I wish you to brace yourselves, because this will be very shocking for many of you. Our guest has an interesting tale to tell, and he wanted to make sure you were all there before he told it."
"So he's awake?!" Arachne sounded relieved, which was reflected on her and Yurian's faces. Sikander nodded, then turned and walked away, forcing the semi-gods to follow. He led the way through the castle until they were at Elinu's room, where she took care of the injured. He paused, making another glance back at them, and again his gaze rested longer on Killian and Icaruna more than the others.
"Again, I caution you to brace yourselves." Sikander then nudged open the door with his head.
"I'm not sorry for my sharp tongue!" a familiar voice said, echoing from the room, "If you had a chance to go through the same stuff I did, you would resent a lot of others, too!"
"You should still respect your elders!" Gidd argued.
"The only elder I've known for so long is Father, and I never gave him any slack! If you want respect from me, then you're going to have to do more than that!" There was a pause, which allowed the children to enter. Immediately, they stopped in their tracks, eyes going wide in shock. The boy on the bed did the same, though you could only see one eye, as the other was bandaged.
"...I must be dreaming. Either that or this is a hallucination, an illusion, or some d**n alternate world because there is NO WAY this should be possible. Especially with Balder and Elinu being alive at the same time." He rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers in anxiety, closing his available eye in the process, "I'm leaning more towards illusion right now..."
The reason why everyone was shocked at him was that he sounded and looked just like Killian. But that image was marred by the bandages that covered his body, mostly on his chest, arms, legs, even his feet and hands. Lying beside him, on the bed, was a full-body suit that, though bloodied, was quite jester-like. On the bedside stand were a scary-looking staff and a strange metal thing. It looked like a mini-shield that could fit on your hand, but protruding from it was a spike similar to the one at the other end of the staff. He was either wearing his own boxers or clean ones, probably a pair of Killian's own; it was the only thing he was wearing, as the rest of his body was covered by bandages and even a few places had casts.
"I wish one of you had told me this." he sighed to the Twelve, who did not look guilty at all, except maybe Elinu and Isren, "Though with how you've all responded, I'm inclined to believe I'm in an alternate world. Which I'm not actually surprised about."
"...Who the h**l are you?!" Thulsa demanded.
"Ah, there's the shout I was waiting to hear." the boy nodded to himself and opened his eye, smiling sadly, "I'm Killian. I'm you, just older and from an entirely different dimension. You're lucky, you know, since you've still got everything. Me?" he gave a bark of a harsh laugh, "I've got nothing!" He then winced and held his side, stifling a moan of pain.
"How do you have nothing?" Shakan asked, "Don't you have other gods to talk to?"
"I wish I could say yes, but they wiped themselves out." his eyes darkened, "No one ever learns, do they? You try to teach them a lesson, it flies right out of their heads and they make the same mistakes time and time again. The Divine War didn't teach them anything, I bet." He then sighed again, "Honestly, I'm the only god left."
"You said you had a story to tell, once we were all together." Saleron said.
"Yes, I do, but none of you will like it. Do you still want to hear?"
"Yes." The younger Killian stepped out from his siblings and approached his older self, "We all want to know, especially me." Smiling, Older Killian patted the free sport beside him, not taken up by his suit.
"Then sit down, because this is going to be a long story."
Yes, everyone mentioned here is a real god in TERA. You just have to look. I mostly used TERA Wiki for them, so if I made mistakes, tell me. Also, there are going to be more TERA stories like this, with characters going into this alternate past world. Anyway, though, READ & REVIEW!