Chapter Ten
Blue and Green
He theorizes that there are two sources of magic, one female and one male, held within the two primordial forces, Terra and Uranus. If one looks closely, one can see that each sect of divine beings utilizes a different source, the titans deriving from Terra, and the gods from Uranus.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Anton Ravenson, Codex Deorum Essay One⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Gong…
The sound of hammer hitting metal exploded through my ears. My feet pulled me forward of their own accord, gaining speed until I was sprinting at full speed towards Ethan. The world seemed to fog up around me, fading into muted colors, the spectators in the stands becoming only dull, blurry forms, Ethan himself becoming just another vague figure.
It was then that I became aware of two things.
Two very distinct things.
Ancient things.
My inner eye looked around the arena, and I sensed power. Streams of it, rivers of bright blue and green, pulsating energy, expanding, and contracting all around the stadium. They formed what seemed to be a web of light, all connecting into a massive double helix spiraling into the sky. One stream of the helix was blue, and the other green. Each strand of energy touched a demigod, some dimmer than others. The power seemed to be from the demigods themselves, and yet it seemed to be streaming towards the demigods. It was like lightning, both from the ground and the sky, each equally attracting the other.
Touching me, was not just one strand of power, but two. Both colors, both extraordinarily luminous. As I touched each strand, something happened. The blue strand, when touched, the same wellspring of power opened up, and the strand itself began to give off a white fog. The green strand felt rougher, and wilder, the energy somehow more physical, and solid than the blue's. When I touched it, a jolt of pain shot through my body, and a dark grey smoke rolled off the strand. It felt in some way wrong, like I shouldn't be touching it.
I blinked and everything was normal again, but I still felt the presence of the two powers. Ethan and I were almost to each other. With a gasp, I gripped the blue energy, and let the power surge through me. I cried out as I let the force of the stream enter me.
Ethan drew his sword, a long, wicked blade, gleaming madly in the fading light. I reached him, and⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
And collapsed. The flood of energy abruptly cut off, and I fell to the ground, my sword thumping onto the sand. Ethan tripped over me, his own sword falling to the ground, and he himself faceplanting onto the sand next to me.
Everything was silent, except for a loud ringing in my ears, the splitting headache that I had felt days ago returning once again, full-fledged. I groaned, and rolled onto my back, gasping for air. Beside me, Ethan got to his feet, only to get back down onto his knees and stare. He tried to speak, but at first his words seemed just to be nonsense. After a moment, he finally got it out.
"Jason, you're steaming! You've got⎯⎯⎯" He trailed off as he looked at me.
"Jason… Your hand. My gods… What happened to your hand?"
He grabbed my hand and held it up in front of him. The hand was not mine. It was a wrinkled, withered, skeleton of a hand, that of an old man.
I continued to stare at the horrid hand, my own soul not wanting to accept that it was my own.
I looked, and Ethan held it tight, glancing worriedly at me, and then over at the gates as he screamed his throat raw for a medic.