Chapter 10: Legends

The party of five fighters continued north through the snowy landscape towards Colter, O'Callaghan and Arthur talking and laughing. He felt a lot better now that he had two of his wives back. He'd feel even better once he had Rose and the others back and the enemy was defeated, but Arthur just wanted to enjoy this time. Scotty was busy scanning and taking samples of the curious flora and fauna that resided in the northern territory. They'd even passed by a small village full of little pink, fluffy creatures called moogles. They battled against creatures like winter wolves, ice flans, ice lizards, snow lions (which looked nothing like lions so Arthur wasn't sure why they were called that) and many other monsters that were fit to survive in the cold.

Arthur looked up at the overcast sky, an indigo colored sun shining through. He had to admit that while the area was pretty much an exact replica of Ambarino, there were so many fantastic and different things along the way.

"I hate to say it, but this place really is quite a sight," Arthur announced.

"It is!" O'Callaghan laughed. "I told you, Mallacht is creative. I'd love to pick apart his brain, but now I'm curious about this Aynaet woman."

Arthur blinked. "Okay, when you say pick apart his brain, is you talkin' literally or figuratively?"

O'Callaghan looked at him with a devious smirk. "What do you think?" she whispered.

He chortled lightly before pecking her lips. "Both, more than likely."

Arthur's wife cackled loudly as she nodded. "Oh yeah! I've got so many ideas on how to cut pieces of his brain out without actually killing him. I may even put him on my stepfather's magical spit. And cook him while I do it, and make him watch while I cook the pieces of his brain over the fire."

Arthur arched a brow. "Heh heh, you're such a little devil," he chuckled before gripping her earlobe in his teeth, making her squeal. "I can't wait 'til we get home."

Sir Jack rolled his eyes. "We can hear ya, ya know," he grumbled.

Both Arthur and O'Callaghan laughed. "Sorry," they both said.

"Cut them some slack, Jack," Lugh said with his smirk. "Ya know good and well that if it were Abby and ya, ya'd both be doing the same thing."

Sir Jack grumbled. "Ya make a fair point, but she's me daughter. Ya canna blame me fer-"

A loud explosion and the ground shaking interrupted Jack and Holly neighed violently before rearing up. "Woa, woa! Easy, girl!" Arthur said loudly.

Lilly tensed up, moving her head around as her teeth bared. Arthur looked past some trees to see dust and smoke flying in the distance. Sir Jack did his best to calm Lilly. Once the ground was done shaking, Arthur urged Holly towards the area that the explosion came from. "What the hell was that?!" he yelled.

"I'm just as clueless!" Lugh shouted as Lilly ran alongside Holly.

"Colter should be just ahead, I think," O'Callaghan said.

Eventually some buildings came into view and Arthur blinked. "Uh...this is Colter?"

What lay before them was much bigger and had more buildings than the real Colter did. It was an actual town with streets, buildings and houses and there were people bustling about wearing mining gear and mining clothes. "Wow!" O'Callaghan said in awe. "This looks so great!"

Arthur looked at the arched sign above the beginning the road. "Welcome to Colter, the silver lining in material mining," he read out loud. "Huh. Catchy, I suppose."

"Morgan!" someone shouted in an American Midwest accent. Arthur looked in the man's direction, who was looking at Lilly with a big grin as he approached. "Are you a chauffeur now?" Lilly sniffed the air before giving the man a lick on the face and he chuckled. "You just make friends everywhere, don't you?"

"Excuse me," Sir Jack said coldly to the man, his voice low and deep. "Why do ya call her Morgan?"

"Because that's her name," the man replied in a confused tone. "Who are you?"

"That's our business. Who are you?" Lugh asked, his voice sounding gravelly due to his race choice.

"Oh, I'm Nigel." He held up his hands. "I'm not trying to start trouble, mister. We don't get too many visitors, is all."

"Whatchu doin' up here, anyway?" Arthur asked. "Minin'?"

"Yeah."

Arthur grumbled with an angry expression. "You do realize that you're in someone's head, don't ya?"

Nigel scrunched up his face, looking very puzzled. "Uh, someone's head?"

"Lord Morgan, I would advise delicacy when explaining the situation to these people. I doubt they know what's really going on," Darrach said.

Arthur clicked his tongue, deciding Darrach was right. He had a hard enough time when he found out that Christianity was a lie, although he'd never been very religious himself, but it was still a big whopper. "Oh, don't mind me," he chuckled. "I'm just...heh, just talkin' nonsense."

"Huh." Nigel glimpsed at Scotty and tilted his head. "You must be from Saint Denis to have a fancy gadget like that."

"Nigel, what was that explosion?" O'Callaghan asked politely.

"Oh, we're uh...we got some damn archeologist here. We had a bad storm and a bunch of trees fell down and busted open some ruin so we're trying to clear it with dynamite," he explained while looking down at the mining helmet in his hands. "Uh...the archeologist wasn't happy about that, but it's not like anyone can get in anyway. It's got some sort of magic barrier."

Arthur looked at Sir Jack with a smug expression. "Just outta curiosity, Nigel," he said, looking at the man he was addressing. "This...ruin. Did it happen to be a hill with a bunch of pine trees on it?"

Nigel's eyebrows raised. "How did you know that?"

Arthur shrugged. "Call it a hunch. Now, if you'll excuse, I'm gonna go see," he clicked his tongue a few times and Holly went forward, "the ruin."


Once Aynaet had made her descent from the castle, she walked through the streets of Hell's Saint Denis, an almost exact replica of the real town in America but with some additions and modifications.

Aynaet still hated the place, but it had its perks, like the marketplace. It was full of food and materials grown or mined from the land that could be purchased. It was still mostly filled with Asian people, like the real city, so naturally, it was like an oasis in the desert. And Aynaet had been to the desert in this world.

It was harsh, but the casinos were nice, at least.

And unlike the desert, one didn't have to walk too far for the marketplace.

As Aynaet walked on by, her face set in a permanent look of disinterest and her staff clanking on the ground, people bowed or curtsied to her nervously. The people feared her and hated her, Aynaet knew this to be true, but she didn't care. She stopped caring a long time ago, much to Mallacht's displeasement.

Aynaet stopped in front of the outdoor market place, the sounds of various Asian languages filling the air. The smells that wafted from the area filled her nostrils and she breathed them in deeply. She blinked before walking through. When people noticed her, the banter died down and they all gawked at her. She paused in her steps, looking upon all the faces that bore expressions of bone chilling fear. She'd told them all before to act natural whenever she came by, but of course, most of the inhabitants of this world did not understood her way of speaking.

It was just something Aynaet became used to.

Aynaet resumed her royal gait, scanning through the sections of wooden kiosks and counters at the items. People got out of her way immediately and bowed on their hands and knees as she went by. Crates of fruit caught her eye so she walked towards it. The seller gaped at her with wide eyes full of fright as she locked on a bushel of green apples with red faded stripes. With a brief, sharp sigh, she pointed at the apples, her mouth moving as her vocal chords clicked.

"Uh...h-honeycrisp apples, Your M-Majesty," the seller stuttered in an Asian accent, bowing his head. "T-take as many as you like. A-Anniversary gift."

Aynaet shook her head before pulling out some gold from one of the many hidden pockets in her dress. She placed a few coins on the counter before grasping an apple and examining it. She took a bite into it with a soft crunch, chewing on it slowly and looking off into the distance. As she savored the sweet, crisp flavor in her mouth, her eyes automatically shut. This was the best apple that she'd ever tasted in her life. She swallowed before taking another bite, juice dripping from the corners of her mouth. A low purr escaped her as all sorts of numbed but various feelings hit her.

Funny how even after all these years, Aynaet could still feel.

"D-Do you like it?" the man asked with a nervous smile.

Aynaet leaned her head back with a heavy breath through her nose before giving the merchant a thumbs up. She wasn't sure why a simple apple was making her feel this good but then she paused in her chewing and glared at the merchant. He gulped and took a step back. As Aynaet swallowed the bits of apple, she wiped her mouth and chin clear of the liquid that had dribbled, pointing at the apples. She then pointed at the castle that floated above. He looked up, then down at the apples.

"Y-yes, they're f-from the c-castle," he stammered fearfully.

Aynaet took a deep breath. Whether or not the merchant knew that he'd just given her an enchanted apple was of no consequence. He was merely another pawn in Mallacht's game of her torture. Punishment, he called it, for something she hadn't even done. Even something as simple as emotions were something Aynaet couldn't tolerate having, and this man had given it to her.

The queen began to calculate her next course of action. People stood around her at a large distance in horrified anticipation for what she was about to do next. While Aynaet wouldn't normally care about how she was perceived by the people, The Demon Queen had to think about this carefully. If this apple gave her emotions, and it was from Mallacht, he was probing for a reaction, so instead of tearing the little shaking man to pieces, Aynaet relaxed her stance and held onto the apple with her teeth while grabbing more gold. She placed a handful on the counter and grabbed a bunch of apples. It was then that she realized she had nothing to carry them in and the queen huffed.

The merchant quickly grabbed a small wicker basket and walked around, helping the queen put the apples into the basket. She looped the handle around her arm and clicked her throat after removing the apple, mouthing the words, "thank you" to him. After he bowed to her, Aynaet took her staff and her apples and went walking towards the entrance of the marketplace, chewing on the apple she already was working on devouring.

The game had its moments of amusement, especially when Mallacht's plans ended up backfiring on him. And this was definitely going to do it.

Two could always play this game.


"Uh, are those fairies?" Arthur asked as he pointed at a bunch of little people flying around a tree.

"I think so," Lugh replied. "This place doesna seem so bad, does it?"

"We havena seen all of it yet," Sir Jack grumbled.

Arthur spotted a bunch of people surrounding a hill that had pine trees on it, other trees having fallen over on it. There was a blue and green light shining from the bottom of the hill and he smirked. "There it is," Arthur said.

As the group approached the crowd, he heard a woman arguing with a bunch of men.

"Do you not understand what your workers did?! There's an entire room full of things that are old in this hill and your blast probably broke invaluable artifacts!" Arthur heard a French sounding woman scream.

"Would you relax, Maxine? I'm sure you can glue them back together," a New York accented man replied in a mocking tone.

Arthur dismounted from Holly and kissed O'Callaghan's hand. "Stay here," he said before walking through the crowd.

"Oh, glue them back together? What are you, five?!" the French woman screamed.

Arthur got through the crowd, staring at a blonde woman yelling at a man with short spiked cyan colored hair, eyes and a beard. He chuckled as he was beginning to see a pattern with colors and names. "Is that one of the king and queen's sons?" he asked a random bystander.

"Yes, that's Prince Cyan," the man replied.

Arthur needed to be careful about which information he was going to reveal. He glanced at the opening of the hill, a barrier of green and blue flickering under the snow's surface. He nodded before approaching the bickering folks. "Excuse me," he announced, drawing their attention.

Cyan and Maxine gave Arthur irritated expressions. "Who are you?" Cyan barked.

"Nobody important. Just...could you move? You're in the way," Arthur said, motioning towards the lights.

Maxine cocked her head, gazing at Arthur curiously. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, aiming a finger at the barrier.

"I might, but I won't know until I take a look at it."

Maxine and Cyan looked at each other with amused grins. "Uh, alright," she said, her and Cyan stepping aside.

"Thank you," he said before whistling loudly. "Scotty!" he yelled before walking up to the hole.

The drone quickly made its way over and started scanning the hole. "Hmm," Darrach said into the ear com. "I can't really see inside, but there's definitely a room. And there are things inside, but...I can't make them out." Scotty moved closer, reaching out a metallic appendage to touch the barrier.

Something poked out of the hole and Scotty flew back and Arthur reached for his gun, but then he paused as the crowd made sounds of shock and awe at the big blue eye that had crossed the threshold. It had a long, metallic crane neck and it stared at Arthur, unblinking as its pupils dilated and shrunk.

"Facial recognition required," a voice said from the eye.

Arthur blinked at the eye, swallowing hard as he looked into it. "I...I don't understand. Facial recognition?" he asked in utter confusion.

"I require keys to open the vault. Only two people are allowed in. My creator and the Griffin God," the voice said as the eye got closer to Arthur's face. "Are you a descendant of the Griffin God? If so, I am programmed with an exception clause."

Arthur's eyes widened in surprise, the people around him talking in an uproar. Maxine looked at Arthur with a jaw dropping gaze. "The Griffin God is real?!" she shrieked happily. "Haha! I knew it!"

Cyan ran a hand through his hair, an uncomfortable look on his face. "Holy Darrach," he mumbled.

Arthur heard Darrach groan in his ear. "Well, that was unexpected. Congratulations, Lord Morgan. You're a deity! You finally reached godhood!" he laughed.

The Griffin God pulled out the gaming manual and turned to the page about his avatar. He pressed the word, "reset" and his true human form appeared, dressed in his winter gunslinger attire. People gasped and pointed as he put the book away. The eye scanned Arthur's body, blue lines of light shooting from its pupil before expanding onto Arthur's face.

"Facial recognition confirmed," the voice said. "Password required."

"Shit, that could be anything," Darrach grumbled. "It's a word or a phrase you have to say. Probably something sentimental."

Arthur frowned before stroking his chin. "Hmm...mo stór?"

"Incorrect," the voice said.

"Mo chuisle?" Arthur asked.

"Incorrect."

"Arthur Morgan."

"Incorrect."

Arthur sighed. "Fuck...um...I ain't got a clue."

"Password accepted. Next password required."

Arthur curled his lip up in confusion as he gaped at the eye. "Are you shittin' me?"

"Password accepted. Next password required."

Arthur could hear Darrach wheezing with laughter, as were the others who were listening in. He looked back at Lilly with a slightly annoyed look. She was the only person Arthur knew who could make something easy and complicated at the same time.

He really missed that about her.

Arthur gazed back at the eye and chuckled. "You want me to do a song and dance next, darlin'?" he asked with a smirk.

"Password accepted. Next password required."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Is this really necessary?"

"Incorrect."

He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. "For fuck's sake, are you really gonna keep this up?"

"Incorrect."

"This is a very interesting security system Lady Morgan has," Darrach chuckled. "Just keep going."

Arthur narrowed his eyes at the blue one staring back at him. "God dammit, woman. I ain't doin' a song and dance."

"Password accepted. Last password required."

With a low growl, Arthur clenched his teeth. "What the hell else do you want me to say?!" he shouted.

"Incorrect."

"Keep calm, laddie," Jack urged into the ear com.

Arthur nodded before taking a few deep breaths. "Do I get a hint?"

"Yes," the voice replied. "The prayers are the key."

Arthur grumbled. "Fuck, I only saw the two so far," he hissed before pacing. "Uh...broken."

"Incorrect."

"Anger."

"Incorrect."

"Karma."

"Incorrect."

"Freedom."

"Password accepted," the voice said, the eye pulling back as the shield evaporated over the hole to reveal a transparent door. The door slid open. "Welcome, Griffin God. Please step inside."

People once again were in an uproar, Arthur turning to face them all. Maxine stood before Arthur then fell to her knees. "Oh, this is the happiest day of my life!" she exclaimed. "The prophecy of The Griffin God is true! My life's work is real!"

Arthur made a look of astonishment. He didn't know what to think. He could hear Lugh and Darrach laughing their asses off so that wasn't really helping anything. The others had gone to their knees to bow before Arthur, Cyan merely gawking at Arthur with wide eyes.

"What...the fuck?" Cyan said, his eyes darting up and down at Arthur. "You're the Griffin God? Really?"

Arthur cleared his throat before grasping his gun belt and pivoting his hip. "If I was, what are you gonna do about it, Your Highness?" he asked coldly. Cyan narrowed his eyes, taking a step forward but Arthur quickly pulled out his gun and aimed it at the prince, cocking the hammer back. "Don't make me put a bullet in your head, boah."