Eventually morning rolls back around, And Ovid blinks his tired eyes, trying to get the sting to leave them. The sun is just rising, but Ovid figures it's probably time they leave anyway, they need to find another town. Reaching over to shake Vita, he finds that he's already being stared at. Vita sits up, gazing at their surroundings. The sun rises pitifully, dusting the world with faint light. but looking in the other direction, the direction they came from, the smoke is approaching. Like a cloud of despair, it's settled over most of the land, and Vita gulps at the sight. Jumping up, they grab Ovid by the arm and take off. They run, Ovid stumbling behind Vita, who's running forward with all their might. They have to get away from the horror ripping apart the very place they live. They ignore Ovid's yells, because they have to keep pushing forward. Vita can feel the ground slipping under them, but they jump over it instead, leaving Ovid to scramble across the cracked earth to stay with them. It's not until Vita is panting, sweating buckets, that they turn to look at Ovid, whose heavy breathing forces them to think logically. He sputters and cough, taking deep breaths.
"Vi...Vita...what?" Hands resting on his knees, he looks up at them, confusion and pain contorting his face into one ugly expression.
"Ovid, are you okay? Your breathing…" Vita gets worried, coming closer to get a better look at him, but gets pushed back.
"I'm fine really….just need to breathe for a second. Just gonna," Ovid flops to the ground, "Yeah, i'm feeling this right now." Vita's glares a bit, but realizes in the long run this will be better for Ovid, and decides to study the sky instead. Even as bright blue as it is here, it unsettles Vita. It's all just some dirty trick to get them to think they're safe, but they won't let it get them, not this time. Spinning to look around, opposite from Ovid, Vita gets suspicious, something isn't sitting right. The hint of suffering is floating along the wind, rustling in the trees. Deciding they need to get moving, they spin back around to see it. The horrible monstrosity of sunset orange with one blue eye. It hovers inches from the ground, right over Ovid, whose face is so white you'd think them dead. Vita can feel their eyes try to remove themselves from their sockets, and almost screams. The look the beast gives them is calm and serene, but it sends Vita reeling. They see it's tentacles move before they speak, but Vita tries anyway.
"Please do-!" One tentacle plunges through Ovid's chest, right through the middle, an aura seems to spill out, along with a horrible scream from Ovid. He convulses on the ground, ripping at the grass, his blood spilling out of his chest. The monster moves it's tentacle lower through his body with a series of gut wrenching cracks. The screams echo through the air, and they settle in Vita's mind, stirring dark corners out into the light, as the world feels like it's tilting away. They scream, and it's horror and anguish mixes perfectly with the pain and despair ridden ones. The thing's eye widens and turn red for a split second, before turning back to light blue. It digs it's disgusting appendage in Ovid's gut, slopping around for good measure. It looks Vita dead on while doing so, the deafening screeches only interrupted by gaps for air, or for the squelch of organs moving where they are never meant to go. With tears streaming like waterfalls, Vita charges at it, with all the intent to viciously rip it apart with their bare hands, but a blast of a purple ball to their right is enough to knock them flat on their chest. They reach desperately, so close to Ovid's hand, so close to just pulling him away. But his eyes just bulge as he takes rasping breaths, blood pouring from his chest. Vita tries to crawl, but a blow to their arm is enough to stop them. When Vita looks, it's gone. Everything after their elbow is gone. The bone sticks out from charred skin, and they let out an ear piercing shriek. Looking back up to the creature, they see it. Hordes of Underworld monsters glide easily across the sky, blocking out the bright blue. Vita looks hopelessly on, watching as the sky swells with monsters, and the mist coming from Ovid's body surrounds the monster. It's almost pretty, twinkling around the monstrosity, blocking it from view. Vita get so lost in it, they forget to keep screaming, to keep crying. It drowns out the sound of the pain, it fills their vision. Vita thinks this must be what a star would look like up close. Their vision wavers, black etching in around the corners to consume the light. Vita thinks about shaking their head to stop it, but their body isn't doing anything anymore. That must be okay, how can it not be? With everything looking so pretty, it must be time to move on, right? But that...that can't be right. Vita senses seem to kick back into overdrive, as they blink and shake their head. Ovid's pained screaming has dwindled to mere gasps. The blood bubbles up from his mouth. It's all around them, pooling on the ground when it can no longer seep into it. Vita figures that, even if they do save Ovid, he won't make it through this. But they have to try, or who else will? It's not like they have a high chance of surviving either. So there's not much to lose.
"H..Hey fuckface!" Vita calls up to the blob of a monster, and it looks down at them. It rips part of Ovid up from his body, but not out, before going back to doing whatever it was doing, eyes trained on them the whole time.
"You bastard! I..I bet you're just here because all the others didn't think you could do a good job! Y-yeah! They left you here, to pick on the lowly humans! They think they're better then you, don't they? Go show 'em they're wrong!" The monsters gaze then shifts away from them, back to staring directly forward, tentacle still digging through Ovid's gut. The squish that Vita hears sends their world crashing down around them, and they can feel their hope leaving their body. There really is no hope for them, is there? But Vita can't just give up like this, staring death in the face, too scared to move. It's a last minute decision, and it makes them feel disgusting themselves. They ask for help, from Palutena, or more like begs and pleads for help. The desperation is so unbearable, it brings new tears back to Vita's eyes, even when they thought they had no more to spill. It's an all new low, Vita would rather gouge out their own eyes then do this, but this is for Ovid. An answer comes in multiple arrows lodging themselves into the back of the beast. It's eye goes wide, and then it vanishes. Vita looks at the place it once was, stunned. Looking back down, they see Ovid near death, passed out. Vita drags themselves to him, being it near impossible to stand with one less arm. But then they see it, Ovid's torn organs and cracked bones repairing themselves far faster than normal, but it's then that Vita notices the silver smoke moving back into Ovid's body, healing things as it went. Vita is so happy, they almost forget about the monster entirely. The arrow in their shirt is enough to get them thinking though. Vita looks over, fear retaking control of their face. Two centurions float there, bows drawn back, arrows aimed at them. Vita shakes their head, mumbling a please. A crash is heard some distance away, and the centurions quickly fly off in that direction. Vita flops onto their side, sobbing and choking, until they fall back asleep next to the unconscious Ovid.
AN: This story is either going to be kinda long, or really really short. I'm not sure which yet. Anyway, thanks for reading the second chapter! Please review!