Previously:
Once they were inside her warm cottage she put the kid down and sat down on her knees to help him remove his jacket, he needed to change into the clothes he was wearing the day Aphrodite found him, but before she could, she noticed he was staring at something. "What is it?" She asked and looked to the side to see what he was looking at.
Her eyes traveled to a tall figure by the doorway to her bedroom.
Her eyes widened. There stood a man, no, a demon with white and almost shiny skin, he was dressed in only a black loincloth and in his hand he was holding a staff of some kind and it looked like it was made of ice. The top of the staff looked uncomfortably sharp, just like his white claws. His hair not only looked like ice taps but it was literally made of ice as well, his green eyes were the only things that looked human.
Yui slowly stood back up and moved so that she was blocking the boy from the demon's eyes. She didn't dare to utter a word though, she knew exactly who it was who was in front of her.
After a short moment of silence she finally spoke. "Sisyphus… right?"
The ice demon stared at her for a few seconds before his mouth turned into a grin and when he opened it to speak she could clearly see that he had fangs instead of normal teeth. "Yui… right?"
Now:
Yui could not believe her eyes, in front of her, inside her home, stood the one everyone was out looking for! She knew she had unintentionally walked into a very dangerous situation. "What do you want?" She dared to ask.
Sisyphus laughed and moved to the side. "I wonder… " He sat down in the couch and didn't say anything more.
Yui was starting to think of a plan to escape but before she could even come up with one Sisyphus raised his left hand and fired a ball of energy at them. Yui quickly jumped to the side, intentionally shoving the kid out of harm's way as she did. The two of them fell to the floor but Yui managed to catch the boy in her arms, shielding him from the impact as her own body hit the floor.
She felt the air escape her lungs when she hit the ground and she had to take a deep breath before she could pull herself and the boy up from the cold floor. The kid was crying now but she didn't have time to get her arms around him to pick him up before Sisyphus suddenly stood right in front of her, trapping her between himself and the wall.
The boy, now scared out of his mind, slowly moved away from them but his crying eyes never left the lady who had taken care of him for the last few days.
It was no use trying to escape now, the blast from earlier had proven Sisyphus was indeed very dangerous and wasn't about to let them get away and in the corner of her eye she saw the damage his power had caused when she had jumped to the side to escape it. The door was covered in a thick layer of blue ice, if it had hit them they would have died for sure. There was no way she could resist the cold from ice covering her entire body.
"Stupid woman, I noticed right away you were thinking of a plan to escape." Sisyphus informed calmly. He was so close to her she was now able to see the round and shiny blue amulet hanging like a necklace around his neck.
"That amulet…it's…" Yui heard herself whisper.
Sisyphus grinned at her. "So, they have told you about me. Then you should know that I was once human like you."
"..."
"I have heard about you as well, Yui, and I should tell you that I'm not pleased. You see, I escaped the gods' punishments for two reasons. First, I wanted to live, forever to be exact. And second, I wanted to be a god like them so I could live on Mount Olympus with Zeus and be surrounded by gorgeous goddesses for all eternity. I thought that they would eventually think of me as a very cunning man and admire me for it, grant me immortality and make me a god like them. I thought they needed someone like me but instead they sent me down to Hades in the underworld and made me roll that huge boulder up a steep hill over and over again. As the years passed I was beginning to think that it was over for me but then I remembered something they had told me, that I would be free if I could make the boulder stay on top of the hill. So I continued to try, never losing hope. I could feel myself getting stronger every time I rolled the boulder up the hill and finally, finally, the boulder stopped moving. It didn't roll back down again and I was free! Free to do what I wanted with my life! But… I knew that now when my punishment was over I would have to age like any other human. I had been in the underworld for so long I wouldn't have anything to come back to down on earth, I would be alone, I would get old and my muscles I was so proud of would disappear in time. Then it hit me, if I could somehow find something, anything, that belonged to the gods, then perhaps I could use it to make myself one of them. Since they hadn't noticed I had escaped I was able to move freely for a while on Mount Olympus until I found this amulet in a room that was sealed away. No god would have been able to reach it but I was no god, I was human, and I could open the door to the room with ease. I then stole the amulet, knowing it must be powerful since it was sealed away and forced it to turn me into the one thing I always wanted to be."
"But it didn't work, right? It turned you into something else…"
"That's right, it turned me into a demon, an ice demon. It doesn't matter though, I was immortal and became very powerful. That was good enough for me and before I left I used the staff the amulet had granted me and froze at least half of Olympus. They never saw me again after that."
"Then, why have you come back? You were free weren't you? "
"I wasn't planning to, Yui. Someone sought me out."
"What?"
"I didn't think it was possible, I was well hidden in my ice castle very far away from Mount Olympus after all. I guess rumors must have spread over the years and someone was bound to see me eventually. Anyway, someone found my castle and went inside to meet me and told me everything about you."
"You have come… for me?"
"Bingo! I have come for your life, little human." He was smirking now. He adjusted his hold on the staff and pointed it at her throat with the sharp edge almost touching her skin. "Why were you granted immortality and not me? Zeus was the one who decided, right? He made you immortal!"
"P-Please…"
The boy covered his eyes with his hands in fear.
"Why? Because you were a friend of a few gods ? ! Because you begged them to let you stay with them? !" Sisyphus's eyes were now glowing red and the sharp edge of the staff was now touching Yui's throat. "Sisyphus, please listen!"
His eyes stopped glowing as he calmed down. "Now it's my turn to deliver a punishment." He smirked and moved the staff away from her throat and down towards her chest. He only had to pull the fabric of her dress down less than one inch to reach the spot he wanted, her heart.
Yui's eyes widened. He was going to stab her, right through her heart!
When the sharp edge made contact with her skin she felt a cold sensation pass through her body and she had to close her eyes since she didn't want to see herself get stabbed. Sisyphus pressed the edge slowly through her skin and Yui started to feel like she was breaking, it hurt so much but it still wasn't deep enough to kill her yet. This was not how she wanted things to end, she wanted to stay by her friends forever. She had begged them to let her stay with them and when Zeus had granted her wish she was both happy and relieved she didn't have to part with the people who meant so much to her and she was even more happy when she found out she could actually be useful to them. She thought she had a future here and now Sisyphus was taking her life away from her, forcing her to leave her loved ones behind. What would they do when they found out she had been killed by the man they were out looking for? Would they blame themselves? Yui knew her friends very well and they definitely would… Tears threatened to fall as she thought about them. If this was the end then she at least wanted to say goodbye, her soul would never be able to rest in peace if she left them behind like this!
'No!'
The staff suddenly started glowing and the demon removed it from her.
Yui opened her eyes slowly when she felt it being pulled out of her, he wasn't going to kill her?
"Killing you like this would be too easy, you're not a god, just immortal." Sisyphus pointed out. "I want to see you suffer before you die a slow and cold death."
Yui's eyes traveled down to where he had stabbed her and gasped at what she saw. The hole he had made in her skin wasn't bleeding, instead a small patch of ice with the shape of a snowflake covered the hole over her heart and she could feel her body slowly getting cold.
"It won't be long before you freeze to death, that patch of ice will spread both outside and inside your body."
Yui was too shocked to say anything and her eyes never left the ice covering her skin.
"Let's make this clear, I want you dead but I'm still going to give you a chance to cure yourself, that's fair right? Show me you deserve immortality, but know this…" Sisyphus said as he turned away from her and walked over to the little boy and picked him up. The kid struggled to get away but it was no use and more tears began to roll down his already wet cheeks. "If your so called friends find out about this, then this little human boy will be killed, got it?"
Yui immediately forgot about the ice and pushed herself away from the wall she was leaning on. "Let him go!"
Less than a second later she was back against the wall, Sisyphus was in front of her again with the kid in his free arm and the staff he was holding was stuck in the wall, dangerously close to her head. "Tell them this, you went to the human world and delivered the child like you were supposed to."
He then removed the staff from the wall, turned around and walked towards the door.
"Please, please don't take him!" Yui cried after him.
Sisyphus touched the blue ice that covered the door with his staff and it instantly melted. "Oh, and one more thing. The kid will only be set free if you can find my castle without anyone's help, but before that you will have to find a way to heal yourself. And, not only will I kill the kid if anyone finds out about your condition but the ice will begin to spread much faster through your body and you will die almost instantly. In short, both you and the kid will die if you're unable to come to my castle to fetch him. He dies if you die, remember that."
Sisyphus's body began to glow as if he prepared himself to teleport. "And don't even think about trying to fool me in some way, with that curse I put on you you and I are connected, if anyone finds out… I will know."
"Stop!" Yui cried and threw herself towards the demon and the crying child but they both disappeared right in front of her eyes before she could reach them.
She just stood there for a moment, staring at the spot where the ice demon had been standing just seconds before.
Her heart suddenly felt very heavy and she slowly dropped to the floor.
Zeus and many other gods and goddesses had followed the male and female guards to the mountains and were forced to split up to search for the demon who was once human. They had to be prepared for anything since he was not the same man he was so many years ago, if he did not surrender they would have to fight him. "You two, where exactly did you see him?"
"We didn't see him, Zeus-sama, a wandering woman told us." The female guard answered him.
"This caught Odin's attention. "A woman? Who?"
"We met her just a little further away from the castle, my king. She told us that on her way there she saw some creature with a staff near these mountains. His hair looked like ice taps and he was only wearing a black loincloth. That's how she described him."
"How did she look like?" Zeus asked.
"She was dressed in a black cloak but the hood was covering half of her face so we were only able to see her mouth."
A guard walked up to Odin. It was the guard who had first informed him about Sisyphus's return. "My king, that sounds like the same woman who informed me."
"You didn't see him yourself?"
"No, my king. The woman didn't tell me where but she said she had spotted the demon somewhere nearby."
"I see." Odin answered the guard. "It must definitely be the same woman you met."
Zeus thought for a moment as his eyes traveled to his followers who were searching the area. Among them were Yui's friends.
"I don't get it." Freyr said as he walked over to Hoenir, Thor, Dionysus and Hades. "Why would Sisyphus come to Asgard? He has no connections here."
"Perhaps you have something he wants?" Dionysus replied.
Hoenir raised an eyebrow at him. "And what would that be? If he wanted something then he would have come for it a long time ago. No one has seen him for hundreds of years and all of a sudden he appears in a place like this? It just doesn't make any sense."
"Something must have happened for him to come out of hiding." Hades said mostly to himself as he seemed to be thinking hard about something.
A moment later, Loki, Balder, Sif, Apollon and Tsukito came into view. "We haven't found him yet, have you seen anything?" Balder asked.
"Only snow and ice…" Dionysus sighed.
"This is a waste of time, we should go back already." Loki pointed out.
"What's the matter? Worried about your little human?" Hoenir asked him teasingly.
"Hoenir, don't." Freyr warned.
"Why? I'm just asking the prankster a simple question. I'm worried about Yui-sama too you know."
"What if I am?" Loki said to Hoenir with a serious look in his eyes.
The others hadn't expected that. "Loki…" Balder almost whispered.
Loki continued. "She's a friend is she not? Of course I'm worried about the defenseless kitten."
Hoenir crossed his arms and smirked. "A friend, huh? Is that all she is to you?"
"He's nowhere to be seen." The group heard Tyr inform Zeus and Odin a little further away. Takeru, Freyja and Vidar were with him. "I asked the other groups if they had seen anything unusual but none of them had. It's as if Sisyphus was never here."
"Gather everyone, Tyr. We're going back." Odin ordered.
"Yes, my king."
Apollon ran up to them, the others followed close behind. "What is going on?"
"We haven't been out here for that long, he might as well be hiding in a cave or something." Balder stated.
"Zeus." Hades said. He was looking troubled. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Zeus turned to him and nodded. "This was a setup."
Yui took deep breaths as she was looking for something in her wardrobe that could hide that patch of ice that was placed on her body by Sisyphus. She had been dressed in normal human clothes many times before but after some time she knew her friends and everyone else would start wondering since she never walked around in them for many days in a row. In the world of the gods, everyone had their own specific clothing they usually wore, it was part of their identity and that white dress of hers was a big part of her identity.
She shook her head. 'I must keep this a secret and find a way to cure myself so I can rescue the boy!' Her hand moved to touch the cold spot over her heart. 'I don't know how much time I've got though…' She was feeling quite normal, for now anyway. When Sisyphus had cursed her she had been feeling cold but now it seemed like she was back to normal. Guess it would take a while until it would start spreading.
But then, a sensation of something cutting her made her think otherwise. She fell to her knees and held a hand over her heart. The ice was spreading already and it hurt like hell, like a knife cutting through the layers of your skin but without drawing blood and instead leave a trail of ice behind it as it went. 'This… isn't good…'
The pain didn't really disappear after the ice stopped spreading either. It would be like walking around with an open wound forever, until she dropped dead anyway. Sisyphus really wanted her to suffer, he had no intention of letting her live and would most likely make it obvious to others that there was something wrong with her so that he could kill her and the kid as quickly as possible.
She couldn't let that happen.
She rose to her feet and tried to ignore the pain. She then took out a white sweater and blue jeans from the wardrobe.
"Yui." A voice echoed inside her head and she immediately stopped what she was doing. "Sisyphus?"
"I see you are able to hear me."
"What do you want?"
"I was just going to tell you something important, do you want to hear it?"
"Please just let the child go."
He ignored her. "Listen closely. As you may have noticed the ice has started to spread and you will have to find a cure quick if you don't want you and the kid to die."
"I know that already… You made it very clear."
"But no one can find out about it and it's impossible for you to do it on your own, so you will have to seek help from other mythological beings. The ones who have no connections to the most known gods and live in solitude, far away from civilization. The ones who have no intentions of taking any contact with others and roam the earth like ghosts."
"..."
"You will find these creatures in places where no one ever goes. Remember, they are not like the gods and goddesses you have met. Some of these beings are like walking curses… like you are now."
"... Why are you telling me this? You want me dead, right?"
"Yui, Yui, Yui… Killing you would be no fun, not without having you endure a little torture and a few tests first. You see, I enjoy watching my victims fight for survival before I end their lives."
"!"
"Good luck, Yui. I look forward to see what dangers you might run into while trying to stay alive. Have fun with the outcasts!"
The connection broke and Yui was no longer able to hear his voice inside her head.
"Finding creatures that might kill me before the demon can?" Yui asked herself, feeling both frustrated and scared, as she took off her dress to change into the clothes she found hanging in the wardrobe. "But I have to try… If I give up now I will drag an innocent child down with me."
Once she was dressed she walked out of the bedroom and into the livingroom. 'Some of the books Odin-san gave me when I moved here are about the gods and creatures of this world. Perhaps I'm able to find some useful information in one of them?'
Sadly, none of her books contained the information she needed. She only found a few names but nothing more. "There's a library inside the castle with books from both the humans and the gods' worlds, I should go there." She told herself and headed for the door.
When she stepped outside she was feeling more cold than she usually did, it was as if her body was slowly beginning to lose it's ability to block the cold. It wasn't so bad yet but she could definitely feel the difference from before she got cursed and now. It scared her, it scared her a lot and what made matters worse was that she couldn't tell any of her friends about it. She wanted to live and she definitely didn't want the boy to die, so the only things she could do were to keep her mouth shut, act normal and cure herself. Which was easier said than done. Her friends would most likely lose their minds if she died… She couldn't do that to them!
Feeling motivated she headed towards the castle.
A cloud of gods covered the sky as they flew towards their homes, scanning the area around them in hope to find the ice demon. "I can't believe we fell for it." Takeru muttered.
"Let's just hope nothing has happened." Zeus said in a deep voice.
"Indeed." Odin agreed. "And we need to find that woman as well. If she gave us the wrong information on purpose then she might as well be working with Sisyphus. We can make her lead us to him."
The gods muttered among themselves, trying to figure out why Sisyphus had chosen today of all days to return. What was he after exactly?
"If this indeed was a setup and Sisyphus is somewhere in the village, then I will need your help to somehow seal his powers long enough for me to drag him down to the underworld. Once he's imprisoned down there he won't be able to escape." Hades explained.
"Got it, uncle!" Apollon called and gave him thumbs up.
"We've got your back!" Balder added.
"Yeah, now let's find the little ice princess before he causes some serious damage!" Takeru shouted.
"He's probably long gone by now anyway." Loki stated.
Tsukito, who usually didn't talk much, spoke up. "Kusanagi Yui is in the human world, right?"
"Of course, she told us she was going there." Apollon answered.
"She's safe over there, Tsukito." Sif assured him.
"..."
Takeru took a good look at his face and noticed he was actually frowning. "Brother?"
"Something wrong?" Dionysus asked.
Freyja didn't like his silence. "Hey, the quiet one, what's with the strange face?"
"What if Kusanagi Yui is back already and has run into Sisyphus?"
The others' eyes widened at Tsukito's theory. They hadn't thought of that. They had just assumed Yui was safe in the human world and never did it hit them that she might have returned already because she thought Sisyphus was somewhere near the mountains, being taken care of by all of them. "Fairy was just going to leave the child with his parents, she must have returned for sure!" Apollon panicked.
"We should have teleported ourselves back right after we found out Sisyphus wasn't there!" Takeru exclaimed.
"Instead we're wasting time!" Freyr added, he too sounded worried.
"Let's go everyone!" Balder called. "Loki, you- ...Loki?"
Loki was already gone.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone, they keep me motivated! :D I'll give you the next chapter in about 5 days!
