Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The universal truth

I was flying above the clouds at god knows what speed, the cold wind assaulting my body, Scaring away every shred of laziness left in me. The world, which comprises beautiful landscapes, majestic oceans, and the life forms inhabiting it, were playing a symphony together. I was now witnessing the beauty which poets conveyed through their creations. I would be lying if I said "I am not enchanted."

But I protestingly had to admit that not everything in this world is good. There are people who are selfless, but this world also has people who murder, rape, steal and every grotesque term one can possibly think of, but that doesn't mean this world holds no worth. Everything is connected to each other, one cannot exist without the other.

My life has been fairly simple, I always had people who love me, care for me, I may not understand the pain people with no one to love have, but I have something which scares me everytime I think about it.

The fear of losing the people close to me, and after the Amaya's "Death", this fear consumed me to the point I had to learn using weapons and martial arts, but to my disgrace, the more I stressed on protecting my family and friends, the more I became scared.

But now, I might have the chance to completely erase this fear, by getting stronger to the point that one one dares to touch them.

The debt of love has always been the hardest to pay, considering the fact that one can even pay for the love given to them.

My hands are stained with blood of numerous people, who may not have been the best of existences, but still were alive before I decided to take away their lives. But I feel nothing about it, no remorse ever hindered my decisions of killing. I who was supposed to be a normal adult striving to get a stable job is now a cold-blooded killer.

But as I said, none of this matters to me, as long as I can preserve the happiness of my people.

"Ryan, where are we going?" Elijah's overjoyed voice broke me out of my stupor. I turned my head around and saw him frolicking like never before.

"I guess, I can be a little bit happy now." These words involuntarily escaped my mouth, quite embarrassing for a man to say while he is with his best friend. The laugh I expected from him never reached my ears. Elijah's friendly face only held a calm and assuring smile, which caught me off guard making me lose control of my wings for a second.

"Wow, I never expected that a well established dragon such as yourself would forget how to control his wings." Elijah said with a titter.

"Established?, yeah sure." I let out a self mocking scoff. But suddenly something caught my attention, it was something sinister, plunging on my innards, twisting them like wet rags. Elijah wasn't feeling any better, he was puking out everything he had consumed yesterday. I quickly increased the power output of my barrier which covered both of our bodies. It felt a lot better than before, but a strange feeling was still there.

'Thank god I made his barrier a lot stronger than me'

'Ryan, I don't sense anything different from the surroundings, everything seems suspiciously normal.' Umbra replied, her voice splashed a certain reality on my face, that I am weak, weaker than most existences in this world. It was just wishful thinking that I achieved something.

"Shit." I said and used my wings to fly off that place, I didn't know what that suppressing feeling was, it almost felt like a hungry beast had set its eyes on me, One thing I was sure about was that it was not an attack because if it were I would not be standing to tell anyone my story.

My wings which were supposed to be more stable than a metal rod sticking to the ground were shaking, unstable and not willing to stay out but I laboured them to keep flapping. I poured all of my power to the draconic wings and ran away rapidly.

Elijah finally broke the silence "What was that?." His voice was worn out, to think he was even able to talk was an achievement in my eyes.

"I don't know." I looked at him, his face was filled with horror, the fear caused by the unknown entity, a fear that he felt for the first time just like me.

"I am hungry." Elijah had a very peculiar habit of feeling hungry in serious situations, but now, this was helping me calm down.

"Of Course you are." I chuckled, initiating a chain of mundane talks. We didn't stop until we reached his home, maybe because both of us were not ready to talk about the incident.

We entered his room with a bang which was the result of us crashing on the floor. The act earned us a lot of curses from Mrs.Baros, but it was all for a better future.

"My ears hurt, she should not have nagged us for an entire hour. I feel more exhausted now." Elijah was back to his normal self, no hint of fear visible on his face. He was still breathing roughly but everything else was fine.

"It just took an hour to travel, quite a record I would say." I tried to initiate a topic, hoping to gauge out anything he might be hiding. Elijah was always the type of guy who never told anyone about his worries, always trying to handle everything by himself.

"Yeah a record, check the news, people are freaking out right now." Elijah was laughing like he heard the best joke in his entire life.

"So it turned out just as we expected." We knew this would happen because a sonic boom caused by an unknown factor is like a summoning ritual to an alien community. They pounce on every single one of them, Area 51, Roswell and so on.

"Yes, but they have no evidence that it was caused by a flying man. We are safe for now." He sighed, his heartbeat slowly receding to its normal state.

"I guess." I sat down on a chair and leaned backwards, the whole trip completely exhausted me. I am sure I won't be flying long distances for a while.

The only thought roaming haphazardly in my mind was how weak I am. Now I know that acting arrogant after gaining a bit of power will get me killed. I hope that Tia won't back off because I really need her right now. but mastering every weapon is not something easy, will I be able to do it?. The flurry of thoughts continued until I drifted away to dreamland.

Dude wake up, Ryan!

The sudden words which got louder by each passing second brought me back, I slowly opened my eyes and saw a blurry room and Elijah shaking my shoulders, the unwillingness to move had a strong hold on me.

"Let me sleep for a few minutes, I don't want to wake up." Certain words left my mouth which were created by my half sleeping brain.

"Selene called you, you need to go now, it is already past 3pm." They were like a thunderclap striking every bone on my body. I jolted off the chair with breathtaking speed and flew away.

"Fucking hell." I heard Elijah cursing, but that was nothing new. I flew like my life depended on it, because being late is one of the worst things you could possibly do to your partner. Kids, always remember: If you are late, you won't get laid.

Now, I hope you guys learnt something important.

Moving forward with my obsidian black wings I noticed that my speed was not increasing after a certain threshold. I found it weird but didn't fuss about it because this might have happened because of my exhaustion.

I reached Selene's home and landed with a soft bang. Her garden looked the same. It never ceases to surprise me that the complete garden had different types of flowers during the day and only moonflowers at night. The gardener must be using some type of magic.

"Ryan, you were almost late." Tia greeted me, which I didn't expect because Jessica is the one who always does this. She was wearing black leggings and white shirt which made her curves more visible to people.

Oh I am ogling at her you say?, no I didn't it was just for research purposes. Anyways "Yes I know, where is she?." I looked at her while scratching my chin.

"She is in her room, but Ryan you stink like fear, did you see something which scared you?" Tia was smiling, her milky white teeth on full show. Hiding stuff from this woman is really hard, the cat is already out of the box, so telling her about it will be the best decision.

I told her the complete story only omitting the points about Elijah, I don't want him to get involved yet. Tia just stared at me for a while after listening to my story. Few minutes later she started talking "That something you felt was a kind of pressure released by some powerful existence, when they are trying to stun their enemies, they usually are not aware they are releasing it or sometimes it is just pure flexing."

Well I expected something else, maybe something major. I looked at her with a dry look. "I can agree with the first part, but the thing you said at the end makes no sense."

"Ryan, let me tell you something important." She grabbed my hand and took me towards a bench which was under a maple tree. I didn't stop her because her intentions seemed to be clean. We sat on the bench, not too close, not too far a comfortable distance for anyone. She looked at me with her beautiful black eyes. "Do you know about Medusa?."

"Yes, the cursed priestess who once served Goddess Athena." I looked at her with a calm expression trying to get hold of what she was trying to say. I saw her blink a few times, faster than normal, but didn't give it much thought.

"Do you know why she was cursed?" She looked at me with a slight smile, a smile which cried bitterness. I once read about Medusa but don't remember much about it,(Ok I didn't read it, Elijah told me about her). Geez you guys, cut me some slack.

"I don't exactly remember but she had an affair with the sea god, breaking her vow of celibacy." I looked at her, my eyes getting a little narrow because now I was able to recall some important parts of the story. I always thought that Medusa was just a myth, a story created by someone who had experienced something similar aside from the myth.

"She did break her vow, but let me ask you this, will you kill your loved one if they somehow ended up losing their virginity, which was something that they promised to keep intact?." Tia looked at me with a discerning look, she still had that bitter smile on her face.

The words said by her kept playing Jump Ball in my head. "Of Course not, How can someone kill their loved one because they did something which was bound to happen sooner or later, and the term chastity itself is obnoxious."

"Indeed it is, but Athena did something worse to Medusa, she made her a monster, a monster who can't communicate with anyone without turning them into stone." Her voice was getting tensed up, the pain evident in her voice. Did she know Medusa?, maybe she was her friend. I chose to stay silent because it felt like she had much more to say.

"Medusa was a very charming woman, beautiful enough to make Poseidon fall for her; the sea god was enchanted by her beauty and wanted to marry her. Medusa being Athena's priestess was very loyal to her, she denied Poseidon several times. A woman denying him was something that he didn't like, very similar to his brother Zeus. Poseidon's anger knew bounds, one day when Medusa was in a sanctuary which belonged to Athena..... Poseidon raped her." Tia was furious, she was releasing the same type of pressure I felt earlier this day, but this time I was not scared.

Tia was trying to calm her voice but she could not hold it, the anger and frustration felt by a woman on behalf of another woman is very intense "His brutality continued for a few days, he didn't stop and you know what that bitch Athena did?, she just watched, she was scared by him, Poseidon being one of the strongest greek god was something she couldn't handle alone, If Poseidon wanted he could have killed Athena whenever he wanted, the only thing Athena had was her wits." She paused to let me assess the information provided by her, her eyes were bloodshot, but the only thing I felt was pity.

She continued "After raping her, Poseidon declared her as his wife, because that was the norm of Olympian gods." She sighed, I patted her back trying to calm her down, it somehow worked, then she continued again.

"This should have ended there right?, but this was only the start, Athena with her inflated ego came to meet Medusa, Medusa tried to explain everything to her but she who was hiding from Poseidon, decided to take revenge on him by cursing Medusa, now poseidon's wife. Medusa was cursed that no one will be able to talk to her, just a single glance at her will turn people to stone Statues. Medusa cried and begged, but the goddess she worshipped with all her heart destroyed her life and never regretted it. Later Medusa the Gorgon was killed by a hero, she was then turned into a shield that was used by great warriors in wars." She sneered at the irony of the gods. First they use, then throw and then use again.

I was speechless, never did I expect that the actual story would be this disturbing, a woman who was wronged by all and trusted by none. Although the only thing I could do is to feel pity towards her. This happens every time when people hear about molestation cases, they feel pity.

Tia turned her head towards me and locked her eyes with mine, her clear eyes which seemed to be capable of seeing through any lie and deceit. She came closer "Who do you think is at fault here?" Her eyes glowed blue, making me flinch at their sight. I somehow controlled my urge to back off. "Both, both of them are the culprit here, Athena for blaming the victim and Poseidon for committing such a repulsive act." My voice was firm and bold followed by a wisp of black flames which I could not control.

Tia stood up from the bench and looked at the sky which was cloudy, wind slowly blowing making her hair float with it, suddenly she turned towards me "Wrong, Medusa was at fault because she was weak, because she trusted Athena more than herself, her innocent personality, everything about her was at fault." She continued after turning her head towards the mansion "Be strong Ryan, because only weak people are at fault, no one ever questions a god for what they did, sometimes even glorified like it was something great." She disappeared before I could say anything.

I always knew that strength is the most important thing one could possess because without strength you can't have anything else.