Chapter 11: Rising Shine
ATTENTION:
1. Both Scathach and Pollux for the love interests position (not exactly the conventional monogamy but meh). I'm NOT planning to expand. As I've said earlier, two heroines at most.
2. Also, due to work and life-changing events IRL, starting from this chapter, I would like to update this once per month. Thanks for your understanding.
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A record about a white-robed mentor teaching his student and future liege...
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'Names have a prominent meaning.
Its significance is well known not only in terms of identity but also as the foundations of a particular existence...much like an Origin.
In Herasterus' case, his name represents him as a star akin to a divine construct made by Hera. In other words, mortal and artificial.
On the other hand, the Gemini is the twin star of guidance. Those who light the path the mortals shall tread upon. A divine entity through and through. Children of Zeus they may be due to the assimilation of the Greek Pantheon, they were still the Gemini.
While similar, the Dioscuri and Herasterus couldn't be more different, like opposite sides of the same coin.
Thus, it was only natural that Herasterus was attracted to the female counterpart of Gemini, the side which represents the feminine and puts emphasis on compassion and benevolence.
Hmm? What? Would it be cheating with how intimate he was rumored to be with the Queen of Skye?
Ah, young Artoria...so innocent and pure. There is a lot more between man and woman that exceeds the simple conduct of marriage. You can have a friend with...benefits. A comrade with mutual interests. Beneficial cooperation comes in many different forms, you see.
Besides, the legend states that the two women were very close. Just how it should be. Two Lillies in harmony...I approve.
I, for one -OW! Don't you dare bite me down there-
What, stop, Cath Palug, you ungrateful little white- OW OW OW!!'
-Merlin's Teaching of Camelot, Recorded by Sir Kay and King Arthur
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"Okay, calm down. Deep breaths. Stay cool. Focus. Breathe in, breathe out...HIIYAAAAAAH!"
The ten-year-old boy gripped his modified short spear with a loud battle cry and leaped down towards certain death. One could see tears of denial still moistening his eyes, his body shaking uncontrollably from fear and apprehension.
What can make a young boy that terrified? Well, to be honest, a lot of things. Among them, was one of the twin stars that were once gods of the old that has been long forgotten, and incorporated into Zeus' own mythology via his blood. They were called the Dioscuri meaning "Children of Zeus", a brother and a sister that were deprived of their divinity, later blessed by the King of Olympus.
The brother was an exceptionally skilled chariot fighter/discobolus (Discus thrower), while his sister was an immortal pankration/swordmaster of unparalleled martial prowess. To make matters even worse, both had an unquenchable thirst for sparring.
And as if that wasn't enough to drive the young hero to a mental breakdown, there was also a very sadistic Peleus who would grapple him within half an inch of his life if he tried to so much as run away.
It was in those times that Herasterus had to admit that Peleus was capable enough to catch Thetis and win her heart by, quite literally, keeping his hold on her as she tried to slip away by transforming into various animals. It was pretty metal for a marriage proposition, even by Greek standards.
He didn't know if he should pity or congratulate Achilles for this insane 'this is how I met your mother' story.
Every single one of his trainers was a living nightmare for the young hero. Every single one of those divine bastards could very well knock the living shit out of him with a light bump of their fists.
It doesn't matter what the weapon is. They were equally deadly. Very deadly. The boy could personally attest to that.
Anyways, despite the boy's worst fears, gravity worked as it was intended. This meant, he fell straight down, spear brandished, and right into the welcoming arms of Pollux.
Over-extended it may be, his spear still carried his entire momentum. Under normal circumstances, it would have spelled death for the person on the receiving end via a spear gutting you through the stomach like a fish.
Alas, Pollux was anything but normal.
CLANG!
A small flick of her wrists was all it took for her to swiftly deflect the boy's suicidal attempt at mimicking a flailing monkey. As a matter of fact, not only was Herasterus' spear effortlessly parried away, the brutal twist of the demigod's sword completely nullified the entire force behind the boy's strike.
All in but one single fluid movement.
In a brilliant flurry of sparks, the pole of bronze spun through the air like a helicopter and clattered somewhere out of his sight. His young body was then effortlessly captured in what seemed like a motherly embrace. He knew better.
"...Aww shit. Here I go again."
Pollux smiled sweetly at the soon-to-be-sacrificed lamb in her death hold.
"You never learn, do you?"
Herasterus' world turned upside down. Quite literally, that is.
'How the fuck did I get myself into this deep pile of shit?', he lamented.
Poor Herasterus. Mercy wasn't a thing in hardcore Greece.
That was how the young hero-in-training found himself being subject to child abuse; aka being plunged head-first into the ground below. Or in his case, from above.
Luckily for him, he didn't need to suffer the suffocation of worm-infested mud or the ground-breaking sensation that impacted his fragile skull. For in the very instant his head made contact with the layer of hardened mud, his lights went out.
In the last moments of his fleeting consciousness, he heard a strange voice shout out from a shard of his bizarre memories. A narration about someone named Luviagelita Edelfelt.
"There she goes at Rin Tohsaka! Watch out watch out watch out!!! Oh, could that be it!?!? Ladies and gentlemen, here we have the Edelfelt's mightiest martial technique:"
"German Suplex: Greek edition aka 'Greeks were first, bitch! Pankration is ETERNAL' !!!!!!!!'"
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....What the fuck is my past life???????????
Herasterus fainted.
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Herasterus' diabolic training regime was infamous.
It was already an amusement source for the common folk at this point.
Grueling was too soft a word for it to phrase how utterly cruel his torture was.
In the morning, he rode the chariot while dodging the projectiles Castro and Peleus randomly threw at him, with Skye by his side in case he was knocked out of the chariot...which happened quite a lot.
Heracles? She did all this blindfolded with an excited Atlanta jumping by her side.
In the afternoon, he sparred with pollux (and occasionally Castor) until he was beaten an inch of his life, while Skye fought Peleus with battle-frenzied glee.
Heracles? She fought both of the Dioscuri.
In the evenings, he was allowed some free time of his own. He exchanged theories on martial arts with his sister or played with Atlanta and Skye in the ancient arts of Hide and Seek.
Tired? Exhausted? Broken bones? Torn muscles? Concussions? Dehydration? Fatigue?
The Athena-branded caffeine/brain power kicks in. Then, his servants will stuff his mouth with food and wine and let the blessings of Demeter and Dionysus do the rest.
The next day, the prince would wake anew, ready for the torture that shall soon torment his soul.
Thus, the cycle repeats.
What about the mighty Heracles?
She always completed her training long before her idiot brother and was responsible for taking care of him after training.
It was said that it was her favorite private time.
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You know what?
The training sucked like Zeus' balls.
On second thought, that made me nauseous. Scratch that...I need my bleach. Urgh.
The only good thing that happened was that independent training gradually changed into team training, something to do with 'collaboration and teamwork which you kids do not have' -by Peleus. Screw that sly bastard.
Skye joined as a candidate for his future royal guard while Atlanta started her training as a palace hunter with the men of Mycenae.
The spars were simple in terms of rules; I teamed up with Skye and Heracles against the Dioscuri and Peleus, and anyone who was incapacitated or unable to continue fighting was considered the loser along with the team the one belonged to.
I told Skye to act as if she was right-handed. Why?
Muahahaha...those smug bitches would never see this coming...fufufu...!
All according to my grand keikaku...!
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As he foresaw, Dioscuri acted as a well-oiled machine, and while he and Heracles were able to stall their assault, Peleus managed to unarm Skye by parrying the tip of her spear with his own, and grappled her to the ground, subduing her.
Skye started to train in all sorts of unorthodox ways of spear fighting as well as hand-to-hand combat after her defeat, and Herasterus and Heracles began creating a fighting style of their own similar to the Dioscuri.
The time was nigh.
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More than a year had passed under the torture- I mean, training of my accursed- I mean, esteemed mentors.
We were reaching the end of our training, and I just knew it.
I am a new man, a man with confidence, and experience to match it.
I could almost taste the scent of lady Nikos (Victory) in the air, beckoning me ever so sweetly.
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...Ahem. No, I'm not a pervert with a smell fetish, you horny mobs. I'll BONK you.
Anyways.
While we still couldn't win in a one-on-one combat against the Dioscuri since we were inexperienced and still young, we were putting up close fights, and victory was only a matter of time.
To this day, I focused on tactical retreats/defeats to measure and gauge the weaknesses and strengths of the opposing teams while hiding our own strengths.
Not anymore.
Today, I say goodbye to my weak ass getting man-handled by sick greek bastards.
Today, I shall prevail.
Today, we will win.
I and Heracles acted as a distraction.
And by distraction, I meant the classic one. The one as old as time. We charged.
We charged Peleus head-first, and the man, shocked by the sudden brazenness and our change in strategy, quickly backpedaled. The Dioscuri immediately intervened, and it seemed as if Skye would engage Peleus.
Emphasis on 'seemed'.
Skye was nowhere in sight. Peleus must have thought it was a decoy tactic, as he wisely stood still and readied his spear. And not a second too sooner.
Darting across with her body parallel to the ground like a feline beast -a technique she learned from Atlanta- Skye's spear thrust upwards from the shadows cast by the trees nearby.
Peleus managed to dodge her first strike and met her flurry of continuous strikes with his own. Seeing that he was reaching a stalemate due to the rapid improvement of Skye's spear arts, he sought to exploit the opening in which Skye changed her thrust pattern, a weakness that allowed him to disarm her strike multiple times.
As expected.
Skye was ready for him this time and dropped her spear in the midst of a feint thrust, one which Peleus had tried to parry, and caught it in her left hand. With a twist of her wrist, the spear bend up like a rising viper and dug its tip between Peleus' ribcage.
A blunted tip it may be, the spear was enough to knock the air out of his lungs and sink him to his knees. The man dropped his spear, and Skye caught its pommel on the tip of her toes and kicked it up into the air.
What followed was the most graceful move I've ever seen.
Her body seemed to grow wings as she somersaulted through the sky in one clean flip, kicking downwards on the spear's pommel at the height of her jump, while still upside down.
It was unheard of to kick a spear midair, much less in the midst of a somersault, and thus, the Dioscuri was thoroughly unprepared for her trick.
The spear soared through the air, knocked Pollux's sword sideways, ricocheted off, and buried itself in the back of Castor's knee.
All in one fluid motion.
I motioned to Heracles and we instantly switched opponents while they were still shaken, me to Castor and her to Pollux, and swiftly took them down with a stab to their abdomen.
There was a long silence before a clapping sound echoed across the plains.
"I never knew Skye was ambidextrous and had a spear-kicking fetish.", Peleus said with a giant grin. He opened his arms.
"Congratulations, kids! You have finished your damn training!"
We cheered.
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Two years have passed since Herasterus' rescue of Skye and Atlanta. The twins had turned fifteen, while Skye and Atlanta had turned twelve.
In that rather short span of time, a lot happened. One of them was that the mischievous prince and his loyal sister were no longer called by the names of their youth; Iphicles and Alcides.
Their true name and the legend that he bore with it were introduced to the common folk via the priestesses of Hera.
Herasterus. The shining Star of Hera. The Beacon of the Queen.
And Heracles. The Glory of Hera. She who makes the Star Shine.
It was uncommon for even the most blessed of demigods to make a legend for themselves so quickly in life.
Yet, despite the crippling odds, a young twin of seven had managed to strike a deal with the queen of Olympus herself! Not only were they granted an audience, but one of them, a mere mortal, was also granted her flesh and ichor!
Prompted by the King of Mycenae's call for tutors, men and women aspiring to be heroes raised their heads, their interest peaked, as they themselves sought to meet the twins in person. Among them, were heroes such as Peleus, husband to the sea nymph Thetis, and father of Achilles.
There were also some that were immortal.
For one, the stars of Zeus heard of a newborn star and found their way to Mycenae under the guidance of the queen herself.
A wise centaur of Mount Pelion also sent an eagle from his secluded abode, whilst shaking his head about how Artemis wouldn't stop pestering him, and how peacocks would fly out of nowhere, only to stand in front of his cave...menacingly.
The sage got the message fairly quickly after that incident, which was why he sent an eagle off to Mycenae with an invitation tied to its leg in the first place. An uncharacteristic move on the sage's part, but he had a sense of self-preservation, after all.
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The king untied a letter from the eagle's leg and skimmed through its contents.
Invitations sent in this manner weren't rare. As a matter of fact, it became commonplace once Hera had officially announced Herasterus and Heracles as her champions.
Every day, invitations would be sent to his palace like wine from the cellars. He thought that this one was no different.
His brow shot up when he realized how unorthodox the invitation was. It was written by the Sage of Mount Pelion, the great centaur and child of the titan Kronos, Chiron.
"Hmm...to think that he will also invite the girls Herasterus rescued...Skye and Atlanta. As expected of the sage, his Clairvoyance is splendid."
Amphitryon lowered the letter and sighed. He rubbed his chin, contemplating whether he should accept this unusual offer.
"Bah. There's no reason not to accept. A year of training under the sage would be enough. The twins and the girls are more than enough talented if what my men say is true. Besides...I heard Chiron could be especially harsh to students who were exceptional...hehehe..."
He stood up from his throne and motioned for a messenger. He touched his receding hairline and scowled.
"Call the twins and the girls. They are going on a vacation to Mount Pelion."
King Amphitryon's smile was vicious. It seemed that he never forgot the pranks his roguish son played on his head. A strand of hair fell onto the floor.
The king snarled and smashed his fist against his throne in dismay.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KarmaIsOP
KarmaIsOP Peleus is basically Qrow Branwen from RWBY, while the Dioscuri is a mirror of our twins.
And yes, for the people who noticed; that trick Skye played on Peleus was a little foreshadowing!
Next chapter, they go on their separate ways for a while. Farewell scene and all that good stuff. The twins head to Mount Pelion with the girls.
I'm afraid I might not be updating for more than a few weeks or so due to work IRL. Review to keep this alive! Review for the Spartan training!
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