The Light and Dark brothers

Chapter 19 The Past

"Sam, we heard the news of a black lion with a fiery mane fighting a dragon," a skeleton relayed the news to a woman with black wings and cool black hair. She wore a scar on her left eye with pride, the left eye was silver and the other was blue, in a hypnotic tone, "I knew he was still alive." She sat on her black throne with her legs crossed sipping an unholy drink, "You will be mine again Ash, my king." Sam swings her arm in a supercilious way, "Get a squad ready, I will join them on this mission." She sat on her throne waiting patiently for his return.

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Astrid springs up from the bed, a shockwave from a battle woke her up. In an unfamiliar place she got her clothes on while on guard, her clothes were tattered and battered. She put her hair in a ponytail, it showed her long pointy ears, she moved them up and down basically stretching them. The doorknob twisted and turned, Astrid had her sword in both hands ready to strike. The door opened slowly, a head peeked in, "Oh you are awake," Sophia opened the door all the way. Astrid relaxes, "You scared me," she sheathes her blade, "Do you know where we are." Sophia is all dirty from her training, her armor has multiple cracks in it, her obsidian armor's glossiness has faded to a rough black. Just with Sophia standing there Astrid can feel her aura coming off of her, it was almost different from her aura before like she is a new person. "We are at Rich's house, they let us stay after your battle, Rose seems impressed by your skills Astrid, you should be proud!" Sophia praises Astrid in a vibrant voice, Astrid takes the bait making her feel powerful, "I know I'm awesome," Astrid says in a joking way. She couldn't help it, "Sophia, you seem different, how long have I been asleep?" Sophia with a carefree attitude, "You slept for a whole month," the look Astrid gave was priceless, her ears looked like exclamation marks, Sophia snorted, "You should have seen your face!" Sophia used the wall as support, "It's not funny, you jerk," Astrid slugged Sophia in the arm but it still didn't stop her from laughing. After the two settled, they left the room, "Hey Rose you're up early," Sophia's silvery voice putting her in a good mood, "Yeah today I thought to get the jump on things and pack up for our adventure." She was laying on the couch with her leg hanging off the armrest, "Aren't you supposed to be, you know, 'packing'," Astrid's remark goes unchecked because of an interruption, Rich gently opens the door, "Round two is about to start, do you want to join Sophia." Sophia races down the stairs, "You betcha, catch you later Astrid," slamming the door behind her leaving the two hotheads alone in the same room. "Hello 'Astrid', how was your nap," Rose with her sarcastic tone already went under Astrid's skin. Astrid's ear twitched in frustration, "It was nice, until the racket woke me up," Astrid uses the handrailing to support her while leisurely going down the steps. "Did Ash ever explain to you how long he lived in this stupid world," Rose twirls her index finger summoning a little crew of soldiers. Astrid sits down on a couch across Rose, her posture is straight-up not even slouching for a second, "Thank you," Rose takes the glass of wine from the little soldiers. She finally sits upright, "I love that saying, what was it, oh yeah the past is in the past, what a load of crap." She immediately downs her whole glass of wine, "What about you, what do you think about that saying," as she moves her fingers in a 'bring it here' gesture. The room was quiet for a moment, the only thing that could be heard was the crackling of the fire in the fireplace, "Yeah but it is never actually in the past is it, the past will always catch up to you, eventually." Rose receives the wine bottle from the little soldiers, she sighs, "You need to give up, the pain is not worth it." Rose slouches back down on the couch, playing with the tip of the bottle, "You aren't the first girlfriend you know that right." Rose's statement sparked curiosity in Astrid, "How did his last relationship end." Rose lifted her finger telling Astrid to wait while she chugged the whole entire bottle of wine in one go, "She and Ash always played when they were younger, Ash would escape to spend time with her. She would sneak out of Mount Olympus to meet him in a forest to play. One day they decided to rebel against their parents, Ash left the underworld and Sam became a fallen angel, leaving Mount Olympus. After that, they explored the world together and lived a happy life but it ended when Hades came to retrieve his favorite experiment. Once Creed and Grim came to the rescue his actions changed, his new eyes drove him crazy, their life was never the same. He wanted to do bad things to anyone and everyone, he kept losing control of his power." Rose got the hiccups, "I hick* will tell you the hick* rest of the story hick*," Astrid was bummed out over the story but glad she got to talk to Rose without threats. "I will leave you to your dreams then," Rose waved her off and turned on her side going to sleep, Astrid walked outside hoping to get fresh air, instead she got dirt. "Oh hey Astrid, do you want to spar with me," Sophia had her sword holstered, only using her hands against Creed. She was having a two on two, Grim was on her side while Creed and Rich were on the opposing side. Astrid gets a reminder from just looking at Creed, "Oh the traitors, wait aren't we missing one." the group takes a little break, Creed's facial expression shows he wasn't ashamed of what he did, "You can call me whatever you want but Ash is a monster," Gets up in her face, "You think you know that monster, go on, tell me how many families he turned to cinders for the sheer fun of it," He bumped past her with his shoulder. Astrid denied his wrongdoing in her mind, "That was all in the past," but her recent conversation was giving her thoughts. It was silent for a little but Grim walked up to Astrid, "I know my brother is a prick right now but he is only thinking about everyone living in this world, I am sorry for not telling you about the plan from the gecko." She tilts her head back, tired of forgiving the two, "Yeah yeah whatever I forgive you." He walks past her to the house, "Thank you for being so forgiving, I will keep an I on him." Sophia stretches, "Astrid you Will fight me, I am not giving you an option," she cracks her neck waiting for her response. "Fine by me, let's do this," Astrid takes off her high heels and her black stockings, now barefoot she puts her fists up, "Rich can you watch this battle.' He grunts in agreement, backing up they are now in position to start with one word the spar begins, "Start!" The two race towards each other winding up a punch, their fists connect with each other making a powerful gust of wind. Sophia pushes her fist further, pushing Astrid back, "Well that is not going to work," Astrid goes on the offensive using her speed, she strikes with a front kick, Sophia catches it but Astrid spins hitting Sophia in the temple with her other leg. The kick wobbles Sophia letting Astrid go, Astrid follows up with a flying superman punch, Sophia dodges left, Astrid whiffs past her, it doesn't faze Astrid. She immediately does a spinning backhand, Sophia blocks it with her arms, her block causes pain to Astrid, she put force into that spinning backhand. Astrid aims for Sophia's legs with a kick to the hamstring, Sophia checks it, hurting Astrid more than Sophia, Sophia kicks Astrid's knee making her straighten her leg. The kick made Astrid bow down which led to a knee to the face, the knee sent Astrid flying back. "Okay that is enough," Rich ends it before it gets ugly. The two were breathing hard, "Sophia, you really pack a punch, my face really hurts," Astrid massaged her face easing the pain. Sophia rubs her temple, "Your kicks are as deadly as ever Astrid." Astrid walks to a soft patch of grass and lays down to put on her stockings and high heels, Sophia sits down beside her. "Where is King," Astrid took in a deep breath of fresh air. Sophia lays down all the way, "He-," a voice came from the woods, "He went to go find Ash and Isabel, to bring them back. Sophia's orders of course," he winked at Sophia. Sarah tossed a deer into the open, "I got us food, could you be my hero and cook it for us Rich," Sarah gave Rich puppy dog eyes. Rich couldn't help but smile, "Anything for the apex predator," he lifted the deer over his shoulder with one arm and went around the house. Sophia gave Jax a disappointed look, "What, lying to each other got us here in the first place." Sarah plop down next to Astrid, "You should have seen Sophia, she took charge and ordered everyone around like a true leader." Sophia got embarrassed, "No I was just, um, following in your footsteps Astrid." Astrid felt pride, she felt happy, she felt hatred for leaving her with a heavy task. Before the crew could catch up a shockwave moved the earth, shaking it to its core. Rose kicks the door open, "It's Ash, we need to move NOW," she barks at everyone. The ground was still shaking, "Rich, stay, rest of you let's go!" Jax called down Daygon from the sky, "Everyone let's go," the earth began to settle. Everyone rushed on board but Creed stopped at the wing of the dragon, "I am going to stay, you go without me." Rose rushed everyone, not giving anyone a chance to ask why. Sarah sat next to Grim, "You coming too Sarah," she playfully socked him in the arm, "Duh, who is going to watch over you while you make stupid decisions, right girl," her little fox wraps around Grim's neck slowly warming up his neck. They launched into the air, Jax was by Daygon's ear asking if he knew where the shake came from. Astrid, Rose, and Sophia sat in the middle beside each other, Astrid had to shout her words out for Rose to hear them, "Hey Rose, how do you know that it's Ash!" Jax shouts to the back, "hold your question until we are above the clouds! Everyone hold on," the group prepares, Jax pats Daygon's head giving him the signal to go up. The dragon soars up, the clouds brush past everyone's face, in seconds they reach over the clouds, all of a sudden it is calm, tranquil, and pleasantly balmy. The sun was setting, turning the clouds orange, "Wow," Sophia was awestruck. Everyone was at a loss for words, the clouds looked like cotton balls bundled up together. The sun shone as bright as a pearl around a woman's neck. Astrid finally asks again, "Can you tell me how you know it was Ash that caused the shockwave." Everyone wanted to hear her reason why, Rose was reluctant to answer, "Fine, if you really must know, this was before you were born Astrid, it was after a few years dealing with the pain in his eyes. He lost it, he couldn't hold on and so his emotions were lost. Ash started terrorizing the world, causing the world to crack and shake. I had to stop him or the world would be destroyed. I managed to find him at his kingdom hidden away in the mountains, his undead was no match for me, King was with me. We blast open the doors after King took care of two metal golems, he sat there on his throne of fire." Rose reached into her pocket and pulled out a flask, she took a swig from it, she resumed after putting it back in her pocket, "Ash had his blindfold on so I thought he was just doing what he wanted to do, I tried reasoning with him but he only talked down to me saying I was useless. He tried to use King against me telling him to be his loyal dog but he refused which just made him shrug it off. Without warning Ash pointed his finger at King, a spear made of ice burst through the wall, King couldn't dodge in time, the ice spear was level five, it would have killed King but his medallion saved him. His medallion sent a powerful force field blocking the spear. Ash blew open the wall behind him revealing ten ice spears aiming at both of them." Everyone was quiet, "I had to use my true form and King summoned Vain and transformed into his rage mode but Ash had no expression when fighting. We finally hurt him badly, his back was dripping blood from multiple slashes in the back but he was standing tall, his blindfold came off showing his grey eyes. My true form tired me out so I reverted back and King was laying on the floor unable to stand up. Ash raised his right hand and said 'Fireball level six', I never heard a spell that can go higher than five. I said he was bluffing but it started forming in his hand, a grey ball with black lines going in all directions. I was out of options, King managed to slide a dagger towards me, I lined up the shot hitting his hand, the ball hit a forest, there was nothing for a few seconds then a high pitch noise started ringing in my ears. I look back at the forest and all there was, was grey covering up the sky, the sun, and the ground. The spell took everything out of Ash, reverting him back to his calm state. I had a hole in my gut that was bleeding nonstop, that sixth tier spell was burned into my mind, I could not forget it. That one blast moved the surrounding area, tipping over trees, splitting open mountains," Astrid deep in thought, "How would we stop a man who can do that a hundred years ago." No one had anything to say about the experience, everyone talked among themselves, Sophia scooted towards Jax, she looked down below seeing the clouds, "Do you fly often." Jax sat up letting the wind brush against his face, "Not as much as I used to, back then when I first got my familiar he was a tiny guy full of spirit, but he grew up and became this monster, we would fly for days on end. Enjoying the sky and the peace that came with it was the best but I much enjoyed the ride with others." Sophia didn't say anything after, just smiled and enjoyed the chats behind her. "Hey Astrid, do you have a familiar," Sarah asked, holding her firefox in her arms. "Well no I don't, I was always busy with the kingdom and all that." An idea popped into Grim's head, "I have spell Astrid, that will let you communicate with Cass." Astrid was eccentric. What really, please teach me!' Grim spent the duration of the flight teaching everyone.