Reaching For The Stars

Chapter 46

Artume

Something supremely powerful took hold of her. Misty tendrils coiling around her like spectral arms without form. Her powers were useless, her will insignificant compared to whatever this is. It was not only these things, the space grew heavy and insanely powerful. Unlimited power of destruction and creation swirled around her.

She is convinced that it could destroy her within in a second. Nothing she does even remotely affected the space around her. Like a useless doll, she was being brought to another demension that lay outside of the world, beyond the sight of Gods and men. It was far, beyond anywhere any God could go or survive. How she still was alive, Artume does not know.

Helplessly, she got pushed through the vortex until she suddenly stopped. The end, Artume questioned. It still looked the same, an endless black vortex. This felt like a void where the world could fit innumerable times.

"One would dare, the one who won. A little sport yet none could see. Little risk, large gain. Who takes risks may very well take the win. Now the game has to an end. Take the glory and the pride for you have come and won a prize."

Artume's frown came with concern. The voice came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Is the void alive? What's she is seeing? The place felt like nothing, her senses dull like nothing registered. It felt strange to hear a voice that spoke with riddles. Or as if it assumed she knew what is happening.

"Prize...?"

"A prize at the end, for you have won the game. It is lost to time and space yet you have won so name one thing. Power, influence or something else. The game you have played so now a wish you've earned."

"My wish... I- I don't understand. How can you grant my wish when the Gods wouldn't have it?"

"The Gods?" The voice questioned, a humorous tone behind the words. "Small specks in my creation. I am Chaos. Everything there is and will be. That is mine to twist and create. The Gods were forged from my own creations. My favourites still exist; Nyx, Gaea, Tartarus. What's it you wish that I could not give?"

"Master Chaos..." Artume paused herself. She was afraid, deeply fearful of making a misstep. There was only one things Zeus made clear to her at the beginning. The way Gods could truly die. Not by killing, or slicing, nor by little worship, nothing like those methods. Chaos, only Chaos could kill a God by throwing into nothingness.

"Fearful, yes. I sense it within you. Die you will not, foreign child. Come, name your wish and return for time has not been put on pause. A fight between your friends and Atlas is on going."

"Thank you, master Chaos. I wish- ahem-" Artume couldn't help but stutter while her heart hammered against her chest. This was the most frightening thing she ever experienced. Let it also be that Chaos' presence is increasingly becoming oppressive. Almost as if he is slowly letting his void of nothingness destroy her, piece by piece, sucking it in to destroy.

"I wish to save Annabeth and raise her to Godhood."

"Save the girl? I see. She has perished, lying silently on the rocky ground, Mistress of Wishes. Save her you cannot for you're too late," Chaos said, his voice neutral and eerily factual. Yet for Artume it felt like cold water was downed on her. Her tears became skating down her cheek. Life felt like a bitter, cold thing. She couldn't get it why it was always against her. First her family, now Annabeth. It's unfair. Everyone dies around her.