The Land of Gods and Beasts

Chapter 3

Mallok

The world e x p l o d e d.

There is no other way to describe what happened. The world exploded with a deafening boom of white and golden light. Swirling and dancing in a beautiful and horrifying display. I quickly shielded myself with every shred of magic in my being as I was flung back into the Wistle. Time moved in slow motion; every second stretched into minutes as I fell through the air. The ground of the clearing peeled back like paper in a perfect circle. The unicorns screamed as they were utterly decimated into nothing but a pile of shredded goo. The trees surrounding the clearing evaporated into little more than dust. Animals and plants alike shriveled into ash. It was sickening and glorious and completely terrifying.

My back slammed into the ground, the shielding barely reducing the impact because I was focusing all of my energy on not being vaporized. Agony rippled through my body. My eyesight darkening as I tried to stay conscious through the constant waves of power. And as my shield finally began to crumble, by some luck from the fates, the waves of power came to a halt. I took gasping shallow breaths, my heart pounding so hard I thought it would fly out of my chest.  I rolled to my side propping myself up on an elbow. My head bobbing as I tried to hold it up. I finally got my eyes to focus enough to look at what used to be the clearing.

The light receded into itself, tunneling into a pillar shooting from the ground and endlessly into the sky. Lighting up the destruction like a ray of sun poured down from the heavens. The massive crater concaving at least twenty feet into the earth in a perfect bowl.

The pillar fell from the sky like an arrow shot from a god, pointing directly to the center of the crater.

And as the light receded, absorbing into the ground, I could finally see what was responsible for the godlike display of power.

My breath caught painfully in my ravaged chest.

"Holy Hellas," I whispered.

A naked female laid in the center of the crater, glowing like a newborn star.

•••

I watched the female in the crater, hiding in whatever cover I could find at the edge of the destruction, my hands shaking. 

I kept waiting for her to vanish, or to spot me and obliterate me on the spot. But the female did neither. She didn't rage and roar, she puked and cried.

Her shoulders were shaking, eyes locked on the ground before her, and my heart twisted in my chest with something uncomfortably close to pity.

My eyes snapped to focus as she finally stood, and looked around at what she had accomplished, instead of confidant triumph or bravado, there was only horror on her dirt covered face. A dirty hand fluttered to her mouth as she let out a strangled gasp, rotating in a slow turn as she took in what she had done. Her shoulders shook, and I could hear muffled sobs as she curled in on herself. Long elegant limbs wrapping around her like she was trying to hold herself together.

My heart clenched harder, and I sighed rubbing a hand down my face. Here I was, a complete idiot, tempted to comfort a woman who might vaporize me in return. But this woman, did not seem evil. I knew many power-hungry bastards who would love the kind of power that would allow them to destroy a whole clearing. And they would laugh and gloat. Not puke, pass out, and cry.

Before I made the decision, my body was already moving, an uneasy feeling of a magnetic draw tugging at my gut. I groaned as I got to my feet, body aching everywhere. As I took a painful step, her head snapped in my direction, and she jolted upright. I froze, slowly raising my hands in a calming non-threatening way as her eyebrows furrowed and she took a step back.

"Hello," I said gently. But her whole body still jerked like a scared animal. Her limbs tensed to run. "I mean you no harm."

Like she couldn't obliterate my ass with one thought.  What the fuck was I doing.

You're doing this because the world is about to go to hell, I reminded myself.

And this woman, golden hair caked in mud and dirty body wracking with shivers, may very well save them all. How I had gotten lucky enough to stumble upon her though... I could practically feel the Moirai tugging their blasted strings to bring me to this moment. Strings that came in the form of unicorns chasing me murderously through the Wistle to this clearing.

Fucking Fates.

I took one step closer; she took one step back.  "My name is Mallok."

She just stared at me with blazing golden eyes.

"You saved my life." I said, taking one step closer. Her eyebrows went up in confusion, but she didn't move back.

I kept walking, "I pissed off a herd of nasty unicorns. Finicky bunch when it comes to their stash of bloomshrooms." Another eyebrow twitch. "They did not appreciate me snatching a few for a late-night smoke." A half-truth, they are very protective of their bloomshrooms, but not protective enough to try and kill a very powerful Lord's son for stealing them. But the true reason why they decided to kill me, repercussions aside, was quite valid.

Her mouth twitched in what was almost a confused smile.

I kept talking, and kept walking, now only a few yards from her. "I ran from them for miles through the Wistle and then when they were about to go all slashy slashy on my ass in this clearing, you obliterated the uni-bastards and saved my life."

Thank the gods for that. Death via unicorns would've been shameful enough to hear my family mocking me even in the Underworld.

She tilted her head in a catlike movement of curiosity.

When I was only a few feet from her I stopped. She said, voice hoarse and tinged with a slight accent and laughter, "uni-bastards?"

I grinned, "better than calling them rainbow fuckers."