Tyler Harisson Chronicles: The Gryphon's Sacred Blood

Chapter 36: A Traitor

"You..."

He delayed and tried to catch his breath. He congealed his arms to support his body weight so he could reach for his bow. More haunted voices passed through his ears and corrupted his thoughts up to his vision like mould.

"Please... My... I couldn't feel my legs. Where is..." He collapsed. The field was coated in so much dust and smelled like a bloodstained floor as he tried to gasp for air.

He closed his eyes and remembered the first time he fell from an eight-foot tall tree and did not break a single bone. He found it mysterious and strange how he had survived the accident. He opened his eyes and examined the whole place.

The air smelled like burning sulphur mixed with blood. The whole place's general shape was like a dome. In the middle, where he and his friends were lying, was a golden tree crowned with glistening rainbow-coloured leaves majestically illuminating the whole place. The path behind them snaked its way half a mile into the mouth of other hundred doors to perplex impudent demigods and intentionally led them to their eternal torment. The rough walls below the ridge smoothly curved to the ground. The walls above arched another hundred feet up to giant stalactites, and the furies cursed and roosted overhead with bare fangs.

Tyler knew that it was his dream from before. He slowly shifted his head to his friends. Amber and Hannah struggled to their feet. They've finally regained back their consciousness. Amber lifted his wand. At the tip produced a faint red light, and blue gems sprouted together with the beans of rejuvenation that Rhia gave them. He tossed one silently to Tyler and Hannah. They immediately swallowed and felt a little energised. The taste was like honey mixed with alcohol. It left a familiar strong aftertaste to their tongue.

To their left, Pothos stood with his head down. His eyes were red, and tears trickled down to his cheek. His wing was crumpled because of the Minotaurs grip, and his clothes were tattered.

"Bonjour, Pothos," Dwergloud said. "I'm impressed you could still stand!" His laugh echoed.

Tyler tried to yell, but his voice didn't let him. His strength was beginning to come back. He was stuck in his place, so he was forced to only observe.

Voices echoed with Dwergloud's chuckle. He stood from his throne and headed to the golden tree with rainbow-coloured leaves. He caressed the tree's trunk and hastened a look of fake pitiful expression upon Pothos.

"Release my mother," Pothos ordered. His voice was rigid.

Mother? Could it be? Tyler thought. He recalled from before, Dwergloud also took over rainbow communication. Could the tree be the goddess Iris?

Pothos clenched his fist. His bitter look in his eyes reminded Tyler of an hourglass about to shatter.

"I said, release my mother!" Tyler watched in horror as Pothos made the most reckless move in the whole world. He felt the bitterness and pain surged inside throughout his godly system. He charged directly to Dwergloud, hoping that his incredible speed could outrun him.

Pothos changed directions and attacked Dwergloud with a bust of sword-shaped winds across different routes. He crisscrossed his paths and lurched at him at incredible speed. Dwergloud's image flickered. He rose up from the ground like a lit firecracker, and the ghostly shadows followed him. His throne below, made of graphite and obsidian, shattered as it received the attacks from him. Dwergloud reappeared from behind. He swung his wand and sliced Pothos' back with void-like energy. Pothos slumped to the ground, wings neatly wounded. He grasped for his breath and smirked a pained smile.

"That's it?" Dwergloud crossed his arms, afloat in the air surrounded by dark shadows in agony. "Next challenger?" He asked sheepishly.

Pothos wouldn't give up. He supported his body as he stood up to his feet with the hopes of getting his mother back.