Chapter 44: The Past
Cheering stepped through the gates first. The gates which only the demigods knew.
The air on the other side hit him like cold water poured straight into the lungs. It was denser, older, and it carried a low vibration that settled behind the eyes, but...something felt less. He couldn’t pinpoint what. But that didn’t matter.
The platform under his boots was the same black stone, but the sky above was different. That alone told him this was not his world, as the sky seemed red and dark. His notification popped up.
[Welcome to the second world.]
[You are given the title: Traveler]
He slid it away as he looked down—way down—as they seemed to be somewhere very high up, very, very high up.
"Where the fuck are we?" Cheering asked.
Tanya looked around, slightly sad. "This...was once Olympus." She muttered as everything came into view—buildings and statues which looked like they were carved in the shape of the Olympian gods, but now, broken, in ruins.
Cheering nodded as finally he believed the stories Amon had told. Now he knew for sure everything he had muttered around those campfires were true indeed.
Tanya came through behind him, spear already in hand. The two demigods followed without a word. Behind them, the gates remained open for three full breaths, then sealed with a sound like distant ice cracking.
No way back. Exactly as she had warned.
Cheering’s hand stayed pressed against the key under his coat. It was warmer now, almost pulsing in time with his heartbeat.
"Report," Tanya commanded her fellow demigods.
The lookout demigod scanned the horizon. "No immediate threats for now. Terrain drops into a shallow valley ahead. Structures, ruined like usual, but still standing. But...I see something. Something is moving between them. It is distant, but it’s there, right on our path."
"How many?"
"Too far to count. But they are not human. I assure you of that."
Cheering did not speak. Part of him still recalled Baal’s last shout.
Everything is going according to his plan. He wanted to believe it. He needed to believe it. Yet the way he had let that boy die and didn’t care, he still couldn’t forget it.
What sort of man did you trust, Amon?
[More visitors appearing in the second world. You have been warned.]
Tanya turned to him. "You feel it too."
It was not a question.
"I feel it alright," Cheering answered. "It’s just not us who are coming here for a field trip, then."
She studied him for a moment, then nodded once. "That doesn’t matter. Our goal is simple. The prophecy said the one bathed in gold would open the path. You already have, already opening the door to the second world which we spent decades trying to open. Now we just keep you alive and everything will go according to the Oracle."
Cheering wanted to say it wasn’t him who opened the door, but because Amon was locked in, but he didn’t bother to correct it, as it seems even they know the reason but refuse to accept it, pinning it all onto him.
They moved down into the mountain in silence. The ruined structures resolved into broken towers and half-collapsed halls that looked like they had once been temples.
Symbols carved into the stone were faded but still readable to anyone who had studied the old tongues—fragments of covenants, names of gods that no longer answered.
Halfway across the valley floor, the key under Cheering’s coat flared.
He stopped so abruptly that Tanya nearly walked into him.
"What happened?"
"It’s reacting." He pulled the key free. The crystal glowed with the same dull light it had always carried, but now thin veins of gold ran through it, matching the light on his skin. "Something on the other side is calling it. Or calling me."
Before anyone could answer, the ground ahead of them split open in a long, clean line. Not an earthquake. A deliberate cut, it seems. From the crack rose a single figure, tall, wrapped in layers of pale cloth that did not move with the wind, face hidden behind a smooth white mask without features.
The figure spoke in a voice that belonged to no single throat.
"The first key has arrived...The second and third are already in motion. The Golden Immortal’s design is incomplete. You may still turn back," the figure muttered.
Tanya knew the figure instantly. It was them, one of many sworn enemies of the Olympians.
Tanya raised her spear. "We aren’t afraid of you anymore."
The masked figure tilted its head. "Then you accept the cost. The Second World does not forgive unfinished debts...demigod child."
It stepped backward into the crack. The ground sealed behind it as if nothing had happened.
Cheering stared at the place where it had stood. He had thought there was going to be some cool boss fight or something, but it seems they were clear. But Tanya stood there, as did the other demigods. Like they were traumatized or something.
Cheering pressed his hand on her shoulder, his gaze asking what happened, trying to calm her down. It worked, somewhat.
"Was the demon speaking the truth? Will the other keys arrive here?" She asked, now her voice slightly shaken.
He thought of Baal dying with a smile. He thought of Amon’s last message. He thought of his sister, and of the child that had never been given a chance to exist in the world he knew. Yes, he knew about the child. He knew it when even Nyima herself didn’t know. But he stayed quiet.
Amon, I will trust you, not anyone else. He thought.
"We keep going," he simply said.
Tanya did not argue. She only looked at the sealed ground and then at Cheering’s glowing skin.
"Then stay close," she said quietly. "Whatever the golden immortal planned, the Second World is already awakening back to its past."
Claude walked beside the Oracle for nearly an hour now, and it had been long before either of them spoke again.
What’s his problem?
Claude thought, as the silence was eating him from the inside. He had tried to speak, but no reply came from him.
The path they followed was not just any road. It was a thin ribbon of darker stone that wound between low hills under a sky the color of old bruises. The two keys in Claude’s coat pocket remained cool and still, as if waiting.
"You already know what they are for," Claude asked again.
The Oracle’s hood moved in a small nod. Finally speaking. "Those keys have more depth than you think. They are anchors, essentially. Fragments of the old rules. Amon collected them so the Second World could not fully close itself against him. Or against what comes after him. Putting him in charge of the gates."
"And now as he’s gone."
"Gone from the First World," the Oracle corrected. "Not gone. The difference matters. As you are still alive."
Claude stopped. "Huh? What the? What do you mean alive? Explain."
The Oracle turned. For the first time the hood shifted enough that Claude saw the lower half of the man’s face, scarred, older than the body should allow, mouth set in a line that had forgotten how to smile.
"Amon is not a man who dies the way others die. He is a pure system wearing flesh. When the flesh fails, the system looks out for him, following his instructions. Using that, he had died and revived too many times.
So don’t worry about yourself. If he lives, we all live. That is why I am walking with you instead of remaining in the dark where fate prefers me."
"Wait, you really didn’t answer me properly, but I get the gist...I guess?" He told himself.
Claude’s fingers closed around the keys through the fabric of his coat. The memories he had locked inside him surfaced again. So essentially, you are saying he planned to use us. Now and forever...
He stopped again, turning to him, watching Claude’s eyes.
"I see. You got your memories back. That’s why you are acting like...this?"
"How did you know?"
"Well, let’s say it isn’t my first time. I myself have locked memories in some corner of my brain."
"....."
There was silence.
"Don’t be afraid. He is eons older than us. I am saying he planned for the possibility that he would not finish the work himself. There is a difference."
They walked on. When suddenly his eyes burned white and gold. After a time the Oracle spoke again, softer.
"Liliana..." he said. "She is already inside....and she brings the First Witch’s lineage and all the rage that comes with being outplayed.
And our newest brother, Cheering carries the first key and the gold. You carry the other two and the questions. Three paths. One destination. The Second World will force them to meet whether they wish it or not."
Claude looked at the horizon. Something vast and dark moved against the far sky, too large for a mountain, too slow for a storm.
"What is the destination?"
The Oracle was quiet for a long time. When he finally answered, the words were almost gentle.
"The place where Amon’s original mission was written. The place where the war finished. Where laws of the world can be rewritten."
Claude felt the keys shift in his pocket as if they had heard it.
He did not ask the next question out loud. He only thought it, and the Oracle answered anyway.
"Liliana, she bears...great jealousy. I get it. I was the same as her too."
Claude held his shoulder as something welled inside his mind.
"You mean to tell me...she did ALL THAT because she loved him?"
"Yeah, you just figured that out? God, you are dense."