Chapter 46: I waited
"AAAAUUUUURRRR"
The scream tore the valley open.
It came from the bottom of the broken temple, a wet, layered roar that forced every living thing within earshot to flinch.
The witch and the Oracle both slammed their hands over their ears and the Debt Collectors pressed themselves against the shattered walls, masks trembling.
Stone dust rained from the cracked columns. The thing that had made the sound stepped into the open.
It had once been human. Once.
That much was clear from the half-face that still held a golden eye, the same shade as Cheering’s.
The rest of it was distorted to a degree beyond anyone’s recognition.
Skin like old parchment stretched over elongated limbs. A cracked black crystal hung from a chain around its throat. Bones clicked with every movement.
When it spoke, the voice started as a screech and slowly settled into something familiar.
"...Gold...en...imm...ortal...why...curse...me??"
The chain rattled as it took another step. Stone cracked under its weight.
Tanya’s spear tip shook. "Don’t look at its eyes. We need to LEAVE. Now!"
Most of the demigods obeyed without argument, knowing what they were dealing with. They turned and ran for the ridge path.
But Cheering did not move.
The creature’s head tilted. "Cheering...my brother."
The voice changed again, shedding the wet layers until it carried the exact cadence Amon used when he was drunk and soft by the fire.
"You brought the gate and I waited. I waited...and I waited...and now you are finally here....free me.."
One Debt Collector found a scrap of courage and lunged with a bone spear. The abomination did not even turn its head. An elongated arm blurred.
Splat!
The Collector’s torso folded with a wet crack and flew into a statue of Athena hard enough to powder the marble. The others dropped to their knees as one.
Tanya edged closer to Cheering, voice low and urgent. "Cheering...hey. That’s not him. Snap out of it."
Another demigod hissed from the path, "Tanya, don’t go near it. It will get you!"
She did not look back. "We need him. He’s the only hope, our only chance to revive our family."
Cheering’s voice came out hoarse. "If you’re Amon, prove it. Tell me what you said the night Nyima died. The last thing you said to me before you left."
The creature’s head cocked at an angle no human neck could manage. Bones clicked under the parchment skin. For three heartbeats there was only the red-black sky and the smell of dry blood.
Then the mouth opened and the words came out broken but exact.
"I’m sorry..."
Cheering’s knees hit the stone.
That was the opening the thing needed. Submissive prey was always easier.
It staggered forward as if the light itself cut it, and something inside the cracked black crystal answered with a pulse of the same gold that lived in Cheering’s eye.
Tanya grabbed his shoulder hard. "That is not your guardian, stupid. Wake up. Let’s go."
The beast’s golden eye fixed on her. Another scream ripped out of it, "AAUUURRRR!" and the elongated fingers flexed.
"I am not one...but many. And I shall be free. Locked no more."
It took another step. The ground split in a perfect circle around Cheering and Tanya. Cracks raced outward like spider webs.
Tanya heard a voice she had not heard in years.
"Daughter."
She turned. Athena stood a few paces away, clear as day, spear in hand, gray eyes calm. The goddess of wisdom looked exactly as Tanya remembered from the old temple murals.
"Mom?" The spear slipped from Tanya’s fingers and clattered on the stone.
From the ridge path the remaining demigods saw it clearly: Cheering and Tanya standing frozen in front of the abomination’s open mouth. The son of Ares bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
"Father, let fear not hold me!" he shouted. He drew his sword and charged. The others followed, voices rising together.
"For Olympus!"
The son of Ares hurled his blade straight at the creature’s golden eye. The sword struck true and buried itself to the hilt. For half a second the abomination staggered. Then the elongated arm whipped sideways.
It caught the demigod mid-stride and tore his arm from the shoulder in one clean motion. Blood sprayed across the broken stones. The demigod screamed and dropped, clutching the stump.
That half-second of distraction was enough.
Cheering’s vision cleared. The thing in front of him was no longer Amon. It was only a beast wearing a stolen voice and a stolen eye.
Rage rolled up from his gut and into his limbs. His body began to glow with a faint golden light. The key at his belt answered, pulsing in the same rhythm as the cracked crystal on the creature’s chain.
"You...dare," he growled. "Take his voice."
The golden light around him brightened.
On the ridge above the valley, Claude felt both keys in his coat answer at the same moment. They pulled hard toward the same point: the cracked crystal hanging from the abomination’s throat and the dissolving sphere still leaking light from Liliana’s fingers.
Liliana’s witches, Debt Collectors remade into her children, raised their heads as one.
They opened their mouths and released a sound-blast spell that hit the valley like a physical wave. Claude felt it in his teeth. Blood trickled from his ears, but he kept running.
The Oracle’s face had gone completely still, though his legs never stopped moving. "The key..."
"You felt it too?" Claude asked.
"The final key is near. It seems we have another brother here."
Liliana’s smile was sharp enough to cut glass. She flung another jet of fire down the slope, tasting both Cheering’s presence and the key’s signature on the wind. "Then let’s finish the reunion."
Claude did not answer. He simply ran harder, the two keys burning against his ribs, the valley opening wider beneath them with every step.
At some point, Cheering rose to his feet. The golden light around him thickened until it painted the broken stones.
Meanwhile, Tanya still stared at the empty space where Athena had stood. The goddess was gone. Only the abomination remained, chain rattling, golden eye fixed on the boy who had once called it brother.
The son of Ares dragged himself backward with his remaining arm, leaving a dark trail.
The other demigods hesitated at the edge of the cracked circle, weapons raised but unsure.
Cheering took one step forward with his burning divinity.
The abomination’s mouth stretched wider than any human jaw should allow. "Cheering...my brother, come back to me..."
Cheering’s voice was steady. "Die."
He raised his hand. The golden light poured from his palm and struck the crystal dead center.
The chain went taut. The beast staggered. For the first time its golden eye flickered with something that looked like pain.
Tanya snatched her spear from the ground again. The vision of Athena still burned behind her eyes, but the real world had returned. She planted herself at Cheering’s side, spear leveled at the creature’s chest.
"You used my mother," she said. "You’re not walking out of this valley alive."
The abomination’s elongated arms spread wide. The ground under the circle heaved. More cracks raced outward, swallowing loose stones and the powder of the broken Athena statue. The red-black sky seemed to press lower.
From the ridge the sound-blast hit again, harder this time.
Claude and the Oracle were close enough now that their shapes could be seen against the fire Liliana kept throwing. The witches’ voices rose in a single chord that made the air itself vibrate.
Doom!
After he punched the siren abomination, he felt the second set of keys approaching. He did not know who carried them, only that they belonged to Amon as well.
The abomination lunged again, and Cheering met it halfway. Golden light flared between them. Tanya’s spear drove into the creature’s side and stuck.
Everyone on the ground used their remaining power to hurl a broken chunk of marble that struck the beast’s knee and forced it to stumble.
For a moment the valley held its breath.
A thin seam of pure gold light leaked out, the same shade as Cheering’s eye, the same shade as the key that now floated free of his belt and hung between them like a star.
Claude reached the edge of the ridge and saw it clearly: the boy, the girl, the abomination.
Liliana’s fire lit the slope behind him. Meanwhile, the Oracle’s voice was almost calm.
"The one who bears the color gold," the Oracle said, watching Cheering punch the siren into submission. "Another fate now intertwined to the destruction of the world."
"I don’t care about fate. All I want to know is if he can take this witch down."
"If fate wields it so, it will happen." He replied.
Claude touched the knife in his coat. "I will make it happen. No need for fate to come, no need destiny. She will die today. No matter what."