Chapter 28: Blood-Soaked Battlefield, 1215 BC

[Eurotas River riverside, near Sparta]

The riverside of the Eurotas river seemed peaceful at first, the sound of running water could be heard from it, nothing else, nothing more. The surroundings are also peaceful. I had seen lions sitting below trees, deers drinking from the river, and birds flying high in the sky.

Me and the other eternals camped near the riverside, we gathered our supplies here, we hunted some deers, dried their meat for supplies, and we gathered the water from the river.

I was skinning the deers. Then we could feel the earth shaking, all of us were alert. Gil, who was gathering the water, approached our camp and shouted.

“An army, ” said Gil.

“Whose?” I questioned.

“Spartan.” Gil continued.

“Both sides are Spartans Gil.” I rolled my eyes at his answer.

“And whose fault is that?” interrupted Ikaris, who was packing our dried meat.

I just kept silent, and Gil answered my question. “The one with Corinth.”

I hummed. “Are they approaching us?”

Gil shook his head. “No, it looks like they are going to do a final push. Their entire army is marching.”

I sighed, I stood up, I cleaned my hand from the blood of the deer carcass using a cloth, and pointed at the water that Gil was carrying.

Gil grunted, and he walked up to me, he then helped me wash my hands, cleaning my hands from the blood.

“Want to see it?” I questioned.

“See what?” Ikaris questioned.

“The battle.”

Ikaris stared at me with his cold eyes. “That war never should’ve happened, I told you we are not supposed to interfere with human affairs, Arishem should’ve punished you.”

“And yet I’m still standing over here.” I stared back, “You want to punish me Ikaris? You can try.”

Ikaris stood up and tried to grab my clothes to intimidate me, but Gil interrupted him, he shook his head as he stop Ikaris using his body.

Ikaris eyed Gil, and ultimately grunted and sat back down to pack our food.

“He seems like a pushover.” Mephia spoke in my mind.

I shrugged. “Trust me, he’s not.”

Kingo then suddenly walked to our camp with more supplies he had just bought from the nearest village. “Hey guys, I bought the thing-”

He noticed the rather tense atmosphere, and stopped talking briefly. “What’s going on here?”

“Nothing’s going on Kingo, Nothing’s going on.” I hummed.

—

A couple days later, we were walking on the fields of Sparta. I could smell the strong stench of blood and rot. I could see crows and vultures flying in the air above me. We must be nearing the battlefield.

“Gosh, the smell…” Kingo commented, covering his nose.

We walked a couple hundred more meters in front, and we finally arrived at the battlefield. Corpses scattered along the fields. We could see soldiers gathering up the corpses to be buried, but they were not quick enough, as some corpses were now eaten by crows and vultures.

We even saw some women and children in the battlefield, perhaps it’s because of the battlefield’s close proximity to the town that those women and children are searching for their family’s bodies.

“This is your doing, Pluto.” Ikaris said coldly.

“So?” I questioned.

“You murdered these men, leaving many widows, and fatherless children.” continued Ikaris. “This is what happened if we interfered.”

“Widows and fatherless children are common Ikaris.” I commented. “But yes, I suppose it’s my fault, but it’s necessary.”

“Necessary?!” questioned Ikaris loudly. “You broke our rules!”

I chuckled at his response. “It’s funny that you commented that I broke the rules instead of pitying the humans, what would Sersi feel if she heard you right now…”

Ikaris went silent after that.

I stared at Ikaris, and said: “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. It is an endless cycle, I just help advance it.”

“But is it right though?” Gil questioned. “There must have been some other ways to make the humans… advance…”

“Perhaps.” I hummed. “But it’s the only way we know as an eternal, violence. We were created for that, are we not?”

Gil then didn’t say anything after that, he just stared at the blood-soaked battlefield, his expression empty.

“Humans… I guess we underestimated them as a species, capable of something like this…” Kingo commented. He then walked to the women and children that were trying to find their loved ones bodies frantically. He then helped them, trying his best to search for the bodies in the smelly field.

We then heard the cheers and shouts of men from the city of Sparta nearby. It was quite loud, it seems they are celebrating in the streets of the city.

“Nothing changed huh…” I murmured. I guess that is to be expected, I helped him after all. As the cheers echoed throughout the sky, I stared at the women and children once more, now crying over a heavily dismembered body.

I then remembered my time with those tribe children with Thena, I remembered Thena’s daughter back at Athens.

And I thought. Is this really right?

The roads to Athens are quite peaceful. The mountain scenery is always ever-calming, the breeze of the forest wash all your worries, and the songs of the birds ease the travel. People that we encountered say that the roads these times are dangerous, hungry wolves stalked travellers, bandits plagued the roads, but we encountered none of that.

Gil was carrying most of our supplies, but to be honest it’s already not much, as we are going home, we didn’t stock up again. He walked in front of us as he hummed an unfamiliar song that I haven’t heard, to which I questioned him.

“When did you learn that?”

“Oh you know, travellers. ” shrugged Gil. “People are quite talented in terms of music in these parts.”

“Oh yes, people are quite talented in terms of art.” added Kingo. “You think I can do it?”

“Do what?”

“You know, become a bard?”

Gil laughed at Kingo’s words. “Sure, if you want the humans to hate you.”

Kingo just snorted at Gil’s answer. “I can sing, you know.”

“More like the death call.” jabbed Ikaris.

“Fuck you.”

I just chuckled at Kingo’s reaction. “Maybe not singing Kingo, perhaps something else.”

“Well, what other things I can do?” he questioned.

“I don’t know, acting?”

“Acting?” said Kingo in confusion.

“I saw some people do it, I mean it’s not a big thing yet here, but I reckon it’ll be in a couple hundred years.” 

Kingo pondered for a second, and hummed. “Yeah, I think I’ll be good at that, I’m good at mingling with the humans right? Should be easy.”

“Sure, whatever you desire Kingo.” Gil added.

—

A couple hours later, we can already see the small city state of Athens. It looks like it’s in the process of expanding. Roads are being built, walls were erected, and homes popping out everywhere. We can already hear the buzzing sounds of the busy city state from here, the others have done well building this place. Lately I’ve been envious of them. Some of them weren’t made for violence, they were made for nurture.

“Halt travellers!” suddenly some guards rushed to us, they were bringing some spears and wooden shields.

“I feel bad intentions from those humans.” Idemnon said in my head.

I narrowed my eyes. “Can we help you with something?”

“What brings you to Athens?” one of the guards questioned, I can see greed in his eyes.

“It’s our home.” Gil added.

“Home?” questioned the guard. “I have never seen you in these parts, are you sure you’re from here?”

“Yes, we’re sure.” Ikaris nodded.

The guards then looked at each other, and their smell of greed increased. “Right, the rules around here have changed, if you want to enter the area, you need to pay a toll.”

“Toll?” Kingo narrowed his eyes. “If we want to enter the city we have to pay a toll?”

“Yes, that’s what I said, it’s the rules.” the guard smiled innocently.

“I’ve never heard of those rules in my entire life. Are you sure that’s really the rules, or are you just extorting us?” Gil questioned, suspicious.

“What are you saying friend, we are the noble guards of the city, we are not extorting you.”

I hummed. We looked at each other, they were definitely extorting us.

“I see human greed will always be the same…” Gil murmured. He then dropped our supplies, and searched for some gold.

But I walked up to him and stopped him. “I’m fed up with this.” I put the gold back in the bag, and walked up to the guards. They were alert, and started pointing their spears to me.

“What are you doing Pluto?” questioned Ikaris with narrowed eyes. “We can’t atta-”

“What are you doing?!” shouted the guards. “I will arrest you for disobeying the rules.”

“What rules?” I questioned, cracking my knuckles. “You greedy pigs will be buried underground in the next few minutes, so stop blabbering.”

The guards were about to attack me, but suddenly, they paused in place, as if they were in a trance. I can see that their eyes are golden, so it’s Druig huh…

“I can see that you all haven’t changed.” Suddenly, a man wearing a black robe appeared behind the guards.

“Hello Druig.” Kingo smiled as he saw the man in black. “You’ve come to welcome us?”

Druig snorted. “No, Ajak tasked me to watch all of you if you made a mess, and turns out, you almost killed these guards.”

“They were extorting us.” I said.

“And it will be dealt with accordingly.” he shrugged. “But for now, Ajak wants to see you all. Especially you Pluto, she has a lot of questions.”

I shrugged. “Hey, It was only natural that I did what I did.”

“I quite envy you Pluto.” Druig chuckled. “If only I was there…”

Ikaris then coughed out loud, interrupting our conversation. “We should get going.”

“Ah Ikaris, annoying as always.” hummed Druig, which made Ikaris glared at him. “Fine, let’s meet Ajak.”

—

We are now walking towards the centre of the city, we aren’t in the city just yet, as around us were fields of crops as far as the eye can see, I can see farmers tending to their crops, and their families bringing them food and drink to enjoy.

“I can see that this place is prospering well.” I commented.

Druig hummed. “It’s all thanks to Phastos and Sersi, as always.”

“So you didn’t do anything here?” I said sarcastically.

“Might as well say that.” said Druig. “At least Sprite got to do her thing. While I mostly just sit, watching humans argue.”

“Argue?” I questioned.

“The king and his advisors often didn’t see eye to eye.” informed Druig. “Ajak asked me if it ever goes south, I should interfere, but so far, it hasn't happened yet.”

“Man, that must be boring,” said Kingo. “So you just sit in the corner of the room all day?”

“If you put it like that…”

“What about Sprite? What is that kid doing?” questioned Gil.

“Oh you know, she was tasked with covering up your mess.” informed Druig. “She would travel to the place that you’ve been and cover your deeds with stories, as well as putting some measures so people won’t be scared of you?”

“Meaning?”

“You must’ve heard the stories of the sailors of Argos… or the unseen one. ”

I turned grim. “Yes… we heard.”

“It’s all so the humans will think that you are divine beings, and won’t interfere with your mission. After all, if they disturb a god’s deed, they would be punished severely.” said Druig nonchalantly.

I sighed, fucking Sprite, at least make me some type of benevolent being or something…

“By the way, could I see the king after I met with Ajak?” I asked.

“What for?”

“Just some debt he needs to pay from me.”

Druig narrowed his eyes. “The king isn’t in the city right now.”

“Really? Where is he?”

He shrugged. “No one really knows, people talked that the king has gone senile, he’s turning old in terms of human age after all.”

After Druig said that. A man in his 50s rushed with his wagon, and I could see that he’s carrying a tied up little girl in the back. The little girl was trying to free herself, to no avail.

“Speak of the devil.” murmured Druig, who was narrowing his eyes.