Chapter 77 Chapter Seventy-Seven - Gabriella

Chapter 77 Chapter Seventy-Seven - Gabriella
Everything is a chaotic swirl of unimaginable colours until my eyes fly open and I begin to gasp for air, jolting up and clutching my chest, looking around disoriented. My surroundings look foreign, but not just foreign…heightened. It looks like my eyes have been upgraded to HD. Everything looks crisp and vivid with colours having a vibrancy they never did before. I take in a deep breath through my nose and smell…everything. I smell the sea…and a million other scents, some familiar, others I couldn’t even put a name to if I tried.

“Gabriella?” I look to the side, to see Zarseti kneeling beside me. I stare wide-eyed as I take in this otherworldly fuchsia light that surrounds her, basking me in warmth, love and serenity.

“Zarseti?” I say in bewilderment as I take in how ethereal she looks.

“Welcome back,” she says brightly, taking my hand and helping me to my feet.

As I stand I realise how strong I feel…it’s not just strong…it’s powerful. I can feel this abundance of power and strength coursing through every fibre of my being. I look down at my arms, also realising I’m in a completely different outfit than I was before. The memory of the battlefield flashes in my mind as I quickly clutch my chest, glancing down only to see my chest has completely healed.

“You can thank Oshmin for that,” Zarseti says, gesturing to Oshmin.

I look over at Oshmin to see he is also bathed in radiant light…but it’s deformed. This gorgeous blue is wrapped up in tendrils of black and somehow, I know I’m looking at his curse.

“Guess we won’t be needing the Orraikam anymore,” Oshmin says, looking off where a large pile of glittering dust lays in a pile on the ground.

“That…was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen!” I hear a voice cheer in excitement.

I whip around to see two very handsome men, standing side-by-side with wide eyes and mouths agape. Once again I can see them both bathed in light. A soft warm golden glow around each of them, nowhere near as intense as Zarseti or Oshmin, but radiant, nonetheless. The one who cheered has fragments of red embedded in the golden glow, while the other one has black, and again, I somehow instantly recognise the fragments as remnants of Ezillus and Merlos’ magic. I don’t fucking know how I know this, yet I do.

As I stare at them, the whole room begins to shift…yet not shift at the same time. It’s like looking at an overlay on a video, you can still see the original video but at the same time the one on top of it. I see the two men before me, looking exactly the same as they do now, embracing a tall, slim, yet curvaceous woman with espresso skin and box braids with gold woven into them, cascading down her back as her cobalt eyes look warmly upon the men. And as if my brain has answers to questions I never knew to ask, I know this woman is their daughter.

Quickly the scene before me returns to normal and I find myself reeling, looking around in confusion.

“What the hell just happened?”

“You tell us,” Oshmin says.

“It was like the room changed…but didn’t change,” I say ambiguously.

“You had a vision,” Zarseti says brightly.

I look at her in surprise, “But I’m awake…and it didn’t hurt,” I say in astonishment.

“And they never will again. This is how it was meant to be.”

“I can’t believe we got to see a Goddess being born,” says the man with a Grecian accent.

The man beside him rolls his eyes, “Only you would find excitement in all of this.”

“This is King Sebastian and Queen Lemuel of Atlesper,” Zarseti introduces.

I smile at them warmly, though I’m surprised by how short they are. “It’s very nice to meet you both,” I greet them.

“Likewise, and if I may say, I am loving that hair on you. You look fabulous, and no bleach required,” praises Sebastian.

“Huh?” I ask in confusion.

I reach up, grabbing a lock of my hair, holding it in front of my face, my eyes widening as I see my golden locks gone, only to be replaced with the most hideous colour ever created…GREEN!

“My hair is green?!” I shriek, looking at Zarseti and Oshmin. “Tell me I can fix this. I can fix this, right?”

They both slowly shake their head. “I take it you’re not a fan,” Oshmin remarks.

“I hate green,” I sulk, my lip trembling like a petulant child. That being said, didn’t he and Zarseti used to be taller?

“You’re a Goddess now, Gabriella. You have all of the celestial magic and energy of the Goddess of Light, which is why you look the way you do. The hair, the eyes, the height. It will take some getting used to,” Zarseti says, rubbing my back comfortingly.

My eyes? My height?

“Wait, how tall am I now?” I ask, looking myself over.

“I’d say 7’7,” says Oshmin.

I take a deep breath letting this all sink in. I guess I wasn’t as prepared as I thought for all these changes. I don’t know why it never occurred to me this would happen. It’s clear from looking at the other Gods that there is a specific look in common, why would I be exempt? But why? Why did it have to be green?! It looks fabulous on Fretez, but not on me. Though at least it’s not lime green. I suppose I can tolerate a deep, dark green better than any other shade. Still not a fan though.

As I stand there, contemplating my change and fiddling with my hair, the scene before me changes again. I see that same battlefield from before, but it’s completely different. I see fissures spreading across the field, the Earth itself moving like waves on the ocean, rising up and down at different levels as tears through the very fabric of existence appear around a familiar white-haired figure. His eyes are engulfed in glowing silver, not a speck of humanity to be seen as he radiates white, hot energy like a radioactive bomb. The Gods around him try to bring him to heel to no avail as Azadou hits him with a thunderous bolt of purple lightning, only for the scene to disappear.

I suck in a deep breath as I feel my heart splinter. “Jartre…”

“He needs you. They all do. When you died your bond was broken, but now you’re reborn. The moment you come face to face with Jartre, the bond will click into place once again,” Zarseti explains.

“Will we be completely bonded?”

She shakes her head, “No, you’ll both have to handle that.”

I roll my eyes, “Couldn’t make it easy on me, could you?”

“I promise it won’t be painful this time,” she says with an apologetic smile.

Sebastian suddenly walks to the side, staring into…a wall of fucking water. I take a second to look around and as I do a fucking great white shark swims by. Am a fucking underwater?! Battlefields, afterlife, underwater kingdoms surrounded by apex predators…when this is over I’m taking a fucking vacation.

I centre myself, realising Jartre wasn’t wrong to say Gods feel things more intensely than humans. I feel like my own emotions could render me unconscious from how overwhelming they are. I focus back on Sebastian as he appears to look at images within the water.

“My people are helping everyone get to safety and are moving as fast as they can; something has gone seriously wrong,” he says with concern.

“Thank you for all your help, Sebastian. Lemuel,” Zarseti nods graciously.

“We need to get a move on before Jartre goes nuclear,” Oshmin warns.

“He needs me, but I don’t how to get to him,” I say in a panic.

Zarseti places her hands on my shoulders, allowing me to calm down, “Just think of him and where you want to be. Just follow your instinct and don’t overthink it. We’ll be right behind you.”

I take another deep breath and close my eyes, focusing all my thoughts on Jartre and wanting to be by his side. I feel myself being pulled through space and time, and as I open my eyes, I see a bolt of purple lightning headed right for me.