Free Web NovelHubris' face was riddled with concern seeing his master like this. In their entire time together, Kiro has always been a beacon of strength to him. Someone he completely looked up to for many things, especially approval.
Not that this made him see Kiro in a different light but he was very worried. He didn't want him to die, this was the man who saved him in that cave all those years ago, he owed him everything.
"Master, you don't look so great. I reckon this place sees you as the biggest threat and in return focuses all its power on you." Hubris commented taking Kiro by his snout and helping him up.
In that moment, when his snout touched his master he could see clear that within Kiro's navel there was a foreign living organism, coiled itself around the navel area.
Hubris noticed that Kiro was visibly sweating and shaking, like he was experiencing extreme heat and cold simultaneously. This wouldn't deter him it seemed, he wouldn't let something like this get in his way, he had to save her no matter what, it was written in his eyes.
Kiro couldn't help but let out a cheeky low growl at Hubris' frantic attempt to make him feel somewhat useful in the dire situation they were in.
'Is this mutt trying to spare my feelings? How pathetic of me...' He thought to himself noticing a silhouette from a distance closing in. He didn't panic, he would recognise Hiro anywhere and on any realm.
"Don't worry about me Hubris, I'm fine." He tried to sound reassuring but it didn't seem like Hubris was paying him any mind.
The hound was deep in thought, not wanting to alarm him by telling him about what he had seen. He wasn't even sure they could even get the parasite out but he could tell that it was draining him for dear life.
"Master, I think—" but he couldn't finish his sentence as the interruption erupted into the space, completely devouring his attempt to speak.
"Any luck?" He shouted to his friend feeling a ping of hopelessness, desperation in his voice. The place was vast and he felt like he would drop dead any minute, he didn't quite understand why, but the place was making him weak.
Hiro looked at him and then Hubris, then back to Kiro. His mouth was open but no words were coming out. This made Kiro a little frustrated, they didn't have time to hang around they needed to find Isla fast, he just had a bad feeling about the place.
"Spit it out, did you find her?" He snapped with his shaky voice, the fact that Hiro couldn't find his words meant it was bad, he was also looking a little pale, well more than usual.
Kiro thought back to when he met Jesús, Isla's father, he had given him the task of protecting her and he had failed in every way. Who would have thought that, this promise should have extended to Asgard as well, a place where they were supposed to be safe, a place that gave them immortality — all that now was being threatened.
What bothered him the most was the fact that he didn't feel it, he didn't feel anything, if indeed her life was cut short. There was completely nothing on his end.
'Did I ever tell her I love her?' Thoughts as such were swirling in his head, it felt like an eternity but it was mere milliseconds, waiting for his best friend to break the worst news to him, ready for anything.
"She's over there," Hiro said pointing in the direction he came, that was all he managed to string together.
"Is she...?" Kiro couldn't get the words out, he trailed off unsure whether he wanted Hiro to answer that.
"I don't know."
The conversation felt excruciatingly long, so without another word, as if he wasn't weakly a second before, he bolted to where Hiro pointed him. Unconsciously using blink and vibrations to locate her.
Not that these abilities of his were helpful in this situation. There was no presence, no heartbeat to lead them in the right direction nonetheless Kiro used them, a speck of hope still lingered in his heart.
If his heart had legs of its own, he was sure it would've jumped out and left him with the way it was pounding on his chest. From both fatigue and fear of what awaited him at the location, there was simply no preparing for it.
Hubris and Hiro were following closely behind. With Hiro occasionally shouting to Kiro directions. What he saw up there wasn't anything he'd ever witnessed in his life, even within the realistic game that was Asgard, where anything was possible.
It wasn't the lack of trying, he tried to string words together to explain it but he just couldn't find them. Hiro didn't fail to notice the bad shape his friend was in, if push came to shove, he would give him the only god potion he had on him.
"Kiro, we are here!"
He skidded into a stop. Darkness surrounded them but he could see, the atmosphere there was very different, the chill in the air was so thick they could almost see it. They were surrounded by transparent oval shaped giant egg-like things.
"What the hell!?" Hubris exclaimed.
Kiro could feel it, this felt like a graveyard of some
sort. His knees became weak and he slowly walked towards the large eggs, he didn't need Hiro to tell him anything, he could see Isla in one of them, some were empty some were filled with strange things and one had Isla.
It was a garden of these things, but it didn't take him long to locate her. Her beautiful green eyes wide open and staring right at him unmoving, her fiery blazing hair moved on its own strangely like snakes attached to a head.
Reminding Kiro of a myth about a woman, cursed for her beauty by a god, causing anyone who would dare admire her beauty to be turned into stone.
