Chapter XVI: The final battle

  • (Giorgia, Erica, Caterina, Mascha)

     

    Duff is so concentrated on her fight with a dragon that she doesn’t see that Hades is behind her. In the same moment as Duff kills the dragon Hades wounds her with a dagger in her side.

    When the dagger hits her, she feels weak and ill and sees her life in her eyes.  

     

                        I think I have had a good life. Ok, the last weeks were horrible. But before that I felt save in my family. It’s a pity that I won’t see them again, mom, dad, Carl and Stella. She is always so enthusiastic, always smiling and laughing. And when she laughs, you can see this little tooth gap. I remember how she lost her first tooth on her sixth birthday when she was eating her birthday cake. She was so excited, full of anticipation for the tooth fairy. And the tooth fairy came indeed. I was the tooth fairy and put a coin under her pillow. How proud she was when she showed it to me the next morning. And then to mom and dad. Dad embraced her. Could you imagine that he ever would have a swirling black head or awful star tattoos. He was just our dad. It’s as if I could see him now. As if he is taking me into his arms. And the arms are as they always have been. No awful star tattoos any longer. And there is Carl, too…

     

    When she is out of focus, she senses her father running to her and taking her in his arms.

    After he has brought her into the wood, she says her last words “I love you, dad” and dies.

    Her father slowly stands up and takes the sword of Duff and decides to revenge her.

    He runs at Hades who is mockingly greeting him and is able to hurt him, but the problem is that Hades is a god and can’t die.

    Duff's father cuts Hades many times, but at least Hades kills him.

    After this fight Hades is so tired and wounded that he can’t fight any more and goes to the underworld.

     

     

    When Silvia sees that Duff and her dad are dead, she prays to Artemis for help.

    The goddess sends a bit of her power to her.

    At the moment when Silvia releases this power there is a big explosion and all evil people die.

    Only Poseidon is still alive.

    Until now Silvia’s power wasn't as strong as Poseidon’s.

    But now he is alone and weak, he can’t destroy Silvia’s army, so he escapes from the battlefield.

    He goes to the Olympus but there Zeus, Artemis and Apollo are already waiting for him.

    When he arrives at mount Olympus they catch him and send him into the Tartarus for 10 years.

     

    After that Artemis and Apollo fly to the sacred wood. Silvia immediately recognizes the old man from her vision. She gives the Pan flute to Apollo.

    The god of music plays a melancholic and quiet melody and the wood starts to sprout again.

    Suddenly Duff comes out of the wood to Silvia.

    Silvia is so happy that Duff is alive again that she nearly faints and thinks that this is a dream.

     

     

    Carl has watched the battle from a place among the trees of the sacred wood. Suddenly he feels a sharp pain. His arm hurts like ten thousand steps with a knife. An arrow is fixed in his arm. He sees Silvia running to him.

    “Carl!! Does it hurt? Are you ok?”

    “Yes, YES, everything is ok! I only have AN ARROW IN MY ARM! And, no, it doesn’t hurt. It HURTS LIKE HELL!”

    “Okaaay, I only wanted to ask. I didn’t know that you would be sarcastic.”

    “Silvia, listen to me. Don’t try to help. I can care for myself. You are needed in the battle. So go into the battle again … kill some monsters for me.”

    He can see tears in her eyes when she answers: “Carl, you are an idiot! I will leave Jupy here with you.”

    She gives him a mild kiss to his cheek and goes away.

     

    After 15 minutes minutes the pain is more tolerable. Carl pulls the arrow out of his arm and tries to ignore the blood which runs down his arm. Jupy is next to him. What is Silvia doing now? Is she fighting with a chimaera?  At this thought a shiver runs down his spin.

    In the same moment, he sees his father running through the wood and carrying someone in his arms… DUFF. Carl is shocked. His twin sister, his other, definitely not better side, has died. He sinks down. But the next second he stands up again. Duff has offered her live to stop the fight and to defeat the evil. He can’t stay here when Duff does something so ……… He doesn’t know how to picture it. He would like to take a weapon, but he wouldn’t be able hold it longer than 2 seconds because his arm hurts too much. When he starts to think about other choices, he sees another person a few meters next to him. It is Silvia!  She has also seen Duff, he can feel it. He looks at her. Something is different with her, 30 minutes ago she was full of feelings, but now there is only one feeling in her. ANGER!

    A silver shine comes out of her and let her glow from the inside. What happens next is hard to describe. There is an explosion. But it isn’t a normal explosion. When it is over, all villains are dead, but there isn’t any fire or a track of a fight. Carl looks reverently at her. The shine is away, she sways. But she says: “Carl, I’m so happy that you are ok.”

    And then he is hearing the quiet and melancholic melody of a pan flute...