Chapter 5: Goddess Europa

"W-what, in the world are you?" Lazarus was stunned.

"I'll reveal my true self Lazarus, only for you." the orb spoke.

The orb started to spin in circles faster than the eye can see. As it spun it grew in size, and within the orb, a shadow, it was a figure of a woman. The orb was bright and Lazarus shielded his eyes with his hands. The spinning started to slow down and the light continued to dim.

When Lazarus took his hands off his eyes, it was something he never expected standing in front of him. It was a beautiful woman, she was wearing a pink dress that went down to her heels, she was wearing black high heel shoes, and she had a slim build and beautiful black hair that went all the way down to her lower back. It was blowing in the wind, and it was almost like the most beautiful woman was standing in front of Lazarus.

Lazarus was stunned and took a second to process what happened.

"What in the fuck are you, a witch?" Lazarus said.

"Don't ever compare me to a lowly title like that. Lazarus, I am the Goddess Europa... I hope I'm your type." she said.

"I don't know what you want bu-"

She started to caress his cheek and looked directly into Lazarus' eyes. Her eyes were pure white but somehow she made them look so beautiful, that Lazarus got lost in them.

"Lazarus, from now on I want to go on this journey with you, kay?" she said

Lazarus truly thought she was the most beautiful woman he's ever seen and started to even blush. Throughout Lazarus' lifetime, he never had a partner, never even a friend. He was lonely but never realized it as he was like this his whole life.

She then held his hands and Lazarus started to blush which is very uncommon. She started tugging on his arm walking back to the spot Lazarus came from where Arjuna, Zoe, and Nike were waiting.

"Lazarus, if you think I'm beautiful kill them all, they aren't your friends, not even companions. Nike wanted you because of your title throughout history, Arjuna was always a foe of yours, and Zoe was saving you for the money shed received off of your work as a child." she said.

Lazarus didn't even have words to speak and looked down at the ground. Europa held his chin up looked into his eyes and said

"There's no need to be sad Laz, I'm here now, I know all about you. I want to love you."

Nobody has ever given Lazarus a nickname let alone held his hand, Lazarus took a big gulp and grabbed his sword. He had thoughts racing through his head. But he was never the type to betray someone.

"All my life, I stayed loyal to myself. And myself only. Why would I ever need someone like you in my life?" he replied.

"Each night when the moon rose, I was watching you, Lazarus. I know things about you that you don't even know. I can start with your dark lineage" Europa said.

Lazarus didn't know who his parents were, he was left alone ever since birth. He was always searching for the answers to his past, he knew that it was full of wickedness.

"Tell me then! Tell me about my parents!" he demanded.

The moon was slowly falling as the shining sun rose, and a ray of the sun hit Europa's eye.

"Lazarus I'm afraid I have to go now, I will be watching and I will come back every night when the moon rises. Please think about journeying with me, my love." said Europa.

"Don't come back I wouldn't even think about it." said Lazarus.

A bright white aura then started to surround her, it flickered like fire, and slowly but surely she turned into the same orb, and spoke one last time.

"Please, Lazarus we were meant to be together." she said as she flew up into the sky.

Lazarus wasn't exactly having second thoughts but wanted to know exactly what she knew about his lineage. He was short on information as many don't know what exactly his lineage has done, but his last name made people shun him away. His last name was Cirillo, it always left a bad taste in people's mouths but he was never explained why. Nobody ever accepted him, which is why he decided to go lone wolf.

"What is that woman talking about? Arjuna is my foe, but would never betray me, Granny saved my life, and Nike gave me the honor to be the leader of Petros' allegiance." he muttered,

Lazarus took a step forward towards where he came from and followed through the dense, cold forest to get back to the three of them, who were still waiting in the freezing cold for him.

At this point, the sun rose and it was a beautiful morning, the birds were chirping, the leaves were blowing in the wind and when Lazarus got back, Zoe was sleeping while the rest were still wide awake. Nike was smoking a cigarette and Arjuna was practicing his beast summoning skills.

"You people are still awake?" said Lazarus as he peeped around a tall tree.

"Oh hey you've finally decided to come back, asshole." said Arjuna.

"Seriously, where the hell have you been?" Nike said sternly.

Lazarus sat down on the ground beside Arjuna and pat the wolf that stood beside him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll admit I apologize, I needed to clear my head. There's too much going on right now." said Lazarus.

"We don't have a lot of time to think, we need to make it to this next town." said Nike.

Something was odd, Lazarus noticed that none of them, except Zoe, were tired.

"Are you guys feeling tired? I still feel like I can slay ten demon creatures." Lazarus said.

"We're summoned myths, we don't get tired. Though we can sleep, it isn't necessary at all." said Nike.

Both Arjuna and Lazarus exclaimed

"Whaaaat!?"

"Anyway we need to make it to the next town over. It's a small town called Lambros. I haven't seen or heard any creatures yet, so we should still have enough time to start evacuating people." said Nike.

Arjuna summoned a black stallion, Lazarus picked up Zoe's sleeping body and gently placed her in front of him sitting ontop of the stallion. They continued up the dense forest path for just a little bit until they saw a giant windmill tower.

"Is that a part of Lambros?" said Arjuna.

"Yeah, the people there are mainly farmers, barely any warriors. But they have a deep connection in magic as they were one of the first to get experimented on" said Nike.

As they entered the village they can see marketplaces that seemed to never end. There was plenty to look at, and beyond the village was a beautiful view of land which contained cattle, and farms that produce for the village people.

"These poor people, where do we even start?" said Arjuna.

"We need to speak to the elder of the village. He probably resides there" he said as he pointed at a grand wooden building.

Compared to the other village houses it towered over them, it had a balcony and a tiled floor, something that was uncommon within the village. Outside of this building hung a sign that read "Anyone welcomed."

Zoe stayed asleep on the horse, while the three of them entered the grand building and were greeted by a man. He was wearing dark black glasses, a suit and tie and had a white, long beard that went down to his chest and was of a masculine build, he was about thirty years old.

"Welcome. What are you here for today?" the man said.

"We're here to speak to the Elder of this village, it's an emergency." said Nike.

"Well, lucky you! You're speaking to him!" he laughed.

"Listen, the King just wreaked havoc, and it's slowly coming here to Lambros. It would be best if you would evacuate the whole village by sundown." said Nike.

The man's face suddenly went from smiling to very stern and aggressive.

"My name is Leon. I know exactly what's going on about the ritual and all the other wickedness." He turned around revealing a giant symbol on the back of his suit. It was a symbol of a white cross. On his waist, he wielded a katana.

He put his hands together and proceeded to sit in a criss-cross position.

"I wouldn't worry about this village, everything's alright here." he said.

"This is something beyond understanding-" said Arjuna

"You kids are now disturbing my meditation time." Leon interrupted.

Leon stood up, and drew his katana. The katana had white cord wrapped around the handle and the blade was pitch black. He raised it up high above his head, and said

"My time in the soul realm didn't go to waste, through meditation I have become one with myself."

He struck his katana down and a blast of air and fire poured out of the blade. Shaking the room and taking everybody by surprise.

"Ah, so this one is a myth too." said Nike as he recovered from the blast.

"Impressive." said Arjuna.

"Alright, alright, we get it you're strong." said Lazarus.

"Hahahaha, I'm just teasing you guys, welcome in." said Leon.

They all entered a big room, it had one wooden platform in the middle with water surrounding it and a wooden bridge leading to the platform. One of Leon's servants brewed tea for them and they all gathered and sat down on the platform.

"I feel that you are stressing, Lazarus, It's almost as if I feel your bad energy is pouring out into the world. I want to guide you towards the light Lazarus. Please, may I enlighten you?" said Leon.