Chapter forty six (Flashback)

300 years ago

A smack to the face sent Denys flying face-first into the dirt floor of the arena. The stung made his ears buzz and there was a lingering taste of copper in his mouth.

"You disappoint me." Poseidon's fiery gaze glowered over the young prince.

"I...I could have hurt Orion." Denys protested, looking his father straight in the eye.

"Enough!" Poseidon legitimately screamed, almost hitting Denys with the hilt of his trident. "Orion is a god. He will heal. If I had asked Orion to strike you, He would have done it without hesitation." Poseidon then went ahead to grab Denys by his tunic, successfully lifting the scrawny creature without even breaking a sweat. "You should know this sort of behavior has no place in war. On the battlefield. No one is your friend. Neither are they your family."

Once the words were registered, Poseidon let go of the tunic, throwing Denys to the floor for the second time. Denys stole a glance at his elder brother, Orion. Orion with the broadest shoulders, hair cropped short, unlike Denys, rusty marigold eyes, and thin disapproving lips was their father's beloved. It had been that way for as long as Denys could remember and Poseidon was right. If Orion was given the opportunity to make him bleed, the disapproving god would have done it without hesitation. It was what set them apart as the pride and disappointment of the house of Poseidon. But Denys still couldn't get it. Ever since they could walk, Poseidon had walked them to the empty arena with the absence of their mother, servants, and guards, and they were forced to spar for hours in a row, almost as if they were preparing for war. In truth, there was nothing coming. Denys could swear on his immortal life that his father just seemed to get his high on having someone to vent his own shortcomings on.

"What battlefield father?" Denys shot back, managing to get to his feet. "What war are we preparing for?"

His sharp retort earned him a glare from both sides but that did not stop Denys. He had had just about enough of putting up with his family's bullshit.

"We are gods with an element to our existence. What are these mundane training for father? Tell me, who would dare attack a god with the wrath of the seven seas at his disposal?"

"Stupid child!" Poseidon yelled, swinging his trident to smack the disrespectful prince.

Denys shut his eyes expecting the stinging pain to come as the whoosh of air followed. He heard the divine instrument clash; like it had hit its target but the only difference was that Denys felt no pain. So he opened his eyes and was surprised to see Orion towering over him. Orion had managed to block their father's attack with nothing but his wooden sword. Denys could hardly believe what had just happened. Had his brother, Orion, just defended him?

"Father," Orion spoke. "It's useless to smite him. I doubt that would be enough to make him understand."

Denys stood slowly, reeling and wondering what had come over his brother. 

Orion continued. "You should return to the castle. Mother shouldn't be kept waiting. Not on your anniversary. Denys and I will be joining you soon. I just need to speak some sense into him."

Poseidon seemed to hesitate but in the end, the god of the sea made his way out of the arena albeit reluctantly while the brothers remained deeply rooted to their spots until he was gone.

"I didn't need you to defend me there Orion."

Orion looked away but his disapproving lips was ever-present.

"You have to stop pissing father off. You know he is only doing this for our good."

"I know." Denys retorted sarcastically. "A war I cannot see is coming."

"I can tell you are being sarcastic but yes. Hades' rage becomes increasingly stronger with every passing day. I doubt our uncle will just forgive our parents out of the blues. He might not be there to protect mother or us soon enough. The least he can do is teach us how to protect ourselves."

Denys did not care. His father brought that sort of fate upon himself when he decided to trick Hades. He hated that he was being dragged to his father's fight. The young prince ignored his brother's excuses for their father's behavior and went ahead to pick his staff. As Denys reached down and extracted his sparring weapon, a leg stomped on it, stopping him. Reflex took over and Denys faced the culprit. It was a pale lean woman with the damning scar of an eye imprinted on her forehead. A sigma witch.

"Poseidon is really ballsy leaving the apples of his eyes all alone." The witch commented.

Denys first impulse was to turn and run, but he already knew that would be futile. He would never outrun her. Her aura was chaotic and it suggested she was not a white witch neither was she a black magic practitioner. It was something more. It almost felt divine. Suddenly, a brilliant shock of white ripped past Denys, forking wilding into the unsuspecting witch and sending her flying meters away. A thunderous boom followed, calling its warning too late.

"Run!" Orion yelled, channeling the pure life energy within himself for another attack, and for the first time, Denys did as his brother instructed him. He broke into a sprint, moving faster than an eel in its element.

There was another loud boom that suggested the first quintessence blast had not been enough to stop her. It was enough to make Denys stop in his tracks. Denys reluctantly faced the battlefield and got the shock of his life. A bolt streaked forth from the witch's hands, more like an almighty camera flash that blanketed everything at once and struck Orion. It wasn't enough to harm him since Orion's body generated energy much stronger than that. It was to stun him. It only took a second but the witch teleported right to Orion. Denys willed his legs to move at that moment. He wanted to help more than anything however, it was then and there that Denys learned that he was indeed a disappointment to the face of the realms. The witch did not even spare him a look. She knew the god was his own enemy.

"Orion, fight!" That was all the little prince could muster but when he noticed his brother could barely move, Denys suspected something was awfully wrong.

"Blood magic," Denys heard Orion spew. "I doubt even dark witches have such talent. Tell me who sent you?"

"Hades." The witch admitted.

"So what are you going to do witch?" Denys yelled from where he stood, legs firmly rooted to the earth. "We are immortals. You cannot harm us."

"Exactly child. Which is why what I am about to do will hurt more."

What followed was worse than death. Denys watched the witch place a finger on Orion's forehead and the mark on her forehead ignited a bright red.

"Hades wishes Persephone a happy anniversary." She said with a smirk planted on right before vanishing.

One might wonder why Denys didn't rush to Orion's side when the witch let them be. But what could he do but fall to the floor, and stare wide-eyed at the sight in horror? There, opposite him, hardly twenty paces away, was Orion now a horse with wings. His brother was long gone.