ADK IV: The Atlantean Queen (✔️)

Chapter 5

        No time to waste, Minerva embraced her brother before she pushed him into the portal that she created, and they both landed on a place where they truly belonged—Atlantis.

        Same spot where she had left, two days ago, they were on her old room. She didn’t have the chance to say goodbye with Edmund but her duty as a queen should be her greatest priority. Bringing her brother here was a great success and that was all that mattered.

        “What are you doing?” Ayden asked her, unhappy. So was she. To see him with a frowning face and eyes that had no love at all, she was so damn unhappy. “You know I don’t want to be here anymore. My life is no longer in this place, Minerva. I never consider this place as my home. Atlanteans treat me like an outcast. They never treat me as their prince.”

        Her heart sank at that bitter fact. If there was someone who could feel his loneliness and sadness in Atlantis, it was her. Years ago, before he decided to leave Atlantis and claimed his freedom, her brother’s life was pure torture. Their own father never loved him. He lived in pain and he was unloved. To Atlantean people, Ayden was a living curse. After all, he was the very son of the gods who cursed them all and put their city in the bottom of the sea. His real father was a Greek god and they hated his kind until their last breath.

        “I brought you back here for our people’s justice,” she said without even regretting it. Demigod or not, he was a criminal and he would pay for what he’d done, same as to his new wife. “Ayden, you will pay for your crime and treachery.”

        “I really thought that I could trust you. You were my only friend and the one who loved me truly. What happened to us?”

        “Yeah. What happened to us?” She asked him with the same question. It was so ironic to ask something they both didn’t understand, “What happened to you? Why did you kill our own father? I know that he’s not really your biological dad, but even so, how could you murder our King? Why did you let Fate kill your own brother?  Why, Ayden?”

        Ayden didn’t give her any reply then.

        “I need to see Fate and not even you can stop me,” Ayden warned her. He tried to use his own power to escape but his teleportation didn’t work. He closed his eyes and he tried again but it was still the same. Minerva was grinning at him.

        “You cannot leave this place that fast, Ayden.” She pressed a secret alarm beneath her golden table just to give a signal upon the others. “I made sure that your Greek powers won’t work inside this realm. The only way out is to make yourself a merman and swim to the shoreline.  But that won’t happen because I won’t let you.”

        She saw his solemn face as he tried to look for an escape. His gaze went straight to the door but Atlanteans guards were already there. Running footsteps were on the other side of the wall. She could feel her own heartbeat, beating so fast. She knew her brother too well. She knew that he wouldn’t get caught without a fight.

        When the door was finally open, almost a dozen Atlanteans guards were there, ready for a battle.

        “Seize the traitor Prince!” yelled the Commanding General.

Minerva took another glance before another soldier grabbed her hand and tried to hide her away from Ayden. No longer the gentle man that she knew, Ayden stood at his full height…it was commanding. Intense. There was a feral gleam in his eyes that was quite sane as he tried to get ready for an upcoming battle.

        He looked as if he could kill everyone there and not even wince.

        Her men attacked. She staggered back and watched with awe. Ayden fought them all with an incredible strength. He didn’t even use his Atlanteans powers…yet. He could control both water and fire. One soldier came running towards him with an Atlantean sword. Any being that had a cut with it would eventually weaken. Ayden didn’t need to find it out. He knew everything. In fact, he was one of them.

        He caught the man’s wrist and twisted it until it snapped and the sword fell into the floor instantly. Ayden backhanded the soldier so hard; the attacker rebounded off the wall. Vases and figurines were broken and lots of artifacts were destroyed.

        Another came at Ayden’s back only to be flung over his head…to the ground while another rushed him from behind. He hit him so hard that Minerva closed her eyes, not wanting to see the pain of it. But Ayden didn’t so much as stagger or flinch. He turned on the man and knocked him down.

        Minerva wasn’t sure anymore about how her brother tried to fight back with all these men. A few seconds more, another batch of soldiers came. Even if he was the best of the best, Ayden was outnumbered.

        Minerva used her own power and made sure that he couldn’t move anymore. A kind of magic that only a royalty like her could possess. With only a sweep of her hand, special water came in and hugged him to death. It was more powerful than titanium and not even a demigod like him could stand against it.

        The water was made of pure poison. Any creature that would touch it would eventually lose its strength and powers. She saw how he fell down to the ground, rolling as he tried to endure every pain he felt.  The only part of his body that was moving was his silver eyes. Still, there was neither pity nor mercy in it. A pain flickered across her face when she saw nothing but tenderness.

        It was over.

        It was finally over, wasn't it?