Her Heart, His obsession

41. Dante's Ultimatum

Athena was slowly getting her strength back. she was walking back and forth in Dante's chambers trying to find a hole in the seals Dante had put in place. She was becoming frustrated now. It saddened her to stay safely in this room while a battle was happening a few miles to the north side. She was not sure how many hours had gone by. Dante had weakened her with the rose spell to the point that she couldn't break the seals. Now she could still be hours from healing to her full strength. The waves of fear and distress coming from outside her chambers had been overwhelming her for the past few hours and she felt helpless not being able to be out there.

Suddenly she felt him. He was getting closer and closer. He was back from battle which meant he had done enough damage to satisfy his rage and passion for destruction. As he entered his chambers, the scent of death and blood suddenly overcame Athena's senses. Her eyes widened in horror. A lot of pain and suffering was attached to this one man who happened to be her blood match. The man she was sworn to protect the others from. The one invincible man she couldn't defend herself against unless she used offensive spells she could never bring herself to use.

Athena spoke with pain evident in her voice. " Dante. You are back. I was hoping, we could resolve this as soon as we can so I could get back to my healer coven and help those families you have just broken apart. But I promise you, the minute I step outside, I will work myself to the bone to prevent you from hurting any more innocents."

Dante walked slowly towards her and spoke earnestly " very well my love. You may step outside sometime soon. But that won't happen before I issue my ultimatum to you and promise you all the things I would not hesitate do to get you on my side. Uh. Let me first begin by expressing how I am going to look forward to attacking your protective walls Athena. I would do it with full force. Your special place in my heart does not make you immune. I am going to break your defences. I am going to take away your hopes. I am going to separate you from all you hold dear. Your family, your friends, your land, your healer coven, your values. All are going to be surrendered to me soon. It is only a matter of time Athena. Admit it my love".

Athena couldn't express her feelings in words. There was nothing she could say to change Dante's mind. She was wary of angering him. She was aware from the waves of distress and pain all around her that Dante had already done a lot of damage to thousands of innocents already. She didn't want to send him on a second pain inflicting quest. But surrender was not within her nature. She fought always for what she believed in. she was going to speak her mind but in a politer tone at least compared to the way she had intended.

She spoke warily and softly " All I can say is, I will resist you. I will try to delay your quest and reduce the number of people suffering at your hands. I will do this for as long as I can. That is a promise Dante."

Dante laughed menacingly. He was now standing in front of her. He leaned his head over close to Athena's neck and whispered softly; "Of course you would. But you know this would end in your defeat either way. While you try your small scale rescue acts, I am going to enjoy your attempts of challenging me, my love. I would cherish each time we would be duelling with each other. It would give me great pleasure to watch you admitting forfeit each time you challenge me Athena. It would give me great satisfaction to overcome you every time and teach you lessons on not taking me on."

Athena was fuming now and trying hard to control her anger. She decided against using force fields. She just used both hands to push Dante as far as she could and to her surprise, Dante was skilled with hand to hand combat. He grabbed both her hands and forced her to step backwards by pushing her.

Athena took steps further backwards as Dante was pushing her. Then she suddenly felt herself hitting his desk. There was no more space to move. Dante forced Athena to sit on the desk and as he was still holding her hands he spoke ; " My love, you never learn. Do you? Don't ever strike me again or I would have to teach you the hard way not to. I have other weapons besides the roses. Trust me. They are not as painless. You will see those weapons soon when you accompany me to my castle one day. Then you would believe me when I say to you now that I was going easy on you earlier on. In duels, I don't defend myself, I never need to. I just use offensive spells and aim to inflict pain. Plenty of it. My attacks are normally bone crushing but of course I could never do that to you."