Artherium Prompt Collection

It was a few weeks since I managed to escape what was essentially Hell. But, I didn’t go through one hell, I went through FIVE of them. Five. All of this trouble just because Procyon can’t spend time without bothering me somehow. I mostly had a good time catching up with my girlfriend and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Wolfgang after all of this time!

He seemed a lot happier than he used to be, probably because he was waiting for me for weeks, maybe even months. I also had the opportunity to meet his other friends. Ares was super cool, we even managed to get a few sparring matches in. Even if he’s partly human, he still has lots of tricks up his sleeves! Valentine was a little weird, constantly poking fun at my relationship with Xena, but she was Wolfgang’s friend so I couldn’t just throw her out.

Atlas was probably the most peculiar one out of the bunch. He seemed very serious, and knowing how hyper Wolfgang was, I’m very surprised he decided to join this chaotic group in the first place. Atlas was very fun to spar with, though, I don’t think I’ve seen someone who could manipulate both fire & ice so well! But, he seemed to observe me a little too much, which was kind of freaky, if I should be honest.

Overall, I had a good time! Xena & Greta were there for me as they promised, and I had the opportunity to continue training with some great fighters, too! And, people seem to slowly trust me again especially now that my girlfriend helped me find some more quests to do in order to get my reputation back.

Despite that, I felt like the coming night was going to be horrible, but I didn’t want to assume the worst. I laid down in bed after finishing all the tasks I had to do. Xena told me to rest before her, which was a little strange because we would usually sleep at the same time, with Greta watching us doing so by floating around the room.It didn’t take long before I fell asleep. I slowly felt my body getting heavier, and eventually, my eyes closed as well.

I was in the body of the Executioner once again. Somehow, however, I was in an extremely similar situation to the one I am in now: surrounded by the people I cherished, and I was considered Xena’s boyfriend despite being in the body of a horrible version of myself. I don’t quite remember what I was doing, but I remember laying down on the branch of a tree before I heard the swing of an axe.

The source of the swing was none other than Axel, Xena’s axe. And, it was held by my girlfriend, except she was looking at me with such hatred. I didn’t know her face was capable of showcasing that kind of emotion. And, behind her was more people I knew.

Wolfgang had a huge fire wolf behind him, ready to jump towards me. Ares was surrounded by what I thought were ghosts. Atlas wasn’t preparing an attack, but was staring at me just like how he stared at me in real life. For some reason, Okeanos was also in this operation, he was holding his sword and had a spell ready on his back as well. And, what crushed me particularly was the gaze I did not want to see on Greta’s face at all. The stare of the ghost girl who did not want anything to do with me and only wanted me gone.

I didn’t understand why they were looking at me with such resentment. The memories I had of this Executioner is that he was a well-respected assassin who was notoriously good at killing his targets. And, his targets were all enemies of the people. Not only that, but he also had an amazing double life with the same people I cherished. I genuinely could not explain what caused the change of heart.

And, so, I quickly spawned my wings and flew away, while avoiding the multiple projectiles that were thrown at me. Very confused, I was completely unsure of what to do. I tried hiding inside a cave, only to be easily found by one of them. Then, I decided to try to find an answer inside the one and only Noctem Mansion. I didn’t want to go there, but I’m sure this might’ve been Procyon’s doing.

To my surprise, the mansion was empty. There was no activity and no one to make it alive. In fact, everything seemed dusty, almost as if no one had lived there for a while. Those who were chasing me quickly found me inside the mansion, and all started rambling about…too many things.

“I was never your friend. You were Sirius Greyford, the prince of a powerful kingdom, and I was only a poor person. All I wanted was your power, so that I could live a normal life. It was never about wanting to be a friend of yours.”

“I was told that if I could surpass Sirius Greyford, I could have all the validation I ever wanted. It was never about you, it was always all about me. And, now that you’re not as great as you used to be, I can kill you then move on to something better.”

“I heard from someone that you are secretly a serial killer, and I can’t let a freak like you run around here anymore. I’ve seen some of your own victim’s faces…none of them were happy to see you.”

“You were lying to me the entire time. You never told me you were a freak hiding behind an innocent smile. Terrible, I can’t believe I even defended you in front of all of these people who thought you were a monster. They were right. You are a monster.”

“Eh…mom doesn’t want me near you anymore. Sorry dad. She thinks your face is too scary and your Overdrive is scarier.”

Hearing Greta calling my Overdrive state scary gave me a certain emotion I was a little too familiar with: defeat. But, something was terribly wrong, and I could very faintly hear Xena screaming: “Sirius! Sirius! Sirius! Are you alright? You’ve been breathing really loudly, and you’re really warm.”

Instead of feeling defeated and depressed, I was oddly enough feeling anger. I would normally beat myself with these thoughts until I couldn’t do anything anymore, but this time I was…mad at the same people I cared for? And, I didn’t quite understand why, I knew they wouldn’t normally say these things. I also knew I was in a dream. And, yet.

I yelled to all of these imaginary versions of my closest ones: “All this time I have put my time, my love, my blood, my sweat, and even my entire life in your hands. And, I trusted you.” I could already feel the demonic echo coming for my vocal cords and I already felt the urge to roar, but I had more to say. “And you all would ditch all my efforts for your own…selfish desires? You are telling me I was only a pawn for whatever the hell your goal is supposed to be? You are all like Procyon-” I tried finishing what I wanted to say, but it was too late.

I swiftly woke up and jumped towards the ceiling from my bed and gripped to my favourite corner of the room. I tightly gripped the walls as if my life depended on it, and started roaring, waking up some of our neighbours. I couldn’t quite tell what was happening, and I seemed to have gone deaf. I was able to see Xena talking to me…or at least a silhouette of her. I would usually see her as a white silhouette, but she was pitch-black for some reason.

And, in the way I was seeing things, it only meant one thing. My pupils changed shapes and I jumped towards her, claws pointed towards her eyes and teeth ready to bite her hand. I continued snarling at her while Greta was panicking and trying to find outside help. I saw Xena try to talk more, but once again, I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

I kept trying to attack her over and over until I was tackled by someone who was previously not in the room. It was Atlas, or at least I thought it was him. All I saw was a pitch-black man with antlers and wings, and he was the closest peryton around here, so I assumed it was him. He also tried talking, but I wasn’t able to make out what he was trying to say. I growled in his direction, then jumped towards him and attempted to burn him with the flames coming from my hair, but I seemed to have forgotten he has resistance to fire.

I noticed Atlas tried to calm me down with something cold, but my flames were stronger than his ice, and I managed to knock him down pretty easily. He was very strong in terms of magic, but pretty weak in a physical fight. And, I so happen to be miles better at it than he was.

It did not take long before another person tried fighting me. By then, I had knocked down Xena & Atlas and Greta was nowhere to be found. I could recognize Wolfgang very easily and, again, his silhouette was completely black. Unlike Atlas, Wolfgang cut to the chase, grabbed me by the neck and jumped towards the window to move the fight outside. I clearly was not happy about it, as my eyes glowed even more red and I tried roaring in his ears. I also tried kicking him and scratching his face, but none of that seemed to have worked. He then let me go and jumped away from me.

I could tell he was howling towards the moon, and I remembered this was his battle cry. And, so I did the same. I stood on all fours then roared towards the sky. We both, then, exchanged lots of punches, kicks & scratches and were tied. I was somehow able to say some words, although I struggled a lot with it. “You…betrayed…me”, was all I was able to say before I went back to screaming, snarling, growling & roaring.

These words stopped Wolfgang from attacking me. It seems hearing these words made him change his strategy entirely. Instead of aggressively attacking me, he was trying to restrain me. But, of course, I didn’t like that, so I spent quite a while making it hard for him to catch me in the first place by continuously running away from him, and I even tried floating away. Eventually, I got too tired to try to escape him, and Wolfgang managed to restrain me by catching me from the sky and throwing me into the ground.

I kept fighting him back with less energy before I was eventually too tired to try and fell back to sleep, my hair still being on fire. I don’t seem to have remembered much since then, but I woke up to Xena hugging me in her sleep, Atlas staring at the window, now fixed, that was in our room & Wolfgang sleeping on a chair he had moved to our room. Greta was also exceptionally sleeping on his lap.

Maybe people do actually want my well-being.