Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

A tear dripped on Karl's face as his eyes looked at the enemy who had his fate in his grasp, thinking of his friend Dag and ready to sacrifice himself for him.

"I'm not afraid! You can do what you want to me, but one day, Dag will kill all of you, and the real balance will be restored! May the mighty Odin and the brave Thor curse your race!" Karl yelled, continuing to cry, as his hands lost his grip on the Overseer's tunic, who, after looking at him for the last time, with a smile on his lips, pushed him away, letting him fall into the void.

Despite the courage shown in the final moments of that speech, Karl couldn't hold back a scream, venting his fear of dying and thinking about everything he hadn't done in his 16 years of life.

"Did it really end like this? I faced Gods, fought alongside my friends in unknown and uninhabited places, defeated monsters, elementals, even other Xis... please, Dag... avenge my death! We all believe in you!" the young healer thought, closing his eyes and preparing to impact the ground, which was getting closer and closer as his body was in freefall.

Quick images of his past began to flow like an old movie in front of his gaze: they represented the happiest moments in the archive of his memory, including the first times he set foot in the Jernhest Arena and met Dag, the time Taya gave him her magnificent shield, the face of his sick father, which he would never see again and those of his mother and sister, the women of his life he had failed to protect.

A feeling of emptiness and failure pervaded Karl's body, which imagined the shining palaces of Valhalla, knowing that, soon, the Valkyries would gather his soul and lead it into the high heavens, far from that mortal planet. 

Just as the young healer uttered his last prayers, his body was enveloped by a green light, which in a few seconds expanded, slowing down his fall.

"Kaarl!" Gridd screamed, tens of meters away from him, running to her friend's rescue, wielding her two swords.

Karl's hands warmed up immediately, and his body was immediately pervaded by a feeling of well-being and tranquillity, returning to maximum physical health.

After a few seconds, which seemed to last an eternity, his body fell back to the ground, emitting a slight thud. The green light vanished into nothingness.

"Karl! Karl! You... you're alive! You'd disappeared! I... I..." Gridd stammered, not knowing what to say, having realized a few seconds before her friend's body had fallen from the dark sky of the night.

"This... this light... Seems... it looks like a healing stream, but I don't possess all this power! What... how did I save myself?" Karl thought aloud, without stopping to look at his hands, noting that his fingers were no longer frozen.

"Karl! Watch out!" Gridd screamed, grabbing her friend by the arm and pulling him backwards.

*boom*

A loud noise followed an explosion in front of their eyes, and a crater widened into the ground, exactly where the young healer had landed a few seconds earlier.

The thin dust caused by the rising soil quickly dispersed in the air, and the shiny purple eyes of the Xis caught a glimpse of the fog, pointing at Karl.

As soon as the black mantle of the Overseer took shape inside the crater, he turned backwards, realizing that Karl had not saved himself: inside the forest, in fact, the green light that had accompanied his fall, saving him from certain death, shone among the branches of the trees and the shrubs, illuminating the area.

Gridd, Karl and Eirik, who had just rushed to help his sister and friend, were all enchanted by that charming light, so beautiful and intense that it seemed divine.

"Who dared disobey the laws of the cosmos?! Who stopped me from restoring balance on the planet Skjold?!" the Overseer suddenly yelled, shaking the ground with the power of his voice.

The birds that were resting in the woods in front of him fluttered in the air in fear, flying away from their nests due to the loud noise that had once again disturbed the stillness of that peaceful early spring night.

Under the incredulous eyes of the two warriors and the bearded Eirik, whose face seemed more and more to that of Stein, his late father, a foot trampled the ground over the trees of the woods, approaching their position.

Along with that foot and the body moving with it, the end of a wooden staff was resting on the ground, propagating green spherical waves that spread through the ground like those generated by a drop in a body of water.

When the other foot followed the first, the figure who safely held that staff became visible under the Overseer's gaze, who immediately recognized his face, unaware that his power was so great.

A scar ran through the man's face from his forehead to his cheek, overlapping his right eye; long white hair was lying sinuously on the shoulders and behind his back, as well as the long, loose beard, which extended almost to the abdomen.

The dark green tunic and lack of metal equipment were typical features of a wizard of his power, who needed only his magic to fight and defend his protectees.

Despite being marked by age and the thousand battles fought, his left hand tenaciously tightened the long bracket, the source of the mysterious light that had saved young Karl from the fall.

"Master..." Karl whispered, while that light reflected in his shiny eyes, still filled with tears of remorse.

The Hammers Of Thor's Master Of Healing, Egill, had just rescued his youngest disciple and, with firm eyes looked at the Overseer, showing that he felt no fear, continuing to walk forward with pride.

"You... I know who you are! You're the real culprit! You are the one who pushed 813666 to cultivate his powers, to go beyond his limits and to dig into his past! In all his memories, during his every discovery... I remember your face! How dare you get in the way of my mission, old man?!" the Overseer exclaimed contemptuously, looking at Egill with a disgusted expression.