Return of the Woodcutter

Aito hurled his iron ax at the monster's head.

BAM!

Its skull cracked under the impact, but held, keeping the brain relatively safe. Blood flowed out of the monster's wound, obstructing his vision.

ROAR!

Angry, it charged towards its aggressor, flinging aside zombies as if they were nothing. The wall on which Aito stood cracked, broke, then shattered. He jumped on flat ground to avoid crumbling with the pieces of concrete that were now blockading the staircase.

Aito drew his spare iron ax, shield-bashed aside zombies, rushed towards the human he had been asked to rescue. The request had appeared impossible to grant. But, he only had to keep them alive for the next three minutes and… there was also the issue with Jack.

'The woman can still stand. The man however looks out of it.' He thought, beheading a zombie. 'There are at least fifty of those things here if not more. But the staircase is destroyed. Once we deal with those I can focus on that monster.'

Crack.

The special-type came out of the staircase's rubbles, looked for its prey. He was quickly dispatching mindless zombies and so did the female human. It roared and charged once again.

—Gift: Intuition—

Aito felt a tingling feeling down his neck. Without checking, he shifted his weight to his right leg and bolted to the side, pushing away zombies blocking his escape route.

His clothes and long hair fluttered when a strong air current brushed past his back. He turned to see the monster, who just finished one attack, preparing for yet another charge.

'I wish Jack was here. It would have been easier with him.'

"Wah!" the woman exclaimed, cutting away zombies not far from his position. Behind her, the man was trying to stay up but was obviously not in fighting shape.

[Remaining time: 2 minutes 30 seconds]

Aito dashed towards them, butchering his path while keeping an eye out for the hulking thing. He finally reached them, pushed aside the zombies to create an escape path, and pointed towards the broken staircase.

The woman sent him a weird look, but with no time to talk things out and since he appeared to be helping them, she nodded and brought the armored man there.

ROAR!

"Shit! Can't you just leave me alone for a minute!" He said, looking, dislodging his ax from a zombie's skull, while three others were breaking their teeth on his brand new armor.

The monster charged towards him. With zombies trying to chew him from all sides, he barely dodged the attack. The hulking creature decelerated, marking the ground, and almost fell off the rooftop.

Seeing this, an idea sparked in Aito's head.

'Let's try that. But before…'

Pushing aside the zombies clogging his vision, he lifted his ax, took aim, and, with a wide swing, hurled it as strong as he could.

The monster blocked the projectile with its arm and, pissed by the puny human challenging its might, charged.

Aito rushed towards a border, then something caught his attention. Ropes linking other buildings to this one.

Sensing yet another deadly attack, he looked behind him to see a furious "huge ball of muscles rolling" his way.

Before it caught him, he sprinted to the end of the roof and jumped.

***

[Remaining time: 1 minute 30 seconds]

'What is bastard man doing here?' Sheyla thought, swinging her saber with the last of her remaining stamina to decapitate a zombie.

Fortunately, that man appeared out of nowhere to save them. He's been drawing most of the zombies to him, leaving her and Ogoro to fend off only ten or so. Even then, with their lack of stamina, it had been hard.

Her brother was riddled with bite marks, and his face started to turn blue. As for her, she had a few of her own.

Having dispatched the last zombie, panting, she took a quick glance at what the "bastard" was doing and widened her eyes.

"Is he crazy?"

The man jumped off the rooftop, the special-type on his tail noticed too late the trap and fell for it, followed closely by the dozen zombies that appeared to be under his orders.

"WOAAAaaaa…"

BOOM!

The stranger hung on a rope they had prepared for an escape, then pulled his way to the rooftop borders. Once there, he dispatched the remaining mindless zombies and walked towards them, covered in blood and bite marks.

***

[Remaining time: 30 seconds]

"What's that for?" Aito said, eyeing the saber pointed at his throat.

"What are you doing here?" The woman said.

[Remaining time: 25 seconds]

"Shouldn't you introduce yourself before asking?" He said, waiting for a response that never came.

He then pointed to the man on the ground behind her. "Who's that?"

"Not your concern."

He felt pissed at the ingratitude that woman showed and started to regret saving them but found comfort by taking a look at the timer.

[Remaining time: 15 seconds]

"Fine, do it your way." He said, kicking a corpse aside to clear a spot where he could sit not far from her.

"Who said you could sit here?"

Aito's eyebrow twitched. Was that woman for real? Barely containing the urge to slap her bloodied doll face, he strode away but was interrupted by a guttural sound.

The armored man stumbled, his cracked lips opened to let out a barely audible sound. "Than.. you. Sor…ry…."

[Remaining time: 5 seconds]

Aito nodded, gave the rude woman a last look, as well as a middle finger, before walking through a black portal that suddenly appeared in front of him.

[Remaining time: 0 seconds]

***

WOOSH!

A bloodied Sheyla and Ogoro materialized in a familiar grey space, albeit empty this time. And like before, Filona towered over them with a divine demeanor.

She flicked her fingers, and their wounds rapidly closed. Ogoro's blue complexion returned to normal, and Sheyla's bite marks disappeared, leaving no scars.

Ogoro examined his body, then Sheyla's. Happy to be alive, the bear of a man trapped his little sister into a hug. Or at least he tried to.

"Urg," He groaned, only realizing now his armor had disappeared with Sheyla's blow to his solar plexus.

"Where did my cute little sister go?" He said, grunting. "Give her back to me."

Filona coughed to catch their attention. "Congratulation on passing the first trial, children. I understand you might be confused and thus, to show our magnanimity, we, the gods, grant you three answers to any question of your choosing as a part of your rewards."

"Who was—"

Sheyla hit Ogoro's shoulder, interrupting him, clearly implying it was a waste to ask about the man who had just saved their life.

"What's going on with you?" Ogoro asked, unable to understand her. "I couldn't see nor clearly hear back then, but I know you've been more than just rude to him."

His sister looked sideways.

"She knows him." The goddess said. "She's met him before, during your past life, and bare a grudge for… hum… a minor incident. It is not my place to talk about it, so I will leave it at that. You have two answers left."

Sheyla stared dagger at him, but this time he held her gaze despite the mishap and even smirked.

"Now that's news," He said. "I've never heard of another man in your private life than your 'O.N.I.I-CHA—"

BAM!

Ogoro blocked a powerful roundhouse kick destined to his head, using only one hand. Noticing he shouldn't push the matter any further, he dropped it. However, he was still curious about the man. After all, her sister had seduced more than one moron, but that had only been during her "professional life."

"Who was that guy exactly?" He asked, dodging and blocking multiple blows from his sister, who seemingly didn't agree with their bonus reward's usage.

"Aito Walker, born the 13th December 2005 in French Polynesia, Papeete at 4 am. He lived there for 15 years before moving out to Montreal in Québec. Although, he'd often come back to his home country during holidays, he—"

Ogoro dodged yet another blow. "Just give us the gist of it."

"Very well," Filona said, her eyebrow twitching from being ordered by a mortal. "He is the Black Challenger, the one who went through the black portal and is currently challenging 'the Island of Pain.' We sent him to help you because… 'someone' had tempered with your trial."

Both siblings paused their "little game." It was now Sheyla's turn to be surprised.

'We did not see a black portal on our arrival.' She thought. 'That must have been some kind of hidden trial. If yes… why did the gods hide it?'

"Because it is near impossible for humans to complete it," Filona explained after reading Sheyla's mind. "Each trial is hard in its own way. White is for the cowards to acquire something necessary to survive in Iris: Courage. Blue challengers are deemed to already have courage and thus pushed to nurture it. Red is for that courage to find its limit. And Black… is to constantly overcome that limit."

"You underestimated us. That red trial of yours was easy enough, to begin with. If that someone had not tempered with it, we would have won even without that bastard's help." Sheyla said.

Ogoro gave her an intrigued gaze, wondering what that man did to get his sister to even talk about him.

"No, we did not," Filona said, shaking her head. "It is because you are already strong for mere mortals. And the stronger you are, the less likely you are to survive on that island. However, the same goes for the weak. Those who stand a real chance of success are mortals that are neither weak nor strong. Those who have much to learn, yet already learned."

"But—" Sheyla tried to say.

"Furthermore," Filona interrupted her complexion darkening. "There is a creature on that island. Something the hulking monster you saw cannot compare to. Something we did not create. Something that will feed on negative emotions and sins to grow stronger with each passing day. The rare Black Challengers who survived it went crazy. It is already a miracle that Aito Walker kept a sane mind to this point. But soon, he will fall like the others. So you should just forget about him. However, if you are that disappointed and wish to test your mettle against such creatures I am more than pleased to tell you that Iris is filled to the brim with comparable nightmarish beings."

Ogoro stared at the goddess, not knowing which part to lay his gaze upon. He was infatuated yet worried at the same time. He wanted to get an eyeful but what she just revealed continuously crumbled his desires.

A war between manhood and anxiousness raged inside his mind. Desire's army crashed like stormy waves against the Revelation's shields. With no result to this conflict on the horizon, his gaze constantly switched between the goddess's eyes and perfect curves.

"Therefore, in exchange for servitude under one of our churches, we can grant powers that will allow you to fight them. You have the right to refuse, of course. But your treatment in Iris will pale compared to those who signed the oath pact."

That sentence brought a sudden end to the war inside Ogoro, and like his sister, he immediately gave his answer.

"No." They said, simultaneously.

***

Aito walked out of the portal to end up at his camp's entrance. Jack was sitting there, seemingly waiting for his arrival.

"Kyaak!"

Angry, Aito grimaced in disgust. "It's not funny."

Jack's eyes shone red, then it stood on its two legs before it spoke. "Can't take a joke, hun?"

"Don't you dare imitate my friend."

"Fine, I got it. Jeez. You're lucky I'm the one you're talking to. My brother and sisters wouldn't have let that one pass, you know?"

"Don't care. Let Jack go and get the fuck out."

"Or what? You're going to hit me? *yawn* Be reasonable." Belmand said, unimpressed by Aito's gruff.

It pissed him off. That bastard of a god had taken over Jack's twenty or so minutes ago and asked him to rescue two people. He knew something had been fishy when he received so many rewards at the same time. When Aito refused, Belmand used Jack's body as a hostage.

"Don't be mad, you already got a brand new shiny armor out of it, you'll to keep even you pass the trial. And now, you have a lower divine wish. How's that? Not bad for a reward. It takes quite a lot of glory points for that, you know?"

If he could, Aito would punch that god's face right away. That divine being was just playing around, as if a mortal life, his life, meant nothing. He had basically asked him to risk his precious second chance for strangers.

"Fuck your divine ass."

"How rude…" Belmand said, crossing his arms. "*yawn* Okay, I admit being unfair for taking your pet... sorry, 'friend' hostage. My bad. Let me make it up to you by giving my little black challenger a piece of advice."

He gritted his teeth. "Who's your little black challenger?"

"The cave you used to live in lead to the waterfall," Belmand said, ignoring Aito. "You were right to avoid it until now. However, there will come a time you will be forced to face the creature hiding in the cave's depth. As you've already guessed, it feeds on your weaknesses and grows stronger from them. *yawn* The key to defeating it doesn't lie in raw power. Think about what your father told you that day."

Aito frown, for some reason he couldn't remember those words. Did that creature take it from him on purpose?

"Ah, as per our agreement, you will not be attacked tomorrow. Use that day to rest. You'll need it, my little black challenger. Hahaha, *yawn*."

And, with that last sentence, Jack's eyes returned to normal. Confused, it looked around for a potential threat before laying its eyes on a familiar face.

"Good to have you back, Jack," Aito said, smiling but also worried.