False Hero

Grey and Ari were now teleported to a different place, in a different memory. Standing on the top of the sky, both of them looked at the distant city below them. 

Even though Grey didn't find the city to be similar but yet the geographical structure around it was similar to the one around Depool city.

"Is it Depool city? No, it doesn't quite look like Deepol city. And especially there wasn't a mountain of this size beside the Depool city."

"You are correct, this is not Depool city, this is Nerul City. Even though Nerul city used to be situated at the same place as Depool city, they both are entirely different cities."

Ari turned around to look at the huge mountain beside the city, "In the current era this mountain is shorter and slimmer, unlike this tall and wider mountain."

"Then what happened to this city?" asked Grey as he looked down at the city. 

"You will know, but first---" Ari teleported herself and Grey inside the city, right in front of a huge palace.

The palace was situated at the center of the city, the dome of the palace was huge that it could have been seen from any part of the city.

Ari teleported Grey to the gate of the palace, "This place?" asked Grey.

"This is the palace that people of the Nerul city built for her after she saved that woman. Arae went on to save many people eventually saving this doomed city. From the time of her arrival, the city started flourishing and the people started treating her like a godess."

Ari and Grey walked through the lawn of the palace as they were walking towards the entrance of the palace.

"She was well-loved by the people, they built a palace for her. They regularly worshiped her," said Ari as she turned to look at the giant statue of Arae that was built in front of the palace. 

She continued to walk towards the door, but rather than opening the door, she directly phased through the door. Following her, Grey also phased through the door. 

"it's been years since that day she met that woman in the forest, from that day she had been granting various blessings."

Grey followed her step by step, he chuckled as he said "Her power is too good to be true,"

"Exactly," said Ari as she entered a room after walking for several minutes, following her Grey also entered the room, as they entered they saw that Arae was seated on the bed as she was looking out of the balcony. 

Ari looked at Arae as she said, "But she herself understood that her power demanded an equal payment for the blessing she provides. But to this day, I am not sure if she knew this fact or not, the question for this answer can only be given by her herself."

"If it demands payment then how is it different than her power to curse people?" asked Grey. 

"There isn't any difference between both of her power. Both of her power is a side of the coin, they are one and the same. Her current power to curse people and her power of the past to bless people, both require compensation and it depends upon the wish or curse that is to be granted."

Grey walked towards the balcony as he asked, "What if the compensation is not given? what will happen then?"

"The world works on a proper balance and if proper compensation is not given, the will of the world will remember it, it will eventually grow as the time passes by and eventually it will take the compensation by itself, the world will bring its balance back, that's how the will of the world works. The will of the world doesn't even bend in front of a real god."

Upon hearing the mention of a real god, Grey repeated the same word as a whisper to himself, "Real god?".

Grey was standing on the balcony of the room, the front view of the balcony was the huge mountain. 

as Arae was staring outside the balcony, her expression tensed up as she stood up. Maybe it was her instinct but she sensed the disaster even before it could happen. 

After a good second, Grey looked at Arae who was still standing up and looking around her. "What's happening?" asked Grey.

To his reply, Ari replied with "The end of Nerul city."

With the ground started shaking violently, it happened in an instant and the intensity of the tremor was at max from the time it started. The tremor continued for a good minute and cracks formed around the palace as the ceiling started falling from above. 

Eventually, after five minutes of tremor, the palace broke apart, the palace that was once there was now just piles of debris.

Grey and Ari weren't affected by this since they were just watching the memory, the dust settled and their view cleared up. 

Grey and Ari were standing in the air as they looked around, the city that once there was now just a pile of debris. Grey landed on the ground, walking a few steps he stopped in front of a toddler that seemed to be crying, in front of that toddler there was a man that was half crushed under huge debris.

The toddler grabbed his dad's hand as he tried to pull him out of it, but it was of no use, 

"Go away!! dad is fine!! you go away and find someone to bring you to mom okay?"

The toddler tried to speak between his tears, "but papa---"

The man stretched his hand, reaching to his toddler as he said, "dad is fine, okay. you go ahead, dada will come back after five min, okay? till then go and find your mom."

Agreeing to what his dad has said the toddler walked with his little feet to find his mom, Grey just stood as he looked at the dying man who was trapped under the debris. 

Grey tried to reach out to the man but his hands went right through him, Grey knew very well that these were just fragments of the past, 

"How about we follow the toddler, we might get something interesting out of it."

said Ari as she walked right behind the toddler. 

"You already know what's going to happen so you are just leading me to what you want me to see."

"That's pretty much right."

Grey and Ari walked through to the collapsed city, walking through the street, Grey looked to his right where the woman's head was smashed like a pulp under a rock. 

Limbs and blood were scattered across, and of course, the dead bodies were also there. Cries of held and dispair could have been heard from everywhere.

People who cried for help only mentioned one name and the people who cried in dispair only remembered, it was Goddess of blessing, they called for her, but their call was never answered by her. 

In their last moments they died calling out for Arae, but she was nowhere to be seen. 

Ari and Grey didn't really speak anything with each other, they didn't know what to say. Grey especially didn't know what to say after witnessing this horror.

"She must have dug herself out of debris till now. Right now she is having good look at the compensation she has to pay for all the blessings, it must have been a cruel sight for her"

As Ari said, Arae has dug herself out of the debris she was trapped in. She was unscathed since she had the durability of a god. 

But the thing was not the same for people around her, she looked around as she witnessed the horrors. She witnessed the death, she heard the screams of people most of them calling out for her while the rest of them were calling out for their family.

She walked around as she tried to save various people but most of them were dead or the people who were alive were in near-death situations. None of them wanted to die, they all begged Arae to save them but she was powerless to do so.

She wasn't able to use her blessings, she tried, but she wasn't able to do so. 

Wandering around the dead city, she hopelessly looked around for the people to save, but most of them were in critical condition and needed a miracle to save them. But the miracle they were expecting was not able to be performed by Arae. 

eventually, she gave up and kneed down to the ground, she looked at the ground hopelessly. She was in despair, it was the first time for her that she had felt despair.

She didn't feel like crying, but she wanted to cry, she started to think about every outcome that would have not led up to this. 

frustrated she screamed, it was the scream of absolute dispair, she needed someone by her side that could save her.