False Hero

Grabbing the big chunk of tombstone, Grey swung it across aiming for Arae's head. But before he could connect, he stopped, he couldn't bring himself to kill her. 

"As I said, you want to save me, not kill me. You are mistaken, you view me as innocent that is the reason why you are hesitating to kill me. Forget about my past, forget about the things you saw, just remember the person I am now. I am a person who helped a monster, commit acts of utmost evil, which makes me a monster too. " 

Arae took a step towards Grey as she continued, " Kill me and become a hero!"

Grey let go of the chuck of tombstone, he gasped for breath before saying, "Become a hero? that would just make me feel shitty."

Arae sighed, she looked at Grey as she said "Then let's put an end to this."

"You are right. Now then goddess of the curse, you are in my way, so I will eliminate you." Grey looked at Arae straight in the eyes as he spoke. 

"Good, then let's finish this up." 

They both dashed towards each other, getting in close quarters to each other. Grey swung his right fist which was blocked by Arae, Grey continued to attack with his left hand which was also blocked by Arae.

Taking advantage of Grey being wide open, drove her knee inside's Grey abdomen knocking him away. Rolling back to the ground, Grey grabbed a piece of rock as he got up on his feet. 

Aiming it at Arae, Grey threw the rock at Arae. Which she easily dodged by tilting her head away. But following the rock, Grey dashed further, he connected a blow to her face. 

Following that blow, Grey connected another blow to her abdomen. Groaning she stepped back, but without giving her much chance Grey jumped towards her. 

In mid-air, Grey lifted his feet aiming it at Arae, but she was able to dodge it. Grey's feet landed on the church's wall, he again regained momentum to attack her. 

As Grey turned around to attack her, she dived towards Grey, grabbing hold of Grey, she crashed onto the church's wall. 

But rather than stopping, she continued to sprint further while, grabbing hold of Grey, as she kept crashing Grey's back onto wall after wall, breaking each wall. Finally, both of them collapsed into one of the benches in the aisle. 

Grey groaned as he struggled to get up, Arae walked closer to Grey, her steps were getting limped. Arae was obviously injured in various places just like Grey.

Struggling to walk, she got closer to Grey. She picked a plank from the broken bench as she walked towards Grey. stopping close to Grey, she lifted the bench, but before she could hit Grey with it.

Grey Grabbed a wooden piece, that had a sharp edge and stabbed it in Arae's leg. 

"Guh!" Groaning Arae stepped back. 

She grabbed hold of the stick as she pulled it out of her tight. The wooden piece was now covered with her blood. 

Grey struggled to get up, as he looked around in the church. There were bodies of troops scattered all around the church. There were Miles troops and Helm's troops still fighting against each other. 

There were two dead bodies in Grey's close proximity, one to his right and one to his left. Grey carefully took a step back as his eyes were fixed at Arae, getting closer to the dead body, he got hold of the troop's sword.

Arae did the same as she grabbed hold of the sword, "Sword will probably make it easier, we aren't able to finish each other off with bare hands."

"Yeah, and dying by the sword would be much easier, with fist it hurts like hell."

Grey looked at his sword, before turning to face Arae once again, opening his mouth he questioned, "Arae, I mean to ask you something, the hundreds of years you spent alone or few years that you spent with mortals, which one do you prefer?"

Arae didn't look towards Grey as she answered, "Even though it ended with pain but I loved the time that I spent with a mortal, it was warm and happy moments."

She said this with a smile.

"You really loved them."

"I did." 

Grey crouched down as he gently closed the dead man's open eye, as he asked "if you had the chance to redo it all, what would you do differently?"

"Redo it all?" she muttered, with a second of pause she answered, "I would have ruled over humans, with the power I would have protected them."

"I see."

Grey got up as he readied his sword, with a sharp look in his eyes he said, "Godess of Blessing, no, Arae, it was my pleasure that I got to know you." 

"No, the pleasure was mine, Grey," said Arae as she readied her sword. 

With a quick step both of them dashed forward, clashing their sword with each other, they stepped back. 

Quickly Grey dashed forwards as he swung his swing again, Arae raised her sword to defend herself, and their sword clashed Arae's sword backed up due to impact. But she quickly stepped back to defend herself to keep some distance between. 

After a good second both of them dashed towards each other, in close-quarter both of them swung their sword, but rather than clashing sword with her, Grey ducked down and he thrust his sword forward. 

"Grandma?"

called out a particular person as the sword pierced right through her heart, Grey was successful in piercing the sword through her heart.

Her knees became weak as she dropped down to the floor, she sat on the knees as she turned to look towards Kirsa. 

"Kirsa," she called out.

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Kirsa followed Arae and Helm to the church, she hide since she had no idea what was happening inside the church. But she was growing impatient, so she entered the church. 

As soon as she entered the church she saw turned to look left, her eyes grew wider as she called out. 

"Grandma?"

In front of her was Arae on her knees. There was a sword that was pierced through her chest. Arae turned to look at Kirsa as she said, 

"Kirsa."

Kirsa rushed towards Arae, before Arae could collapse to the ground, Kirsa caught her in her arms. 

As she was holding on to her, Kirsa's cloth was getting bloodier as Arae's blood seeped into her cloth. Looking at the blood she asked, 

"Blood? Grandma, why are you bleeding? you---- you are god, right? this is nothing to you, right? get up grandma this is nothing for you."

But she was wrong, Arae wasn't able to get up. "Grandma, why ---- why this blood looks real? Grandma -----"

Before Kirsa could say anything, Arae placed her hand over Kirsa's cheek as she said, "Kirsa, I am fine, please don't worry so much, I---"

Arae couldn't speak further as she coughed up blood. 

"Liar!!! there is no way you are fine!!", Kirsa turned to look towards Grey, as she asked "What did you do to her!!!!! why did you ---"

"It is not his fault Kirsa, I was ordered by your brother to kill him, Grey just defended himself. You know, I can't deny any order by your blood."

Couldn't being able to stand up anymore, Grey leaned onto the wall. Struggling, he got seated on the ground, leaning his back against the wall. 

His face twisted into a pained expression as he struggled to sit down, his breath was heavier, his eyes were fixed at Kirsa and Arae.

"Grandma, your condition----"

"Kirsa, you are a grown-up and you are my granddaughter, so I am sure you will be just fine without me. I don't have to sugarcoat the fact that my time is over and you understand that very well."

Tears poured out of Kirsa's eyes as she struggled to speak, "No no no no no no, there must be some way, I am sure!! we will find you a doctor just hold on, please don't give up."

"Kirsa, to be honest, at one point in my life I stopped loving people Esser family, but I want you to know this, Grandma has always loved you and Grandma will continue to love you. I watched you grow up and I know you are a smart kid."

"Grandma---" Kirsa said softly under her breath, as she couldn't control her tears.

"Grandma was never a god of the curse, I was the god of blessing and as the god of blessing, I want to give my little Kirsa blessing that her business will be successful and no matter what my Kirsa does, she will definitely find happiness in it. Happiness is a vague term but that's all I want, I want my Little Kirsa to be happy."

Arae turned to look towards Grey as she said, "You fought me bravely, you tried to save me, I respect that, I also wish that I have met you earlier. I want to give you the blessing that you will achieve the goal that you couldn't achieve in your last life. even though you forgot the memory of it, but your soul still remembers it, I hope one day you achieve it, Grey."

Grey didn't say anything as he looked at her, even though he had a lot to say, but he didn't want to take the moment between her and Kirsa, so choose to stay quiet. 

Kirsa held Arae tighter as she cried "Grandma!"

"Can you just hold me like that, Grandma wants to take a little nap."

Kirsa held her tighter as she said, "Yes.", she held her for a second like that before Arae spoke, "This was my life as a god...."

those were the last words as she passed away.. For some reason she held a smile before she died, maybe she was finally in touch with reality, whatever the reason may be, but this was the story of Arae, the godess of blessing and this is how her story ended.