the end of hades

NOELLE’S POV,

While I am contemplating what to do with Hades, I hear running footsteps. Gabriel, Holly, and Faith come running towards me. Gabriel takes me in his arms and holds me tight, “I am so happy you are okay,” he says relieved.

We all look down at Hades who is still fighting to get rid of the glowing roots. “What should we do with him?” I ask the rest.

Holly looks at Hades full of hate, “You should give him a vision of something terrible and let him die thinking about that.”

Gabriel coldly replies, “I have no problem with that.”

Faith sounds determined when she says, “No. We can’t just kill him because he will find a way to come back. To be rid of him for good I must heal him and his evil.”

We are all quiet when she walks to him and sits down at his head. For the first time I see fear in Hades his eyes and he screams, “No, No, No, not her! Just kill me."

Faith puts her hands on his horns and closes her eyes. She slowly lights up like a bright star and the lights flows from her hands into Hades his horns. He screams and struggles until the light fills up his whole head. He then becomes calm and serene like he is sleeping. The light slowly spreads lower to his neck and chest. I hear Faith her breathing become heavier and when I look at her closely, I can see that the further the light spreads through Hades his body the more it dims out in Faith her body. A bad feeling starts to emerge in my stomach, and I want to walk to Faith. But like she can sense my fear she looks up at my face and stares into my eyes. I can hear her whisper some kind of incantation and I am not able to walk towards her. The spell froze me, Gabriel, and Holly. We cannot move or talk. I don’t have any magic left to break the spell, so I have to watch her with tears rolling down my cheeks. I watch the light spread all the way to Hades his feet while the last bit of light runs out of Faith her hands. Hades is now glowing with light, and he gets brighter and brighter until he explodes.

The explosion of light blinds me for a little while but when it fades, I can move again. I run towards Faith who is laying on the ground. I check her pulse crying but there is nothing there. She gave her life to make sure Hades would never come back again. I hold her in my arms and cry against her hair. Holly and Gabriel join me, and we sit there crying over Faith her body for what feels like hours. Then Gabriel picks her up and carries her back into the city where we will give her a proper burial tomorrow together with Zeus, Angus, and all the other brave people that died fighting for peace. I tell Holly and Gabriel how Zeus died protecting me while we walk over the ruins of the city. The closer we get to the castle the harder it gets for me to walk straight. The death of my friends and the fighting has drained me physically and mentally. So, I quietly sneak into the castle and go to my room.

When I get to my room, I notice a letter laying on the bed. I frown and pick it up and immediately recognize Faith her handwriting. The letter says, “Noelle my dearest friend, “If you find this letter it means we won. This is the best news we could hope for so hurray! Unfortunately, it will also mean that I am no longer in this world. But don’t be sad because this was my destiny all along. When I was in the library, I also found a book about evil and how to stop it. It said that the only way to make sure an evil being doesn’t return is to heal its complete body and mind. It takes an extremely skilled healer to do such a thing and it also mentioned that to complete the healing the healer must willingly give her whole life force away. I knew immediately when I read it that this is what I was destined to do. All those years of helping people and learning about healing led to this final moment where my talents would matter the most. So please don’t feel bad because I knew exactly what I was doing, and I know that my journey doesn’t end here. Thank you for being my friend, I treasure all our great memories together. Faith.”

I fall to the ground and stay there curled up like a ball until Gabriel finds me and holds me in his arms. The rest of the night I spend in his arms while we bring up memories of the friends we lost today. When the sun breaks through the window we walk to the balcony and look out over the city. We look at the ruins of the city and to the fire tables, they are preparing for the dead. But we also look at ordinary people, magicians, angels, and healed dark humans working together in harmony over the remains of battle. For the first time I hear birds sing while the sun lights up the city on the first day of peace.