The Earth After Rebirth

From where they were, they couldn\'t see inside, it was dark as night. The closer they got, the darker it somehow got.

"Well, after you," Kiro said.

"Master..."

"Together then."

At the same time, they crossed the gleaming door frame. Kiro had great expectations, seeing the outside, the inside must\'ve been heaven, but...

"What the F*ck?"

The door disappeared behind them, there was light inside the temple, though they couldn\'t tell where it was coming from exactly. There were no torches, lamps or electric lights. There was just, light.

The place was infested with dark webs, spiders had clearly claimed it as theirs. Just that one step they took coming in caused the dust to create a mist before them.

The stone wasn\'t as gold as the one outside, this one was covered in dust and soot, time hadn\'t been kind to it. Yes it did seem like it was pristine once but it was well beyond it\'s prime now. The stone had cracks, Kiro thought it may collapse on them at any time.

Neither of them moved from where they stood, they didn\'t trust the floor to carry them across. They\'ve already experienced falling once, they wanted to hold off on that as long as possible.

"Now this is how an abandoned building should look like," he said while poking around with Ryu making sure the floor was sturdy.

He beckoned for Hubris to follow in his footsteps. He argued against this originally, he wanted to at least lead, he didn\'t trust any of it, he hated the feelings this temple gifted him.

They didn\'t seem to be his, but they were thousands of years of animosity he felt, for a place he\'d never even been in.

[Step to the left.]

"My lord, did you say something?"

"No?"

"I hear echoes directing me to the left." He said, almost in a whisper.

Kiro bit his tongue, he was hearing voices too but his were telling him to go to the right. What reason did the temple want to split them? He didn\'t know. To make matters worse the echoes were very enticing, it was almost impossible to say no.

"Hubris no matter what happens don\'t listen to the echoes." He commanded disorientated.

"I don\'t know if I can refuse them any longer." Hubris was fighting hard, but he felt like he was fighting a losing battle.

He didn\'t know what it was about this place, that made him weak-willed. Even Kiro, who was not as evolved as he was could keep the echoes at bay, but only just.

He reminded himself that Kiro wasn\'t just a somebody, he was someone who tamed not only him but also the energy of his home world. That alone spoke on how much of a strong will he had.

[It\'s your father Cerberus, come to me.]

"Father?" He stopped walking and jerked his toward the echo.

"Hubris? Hubris, wait — don\'t, stop!"

He had almost deviated from the path Kiro was leading. Kiro\'s cries stopped him and gave him a bit of courage to continue on.

"I hear them too, but it\'s not them okay? It\'s not, it can\'t be." He trailed off unsure, unable to even convince himself, how was he going to convince a hellhound.

As much as they\'ve walked over an hour, they were somehow still at the same place they were when they started. They were walking forward but, also, not.

"Master, I can\'t—I can\'t see."

Hubris was frantic, he couldn\'t see anything his vision was pitch black. Kiro had never seen him so vulnerable. Even when he was dying, he wasn\'t this distraught. This temple drained him mentally and emotionally.

"Hubris, you have vision that can see through dimensions..."

"Master, please help me, please."

He took a good long look at his mount, he wasn\'t his usual self. He was frightened. That made him look smaller than he actually was. Kiro walked over to him, he helped him to the floor and started caressing his chin to calm him down.

"It\'s going to be okay buddy, I\'m here, I always will be." Kiro tried to comfort him, he wasn\'t sure how else he was supposed to talk down a hellhound.

Naturally, he was going through a hell of his own in his head. At first, he heard his family call for him, the more he ignored them the more aggressive they became.

Now he was listening to his family call him by every bad word that existed under the sky, while comforting Hubris. If he was him from the past, their words would\'ve absolutely crushed him, but now he was stronger than that and as his master, Hubris was his responsibility.

Kiro\'s words were able to calm him down. So much that he was able to focus more than he was since he got to this world.

"There\'s something I\'m trying to grab, but it keeps slipping away." He commented. He saw it, it was right in front of him but eluded him every time.

"Just stay calm like this big guy, you\'ll get it, I believe in you."

Kiro tried his luck and tried vibrational sense, it was a stillness and quiet that made him uncomfortable, so he avoided it just as quick.

\'How can existence be without sound. How am I hearing and conversing with Hubris if this world doesn\'t have vibrations?\' He pondered.

But there was no system here to answer his many questions, he found himself missing the system. As terrible as it was, at least it made sure they knew about the world around them. Even if the information was almost always incomplete.

Nothing about this world or temple made any sense to him, he had to remind himself that, he wasn\'t back on earth. This was just a coded world, so anything was possible here, even breathing in space shouldn\'t shock him.