When Dike got to the river, he saw nobody on the shore. But still, everything seemed as if a huge fire scorched everything around, drying the river and leaving the earth lifeless. Even the trees were completely leafless as if the devil itself blew his breath of fire over them.

„Everything will look like this if we don't do anything to avoid this, Dike,” Gaea told him as if he was in a dream. „What you see around is how your soul looks like now, when you don’t know where your children are. But this is only 1% of how the Earth will look like if your children's missing is real."

„If their missing is real? Do you mean that what I see now is just an illusion?” Dike wondered in amazement while his eyes were looking around, but he saw nothing changing - the same desert was surrounding him.

Then, a small fire started to burn right there where it had to be the middle of the river and a voice was heard coming out of the flames as if Gaea was made from fire.

„I’m talking about disasters, first titan. I’m talking about the ending of everything we know and we fought for it till now. Eris isn’t asleep there, in Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi. She’s awake and she’s planning her escape. And, to succeed in this, she sent her soul to Earth in the form of a black diamond, and that diamond brought fruits to this planet. That's why, Eris considers those fruits as being her children, and they are the real Seeds of Evil, the seeds of pain that will bring us to our knees, eventually, if to be inattentive.”

„And yet, there’s nothing lost till the last battle is fought.”

„But… Dike, are you really ready for this?”

„Of course, I’m ready, because…,” but Dike couldn’t finish his thought because he suddenly heard a deafening rumble increasing in volume, approaching him from the side, and, looking in the distance, he saw water horses, galloping toward him. But the titan didn’t move from his place and waited for those horses to come over him and to cool the arson of his soul, for they were galloping like mad souls in the deafening whirlpool of the waters, and the noise of the horses’hooves was heard louder and louder while their transparent mane became milky water with each millimeter they were approaching Dike, and, so soon, their union with the titan’s body took place.

Hitting their bodies against Dike, the water horses transformed into blinking waters that were quickly flowing down the riverbed, and everything around returned to life soon.

Seeing life all around again, Dike turned his head toward the shore and he saw his children playing in the sand. They were safe and that was everything that mattered because, being surrounded by a transparent bubble, Dike’s kids didn’t hear or see anything, and that meant that they haven't noticed his absence yet. Understanding this, Dike breathed a sigh of relief because he had been afraid that his children will be scared not to see him around.

„It was me who took them from you, this time. Next time can be whoever, Dike. Whoever,” and Gaea’s voice resounded so powerfully around, but she couldn’t be seen anywhere. But Dike kept looking in front as if he felt her presence there and, soon, he saw her coming out of the water. Her hair was wet as her clothes were, and it made her shine in the sunlight and be so beautiful, even more, beautiful than she had been before.

After that, Gaea walked through the water and approached Dike, who said no word till she hadn’t been next to him. Then, she took the miniature jug from her girdle and approached it to the river surface, and, in her hand, the jug took a normal shape and size, and the titanide could fill it with river water to the brim.

„Stretch your hands and join your palms, in a scoop,” Gaea told him and she approached the edge of the jug to Dike’s palms.

Distrustful by nature, but somehow curious to find out what Mother Nature can tell him this time by using the trick with the river water, Dike listened to her, stretched his hands, and joined his palms on the bottom side, leaving them half-open in the upper part and forming a kind of swallow's nest this way.

Seeing that form of the titan’s palms, that was reminding her of home, Gaea smiled and started to pour water through the hole till she filled the „nest” with water to the brim. Then, on the surface of the water from Dike’s palms, a kind of mirror was formed and, on it, the titan could see the future. But that future was tricky and was showing him the images like a kind of puzzle pieces that Dike had later to put them in order to understand the truth revealed by them.

At first, he saw, reflected on that water, a kind of an unknown realm in which a lot of black snakes were crawling, and those snakes were approaching a black forest surrounded by darkness. And even if Dike thought that the forest was a known place, he still doubted it. So, he narrowed his eyes and looked carefully at it and he saw that it was Rophion Forest, taken over by the power of evil. And he also saw that even the trees, that had been so towering once, so full of life and kindness, were sending a kind of devilish breath around, at that moment, and they were also exhaling red and hot magma through their being, that was coloring the surroundings in the shade of the blood.

Seeing this, Dike winced because he didn't want that kind of future for his people, a people that he later saw on their knees, in the same mirror, because the wolves hadn't the power to face the evil and the forest's arson scorched their fur, and the poor souls didn’t know where else to hide to be at safe of that killing breath.

But what really made Dike shudder, with all his being, had been the image that he saw after this when all the Rophion wolves hid in the forest, running away from death - Samaya’s death.

A lance pierced the girl’s back and Dike saw her falling, and, when she was on her knees, she turned her head and looked at the forest. But even if death was breathing next to her, Dike heard no sound made by her. And the same happened to Dike, who couldn't say a word to her and he felt it so well, how the words were stuck in his throat as if they were a kind of strange rope that was lapping around his neck, leaving him breathless. And, what made him even more frightened and he regretted it so much, has been the fact that he had never heard her beautiful voice: neither while being only a baby nor at that moment when she was dying, in the mirror, asking for his help.

Bitter tears started to suddenly flow on his cheeks while staring at Samaya from the mirror, made from water, while she was watching him with kind eyes, with no fear in them. After that, she suddenly turned her glance from him and looked back, at someone he couldn't see at first. But he knew that his girl was looking at the one who tried to kill her or... maybe, looking back, the girl tried to tell her father the truth about her destiny, to finally ask him for help, even if she was doing that in her way.

And Dike listened to the swing of his heart and he also looked in the same direction as Samaya from the water was looking, and he also saw the one who was heading toward her - Mannar, on the back of a devilish animal while his eyes were lit embers, looking with hatred, not at Samaya who he was trying to kill, but at Dike as if trying to tell him that their battle will start soon.

„Dog!” Dike finally murmured after staring for a long time at Mannar’s grin, a sneer full of satisfaction and looking completely happy because of his success.

Mannar and Dike continued to stare into the other’s eyes through the mirror formed on the water from his palms, but none of them had the power to defeat the other one only with their glance, and even if Mannar said something, Dike didn't understand the message Mannar tried to send him. But the titan felt defeated by that devil, at the moment he saw Samaya's body being transformed into ashes when Mannar finally got next to her and cut her head with his sword.

Frightened, Dike took a step back and his palms separated. Then, through the space between them, the water from the jug continued to pour, joining the river surface.

„It can’t be,” Dike murmured, still staring at the jug which was still full of water, for no matter how much liquid hadn't been poured from it, the jug was still full, reflecting on its upper part a prophecy and, on that small mirror of water only one „frozen” image was seen - Samaya’s frightened eyes before death and, only for a moment, on that mirror, Dike spotted a black diamond shinning between Mannar’s horns, on his forehead.

„Eris’heart. Her heart got on Earth,” Dike whispered again and his hand touched the jug, intending to grab the black diamond with his hand. But when his hand touched the jug, it vanished for a few seconds and it could be seen later at Gaea’s girdle again, like a miniature jug.

„You are right, Dike,” Gaea said. „What you saw, it really is Eris’heart on Earth. The same heart you let escape from Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi ten thousand years ago and which floated at first throughout the Universe like a black meteorite, and when Planet Earth had been created by Atlas, Eris found out about this, and she sent her heart here, understanding that a new Era has started with this Planet and that she has a new chance to be set free thus. That’s why she created Mannar and you saw his new form reflected on the water.”

„But I can also see that the story isn’t finished, in your prophecy. That there’s something more than what I saw. Something that you hide from me. What is it, Gaea? What are you hiding from me?”

„Samandra’s death. She has been Mannar’s first human victim and… she wasn’t just a simple victim: her death had a single aim - to make you suffer and it seems that Eris made it because you still suffer a lot because of your wife’s death.”

Dike squeezed his fists and gnashed, trying to howl like the wolf at the moon. But the huge fire that was burning inside him couldn’t be extinguished even with the entire river water in which he was washing his feet at that moment.

„You won’t bring her back to life acting this, and you know that, for even if you release all the hatred that you have in your heart and you’ll chase Mannar away, you won't feel better after this. And... If I told you about this, it was not to make you suffer more or to look for being avenged, but to prepare your children for what’s coming, Dike!”

Saying this, Gaea looked deeply into Dike’s eyes, trying to make him understand the real problem that they had to face from that moment. „You aren’t alone anymore, Dike. This world needs you as your kids need you.”

„Where is he? Where is that traitor? I’ll send him back to his master.”

„He has been imprisoned, for the moment. And … he can’t escape as you can't find him or see him. I and Lodur … we used our dark power to form Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi prison here, on Earth, but we don’t know for how long it will keep him a captive there.”

„Dark power? But this is…”

„…betrayal?” Gaea sketched a sad smile. „I know this as I know that I've been cursed to lose something that I love by using Black Magic. But still... I don’t regret having used it. I can’t just stay and wait to see how everything around me dies because it’s me who created it. Or worse: to leave it to be ruled by Eris. I better die than to allow my children to be controlled by her madness.”

Dike looked inside her through her green eyes, but he saw only emptiness in them and that there wasn’t anything else than a huge desert.

„The Desert of Oblivion. There’s where you’ll cry for your sins, Gaea. But it won’t be soon. It will be one day when you understand that you can lose your whole life.”

„I know,” she said. „But… I can’t see what I’ll lose. And… I’m not afraid to die but to lose another child of mine. And … I can see that you are scared too, but I hope that at least my betrayal saved your life and of your children and that Rophion People is safe too.”

Dike said nothing. He just stretched his hand and touched her forehead. Then, he closed his eyes and started to whisper: „a sin made for a good cause should be washed by the Holy Waters of the First River which ever existed on Earth. She, the first titanide born from the River of Sins can purify her soul only by washing her body in these waters from which she had been born and in which she’ll be buried, in the end.”

Accompanied by Dike’s voice, Gaea closed her eyes, laid on her back, and fell prey to his magic, being covered by waters very soon. And when her body disappeared into the water, Dike turned toward the river shore, watching Fenrir and Samaya who were waiting for him.

The magic bubble that was protecting the kids was already gone and everything around returned to life even if Gaea didn’t show up from the water again. But even so, Dike knew that she wasn’t gone forever and that she’ll be back soon because the music of her panflute was heard again blown around.