A nurse cleaned a towel in a basin of water, washing away the black blood that coated Arylos’s wounds. She watched the Titan squirm in discomfort as other nurses were bandaging his wounds, treating him with various oils and ointments to ease his pain. The nurse turned to her other side and took a bowl of a white and blue cream, lathering the cream into a bandage in her other hand. She eyed the large scar running along Arylos’s arm, cracked like dried mud and fracturing like glass. With a sigh, she gingerly rested her hands on the wound and as she touched the scar with the bandage, Arylos growled loudly and clenched his fists.

“I’m sorry my lord, but I have to do this,” the nurse said apologetically while trying to wrap the bandage around his arm.

Arylos growled through gritted teeth, growing tired of the company of the various nurses and doctors. “Just leave me alone,” he growled inhumanly while trying to fight back against the unwelcome hands.

“I can’t do that,” the nurse said as she held his arm down and wrapped the bandage around his arm, warranting a deep howl from the Titan.

Arylos winced as the ointment burned his skin, taking sharp breaths as the medicine did its work. “You would be better saving this for the others; why torture me?”

“Come now old friend, we’re trying to help,” a man’s deep and calm voice said just out of Arylos’s vision. Arylos looked around to try and find the voice but couldn’t find it and was interrupted as one of the other nurses poured a few drops of oil into more cracked skin along his chest, causing the Titan to growl as the pain stung him.

“Fucking knock me out then,” Arylos growled again through clenched teeth.

“Even if I had the medicine to do that, we both know it won’t work on you,” the voice said again off to Arylos’s right side. Arylos looked over and caught the shadow of a tall man contrasting against a bright light behind him.

“Then at least give me a minute to breathe,” Arylos said in a deep growl towards the man.

The man looked over towards Arylos, his face obscured by the shadow of the bright light yet Arylos could see a strange faint green-ish glow in the man’s eyes. The man turned his attention to the nurses and thought for a moment. “Everyone, finish what you’re doing and leave us.”

The nurses nodded and one by one began to leave Arylos, gathering their tools and cleaning their hands of his black blood. The final nurse remained by Arylos’s side, continuing to wrap his arm in the medicated bandage. Arylos felt a little relief but the ointment on the bandage continued to burn him.

“Ankhes, how much more do you have to finish?” the man asked as he brought a stool over next to Arylos and sat on it.

“This is the first layer; I still have to finish the wrap,” the woman responded while gesturing towards the Titan’s arm.

“Ankhes?” Arylos asked while looking at the nurse, questioning the origin of the foreign name.

“That will be enough, finish that layer and leave us; you may finish when you change the bandage next,” the man instructed with a nod.

The nurse nodded and finished a few extra rounds of the bandage before cutting it and rising from her place. “Would you like me to get the light?”

“Yes please,” the man said while eyeing Arylos intently.

The nurse nodded and walked over towards the light source and blew out a candle. As the light faded, Arylos realized it was a candle behind a large set of lenses; a design that did not belong to Kaiyumi. As the nurse left the room, Arylos looked towards the man sitting next to him. Arylos could see the man more clearly with his dark tan skin and gray and black long hair with a clean shaven face. Yet it was his eyes that caught Arylos’s attention; a deep emerald green that had a soft glow to them behind a pair of spectacles with gold frames.

“Who are you?” Arylos asked in concern as he watched the man intensely.

“Come now, do you really mean to tell me that you cannot recognize me?” the man said in a soft chuckle.

“You mean to say that I’m supposed to know who you are?” Arylos asked in an accusing voice.

The man continued laughing as he took off his spectacles and shook his head. “I know this incarnation is new to you, but I thought you would still recognize an old friend.”

“Incarnation?” Arylos asked while eyeing the man. He raised his eyebrows as he began to wonder just who he was talking to. “Moviron?” he asked softly.

The man let out a loud laugh that scared Arylos. “Well now I’m just hurt; why would you think I’m him?”

“I have a list I need to run down,” Arylos said with a shy laugh.

“You better narrow down that list quickly, Zjornfernheim,” the man said with a sly smile.

Arylos’s eyes widened, not expecting to hear his name on the lips of another living being. “How do you know that name?” Arylos asked softly.

The man laughed as he put his spectacles back on and leaned back. “I know the true names of every star in the sky, including those of other worlds.”

“Don’t bullshit me; there is only one way you could know that name,” Arylos said with a growl.

“Yes yes, I know; I must have been present before or during the fall of the Mortehksun,” the man said as if the scenario wasn’t possible. “That or learn from a surviving Vlajhilsen, of which there is only one.”

Arylos’s growls slowly faded as he began to realize who he was talking to. “Djehuti?” he asked softly.

The man laughed and waved Arylos off. “Please, leave that name to that old incarnation. I have since taken the name Thoth.”

Arylos gave Thoth a smile, finally recognizing his old Templarian friend. “Well, I never thought I’d see a friendly Akhetian Templarian.”

“I live to archive knowledge; why would I threaten a Titan who existed before our own reality?” Thoth said jokingly as he put his spectacles back on.

“That would make you one of the smart ones,” Arylos said with a laugh. As quick as his laughter came to him, it quickly faded as he had a dark realization. “You still have not returned to Akhet, have you?”

“Why do you ask that?” Thoth asked in confusion.

“If you’re here, then Templarius hasn’t provided aid,” Arylos said softly.

“Don’t worry about those fools; they’re too tied up in political unrest and war to care,” Thoth said while resting a hand on Arylos’s shoulder.

“Political unrest?” Arylos asked in confusion. “Has something happened?”

Thoth let out a sigh as he looked for the right words. “Anoron banished Odin from Templarius, but doing so shook the council; the government is in shambles as the council argues with itself over everything. The problem is that the council is denying the existence of the Eikonic threat Anoron is warning about so Odin’s removal has sown distrust.”

“They don’t believe the Eikons are real?” Arylos asked.

“Correct; they think that Anoron is talking about the Saryahks who died with Semigon,” Thoth said while crossing his arms. “Anoron exiled Odin before the council could be convinced so now they believe he’s trying to hide ulterior motives under the guise of a war from a race a very select few know about.”

“What are your thoughts?” Arylos asked while thinking about the situation.

Thoth let out a chuckle while shaking his head. “Before, I could tell they existed. No matter where you looked, you could always find signs of them; the sterilized worlds, primitives leaving stories of burning skies and screaming winds, the mass cremations of many advanced races before they died out, and even the Great Filter theory that I presented to the council many millennia ago. I always knew they existed but all signs pointed to them being long dead. And now just a week ago, I saw a living Eikon come to this world and saw its destruction first hand. Anoron’s warnings are not only justified; they downplay the sheer horror of those creatures.”

Arylos nodded slowly, internally appreciating Thoth being wise enough to see what was going on. “Yet you won’t return to Templarius to convince the council?” Arylos asked.

“The council will take months, maybe even years before they could be convinced,” Thoth said with a grunt of annoyance. “These people need help now. Templarius won’t come to their aid so it comes to us to help them.”

Arylos’s expression softened before he closed his eyes and let out a relieved sigh. “I never thought you would be one to leave the library and come here where it’s all real. Yet here you are, in the blood and dirt and giving what help you can. Thank you.”

“Our whole purpose was to help those less fortunate; it would be a sin and a shame if we turned our backs,” Thoth said with a prideful smile. “Especially since you can’t protect them anymore.”

“What do you mean by that?” Arylos asked, caught off guard by Thoth’s statement.

Thoth let out a sigh and reached for a book next to him and opened it and began reading from its pages. “Several dozen lacerations, broken bones, second to third degree burns, fractured ulna in the left arm, organ damage and internal bleeding that could only be described as ‘excessive’, and that’s just the main list. How about the other issues of your body and your inability to heal. Do you realize just what the hell happened to you?”

“I’m dying,” Arylos said softly. “My time is up and I can’t heal this body anymore.”

“Exactly; you’re in no condition to fight anymore,” Thoth said in an exasperated sigh. “Quite frankly, what that girlfriend of yours did to bring you back was nothing short of a miracle and I doubt it will work again.”

“Is she okay?” Arylos asked in a stern voice.

“She’ll be fine; her cuts were superficial and her blood loss was minimal,” Thoth said while turning to another page. “She spread the bloodletting across several days to minimize her blood loss and she did not cut any major arteries; her scars will heal given time. For you, however, no amount of blood will let your body heal. The only reason her blood worked was because Bellona found you and you were able to feed off her Templarian cells. She basically gave you the ability to reincarnate a little bit; just enough to bring you back.”

“That’s why I was so weak; I was hanging on by a thread and puppeting a corpse,” Arylos said as he looked at his bandaged arm. “I had already died, but I was still able to manipulate this body with a thread.”

“Yes, and Iris’s blood let your body heal, but it looks like we hit a ceiling,” Thoth said while getting up from the stool and walking over towards a table, setting the book down on it. “There’s not much more we can do at this point since your body has refused to heal any further. All we can do is treat your wounds so they trouble you as little as possible.”

“But I can’t just let the Eikons have their way,” Arylos said while trying to lift himself up, groaning as he slowly sat up and his joints popped loudly.

“You’re going to have to leave that fight to stronger people, Arylos,” Thoth said while turning around and offering an ornate wooden cane to Arylos decorated with various designs and runes. “You’re officially retired from battle; I don’t even think you could swat a fly if you tried.”

“I don’t need a cane; I’m not crippled,” Arylos said with a deep growl.

“I’m afraid that I must insist,” Thoth said while offering the cane again. “You don’t have the strength to walk on your own.

“I don’t care,” Arylos said while turning around and letting his feet hang from the cot. Thoth saw what Arylos was going to do and stepped back, knowing what would happen next. As Arylos pushed forward, his legs immediately crumpled beneath him and he fell to the ground in a solid thud.

“That is why I insist,” Thoth said with a deep sigh.

Arylos groaned as the trauma from landing on the hard rocky ground shook his head. He moved his hands and tried to push himself off the ground yet his arms shook under his weight and couldn’t hold him. Arylos gritted his teeth as the air hummed softly, yet as the magic took effect, Arylos felt the muscles of his body burn and struggle to maintain the Titanic magic. No matter how much the pain hurt and how loud the air howled, Arylos could barely lift himself an inch off the ground before the energy faded and he was pulled back down.

Arylos looked to the corner of his eyes and saw the stool Thoth was sitting in earlier. His eyes shone a bright red as the air hummed once more and the stool started to shake, slowly moving towards him inch by inch. Thoth saw the telekinesis and put his foot in front of the stool, stopping it from moving as the air hummed loudly like a stalled engine. Arylos groaned and let out a held breath as the magic faded, leaving the stool where Thoth stopped it.

Thoth nodded and knelt down, pulling Arylos back up and sat on the ground next to him. He watched the Titan look down to his shaking hands with disbelief and Thoth could feel Arylos’s pain as tears came to Arylos’s eyes again. “It can’t be,” Arylos whispered softly as the realization hit him hard.

Thoth sighed and rested a hand on Arylos’s shoulder. “I’m sorry old friend, but time has caught up with you.”

Arylos sighed and ran his hands through his hair, pulling on his hair as the realization chilled his core. His eyes darted around the room as he realized that he was now useless. All the Eikons wanted was Arylos out of the way of their war, and Vortex gave his masters just that. If the Eikons return for war, Arylos won’t be able to stop them and if he can’t stop them, everyone in reality will die.

And Arylos felt the horror of knowing that the Eikons will return.