The Earth After Rebirth

"Ki, you saved our asses..." Viktor proclaimed loudly when the harbinger fell with a deafening thud on the ground.

Kiro would’ve asked to be filled in but with just a single observation he could tell that the harbinger he’d just killed was not the first to come out of the portal, the ground was litterd with their bodies.

If he wasn’t so good at masking concern and panic would have been written all over his face but he took a deep breath and his lips cracked apart to form a smile, a smile compensating of all the nervousness that was attempting to take over but the only thing he gave it was the smile.

Seeing everything that happened while he wasn’t there to assess the situation brought up his past memories, memories that continued to haunt him way after they happened, memories of feeling helplessness, watching as his loved ones were taken away one by one when he could do nothing about it.

’Come on now, it’s different now. I can do something now, stay down.’ He gave himself a little pep talk.

"Kiro," Hiro’s voice brought him back, he turned to see the blood soaked Hiro. He didn’t doubt that the blood wasn’t his.

He looked very nervous, more nervous than Kiro felt. Unfortunately for him, he had not yet learned to hide his emotions from plaguing his face.

Hiro did not want to be the one to tell his best friend that the girl he loved was thrown to the other side of the portal, for all they knew she could be dead already. With what Kiro told them about going to the past, everywhere else posed a real danger to their lives, that’s why Kronos created Asgard to make it safe for everyone to fight harbingers.

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"What is it?" Kiro asked when Hiro seemed to be choking on his own words, seconds ticked by without him saying anything, trying to find words to cushion the blow.

"Isla, she, you see—"

"That thing threw her in the portal." Felix ripped out the bandaid, he saw that Hiro was wasting precious time, he knew Isla as tough she could still be holding on out there.

"What?" His voice came out barely a whisper.

Hiro gave Felix stink eye which he returned with a shrug. There was a lot at stake the time to walk around egg shells with anyone was a waste of time, at least that’s how Felix deduced the situation.

"Hubris, with me." Kiro told his mount, not wasting a single second and moving towards the portal but Hiro quickly cut him off.

"You can’t, Ki, you can’t. We have no idea what happens to anyone who passes that portal, we could all lose you. Losing you would be losing this war." He tried to reason.

But everything he was saying didn’t register to Kiro, he was set to rescue Isla. He could not just leave her on the other side with a fate unknown, if there was a way to go over there he needed to try and rescue her. Nothing anyone could have said at that moment that would have made him stop.

"Hiro, if you don’t move I’ll do it for you."

It was apparent that he would not want to hurt his friend but he also no qualms doing it if he insisted on stopping him, he could have used blink to avoid Hiro but he needed for his friend to accept that it was something that needed to be done, well, that and the fact that he was preserving every ounce of energy his body could store, he had a feeling he would need it. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

But if he needed to beat some sense into Hiro for him to accept the need to rescue Isla he would do it, it would be hard no doubt seeing as how much of a powerful tanker he was.

"Then I’m coming with you." Hiro said sensing that he wouldn’t be able to sway him otherwise.

"No, if it’s true that death awaits anyone in that portal, you’ll be needed here, to lead and keep everyone alive." He gestured to Hubris to follow him.

"Kiro, I’m coming with you."

Hiro didn’t possess a stubborn cell in his body but at that moment, he knew that his friend wouldn’t be able to make it out of there with just Hubris. They had been through a lot together, in or outside the game. Their first mission that evolved mid-mission was starting to come back to him, they’d fought all those monsters, just the two of them and won.

This was another chance for them, another chance to test the limits of lady luck.

"Fine," He sighed remembering the talk he had with his father, telling him he did not need to shoulder everything by himself that he needed to trust people, let them be his crutches.

"Nikolai, please lead them well." Kiro nodded to Nikolai who nodded back.

"I won’t disappoint you." He answered back and it was only then that Kiro turned his back and started walking with his best friend and mount toward the doom that threatened every world connected to Asgard.

The portal was a distance away, not exactly far but they were walking, fast enough to be considered running. Hubris was trailing right behind them.

Hiro would have tried to console him if he knew what to say but he couldn’t think of anything so with his shield they walked in silence.

The closer they got they could all feel the portal pulling at every inch of their being. If they weren’t players with such experience they would have been no doubt swallowed by the portal.

"Master...this is, it’s dangerous..."

"I know. I wouldn’t ask you to come if I wouldn’t need you." He answered simply.

The last time he was on the other side was under the protection of a god now he was going to completely leave the protection, he hated that he needed Hubris and even Hiro to have any chance of surviving beyond there.

The two expected for Kiro to stop upon arriving, to say anything at all but he, without so much as hesitation walked through the portal and so they followed.