THESE HIDDEN WINGS

[59.1]ORIGINS CLASS 521: HEROES

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The bones of the Leviathan.

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MY EARS PERKED up at the sound of the Great Flood. I knew practically nothing about any of the Origin Stories Mr. Ogustus had taught us so far, but the Great Flood rang a bell that I was sure echoed in everyone's mind.

Noah.

Biblical Noah, and the great flood. Was he trying to tell me that it was caused by a war between the gods and the Ancient Guardians? There was only one man that could tell me that, and he was standing right before me.

Mr. Ogustus moved toward the front of the class. His eyes bore into ours.

"Yes, youngling the very same," he acknowledged what I assumed everyone else was thinking, a twinkle in his eyes.

"As usual I will not confirm or deny what is real and what is not according to your various religions, however, this you must know. There was a battle for power, for dominance and that resulted in a flood so great millions died. The god's won." he trailed off, "but it came at a cost, a cost they couldn't care to see just yet, even after so many deaths."

"In their victory, they took the place of the Ancients and ruled as the new gods of the new earth after its re-population. Tales of Greek gods, Yoruba, Norse, Armenian, Chinese, Japanese and so many more spread throughout the earth. Each race, ethnicity, and tribe took over a god who would rule their region.

And the place where the gods came together to reign was called by many names, be it Heaven or Olympus. And there, they ruled the earth for hundreds of years whilst the guardians and the ancients were bound in a prison known most famously as Tartarus, and their deceptions to the Shadow Realm."

"Tartarus exists?" Claire asked, pushing her glasses up her nose after lowering her hand.

"Yes, it is a place where the darkest of Deceptions are bound for all eternity with no way out. The Shadow realm is a difficult place but it is not impossible to escape. Tartarus however, has no gateway designed that opens and closes on demand. No one can just walk into Tartarus except one with the powers of the original gods. Some have connections to the realm in spirit form but no physical body can just walk into the bowels of Tartarus."

"So, Tartarus is like hell?"

"It is a premonition of hell. Something similar to what one would call hell. Truth is hell is not only a place of fire and brimstone, but when one says, "I am in hell," they simply mean a place where they feel the utmost misery, depression, and helplessness. Tartarus can be thought of as a place of eternal agony, of defeat and anguish."

There was a slight pause in the classroom as Mr. Ogustus held up our anticipation, "I shall not bore you any more of the conquest of the earth as time once again does not permit. You should know, however, that the thought gods ruled this earth, living on corrupt earth, corrupted them too. They broke away from their Perfect pairs and exploited that of mortal women.

They based themselves on greed, lust, and pride. They desired worship than peace, devotion than happiness. And the gods fell to darkness as did the Ancients before them. And from their offspring with mortal women, became the demi-gods. The new gods that fought for mortal men gained their respect and honor- and this is what we shall discuss- from here is where the origins of Kingsland stem.

In the old days, in the times of the Ancients and the Fallen, Kingsland was like every other Lost Island, though special as it was the home of the great guardian of the sea. The Leviathan."

I was sitting at the edge of my seat as Mr. Ogustus said all this. Gravis' words echoed in my mind at these words. The Leviathan. I was about to rehearse the story. But to my dismay he barely skimmed over the topic, not even mentioning the Age of Levi as he went on.

"Lost Islands were places scattered all over the ocean. These landmasses could be as small as a football pitch or as big as a small country, but here was the sanctuary of many supernatural beings before that of the Deceptions.

They could not be tracked by sea as they were ever-changing, and if by any chance a sailboat was lucky enough to rest there during a storm at sea, there are only a handful of times that a sailor managed to return to the mainland and tell tales of all the mysterious things he had encountered. Kingsland lay at the heart of these Islands. As the main home to the guardian, no man had ever set foot on it until the Leviathan perished at the mercy of an army of gods.

At the death of the Leviathan, many lost islands became visible to men in blinks, available for a few weeks, and then off to a new location. Some tribes of the mainland found these lands to be filled with magic and minerals and so they built civilizations on their shifting sands. What they did not realize is it was merely a cycle, and one by one, each island sank to the bottom of the sea, as the magic of these Islands drained without their guardian to sustain them and keep them hidden."

This sounded very much like the lost Island of Atlantis. The ancient civilization that had rattled many a scholar.

"There was only one shifting island that remained on the seas, kept up by something in the waters, no gods dared to discover, and so it became the last sanctuary for any water creature as well as the Supernatural that lived in its forests and woods."

The bones of the Leviathan.

That was what was keeping the Island up. I didn't know why he just hadn't said it. It seemed to me like he was keeping that important piece of information to himself for a reason.

"And because of all the supernatural creatures it attracted, Kingsland became a spot to train heroes, whether it was in hunting or how to ride a Pegasus..." he trailed off with a slight grin on his face, "how to wrestle a prehension boar, how to hunt, and so many more things needed in the training of combat. Even the waters around Kingsland attracted all manner of Deep-sea creatures which I must say were useful for both study and trial combat.

It was a haven of protection against the outside world, where gods walked, where demi-gods were sent to train. Even after Zeus converted all powers of demigods into northern lights, the selected seven heroes of every new age were taken here to train, to combat the evils that still lurked within the world. Be it the Hydra, medusa or Minotaur, banshee, Vizire, or any other kind of deception.

And then after the time of gods and men, when mortals finally had the world to themselves, Kingsland was abandoned. The world didn't need any more heroes, they had built themselves Machine guns, tanks, and nuclear bombs. It was clear that gods were not needed anymore, that men no longer feared or revered them. They needed no gods to rule what they could themselves. And so, the gods faded. Some say they simply grew weary of living forever and simply dissolved into nothingness, others say they still walk among us disguised as a human, it is not for me to tell."

My eyebrows arched at this statement. If the gods had truly disappeared and they are the only ones that knew of Kingsland then how on earth did we find this place? It was supposed to be untraceable right?

Something didn't add up.

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