Green and blue runes covered his entire wings, every feather and every bone. Lightning and flames flickered on them.

He could feel a flame burning inside them and he knew instinctively that was a divine flame.

However he could also tell he didn't have much control over that flame which made sense.

His wings were now like a customised artefacts rather than a body part. When his wings formed the world seemed to sing to them

Thunder roared above as if welcoming the king of the sky. He flapped them gently. For a s moment everything stood still.

Then flames and lightning exploded out of the wings. The divine flame burnt bright turning both the lightning and the flames black.

The sky and the earth shook, lightning danced through the clouds like snakes. Tornadoes that connected the heavens and the earth ravaged through the earth for thousand of kilometres.

Earthquakes shook the land and lava exploded out of the ground like boiling porridge.

A single flap of his wings caused disasters for thousands of kilometres around himself but more than that it was his speed.

The moment he flapped them the world seemed to stretch around him and he appeared over a hundred thousand kilometres away.

While he could already move faster than lightning so technically this should not surprise him but it did.

Moving faster than lightning placed a massive strain on the body and stamina. It could only be used for short bursts.

After each burst there's a split second of rest, whether to take a turn or something else which is why such speeds can only be used during battle.

Travelling such a long distance with such speeds would not only drain too much energy but might break your body.

It was as if the world itself prevented people from doing that yet he was totally fine and barely used any stamina at all. He looked around and realised he was above the sea.

He still marveled at how massive the world had gotten. That one hundred thousand kilometres he travelled were not even half of just Africa.

Then he looked back and realised why the world didn't allow such speeds for a long distance.

There was a trail on his path, his speed had left a mark on the world, it weakened space itself.

He closed his eyes, he could feel the mental strain of maintaining the divine flame burning in his wings.

Black lightning and fire flickered across his wings and he flew off again, this time he was aware of everything happening.

After travelling a certain distance with speeds faster than lightning, he felt as if he had hit a barrier.

The barrier was not hard to break but when he did he heard the sound of ripping cloth. He felt a massive impact around him.

Then he realised the divine flames on his wings were shielding him from the retaliation of the world.

But doing this was damaging the world itself. He flapped his wings and came to a stop. He was already close to where he was before anyways.

He deactivated the wings of Garuda, the runes disappeared and so did the black flames and lightning.

His wings returned to normal but he could still sense the divine flame burning inside them, it just didn't feel like it was his the same way his divine spark was.

He stopped thinking about it, before he could fly back, Naledi appeared out of thin air next to him. She didn't say anything for a while.

They floated there in silence but he broke the silence, it was awkward but he knew they had to talk about everything that happened between them.

But first she needed to know she wasn't to blame for this because he could see it in her eyes, she was already blaming herself. " You tried your best Naledi, there was nothing you could do."

She sighed, " i know, but I feel like I should've tried harder, if I did maybe more lives could've been saved.

Yet here I was brooding because I was scared of losing the people I loved, running like the coward I am."

He turned to look at her, his golden eyes burning with sadness. " You're not a god Naledi, the world's problems are not yours to bear.

So what if you were running or hiding, aren't we all? Look at me, my image, the entirety of my being is based around my extreme fear of death.

But aren't out fears what makes us alive? How you deal with those fears is for you to decide and nobody should judge you for that.

I should be the one to apologise." She looked at him. " What for?" He sighed and gave her a sad look, he knew they were having this conversation now.

" I wasn't there, you needed me and I wasn't there for you." She shook her head with a sad smile. " Oh my love, you haven't changed have you?

Always trying to shoulder the blame for me, I'm the one who pushed you away Ved, I ran and hid from you."

He laughed and didn't even notice she called him Ved and not Alex. " Hid? You brought winter everywhere you went." Then he turned serious again.

" I could've found you anytime I wanted, I told myself letting you go was for the best, that I was doing it for you but I was fooling myself.

Deep down I knew you were drowning, I heard what happened to a friend of yours and knowing you, you probably blamed yourself.

I should've been there to remind you it wasn't your fault." She leaned on him gently stroking his massive face.

" But you tried my love, you tried and I pushed you out, frozen my heart to a rock to escape the risk of it being broken again."

He shook his head. " No I did not, because I was running away too, I was scared so I made excuses.

Convinced myself it's what you needed, that I didn't have time because of the invasion but the truth is I did have time.

I could've searched for you, found you and gave you a hug, but I was scared you would reject me, and that terrified me more than anything."

She leaned on him and rested her head on his cheek. " What now." He looked at her and grinned knowing he could get past this very uncomfortable conversation.

" Now, we find the last child of the herald."

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