## Chapter 25
### Across Black Water
The town was boiling with fear by the time Ren and the others stepped back into the streets.
Children huddled behind Mara inside the small house while Jonah carefully checked the alley beyond the doorway. Voices echoed from the center square. Guards shouted orders. Somewhere near the docks, a woman screamed for her son.
Ren's grip tightened around his revolver.
"We're not letting them leave with those people."
"No," Jonah agreed. "We aren't."
Elise leaned against the wall near the window, shadows shifting faintly around her boots.
"There are more guards moving toward the docks than the houses," she said. "They're preparing to transport the captives."
Cal exhaled slowly.
"So we hit them before they can organize."
Ren smirked slightly.
"Now you're talking."
Mara looked toward the frightened children.
"We need somewhere safe first."
Jonah nodded once.
"The old church near the eastern wall. Stone structure. Easy to defend."
Ren blinked.
"How do you already know where the church is?"
"I saw it while entering town."
"…You scare me sometimes."
Jonah ignored him.
The group moved quickly.
Elise scouted ahead while Jonah and Ren silently eliminated isolated guards along the side streets. Cal used quick strokes of glowing paint to create barriers and distractions behind them, blocking roads with thick walls of painted stone that hardened into physical matter seconds later.
By the time they reached the church, several townspeople had already noticed what was happening.
Or rather…
What was no longer happening.
The guards were disappearing.
Fast.
The children were ushered inside while Mara organized the frightened civilians gathering nearby.
Ren looked around the town square from behind an overturned truck.
The cult still controlled most of the center.
Grekos stood atop his platform, continuing his speech like nothing had changed.
The arrogance alone made Ren want to shoot him.
"He really thinks nobody can stop him," Ren muttered.
"That kind of confidence usually comes from power," Elise replied quietly.
"Or stupidity."
"Sometimes both."
A loud shout suddenly echoed from near the docks.
One of the cult guards had found the unconscious men Ren's group left behind earlier.
Everything erupted after that.
Alarms rang through town.
Guards began shouting in Greek.
Grekos turned sharply atop the platform, the smug confidence on his face twisting instantly into anger.
"What is happening?" he shouted.
One of the guards pointed toward the eastern streets.
"Attackers!"
The crowd panicked.
Civilians scattered in every direction as armed cultists rushed through the square.
Jonah stepped out from cover first.
Directly into the open street.
Every guard immediately noticed him.
Big mistake.
One cultist raised his rifle.
Jonah moved before the trigger finished pulling.
The kinetic force behind his first punch shattered the rifle entirely before continuing into the guard's chest and launching him backward into a cart hard enough to destroy it.
Ren fired instantly after.
He guided the bullets perfectly through the chaos.
One round struck a guard's weapon, knocking it upward before it fired.
Another curved cleanly around a fleeing civilian to slam into a cultist's leg.
The square exploded into motion.
Elise vanished into shadow entirely.
Screams erupted seconds later from the rooftops as guards disappeared one by one into darkness before crashing unconscious back into the streets.
Cal stepped into the center of the road and swept his brush outward.
Paint blazed across the ground.
A massive painted wolf erupted from the glowing colors and charged directly into a group of cultists, knocking them sprawling across the dirt.
Ren grinned.
"That never stops being cool."
Cal smirked slightly while continuing to paint.
"You still haven't heard my full explanation."
Several guards rushed him together.
Cal spun the brush in a smooth arc.
Fire burst from the paint itself, forming glowing orange birds that slammed into the attackers and scattered them backward.
The entire battlefield became chaos.
But Grekos…
Grekos only watched.
Standing calmly above the fighting.
Wind spiraled faintly around his body as his expression slowly darkened.
"You insects," he said coldly.
Then he disappeared.
Ren's eyes widened.
"What—"
A blur of white and blue appeared directly behind Jonah.
Jonah barely turned in time before Grekos struck him with a kick enhanced by violent bursts of wind.
The impact blasted Jonah backward through a market stall.
Ren fired instantly.
Grekos moved impossibly fast.
The bullets curved after him through the air, but wind suddenly spiraled around his body and knocked them off course before they could connect.
"Oh, that's annoying," Ren muttered.
Grekos hovered briefly above the ground as streams of wind circled his cloak dramatically.
"You dare interfere with Olympus?"
Ren stared.
"…You absolutely practiced saying that."
Grekos vanished again.
This time Ren reacted faster.
Ren shifted probability.
Ren fired not where Grekos was…
But where he would be.
The bullet curved sharply through the air.
Grekos reappeared directly into its path.
The round slammed into his shoulder.
For the first time, Grekos looked shocked.
Ren grinned.
"Gotcha."
The Hermes legend holder stumbled backward slightly before fury twisted across his face.
Wind exploded outward around him.
The force shattered windows nearby and threw several civilians off their feet.
"You filthy barbarian!"
Ren pointed the revolver toward him again.
"Keep talking fancy and I'll do the other shoulder."
Grekos raised his hand sharply.
Every cultist still standing immediately began retreating toward the docks.
Organized.
Prepared.
Jonah emerged from the destroyed stall, cracking his neck slightly.
"He's withdrawing."
"Yeah," Elise said from atop a rooftop. "Straight for the boats."
Ren frowned.
"He's running?"
Grekos smirked coldly from the center of the square.
"You people do not understand what you've challenged."
Wind gathered beneath his feet.
"The reborn Greece will outlive all of you."
Then he moved.
Not through the streets.
Over them.
Grekos sprinted across the air itself in bursts of wind toward the docks.
Ren stared.
"…Okay that's cheating."
The group immediately chased after him.
The docks had become complete chaos.
Cultists shoved civilians aside while rushing supplies and prisoners onto several large transport boats. Some townspeople fought back now that the cult's control had broken, but many were still restrained.
Grekos landed at the end of the main dock.
Wind spiraled violently around him.
Then he stepped onto the water.
And didn't sink.
Ren slowed slightly.
"You have got to be kidding me."
The Hermes legend glowed brighter behind Grekos now, winged sandals visible in the swirling air around his feet.
He smirked arrogantly at them from atop the ocean-dark river water.
"You cannot catch Hermes."
Then he ran.
Across the water.
Fast.
Far too fast.
Each step barely touched the surface before carrying him farther away.
Ren immediately looked toward Jonah.
"…Now what?"
Cal suddenly stepped forward.
"We take a boat."
Ren blinked.
"A regular boat is not catching him."
Cal smiled slightly.
"Good thing I'm not planning to use a regular boat."
The group moved quickly toward one of the abandoned transport vessels near the dock while remaining cultists fled into the wilderness or surrendered to the townspeople.
Cal climbed onto the deck and uncapped several containers of glowing paint from his bag.
Ren raised an eyebrow.
"You've been carrying all that this whole time?"
"Preparation matters."
Cal began painting directly across the sides of the boat.
Long flowing shapes.
Elegant necks.
Powerful bodies.
The paint glowed brighter with every stroke.
Then the ocean-colored artwork peeled itself off the wood.
Ren stepped back slightly as four massive horse-shaped creatures formed from shimmering blue paint and living water emerged beside the vessel.
They looked like living sculptures.
Beautiful and powerful.
Their manes flowed like crashing waves while glowing eyes formed from pale seafoam opened slowly.
The creatures snorted streams of mist into the air.
The entire boat shifted as they attached themselves to it with painted harnesses.
Ren stared openly now.
"…Cal."
"Yes?"
"What the hell are you?"
Cal laughed softly.
"My legend belonged to Matteo Bellori."
Ren blinked.
"…Who?"
"A famous painter from centuries ago. His art was known for depicting nature and animals with impossible realism."
Cal placed one hand against the glowing painted horse nearest him.
"My legend allows me to bring artistic creations into reality. The better I understand something…"
The painted horses stomped against the water impatiently.
"The stronger they become."
Ren slowly grinned.
"That is insanely cool."
"Thank you."
Jonah untied the boat from the dock.
"We move now."
The painted horses surged forward instantly.
The boat lurched violently as they pulled it across the water at impossible speed.
Spray exploded outward around them.
Ahead, Grekos glanced backward.
And for the first time…
The arrogance on his face cracked slightly.
Ren grinned while raising his revolver.
"Hey, Hermes!"
Grekos narrowed his eyes.
Ren cocked the hammer back slowly.
"You're not outrunning this story."