The Earth After Rebirth

The moment they were far enough from the river, the thirst that had held their necks hostage disappeared.

"Is it me or the river was more aggressive this time?" Said one hound.

His statement caused an uproar, with mostly those who didn't see much of a difference. Kiro thought about stepping in but he thought it useless, even the argument they were having felt useless to him.

"That's because there were more people. The more people there are, the more aggressive the river becomes. I've always thought this was a legend, can't believe it true."

"I heard the 3 headed basilisk lives here, every time around these times the water becomes unforgiving because its eggs are hatching." Another countered.

It was the battle of conspiracy theories. Which were interesting in Kiro's eyes but he did think they were doing this at the wrong place, wrong time.

Most, if not all races of the Underworld try to avoid the Lethe River by all means. They know what it is, they just didn't know how to combat it. But as years went by, it became just a legend to some.

So it wasn't a big surprise that there were hounds who were out of their minds with shock. Kiro looked at them with pity and understood why they had yet to harness Kaos, their minds were simply too weak. Their will wasn't much better.

They walked a little bit, making sure to put a great distance between the river and themselves. They stood between the river and an eerie forest. They decided that would be their place to take a breather, fortunately Hubris had taken breaks into account. This was also the place where Arachnids, Hellizards and many more races would join them.

Kiro was glad when they took out cooking materials and food, they started on cooking the great feast. He was too used to being made the cook by Hubris, that this came as a relief.

"Did you see King Naberius moving between us and those waters like it was nothing?"

"Idiot, it's King Hubris now."

"Haha, oh yeah, slip of the tongue, I'm too used to the other name. I'm jealous of those who got to be helped by him."

"You manage to say dumber things by each passing minute, are you sure you are able to chop those up?" Said the younger of the two mockingly.

"What do you mean? I'm jealous!"

"I mean, not being helped by king Hubris is actually a good thing. He helped only those who he thought couldn't make it on their own."

"So?"

"So, dumbass, with your strength, you can be the next guy to be picked to be the King's personal guard." He commented with a hopeful face, tending to the fire.

"Oh, you're those delusional ones." He chuckled.

He looked at him dangerously, "you just wait, I'll be amongst the strongest hounds in our world."

"Yeah sure, but they don't accept just anyone there, you have to prove yourself." He shrugged.

"Haa, we've already proven our little worth by crossing the Lethe River, dumbass."

"Who are you calling dumb? I'm older..."

The back and forth went on for quite a while, while they were cooking. Neither wanted to back down from their convictions.

Unfortunately for Kiro and Hubris, although far they could hear the conversation loud and clear. They cursed their perfect senses, it was too embarrassing to listen to. Although Hubris decided then that, that's the criteria he'll use, when choosing a trusted guard.

The first priority would be those who crossed Lethe River with him and still stuck with him without complaint, like the two hounds who saw the incident as an opportunity. He'd pick them first, they'd have had went through whatever he was about to encounter in the battlefield with him.

He watched them create a lot of tables from scratch. They also built two throne chairs in record time. He thought if this were a competition for building, they'd have won without a doubt.

The others arrived not long after the cooking began. They introduced themselves to their King, apologising profusely for not bringing any kind of gifts for him. Hubris scoffed at this, he thought that if this was what it was to be King, with everyone just trying to kiss his behind, it'll be pretty boring.

"We may not have gifts for the rightful heir, but my daughter insisted on creating a suit of armour for Sire Kiro." The arachnid said, kneeling with it's many legs.

"Oh?" Kiro simply said. He didn't know how his name had travelled so far so soon. But he didn't get up, nor open his eyes. A souvenir couldn't be that useful, he thought.

"That's fine armour," Hubris commented, holding it up, having a feel for it. "As I understand it, arachnids have a very natural talent for sewing. So durable that they last hundreds of years."

Kiro's ears and eyes twitched, he opened them with great interest. The thing Hubris held was made from their spider web. It was obsidian in colour. Though he thought it'd be too tight for his liking, he got up to take a closer look.

"Ah, such praise Sire. You may have been lost, but you have some knowledge about your home, I'm humbled."

He tried equipping it, but as usual that didn't work. He sighed, lazy to take off his robes. Eventually he did. The beings around him were whispering, seeing his many scars. They didn't understand, maybe because they had fur covering their bare skin.

Kiro didn't exactly care, as he put on the new armour. It wasn't as tight as he thought it would be. He started moving around at incredible speeds, just to see whether the armour could keep up with him.

Something unexpected happened. As he was moving from one side to another within seconds, a big tear sound could be heard. Then the armour exploded.

"Huh, that's new." He said as he was stepping down from the sky.

The armour wasn't cheaply made. It just couldn't keep up with his energy. Kaos was a different breed, that coupled with his dragon scales, the armour was destroyed within seconds.

"M-master!"

"Haa, sorry Hubris, sorry. I suppose I can't just wear anything."

He looked at the robes he stole from the monkey King's tower. Nothing about them claimed to be special.

"You must be special then."