The two remained silent for most of the remaining trip. Steven knew better then to press on and Artemis quite clearly didn’t want to talk either. He had gotten used to the bobbing and swaying of being in a giants palm. He was still intimidated by her, albeit for different reasons than before. Even despite being on his side he still felt small and helpless in her hand, and for good reason, he was. Her benevolence was not something he took for granted.
“My home is just over there. I need to grab my armour and some provisions for both of us.” She said plainly as she reached the end of the river where a massive waterfall poured over a large cliffside. “Your home? I don’t see any sort of house?” She scoffed. “That’s the point little guy, I’m not a threat to humanity but most hunter guilds don’t know that, and they wouldn’t recognize me either. I can’t reveal my location to anyone.” She walked up to the waterfall and reached behind a stone. There she pulled the stone outward and revealed a hidden entrance.
She walked through the torch lit cavern, a floor made of redwood planks led to her room. A fire pit, large makeshift chests and a bed made from the hide of a large mammalian creature. The room overlooked another entrance, that was hidden by the waterfall. “How did you make all of this? It looks like a human home almost.” She placed him on a table before she reached into one of the chests and pulled out the dragonscale armor as she geared up for a fight. “Time and dedication. I need somewhere safe and most giants don’t build homes so, I had to improvise. I’m not going to wander like those animals.”
“Right. Might as well while I’m still here.” She said remembering something. She pulled out a sharp stone from the chest and carved a tally into the wall along 15 others. A more permanent way of keeping track of her kills if the armour somehow got destroyed. Steven looked at the wall quizzically for a few second before asking. “What are those tracking?” She put away the stone. “Giants I’ve slain. First time I’ve been home since a giant I killed about a week ago. I couldn’t come home and risk being followed. Now that all of Pastia knows about me.” She replied picking him up again and leaving her home, closing the inconspicuous stone door behind her.
“How have you been able to kill 15 giants without anyone noticing? What made the last one different?” He asked up to her. “Usually I do so whenever there aren’t humans around, or I distract the giant. Lure them in. This last one though, she was about to kill an innocent woman, I’m not going to let someone die if I have time to act on it.” He thought about it for a moment. “So you do care about humans. It’s not just anger that fuels you.” He said. “I have a basic sense of morality. I’m no hero.” She replied sternly, she clearly wasn’t comfortable admitting she had a fondness for the species that raised her.
The walk to the village took a bit longer. But she knew where she was going and nothing would stop her. At the end of this walk she would finally have a shot against Azura Grimm. The monster who slaughtered her family, left her a two time orphan and destroyed her life as she knew it and smiled through it all, she had no regard for human life, or for her pain. God knows how many more innocent lives she has casually taken since then, how many she will take if Artemis doesn’t get there fast enough. Just then, she seen the village. The sun was setting, and Azura stood on the other side of the village, her massive body only appearing as a black shadow to the two.
Artemis knelt down and placed Steven safely on the ground. “Stay safe. Let me handle this.” She walked into the village, making sure not to step on anyone, though everyone was cowering in their homes. The two titanesses stood opposite ends of the village, they were making eye contact, Azura had a curious look on her face, a smirk. That same awful smirk. Artemis’s face was filled with a primal hatred, her fists clenched and her eyes bloodshot red with a lifetimes worth of unshed emotions.
Azura wore the same elegant dress Artemis remembered seeing all those years ago in the ruins of Stillwood. The same dress she wore as she devoured her mother right in front of the young Artemis. She didn’t even get to say her last words to her daughter, and Azura took pleasure in it. She hadn’t aged a day, while Artemis grew into an adult woman, and a strong warrior. Azura didn’t so much as gain a single wrinkle on her perfect face, one Artemis looked forward to caving in.
Azura was the first of the two to speak. “Now this? This is interesting, it baffles me that I didn’t anticipate this. That the mysterious giant slayer mercilessly killing her own kind, the vigilante, the human in a giants body, would be the same little girl I left back in the ruins of that human village…
Silvia Walker…”
“…how do you know my name, vile creature?” Artemis snarled. “I know more than you think Child, Do you really think I work alone? You think I am a monster. You think I slaughter humans for my own enjoyment? For fun?” Artemis began walking forward, as she did she discreetly grabbed and tore a large wooden plank in half and hid it behind her back. Her arms clutched around the primitive weapon, it would have to do.
She rushed toward Azura and swing the shard toward her neck, only to feel no impact, no blood, no scream of pain. Her hand passed through. Instead a sparkling violet mist emitted from a gap in Azura’s throat where Artemis’s hand would be. “You thought I would come here in person? And get myself killed by the infamous giant slayer?”
The mist forced its way into Artemis’s mouth and into her lungs. She began to feel dizzy and she dropped to the ground, coughing up the mist. The projection of Azura broke down into the same air and it all went into her body. The giantess collapsed to the ground with a thunderous boom. As she faded into unconsciousness she heard Azura’s voice in her head.
“Please, I am not your enemy, Child. Look and see for yourself.”
Artemis drifted off.