TWENTY-NINE.

HYPNOS TIME.

NANAKO MAY NOT realize it, yet everything she wears makes her more lovely than ever. With her black fitting dress, golden buttons, BB thin belt, and black pump heels, it's no surprise that she looks even sassier than ever with her bad girl appearance.

As though she was saying, "Don't mess with my best friend." Masaki hurriedly left them as soon as he could when she balled her fist and was ready to hit his face once more.

"What the heck, man!?"Nanako hissed and appeared disappointed. "So 'yan lang pala kaya mo?"

She lifted her middle finger and raised her brow. "Tangina mo! Weakling!"

Nanako's eyes turned to those two and seems like Minami appeared to be in shock. Saku was doing his very best to calm her down.

There's nothing she can do. She doesn't even know what to say anymore. So Saku stared at her hands, wounded. Probably because she held a broken glass on her own.

"Come here," Saku took her hand and grabbed his bottle at tsaka niya hinugasan ang duguan niyang kamay, "This hand shouldn't be used to kill. You're pure and innocent, unlike me. Minami, promise me you'll gonna not do that again."

Minami couldn't understand what he was saying, so she just stared at him in his eyes and said, "Do what?"

"Kill," he said.

"What do you mean by that?"

She's known him since she was a child. She could be the person who truly understands him. He's not a good person either; if you had to describe him, he'd be a criminal. Perhaps something triggered him to say these things. 

She couldn't understand some aspects of this facade. Is he assuring her not to use her hands to kill because it's his job? 

Or, more accurately, he didn't want her to bear the punishment because she isn't the type to kill someone. Minami, at least in Saku's eyes, is too perfect to be tainted. He would even step through her walls if necessary. Just seeing her pure as she is. He refuses to let anyone taint her.

He wrapped his hands around her arms before slowly wrapping his black handkerchief around her hands, "Once you point a gun and a knife and see blood coming from them, you can't take it back. And you're not that type of person, Minami. You're not. You would always choose love."

Tears falls from her cheeks at 'tsaka tumakbo siya papunta kay Saku at niyakap siya ng mahigpit. Halos maramdaman ni Minami na mahina ang kanyang mga paa nang manghina siya at sinapo naman siya ni Saku. Sobrang nag-aalala 'to para sa kanya. 

"Magiging okay din ang lahat. Ligtas ka na at ligtas na rin ang pinsan mo. So don't taint your hands with cruel family members." He said at hinimas niya ang buhok nito habang pinapakalma siya sa pag-iyak. 

"Ayos lang siya! She's just unconscious!" Sigaw ni Nanako at agad niyang binuhat ang babaeng na may kahel ang buhok at nilipat 'to sa likod niya. 

Tumingin-tingin si Nanako sa paligid at mukhang wala masyadong tao sa mansion. Naguguluhan pa rin siya sa nangyari. Itong mag-ama, magagawa ba talaga nila 'to kay Minami? 

Alam niyang 'di tulad ng ibang mga bata, si Minami ay nabuhay sa ng walang naramdamang pagmamahal sa pamilya niya, dahil sa simula pa lang ay pananagutan na niya ang katotohanang siya ay anak sa labas.

She definitely senses something about this family. At kung ano man 'yon, siya ang maghahanap ng buong katotohanan. 

Dominica was fully aware of what had occurred, as the environment had become increasingly cold. She wasn't well. After seeing how her family had used her as a pawn, all she could think about was running away. Shadows have grown everywhere. Freezing has begun to get even colder. 

And Dominica looks at her cousin with seriousness, "So I'd like to apologize. I couldn't protect you before. But now things are different. 

"Where's Twilight Vale?"

 "Follow me." 

Dominica fixed her gaze on her cousin as she walked. She's wearing a white silk maxi dress, makita mo kung gaano kaganda ang hubog ng katawan niya. Her rosegold hair was bouncy, and her long curly hair swayed with her as she walked gracefully. Her aura, which is tri-colored, was also quite noticeable. 

She stands firm, as a leader should. Dominica rubs the top of her nose, trying not to show her envy at how beautiful she looked. They've arrived and proceeded towards the golden gates, where Hypnos' test will take place. 

The girls walked slowly and pointed to the floating lands in the void, saying, "And here we are, Twilight Vale. Also known as "the Void of the Gods." 

"Where the beginning started," Giovanni replied. 

Many lands and cities appear to float around here. They represent all aspects of this realm. Where time began: the beginning of creation, destruction, and fate. These lands are connected by light or vine bridges. It's also linked to the First Domain, where they kidnap the Demigods and Teras, the Descendants who will change the Twilight Vale's fate. 

The Towers of Fate are located in the Twilight Vale; this tower houses the three destiny goddesses and is where Fates are created. Each thread tells the story of your new existence in this world. 

Twilight Vale is also known for its concept of a cycle in which destruction and creation occur. That time exists between order and chaos. The more challenges that realm faces, the more dangerous it becomes to the Descendants. 

Many of them view this realm as a punishment for their own actions. Fates are usually guides, but they can also play out your destiny without your knowledge. Depending on who is manipulating the thread. 

There is one prophecy that must be fulfilled in order for the war to end inside the Twilight Vale. To restore this realm, the savior must bring it to an end. She will be the one to eventually kill the three goddesses, whom many feared after her destruction. 

Humans still had free will, but the Fates knew the ultimate choices and actions of each person. In the afterlife, a human would be judged not on what deeds they had done, but on how they had reacted to and coped with life's challenges. 

The three Fates goddess were Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, and each had a different role in weaving the fate of mankind.

The Fates in ancient Greek were called the Moirai. 

Each thread represented one soul's life. This thread would follow the path of a human's life, including their future choices and actions, and the consequences that could be created. Clotho would begin spinning the thread while the human was in the womb, and so she is often referred to during pregnancies or during the birth of human beings.

☫✠_____♆_____✡♆

THE CHOICES OF MANKIND were not absolute. Instead, there was freedom in choice, and the fate of a human depended on conditional choices. The Fates would take all decisions and outcomes into account when they wove the thread.

Moirai is suggested to be the daughter of Ananke. Ananke was the primordial deity of inevitability or necessity. She passed on an element of this role to her children, the Fates, as they came to symbolize both the necessity of birth, life, and death, but also the inevitability of fate, and the events destined to occur in a human's life.

Alternatively, the Fates are suggested to be the daughters of Nyx, the goddess of night. In Hesiod's Theogony, he writes: "Also Nyx bare the destinies, and ruthless avenging Fates, who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and gods... until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty." (Lines 221–225)

This is a slightly darker interpretation, as the Fates as the daughters of Night suggest a gloomy and pessimistic outlook on the cycle of the soul in Greek myth. However, as the daughters of Ananke, the Fates are not negative or positive, they are objective, in the sense that "these things will just happen."

A third suggestion is that the Fates are the daughters of Themis, the goddess of justice and divine order. Hence, the Fates are continuations of the divine order of life — without them, the cycle of souls would be in chaos. This points to an idea that the Greeks had about the importance of natural order, or balance. Life and death were in opposition to the destructive nature of chaos.

And that demonstrates the significance of the Fates' role in Twilight Vale.

"I've got my keys, let's go." Sinabi ni Dominica at inayos naman ni Giovanni ang kanyang damit at sumunod sa kanyang pinsan.

Habang pupuntahan nila ang sasakyan ni Dominica ay nagulat silang dalawa ng may sumalubong sa kanilang lalaki. The man is a very muscular man with curly dark hair, with a longitudinal indentation on his forehead, dynamic straight nose, deeply black eyes covered with thick eyebrows, medium fleshy lips under a thick curly beard.

"Isn't Lady Giovanni? I waited for you. You're currently invited to participate in the first test. This is the point at which time stops. At Hypnos' realm. I will accompany you to the academy as soon as possible."

The tension between the two girls has increased. The person in front of them was Hercules. The God of Strength.

He has been more popularly known ever since the Roman times – was the greatest of all Greek heroes, "one who surpassed all men of whom memory from the beginning of time has brought down an account."

A half-god of superhuman strength and violent passions, Heracles was the epitome of bravery and masculinity in the ancient world and the most notable champion of the Olympian order, which he staunchly protected from various chthonic monsters and earthly villains.

'Di maisip ni Giovanni kung ano ang pakay niya at kung bakit nandito siya ngayon sa harapan niya.

All she could do was cross her arms and raise her brow at him, "You're also one of the Greek Gods who forbids me from joining one of the pantheons?"

Napakatalim ng tinging ibinibigay nina Giovanni at Hercules sa isa't isa na para bang walang gustong bumalik sa kanilang kinatatayuan ngayon. At walang makakapigil sa kanilang dalawa.

You could see that with their strong magic, they could slash the Twilight Vale in half. Her gaze turned to Hercules, and all she could muster was a slightly shady smirk at him.