Chapter 1.26

Karson

“Ow,” I groaned loudly. The sounds of a little girl crying brought me back to consciousness. I’d landed on my back, hard. I could feel the healing magic of my ring pouring into me, so I pushed more mana into it. I could feel the link to the geothermal mana pumps on the hill were stronger, so we must be close to the gate. I opened my eyes to see the little toddler sitting on my chest, bawling like the world had come to an end. She looked uninjured, not even bruised.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head, her curls flailing wildly. “I lost my doll.”

I moved my head around, and saw the doll a few inches from my hand. I picked it up and handed it to her. Her tears stopped immediately as she hugged the ragged toy to her chest.

“I’m hungry,” she announced.

“You’re welcome,” I said. The healing had fixed whatever I had done to my back, so I sat up slowly. I ached all over. I looked up to see a panicked Zahra looking down at me, the rest of our group crowding around as well. The child’s mother was crying and the father looked stricken. Then they all vanished from view.

“I think I’ll just sit here for a minute,” I said. I fished around in a pouch on my belt, and found a small piece of bread. I handed it to the girl. She immediately stuffed it into her mouth, her toy dropped onto my lap and forgotten. I picked up the toy and put it in my belt, and just let the healing magic work a bit longer.

It took only a few minutes for the entire group to get to the mouth of the alley. The child’s mother flew at me, snatching up her child. The father was only a step behind her, grabbing them both in a hug. I stood carefully, just in time for Zahra to grab me in a tight hug.

“Ow,” I said. She immediately released me.

“Where are you hurt?” she demanded.

“All over,” I said. “I’m healing it right now.”

“The street is mostly clear. A boulder crushed a bunch of people and smashed through the gate. We can get out of the town.”

“Great, let’s go.”

I limped into the street to find my group waiting. The street was a disaster zone. A half-dozen buildings were damaged, and a few were on fire. Bodies were strewn everywhere. The building our newest companions had been living in now sported a giant hole that tore through two floors. Worse was that in the distance, I saw the Titan merrily stomping through town, swinging his absurdly large club. Every blow leveled a building, every step doubtlessly crushing helpless innocents and militia alike. If he was in the town, then so were his merciless soldiers.

“Ah, Menoetius… You are so predictable,” came a melodic female voice. It wasn’t shouted, nor was it loud. The voice was clearly distant, but at the same time completely audible. The voice was bone chilling and beautiful at the same time.

“Hades. You have a lot of nerve showing your face. Your little brother has made a mess. I’m just cleaning it up.” The deep, gravelly voice of the Titan Menoetius boomed across the town with the sound of two mountains grinding against each other.

“I’m not just showing my face, Cousin. I’m here to kill you and destroy your little army,” her voice was full of confidence.

We had to go. Two gods were about to throw down. Any place was safer than here.

“YOU!” shouted a man. I turned to see Lord Nyphron stepping out from an alley in front of us. He was glaring at me. Nyphron was wearing a blue robe with silver armor over top, a helmet on his head and a very familiar shield. It looked like the one the bandit leader had used, just shinier. He drew his sword.

“Are you escaping as well?” I shouted. “The way is clear.”

“You may be powerful, Hades, but you are very small, and I am the mightiest of Titans. My army is destroying this town already. You will gain only your own death here tonight.”

“Escaping? No, you are not escaping. You and your witch ruined everything!” shouted Nyphron. I looked at Zahra just as she looked at me, and we both shrugged in confusion at the same time.

“What did we ruin? We’ve been camped outside of town for weeks. How could we ruin something?”

“Ah yes, the hubris I’ve come to expect from you. Tell me, cousin, did you scout for enemy armies before you sent all of your troops against the wall?” her voice was sweet and almost innocent, at the same time it raced down your spine. In the distance, I heard horns blasting and the sounds of a battle starting.

“Your witch’s stupid prophecy!” raved Nyphron. “Then you unraveled my spell at the wedding!”

Now I understood. “You were controlling Dadaces. There’s no point now! The town is in ruins! You have nothing to gain here.”

“You bitch! I will torture you for centuries for this! You better get used to being my bed toy, for that’s all you’ll be good for when I’m through with you!”

“We had EVERYTHING to gain! All we had to do was open the gates, so that Assos was wide open for the Titan’s army. But you ruined it!” Nyphron’s voice had taken an odd, double-toned sound. His face was pale and a ghostly outline of blue laid overtop it.

“Why would you even want to do that?” I asked, motioning behind my back for our noncombatants to back up and away. If they could get to the edge of the street, they could sneak around the madman who was clearly fixated on me.

The goddess’s laughter rang across the town, a beautiful tinkling sound that felt like nails on a chalkboard. “Oh, Menoetius. You should know by now that I shall never grace any male’s bed. No, I’m going to destroy you and take all that might you pride yourself in.”

“Why would we do this? Why would we want to keep the gods fighting amongst themselves? They are the problem! They must all be destroyed! And mages like you are part of the disease!” frothed Nyphron. Long gone was the friendly face that had chatted away with Dadaces in the market, who had wished Ax and Latona a long and fruitful marriage with lots of sons.

No, we had made an enemy without even trying. We’d fumbled our way into wrecking his plans, and apparently he wasn’t a terribly sane individual. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the freed slaves and the family with the little girl edging along a building, getting just past Nyphron. Exadius was leading them out.

“I’ll bring Atlas your head!” The Titan’s voice boomed even louder, followed by a massive boom. I risked a look over my shoulder to see the Titan smashing away at someone on the ground.

“Oh, your brother doesn’t care what you are doing. Athena leads Zeus’ armies against him even now. He’s too busy to worry about the colossal waste you’ve made of your might.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t be worried about them,” said Nyphron. “You should be worried about US!”

Nyphron stamped his foot, and a visible shockwave blasted out from his chest. It blew through us, knocking all of us from our feet. Nyphron leapt forward with supernatural speed, his sword already swinging at the neck of one of my Vanguard. But my Vanguard was just as fast, rolling away and to his feet before the blow could land.

I flung an acid spell at Nyphron, full powered instead of using my bracers. Nyphron caught it on his shield and laughed. In a somewhat normal human voice, he said, “Oh, little mage. I was a Hunter long before I made my bargain. Your little beginner spells won’t work on me.”

Then he reflected my own spell back at me. I dove back to the ground, the ball of acid flying over my head and splashing into the building behind me. I came up as he charged at me, my sword swinging. Still laughing, he batted my blade to the side and bashed me in the chest with his shield. I went flying through the air, smashing into a wall.

I hit the ground with a groan, looking up in time to see him dueling with Zahra, who had drawn her own blade. He had both strength and speed, but Zahra had impressive skill. She couldn’t block his attacks, but she could redirect them. She also couldn’t move fast enough to press an attack herself, but she could parry his fastest strikes. They were stalemated.

At least, they were until he blasted out another shockwave. Zahra went flying. He raised his sword to attack her on the ground as she lay there stunned. I began to cast shadow trap, but before the spell even finished, Jin Hai dove from wherever he’d been on the ground, interposing himself bodily between the descending sword and Zahra. The blade sliced deep into Jin Hai’s neck, nearly decapitating him. My shadow trap sprung, and Nyphron’s own shadows began to wrestle him back.

“Very clever, little mage.” My Vanguard leapt into the fray then, trying to stab him while he was tangled up. But Nyphron continued to fight as if he wasn’t tangled. He was much slower now, but still too strong.

“Ah ha!” shouted the Titan victoriously. Smashing sounds came as a fast moving object began to come from the buildings along the street, crashing through wall after wall. Then a body flew out of the building behind me and into Nyphron. My Vanguard stumbled back, but Nyphron went flying. My shadow trap spell broke easily.

In his place was a woman who stood over seven feet tall. She had a ghostly beauty to her, with pale white skin tinged with blue. Her eyes were deep pools of black. Her hair was black and straight, hanging down the full length of her back. She wore tight, form-fitting leather armor with small silvery steel plates stitched across her chest, accentuating her slender form. In one hand she held a thin blade that was easily four feet in length, while in the other she held a sickle.

“Well aren’t you the interesting one,” she said, her eyes locked onto mine. My blood ran cold as I realized that this was Hades. Not a god, but every inch a goddess. Why had she always been male in mythology? This reinforced that I wasn’t on the Earth that I knew, even though I’d been living and working with magic for weeks. “I see the Chaos in you. Went for a swim, did you?” her voice was playful and creepy.

I nodded dumbly as she walked over, sheathing her sword as she came. Nyphron chose that moment to come charging out of the wrecked building he’d landed in. Hades casually flicked a finger at him, freezing him in place. “Wait your turn,” she chided him.

Hades stood before me, looking me up and down. “Yes, there is much to work with here.” She tapped the gauntlet that had my experimental spell on it, in the exact spot I had inscribed it. “ I particularly like this one. Try it on your sword.”

Then she leapt over my head in a bound that easily could take her over the buildings around us. I whipped around to watch her go, only to flinch in surprise to see the Titan was far closer to us now.

My Vanguard came to stand beside me, as did Zahra and her one remaining bodyguard. Nyphron began to move again.

“Now it is time for us to finish you,” hissed Nyphron. Then two carbon copies of Nyphron stepped out of his body, and two more. All drew their weapons and began to glow with the same ghostly energy.

I readied my sword just as an explosion rocked the street from behind us. The battle between Hades and Menoetius was drawing closer. It was time for round two.