"I still think this is a bad idea, Max." Said a girl that looked not a day older than twenty. Her name was Barbra

"And I still think that I'm going through with this whether you like it or not. Besides why would you help me if you didn't want me to do this, Barbra?" Said a boy noticeably younger but still was no younger fifteen. The boy's name was Max

"If I didn't help you, you would have blown up half the state already." Barbra said her lips curving into a small smile remembering better times before returning to the present situation. "I don't like the chances involved."

"The odds are three to one that I will land in the designated area , it's more than enough for me. Besides I will be taking the armor and we all know I could take a nuke in that thing and come out with only a small sunburn." Nathan said trying to humor her but failing.

"I'm not worried about nukes. I worried about losing you somewhere out there." Barbra said gesturing with her hand.

"You know if I am in this solar system I will be able to make it back before oxygen runs out and the probability cloud drops sharply out of earth's gravity range and even more so beyond the sun."

"Please don't go." She pleaded giving him her most heart wrenching look she had showing all of her emotions on her face.

"I'm sorry Barbra you know this is for the best." Maxwell stated emotionless avoiding her gaze while he walked to a stand on the far side of the room holding one of the most advanced systems in the bright slightly cluttered room.

The suit was a cross between iron man and halo odst armor giving the impression of an extreme Halloween costume. The armor was jet black indicating its intended use for stealth missions. An inch of perfect single carbon layers could with stand anything ranging from a knife to a direct hit from a tomahawk cruise missile. Capable of super sonic flight courtesy of the ion propulsion system on both the hands and the feet and space travel due to it's radiation shields and pressurized environment. Equipped with a motor system with the strength to lift tanks and the speed to dodge bullets the armor was a lethal weapon on its own but as a precaution the suit was fitted to hold two blades of near perfect quality made of the same carbon formation as the armor. The helmet housed the world's most advanced acoustic and optic systems able to detect a heart beat from 200 hundred feet in the air and pick up a target miles away. Infrared, ultra-violet, and sonar sensors augmented the already formidable array. Then the icing on the cake was it's ability to recharge with it's solar panels.

Maxwell activated the suit allowing power to spread to necessary areas before opening the armor and climbing in. Maxwell continued to avoid Barbra's gaze even though she could no longer see him through the armor while he made his way back across the room to another advanced system but was designed for something other than warfare. The piece of tech in question was a teleporter capable of sending living an non-living material through to any where in the known universe, theoretically.

Maxwell was feeling uneasy at the thought of being lost in the vacuum of outer space even if the percent was very low. That is why ,unknown to Barbra, he built a failsafe into the teleported that prevented it's reactivation until it received a signal from his armor to prevent her from following him through the portal into an unknown area.

"Please."

Maxwell opened the portal his back still to her feeling her pleading gaze on him. He turned to face her looking her in the eyes and felt his resolve crumble. "Maybe… I won't go."

She started to him in an obvious attempt to fling her arms around him but was caught by the blast that ripped through the room pushing Maxwell into the portal. The last thing Maxwell heard was the sound of gun fire and the dying scream of a girl.


A lone figure was carefully picking his way through the ancient rubble of a city so majestic and beautiful any living being would simply gaze in awe at the ruins.

The entire city was an awe inspiring mix of marble, gem, metal, and magic. Few structures remained standing revealing the builders to be master architects and artists. One such structure was a heavily damaged double helix arch that would have easily cleared the tiny dwarves city to the south. The outer wall was a distant memory leaving only it's shattered foundation. Ruins of majestic sky scrappers dominated the inner city which the figure had reached.

The figure shivered in the warm night looking to the stars as if they had spoken hesitating for a brief moment. A brief moment later the remains of a building's northern wall collapsed and would have killed him if he had continued walking. Cursing the figure jumped back letting his hood fall revealing the man underneath. His face was roughly human in features- Startling grey eyes that have seen heaven and hell, A nose that has been broken several times' A small mouth with very thin lips, Grey hair of old age but the skin was baby soft with a hint of baby fat,- except for the ears which were nothing more than two small holes on either side of his head. Once assured more walls were not about to collapse he continued forward pulling back up his hood concealing his alien appearance. The figure now moved with more caution not willing to tempt fate twice in one night. He had already learned fate was a cruel mistress. The figure paused for a moment in the center of the ancient city reaching out with his mind for the glimmer of the being he had come for.

The presence was some fifty feet directly below the figure just barely clinging to life.

"Risä!"

The mountain of rubble flew away from the ground revealing a small hatch built into the original road. The figure made his way down the side of the rubble testing the ground before putting his weight on it. Due to his caution another minute pasted before he reached the hatch. Not wasting another moment he flipped open the hatch and jumped down the twenty foot drop into the hidden antechamber.

The room was lit only by the soft glow of a diamond statue blocking access to a pair of massive oak doors depicting the story of creation. The top of the door frame was etched with a single word, Criateon. The walls were made of the purest marble and black granite in perfect harmony. It was a silent as a tomb until the statue started to move.

The statue was seven foot tall warrior wearing intricate diamond armor impervious to magic and many forms of physical assault. The statue carried a six foot long spear resembling the elven dauthdaert but was of the purest diamond. The statues eyes were the first to move producing a grating sound somewhere between a nail on chalk board and to grinding stones rubbing. Impossibly the diamond of the face began to shift allowing the statue to open it's mouth producing an extremely gravelly voice. "Name and purpose." In the ancient language.

The figure paused before replying in the ancient language. "Rars Nu is my name, last of the house of fey and one of the last of the grey folk. My purpose is to succeed where thousands have died trying, I am going to awaken Criateon."

"Know that I may not lend you my power if your strength is insufficient, You may pass." The statue pushed open the ancient doors which opened silently despite their immense age revealing a long descending staircase. "Brisingr."

Instead of a fire appearing in the air the walls seemed to burst into flame but a closer inspection revealed the stone was as cold as ice and the fire was merely the design enchanted into the wall. Rars Nu descended the staircase with equal amounts of fear and anticipation eating at his stomach. Again there were two massive oak doors but unlike the first pair the oak shined in the glow of magic and the defeat of Criateon. Above the oak were the words "forever bound, forever resting, his power was too great for the world" in the ancient language. Hesitating Rars muttered a single sentence that reverberated the entire world from the force of the words. The doors flung open. The beauty of the room caused even Rars to pause

The room was a perfect sphere some forty feet in diameter. The walls were a collage of gems flowing perfectly from one minute shade to another without so much as a scratch in the entire seamless surface. Rars was standing on an impossibly black platform roughly three feet wide and twenty feet long stretching to the center of the sphere where a glowing white coffin laid suspended in the air by magic eons old. This was the prison of Criateon the creator.

Rars reverently kneeled in front of the coffin reaching out with his mind defeating the long corroded mental defenses of the creator and plunging into the endless sea that was his mind. Wave after wave of endless memories smashed against Rars' conscious weakening him and unhinging him. The sun rose and set again before a small beacon was seen on the mental horizon bobbing in the waves. Another day passed of sheer insanity to keep from losing himself and moving forward bringing up the time away from his body to two and a half days. The sun rose and set again but Rars had already arrived at his destination. The beacon was a small cube no longer than 2 feet but definitely more than 1 foot in length that was producing a blinding pure white light. Rars grabbed the cube allowing the waves to claim them before he began to transfer the energy he had spent the majority of his life collecting. Rars fear grew as the beacon devoured centuries of power in seconds yet continued it's energy consumption at a steady rate. Rars was nearing the end of both his mental and magical powers when the shifted to a slight grey giving Rars a split second warning before it exploded restoring Criateon's conscious and forcing Rars back to his own mind.

Rars opened his eyes. The all color slowly began to drain from the room turning the world into a curious monotone gray. Rars blinked thinking he had over stepped his limits and was now passing into the void but the grayness stayed as did Rars life. Then starting at an almost unnoticeable rate once solid objects began to dissolve forming a fine fog as the energy of the world itself was drained. The platform wavered then collapsed into a cloud of gray mist and would have sent Rars plummeting a twenty feet he no longer had the energy to survive if a force had not caught him and set him down on the bottom step.

"You have done well Rars Nu. Rest you have earned it." The voice pushed aside Rars mental defenses as if they never existed in the first place with the words ringing far more than when the ancient language was spoken by the average creature.

"There is still much to do and I will not rest until you are free of that prison."

"You can not unbind me Rars it would take the entire power of the grey nation at its height to break these bonds. I am weak but now I am aware, it is only a matter of gathering the energy needed to break these bonds that in itself will take time but if you are so adamant of refusing rest then make yourself useful and gather the sentinels. The time to right the world is now leave me."

Walking back up the stairs Rars thought And so awakens a god.