Last of the Greats
By: Aubrie1234
"Where should I begin?" the older boy thought back, "Well, let's go back to before the Divine War. I'll get to that and what happened to me later. In my world, since this seems to be an alternate one, we weren't exactly a happy family. The Twelve fought all the time, so the other semi-gods and I never made good relationships with one another. Things only got worse when Elinu gave birth to Balder and Ishara."
"How did that make things worse?" Oryin questioned.
"My Elinu died in childbirth, and Karas was so devastated at the loss that he left and never returned. Thulsa, seeing an opportunity to conquer the other gods, I guess, attacked the other semi-gods and started the Divine War, which was a war between the gods. Many of us took sides quickly except for Isren, Balder, Tithus, and a few others. We either took sides with the gods of Shara or the gods of Arun. There were many more on the Arun side than the Shara side, actually. However, for those who didn't with to fight...their peace wasn't to last."
"What happened?" Ishara was excited, despite dampening when she heard how her mother had died.
"I'm getting to that." the older Killian sighed, "Both Isren and Tithus were trying to keep the peace, but were killed because of that. Their deaths signified in our war that no one was to be able to stay out of it. It was either fight or die, there was no in between. As the war wore on, other gods were killed off as well. One of the more notable deaths were that of Lok and Balder. Balder, after Tithus' death, stepped in as peacekeeper and also keeper of the heavenly realm, where we were at our strongest, such as in this paradise. Both sides respected Balder, though, which was why he wasn't killed so quickly. There's also a legend that says he ripped out his eyes and threw them into the sky, creating the twin suns, but that is a blatant lie. Honestly, I don't know where they got that from..."
"Back to the Divine War, though." Karas urged.
"Right, right... As I was saying, Balder mostly survived because of the respect both sides held for him. However, Ishara, jealous of her brother, convinced Lok that Balder was insane, so Lok created a machine to steal Balder's power. He didn't know it would kill Balder however, and before he could reveal where he had hidden the machine, Shakan, Balder's bodyguard, killed Lok. To this day the remaining gods are weaker than they had been before the war and we still can't return to this place." That saddened the group a bit, but the older Killian continued on without another thought, "As gods of the races were killed, other gods began to adopt those races. Velik adopted the humans from Gidd and Kaia to the aman from Amarun. None of the other gods really adopted other races except those two. And speaking of Amarun, his fight with Zulas is what caused the amani to become enslaved by the giants, with their numerous defeats."
"What?!" both Amarun and Zulas roared in rage.
"We worked so hard to defy them, and now you're saying I caused his people to be enslaved?!"
"Yes, I do." he was glaring at her, "Before Lok died, he invented a machine that helped to free the amani, so you're lucky there wasn't another war with the giants. The Divine War was bad enough. Do you realize that the majority of the gods were killed? Only myself, Father, Sikander, Akasha, Mystel, Kaia, Thulsa, Velik, and Zenobia survived, as well as Icaruna, but the way she survived is different from the rest of us."
"How did I survive, then?" Icaruna asked, curious. Older Killian grimaced.
"It's not a happy story, to tell the truth. But, if you wish to know, I'll tell you. Don't say I didn't warn you." he then began his tale, closing his eye, "It was during a battle Father was involved in. Ica and I were sitting on the sidelines, watching. We, along with Father, were on the Shara side with Sikander, Thulsa, and so on. That was also the first time Sikander became Kelsaik."
"Kelsaik?" Sikander frowned, as did the rest of the Twelve.
"It's sort of your alternate personality, in a way, but very evil. Known as the god of annihilation, he could destroy the world if he wanted." Older Killian shook his head, "He pretty much decimated the battlefield before we could get him under control. But by that time, both Dagon and Shakan had been killed in his rampage. The debris had been thrown everywhere, even over to where Icaruna and I had been sitting." he opened his eye and frowned sadly, "I was a coward. In those few moments, I froze, but Ica didn't. She saved my life by pushing me out of the way, but she wasn't as lucky. She was stuck under the boulder, slowly crushing to death. With Father and the other gods struggling to keep Kelsaik under control, there was no way they would have been able to save my sister in time. So I made a choice, a very drastic one: I took her soul and merged it with mine so she would survive. In a way, she both died and survived. I owed my life to her, but Father was devastated after the battle. I don't blame him, and it was strange sharing a body with Ica. That was going to take some getting used to." Icaruna was gripping Younger Killian's hand tightly, afraid. He was trying to reassure her.
"But if her soul merged with your's, then where is she now?" Iannis asked.
"I'll get to that later. But by the end of the war, the 9 of us, 10 if you include Ica, were the only ones to survive. The other gods either died or disappeared. Even a few were imprisoned or imprisoned themselves. At the death of Isren and after his brief rages as Kelsaik, Sikander locked himself away. And in a way similar to how I was trying to protect Ica, I imprisoned Father. It's not something I'm proud of, nor is it the first. There are many things I've come to not be proud of, as they are horrible in everyone's minds, including my own."
"Then what happened after the Divine War?" Arachne asked, tapping one of her 4 legs in anticipation.
"Well, cults for some of the gods sprang up and I joined with Thulsa and Akasha to regain our powers, even though we had no idea where Lok's machine was. And Lok was one of the gods with a cult, along with Dagon. Kaia and Velik helped their adopted races to build cities in their names, Velika and Kaiator. And, of course, we had some trouble with Lakan..."
"Why would I cause trouble?" Lakan was one of the semi-gods who didn't cause much trouble.
"You took one of Zulas' branches of devas and helped them become archdevas, who meddled with blood magic." All of the gods understood what he meant at that, as they knew what blood magic was, "For that reason the archdevas were trapped in Northern Arun by a magical storm barrier, along with a group of barakas, and Lakan was imprisoned."
"Northern Arun?" the other gods blinked in question.
"The mortals have decided to name the continents as Arun and Shara, splitting them into North and South. Arun is on the right while Shara is on the left. Velika is located in Southern Arun with Kaiator is in Northern Shara, actually. But as for myself, I'm not sure if it was the near death of my sister or what, but she and I began torturing people. Aman, elves, humans, no one was spared. We did it for centuries, and it's one of the things I really hate about myself." The gods didn't know what to say when they heard that, "The only reason I hate it now is because of another near death experience, thanks to a few heroes. They were given the task of defeating the evil gods, which were myself, Akasha, and Thulsa. They were especially mad after Thulsa had the bright idea of bringing Kelsaik back. They nearly killed us, even though we managed to escape, and it gave me a new reason to live. Not only for myself, but for Ica. I had taken our immortality for granted, and the near-death reminded me of what I had to be thankful for. So, I've been trying to redeem myself. Akasha and Thulsa, though, have and did not."
"...So, what about now, in the present?" Gluda asked, trying to remove the thoughts of an insane Killian from her mind. The others were doing the same.
"Well, Shandra has come back."
"Shandra?"
"Shandra Manaya. ...Are you f***ing serious?! You've never heard of her?!" They shook their heads and Older Killian rubbed the bridge of his nose again.
"Alright, then let me give you this explanation: Manahan was the first god, made from Shara's and Arun's essences. However, she wanted to create something herself, like what Shara and Arun did when they created the Twelve, but could only mimic. That was when she created Shandra Manaya, who was neither a god nor the start of a race. After seeing what Manahan could do, they were afraid that Manahan could do much worse, so they sealed her away before they went to sleep, and now her name is an ancient one best left forgotten. As for Shandra, she controls a strange, half-mechanical/half-natural race called the Argons, which can also transform other creatures and races into argons. She used to live underground but soon came above through the Dark Cave and has been ravaging Northern Shara with her minions. Another regret of mine is that Thulsa, Akasha and I made a deal with her, where we could use some of her argons in exchange for...something. She never told us what she wanted, which made Akasha and I suspicious, but not Thulsa. He was too worried about getting his powers back to care, really."
"Manahan...Why have we never heard of her name or Shandra's, then?" Ur wondered. Older Killian shrugged.
"I don't know. It might be because this is an alternate world, where everything is better, happier..." A look came to his eye, a strange, tired one, "You're lucky, you know. You still have everyone, you don't have Kelsaik, you have better relations...You've got a better world than mine in any way you put it. Lately, things have gotten worse."
"What do you mean? Are those 'worse things' what did this to you?" Gidd asked.
"Yes. After the heroes managed to kill Kelsaik, which in turn killed Sikander, Shandra and the argons took his body away to study. The only thing they got out of it was an object called Sikander's Flame, a very powerful flame that somehow still held a part of Sikander, even after he had been forced to become Kelsaik. The heroes recovered that and killed Shandra at the same time. However, a month or so after that, Thulsa and Akasha got into disputes with the other gods again, causing a mini Divine War. All of the remaining gods became involved and, like the last one, killed each other off until I was left."
"And Icaruna?" Zenobia asked.
"It was during the part of the war in Southern Shara, between you and Mystel. It was where I had imprisoned Father, so I had gone to check on him and got caught in the crossfire. But I survived again, once again in thanks to Icaruna." For the first time, tears sprung to the boy's eye, "One of us had to die so the other could live. She chose to be that one. Again, I owe her my life, but there's no way I can tell her that now, is there? Either way, Father still died and the fighting between Mystel and Zenobia continued until they were both killed. It makes me wonder how Thulsa managed to goad them into fighting each other when they were always on the sidelines. And soon enough, I found myself the only god left. With no one to confirm if Lakan and Manahan were still alive, that left me. It whipped the mortals into a frenzy of revenge, wishing to get rid of me for good so they could live in a godless world. Sometimes, I wonder if the titans cried in their sleep for what we did to each other. We were their children and grandchildren, but what did we do? We destroyed ourselves." They saw his shoulders shake as he tried to hold in his sobs. It must have hurt him badly if he was going to cry. In sympathy, Saleron picked the boy up gently.
"Children, I think it's time we left." Dagon said. It wasn't an order, but a statement. The children followed it anyway, with Sikander and some of the other Twelve following them. They sat silently outside Elinu's room as Saleron and Zulas comforted their alternate child with the door closed.
"...Wow. Just...wow." Yurian breathed, "I never expected anything like that."
"And he's only a child..." Elinu said somberly, Isren shaking her head.
"But now that he's here, he's safe, isn't he?" Akasha asked, "That isn't going to happen to us?"
"He said that this was an alternate world, so possibly not, but as for his safety..." Gluda shook her head, "I don't know. If he somehow came here, then there's a chance others from his world could come through."
"But Yurian and Arachne, if you could show our parents where you found him, then maybe they could block it off, like they did with the storm barrier." Balder suggested.
"It's possible, but we've never done something like that before." Sikander said, "We don't know what would happen, what we would have to do, or anything."
"But until we do, we might as well keep watch on the area." Shakan said.
"Alright, but no one should go alone and the groups should only watch for an hour until they are relieved on their duties." Tithus said.
"Then where is he going to stay?" Thulsa asked.
"Until he gets better, he stays with me. Afterwords-"
"He can stay with us." They all looked to Killian, who had spoke up. He and his sister had stayed together since they had heard the news of how she died. They also shared a room, they were so close.
"Are you sure-?" Killian nodded to Gidd's question.
"Positive." Icaruna added, "Seeing me, even if I'm not his Icaruna, might help him out a bit. He needs help." That they all agreed on.
"But we can't just keep calling him Older Killian. How about Ian? Or you could go by it, Killian." Mystel suggested.
"We can figure that out once we get to it. For now, let's go to bed. It's getting late." Despite that, none of them were tired.
"Okay..." The children split off into their own little groups, going to their rooms. Yurian, still keeping an eye on Arachne, slept with her, and there were other semi-gods who slept together besides them, Killian, and Icaruna.
"...Do you think it's such a good idea to take care of this boy? What if it messes something up?" Amarun frowned, "We need to think of our own world, after all."
"Throwing him out there would be like sending him to the gallows." Isren protested, "He needs help, like Ica said. We can't just help him and then make his life worse. He lost his family, so we need to give him one."
"I agree with her." Karas said, speaking for the first time, "He's only a child, having gone through so much. If something happens, we help him. If those mortals come here after him, we protect him."
"And the children? They would get involved as well if we did this." Elinu asked.
"They're already involved." Dagon said, "There's no chance we would be able to get them out of it unless we sent them to the mortal realm, and I doubt they would want to leave Ian behind."
"For those who wish to get rid of Ian, raise your hand." Amarun, Gluda, and Gidd did so, "For those who wish to help Ian, raise your hand." Dagon, Tithus, Elinu, Isren, and Karas raised their hands.
"The rest of us want to see how it goes, I guess." Sikander spoke, not just for himself but also for Ur. He was pretty sure Saleron and Zulas would have voted in favor for Ian to stay, too.
Second chapter! And yes, I got a lot of this from the Tera Wiki, but also added some of my own stuff to it, too! Can you figure out which is which? Also, Zulas' name can either be that or Zuras, and I want to stick with Zulas; it sounds better! Anyway, read & review!