Chapter 21: Power of the Gods
Ares smiled. "That's right. You need to pay for trying to take over the world. That is not what the gods intended!"
Mars growled. "Well, it is what I intended! You were banished for a reason, Ares, and cannot come back to your rightful throne."
"THAT WAS YOUR FAULT!" Ares roared, charging towards Mars.
"Tell me, how is it my fault?" Mars asked, dodging the attack. The wolf bared its fangs and growled.
"I was doing my job as the Greek God of War. But you were the one who convinced me to go too far. I thought I was doing the right thing! But I was banished because of it; I thought you were my friend!" It snarled, leaping at the dragon again.
Mars flapped his wings and flew higher, hovering above the wolf. He breathed fire at it and snarled. "I did that so I could take your place. Do you remember what you did to me? I will kill you...brother."
"This is why Zeus gave me the position as God of War of Greece! I thought you understood when I was chosen, but you were always selfish. Zeus should never have given you the position after I was gone, because I knew you would abuse it!" The wolf jumped up, swatting at the dragon.
The dragon roared loudly and flew at the wolf, which closed its eyes and was bathed in a bright fiery aura. Ares roared as well, shooting fire from its mouth at Mars. The jets of flame collided and ricocheted away. Mars' avatar ran towards the wolf, swinging his sword at its legs. The wolf growled, dodging the attack and pouncing on the avatar. It looked at him ferociously, baring its fangs. The avatar of Mars smirked and spoke to it.
"You not going to kill your brother's avatar? That would just be cruel," it said. Ares snarled at the remark.
"I can do what I want," Ares said. "Anything to rid the world of you two scum." It howled ferociously and bit into the avatar, who screamed in pain as it was wounded. The wolf stepped back as it growled and watched the avatar.
Mars took this chance to fly over Ares, and breathed fire down on its back. The wolf howled as he singed its fur and it returned to fighting the dragon. It growled angrily and snarled at the dragon. Ares lunged at the dragon as it breathed fire at Mars again and tackled him. The dragon roared and snapped at the wolf's belly, stripping away its flesh. The wolf howled in pain. It growled and lunged at Mars, then closed its eyes and gained more power. Mars saw this and did the same. Soon the two gods were at their full power. Ares grew larger and roared. Wings burst from its back and it flew into the air using its psychic powers on Mars, who felt himself fly through the air, landing hard on its back, crushing many nearby houses.
"Why don't you give up!" he roared, frustrated.
"I'll never give up," Ares said. It pushed itself to its feet and flew in the air, immobilizing Mars with its psychic powers.
Mars broke free and flew up, blast fireball after fireball at Ares. Ares dodged the blasts and countered with its own fireballs. A bright aura surrounded it and it fired a powerful energy blast at Mars, who took the full force of it and roared before falling to the ground. Ares landed and growled as it saw Pandora's Box beginning to glow. Bright purple smoke came out of the box. Ares' eyes widened as it formed into the shape of Umbra. He was transparent, and his legs were a wispy tail that connected to the box.
"Pandora..." Mars hissed.
Umbra held out his hand which began to glow. Two bracelets and necklace covered his arms and chest, and spoke to the god. "I, the spirit of Pandora, find you, Mars, Roman God of War, guilty of abusing your powers as a god, and attempting to take the world for yourself when it belongs to no god, not even Zeus himself. Your punishment...containment in Pandora's box for ALL ETERNITY!" he said, his voice booming so that everyone in Rome heard.
Mars screamed in pain as the light hit him. The Guardian gave off a bright aura as the god was sucked into the box along with Umbra. Then the box closed and sealed forever. The wolf started to shrink and then with a pop, Celeritas stood in its place. He then groaned and became a wolf again. Ares roared and a bright aura surrounded it. Magic swirled around it and Caudus, Flamma and Argentum came back to life. They looked around and saw the god, then bowed before it. Ares roared and spoke.
"Hello, my friends," it said. Caudus looked at it, and then his jaw dropped.
"C-Celeritas?" he said.
The wolf shook its head. "I am no longer Celeritas or Sonic. I have regained my true form as Ares, the Greek God of War."
"Wow...that awesome!" Argentum said.
"How?" Flamma asked.
"Mars was attempting to corrupt me and make me a part of him. But I drew power from it, adding with my own growing energy, to become my true form that stands before you now."
Argentum and Flamma nodded in understanding. Ares turned around and it looked at the fallen avatar.
"What are you going to do with him?" Flamma asked it.
"Now that Mars is locked in Pandora's box, he should go back to his normal self. I won't promise that he won't be in that form forever, but he should go back to being Articulos" Ares said, looking down at the avatar as well.
"What happened to Umbra?"
Ares thought about it before answering. "I believe that when he was dragged into Pandora's box, he fused with the spirit of Pandora, becoming the box's guardian. So your friend is still himself, but is also part of Pandora. He can still hear us as we speak." Caudus, Flamma and Argentum nodded. Ares frowned and it began to ask them questions about the present timeline. "Have any of you ever met someone named Dr. Eggman?" It asked.
The others looked at each other, puzzled looks on their faces. "No. Who is he?" Argentum asked.
Ares sighed. It knew this would happen, but pressed on. "Who are your families?"
"We don't know."
Ares closed its eyes. If they forgot, then it might as well do what it had to. As itopened them, figures came over the hills. Two foxes with two tails were the first to show up. Next came a female white hedgehog, and a male grey one. Both their quills were like Argentum's. A younger, male hedgehog with grey fur was hanging off the male's back. Then, a blue and purple cat, male and female respectively, walked close behind. Finally, two red echidna's appeared, with the male having Articulos' same gloves.
"These are your families," Ares said. Their eyes widened and they bowed before the god. Ares chuckled as it looked around, then spoke some more. "Your son is over there. He should be fine, just give it a few minutes," it said to the echidnas, as they saw the avatar lying on the ground.
The two echidnas nodded and walked over to the avatar. He groaned and woke, looking around, finally lying his eyes on Ares, then bowed before the god. "Ares, I apologize for my behaviour, I was not myself," he said.
"That is understandable," the god said. It looked at the others and had them stand up. Ares had one last thing to tell them before it left, and it was about how it was banished. "You all were my friends, so you have the right to know how I was banished. Please understand, I was naïve and very stupid".
"What did you do?" Argentum asked.
Ares sighed and started at the beginning. "Mars and I were born at the same time. As we grew up we always competed. We were even a lot of the time. Then he started to fall apart and I rose. I rose until Zeus asked me to become the Greek God of War, while Mars, disappointed, became the Roman God of War."
"Over the centuries, I grew mighty with the powers I was given. I often visited Mars, but he was not satisfied with the position that he was given. I could tell something was wrong. One day, he came to me and asked of a favor. I didn't know what his true motives were at that time, so I asked him what he wanted me to do. He told me that the people of Rome had become unhappy with Zeus' choice to make me the Greek God of Rome. He told me they needed to understand my full power, by starting a war that would cause chaos across Rome. I didn't believe him, until he showed me for himself."
At those words, Ares raised a paw, and a ball of energy appeared. Something was occurring: images flashed across it as Ares showed them all what had occurred. They looked at the ball of energy and then back at Ares. It lowered its paw and resumed its story.
"I did what Mars asked of me. Using my powers, I started a war between Greece and Rome. The two countries were allies at the time, but no longer. The war lasted for ten years as I watched. Finally, Rome won the war. Zeus was furious with me. He told me he thought I was smarter then that, that humans weren't as worthless as I made them out to be. I angrily replied that they treated gods like we were worthless and that they deserved what I did. With a single lighting bolt, he cast me from the heavens. I knew, in that moment, that Mars had tricked me. He was grinning in triumph as I fell to Earth. Zeus named him the God of War of both Greece and Rome. My powers were stripped from me and I became a fallen god. I still obtained my immortality, and wandered the planet for centuries before making a home for myself in Rome. I lost my memories over time. I didn't know my past, but all I knew was that I was immortal. Then you all came along."
"Is that all? What will happen now?" Flamma asked.
The wolf smiled. It had learned its lesson and would go back to its rightful place. The clouds parted and Ares began to ascend into the heavens. As it did so, it looked down at its friends.
"Thanks to you, I learned how valuable humans really are. The creatures of Earth are wiser then I thought. Now that Mars is gone and I know what Zeus meant, I must take my spot as God of War again. Goodbye, my friends."And with that final farewell, he rose to heavens.
Flamma, Caudus, Argentum and the avatar all looked at the sky. A smile came to their faces and they walked back to their homes, knowing that Ares would watch over them forever.
As Caudus set down Pandora's box, as he had brought it home with him, he thought of Ares.
"This may seem strange...but I feel like we knew him before...in another time," he said, as Mars' avatar walked in.
"Perhaps," it said. "But that could be just an effect of seeing him."
Caudus nodded as their memories on the present time vanished forever. The avatar then clutched his head. Smoke swirled around him, and then in his place stood Articulos.
"Looks like I'm the Avatar of Mars now," he said, smiling. "So...what should we do now?"
"Recover our past. I don't remember my family well, but I'm sure they'll have stuff that will remind me and then...we do our own thing," Caudus said, looking at Pandora's box. "Pandora ad templum ut superinduceret nibh (Starting by bringing that back to Pandora's Temple)."
Articulos nodded. Then he picked up the box and transformed into a dragon. It growled and flew off towards Greece.
Caudus looked up at the sky and then gasped as he heard a familiar voice say Thank you, in his head. He smiled.
"No problem...Celeritas."