Dionysus, being the newest god of an ancient alcoholic beverage, usually wasn't taken very seriously. That was fine by him. It just meant a much more satisfying reaction when he crushes those unbelievers under his foot.
He lounged on a throne made out of grapevines that sprouted their own grapes as he watched his followers party in the late hours. Most of them were dryads and centaurs, but they were fun to party with. Sometimes a little bit too fun.
Right now, he was currently on his way to the east so he could spread the great news about his awesome beverage to others and gain more followers to expand his revelries.
Why?
Why not? He was interested in what lies there.
His army was now resting (partying) in a grove somewhere near Calydon for a little R&R. Even gods needed their daily breaks from time to time.
But there was one thing that he never approves of: the spying of or viewing of his revelries by outsiders. The last time that had happened, he had got a bunch of his followers to tear the unfortunate man to shreds. He wouldn't be missed.
So imagine his surprise and annoyance to find a young man stumble into his party without his permission.
The man wore some kind of black cloak with red cloud patterns on it. On his head was some kind of covering that shielded his face from view, hiding any noticeable features. In his hand was a sword that radiated with the smell of fresh blood.
Dionysus snarled. Who does this man think he is to barge in here with a drawn sword of fresh blood? Perhaps he has slain some of his followers?
If so, it required punishment. He wasn't going to let this man intrude upon his most sacred rituals. (AKA Party Plans.)
He whistled, a loud taxi cab whistle that was noticeable even amongst the crazy yelling, music, and rowdiness of the crowd. At once, everything quieted down and faced him with the utmost respect.
He stood up from his throne and cleared his throat before pointing over to where his target was. "Look at what we have here. This man is trespassing, making a mockery of our sacred rituals!" The killing intent from the crowd immediately jumped from zero to a hundred in a second.
Dionysus let out a smug smile as he watched his followers get into a frenzy. When they got like this, nothing was able to stand in their way. Not even the armies that tried to stop him from partying in their kingdom.
Kinda like Irish people during St. Patricks day.
The man, however, simply stood still and didn't seem to be interested in the impending danger. His shoulders were square and relaxed, almost like he didn't see the huge army of thousands as a threat.
The army was already pumped up on wine and adrenaline from all that partying. When they got into this state, they ignored all pain and had a fascinating urge to tear apart whomever Dionysus pointed his finger at. Effectively turning them into killing machines who held no sense of guilt or remorse over what they did, only caring about doing their lords wishes.
"Tell me, what do we do with trespassers and unbelievers?" Dionysus asked his followers with another swig of wine.
"We kill them!" The crowd answered as some of them began hefting clubs, spears, and some wine mugs.
Dionysus smiled proudly as if he was walking a baby walking for the first time. "Very good! Now, show him how we do so!"
The army roared and charged towards the man, intent on tearing him apart and turning the ground into a horror movie scene. The entire area would become a bloody masacre that would make the makers of SAW (The horror movie) disgusted.
Well, he was right in one way. This place was goiing to be a massacre. Just not for who he had in mind.
Leading the charge were the Maenads, crazy nymphs that were basically the most hardcore party people of all time. Which basically makes them Dionysus' right hand followers in the art of partying, killing, and pretty much everything else.
They were impervious to pain and each wielded a huge staff that was topped with a pinecone instead of a spearhead. They were Thyrsus rods, one of the symbols for Dionysus that you could find him holding if you saw any of his statues or paintings in Greece. Each of them weiged half a ton and could split a skull easily with a single swing.
The Maenads giggled in glee as they saw that their target continued to stand still, making him an easy pinata. Except he wasn't going to be spilling out tootsie rolls or smarties and suckers when he got it.
Nope, he'd be leaking fruit punch!
Just as the crazy nymphs descended down on the man with the intent of turning him into a pancake, there was an explosion of wind and the army halted as the air buffeted them.
When the winds stopped, body parts were raining down from the sky. That was supposed to happen, right? The man was supposed to go boom and body parts were supposed to fly everywhere. So why were there eight arms rolling around in the dirt?
The man just stood there with his sword raised in a finished slash motion. Rolling around his feet in the dirt were several decapitated Maenad heads. If any of them weren't currently drunk, they would have saw this as a target out of their league.
Unfortunately, Alcohol tended to make people become retarded.
Instead of wisely retreating, the army roared in anger as they charged again. Within a couple minutes the entire area had turned into a battleground full of drunken horse men and nymphs.
The man was a demon in human form. Each swing of his sword struck down a centaur or nymph without fail. He swept his arm out and blew several centaurs away with some invisible force. He made some sort of guesture with his hand and the earth suddenly turned to mush, sinking many up to their heads and suffocating them in mud. Every punch he threw sent his target flying back with broken bones, or worse case scenario, a hole in where he punched them.
The man tossed another centaur into a herd of his friends before he made a handsign and blew a fireball into another group of nymphs, setting them on fire and scatering them in a panic.
The army began throwing spears, sheilds, or whatever they could get their hands on in a desperate attempt to kill him. The man was simply just too fast. He ran straight out of the kill zone with speed and finese as he landed on the branches of a nearby tree.
By this point, the army was starting to sober up. Centaurs were no longer brimming with drunk confidence, but with fear. Maenads and nymphs were staring in horror at the literal pile of bodies that littered the area.
Dionysus simply stood by his throne in shock. This wasn't how things were supposed to happen. the man was supposed to have died quickly and easily. Make a little show out of him so that it would raise the armies morale. Now, nearly a quarter of his army was slain in the blink of an eye by a single man.
He eyed the man standing on the branch with a nervous look. What was he going to do next? He showed the ability to manipulate the earth, fire, and wind. His strength was off the charts and so was his speed. His sword wasn't even covered with extra blood despite the amount of corpses that now littered the ground. His swings were that fast.
Right now, the man seemed to be catching his breath but he couldn't be sure. What was he waiting for? Should he pull his army out now, or risk another charge in the hopes of catching the man while he was tired.
Unfortunately, he got his first question answered first.
The man dropped out of the tree and landed on the floor gracefully. The army skittered nervously in response. He stood up and ominously stood up and took a daunting step forward.
The army stepped back.
The man stepped forward.
The army stepped back.
Suddenly, he paused in his movement and stood still. Suddenly, the sword in his hand vanished into the fold of his robes in a single fluent manner. The horde relaxed for a moment, before two massive objects appeared in both of the man's arms.
They were each shrouded in darkness, but their shape could be seen and traced. At first, they seemed to be clubs, but the way the man was gripping them was not how anyone would hold one.
The man hefted both in his arms, each giving off a groan as if gears were turning, and pointed both of them at the army. The centaurs and Nymphs gave each other odd looks. What was the man doing?
They were answered with the sound of a click before the entire area was filled with the sound of explosions.
Or at least, that's what it sounded like. The massive objects in the man's hand began producing flashes of light that illuminated the darkness followed with the sudden dropping of bodies as they were suddenly torn apart by some unseen objects.
Centaurs and Nymphs retreated in mass panic as more and more of them were mowed down by machine gun fire. They could hear the sounds of bullets flying past them, but they couldn't see them. To them, it was like an unseen force was striking them down in cold fury.
Like a god.
Dionysus stood up from his throne and raised his hand, intent on stopping this man from doing any more damage. He was going to blast him with a curse and turn him into a grape vine. He'd look much more better as a grape vine.
He suddenly paused mid-spell as the man soon trained his weapons on him and the hail of bullets smashed into the ground around him, kicking up dirt and other earthly substances.
Dionysus cursed in fear and disappeared in a flash of light to avoid being torn apart by a hail of lead. Without their leader, their was no longer any more disciple in the army, not like there was much to begin with. They all scattered in different directions, no longer caring about where they were going as long as it was away from that madman.
The man didn't stop firing until the last of the satyrs disappeared from his sight. With the deed done, he dropped his weapons and stood silently as a ghostly figure appeared at his side.
"Amazing…" The ghostly figure breathed with amazement and giddiness. "Amazing, my faithful host! Hundreds have perished in the blink of an eye!"
The spectre was a man with a shrivled beard and crazy eyes. He wore a simple greek chiton and was deadly white. Not like you could tell since his entire form was transparent so you could see through him.
"I never thought you could do stuff like this until i took you out on those poor villagers. Now that i have you, Hades wouldn't dare send his men after me to drag me back to the underworld. I have cheated death!" The ghost cackled with insane laughter while the man simply stood there silently. He couldn't respond anyway, it's not like the ghost would allow him to break free of his control by allowing him to talk. He was simply a body that was used to host the man's soul and attack anything the man deemed a threat.
"But that is not enough!" The man snarled as he floated around. "We will march down into the underworld and topple Hades from his throne. With him out of the picture, I will instigate myself as the new king of the underworld! I will let the dead flood back into the world of the living and wage war on Olympus!" The man cackled with glee. "I could rule over world! And you, my dear host, will be the one to do so in my stead."
"How about, no?" A voice called out from the edge of the tree line. Roland immediately jumped back as a kunai found itself planted in the dirt where he once stood. Four shapes appeared out of the trees and landed in front of him.
"What is this?" The man hissed as he floated behind Roland. "Who are you people?"
"Friends of his." Alex said simply as he pointed his spear at him. "If you kindly released him, we promise there won't be much trouble. You could still evade Hades' fury for a little while longer."
"Hah! You expect me to give your friend back to you?" The ghost laughed as he circled around them. "I've gone too far to turn back. Hades has promised me a spot in the fields of punishment for my crimes. No. I will not go back there."
"Wow. Pussy much?" Desmond muttered.
The ghost laughed without humor. "Think of me what you will. It won't matter. I'll let my little pet take care of you himself. He will teach you what happens when you mess with me. Sisyphus!" The ghost disappeared and Roland hefted his guns.
"What's he doing?" Atalanta asked with a slightly nervous look as she eyed the shadow covered weapons.
"Scatter!" Jaune yelled as he disappeared into the trees. Alex grabbed Atalanta's hand and pulled her with him as he and Desmond followed Jaune before the clearing once again filled with the sound of gunfire.
"Keep your distance." Alex yelled at Atalanta over the noise. "You'll be massacred up close!"
Atalanta looked a little bit miffed, but nodded anyway. She was no fool. She could tell those two weapons were projectile weapons even if they looked absolutely alien . Her eyes were used to seeing arrows going super sonic speed. So she was able to see the little balls of lead that peppered the trees with holes.
A rather impressive placeholder for an arrow. Instead of shooting a single arrow that could punch through a wall and cause massive damage to the surrounding area, the weapons shot small objects at speeds fast enough to make up for the size. It was meant to kill others through speed, not destroy the entire area with a huge package. Hephaestus would have been impressed.
"I'll set myself up farther away." Atalanta said as she gripped her bow. She wasn't a coward by any means, but running away wasn't a skill that archers should be ashamed of. The farther away they were meant that they could simply unleash their full potential.
"Take care, alright? With those weapons, he doesn't need to really aim." Alex warned with a worried tone. Atalanta simply smiled and disappeared into the forest as Jaune and Desmond appeared beside him.
"Alright... Before we come up with a plan, does anyone know some guy named Sisyphus?" Desmond asked as he peeked out of the woods before ducking back as bullets fell around him.
"I do." Jaune said grimly. "If you paid any attention during social studies, you'd know him. He's the first person in Greek mythology to actually escape death. Or at least, the most famous example."
Alex frowned. "How'd he do it? Isn't hades supposed to be keeping track of souls like these?"
Jaune grunted. "You know how it is. There's a lot of people living in Greece right now. Everyday someone dies and is sent down to Hades to be judged. That's a lot of souls for him to keep track of. Sisyphus was one of those who was supposed to get the most extreme punishments, but he managed to chain the greek god Death to escape."
"Eh? How do you chain death?" Desmond asked with a confused look.
"Actually, the greeks called him Thanatos: God of Death. He was sort of like the grim reaper of ancient Greece. His job was to collect souls and send them straight to Hades." Jaune shrugged. "Without him, people wouldn't be able to find their way to Hades and simply return back to life."
"But how do you chain a god of death? Isn't he supposed to be like some kind of unseen force that simply takes people away?" Alex asked.
Jaune threw up his hands. "I don't know! Legends just said that he was overpowered by sisyphus and chained up so he could escape and there was another time where Heracles beat him into submission to save a girl or something. Greek gods aren't exactly smart."
"You got that right." Desmond muttered as he kept his head down. "So this guy whose possessing Roland... is there any way we can force him out?"
"The guy is camping out inside Roland's head." Alex grumbled in annoyance. "It seems he somehow managed to set an 'attack mode' on him and force Roland to obey his command. Kind of like a reanimated shinobi."
"Except he's flesh and blood." Jaune pointed out. "We can't exactly bombard the area and hope that the ghost will get scared and leave. He doesn't have any qualms about ruining Roland's body since he could just find another one."
"Then our only way to stop Roland is to subdue him without killing him." Alex supplied. "Afterwards, we could try to exorcise him."
Desmond and Jaune gave him a blank look. "We're not exorcists."
Alex shrugged. "We could try. But enough talk..." He ducked as a bullet came dangerously close to his head. "Let's subdue him. I'll take right, Jaune takes left, and..."
"I'll hit him from above." Desmond finished. "What about Atalanta? What will she do?"
"Suppressive fire." Alex said simply. "She's setting up shop a few miles away. In the meantime, wait for the opening."
Jaune and Desmond frowned. "What opening?"
Suddenly, the hail of bullets stopped and the sounds of a trigger being pulled repeatedly echoed through the area. Roland's look didn't change, but he glanced down at his weapons with a confused grunt as his guns clicked on empty.
"That." Alex gestured before he charged out into the opening.
Everything was going fine until Sisyphus decided it was time to bust out the big guns.
The plan went swimmingly at first. The three of them separated as the guns clicked on empty, and charged for Roland. Alex's foot lashed out and kicked the dark machine guns out of his hands, causing them to disappear as they hit the floor.
Unfortunately, Roland didn't seem as surprised as he let out on. He blocked Alex's second strike with his own arm and smacked him back with a wild backhand, causing Alex to roll to the ground with a grunt.
Behind him, Jaune unsheathed his katana and swing it in a fast arc. He wasn't aiming for anywhere vital, but he was aiming to sever his arm. That might be vital for the normal human being, but they could easily reattach it with some healing jutsu after they were done. To his surprise, however, the blade simply clanged off his arm like it had struck metal.
"What?" Jaune muttered in surprise as he eyed Roland's arm. It had noticeably gotten darker, and took the color of hardened rock. "He hardened his arm with Earth Release?" His eyes suddenly widened when Roland's fist cocked back for a punch that was meant to take his head off his shoulder. He ducked under the punch and kicked him backwards into a tree, snapping it in half.
Such a blow and impact should have incapacitated him, but Roland still stood up without a problem. His hands glowed blue and energy seemed to gather at his hands. Jaune's eyes widened as Roland began shooting laser beams straight out of his hands as he raced towards him. Jaune backpedaled as the beams scorched the earth around him with electricity.
"Hi-yah!" Desmond yelled as he swung his lightning sword around and deflected most of the beams before running to meet Roland's charge. He swung his sword and Roland leaned back to dodge by simple inches before sending a hardened rock fist hurtling towards Desmond.
Reacting quickly, Desmond stepped back and swung his sword to block the strike. There was an explosion of sparks and Roland stumbled backwards in surprise and pain as his arm suddenly went numb. He looked down and saw that his arm was burnt and bleeding with a line of blood streaming down it.
"He damaged him?" Alex wondered as he regrouped with Jaune after recovering from the backhand.
"It would seem so." Jaune said as he eyed Roland's hand. "He used earth chakra to enhance his physical and defensive capabilities by hardening his body to a point that is just as hard as diamond. Physical blows would be nullified greatly." He narrowed his eyes. "Although, lightning chakra was said to be Earth's greatest weakness. The lightning seemed to have not fully pierced the defense, but it seemed to still do great damage."
"Alright. Then I guess I should use my spear for more range." Alex said as he withdrew his Kiba swords and summoned his spear. "Much safer this way."
"Unless he gets into your guard and starts pummeling you." Jaune pointed out. Even before they came to this world, Roland was known to get into a lot of street fights. As such, he actually loved relying on his bare hands other than hand weapons.
"I'll be careful." Alex said with a grin before there was a sudden explosion of power, knocking everyone to the ground. Desmond fell beside them, cursing and spitting out dirt as he picked himself up.
"Shit..." He cursed with a look. "This is bad."
"What now?" Jaune groaned as he stood up shakily.
"The ghost is pushing Roland further. He's making him tap more into his powers." Desmond announced as the smoke cleared and Roland stood there silently. His eyes had changed, taking on a purple hue with rings.
The rinnegan.
"ha! Ha! ha!" Sisyphus cackled as he appeared above Roland. "Excellent! This host holds more power than I could have ever expected! I assume that you three must do so as well..." He regarded them like he was a lion looking at his prey. "I'll let your friend beat you down before tying you up. Once that's done, I'll begin experiments to see what this power is. With it, I'll be able to rule over all the kingdoms! Maybe even olympus itself!" The ghost cackled in glee while Roland just remained silent.
"As if we'd let you do that." Jaune scoffed.
"Don't think we won't hold back our punches." Alex said with a nod as he readied his spear.
"And once we're through with knocking you out of our friend's body, you'll be enjoying a nice date with Hades." Desmond said as he held out his sword. "No one can escape punishment."
Sisyphus' eyes narrowed with obvious distaste for the god of hell. "Fool! I already have! I won't let any of you drag me back to the underworld in chains!" He snarled. "Now, it's time to test out my new toy." He pointed at the three of them in challenge. "Go! My pawn, kill them all!"
Roland disappeared in a burst of speed as the three of them prepared for an epic smackdown.
Hey guys! I finally finished this chapter! I didn't mean for it to take so long, but I really wanted to take a small break from writing so many chapters in the past several weeks. Also, I have a bunch of research papers that I really need to do so there's that.
I'm also very happy to see that I'm getting closer and closer to 100 favorites after each and every chapter. For those of you who review, read, and favorite my story, thank you all! I know that getting to 100 might not be much for any of you, but it sure does mean a lot for me, :)
Anyways on the talk about seeing more servants, that will come in the future. I already have a plan that will eventually include many servants in the future, but it'll take a while for me to place it into effect.
And that's all for now. See you later, everyone!
-baloshua