The Old Gods and the New

"My lord, they've breached the gate."

Ka made no answer. He was barely even listening.

"My lord, did you hear me? They've breached the gate."

And at this point, he barely cared either. The game was lost. He was in its final stages. He could play the game and lose, or forfeit. Only problem was, either of those decisions would make the game of life end the same way.

"My lord, please! What are your orders?"

But that being said, the warrior in front of him, battered and bloodied, was still playing, either too short-sighted or too loyal to consider the possibility of defeat. The man's helmet was removed, and he was missing an ear, but still, he carried his sword in hand.

"Go," Ka whispered. "Go, and die in means that become you. Go, and do your honour proud. Hold the line, son of the sands."

The warrior bowed, putting a hand to his chest, before returning to the fore. To join his fellow members of the Serpent Guard.

"Or flee," Ka whispered. "Flee, and live, before the sands take you. Before they take us all."

As he sat on his throne, Ka rose his hands off the sides of the stone chair, and hovered both across the two bowls beside him. One filled with water - the liquid of life, upon which even he depended. Within the other, sand - that which covered the land of Luxoria, and that which he had mastery of. Both in his throne room, within the Sky Temple, hovering over Luxoria like a silent sentinel. A fitting domain for the realm lord of these plans. An adequate arena for the heroes pulled into the Nexus, fighting over his temples for his amusement. And now, defiled, as those same temples were turned against his forces. His palace ruined. His gates broken. And now, as the door to his throne room was broken down...

Well now, he knew there was only one thing left to occur. What had happened to every other realm lord was going to happen to him. He could take some solace in the knowledge that he was the last to fall, and hope that his name would be in a thousand books of history. But given the murderous looks on the faces of the rabble approaching him, he wasn't counting on it.

"So," the Snake God whispered. "You made it. I was beginning to wonder."

No-one said anything. Not the rabble of traitors who carried sword and staff and bow. Not the members of the Serpent Guard who had become turncoat. Not even the so-called heroes spread among them, or the one who led them.

"Still," Ka continued. "As every sun rises, every sun must set. And mine has remained in the sky for eons."

"Too long," said the rabble's leader. "Too long, too bright, and too scorching. The sands wither, and so do your people."

Ka smirked. "Oberon would be so proud," he sneered. "Or at least I imagine he was, before your lacky plunged her blade into his heart."

The lips of the one with the blade quivered. Her master, Orphea, rose a hand, lest her lapdog get too eager. "Surrender, Ka, for your people's sake if not yours."

Ka waved a hand. "Spare me your prattle little girl. We all know there's only one reason you've got this far." He got to his feet, towering over the miscreants as the realm lord, the god, that he was. "Come. Let me see her. Where is the one with the power of gods? Where is the Amazon of Skovos, ever so far? Where is the one who was named Cassia, after emerging from mortal womb?"

Something flashed in Orphea's eyes, and Ka's smirk deepened. He didn't know how history would treat him, but he knew how history would treat Oberon's daughter. The leader of this rabble, but not its hero. Not the one who had uncovered the means of felling the realm lords. Not the hero of the Storm. Orphea would remain the Lady of the Raven Court, but he already saw where the power lay. And as the crowd parted way for her, he could feel that power as well.

"I'm here," Cassia whispered.

Ka bowed his head. "So I see."

She was beautiful, he had no qualms in admitting that to himself. Her white robes, her golden hair, her winged sandals. She wasn't the only one who'd discovered the power of ancient gods, but she was the one who'd led the rebels to victory. Striking down one realm lord after another, rallying the people to their side. In a better world, he might have asked for an alliance. But then...

"Your reign has ended Ka," Cassia said.

...but then the realm lords had had eons to make the Nexus a better world, and they'd failed to do so. Storm, they hadn't even tried. So Ka did have some humility as he watched the goddess walk up to him.

"Those robes are too big for you," he sneered.

Key word being "some."

"Where is your sister?" he asked. "She, with the speed of Hermes? She who goes by the name of Tracer?"

"Far away, and far removed from what will transpire here," Cassia said. She looked at Orphea. "If our leader allows it."

Orphea nodded, and Ka began to laugh. Echoing with the age and power of a realm lord. The miscreants, even some of their leaders, backed away. Not Cassia though. Not she with the power of a goddess.

"Explain yourself," she murmured.

Ka, still laughing, sat back on his throne and folded one leg over the other. "You discovered the power of Greek gods," he whispered. "You gained the means to fell gods in turn. And yet you use that power to do nothing else. Nothing but take orders from little girls whose issues failed to end with patricide."

Cassia clutched her spear, lightning extending from its tip, as well as her eyes.

"You call yourselves liberators," Ka whispered. He leant forward. "But I know what you will bring. Death. Chaos. Destruction."

"What else have the realm lords brought?" Orphea asked, stepping forward. "What have you offered the people of the Nexus bar pain and misery?"

"Order. Stability. Glory."

"On the bodies of how many dead?"

"Enough to feed the soil and build our walls." Ka glared at the rabble. "Though apparently not enough bodies were consumed."

Cassia glared at him. Orphea whispered, "you're a monster."

Ka let out a roar and slapped the bowel of water aside. "Monster, am I? Perhaps. But monsters build the walls. People like you, Orphea? You tear them down, and provide nothing new. You can't see beyond your own frailties, and in time, the people will suffer for it." He looked at Cassia, the dark pits of his eyes meeting the lightning in hers. "I have seen what lies within your mind," he whispered. "Aranoch, is it? A desert wasteland, where you explored tombs, in the shadows of those come before? Discovering terror and destruction beneath the cold earth?"

Lightning danced in Cassia's eyes, and behind it, thunder. And fear.

"You would do the same to my realm," Ka whispered. "Immortal you may be now, but you were not born to rule. You were born to fight, and to die. But I, the realm lords...we saved you. We raised you to glory!"

"Look," Cassia whispered. "The forked tongue of the snake moves."

Ka got to his feet, looking at the crowd. "Children, all of you. And you!" he exclaimed, pointing at the one called Ana. "Your Egypt, reduced to ruin - what makes you think you can improve my realm when you couldn't save yours?"

The sniper tightened the grip on her rifle.

"And you!" Ka spat, pointing his finger at the one called Raynor. "Egypt in your world as well, yet long destroyed by your ancestors. How can you build something in the image of that which you've never seen? How can you create, when all your kind does is destroy?"

Raynor looked at Orphea. "Can you shut him up?"

Ka chuckled. "Shut me up," he whispered. He looked down at the daughter of Oberon. "You can't, can you? Only she can." He turned his gaze to Cassia, before returning to the Lady of the Court. "How long until she turns against you, little girl? How long until the lord is overcome by the goddess? How long before-"

Cassia screamed, and threw her spear at Ka. As it penetrated his chest, he screamed as well. He fell back, his arms flailing, clutching naught but the bowels beside his throne. Both spilled over onto the cold stone floor, water and sand mixing. And after Cassia removed her spear from his chest, blood as well.

"You..." Ka hissed, watching as the goddess walked up to him. "You..."

She stood there, clutching her spear. Lightning coming from its tip. Blood dripping down its shaft.

"You...cannot kill me..." Ka whispered. "I...am the Serpent God. I...am the Son of the Sun. I…am…eternal...the king of...realm lord of...I...am a god!"

Cassia plunged her spear into his chest again and Ka screamed. A scream that echoed all over his throne room, his cry echoing down its halls, and beyond them, into the temple. A legacy that would outlast any carving on rock and stone. But a scream that died, as Cassia leant over to whisper in his ear.

"Your time has ended," she whispered. "We are the gods now."

Ka turned his head to meet her gaze, and in her eyes, saw lightning. And beyond it, more. Saw in her eyes what he'd seen in his own. In the eyes of every realm lord. No mortal could seize the power of gods and be unscathed. None could have that much power and refrain from using it. Not unless they were born into it. Not unless they were born to be both god and lord. And when that happened...

"May your sun rise," Ka whispered, "and your rival's sun set."

"Rival?" Cassia whispered.

Ka laughed, blood trickling down his chin and neck. "You know...who I mean..."

Seeing the look on the Amazon's face, Ka knew that she did.

After that, he saw nothing.