Author's Notes
So... it has finally arrived. The reasons for why this took so long are simple, I am human. And so the flames did get to me and discourage me from writing this. But I want to give a big thanks to everyone that has favorited and followed this story because if not for those high numbers I would have given up on this. I know that as a writer I shouldn't be so vein and write a story because I have a story to tell or whatever. But I like seeing the numbers go up and it makes me feel like this is a story that is wanted. So thanks.
As for the future of this fic, it's not dead but it's not getting a regular schedule. So chapters will come out when I finish them. I will try to keep that to at max three months
Text Notes
"Bitches love cannons" Underlining means it is in a dead language or one I don't care to learn how to properly write.
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It had been decided that him and his father would each set off for their targets first thing in the morning. Both had been given a guide that showed them the way to the borders of the human's patrols. Once they had gotten there Atreus had turned back to ask for directions but found his guide had completely vanished, impressive even for him.
"This is their land, they know it better than anyone. Likely why they have been as successful as they have been." The homefield advantage was something no one should underestimate. That was one of a several lessons of war that his father had taught him. Sneak attacks had also been another, though Kratos had not been too happy to admit their effectiveness.
Atreus quickly found a patrol of humans on a out of place beaten path that obviously had been made by them to patrol their borders. They were geared up in a mix of civilian clothes, military surplus, and stolen police gear. This nonuniformity also extended to their arms, one guy carried a assault rifle, others smaller arms and one just had a bat. Atreus could only find the use of large feathers stapled or taped to their bodies as the one unifying thing about them. The humans also ranged in ethnicity but were predominantly Latin American, Atreus took this plus the mismatched uniforms to confirm that they were simply just unlucky humans from across the continent that got lured in by the dead god's spell. Anyone from local to tourist could be here. Which only made it all the sadder.
Under one of his Illusions, he followed them through the jungle. Their movement was slow as they continually tripped on roots, had to deal with swarms of bugs, or the vegetation simply overgrew their route. Each time one of these things happened Atreus could feel a small surge in the ambient magic. It felt similar to Vanir magic but distinctly different in origin. The Snake-Men hadn't made any mention of this so the Devil took this as something else was fighting the human invaders as the small inconveniences happened to regularly for it to be natural.
Atreus noted grimly as they drew closer and closer to some sort of camp judging by the sounds he could hear through the trees, that these humans were completely subsumed into the will that controlled them. It wasn't a hive mind as they didn't share a reaction to some of the incidents that happened on the patrols but they had done it in complete silence and without a single show of humanity. No squad banter, no speaking or combat signs to each other, not even a show of care when any of them tripped or stung. The magic controlling them had stripped them of any personality other than what was needed to do their job.
They trudged through the jungle until they had reached a cobbled together wall of wood and stacked cars. The gate was lifted up by a construction crane and came back down the second that the patrol walked through, Atreus had been nearly caught by it as he slipped in. The former god moved around several ramshackle buildings and then peered around a corner to get a good look of the place. It was made out of a mix of scrap and lumber from the jungle haphazardly slapped together but still orderly. Everyone moved with purpose, not a step out of place.
"Good, means they are predictable." Atreus muttered to himself as he slipped back into the shadows. He needed to find their radio room, the lack of proper digital infrastructure in this supernatural jungle meant they would be reliant on radio to keep in contact with the other camps. The fact he hadn't been able to call Rias his entire time here due to interference had given him a great hint.
As the copper haired boy moved through the camp, making sure to avoid anyone's sight just in case his illusions weren't enough, Atreus prepared for his next move. Every now and then he would he scratch Norse Runes into the ground, walls, or rocks that littered the camp. For now they would do nothing but at his command they would activate a summon forth some of his elemental beasts.
Through the patrols and movements of the cultists, Atreus made his way to a building that was situated under a hastily crafted radio tower. The Devil watched from the shadows, watching as several groups of cultists came in out of the shack. He frowned at the fact there seemed to be no gap in people checking in on his target. He had to make sure that communications were cut off, he wasn't entirely sure that his father wouldn't just run in ready to slaughter his way through his assigned camp. But he also knew his father was smarter than one would first think and was a master at the art of war, even more so now that he had been living in a world with thousands of wars of war to learn from. Either way, this had to be his first target in order to achieve the best mission result.
Atreus needed to find a distraction. He thought about setting off one of his traps but knew that the nature of the cultists that wouldn't have the desired effect. With how controlled they were, only a small number of them would end up going to contain whatever damage he caused. So the Devil slipped away and started checking through the camp for anything that might pull a lot of attention. The ammo depot looked like a promising target but that might also set off alarms of an attack, which could damage his father's chance or the main camp.
As the teen contemplated his next course of action he heard something. A hissing sound that using his powers he deciphered as a call for help. It didn't sound like the hissing of the Snake-Men and even more curious was that he could only sense the intent and not the actual translation. Atreus knew that meant it was a language couldn't be understood in the normal way, that it had nuances that a human-like mind couldn't comprehend. Lots of things had languages like that, trees and plants being the best example. It was one of those things that he supposed with age and training he could have eventually learned before he became a Devil and stayed a God. But for now, simply understanding the intent was enough.
Following the hissing sound he came to the center of the camp. There a massive alter to the twisted angry version of the dead Aztec god Quetzalcoatl stood below a floating stone covered in runes. All around it were men and women dressed in bloody rags and far too many feathers, finished off with helmets made from the severed heads of the snake men. They were in the middle of some sort of sermon but that wasn't what had brought Atreus here. That would be the many cages of snakes further back behind the alter. They contained hundreds of snakes, some of them even had small feathery red wings. Those with wings were the ones that were making the pleas for help, others were making more… aggressive hissing toward the cultists.
The Devil smiled wide as he had found his distraction and a little help in his mission. A little bit of trickery here and there and the boy soon found himself with a keyring that one of them should be for the cages. Atreus sneaked his way over to the stacks of cages, There he was able to get a closer look at the snakes. All of them had intricate patters of green and red across their scales and each cage only contained one of the winged snakes.
"I don't know what's going on, but I'm guess you all aren't too pleased at being locked up like this." Atreus had always liked snakes, wasn't hard to understand given his relationship with the World Serpent. Though he was kinda fuzzy on just how the World Serpent of his home reality existed with… it hurt his head to think about the analog nature of mythologies here and back in his home reality. But Atreus liked snakes, and these snakes were trapped and could help him. One of the larger crates shook and Atreus looked over to it to find a single feathered snake, this one having a collar of red and yellow feather around its neck. It was the largest of the bunch, easily the size of a python. "Here's the deal, I need to take these guys out. Think you can help me with that."
The large feather snake hiss angrily in agreement. So Atreus explained his plan, and unlocked all the cages, however the snakes remained inside. The teen then drew a Nordic rune into the dirt, one that would simply glow when he commanded it to. With the plan set, Atreus sneaked his way back to the radio shack. With the snap of his fingers he gave the signal to the snake to have their revenge. And it turned out that snake venom and being swarmed by the reptiles was enough to shock some humanity back into he cultists as Atreus heard screaming come from the center of the camp. This was followed by many footsteps heading toward the focus of the commotion.
And in that moment he slipped in a window and took note of the three cultists that were manning the radio equipment. One was an older lady that was still wearing civilian clothes. Atreus tensed up, then followed his father's advice and closed his heart to what had to be done. With near perfect skill and efficiency, Atreus snuck up to the middle cultist and swiftly sliced through his neck with the same knife he had since he was a child. The other two didn't have time to react as the one on the left soon had the small blade in their forehead while the other died to a chop to their neck that severed their spinal cord.
"Close your heart to it. They weren't even really human by this point." Atreus told himself as he summoned a bear of Muspelheim fire. He walked out the door as the fires started reaching the walls and the sound of a bear's growl echoed aside electronics breaking. The camp he came back to was not so orderly anymore. Swarms of snakes now slithered their way through, chasing and being chased by mad cultists who were trying to avoid being attack and who were trying to recapture them. In the chaos of this mess, Atreus added to it by activating his traps, sending several fiery beasts running through the camp after anything with two legs. By the end of it, Atreus found himself a good high spot and started snipping off heads with his Talon Bow, mostly focusing on anyone going for an exit. "Won't be long now, I really wanna get back home, I'm actually missing Mimir's cooking… definitely missing Akeno's lunches… hell even some crappy ramen bowls with Rias would be nice right now."
Atreus dipped into the steaming hot spring, many of them littered the bottom of the gorges that crisis crossed the snake-men's home. The night sky, moonlight, and several fireflies were his only illumination. The sounds of the snake-men encircling the main camp of the cultists was feint but he could hear it. Both he and his father had been able to succeed in their missions. Apparently his father had found a big rock and chucked it at his camp's radio tower to cut off their communication. After that he stormed in and with his Chaos Blades tore through the humans defending the Sealing Stone.
Night was setting and tomorrow would be the final push to end all of this. The memories of what had happened, the feeling of killing mortal men was still fresh in his mind. He really understood why his father was as stoic as he was. It was the only way Atreus could understand how he could cope with all the blood he had spilled. "It's been forever since I've had to kill just a normal person. Monsters and other supernatural beings feel… it feels like survival. But for them…"
"You worry you'll begin to feel like a butcher killing their cattle." Atreus locked up and took a defensive stance, despite being buck naked. He looked to the brush that hugged the pure stone of the hit springs. He watched as the greens grew and eventually a womanly figure of plants and roots.
"A dryad?"
"I guess you could call me a distant cousin of them." The plant woman said as her face fully formed. She didn't feel hostile and so Atreus slowly lowered back into the spring, not out of embarrassment as he was very confident in his body due… uncountable reasons. "Unlike back in the world of your gods, many myths and beings of the supernatural world have been lost to time. Their names and image forgotten in the minds of men."
"And what does something lost to time of the outside world come to me for?" Atreus asked as his senses picked up on something in the air. A sudden change in the wind and a quiet rustle of the leaves that felt out of place.
"The jungle knows of what is to come, or what many wish to be. The enthralled humans are puppets to the dying hatred the Feathered Serpent felt in its final moments. Meanwhile, the cold ones that have guarded it's corpse yearn for the time when they can leave to find their own destiny." As she spoke, several tendrils of vegetation started to creep their way closer to the hot springs, along with a swarm of insects. The many fireflies that had been lighting up the canyon that hot springs rested in began to flicker out one by one until only a handful remained. "Soon, so very soon root and stem will reclaim what belongs to it. Those that have inhabited this land if given the chance leave and never return."
"And it sounds like you and the jungle seem very intent on this happening." Atreus said as he continued to soak in the spring. Despite the growing darkness and ominous atmosphere, he still didn't sense any threat toward him in particular. The plant lady was constantly… changing. Her appearance would at times be very feminine and others it would become more base humanoid but without any real features.
"Yes." The word echoed through the through the air, coming from no direction specifically. "Humanity encroaches on the old places of the world. This one will Remain untouched by all."
"Ah… I see." Atreus understood that he was speaking more to the nature soul of the jungle through the Dryad like being. However now the tone had changed, before it was ambivalent to him. But now it was starting to become hostile. This was an angry spirit, one that has been forced to witness the destruction of the Amazon at the hands of industry and now was given the chance to push out everyone from it's borders. "Well, me and my father will be happy to help you there."
"The Lightning Thrower and the laughing god of the ice giants." Atreus cursed under his breath as the swarms of insects were rustling faster and faster around the spring that he was sitting in. "The stench of western shores and foreign gods hangs about you. Will you truly leave? Or do you have further plans just as many before have had for these lands?"
"I'm not those people, I'm only here because…" Atreus felt his mouth dry up as he tried to finish his words. Mentally his was panicking as he knew why this was happening, he could talk about the deal he and his family made with Nex or the business that it involved. A fact that very much was making the current situation worse.
The avatar of the jungle, as it was unfurling to be less human shaped as the moments passed, didn't seem pleased by this retraction of information. The entire gorge by now was lit up by only a single firefly that hung above Atreus but thanks to his Devil blessed night vision he could see that he was surrounded by clinging plants and beneath every root and branch was a ocean of bugs. There was this loud creaking sound that the God turned Devil took as a roar of displeasure. Atreus was planning on created a blaze of Muspelheim fire summons and fly as high as he could.
Then he heard the skittering of the insects stop behind him. The oppressive aura dipped a bit and he allowed himself to look back. There, weaving its way through the sea of bugs were several snakes, their hisses scaring off the bugs and causing a ripple effect across the entire army of creepy crawlies. The led snake then unfurled red and yellow feathery wings and slithered and flapped its way up into the air. Atreus recognized it as the same lead snake that he had saved back at the camp.
"It's seems the children of the Feathered Serpent have decided to trust you." Atreus looked back and saw that the Dryad creature was now back to her previous feminine form. However the light of the fireflies and the rest of the gorge was still covered in plants.
"Then why do I still feel like I'm in danger?" Atreus asked as a few of the tattoos on his fingers glowed with the red of Muspelheim.
"Trust can be misplaced, even when it comes from such wise beings." The plant lady explained as the flying snake circled Atreus and eventually landed on his shoulder and started coiling around his arm. In the small it of research that Atreus had done for the mission, he knew that Quetzalcoatl, the god they had come to kill, was one of knowledge among other things. But he didn't find anything about him having children. Though Atreus knew that his research was limited to just mortal human knowledge as he didn't exactly have access to any library in the supernatural world in the time since the trip.
"But I'm guessing that since you're here again, there's an offer on the table?" There had to be some sort of catch. While it seemed that this intervention had prevented violence from breaking out, Atreus was under no illusion that both of these parties had his best interest at heart. The jungle wanted everything not directly tied to it and its natural ecosystem gone, meanwhile the serpents were a total mystery. The Pawn assumed by what the Plant lady said before, about how what was controlling the humans, that it wasn't the true spirit of Quetzalcoatl. Which meant that his children might want to end this whole thing just as badly. All he knew was that both were enemies of the cultists. "My guess is you want to make sure my father, myself, and our other friend leave and don't come back."
"Yes." The jungle growled back through the gorge.
"Right, well I don't know how to convince you that was already our plan more than just giving my word." Atreus didn't know just what they wanted, there wasn't any way that he could think of that could be done to ensure that him, his father and Nex wouldn't come back. It wasn't like the Jungle was capable of affecting them once they left or able to hold anything over them.
"A pact will be made." The plant woman said and immediately Atreus was apprehensive about this. "You are a Devil are you not? Is not it the business of Devils to make deals?"
"Meaning you have something to exchange?" The Devil boy smiled feeling that now things were on his turf. If they had suggested a contract like he had with Nex then Atreus would have been a bit more worried. But if they wanted a Devil Pact than he was far more able to dictate the rules.
"You and your kind will leave once your business is concluded and in exchange a Familiar will be presented to you. And since the children of the Feathered Serpent were so eager to vouch for you, one of their numbers should suffice." The plant lady looked to the winged snake on Atreus' shoulder who hissed angrily at being volunteered for this. But then the loud creaking of trees reaching forward echoed through the ravine and it quickly shut up. "Do these terms satisfy you?"
"I'm fine with them but it doesn't seem that all parties are okay with it." He looked to the winged serpent on his side who looked at him before rudely hissing something in its own tongue as it turned back away. It was agreeing to this but would have its own demands later. "I guess that will have to do."
"You joining a circus or something kid?" Nex asked as Atreus approached him and Kratos. The three were now standing on a massive branch that gave them a perfect view of the battle taking place.
Far below and further ahead was the sloping campsite outside a gasping cave entrance. The cave itself looked like a roughly carved snake's head out of the small mountain it was at the base of. Meanwhile rings of stalagmite like pillars circled the cave entrance. Between these rings were a small town of cobbled together scrap buildings and the remains of the Snake-Men's homes. The rings must have been natural walls the Snake-Men used before the new occupants came and reinforced them with sheets of metal and wooden scaffolding. Sandbags and machine gun camps were also common.
However, the Snake-Men were no longer ignorant to the dangers of high powered firearms. The Snake-Men were encroaching upon their former village behind thick barricades they pushed forward on wheels. Reinforced by their own magic, these mobile walls were providing decent cover as they walked across the charred field that the cultist had created around their camp. The Snake-Men slithered their way up toward the first and only trench that the cultists had been able to make, safe in the knowledge that without the other camps they wouldn't be flanked behind and slaughtered.
"Boy?" Kratos asked looking at the winged snake that was with his son.
"I'll explain later." Atreus sighed still a little exhausted from last night's exactment. After performing the Familiar ritual on his new Familiar, he had to argue with an entire jungle on the details of the deal he had to make. Atreus very much wanted to leave this place, almost as much as the very trees and dirt beneath him wanted him gone. True he had gotten a powerful Familiar out of this trip and helped his father on one of his missions, but it felt far more like a chore than a quality father/son trip he had been expecting. "They are doing a good job, show's they've been planning this for a long time."
"Yes, this is a proper siege." Kratos said nodding approvingly at the efforts of the Snake-Men as the first of the groups of hunters reached the trench. The natives tossed over primitive grenades made of clay and filled with all manner of poisonous insects that could be gathered from the jungle. The screams of pain that came from the trench was proof of their effectiveness.
"We aren't you two down there?" Nex asked as he sat down on the root and pulled out a candy bar had been saving.
"They wanted us to be ready for the fight inside the cave." Kratos replied as he crossed his arms. Atreus could guess that while this made tactical sense, his father wasn't overly pleased to not be leading the assault from the front. But they had done their part and the Snake-Men must want to regain some pride in taking back their home.
"Hey… what's stopping the Snakey boys from closing the cave with you two still in there?" Nex offered after he munched on his snack. Tossing the wrapper to the wind, to which Atreus' new Familiar caught in the wind. Likely not wanted to upset the jungle any more with the litter of the modern world.
"You." Both father and son replied at the same time. Nex grumbled a bit but the trio remained in silence as the siege continued on. The Snake-Men taking full advantage of the fact that the humans were scrambling to regain control of the battle but were now caged in the very defenses that were protecting them. With no reinforcements coming to save them, the cult had to contend with being boxed in and against superior numbers. And while they had improved the defenses somewhat, this was still the Snake-Men's former home and so they knew ever twist and turn that it had.
The three outsiders had the best seat in the house to watch the Snake-Men storm their way in once they were past the outer defenses. The moment that the forward elements of the assault had reached the machine gun encampments and killed their crews, more of their kin swarmed out from trees. The various towers that had been erected since the occupation were set ablaze with flaming arrows and more poisonous elements form the jungle were tossed into the upper levels to soften them up. It was as the God of War said, this was a proper siege.
Once the second to last ring had fallen to the attackers, both Kratos and Atreus dropped down from their perch and started making their way toward the cave mouth. The walked through the destroyed sections of the village and could hear the cult making its last stand at the cave's entrance. Loud hissing screams of the Snake-Men rallied them forward to finish this bloody time for their tribe. The outsiders however had a mission of their own and once they reached the doorstep of their objective wasted no time.
Kratos charged forward and opened his joining of the battle with a great swing of the Blades of Chaos. The front element of the cults defenders were caught as the chains of the God of War's signature weapon closed shut and a deafening explosion of fire followed. Atreus, using his father as a spring board, lunched himself into the and fired a dozen freezing arrows into the chests of those that remained. The cultists cried out in agony before shortly freezing solid. The father/son duo continued their way into he cave, performing a tag-team performance that few could replicate. It had been years since they had fought beside each other but their bond so deep and their skills so sharp meant it took little to find their rhythm. Kratos would continental bulldoze his way forward, hitting heavy and reckless while Atreus stuck to the sky or corners of the battle and pick off those that remained. Even the Devil's new companion slithered and sniped out a few kills for itself, though it mostly stayed back as it sensed it would only be in the way of the two monsters of battle.
Eventually the cultists had figured out that they were hopeless outclassed and began to retreat further into he cave. Kratos would smash through each door or gate they tried to lock behind them and Atreus spotted and disabled every trap. Nothing could stop them at this point.
"Father, I can feel a magic in the air… and some sort of voice along with it. It's likely the dreaming god." Atreus pointed out his father broke the door of another scrapyard checkpoint that had been barricaded against their advance. The magic that Atreus felt was something like he felt back in Helheim, even to this day he could recall the clawing magic of that realm. It was magic of the dead, and had a pervasive worming sense to it. Atreus know had a better understanding of why so many had been caught in its call. Now that he was getting closer to the source, he could begin to make out the voice that the magic was carrying. But it felt even stranger. "I… think I hear something… behind it?"
"It matters not boy, we are here to end it." With that they marched on, and met no more resistance. The cave was empty but for the many crudely made alters and totems that they had been seeing since they entered. Logs carved with birds at their top and snakes at the bottom, with strings of bird and snake bones dangling pretty much everywhere. It was evident where the cult was getting all its feathers from.
Soon enough the pair made it to the central chamber of the cave. A massive cavern in which laid the skeletal remains of a football stadium sized snake with equally large wings. However, where it was clear the only physical remains were the bones, the rest of the form out was a ghostly blue and green mist that filled out where meat, scales, and feathers once were. At the base of the remains of a god was a ritual site currently active with many robed figures chanting and several bleeding cult members on a raised stone dais covered in a stained blue sheet, on it was numerous runes glowing with power even as many of them were saturated with blood. Surrounding the ritual was the last three dozen cultists that had ran into the cave.
"Interlopers." Atreus heard in his mind, though he could tell that the word being spoken was in fact in the ancient Aztec language Nahuatl. It was a simple enough jump in logic to know what language a old Aztec god would speak. "The invaders god shall not interrupt my return. I shall be the harbinger of the next age of my people and throw down the shackles of the foreign god. These lands will once again be ruled by of its soil!"
"And in the process probably kill a lot of innocent people on the way." Atreus didn't know a lot about South American culture as he simply never had any exposure to it or felt the need to find out about it. But through internet osmosis he at least knew much of central and south America was very Christian. So he imagined that a old Aztec god, whose people were known for human sacrifice, would not be above committing genocide of those it deemed unrepentant.
"Do not think of what will happen if we fail Atreus, only on succeeding." Atreus just gave a blank nodding stare to his father trying to impart dramatic wisdom as he rolled his shoulder in menacing way. "I shall end the god, you prevent its complete rebirth."
"But its… oooh." Atreus started off after Kratos used his godly strength to jump across the cavern, just in time for the ghostly form of the snake god to lurch it's way off its own bones. Atreus watched with jaw dropped as his father collided with the being, his blades impaling its translucent scales as Kratos landed. With a classic Kratos roar, the God of War began his fight with the ghost of the Feathered Serpent. "Yup… he's still cooler than me."
"You will not deny our god's new golden age!" One of the cultists finally spoke for a change as he charged at Atreus with a shovel of all things. With a sigh, Atreus knocked the improvised weapon out of the cultist's hand with his bow and several hits across the body knocked back the insane man. A sweep across the legs sent him to the ground and with godly speed Atreus drew a arrow of magical energy and fired it into the chest of the tripped man.
"Next!" He called out as he slowly walked toward the ritual site as the ghost of the Feathered Serpent trashed around the cave. Rocks tumbled to the ground and the entire mountain shook as Kratos and the specter fought, though it was mostly the latter trying and failing to shake the former off its body. But nevertheless the remains of the cult that sought to return this dead god to flesh continued on despite the cavern they were in was starting to crack.
More of the remaining soldiers of the cult screamed in collective desperation as they ran toward Atreus. To the large group of cultists coming on his right, he summoned pack of elemental wolves all charged with the lightning of a Norse dragon. The pack leapt forward and swiftly began mauling the crazed men and woman in their way. Meanwhile the rest of those attacking Atreus met much the same fate as the first. Some got shot as they approached while others were simply out classed by his skill and taken aback with blows from his bow or fists. But soon enough they all were put out of their mind controlled misery.
"You shall not deny me, the new age will arrive with my return!" The ghost of Quetzalcoatl screamed out in a echo inside Atreus' mind. He could hear the desperation and hatred that dripped from every word. But it was like there was a growing amount of layers to the voice, more and more sources that covered each other to make one unified voice. But as Kratos hacked and slashed his way across the specter it frayed and untangled.
"There's a lot more going on here but also… it doesn't really involve us." Atreus watched as he approved the ring of robed cultists that were too deep in chanting and the magic of the ritual to notice him. The Devil held out his hand upward and out of it flew out a entire flock of ghostly sparrows that now circled above him. "Father! I'm going to stop whatever they're doing! Get ready!"
The only response that Atreus got from his father was a scream of acknowledgement. With a roll of his eyes Atreus then sent the flock of birds zooming through the air. Each of the ethereal sparrows pierced through the chests of the cultists in a small explosion of gore. Like wind had knocked them all down, they fell over and pools of blood began forming under them. But the magic in the air didn't go away, and the giant ghost of a snake god wasn't vanishing. Looking confused, Atreus glanced around for any surviving members of the cult before a gargling noise hit his ears. The young man groaned before turning his head down to see the pools of blood were being pulled up onto the stone dais by an unseen force. He cursed himself as it made sense that human sacrifice would be involved in an Aztec god's revival.
Atreus watched as all the blood in the entire cavern was crawling its way toward the center of the ritual site. He tried stopping it, freezing the blood, poisoning it, burning it, but nothing worked. It all just kept flowing like a river, and then began filling a humanoid shape. A large human in a on one knee head down position was forming out of the blood, dressed in a fine Aztec warrior attire though suspiciously lacking in the snake department. The blood that formed its body never stopped swirling around even as the form finished completely. Its solid red eyes opened as it stood up.
"You have denied our return, but your interference is meaningless. The call will go out again, more will come and give us their lives again to bring about our true glory." The being before Atreus spoke like many people speaking the same thing into the same phone at the same person. But this helped the young Devil understand what was happening. It wasn't just Quetzalcoatl, but likely fragments of every killed Aztec god all working together toward the same goal. He felt like the smart play would to try and divide them but his words held no sway over them and he didn't have enough personal experience with these beings to know how to exploit existing rifts if there was any. The giant blood construct walked forward and stepped off the stone dais and towered over Atreus, who was still trying to figure out how he was going to fight this thing. "I sense what you are child, your blood is thick with different origins, the Lightning Thrower, the Ice Titans of the Northern Shores, and mortal blood. But covering it all like a shroud over a fresh corpse is that of the pits of Hell."
"And what of it?" Atreus questioned as he took several steps back, knowing that reach and range was his only advantage here.
"Leave this place, return to your masters in Hell. They had not laid foot upon our soil, but their angelic enemies had. Flee, and bring news of our return and tell of our offer to bring down the golden gates of heaven with armies of Hell." The titan of blood spoke while also holding a clear threat in its tone. That any other response other than accepting this offer would result in death. However, the Devil noted that this offer was only for him. The collective of godly shards had said nothing about his father, which he easily deduced the intent behind. "We have spoken! Do not test our-"
The construct of blood was interrupted by an explosion to the face, knocking it back off its footing. Atreus ran as fast as he could away from the towering crimson foe, a minefield of small glowing turtles of all different colors and charged with magic behind him. These however proved to pointless as the sound of a rushing river, of certainly not water, he heard over him. He looked up but it was still the same stony ceiling but the question of what it had been was answered by Atreus being caught in the grip of the bloody titan's hand. The surface was solid like marble but unquestionable wet, and boiling hot.
The shape of the being's head was still reforming from Atreus initial attack but doing so in a odd way. Previously it had been a human head wearing a Aztec Warrior headpiece but now other shapes were trying to fight for control over the reconstruction. Animal or similar faces to that of old Aztec artwork depicting their gods. It roared in a unified display of anger at being rejected and attacked and began to squeeze its captive. Its misshapen head smirked as Atreus struggled to free itself.
"It seems we have arrived just in time." An angelic spoke as a great golden light shined behind the collective of Aztec gods. It looked behind and there floating above it was three winged warriors in gleaming heavenly armor. "You should have stayed in the void, false idols such as yourself do not belong in God's world." The center angelic figure said as he flourished its glowing spear.
"Invaders! You come to die at our hands!" The blinding rage in the remnants of the Aztec gods was palpable in their screams toward the figures. The sight of such a clear representation of their destroyers muting their rational thought. They let go of the small Devil they had been fighting and charged after the flying angels.
Atreus landed safely and quickly began wrapping himself in the frosts of his mother's homeland. The searing heat of the blood titan's rage had burned and it was only thanks to his affinity with the ice of Jötunheim that he had been able to not suffer third degree burns. He watched as the towering inferno of blood chased after his illusions of the archangels, whom he had never seen before but was thankful that the ruse had been bought. Seemed the fractured minds of the Aztec gods were just to hungry for vengeance to notice his magic.
"Now… how do I stop it?" Atreus muttered to himself but just then his senses picked up something big and something fast coming from behind. Unfurling his Devil wings, he took to the sky just in time to avoid being crushed by a rampaging spectral serpent. It was covered in flaming cuts with the worst looking like it was deep enough to be a quarter through the entire body. "Father!"
"Atreus, the battle drags on! We have to end this!" His father called back to him and that was just the issue that he was facing. He had tried to stop the ritual but that hadn't worked.
"If it wasn't the ritual, then something else must be anchoring them. Wait a minute…" Atreus looked back to the bones of Quetzalcoatl. "Duh." He wanted to hit himself for such a obvious fact. He looked back to his illusions of the Archangels whom were swooping and dodging the attacks of the blood titan. It was an easy thing to do since they weren't real. He flew further to the ceiling of the cavern and began actively directing the illusions, giving them a bit more magic and limited permanence.
It took a good deal of concentration to trick an ensnared mind into thinking it was touching something. As his illusions were only a trick on the victim's senses, they had no real presence in the real world. But touch was as much a sense as sight or hearing and so it was something that Atreus could manipulate. Normally a being like his current foe would have a number of ways to counter him, from the multiple minds in one body checking each other to the fact they were shards of various gods and thus far more powerful than him, but right now they were not able to deny their anger at the sight of the Archangels. That all consuming anger caused them to be unable to defend themselves against mental attacks, there might also be a hint of arrogance in there too.
"Heretical god-beings, your lands and your people have abandoned you. You will find no converts, only the most faithful to our father." One of the illusions mocked as they continued to goad the bloody beast further. Then lead it over to the minefield that Atreus had made earlier. With one step a myriad of magical explosions were set of, fire, ice, lightning, and poison all burst out and to Atreus' disappointment didn't seem to affect the monster in the slightest.
"Our power will spread across the land, those that do not repent shall be punished! They will be broken and sacrificed for the prosperity of the true faithful!" Atreus frowned at that. It seemed the Aztec Gods were unaware of just how Christian central and south America had become, catholic at that. If they were to succeed today than pretty much all of central and south America was going to be turned into a bloody slaughter house, those not killed turned into mindless drones like the cultists that brought on this mess.
"We defeated you once, it will child's play to do so again." Again, the illusions kept up their haughty mocking tone. Atreus needed the collective of Aztec gods good and mad as he eld them across the cavern. Even as Kratos fought to contain the massive ghost of the Feathered Serpent, Atreus directed the unbridled rage of the rest of the Aztec Pantheon. Right into the skeleton of Quetzalcoatl, with a blind rage swing the bloody titan lunged forward and just as it was about to make contact with the smirking floating angel… the angel vanished. And instead the forehead of the Feathered Serpent's skull was in a collision course with the bloody fist.
"No!" But it was too late, with a deafening crack the fist impacted the stark white bone and smashed through. This caused the rest of the skull to form countless spiderweb cracks and with a small piece of rubble falling from the ceiling it all began to shatter. "WhErE dId ThEy GO-OO-OooO!" Atreus watched in fascination as even as the blood titan's body began to shift and unravel itself the minds behind it were still laser focused on their revenge.
"Right here?" Atreus created another illusion of one of the Archangels, though less detailed and a bit more cartoony. But this didn't seem to matter to the half mad beast as it charged right at the image wildly, this time further into the bones of the anchor holding it together.
"What are you doing!?" The Pawn looked to see the ghostly form of Quetzalcoatl slithering towards the blood titan. "Stop that this instant!" But just then a chain wrapped around its neck and pulled back, forcing it away from stopping its supposed ally from destroying its physical remains.
Instead it was forced to watch as the berserk argumentation of its kin rampaged as it tried to destroy a obvious fake angel. With ever rib and bone shattered more and more of the blood that formed its body sloshed off and that which remained become more unstable. As the monster reached the end of the tail, it had become a quarter of its original size and barely resembled anything but a ever shifting ball of blood.
"You should really visit Rio, they have this giant statue of-" Atreus took pity on the bloody mess and let it feel like it destroyed the angel parody as it smashed through the last remaining intact piece of bone. It then gave a death scream that was a mix of joyous satisfaction and that of a painful end. Then exploded in a gore of blood, covering the walls of the cavern and everything in it.
"I really hope I'm not getting any STDs from this." Atreus muttered as he wiped away the blood that had splattered on him while floating back down to the ground. He then looked back to the only other threat left but stood still as the giant snake did nothing while in the choke hold of Kratos. Then has the entire cave started to rumble, the will that had been holding the mountain together now disappearing, it began to fade away. The chain that held the Blades of Chaos to its user went slack as they phased through the ghost.
"Thank you stranger, the blood of the past may now be reborn into the next cycle." That was last thing Atreus knew before the ghost of Quetzalcoatl vanished completely. The young Devil was about to ponder on the being's words but those thoughts were quickly replaced by panic as a large bolder nearly crushed him.
"Boy! We are leaving!" He heard his father yell and Atreus was swift to get himself back up and run toward the exit along side Kratos. The two ran over bodies and crumbling stone alike, a true race to escape with their lives ensued.
But the stories of these two were not destined to end here and so they made it out as the tunnel collapsed behind them. The stone that acted as the seal to the cave had fallen forward and the entire mountain now was crumbling apart. Kratos and Atreus both now joined the Snake-Men as they too retreated away from the disaster site. Rockslides the size of large ocean waves began to barrel toward the jungle, only for the jungle to defend itself. Massive trees that had been alive for millennia uprooted and formed a solid wall of bark against the incoming tidal wave of crumbling mountain. Thankfully, both the strangers to this land and its cold-blooded natives had been on the other side of that wall when the crash happened.
"It's over? It's finally over?" Atreus breathed heavily as he looked up from where he had collapsed and saw the wall of trees. The sounds of settling stone then came and then a loud whine followed. The trees then began moving again, this time climbing the settled stone to begin reclaiming the uncovered land. "Yeah it's over." Atreus pulled himself back up, but remained sitting as his muscles still felt sorer than they had in years. He let out a sigh of relief and then felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You did well Atreus, many more would have died had you not been here." Kratos said with as warm a smile as the man was capable of giving. Atreus gave a much brighter one but internally was vowing to never go on one of these father/son trips again. At least not until he was much stronger.
"Hey guys, great work!" Nex cheered as he popped out of nowhere and immediately dodged the arrow of Niflheim poison that had been shot at him. Atreus was not in the mood for his antics. "Seriously great work, and now that this job is done, why don't we head on over to Rio and hit a few bars… maybe find some nice local ladies?"
"Take us home now!" Both father and son boomed at the forgettable man, a small point of pride in each of them came along with that.
"Gees, can't take a joke."
Atreus sighed as he reclined back into cushy seat of the private jet that Nex had been able to scam for them. His thanks for doing such a important job and saving hundreds of millions of people form death and torment. Nearby his father was asleep in his own chair, he had simply grunted a thanks to Nex for the plane and only taken a bottle wine from the onboard bar, downed it, and fallen asleep. Nex himself was not on the flight, instead he was going to Kent England to speak with more of his kind.
"Less of him the better, though was acting weird." Atreus muttered to himself as he scratched the wings of his new Familiar who laid in his lap. Despite the awkward and forced situation that brought them together he did like his Familiar. He liked snakes, a feathered serpent was a powerful magical creature, there was little to complain about. However he had noticed a change in attitude in the cold blooded creature, but he chalked it up to not really knowing it well enough. Atreus shooed those thoughts away as he pulled out his phone, knowing what he needed to do.
"-Why haven't you called me… us… why haven't you called us-." Rias corrected herself in a flustered manner as the call picked up. "-You were supposed to stay in contact, what happened?-"
"I had no service in a magical Amazonian jungle." Atreus answer calmly as queued up John Wick on the inflight movie screen.
"-Oh… fine then.-" Rias pouted and Atreus could just picture it and found it adorable. "-Anyways, what happened. You didn't get hurt or anything?-" The poutiness quickly turned to concern that Atreus appreciated just as much.
"I'm fine. We were able to stop the rebirth of a blood madden pantheon from going on a conquest of subjugation and human sacrifice in Latin America." Atreus found great enjoyment out of the resulting silence from his words. "I also got a Familiar, I haven't named it yet."
"-Wait-wait-wait… I-I need a better explanation than that.-" And so Atreus began to give a more detailed story of his time across the pacific. All the while the feathered serpent in his lap smiled and toward the end of its master's story it's eyes glowed silver for but a moment before they closed as it returned to it's nap.