Author's Note:
- Just a quick one-shot I felt like writing which is about the scene between Poseidon and Adamas. It's from Poseidon's point of view with more introspection into his thoughts. I did post a rough version of this in the Record of Ragnarok Reddit, but this one is my more polished final draft of it with more stuff added to it as well. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this!
Tarnished Perfection
The great halls of his palace echoed with sickening sounds as blackened tendrils and rotted bones crept through its walls, corroding the pristine marble floor and seeping into the walls in distorted vein like patterns and bulged with life. At the source of it all was a vile mass of warped flesh, sickening tendrils, and charred bones with a massive gate of grotesque design at its center.
The mere sight disgusted him, but he made no word as the fool responsible for all of this sat across from him at the other end of a vast table.
"The time has come, Poseidon!"
The boisterous declaration hardly registered in his mind. It was simply the incessant ramblings of a fool. He wished to be done with this farce already.
"I have already gained the support of both the Titans and forty-nine members of Zeus' council!" Adamas viciously smiled, baring teeth more befitting of a savage than a god. "And that's not all! Thanks to the efforts of Hermes, a number of the Thirteen have promised to defect at my signal!"
He boredly leaned his head back against his throne, looking at anywhere else but the worm in front of him who dared to waste his time and defile his ideals. To resort to petty scheming was a notion no better than becoming filth, a notion which dragged everything the gods stood for through the mud.
"Poseidon, if I can just secure your support-"
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the word, utter disgust briefly flickering across his blank gaze. Though his fool of a brother, Adamas, was too busy with his ramblings to notice.
"-then Zeus' fate will be sealed!"
Support. What a disgusting notion. The gods needed no such thing. They were absolute beings without equal. Standing alone, fighting alone, they needed only themselves. Such were the gods. Such was how it always had been ever since the beginning.
The vast chamber of the hall echoed with a thunderous sound as Adamas slammed his fist into the table, cracking and splintering the pristine wood with uncouth behavior unbefitting a god. Again, Adamas was far too busy with his tantrum to notice the slight narrow of his eyes.
He shook with rage, baring his teeth in a snarl which stretched across his face. "No brother should look down on his elders. Common sense, isn't it?"
"..."
"You will support me, right?" Adamas snapped his crimson eyes towards him, having lost all composure. "Poseidon?"
The mentioning of the word again nearly brought a sneer to his blank face. It disgusted him to no end. No god should need the support of others, let alone pathetically demean themselves by asking for it. They were flawless beings without blood, without schemes, and without compassion. Whatever they may desire was to be an absolute truth they needed only themselves to deliver upon. Yet here his brother was, a god who shared his blood, groveling before him and pleading for his support. All the while dragging everything they stood for through the mud.
Again, his eyes narrowed. He had enough of this miserable farce.
"And what a pathetic older brother I have."
Shock briefly flickered across Adamas' face at the first words he had spoken, before his gaze darkened and a scowl warped his expression.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that. It's a long table…" He visibly shook with rage. Any and all semblance of patience rapidly slipped away from him as he reared a haunting glare straight at him. "Poseidon."
Adamas held his gaze on him for a few moments, bloodlust coating and seeping from his very being. Their eyes never met as he stared off blankly to the side, not even so much as flinching at the worm before him. To do so would mean acknowledgement, and the gods did not acknowledge filth.
The air went cold and time itself seemed to hold its breath. Though it didn't last long.
"What the fuck did you just say to me!"
The enormous table they were sitting at was violently sent hurtling through the air. The shadow of its immense figure loomed over him dauntingly. Wind whipped up against his face and through his hair as it soared past him at a brutal speed, missing him by hardly an inch. A deafening sound roared from behind him as it smashed into the wall, shattering into countless pieces and littering the floor with its remains. Throughout it all, he hadn't even flinched.
Adamas rose from his skeletal throne, his breath ragged with rage. "C'mon, speak up. So that I don't miss what you said again."
"..."
"Just try saying that once more."
"..."
His scowl deepened, as did his rage. "Zeus is one thing, but now for you too? Just who do you little shits think I am?"
His blank gaze never met his eyes. Adamas had defiled his standing as a god, having long since proved himself unworthy of such a moniker. He was simply a worm. Filth. Nothing more.
"Look me in the eye! I'm older than you!" Adamas pounded his chest with his fist in his fit of rage. "Show me some fucking respect!"
Finally, at long last, he rose from his throne. He had enough of this pathetic farce. He had enough of his miserable worm of a brother who proclaimed himself a god. He had enough of this filth who dared to defile his ideals.
Upon his will, water materialized and rose from beneath his feet with the rage of the oceans. Shooting up to the ceiling of his palace far above, it began to violently swirl around him in a maelstrom of raging waves. Shattering his throne and mercilessly stripping off marble from the floor, the cyclone of tumultuous water heeded his will as it began to calm itself, roaring waves condensing into his hand to give shape to something far more lethal.
Light ominously glinted off the pristine blade as his divine trident materialized into his hands.
"We have no need for armies, no need for betrayal, and no need for support." Adamas looked at him with shock as he resumed. "Such are the gods. Ever since the beginning, we have been perfect beings. And yet…"
Something sparked within his blank eyes as he rose to his full height. The abhorrent aura which seeped from Adamas' very being was swept away in the face of his absolute declaration, wretched bloodlust giving way to a divine aura of warped nobility and pride.
"You have managed to defile everything we stand for."
The words echoed throughout the vast, empty halls of his palace, as if a mocking reminder of what his brother truly was. As if a reminder of the irredeemable sin he had committed.
"You…" Vile aura violently exploded from his body at the seams in thunderous waves of purple energy, cracking the ground beneath them from the sheer pressure alone. A snarl distorted Adamas' face before deathly clouds of black dust swirled around him. Reeking of blood, a wicked scythe of skeletal design materialized in his hands from the dust. "You bastard! Maybe you need me to put you in your place!"
The air roared with a thunderous boom and wind whipped into his face. Blood-red crimson eyes reared themselves at him and the floor wailed in agony as Adamas savagely dragged his scythe across it, effortlessly tearing gashes into the flawless marble. Unfaltering and absolute, he calmly stood before Adamas as sheer bloodlust slammed into his very being, never even so much as flinching in the wake of his brother's rage and bloodlust.
For long moments they stood before each other in an eerie silence, neither backing down from one another as if in a clash of wills. Perhaps it was a sick twist of fate to see his own kin desiring to kill him for personal gain. Sons killing fathers and brothers killing brothers. It seemed to be a curse destined to plague their twisted family.
Though if anything, he found it amusing.
A harmonic tune rang out, shattering the tense silence between them. Instead of words, gentle, elegant whistling echoed throughout his vast yet empty palace. And for the first time, an expression other than sheer indifference graced his face as the barest trace of a smirk formed.
"Hmm~"
Adamas paused at the harmonic sound. It was elegant and pure. Something which utterly contrasted the bloodshed to come.
"Hmmm~"
Whistling overtook the space around them, filling the palace with a beautiful melody that could only be described as divine.
"Hmm~"
"Don't…" Adamas lurched forward with a darkened expression, his scythe ominously reared over his head and thirsting for blood. "Don't you dare look down on me!"
Adamas seemingly vanished into thin air, blurring from existence with divine speed only the gods could achieve. The marble floor beneath him cracked before shattering altogether as he bursted forward, kicking up stone and leaving only sonic booms in his wake. His scythe effortlessly tore vicious gashes across the floor with horrendous screeches as he dragged its wicked blade towards him. With each step he took, the ground beneath him effortlessly crumbled as Adamas hurtled towards him with the entirety of his divine might which bended even the Titans to his will.
In response, his trident lazily hung at his side and his blank gaze remained looking elsewhere throughout it all, as if not even registering the worm before him as a threat. Adamas' sneer only warped further at the sight as he roared in an unholy rage, his wretched scythe ready to take his head clean off.
"Look me in the eyes!" Adamas reared his scythe far above his head and leapt high into the air, ruthlessly bringing his scythe down upon him with every ounce of his rage and might. "Look at me dammit!"
The wretched blade howled for his blood as it neared his neck. The air ripped with an ear-splitting sound as bladed steel viciously cleaved through the air. He could feel the wind scathe his skin, as if they were sharpened blades, from the sheer air pressure alone. In the blink of an eye, the sickening sound of flesh and bones being viciously mangled and torn asunder echoed throughout the vast halls of the palace.
And for the first time in their lives, their eyes met.
A scythe clattered to the ground with a reverberating screech. "Posei-"
Adamas couldn't even finish the words as he gurgled and retched up blood, courtesy of the trident ruthlessly impaled straight through his stomach and out his back. He effortlessly hefted him up into the air with a single arm, helplessly suspending him in the air. He simply held his trident there as Adamas hung on its blade, letting the divine steel agonizingly sink and rip deeper and deeper into him. Pained, wet gasps escaped him as he heaved up blood onto his face and pristine golden hair. With any remaining strength he had, Adamas gripped the shaft of the trident in a futile effort. His grip began slipping on his own blood which ran along its shaft.
In his last moments, Adamas looked to him, his own brother who he had raised since they were children. Lifeless blue eyes, void of any emotion or compassion, were all that stared back at him.
There was no gloating, no final dramatic dialogue, and no time wasted. Before Adamas could utter another pathetic gasp of pain, he simply swept his trident behind him as if flicking off a mere fly from his blade. The air roared as Adamas' body was sent hurtling through the air like a ragdoll, the sheer force of the throw stripping off the marble floor beneath them and leaving behind deafening shockwaves in its wake.
Debris was kicked up as a thunderous yet sickening sound echoed from behind him. Stone splintered and cracked before caving in altogether as his brother's corpse smashed into the wall with brutal force, leaving behind a vast crater painted with his blood and pulverized organs. As the debris cleared, empty, agonized eyes stared out into the halls of his palace before Adamas' body lifelessly slumped to the ground, smearing his blood along the wall as it did.
Before long, silence took hold once more.
He flicked the filthy blood off his trident and began to walk towards the grotesque gate Adamas had entered through, leaving behind his brother's corpse without another thought. His foolish brother had amassed an army, an army which he had taken with him to his palace. It would seem that there was more filth for him to deal with, much to his own disgust.
The barest trace of a shadow came into the corner of his sight. He made no move against the person in question, already knowing who it was and having long since noticed them from the beginning.
"It appears that there was one unsuited to the title of a god amongst us." He didn't so much as look back as he continued to stride forward with his trident in hand. "Wouldn't you agree, Hermes?"
Stepping out from behind a pillar, a conniving smile graced Hermes' face before he bowed to him. "Indeed."
To think that he was a fellow Olympian disgusted him. He was the utter antithesis of what a god should be, mere filth resorting to pathetic trickery and lurking from the shadows like a worm. Though today he would spare his miserable life and leave him to his pathetic schemes and treachery. He had already dealt with enough filth today, with more to come, and his patience was nearing its end.
He stood before the grand gate to Adamas' fortress, ignoring the mass of vile flesh which surrounded it. His bloodied trident lazily hung at his side, ready to draw even further blood, as he hardly registered the sounds of the gate opening. To rebel against the gods was an act of foolishness, and even if it were due to another god, it was his duty as a true god to quell such filth with nothing but his own might. For if his fellow gods would not uphold their ideals, then he would.
The barbaric clamoring of weapons and savage roars rang out as the seemingly vile yet sentient gate fully opened, heeding his divine will alone. The masses of grotesque flesh which littered the walls of the fortress seemed to shrink away from him in fear as he stepped through the gate with a blank gaze. He ignored the animalistic bellows that echoed from further within the fortress, simply prepared to expunge the filth which dared to defy him. Trident in hand, he dragged its flawless blade along the floor as he strided forward, scoring lacerations across the ground with shrill screeches which echoed throughout the halls.
To rely upon others was an act of imperfection, an irredeemable sin which spat on everything they stood for. For the gods did need not schemes, they did need not armies, nor did they need supporters to deliver upon their will. They did not need compassion, nor did they need bonds or friendships. They were absolute beings without equal, standing at the very pinnacle of existence. They were flawless from the very beginning, the unparalleled embodiment of perfection. For they who had already attained perfection, such pathetic notions were beneath them. Standing alone, fighting alone, ruling alone; they needed only themselves.
Such are the gods.
Author's Note:
- Like I said above, I did post a rough version of this in the Record of Ragnarok Reddit if you happened to see it there. Though I added more stuff to this version as well as overall polished it up a bit.
As for why I wrote this story, Poseidon was a character I liked as an antagonist and his viewpoint was exactly what I expected from a stuck up god. Unlike the other gods so far, he really had no relatable or likeable qualities to him which I can appreciate in an antagonist. Plus I'll admit that his ideals did interest me, and that ended up being the final nail in the coffin to convince myself to write this one-shot.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed this! Please leave any reviews or thoughts of this if you have any and thanks for reading!