Chapter 3
Argus called upon his fellow gods such as Raiden, Fujin, and Suijin followed the elder gods to the Nexus. Since Shinnok created his amulet there while having access to portals to all the other realms, they believed they would have as easy of a time developing their own amulet. However, they lacked the materials and time Shinnok had. The Kamidogu have been drained of most of their energy and they lacked the materials to make as strong of an amulet. Whatever type of bronze and emerald Shinnok used was too great to match on their own.
"It seems our magic isn't enough to match Shinnok's power," Argus said as he stroked his beard.
Suijin sighed and slammed her hands onto the alter. "Then we are truly doomed then," the water goddess said.
"But we can't just lay down for this mad man," Fujin protested.
"Then we must turn to outside help," Raiden spoke up. "We must find skilled sorcerers to assist us."
"We're relying on mortals?" Fujin asked. "I do not wish to disrespect you Raiden, but how can mortals possibly create an amulet more powerful than Shinnok's?"
"Maybe we don't need an amulet that can overpower Shinnok's," Raiden said, "what we need is something that can hold him off long enough to disarm him."
The other gods looked towards each other. Raiden had a point. Matching Shinnok was impossible, but even trying to distract him would be a massive risk. A risk Argus was willing to take.
"Do you have any sorcerers in mind?" Argus asked.
"I have one," Raiden said. "A shaman of the Matoka tribe."
Argus smirked a bit, "Thankfully, I know a few more."
The gods teleported seven sorcerers to the Nexus to assist them. From Earthrealm was an elder of the Matoka tribe, Chief Thunder. From Edenia there was a woman clad in red robes named Delia with a woman clad in blue named Oshen. Both were skilled sorceresses with great knowledge of the elements of fire and water. Then there was an Osh-Tekk king from a realm filled with gold. This Osh-Tekk was a master alchemist. Seido, they summoned the scholar that had developed his realm's shielding magic. Suijin called upon the Chaosrealm's most powerful yet unpredictable cleric. Finally, they called upon the vampire that had created the holy sword Datusha.
With the guidance of Raiden and Argus, the masters of magic worked on an amulet. The Osh-Tekk created the shell, a golden medallion embedded with sapphire. In middle was the emblem of the elder gods, a dragon. Delia and Oshen infused the amulet with elemental powers to at least fend off any elemental attacks from Shinnok's amulet. To help assist against Shinnok's demonic hoard and dark magic, the vampire blessed the medallion with holy magic. To strengthen the medallion, the Seido scholar placed a shielding spell on it. Everything was going well, but the cleric proved to be difficult to work with.
"Just bless it with some chaos magic," Abacus shouted at the cleric.
The cleric was leaned up against one of the pillars of the Nexus with his arms crossed. He had been watching the creation of the amulet for some time, but never closed the distance.
"I have no interest in assisting you, elder god," cleric said in a whisper that still found a way to creep through everyone's ears. "My realm has welcomed this war with open arms and to end it would threaten to bring order to our land."
"And what makes you think Shinnok will keep chaos in your realm if he wins?" Zaggot asked with a hum.
"If he enters our realm, we will gladly fight as we already have," the cleric said with a smile. How he smiled without any skin or muscles around his mouth would confuse most mortals, but that hardly mattered to the gods. "When he faces us, he creates more chaos."
"And if you lose?" Abacus spoke up. "Your realm will be just another baren wasteland for him to oppress."
Havik perked up at Abacus's words. "You've made a compelling argument rather quickly I must say."
"That's because we have no time to waste," Argus said. "Now it's your time to act quickly."
The cleric approached the amulet and with waves of his hand, enchanted it even more with chaos magic.
"What will the chaos magic do if we use it?" Fujin asked.
The cleric simply smirked. "That is for you to find out on your own."
The gods finished their work and what was left was the gold and sapphire amulet. Cetrion took it and her fellow elder gods and gods back to the Heavens. The once pristine and cloudy land of the heavens was turned into a land of darkness. The clouds turned black and the only light came from the burning remains of those who opposed the elder god of death. They had little time to truly take in their surroundings. Their attention was taken by the hoard of demons crawling out from every possible crevasse and dark shadow they could. They came out in the hundreds, the thousands. They charged at them with death on their minds. Cetrion took a hold of the amulet and aimed it at several of the demons, blasting them into dust with elemental magic. Raiden, Fujin, Suijin, and Argus joined in on the counterattack with Raiden shooting lightning down, Fujin using his wind powers to increase the speed and range of his sword swings, Suijin creating waves to sweep hundreds of demons away, and Argus igniting himself in flames to make his strikes far more deadly.
This battle went on for days, possibly even months or years. It was difficult to keep track of time due to the never-ending waves of demons, oni, revenants, and zombies standing in their way. Killing the followers of one who has a mastery over death proved to be a foolish idea as each slain beast would rise back up to face the gods again. Only the blasts of holy magic had any chance stopping any of the undead for good. And yet, despite the exhaustion and battle scars, they all made their way through the realm to the elder gods' palace. They forced themselves to keep moving through the miles high tower to face Shinnok. The elder gods' chamber was ravaged and covered in dark red and black carpets and drapes with an obsidian throne covered in sharp edges at the end of the room. Shinnok was resting upon his throne with his head held up by his fist.
"I was wondering when you'd all finally make your way here," Shinnok said. There was no anger, fear, confidence, or aggravation in his voice. He was only mildly bored by their presence. "You all could have taken the only chance I gave and just stayed hidden in the shadows. Instead, you plan to die like a pile of worms."
"You risk the reality of the realms and waking the One Being, Shinnok," Abacus shouted.
"If he awakens, you will parish with the rest of," Kronika added on. "You know this, brother!"
"You have no right to call me that," Shinnok rose from his throne. "We are no longer equals. As for the One Being, I may be risking my own existence if he awakens but I know that I'd rather impose his will instead of allowing you to let these unrefined creatures be called gods."
"You speak madness," Raiden spoke up, his eyes sparking with lightning and hate.
"Silence, thunder god," Shinnok shouted. The elder god of death held out his hand and out of a dark portal appeared a golden staff with his amulet placed upon it. Shinnok grabbed onto it and pointed it at the elder gods. "You will all perish together!"
Shinnok's amulet fired a blast of dark crimson energy at all the intruders but Cetrion countered the attack in time with her amulet, which created a navy-blue barrier to protect them all.
Shinnok raised his brow. He was surprised that his fellow gods had found a way to protect themselves. If he was still the god he was before, the one that helped them seal away the One Being, maybe he'd have some form of respect for their ingenuity. But that was long gone.
Shinnok narrowed his brow. "Your amulet is too weak to save you," Shinnok said.
He aimed his amulet at the ground beneath them and shot another blast of crimson energy, but this time it was almost like a blade as it cut through the floor beneath the gods. The floor broke away and the gods fell down to the floor below.
Due to their abilities to fly or just their higher endurance, the gods were relatively unharmed by the fall. They weren't safe for any longer than a second however as Shinnok flew right into Cetrion, crashing her through yet another floor. The impact caused Cetrion to lose her grip on the amulet, leaving he defenseless. Her attempt to get back to her feet was thwarted by Shinnok summoning a giant skeletal hand to grab her arms and waist. Shinnok commanded the skeletal hand to crush her, causing Cetrion to spit out blood and howl in agony. Ourano grabbed a hold of sapphire amulet and with the amulet's power, teleported down to where Shinnok and Cetrion. Ourano used the elemental magic inside the amulet to fire at Shinnok. The blast did catch Shinnok off guard, causing the skeletal hand to release Cetrion and disappear.
Shinnok was able to stay on his feet. He turned around to see all of the gods lined up to face him. Raiden charged himself up and expelled lightning, Fujin clapped his hands together to create a gust of wind, Suijin shot out a stream of high-pressured water, Argus followed up with shooting a stream of fire at him, and Ourano used the amulet once again to fire more elemental magic out. Shinnok was prepared the oncoming attack. He used his amulet to create a barrier which effortlessly blocked every attack. Ourano kept up with the amulet's elemental attacks, but the amount of pressure placed on the amulet cracked it a bit.
Shinnok kept the barrier up as he opened up several portals behind him. Out of the portals came several undead, demons, and oni. With a wave of his staff, the barrier expanded and burst into a wave of energy that knocked away all of the gods' attacks as well as the gods themselves to the ground. Shinnok pointed and his hellish followers charged. Raiden and Fujin returned to their feet fast enough to fend off the charging demons. Raiden used a combination of his lightning and thunder staff to either knock his enemies away or outright incinerate them. Fujin did something similar with his wind powers and his sword, either slicing them apart, blowing them away with strong winds, or creating gusts of wind so powerful it rips the enemies apart. Argus and Suijin soon joined in with their fellow protectors in slaying enemies. Ourano got up to his feet soon afterwards and raised the amulet up, ready to use the holy magic to send these demons away.
Ourano couldn't though. Shinnok summoned another skeletal hand and grabbed a hold of Ourano's hand. Shinnok smirked and shook his head. "I don't think so," the elder god of death said before commanding the skeletal hand to crush Ourano's. Ourano screamed and obviously dropped the amulet, but Zaggot quickly leapt over to catch the falling amulet.
Dozens of demons and oni dogpiled on Zaggot. They clawed and bit into his back and a fountain of blood poured out. Zaggot clenched his teeth and endured the pain. His hand was squished against his chest, but he fought through the pain and small space to aim the amulet up high. Out of the amulet came a bright light. It easily blinded everyone in the room, including Shinnok, but that was not the most pain the undead and unholy would feel. Their flesh bubbled and popped, peeling away from the holy light. Some attempted to flee, but most simply burst into white flames as their shrieks suddenly died. Hundreds of them died off and the intense output of power cracked the amulet again.
Shinnok growled as he covered his eyes. The holy magic had actually began to irritate him. No, it began to harm him. "Enough!" Shinnok shouted as he raised his staff up before he slammed it into ground. Shinnok's amulet lit up as brightly as the holy light but grew into a massive explosion. It shattered the ground, the temple itself, destroying everything around them and sending his opponents crashing into the ground outside. The impact of the fall knocked Zaggot unconscious as well as knocking the amulet out of his hands.
"I've grown tired of this!" Shinnok shouted. He tore his amulet away from his staff before discarding the staff. "You will not stop me from correcting your mistakes!"
Shinnok's amulet lit up and granted him a red aura that seemed to take a demonic shape, with horns forming every so often. Shinnok dropped down to the ground and created an impact equal to a large meteor. The debris nearly hit them all, but they were still sent backwards due to sheer force.
Abacus held onto the ground to avoid being sent flying back. He spotted their amulet falling towards the ground and he held his hand out to catch it. He got up to his feet, ready to use the amulet but Shinnok charged towards him and smacked him against. Shinnok's amulet enhanced his strength to such a degree that simply walking tore apart the ground, which meant his smack sent Abacus straight through some debris. Abacus held onto the amulet which his life clearly depended on. Abacus tried again, lifting the amulet up into the air. The amulet lit up and fired a pure white beam of holy energy out. Shinnok groaned as the beam hit his arm.
"You have become the very thing we sworn to stop!" Abacus said as he continued his attack.
Shinnok's skin did crack under the pressure of the holy light, but his own amulet healed him. He was in a state of being injured and being healed. Shinnok charged at Abacus. Abacus fired out even more holy light, the pressure once again cracked their amulet. It was barely held together as Shinnok moved ever closer. Abacus would take a step back for every step Shinnok took, but it wasn't enough. Shinnok closed the gap and knocked the amulet out of Abacus's hand before he gripped tightly onto his throat.
"Your order has failed too many times," Shinnok said as he down into his brother's soul. Zaggot rushed over to the amulet to assist his brother, but a small blast thrown from Shinnok was enough to knock him unconscious. Kronika attempted to snatch away Shinnok's amulet, but was effortlessly kicked away.
"You've all failed!" Shinnok shouted before he smashed Abacus into the ground, creating yet another crater. Shinnok flew up into the air, looking down at all of his fallen brothers and sisters as well as the other gods there. None of them were dead and elder gods couldn't truly be killed anyway, but they were helpless. "You may not be able to die, but I will send you to the Netherrealm as nothing but ashes!"
One god did rise to their feet. In fact, he actually teleported over to the elder god's amulet and took a hold of it. Raiden, god of thunder, stood alone against Shinnok.
"Stand down and accept your fate, thunder god," Shinnok demanded. "That amulet you possess can't stop me."
"I'm won't stand down and accept death if it means you harm Earth and every other realm there is!" Raiden proclaimed.
Shinnok smirked a bit as he used his amulet to form a giant ball of crimson energy the size of small mountain. "Then you will at least have the honor of dying on your feet."
Shinnok launched the energy ball down at Raiden who responded with a blue beam of elemental energy. The two attacks collided, but it was clear Shinnok's energy ball was far more powerful as it continued its journey down towards Raiden. Raiden himself began to shoot lightning as well as using the amulet in an attempt to change the tides, but it did little to stop the inevitable. Shinnok's attack gradually made its way down towards Raiden. Raiden's amulet cracked once again due to the pressure Raiden was putting on it. It kept cracking as the energy ball approached closer and closer. Raiden gritted his teeth as his doom was just a mere few feet away from him. Raiden shut his eyes. The energy ball had completely overtaken Raiden's energy beam and soon hit his amulet.
A bright light overtook the entire area. Everyone was blinded, including Shinnok.
Raiden didn't feel anything. Well, nothing that applied he was being disintegrated. Raiden was the first one to open his eyes. He was still alive. He looked down to his amulet was nothing but shattered pieces in his hand and on the ground. He looked up, but Shinnok was no longer in the air or empowered by his amulet. In fact, he no longer was in possession of his amulet. It was stuck floating in the air, right in front of Raiden. Shinnok on the other hand was stuck. His feet were somehow teleported into the ground. He struggled to free himself, but it was no use.
"What did you do?!" Shinnok shouted at Raiden, sounding less like the imposing elder he was before and instead an angry child.
Raiden looked down at his broken amulet one last time before taking Shinnok's amulet. "It was chaos magic," Raiden said. Shinnok's amulet sent energy though Raiden's body. It was as if his heart was beating a million miles an hour and that blood was pumping through his veins at an equal rate. It was overwhelming.
Shinnok growled and summoned two skeletal hands to attack Raiden. They flew towards the thunder god as if to crush him, but Raiden easily pushed them away. Shinnok once again growled and followed up by throwing a giant skeletal fist at Raiden.
Raiden charged himself up full of electricity and the added energy of the amulet before taking flight. He flew right through the skeletal fist. Shinnok panicked and threw a dozen more skeletal fists to hold Raiden back, a complete role reversal of before down to Raiden effortlessly smashing through each one.
Shinnok was filled with fear. His final act to save himself was to summon two skeletal hands to shield him. This final act was in vain as Raiden crashed through them and tackled Shinnok, dragging him away. The force of Raiden flying away with him was enough to detach Shinnok from his trapped legs.
Raiden let Shinnok flop to the ground. Shinnok could've gotten a lucky shot in on Raiden if he had enough time, but the thunder god was quick to act. Raiden used the amulet to create bindings to hold the elder god in place. Shinnok shook a bit, but the magic restraints couldn't be shaken away so easily.
"You stopped him," Cetrion said from behind Raiden. He turned to see her the rest of the gods raise up to their feet. They were still injured for the fight, but they could walk.
"I have," Raiden said before he handed away the amulet to Cetrion. His heart rate returned to normal as the energy he took from the amulet left him. With the amulet in her possession, Cetrion used it to regain her power and return the power to the rest of the elder gods.
"You don't know what you're doing," Shinnok spat out. "You are all incapable of understanding what damage you will cause to the realms."
"You have no right to say that when you overthrew us and filled the realms with the dead!" Abacus snapped at his brother. "You've caused so much destruction it will take a millennia to restore!"
"I was irradicating the mortal scum that have disregarded the laws of the realms, the laws you yourselves are so inclined to stand by!" Shinnok shook his head. "No. You stand by them when it's convenient. When it's inconvenient you grant mortals godlike power."
"I'm sick of listening to him," Zaggot said.
"As are we all," Ourano said. "Let's end this."
"End this?" Shinnok laughed. "You can't kill me! Even if I weren't an elder god, I have mastered death itself! You can decapitate me and I will rise back from the depths of the Netherrealm with never ending army at my command!"
"Have you forgotten how this began, Shinnok?" Cetrion asked. "We know we can't kill you, but we have the perfect alternative."
Cetrion held the amulet out and an energy tendril came out to latch onto Shinnok. Shinnok yelled in agony as the tendril sucked away his godly power. He attempted to pull himself away, but his restraints were too great. He had no choice but to sit there and lose everything he had left. The energy tendril soon detached itself and faded away into the amulet.
"From this moment on, you are banished from the elder gods," Cetrion said.
Shinnok was weakened from having his power drained but was not impressed. "You can't leave me out of the pantheon. I am as important to the natural order as you are, sister. And you can't simply replace me."
"That is exactly what we will do," Abacus said.
With that, Ourano used his regained power to open up a portal to the Netherrealm. Shinnok turned around to see Lucifer step out of the portal with a smirk on his face. Lucifer approached Shinnok and grabbed him by the throat.
"I'm going to enjoy sending you to deepest pits of hell," Lucifer laughed.
Shinnok grit his teeth and turned his head to the elder gods. "You will rue the day you've done this to me!" he shouted. "I will regain my power, I will regain my amulet, and I will make sure the torment you will face a thousand times more agonizing than I will face! And you thunder god?! When I escape the Netherrealm, I promise you that Earthrealm will be the first to fall!"
"You may take him," Abacus said to Lucifer. The god of shadows obliged and dragged Shinnok into the portal and Ourano sealed it behind them.
There was a brief moment of silence between the gods. The normal gods like Argus, Fujin, and Suijin processed Shinnok's threat. Despite being depowered and banished to the Netherrealm, they knew Shinnok had the cunning to live up to his threat. The elder gods however were melancholier. Shinnok had crossed them, something that could never be forgiven, yet he was their brother. He was by their side in the beginning, he helped them form the realms.
"Shinnok has a point," Zaggot broke through the silent. "If he regains the amulet, he will destroy everything."
"Then we simply have to guard it," Abacus said.
"But he stole the kamidogu. Clearly we aren't good at guarding such important artifacts."
"Because we were arrogant," Kronika said. "We were all too short-sighted to predict a possibility of being betrayed by one of our own. We need to take more precautions."
And so they did. The elder gods designed a temple specifically to protect the amulet with traps in place to slay anyone daring enough to take it. Raiden offered to have the temple in Earthrealm and, to make sure no god would attempt to take the amulet and follow down Shinnok's path, he placed Fujin in charge with three other Earthrealm gods. These gods were Kajin the god of fire, Claydus the god of earth, and Umi, god of water. Not only would the four of them watch the amulet with incredible power, they would be able to watch over each other.
Then there came the concern of an empty spot in the elder god's pantheon. Especially since Shinnok was gone, someone needed to keep the natural order of death intact. Suijin offered to take the position, feeling the Chaosrealm would actually prefer to be without a guardian. While the elder gods wished for someone to watch over the Chaosrealm kamidogu, they accepted her request and she became the new elder god of death. That was when the elder gods resumed an earlier discussion.
They needed a champion. Someone loyal enough to the elder gods and with the strength to carry out their will. While the recent events of Shinnok's onslaught showed many promising candidates, one oddity stood out to them. A skeletal demon from the Netherrealm. While he had the vicious nature of any other demon, he was never out for his own gain. In fact, he refused to assist Shinnok's forces and fought back against those that attempted to escape the realm. He clearly understood the order of the realms. The elder gods summoned him to their realm, keeping him from being destroyed by the holy light that surrounded him. They asked his name only to learn he had none. His only known title was Monster. It was decided he would be their chosen one. They granted him golden armor, holy fire, and the ability to freely travel the realms with no harm to him. He was honored by their gift and gladly took on their first task; to return all of the kamidogu to their rightful realms.
The elder gods felt relieved. Their power had been restored, Shinnok's amulet was sealed away, their new champion carried out their will perfectly, and Shinnok was trapped in the Netherrealm for all eternity. Reconstruction could begin. This relief would not last. Little did they know, Shinnok's attempt to rule all would start the rise of many new threats and would bring ruin to the realms.
Here is the longest chapter up to this point. It has everything. Action, lore, hopefully good characterization. I was most concerned with making this battle as long and as epic as a battle of gods needs to be, but I didn't want to drag it out for too long. Let me know how that went.
I'll admit I don't like the ending of this chapter. I needed to have a transition back to the status quo, but some of that felt rushed, even with Monster's inclusion or the other Earthrealm gods I haven't established yet. I think I jumped the gun not giving Suijin's name to the earth realm god.
I was also planning on having two of the people helping the gods being Jerrod and Havik, but I decided against it. It would have felt too cheap and maybe lore damaging just to have these two be in such an important event. I'm not a big redlettermedia guy, but I knew I couldn't just do a "that's a thing I recognized" kind of thing.
A reference that wouldn't be too distracting is the amulet. The amulet the gods made is based on Raiden's medal from MK 9 which I know most people hate. So, hopefully it being destroyed is satisfying to some of you.
As always, feel free to leave your thoughts down below and critique my work. I'd really appreciate critiques.
Mortal Kombat is owned by NetherRealm Studios and all that