Moon Goddess of War Ascended: A Side Story – By Ocramed
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon, the God of War franchise and other properties belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a limited, crossover fusion story. C&C are welcomed.
Special Note: This is a sort of prequel to "Moon Goddess of War".
Part 4
After the Temple of Delphi was pulled, and connected, to the towering generator, the Moon Princess and the Ghost of Sparta walked across a narrow path, and into the receiving area of the temple…
THOOM!
"You should knock first," Usagi said sarcastically, after Kratos kicked the front doors in. "I don't think anyone inside heard us coming."
"Good," Kratos said. "At least, whoever is inside will know that they are about to die."
Usagi merely shakes her head in reply. Leave it to her friend to seek trouble at every turn…
After dispatching Wild Hounds and a member of the 3-headed Cereberus, Usagi notices something odd about the temple's inside décor…
"What I don't understand is how it's pretty nice in here, and terrible outside," Usagi said, as she and Kratos collected more energy. "You would think that someone would want to attract visitors to a temple dedicated to the god Apollo."
"Perhaps, the one who sent us on this quest was right about one thing," Kratos said, as he notices green dust emitting from the mouths of snakes that decorated the temple. "They say that the oracles here have to inhale a special dust to see the world for what it truly was, as a means to communicate with the gods…"
"Well, I'm not into drugs or anything, but I think we should try to inhale the dust, and sees what happens," Usagi said.
"You first," Kratos said.
Usagi nods her head, and begins to inhale the dust…
"Whoa," Usagi said, as she felt heady. All around her, the architecture suddenly changes into something out of an hour show…
"Kratos?" Usagi said, as she looked around the temple. Everything was now old, decrepit and falling apart. Worse, Kratos was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, boy…"
After an hour of wandering around the palace, she comes across a mirror…
"Kratos?" Usagi said, as she realized that she was looking at Kratos within the mirror, instead of her own image.
"Kratos!" Usagi said, as she ran into the mirror.
BLAM!
"Oof!"
The image of Kratos tried to say something, but no sound could be heard.
"I can't hear you!" Usagi said.
The image of Kratos then raises a finger, and then pressed his hand onto the glass. Kratos then points towards his hand…
"Okay," Usagi said, as she pressed her hand against Kratos'
FLASH!
Usagi pulls back her hand, and looks at her surroundings.
"Whoa," Usagi said, as she sees that she is in the same spot that she was in, only, newer. "Apparently, Kratos and I are in different points in time, but in the same place…"
Usagi then looks at the mirror, and sees that Kratos is in "the future".
"Huh," Usagi said, realizing that her theory was confirmed.
Kratos then holds up his left index finger. He then takes his blade, and scribbles something on the ground. Usagi turns to see the spot on the floor where the Ghost of Sparta would write his message…
Taking cues from Kratos, Usagi, too, writes a message on the floor…
Kratos suddenly jumps back, and, in real time, sees that Usagi's words were appearing exactly where Usagi was writing in the past. He then signals Usagi to touch the part of the mirror where he was touching.
Usagi complies…
FLASH!
And now, Usagi was back in the "present", having switched places with Kratos.
"Whoa," Usagi said. "Trippy. This is like that game involving that weird flute thing and some elf kid that doesn't talk…"
Eventually, Usagi and Kratos are able to figure out how to work together, as they move through the Temple of Delphi. Eventually, in the catacombs underneath, they acquire their latest boon: the Soul of Hades. This allowed Usagi and Kratos to summon help from the underworld…
"Alright, you goats!" Usagi said, as she realized that she had fallen into a trap set by the Satyrs. "Take…THIS!"
Usagi casts her magic to summon help from the Underworld in the form of a Cerberus dog.
"GRRRRR!" said the hellish beast, as it pops up through a purple-colored portal. He looks at Usagi for a moment, and sniffs her scent…
SLURP!
"Ew!" Usagi said, as she wiped her face. She then looked at the animal, which seemed to wag its tail while all three of its heads panted.
"Um, good doggy?" Usagi said, as she pets the head.
"Arf!"
"Baaaaaa!" yelled the Satyrs, as they charged forward.
Out of instinct to its new mistress, the Cerberus turns on the Satyrs, and attacks.
"GROOWL-!"
After wards, Usagi names her new familiar "Shingo" after her younger brother…
"Ha!" Usagi yelled, as she lifted the giant hammer that she had just took from an Elemental Golem, living statues that could be imbued with an element as its power. In this case, Usagi was fighting one whose element was fire. Luckily, her boon from Aries had allowed her to pick up the hot, giant war hammer, in order to smash her opponent's head in.
SMASH!
Discarding the hammer, Usagi wiped the sweat from her brow. So far, with her in the future and with Kratos in the past, the pair were able to enter chambers that would normally be off limits, or would have already been scavenged. Then again, who is to say that Kratos was the one to have scavenged an area that Usagi would find already empty? At the very least, Usagi, knowing the hidden areas, areas already exposed to the ravages of history, would let Kratos know where to go in the past…or something like that…
Eventually, the Moon Princess and the Ghost of Sparta would find themselves in Chamber of the Oracle…
"YOU WILL NOT SEE THE ORACLE!" said the temple's guardian Pollux, as he makes himself young.
"Let us make him pay for his arrogance!" said Castor. Both he and Pollux were Gemni Twins, joined together as one body, with Castor sticking out of Castor's torso.
"Oh my gawd!" Usagi yelled, as she sees Castor. When Kratos inhaled the green dust while touching the mirror with Usagi at the same time, Usagi was pulled back into the same time frame as Kratos.
"Are we not beautiful, my pretty?" Castor said.
"No offense, but…as IF!" Usagi said.
"Well, how about if we change your perspective!" Pollux said, as he blasted Usagi with the green dust with his staff…
FWOOSH!
"Ah-!"
"Usagi!" Kratos yelled.
"Oof!" Usagi said, as she aged into an old woman. For some reason, she was wearing grandma glasses.
"Usagi!" Kratos said, as he ran to his companion's side. "Are you well?"
"Just…tired," Usagi managed to say, as she looked at her wrinkled hands. "Oh, dear…"
"And only WE can reverse the effects!" Castor said.
"Do not fear, for I shall make this creature pay!" Kratos said, as his battle aura flared. He then turned towards Castor and Pollux. "RRRARGH!"
As the fight intensified between the temple guardians—really usurpers—and Kratos raged, Usagi willed herself to stay focus.
"They say…I am supposed to be the Eternal Sailor Moon," Usagi said, as her Crescent Moon mark began to glow. "Time…to live up to that expectation…"
Drawing upon her power as the Moon Princess, Usagi increased her energy reserves, so that she could utilize the Lightning of Zeus…
"My BROTHER may be incompetent, but I am NOT!" Castor said, as he began to use potent magic on Kratos.
Meanwhile, Usag, fully charged, throws a lightning bolt at the amulet hanging around the unconscious Pollux's neck.
BOOM-!
ZAAARRRKKKKKKK!
"Arrgh!" Castor yells, as he sees the amulet flying away from the impact of the lightning bolt. "The Amulet of Uroborus! Our power!"
"Not any longer," Kratos sneered, as he does the deed to finish off the brothers once and for all…
With no one controlling the amulet, the Temple of Delphi is assaulted by the ravages of Time, causing the infrastructure to age noticeably.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" screamed Usagi, as she and everyone fell down to the lower levels below…
Later, the Oracle of Delphi, Lady Aletheia heals Usagi, restoring her youth.
"It is…done," Aletheia said tiredly. "My next to last act as oracle is complete."
"What…what you mean?" Usagi said.
"When you freed me from Pollux and Castor, you freed me from the state between life…and death," Aletheia said, as she shows a mortal wound in her stomach. "The brothers had mortally wounded me, and have used the Amulet of Uroborus to keep me in the state of 'undead'. I was dead long before this day. Thankfully, Athena was able to sustain my mind, so that I may complete my duties before I die…"
"Can we not help you, Aletheia?" Kratos asked.
"If you wish to help me, restore the aqueducts of Kirra, so that life may return there; the amulet will help you in this task," Aletheia said. "Castor and Pollux had punished the village for their refusal to honor them as the guardians of the Temple of Delphi, once their cruelty was well-known…"
Pause.
"As for you, Kratos of Sparta, Orkos, Keeper of Oaths, is someone that you can seek counsel from," Aletheia said. "He will guide you as to what needs to be done in order for you to break your oath to Aries, the god of war."
"How?" Kratos asked.
"Journey to the Isle of Delos. It will be there, where Orkos will serve you best, when he gives you his…Oath Stone…"
"But…isn't there ANYTHING that can be done for YOU?" Usagi said tearfully.
"You have already done so much, Moon Princess," Aletheia said with a gentle smile. "I know that under your reign, in the far future, the people of this world will be free of the cruelty of the gods. And if I can be a part of that occurring, then my death will be worth it…"
And, with that, the Oracle at Delphi…dies.
Hours later…
"It is done," Kratos said, as he plants the grave marker where he had buried Aletheia. Upon Usagi's insistence, the oracle was buried in a garden cove just outside of Kirra, near the village's aqueducts, which had been restored thanks to the use of Amulet of Uroborus. In the process of restoring the infrastructure, Usagi and Kratos eliminated every last monster and hostile creature in Kirra.
Usagi lowers her head and says a silent prayer. She then places some flowers she had picked from the surrounding area, bundle them with one of her hair ribbons, and placed the flowers on Aletheia's grave. She then steps back.
"You have my promise that I will make right what went wrong," Usagi said. "And I will do so, even if I have to take on the gods themselves-"
"Eeeeeeee!" screeched a banshee, as she suddenly appears with her "sisters". Electrical discharges coursed through the floating specters bodies, as they began to circle the Ghost of Sparta and the Moon Princess. However, as Kratos was prepared to deal with the creatures, Usagi, now uncharacteristically livid, turns to face the banshees.
"WILL YOU GIVE US SOME TIME TO MOURN FOR THE DEAD?" Usagi yelled at the banshees, frightening the banshees and giving Kratos pause. "We can 'play' when Kratos and I get to the docks, okay?"
The banshees looked at Usagi, and then at each other, and then back at Usagi. With a nod of their collective heads, they floated away…
"Impressive," Kratos said with a smile.
"Honestly, it's just….well, whatever," Usagi said with a sigh, as she complete her farewell to the Oracle at Delphi.
A few days later…
"Aye, we are here," said the sea captain, as his trading ship sails into the harbor of the Isle of Delos. He then turned towards Kratos.
"I want you and your companion off this ship as soon as we make it to the docks," the sea captain said. "My men are already nervous being in these waters, and I am not too keen on being here myself."
"So be it," Kratos said, as he walks away to retrieve his companion…
"Ohhhh," Usagi said, as she moaned. Ever since she had set sail to Delos with Kratos, she has been sea sick the entire time, an irony since she was suppose to be a "Sailor Scout"...
"Bunny, get ready," Kratos said, as he placed his hand on Usagi's shoulders.
Usagi nods her head, as she gathers her things. She then took a glance at what appeared to be what remained of a giant statue…
"Fascinating sight," said the sea captain, as he goes up to Kratos and Usagi. "This was once a statue dedicated Apollo, designed and built by Archimedes. No one knows why it is in its present shape, but you should know this: there are monsters that roam the island."
"Oh, joy," Usagi said with a sigh. "I'm half sick, and there are monsters ahead. Great."
"We made it this far, Bunny," Kratos said with a broad smile. "What are a few more obstacles to overcome?"
"Ugh," Usagi said, as she rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the pep talk…"
Tbc.