A gentle rain came down on the war. Bodies were everywhere now. It was almost as though the ocean was replaced with a floor of bodies, limbs, flesh, and blood.
"So you still exist, traitor," Boomed the voice of the leading chaos god, every one of its eyes looking at Neptune with both hate and fear.
Neptune laughed a peal of cruel laughter as water surrounded her legs and lifted her off the surface of the water. Suddenly the chaos god lunged its trident in the twinkling of an eye, but Neptune blocked the attack and pushed the trident down into the water with her own, "Good! I'll finish what Poseidon and the chief god stopped me from doing!"
With a roar Neptune charged at the skyscraper of a creature, practically sliding up the giant trident. With a loud grunt the chaos god swung their trident upward, sending Neptune into the sky Tentacles rushed out of the hundreds of thousands of holes in the chaos god's skin and rushed at Neptune before firing beams of energy from its eyes.
In one clench of Neptune's hand, the tentacles were frozen completely before being cut off by her white tentacle-like hair. Then with her trident, Neptune formed a magical barrier of ice in front of her made from the gentle rain coming down. However right before the beams of energy hit the barrier, they suddenly changed direction and went behind her as they ripped through her skin.
Poseidon would have screamed in pain at the pain of almost being gutted alive, but Neptune was not Poseidon. She only moaned as the pain coursed through her, placing her hand on the countless bleeding wounds now adorning her body, "That felt good! I had forgotten about that little trick of yours, brother! Or wait," Neptune laughed for a brief moment, "I forgot, you're probably my sister now instead! HAHAHA-" In anger, the chaos god swung their trident towards Neptune.
Neptune lifted herself higher into the sky, avoiding the flesh made trident before the water below her became too far away to control. Then with a widening grin, Neptune allowed herself to fall as she descended straight down towards the chaos god. She almost looked like a shooting star of water as she came down on them.
The eyes of the chaos god widened before lunging backwards, barely avoiding Neptune as she crashed into the water. Get up Neptune looked dead ahead at the eldritch horror, "Don't you dare run from me!"
Unrelenting, Neptune began to charge right at the god. Neptune almost looked like a magic missile as she almost looked to be flying instead of swimming. Desperately the chaos god began to walk backwards, swinging its trident and firing beams of energy at Neptune as it did so. But it was pointless as Neptune avoided and formed magical ice barriers around her to block the laser, no matter what direction they came.
Getting too close for its comfort and safety, the chaos god lunged into the sky above. Its dragon-like wings stretched out and lifted itself even higher into the sky. It could not let Neptune get too close, or else she would use its own blood against them in some way. But there was another reason as well.
In their last fight all those hundreds of years ago, Neptune was not this strong. Not to mention it thought Hephaestus got rid of Neptune. This was not part of the plan, and it had to be cautious, or else it would get itself truly killed.
However unlikely for the chaos god, Neptune would not give up that easily. Using a powerful gush of water, Neptune sent herself upwards towards the god at an alarming rate. "Where do you think you're going, sister!?"
One by one the other chaos gods stopped fighting and watched as Neptune began to rise up towards their leader. They all realized what was soon to happen, and none of them would let it. The other gods as well were watching before realizing the chaos gods were rushing towards where Neptune and their leader were fighting.
The fallen god looked away from the fight and looked at the multi-horned serpent rushing towards the main fight, "Not...on...my...WATCH!" Yelled the goddess as she froze time and struck down the chaos god. Then when time went back to normal and the chaos god collapsed again, the fallen god began to rush towards the main battlefield as well.
Suddenly a longhorn suddenly burst from the waters and pierced her legs. Grunted in pain before turning back to see that the chaos god would not let her do the same either. "JUST STAY DEAD!"
Meanwhile, the mass of floating mouths and eyes turned and began to rush towards the fight as well. "EY HEL, WHY DON'T YOU MAKE SURE THESE HITS LAND!" Yelled Hephaestus as she sent bursts of burning wine at the floating things of the flesh.
"ON IT!" Yelled back Hel as she influenced the fate of Bacchus shot's, causing them all to strike the mouths and eyes.
As the blades of Ares and the multi-armed chaos god, the chaos god stuttered and turned slightly to look towards the battle. But it was soon interrupted in its watching as Ares disengaged and severed one of the hands of the chaos god, "Hey eyes one me!" Yelled Ares.
Talos ripped in half an arm of the chaos god it killed while countless others clawed and tried to tear apart Talos. Hephaestus could only look in shock at the fight between, "Impossible... my machine... failed?" Muttered Hephaestus.
"Hey, Ephaestus!" The god of smithing turned to see Aros flying next to him, "We can't let any of those chaos demons or their gods get near the fight between Neptune and their leader!"
Hephaestus nodded, "On it!" The smith god turned to Talos, "Alright Talos, I know this might damage ya a bit more than needed, but ya heard the lady!" Suddenly Talos' eyes began to glow as it began to fight harder against the horde of demons and arms. Pushing itself and its systems as the archangel, Aros, and Bastet shot down and prevented the chaos demons from getting to their leader.
Back at the main fight, Neptune got closer and closer to the chaos god. Quickly ascending before the chaos god threw its trident down at Neptune. Not expecting such an attack and barely avoided the blow as it left a nasty cut on her neck.
Trying to not give Neptune a chance, the chaos god swung its long tail at her as it split into thousands of tentacles. In an instant, she froze all the tentacles, but not before turning to see the giant flesh-composed trident flying straight back up at her. She was able to dodge the attack, but not nearly as fast as before as it left a large wound at the side of her torso.
Neptune's vision got blurry as she began to descend back to the ocean. At that moment, the battle was thought to be over. But before Neptune crashed into the water, a dark aura glowed faintly from her trident as she suddenly felt a wave of strength and energy return to her. "I'm not finished!" Roared Neptune as she created another strong gush of water that sent her back flying.
Surprised, the chaos god hesitated before regaining focus and threw down its trident while raining down beams of energy at Neptune. She weaved in and out, avoiding the trident as it wooshed past her. "Go ahead! Hurt me! I'm not stopping till I finish the job!" Yelled Neptune as a few beams of energy ripped through her, seemingly ignoring them as she continued flying upwards.
Neptune grinned wider, she just had a brilliant idea. As she got closer the chaos god sent out its tentacles, but Neptune ignored them. Instead, she rushed towards its throat before lunging into it and bursting out of the other side, leaving a messy hole in its throat. The chaos god then screamed in pain as its own energy tore holes into its own skin before the trident came rushing back and plunged itself into its chest.
And just like that, the mountain of flesh began to descend back to the waters below as Neptune watched in joy. However, the chaos god was not dead yet.
With both hands, it ripped off the trident and held it in its hands. Neptune assumed they were too far to hit her, but it was wrong as the god swung the trident and managed to leave a large bleeding cut on her stomach. Neptune put her hand into the wound and smiled, "THAT'S THE SPIRIT!"
Like rain, Neptune began to descend back down towards the falling chaos god. As Neptune got closer, the chaos god reared back its trident before lunging it forward.
Instead of dodging the attack, Neptune met it with her own trident head-on, a dark glowing around both her and the trident. "TRIDENT GIVEN TO ME BY MY CREATOR, SHOW THE WORLD YOUR TRUE FORM!" Yelled Neptune. Then right before the two tridents met, Neptune's trident suddenly twisted and shifted into a dark trident with each of its ends just as sharp as Ares' own sword.
And then with a sound like thunder, Neptune cut straight through the trident made of flesh all the way through, and straight into where the chaos god's heart was. At first, Neptune seemed to almost disappear as she sunk into the flesh of the chaos god, but that soon changed as she burst out the other side as rivers of blood came pouring out.
With the chaos god seemingly slain, it crashed into the waters behind Neptune, splashing water and blood everywhere. And as the corpse of the chaos god laid in the ocean, Neptune laughed as she felt a wave of power enter her, "Finally now, that phoney trident is destroyed-" Suddenly the thought to be dead chaos god got up and swung its fist as Neptune.
However before it made contact, its entire arm became frozen. With a roar, the chaos god ripped off its own arm and swung it at Neptune. Neptune however was not in the mood to play with her prey anymore. Instantly she froze the other arm of the chaos god before she forced them to burst into millions of pieces before sending a burst of water at the chaos god, cutting into and leaving behind a clean hole at its gut.
The god stumbled a minute before it stood straight back up, its eyes glowing as it fired beams of energy down at Neptune. But with two motions of her hand, an ice barrier formed around her and the chaos god's eyes became dry and shrivelled up. "With that trident of yours, I can easily beat you."
Then in one last-ditch effort, the chaos god sent out all of its tentacles and swung its tail at Neptune. But of course, it was vain, as before even a second had passed, they all were crushed as a tidal wave of water came and consumed them. When the waters cleared all that was left was a dying and torn god of the chaos demons.
"Goodbye, Okeanos." Muttered Neptune as she raised her trident upward, causing his entire body to become frozen little by little until there was nothing but a giant icicle in the water. Neptune then got closer to the icicle, with a look of nostalgia before destroying it with a swing of her trident. And so the leader of the chaos gods, Okeanos, was dead.
Neptune started to chuckle, and that chuckle became roaring laughter as dark veins started to appear around her eye sockets. "And with your death! HEHEHEHEE! My dominion grows!"
The remaining chaos gods now knew they had lost, and were now trying to escape rather than assist their now dead leader in combat. But it was too late, far too late. One by one the chaos gods were frozen as the water washed over them, before shattering into a red mist. With every one of their deaths, Neptune grew stronger and her laughter became more severe as more. And more dark veins started to not only grow around her eyes but her entire body as well.
At the battlefield at the ocean's surface, the countless remaining chaos demons and the floating sentient pieces of chaos gods were all suddenly pierced by spikes of ice before they themself were frozen and shattered into nothing.
Down below as the defenders fought desperately against the horde of demons, the chaos demons stopped their attack all at once. Before they all started clawing at their throats for breath, making silent screams of pain as their bones suddenly shattered, cracked, and bent in every way imaginable.
Back at the surface above Neptune could not stop laughing. Veins now covered her entire body, making her look almost like the chaos god's themselves. The pain and death around and in her was glorious, and it was so enjoyable. There was one thing though that she needed to do. She needed to get some payback.
Turning her gaze, Neptune looked straight at Hephaestus with a deep scowl, "YOU, YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME!" At the snap of her finger, the giant Talos collapsed as the water ripped apart his legs like they were made of hands instead of water.
When the smith god fell into the water, he silently screamed in pain as his bones began to be crushed and air left his body. And Neptune smiled again and laughed, "HOW DOES IT FEEL!? YOU-"
"You may be the physically strongest of us all, but you can never hope to win as long as I control time and Hel control's fate." Spoke the fallen god into Neptune's ear.
"Wait what the-" Yelled Neptune as she turned and swung her trident. However she didn't get far as instantly the fallen god appeared in front of her, with a syringe in Neptune's neck, "You...little..." Muttered Neptune before collapsing into the water.
The fallen god looked down at the unconscious Neptune as they slowly reverted into Poseidon. With the flick of the wrist, she levitated the body of Poseidon and carried it with her as she opened a portal before looking at Hephaestus as he climbed back onto the crushed remains of Talos, "We will discuss this later."
"Indeed," Muttered Hephaestus before he pulled out his hammer and tapped Talos, forming a rune on him. Then as if the rune was a signal, a portal to his realm opened and long chains came down before latching onto the giant as it pulled the wrecked machine up. All the while Hephaestus remained on the giant robot before disappearing with it through the portal.
And so one by one the remaining gods left to their own realms to recover. The only one who stayed was Hel as tears began to run down her face, no longer able to contain her grief for what had happened.
(-)
The sound of drums, harps, violins, and singing echoed faintly throughout the realm in an almost chanting and ritual-like fashion. Golden pillars stretched far above the skies as they reached above the clouds. And at the base of the pillars was an endless body of shallow water, populated not only by pillars of gold but by countless mountains with buildings atop of them as angels flew in and out.
From the waters, small orbs of divine mana rose before dissipating. And from the pillars, one could see dark orbs covered in a golden casing and connected to long dark roots that spread and strung towards a mountain at the centre of the realm. and at the other end of all these long roots, past countless statues of every hero from every age, was a large golden throne, with light emanating from it at the top of the mountain.
This was Heaven, this was the centre of the divine realms. A realm where all lower divines such angels were first created and born, where the first gods were made, and where the chief god of old began his creation of all that he ever made.
Upon the throne sat the new chief god as she watched what had happened below, her body covered countless blood-stained wrappings that almost covered her entire body. Over the wrappings, she wore a white robe with golden trimmings on top and golden jewellery. And upon her face was a golden mask that hid her face, where only hard blonde hair and golden eyes could be seen.
Ever since that day against the traitorous hero and his harlot of a wife, she had been stuck like this. Her body was barely healing itself from the wounds she had sustained, and her face gravely disfigured.
What had happened below had amused the chief god. To think the machine that Hephaestus made to completely erase Neptune from existence had failed after these past few centenaries.
This, though not expected, was very good for her. Poseidon and Neptune always had shared the same body and were complete opposites in almost every way. The thing was though, was that Poseidon is naturally far stronger-willed than Neptune. Meaning that the only way Neptune could take over was either to wait for Poseidon to become unconscious or get consent from Poseidon to take over.
Not only that but if Poseidon or Neptune were in control without the other one's approval of the situation, then they'd be far weaker. With how Poseidon was siding with the mamono, this meant that both Neptune and Poseidon would from now be at their weakest even with the amount of control over the waters they have now. Not to mention the dispute that would most surely grow in time amongst them.
And to top it all off the chaos gods were now finally gone.
At first one would think she would have wanted them alive, especially with their ability to not only make their own divine gifts and to not be able to die without their entire body being destroyed, but that was far from the truth. No, they were a loose cannon that was far too good at its job of killing. When the chief god of old corrupted them and sent them out, they fared better than any demon lord ever could. However, when the chief god of old tried to influence them to stop, they did not.
Instead, they went on a killing spree and almost wiped humanity off the face of the mortal realm. Even when the chief god sent the entire pantheon out to stop them, the gods would have lost if it weren't for Poseidon.
If it wasn't for Poseidon, then Neptune would have tagged along with the chaos god even though she was not corrupted. But, because of Poseidon's nature, Neptune had no choice but to side with the chief god.
And with Lescatie still standing, things were finally turning to her side once again. This game of chess was at last moving in her favour.
(-)
Petre groaned as he awoke, the sound of fire crackling and the chirping of crickets echoing in his ears. His head throbbed and his throat felt dry as he opened his eyes to the faint orange light of the bonfire. Even though he was far away from it, Petre could feel the warmth of the flames on his face as the winds rustled the leaves above. It all felt strange and yet comforting to him.
He knew what happened even if he couldn't recall it himself. No doubt he did something foolish again like he always did. Was he captured by a pack of bandits or mamono? He couldn't recall really, save for the memory of him drinking on the shore waiting to see if the giant was dead or not.
That was soon proven wrong though, as the bearded face of the giant appeared on the other side of the flame. Though it startled him for a moment, Petre was not afraid. No, even though the man hardly looked human, Petre couldn't get a strange sensation from him. Like something... divine, for a lack of a better term. Though he knew Gael was no god, even if he survived an encounter with Poseidon.
"It seems you are... comforted by the flames as well," Spoke Gael in his accent which even still felt strange to Petre's ears.
Petre chuckled dryly at those words, "Yeah, guess I am. Weird how something so dangerous can be a source of comfort."
After a brief moment of silently staring at the flame with Gael, Petre realized the two crates he had were missing. That was not good at all because, excluding that treasure, he needed that wine. Thankfully it did not take long before he spotted them next to Gael's feet and were stacked. "Hey uh, can you hand those to me?"
At that Gael placed his armoured blood-stained rag-covered hand, "Why do you drink so?" Asked Gael.
It almost reminded Petre of his old man, and he didn't like that at all. He needed to get away for a sec or something before all those memories started flooding back again. Ignoring Gael's question, Petre grunted as he rubbed his face and got up, " I need some water or something," muttered Petre.
With his other free hand, Gael pointed south behind Petre, "There is a river there."
"Thanks," mumbled Petre, shakily making his way towards the direction given to him. To him, it felt like a maze with the countless rows of trees and branches as their leaves blocked the sky, and a little bit disoriented too but that might be just him. After passing a few trees he stumbled and fell onto one of the trees, leaning on them for support, "Don't worry. I'll be fine, I just... I just need to clear my head," Murmured Petre to no one but himself.
Eventually, he made it to what appeared to be a small shallow river that seemed to barely flow at all. Slowly he sat down next to the water and slowly started to scoop up the water and drink from it, the cold water refreshing him and his throat.
But as he drank from the river, he suddenly stopped and stared at it as it slowly seeped out of his hands. Maybe it was because of how dark it was but, was the water always this red? It almost looked like wine or... blood? It was all over him, his hands, his legs, everywhere!
In shock he retracted his hands, causing what little 'water' to fall back into the river. The red liquid of the river rippled as he started to stare into his reflection in the water. Petre's eyes must have been playing tricks on him. Because instead of a man in about his thirties in normal attire, it was an old man who had a bed of balding grey hair and wearing Order priest robes.
Even though the 'reflections' mouth did not move, he could hear their words in his thoughts. "Shut up... SHUT UP!" Tightening his fists, Petre slammed the water with both of them, splashing the water everywhere and causing the waters to ripple again. And just like that, his reflection was his own again, and the waters were as they should have been.
Petre slowly got up as he slowed his breathing down, holding himself back from shedding even a tear, "How can anyone love a murderer?" With that he started to head back towards where the bonfire was, still stumbling a little as he leaned on another tree that he mistook for a statue for support, "I must have been drinking too much." Muttered Petre to himself again as he shuffled his way back to the light.
(-)
Gael tossed another small branch of wood into the bonfire, the flames sparking with a bit more life. He found it a bit strange as he watched the bonfire, its own cycle of fading, and him refuelling it all too familiar. In a way he had been watching bonfires his whole life, watching as the first flame and its bonfires begin to fade before someone gave it more fuel. The only main difference was one took far longer to fade out and affected the world far more than just giving someone warmth.
Suddenly Gael's attention was taken away from his thoughts by the sound of a twig snap. Shifting his vision from the bonfire, Gael turned to see Petre leaning against a nearby tree, a strange look upon his face.
"I'm back," Muttered Petre as he slouched down to the ground, leaning his back on the tree, "So, what's the plan?"
Grabbing some more fuel for the flame, Gael threw another small branch into the flame, "I must go to 'the world's peak'."
Petre grunted as he got up and went towards the two crates. As he reached down to get one of them, Gael placed his hand on top. Obviously not wanting to put himself in a death sentence, Petre backed off, "World's peak huh? To be honest I've never heard of any place with that sort of name. Though..." Petre started to pace a bit, "There are some folks who could help us, but uh, I'd rather not meet up with them."
"Who?" Asked Gael abruptly.
Petre stammered a bit as if trying to figure out how to explain the people he was referring to, "A sort of... tribe, I guess you'd call 'em. Even though I'd hardly call 'em that considering how unorganized they are. We have some...history."
"Do you know where to find them?"
Making his way back to the tree he was sitting at, Petre continued, "No, not now but I will after we follow that nearby river you pointed me to."
"Very well. We will start tomorrow in the morning. I do not want a guide who is not in his best condition to guide."
"I doubt those folks will care very much," Spoke up Petre rudely before taking in a deep breath as he realized he had no real room to argue, "Fine, you're the boss right now. See ya at first light, or whenever we are able to see light in this mess of a forest."
And so the night was over as Gael merely stood watch. As he stood watch there was something that was nagging at the back of his mind. Up until now, he had resisted his urge to check the crates Petre had taken along. He could have checked while Petre had left for a brief moment but now he had to know just what was this treasure he was referring to.
Slowly and Carefully, he opened the crate he had determined to be the one with the 'treasure'. And what he found surprised him.
It wasn't gold or jewellery, no it was something else. Instead, it was an old mask covered with cracks that looked to be on the verge of falling apart. Its face was that of a man with a pointed thin beard and moustache. And for its age, it was in good condition.
For even though it had been what felt like aeons since he last saw one wear such a mask, he recognized it. It was a mask that a knight of Mirrah would wear.