Chapter 20: The Totality of Death
Dark, feathered wings sprouted from Khonsu's back. Four of them, at crossed angles to form an "X" behind his outline as he slowly raised into the sky. His bones cracked and grinded as they began to grow. Sinew and muscle weaved its way together through his rib cage and limbs. Flesh and skin rapidly followed, coating his entire body like flames dashing across oil. Lastly, black feathers burst along his skin, engulfing him, until he appeared before them no longer as a weak skeleton, but an all-powerful, dark god. The new golden eyes in his sockets began to move as they looked around. Freshly formed eyelids blinked in disbelief, gazing around him to take in the world. Khonsu stood at least twice Kratos' height now, and his wings nearly six times the size of Freya's.
"Is this how he feels?" The raven god spoke in awe, staring into his scaled, flesh and blood hand. "The power to change the world."
The moon in the sky behind him suddenly changed. Its light grew brighter, stronger, and the pale crimson gave way to an almost total black. The blood red moon darkened into an ominous black and purple hue. A violet, fiery aura surrounded its darkened outline now.
Khonsu turned to gaze back at that which he drew power from, and laughed. "YES! This is power. This is my birthright. No longer will I be a husk. I shall seize my own fate. I will change the course of destiny myself. I AM A GOD AMO-"
The raven's victory cries were cut short, as the draupnir spear pierced through his chest, lodging itself within him. The moon god slowly turned, to gaze down at his attacker. Kratos' eyes were steeled in their glare up at the power thirsty usurper. His lips snarled, his muscles taught,, ready for the fight ahead.
The moon god did not retaliate though, he chuckled. "Kratos, you fail to see with eyes unclouded by your rage and hatred. All you can do is destroy. You do not, cannot create. You are no god of life, of warmth, or anything tangible or value. You denounce your title of war god as well. You are but a husk of a god now. All you bring is death in your wake. I will give the people of these lands back their freedom. The sun is harsh, unrelenting. It plagues this land into a desolate hellscape which all life suffers under. The moon will not be so. The moon will create life, not take it."
Khonsu's fingers wrapped around the long column of steel embedded in his chest, and ripped it free. The wound healed within a heartbeat, and another beat later the spear disappeared back to its ring around the spartan's finger. Flexing his fingers, Khonsu chuckled again, "The power of the book is mine. The moon is the strongest it's ever been. You cannot kill me, Kratos, you will only die in the attempt."
Kratos stepped forward now, leaving the defensive formation of their party as he raised his chaos blades and firmly stated to the winged god, "Do you know how many times gods have said that to me?"
A moment later one of the blades flashed through the air and struck Khonsu in the thigh. The moon god's eyes narrowed as he amusedly whispered, "Very well." His strong, scaled hand clenched around the blade, not letting it slip from his flesh. His dark wings spread and flapped with an incredible amount of power. The chains wrapped around Kratos' arm pulled taught, and he was dragged up into the air behind the flying god.
"Kratos!" Freya shouted as her wings lifted her up from the ground.
"Go after him! We'll handle things here!" She heard Atreus yell from below as she continued her pursuit.
Their enemy was flying in a specific direction, with purpose. He wasn't randomly soaring about the desert, he was taking Kratos somewhere. The moon god's wings were strong, but they lacked the speed her valkyrie wings afforded her. She caught up to them nearly two miles out into the desert. Flying low and rapidly lifting up, she slashed the moon god's hand clear off as she tucked her wings and caught him off guard. The blade ripped free of flesh and Kratos was sent falling to the sands. He thudded to the dunes with a low boom, kicking sand up all around him.
Khonsu circled back, his leg already healed and hand reformed. He could not make out the foreign gods amidst the sand blown into the air, but he had no fear of them. Soon the sounds of chains rustling broke the silence of the night. The sand began to ebb and flow, and a subtle orange glow hummed into life from within the cloud. The blades of chaos were spinning, and soon one after the other were launched out in the direction of Khonsu. Dodging with ease, the moon god's new feathered wings were deft in the air as he raised and lowered, ducked and dodged.
A moment later, the goddess charged out of the sand on her swift wings. Khonsu snorted in arrogant confidence. Reaching his hand behind him as dark flames began to form. The flames stretched out, and as they burned they revealed the length of a weapon. When the fire simmered and died, a long scythe was in his hand. The snath stretched nearly the same distance as Khonsu was tall. Its blade was the same blackened steel of the kris sword Freya wielded, burning with a dark, cursed aura. The steel was in the form of a stretched, razor sharp half-moon.
Spinning it twice in hand he brought it forward now, clashing with Freya's cursed blade and glancing the blow off him. She continued her flight path to his rear, and circled back to continue striking from multiple angles again and again. All the while the spartan was on the ground, launching his blades in quick succession. Khonsu deflected all of their attacks with ease as he spun the scythe.
"Give up ghost, your blades are formidable but I am powered by the moon and the book now. Even your mighty strength does nothing here. And you…" As Freya was about to bring the sword down for his right shoulder from behind, he rolled it. Snatching her right wing in his fist he brought the scythe's blade down upon it to cleave it off. Just as the blade was about to make contact with the feathers, the draupnir spear flashed forward and pierced Khonsu's outstretched arm through the wrist. Freya spun and managed to land a parting swipe across the moon god's shoulder as she flew back, returning to Kratos' side. The dust had settled now, leaving nowhere to hide in the miles upon miles of sand beneath the moon's light.
Their opponent slowly turned to face them, his four wings keeping him aloft with deep, powerful strokes. Glancing down at the wound Freya had just inflicted with the cursed blade, he chuckled. "You cannot begin to comprehend my strength."
Slowly, the wound began to heal. Feathers regrew across the wound, and within a few moments it was as if Freya had not landed a slash at all.
"All you have are your toys, and your rage. You're an aging god, Kratos, perhaps in your prime you would stand a chance, but the shade of yourself you are now? Hah, I'm afraid you will meet your end this night. The moon's fury will succeed where others have failed. Do you even know how outmatched you are? Ra himself wouldn't be able to stand against me, were he alive. You have come to these sands only to coat them in your blood, Ghost."
Kratos' grip on his blades' handles tightened as he glared up at the raven god. "Do you know how many gods have told me they'd kill me, or that I'm outmatched? They are lost to the scrolls of history now, because their time in this life came to an abrupt end," he stated with a growl, the blades in his hands glowing a threatening orange.
Elsewhere, Loki and Bast continued their duel with the chaos demon. Apophis' scales had proven impenetrable, as arrows, blades, and claws all bounced off with not even a scratch. The golden coated serpent was fast, powerful, and intelligent. After the single surprise blow Atreus was able to land within his throat from the arrow, Apophis never again attacked with bared fangs. His mouth remained sealed, attacking with only his tail and skull.
The giant and panther goddess had played the game of dodging for their lives with little ability to counterattack for nearly half an hour at this point. Bast's claws, even Atreus' katana, made for the sole purpose of slaying demons, proved to do nothing against him.
"We're running out of options," Atreus exhaled as he caught his breath. For the moment,they were hiding in an empty room on the first floor of a half destroyed house.
Bast sighed, "Yes, our only advantage is to press the wound the cursed sword was able to make in his damned hide. But the bastard doesn't give us an opportunity to strike with how quick he is." Her ears perked up as the sound of Apophis' head slamming through bricks alerted them just in time to leap through the window to safety. Withdrawing from the demolished home, the demon shook his to free any dirt and dust clung to his steel-like scales. His long, forked tongue darted from between his lips wafting the air.
"You cannot escape me, half-wits. I can smell your godhood from miles away. Your weapons do nothing to me. Without the spartan or valkyrie's blades you can do me no harm. You-" His words fell short as he quickly spun to his left.
Emerging from between the broken buildings and burning wood came Geb. He was in worse shape than them, however. Blood coated the right side of his face, his eye shut from a deep cut he had gained on his forehead. A giant gash lined across his chest and more blood streamed down his body. The worst of it though was his right leg, or what was left of it rather, as it had been removed halfway down the thigh. In place of the flesh and bone was a leg made of rock, glued to the wound and allowing him to limp forward. His remaining eye was filled with hatred and rage, his lip snarled and nose twitching with pure spite.
Raising his fists in the air, the earth god fell to his knees and brutally slammed them against the ground. A roar erupted from his throat, guttural, and rife with heartbreak and fury. "AUGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
As the earth god screamed, the point from where his fists made contact with the earth split. A large void quickly tore through the ground like cracks across shifting ice. The earth from either side of Apophis, Atreus, and Bast fractured and shifted, a wide chasm forming in its wake. The giant quickly transformed into a falcon, and Bast used her agile reflexes to leap to safety before the ground disappeared. The tear kept going too, through the remainder of the city and out into the dunes in the distance. Sand poured into the void like water off a cliff. Buildings, corpses, everything fell into the shadowed depths. The chasm's bottom wasn't dark for long though as soon an orange glow resonated up from its belly. Magma slowly rose into view at what must have been over a mile beneath ground level. In a matter of seconds, the terrain had gone from the ruined city they had been fighting on, to nothing. The earth swallowed everything, including the serpent.
Apophis tried to slither to safety, but he was not fast enough. His massive length began to fall into the void Geb had created. Using his quick wits however, he bit into the earth on the side of the chasm. The strength of his jaws and length of his fangs were able to stop his descent, keeping him safe from the boiling, bubbling liquid far below.
Atreus heard another pained scream as he turned back to Geb. The wounded god was standing now, fists clenched and shaking. In an instant, the earth rose beneath him, propelling him forward, down into the chasm directly at the struggling snake demon.
"WE WILL BURN TOGETHER! I WILL BRING YOU TO ANUBIS MYSELF AND BE REUNITED WITH MY SON AND WIFE!" Geb wailed as earth surrounded itself around his arms, quadrupling them in length. Reaching the golden serpent, he brought a large stony fist down upon its upper skull. The blow boomed with such power that it shook the walls of the chasm, and cracking the snake free from its grip in the stone. The other enlarged, rock covered fist gripped Apophis' neck, and together they fell down into the depths of the earth. So far down even Atreus' hawk-like vision could not see their demise.
After a few more moments, the earth shuttered, and the chasm slowly began to close back up. Rocks and earth thundered as the sides rumbled forward to meet back in the middle. Within a span of minutes, the earth god had arrived, saved them from the chaos lord, and opened and shut the ground beneath their feet with ease.
Tears dotted the corner of Bast's eyes, her ears cast back as she glared down at the ground. Her closest friend had sacrificed himself to save them a few hours after they had killed his wife for betraying them. Despite their intentions, the trio of northerners were still foreigners, fighting a battle in lands that were not their own and that affected families, parents, and friends that they had no bonds towards.
Atreus morphed back into his human form and collapsed onto the sand. "If it weren't for him, I don't know what we would have done. That snake god basically had a perfect defense."
Bast shook her head, steadying her resolve and wiping the last speck of tears from her eyes. "We will not let his sacrifice be in vain. We should follow the path of your father and Khonsu. I would very much like to rip his throat out next."
Taking a few more breaths, Atreus nodded and stood, dusting off his knees. Ingrid rejoined his side, and the giant wrapped a hand around the hilt of his katana. The night was still only just beginning. Nothing would stop until Khonsu was dead.
"One problem down, one to go," he affirmed as they began to walk across the cleared earth in the direction Kratos had been dragged. The moon was glowing differently now. It was much darker, and an ominous purple hue surrounded its edge. The change had happened during their battle with the snake, but neither had spare time to think on it with much depth.
They had not run more than sixty paces when Atreus felt an unfamiliar, unwelcome presence. Bast's ears pricked up, her nose twitching. The pair turned, and looked to the darkened shadow beneath a pillar of jutted out stone. Emerging from the dark recesses beneath the angled rock was a being with a frightening appearance. It had the torso and arms of a man, albeit with a nearly pale white complexion, even lighter than Kratos' skin tone. From the waist down it wore seemingly a dress of shadows, littered with overlapping skulls at a multitude of angles. One of its arms was cut off midway down the wrist, a massive black blade connected to it. The blade was like a massive scythe, and the metal glowed with the same despairing aura as the kris blade Set had wielded. Atop its neck was a human skull, with a plume of black fire crackling from its head. Like Khonsu, none of the skulls had eyes, just empty, lifeless sockets staring back at them.
The jaws of all the skulls cracked open in unison, and an ear piercing, otherworldly scream erupted from them. Its cry forced the pair of gods to cover their ears, eyes slamming shut. Atreus nearly buckled over from the painful assault on their senses. Whatever this god was, it was unlike anything Atreus had ever encountered in his travels. This creature looked nothing like a god, it looked almost like death personified.
Atreus blinked, and the creature was gone. He blinked a few more times quickly trying to find the creature, and began to turn.
"Loki, look out!" He heard Bast cry from his right. The skull coated god was behind him now, bringing its long sickle blade down upon his torso. In the same breath, Atreus was surrounded with a golden aura again as he transformed into a winged beetle, much smaller than his original mass. Their new foe's blade slashed through nothing, connecting with the sand, having missed its target. Atreus swiftly fluttered a few dozen feet before turning back into a human and unleashing a small volley of arrows at the dark being. They all bounced off its chest and skulls without a dent.
Bast screamed and lunged for their attacker now. Atreus reached out a hand in vain to stop her, but it was too late. He was twenty paces from them, and as she struck forward, extending her body flatly with long nails reaching to slash the monster's throat, it disappeared in a blink again. In the next heartbeat, the creature was now directly beside her flattened figure as she dove for its previous position. With a quick downswipe, the dark blade found its target this time, slashing through Bast's torso. The panther goddess was split in two right beneath her rib cage. Her torso continued to fling forward from her momentum, but when it hit the ground, it thudded lifelessly.
Atreus' breath caught in his throat. His eyes wearily focused on the skull coated entity as its blade pulled back against its side. The panther goddess' blood running along its edge and dripping to the sand below. Turning its head to Atreus now, the jaw of the main skull atop its shoulders fell open. This time though, as opposed to a painfully loud cry, words came forth, but not from its undead, missing lips. The words sprang forth within Atreus' mind, as if it were speaking directly to him, inside his own thoughts.
"You will join, giant. Your skull will join my collection. Whiro will devour your soul. Death. Death. Deaaath. DEAAAAATHHHHH!"