Chapter 28: The Fallen
"Luci…are you a god?" Kratos posed as he slowly got to his feet, his back and legs searing in pain.
The stranger laughed, "HAH. Well that's an ironic question. No, I'm not. Really I'm just.. a huge fan, honestly."
Kratos blinked in disbelief and uncertainty. Luci just smirked and continued, "No, I mean it. In a long history of this planet saying 'fuck you' and sticking it to their parents, you take the crown, my man. You are king of telling your dad to piss off. I mean this honestly, you are my role model. You serve as the god of war, right? You killed thousands, millions, who even knows. You find out you're just your dad's plaything, and he stabs you? I mean, my dad didn't give me a fair shake either but gutting me? Oof I think even he wouldn't stoop that low. Then what do you do? You upend his entire fucking kingdom, kill his whole family off, and yours. Uncles, nieces, sisters, brothers, aunts. Raze the whole goddamn place to the ground..oh sorry, not supposed to take pop's name in vain, oops. Then, you go to Midgard and do the same fuckin' thing there! Thor, dead, Heimdall, dead, Odin, dead. Hell you killed Odin, his sons, and grandsons. Even to a guy like me, that's just brutal. You're what I strive to be! Killing dear ole' dad and all those ass kissing, lil' goodie heathens he calls offspring, and I'm supposed to call siblings."
The spartan continued to glare at this foreign god. Despite his nonchalant ramblings this apparently had been the mastermind behind everything. Ra's assassination, the cursed weapons, the gods from other lands converging here to help Khonshu. "You're the reason Freya is dead."
Luci stopped his warm praise as he stood up and briskly fixed his jacket. "Nah mate, that blood's on another pair of hands. As you can see," he raised his palms to show their untouched complexion, "my hands all clean here."
"You brought these gods all together. You started this insurrection against Ra, you gave them the cursed weapons, the magic. Freya and I came here to fight this, and you're its source!" Kratos accused, the axe flying back to his hand.
"Cursed weapons? Huh? What are you talking about?" Luci's finger scratched for a moment at the side of his head before flipping some of his bangs off his brow.
Kratos briskly pointed to the cursed blade he had slowly pulled from Freya's corpse. "Those, the blades coated in dark magic that Khonsu and the others wielded."
"Ohhhhhh, that's not dark magic. They're just touched with hellfire. Powerful shit, aye? Like the primordial fire in your little whippy swords there, only my fire is from a much, much darker place. You lot were calling it cursed? Hah, you old gods, really do take a bit to wrap your head around things, don't ya?
Kratos roared, 'You spawned this! You armed them, made them stronger, aided them in their plan to overthrow Egypt!"
Luci smirked, and gave another shallow bow as if being graciously praised. "I did indeed set all this up."
"Why?" The spartan seethed.
"I was bored."
Kratos blinked in shock. He had expected a multitude of answers, but a motive as simple as boredom was not among them. "What…" was all the wounded spartan could get out between his gritted teeth.
"You…you old fashioned fucks. You're all the same, huh? So small brained and short sighted. I bet you don't even know who my pops is, or who he's gonna be. Let me paint you a picture here, Spartan boy. Now, all of you gods are here. Thousands and thousands of gods across the planet. Aztecs, Maori, Indian, Egyptian, Norse, Roman, the lists go on and on. There must be at least dozens and dozens of gods of war across the world right now. Do you know how many there will be in a thousand years? Two thousand?"
Kratos gave no response, just continued to stare at this eccentric new god gleefully explaining his point of view.
Luci's middle finger and thumb connected to make an "O." "Big ole' none, Kratos. Zero. In two thousand years, maybe a thousandth of you will still remain. Do you know why? Course you don't. Because to be a god, you need to be worshiped. If no one believes in ya, prays to ya, you just become weaker and weaker til' you're nothing but a speck in the dirt. You felt that tonight, aye? You harnessed that power of being worshiped to kick some ass! Two thousand years from now, no one gives a fuck about any of ya. Hell, most mortals will probably think majority of you didn't even exist. Think you're just myths and legends. Those stories the pathetic monkeys out there tell their kids at night to put them to sleep? That's what you lot become."
The god exuded brazen arrogance and unquestionable power. He was so sure of what he was saying, that he was right. But how could he possibly know these things?
"What makes you so certain? Are you a god of the future?" Kratos asked, not loosening his grip on his axe. In his current state, Kratos knew he could not fight further. Even if he was fully healed and rested… It might not be enough to fight this god. The spot on his chest where Luci had snapped his finger still burned with pain. This level of power was not one he had ever experienced. His opponent gave off no energy or aura to feel or sense. Only dread and death radiated from every inch of Luci's form.
Luci scoffed, "Am I a god of the future? Hah, no Kratos. I can't see the future. See, my dad's a betting man. Try as I might to say I'm nothing like him, I do take after him in that area… Anyway, he put all his horses in one basket. That basket is strong, self assuredly arrogant, righteous, and light of skin tone, if you catch my drift. His followers are gonna wash over this earth like a plague. Hell, they'll even convert most of your lot's believers into believers of him. In a few centuries, my pops is gonna be really the only god anyone down here is talkin' about. It's an inescapable fact, trust me. No one alive hates it as much as me, but doesn't change the truth. I can't see the future, I'm just a realist, much like you."
The spartan, angered at the comparison, growled, "I am nothing like you. I don't play corrupt games with peoples' lives. I don't flaunt masochism and cruelty anywhere I choose simply because I am bored with my own inadequate existence. You are no god. You're a child, throwing a tantrum for his father to notice him."
For the first time, Luci's cheerful facade faded. His smiling mouth became a grim line, and his head tilted forward to look at the spartan with hooded, irritated eyes. Kratos noticed the eyes were no longer silver speckled with green. Instead, they were a bright, hateful crimson, and glowing."Careful, Kratos. I like ya, but I have a limit to that kindness. If I wanted to, I could reduce you to nothing where you stand with a flick of my little finger. As I said, you are well out of your league here. I'd remember that next you wish to compare me to a kid."
The foreign god's head quickly snapped back and the wide grin sprang forth again as his cheeriness resumed. "That's why I'm here, Kratos. Despite what might be said about me, I am an honorable soul. You won the game, you get to state your prize."
The spartan again blinked in confusion, "My.. what?"
Luci reached into the pockets of his coat, bringing out black leather gloves, and began putting them on. "You heard me, Greek boy, your prize. You beat my horse in the race, as the victor, you get to claim a prize. I gambled, bet on the wrong side, and lost."
"Why..?" Was all Kratos could utter. "You do all of this scheming. You bring gods of death and war from other lands. All here to upend the gods of Egypt. I stop you, and you just..give in? If you're so powerful, why not take them all yourself?"
Luci laughed hard at this. "You're smarter than I gave you credit for, aren't ya? Here I thought you'd just be some dumb, narrow minded gorilla like the others. I don't need to kill all of those Egyptian gods, or the ones of any other pantheon. As I said, time will do that. I told ya, I'm just here cuz' I was bored, and this sounded fun. You know, I was good like you once. Feels like eons ago, but I suppose it was true. I was punished, because my father, loved something… so flawed, so broken, fucked up, undeserving of his love… more than any of us. He loved this broken little, pet, of his, these monkeys, more than he loved any of my siblings or me. I was punished because that didn't sit right with me. So I chose to do something about it. I was on the losing side, because I bet on the wrong god. You and I, we're men of action, Kratos. Win or lose, we give it our all. You won today, I lost. I harbor no bad feelings, no ill intent. I already know what you want, and I can see your apprehension. I'm a fair being, so we'll have ourselves a deal. You get to pick your prize, we shake, and then I get a little "I owe you" from the Ghost of Sparta. So say it, spartan, say it and let's be done with it, and you won't see me again."
Kratos grunted, "Until the day you wish to reclaim that favor I would owe you. You're a god of lies and petty tricks. You're powerful, but you cannot undo death."
Luci's happy expression soured as his gloved fingers went to his brow to massage the frustration out. "Listen, Kratos. I'm trying to help you here, but I need you to help me help you, aye? Her soul isn't lost yet, but time is sort of, of the essence. So either say you want your woman back and shake, or piss off. This shiny gift apple I'm extending doesn't stay fresh long. Your options are go back to your home alone, or shake my hand, owe me one little favor, and the love of your life is back in your arms."
Kratos' shoulders slumped, he stared into the fiery silver eyes of this foreign god. Whether it was a trap or not, if it meant bringing Freya back…
The spartan reluctantly nodded and held out his arm.
"Beautiful!" Was all Luci exclaimed as his hand slipped into Kratos' quite larger one. Despite the strength and muscles in the spartan's fingers, Luci's hand felt surprisingly heavy. As they briskly shook it felt as if his hands were being gripped by the weight of a mountain..not the small, light fingers of a shorter, physically weaker looking man. Luci stepped back and gave a wink before vanishing in an instant once more.