Chapter 29
Breaking Free
— A dense forest in Medieval Russia —
Stumbling through the thick shrubbery and the late evening darkness, the man entered a small clearing, disorientated and desperate. Looking behind him, he saw those same two glowing red eyes staring right back at him from a distance, as they had been for his entire life.
Turning back around, he found, to his relief, that he had finally reached his destination. Surrounded by a fence made of human bones, in a quiet, eerie meadow. Stood a hut, sinister and shabby, sitting atop two squatting chicken legs.
Most would be terrified of the hut's strange exterior, but the man was too fatigued, and too focused on his goal to care. Approaching the front of the hut, he saw that the doors of the hut were bolted with human hands, and the keyhole filled with sharp gnashing teeth. Still this was not enough to deter the man from his mission, raising his hand, he bravely knocked once on the rotting wood.
"Come in, I have been expecting you." The muffled croaking low voice of an old woman answered, followed by the sound of a lock being opened, shakily the man opened the door and entered the room.
Seated in the middle of the room, surrounded by shelves of books and potions, a cauldron filled with strange liquid and carcasses of animals hanging from the ceiling by ropes or hooks. Was a withered old crone dressed in purple and black robes. Her skin was gray, her back was hunched, her fingernails gnarled like talons and her abnormally large nose was the biggest the man had ever seen. This was Baba Yaga, the dark witch of the forest, known for either bringing harm or aid to any unfortunate enough to come across her.
Faint lights of the many melting candles placed around the room illuminated the man's face, revealing a much younger Koschei. Beardless, with ebony black hair instead of gray and his right eye unblinded. Koschei's face was drenched in cold sweat, his eyes darting across the room and back quickly as he made his way further into the hag's hut, closing the door behind him.
"Well, well, well." The witch croaked amused, "Do my half blind eyes deceive me? Or is this the famous Koschei? The man plagued by the Death Deity, Chernabog himself?" As if on cue, loud thunder erupted outside the hut, and suddenly, behind Koschei stood Chernabog, claws hovering above his shoulders.
Koschei jumped, letting out a startled yelp, fist clenching his chest. Before turning back to face Baba Yaga, "Yes, I am," He spoke quickly, "Koschei, Lord of the region just beyond the border of your forest, and I have come seeking aid from a person of your expertise, Baba Yaga."
The hag let out a cackle as she waved an arm around the room, "I see, then you have come to the right place, 'Lord' Koschei. For I am a mistress of dark arts and many more, anything your heart desires, I can make happen. For a price of course… So what will it be? Perhaps you seek my counsel on how to govern your region? A potion to make you soldiers the strongest throughout the land? Or maybe you're just here to borrow a simple candlestick?"
"I wish to be immortal." Koschei blurted out, "Deathless, if you will. Something to ensure that I shall be safe from the icy cold grips of death."
Baba Yaga paused, before erupting into a loud croaking cackle, "Such an interesting young man, yet such a predictable and bland request! You are not the first, and certainly not the last poor unfortunate souls coming into my hut begging for the very same thing!"
Koschei grimaced nervously, "You don't have such a spell?"
The hag gave a leering smirk, showing off her iron teeth filed and sharpened to a point, "Of course I do! But you had best have a good reason to desire such magic, I do not just hand out immortality to any fool who comes my way, forces high above the both of us do not take kindly to mortals like yourself cheating death."
"Reason? You wish to know my reason for wanting immortality? Is it not obvious enough?" Koschei growled angrily as he gestured towards Chernabog behind him, "That… THING! For too long, he has plagued me like a curse! Every time he draws near, it is a warning that I am close to death. I was born into a life of luxury, yet I cannot enjoy anything with him breathing down my neck! Reminding me every time that I am but a fragile mortal! To always feel as though your next moment might be your last… it drives a man INSANE!"
Baba Yaga was silent, slowly drumming her talons across a wooden table, deep in thought, "Hmm, I see… Very well then, you've convinced me." The hag spoke up after a moment of debate.
"I-I have?" Koschei replied flabbergasted, "T-then, what is your required payment? Gold? Land? My title? Anything you desire, anything you want, Baba Yaga, name it and I shall make it yours!"
Baba Yaga clicked her tongue as she wagged a finger, "None of that interests me, but tell you what, Koschei. For you, my dear I shall charge absolutely nothing at all for the price of immortality!"
"W-what?" Koschei spluttered, dumbfounded by the witch's decision, "Really? T-thank you! You are too kind! B-but why?"
"Do not be so quick to thank me, Koschei." Baba yaga warned cryptically with a smile, "Though I may give this magic to you for free, such a spell for most, by itself is already a hefty fee."
Without warning, the hag's arm linger forth, talons digging into Koschei's flesh as he let out a terrified scream. Simultaneously, Chernabog behind him rushed forth, claws gripping tight onto Koschei's shoulders, cold air breathing down his neck.
"Don't struggle," Baba Yaga warned, "Or your friend might just claim your soul before the spell is done."
Chanting strange incantations, the hag slowly extracted her arm from within Koschei's body, leaving behind no wounds or signs of blood. However as her palm exited Koschei's chest, the man saw that within Baba Yaga's grip was a small glowing orb, his soul…
Quick as a wink, the witch placed Koschei's soul inside a small box, sealing it shut with a key, before tossing it towards Koschei who quickly caught it and held it tight against his chest. Almost as soon as Baba Yaga had finished, Chernabog was seemingly pushed back, away from Koschei, till he was forced into a corner of the hag's hut, angrily clawing at thin air as he tried to get back to Koschei's side. But try as the Death Deity might, he was unable to reach the man.
Koschei let out a gasp of relief, tears of happiness streaming down his eyes as he saw the being that had tormented him for so long now unable to even come near him.
"Keep that box safe and hidden," Baba Yaga explained, "As long as your soul remains inside, you will never die, but the moment it escapes, the spell shall be broken and you will become a mortal once again."
Koschei nodded at the witch's words, but in his exhilaration, he had forgotten what she had said before conducting the procedure. Something about the spell being a fee? It didn't matter, after so many years of living in fear of death, Koschei truly believed that he was finally free.
(Present day)
"Unbelievable!" Heimdall called, "Koschei's scythe has just produced what can only be described as a ghost! And just like a ghost, his attack passed through Set's defense and struck the fallen prince point blank!"
Set shook his head, still slightly disoriented from the last strike. Seizing his opportunity, Koschei waved a hand around his scythe, and from the sharp end of the blade, sprouted numerous sharp spikes in the same sinister color as the apparition before. Long and sharp, their tips glinting wickedly under the lights of the arena.
Spinning his scythe around, Koschei swung his blade towards his opponent, finally managing to strike Set in the shoulder, ripping through the linen cloth covering his skin and tearing into his flesh. Set's eyes bulged slightly from the pain, but at the same time, said pain brought him fully back to his senses. In a flash he raised his right saber, catching Koschei's blade on his own, and as the two were held in stalemate.
Set swung his left saber, aiming towards the old man's undefended side, but his blade only succeeded in biting thin air. For Koschei had already danced out of the way before the fallen prince had even begun to lift his saber.
Swinging his scythe once again, Koschei sent a black arc flying towards his foe. With Set quickly responding in turn by shielding his body with his forearm, the blow ringing heavily against the metal, breaking apart a few links and causing some of the chains wrapped around the fallen prince's arm to collapse onto the ground.
Set let out a low growl upon seeing this, "I'd be careful if I were you." He warned Koschei, "Cutting through these chains won't do you any favors, that I promise you."
In response to his words, Koschei merely guffawed loudly, "Nice try fallen prince, but I've seen through your tricks. You may be nimble and quick with your strikes with that skinny frame. But you lack the weight to power those strikes, weight that you choose to substitute with those chains!"
Set snorted, "Is that so? Turn around and tell me what you see."
Turning his head slightly back, Koschei saw Chernabog still standing in the exact position where he had last been. Arms hovering above his shoulder, whilst ominous smoke poured from within his helmet. A small twinge of doubt formed in Koschei's mind, but nevertheless, the old man resumed his fighting stance, prepared for another bout.
Set sighed, before slowly beginning to make his way towards the other side of the arena once again. But Koschei knew better now than to simply charge in, raising his scythe, he tapped it's base against the ground. The sound produced was soft, yet at the same time it seemed to echo all across the arena, before silence fell across the entire arena.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Set's legs trembled slightly, the noise slowly evolving into a loud rumble, before bursting from under the floor, were half a dozen emancipated hands, blood red flesh wounds visible on their arms that were blackened from decay. Set let out a grunt of confusion before the hideous appendages show forward, quickly grabbing onto the fallen prince. Two held onto his feet fast, while the other four all seemed to extend as they latched on tightly to Set's arms. The Usurper of the Duat thrashed trying to break free, but the hands merely tightened their grip onto Set's limbs, preventing him from struggling and leaving him trapped!
Koschei smirked as he readied his scythe, "What do you think of this one, Usurper of the Duat? I call it, 'Vechnost Grasp: Ambush of the Undead' !"
"Impossible!" A god in the audience roared in outrage, "How are those decaying limbs capable of trapping Set? Has he truly become so weak and pathetic?"
"HA! Pathetic? Yes. But weak? I highly doubt so." A male voice with a slight middle eastern accent responded loudly to the god's words, causing the deities in that section of the arena to turn to see who it belonged to.
The owner of the voice was a god with wavy chocolate brown hair and tanned skin covered in black tattoos. His face was obscured by a falcon mask with crystal blue eyes, his body dressed in brown and tan robes under a bronze usekh.
Following behind either side of the god, were two goddesses who looked almost identical, with similar long brown hair, and faces of queenly beauty. The goddess on the right's outfit definitely reflected that, as she fashioned a more regal white linen dress with green and light blue trimmings, a headdress atop her head but with large ornate silver horns with green and gold accents. Her twin on the left, meanwhile, was dressed in dark blue linen wraps that hugged her petite frame tightly, showing off much of her skin and white tattoos. A golden headdress also sat atop her head, albeit with much smaller horns compared to the other.
The lesser deities immediately bowed towards the trio, for they were three of the most prominent deities in the Egyptian Pantheon, with the first being one of the former Chief Gods of the Duat.
"Lord Horus! Lady Isis! Lady Nephthys!" The groveling gods called out each of the trio's names in awe, respectively.
"Huh! No longer LORD Horus anymore I think you'll find, our great 'Lord' Ra has made sure of that." The former Chief God of the Duat snorted as he tilted his head upwards to look spitefully at the God's VIP room.
"Now, now dearest," Isis cooed in a motherly tone, placing her hand atop her son's comfortingly, "Don't make a scene here now, I'm sure Lord Ra had his… Reasons for asking you to abdicate the throne, and he is our elder, so let us all just move past it now, hm?"
"Yes, yes, thank you mother." Horus answers, brushing her arm off gently, the Falcon God's face slightly red with embarrassment.
"Would you mind explaining further, Lord Horus?" A few gods pressed, curious as to what Horus meant, "After all, it was you who last saw Set before his arrest, after you defeated him in battle for the Duat's throne."
Horus sneered, much to the confusion of the other gods "Defeated? I will never know who started that ridiculous rumor. I may have been the one sitting atop the throne in the end. But I was NEVER the winner of our fight."
"H-hold on? WHAT? Then what actually happened that day you challenged Set for the throne?"
Horus sighed, "It pains me to say this, but he beat my ass black and blue. Even though I spent all my life training for that fight, it was NOTHING compared to that bastard's immense prowess in combat!"
"Well at least you tried, I'm sure you gave it your all, darling. That's the most important part." Isis chimed in encouragingly.
"Indeed mother, anyways. There I was on the ground, at the mercy of his blades, expecting to be skewered at any moment. But WHAT does Set do? That bastard just throws his weapons to the ground, says something about all this not being worth it anymore, and GIVES UP the throne! I trained my whole LIFE for that moment, and my treacherous uncle still managed to ruin it for me!"
The gods gulped, "S-so what you're saying is…"
"What my son is saying," Isis said with a dark look, "is that Set truly IS holding back, and not just in his swordsmanship. Take a closer look at the chains my brother wears, all manner of runes and spells are etched into the Divine metal, meant to greatly dampen a deities' power. Once they are broken through…" The Goddess let her words hang ominously in the air.
While her sister and nephew were talking to the rest of the gods. Nephthys on the flip side, was silent, focused entirely on the battle below. Her red eyes never leaving Set as she watched him struggle against the horde of undead appendages.
"Still unable to find that old spark, my beloved?" The goddess whispered somberly, " Where is that fighting spirit of the god I loved all those years ago?"
"Interesting," Set commented in the arena as he continued to struggle against the hands, "And next you will be pushing the offensive while I am preoccupied with your friends, I'm guessing?"
Koschei smirked, spinning his scythe viciously, "Hm, I don't know? Why don't you look up and tell me what you see?" As Koschei said this, three skulls similar to the first manifested around the whirlwind that was his spinning blade, letting out ghastly howls of pain. And as they reached his desired speed, Koschei with a powerful swing, sent all three skulls shooting towards his foe like smoking bullets. With the old man himself following closely behind, with his scythe raised up high.
As he watched the incoming barrage of attacks, Set stopped struggling altogether, letting his arms hang by his side as he seemingly gave up the fight. The fallen prince lifting his head to stare at his impending doom with a deadpan expression on his face. Koschei growled disappointed as he saw Set stop thrashing about, "Pitiful, truly pitiful. And here I thought this battle would be the one," Koschei called out angrily as he approached his foe, " I would thank you for our incredibly SHORT bout, fallen prince! But unfortunately I'm no liar!"
"Stay in your seats folks!" Heimdall yelled excitedly, "With a restrained Set seemingly to have given up, and the barrage of attacks Koschei has sent his way, we could all be looking at what is perhaps the shortest round Ragnarok No.2 has to offer so far!"
"Hm," Set sighed, starting to close his eyes as the screams of the flying skulls grew louder and louder in his ears, "Well, all things considered, I suppose this would be an alright way to go out…"
"SET!" Nephthys suddenly roared angrily from the stands, her grip on the banisters in front of her tightening till it cracked, shocking everyone around her, "I swear to the Heavens, I did NOT spend so many a millenia waiting for my husband to stick his sorry head out of that cell, JUST to lose you again immediately! Grow a backbone and FIGHT BACK, YOU IDIOT!"
"Then again," Set grumbled, opening his eyes again, "All this screaming really does dampen the entire mood…" With a sudden jolt of his arms and legs, Set easily broke through his captor's grip, the hands having relaxed their hold on him, thinking he had given up. With a roar of renewed determination, he sent his left sabers flying forward like a boomerang, the blade spinning in a curved arc through all three incoming projectiles, with each skull turning translucent as it passed through each and every one of them harmlessly.
"Ha, HA! Look who decided to start taking things seriously! But whoopsies for you, my friend! That didn't accomplish ANYTHING!" Koschei cackled maniacally, as the three skulls turned solid once again, continuing down their original trajectory towards the fallen prince.
Set shrugged, "Oh I don't know about that. I mean my left arm is now free to do… THIS!"
With a roar of effort, Set swung his left arm in front of himself. As he did, the chains that were securely fastened to his wrist snapped taunt, as the gleaming metal ball attached to the other end that lay coiled on the ground was pulled forward into the air. Hurtling towards the three skulls as it flew through the air with a whistling sound and arching gracefully, before making contact with the first skull, causing it to explode upon impact. Then the second was hit! And then the third! In one quick second, all three skulls had been reduced to nothing but black smoke and dust. RIght on cue, the fallen prince's saber flew back towards him, with Set expertly catching hold of it with one fluid motion. Before bringing his forearms upwards to shield his body, just in time to counter Koschei's scythe as the old man swung it downwards, slicing through the chains that were wrapped around Set's arms. Causing them to fall to the ground with a defending, clatter with small craters being left in the ground where the chains and metal balls had landed due to their sheer weight.
Koschei skidded to a halt a few feet away from Set, both fighters' backs turned against each other, "Well, well, well!" The old man cackled as he turned to face his foe, "So you DO have that fighting spirit hiding deep within you! Heh, heh! Looks like this fight is going to be much more interesting than I first thought! What do you say, fallen prince? Ready for the second round?"
Without warning, Koschei felt Chernabog's grip tighten harder than ever before, the Death Deity's claws digging into his flesh, nearly causing him to cry out in pain. A cold chill ran down the entirety of his spine as he felt Chernabog's face leaned forward till it was next to his,
"You… Should… Have… LISTENED!"
Slowly lifting his head, Koschei felt his blood run cold as sweat dripped from his forehead. Set, who still had his back facing the old man, was now surrounded by a large body of dark red aura, that pulsed with savage might. The Usurper of the Duat slowly turned, his face still wearing a deadpan expression as he lifted his arms, exposing his wrist that were rubbed red raw by the chains previously wrapped around them. But what was truly the focus of everyone's attention was the blades of the sabers he held in each hand.
On the left saber, crackled powerful volts of electricity that wrapped around the blade in a display of light and energy. Red and yellow sparks dance along the sharp edge, illuminating the metal with a fierce glow. Tendrils of electricity snake up and down the blade, occasionally leaping into the air with a crackling hiss. The air hummed with an electrifying intensity, making the weapon seem almost alive.
Meanwhile, on Set's other saber, grains of sand and small rocks seemingly materialized out of nowhere surging and spiraling around the blade. Encasing it in a swirling vortex of earthly elements, forming a rugged, rock-like texture along its length, whilst pebbles and stones orbited around the blade and it's user in a protective dance. The saber emanated a powerful, primal energy. The air around Set seemed to grow denser, as the ground beneath trembled slightly, as if the earth itself knew to fear the fallen prince's new power.
"I warned you, Koschei," Set said in a slightly disappointed tone as he felt the old familiarity of his powers returning to him, "But you chose to ignore, now gaze in fear what you've brought upon yourself."
"P-prometheus?" Pandora and Göll whimpered fearfully as they felt their bodies shiver from the electric currents now in the air, as well as the fallen prince's dark aura, "W-what's happening?"
The Titan gritted his teeth as he clenched his fist, "I fear, my friends, that Koschei has just committed a grave error, those chains were indeed acting as restrictors as we first suspected! And now, he has just unleashed the full force of the Usurper's might!"
Koschei grinned, half giddy from fear and excitement as he raised his scythe to face Set again, "Seems like I've bitten off more than I can chew!" He said whilst letting out a strangled laugh as Chernabog continued to apply heavy pressure on his shoulders, "But you won't find any regrets here, fallen prince! THIS is exactly why I choose to stand here facing you! Now show me what these powers of yours can do!"
Set deadpanned, holding aloft his elemental fuelled sabers as well while watching Koschei strike a fighting pose, "I'm really starting to think this is just natural selection at this point." He murmured as he readied to strike, "But you do you, Koschei, I'll just try and make this quick."
Fair warning, The next chapter is gonna be me pulling a round 5, with stuff happening OUTSIDE of the arena and the fight. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, also in this story, Set and Osiris are one set of siblings and Isis and Nephthys another. That way things aren't so weird. Anyways... See you in the next chapter!