Chapter 14
Betrayed, Abandoned
Witnessing the Queen of Helheim's latest transformation, Pandora and Göll gaped at the impressive sight in front of them, "The Queen of Helheim is capable of using her deceased brother's soul as a weapon?" Pandora questioned, "That's something ELSE entirely!"
Hera who was beside her growled angrily as she bit her thumbnail in frustration, "DAMMIT! I knew that Hel was a cunning one and possessed mastery over cryomancy. But I never knew she held THIS sort of crazy ability! FUCK! There's NO way I'm letting that filthy Sun God and his representative screw me over like that!"
Prometheus sighed, "I told you not to underestimate Hel didn't I Lady Hera? But regardless, let us all not lose hope so quickly, I can tell from the fire in Jason's eyes and the venom in his voice that he is NOWHERE near finished yet."
"It doesn't matter if Jason has been able to take down gods before, nor how determined he is!" Göll cried, "Against a Chief God like Hel, he's well below her league! He's WAY too cocky, WAY too reckless and WAY too hateful!"
Hera began cackling, turning to face Göll with a maniacal grin," Foolish Valkyrie, you think Jason was given the title of God Butcher after felling some D list Gods? You INSULT me Göll. All those qualities you have listed are PRECISELY why Jason is a perfect candidate to kill a god, EVEN a Chief God! As he was back then, and as he is NOW!"
Seeing the insane look on the Queen of Olympus' face, both Göll and Pandora instinctively backed away, hiding behind Prometheus' legs who stepped forward towards Hera with a hard stare, indicating that she should calm down.
"Don't be too alarmed, Lady Hera gets a tad bit riled up when things don't go exactly as she foresaw. Best to leave her alone for the moment and let her temper subside, eh?" Prometheus comforted his companions as he led them to a corner of the room, out of the earshots of a seething Hera.
"But Prometheus!" Göll whispered back," How can you be so certain we still have a fighting chance? Jason is bloodthirsty, but he can't compare to the true might of a Chief God!"
Prometheus shook his head slightly, "That's where you are wrong Göll, Jason has proven himself MORE than able to match against and defeat a Chief God... After all, of the 6 gods that he murdered back in the day, three of them were ARCHANGELS."
As soon as the Titan said this, Göll's jaws dropped and her eyes widened, and so did Pandora's. In the Heavens there were 4 Archangels who governed the Hebrew Pantheon together, Micheal, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel. Though they were not officially recognised by the others, these four's powers and authority rivaled that of the Chief Gods, but unlike the other gods, they used their holy powers to protect and guide humanity through their darkest hours. Safeguarding them from evils and temptation, so if Jason had truly been able to not only defeat but kill three of them…
Göll now looked at the God Butcher in the arena below with a renewed sense of fear and awe," Y-you CAN'T be serious Prometheus!" She whimpered," You're saying that guy managed to kill THREE of the four Archangels? That CAN'T be true! There's NO way Brother Michael, Raphael, Uriel and Sister Gabriel would lose to that guy!" Göll, you see, had a close relationship with the 4 Archangels. As both the Valkyries and Archangels had the common desire to help mankind, and would regularly interact, forming a close bond between the groups.
"No, no," Prometheus said, reassuring the panicking Göll," The CURRENT four Archangels are still well and alive, but long ago, the Heavens knew not of JUST four Archangels who led the Hebrew pantheon and safeguarded humanity, but SEVEN of them. Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Camael, Jophiel and Zadkiel. The latter three were tasked with apprehending Jason, and unfortunately sacrificed their lives to stop him."
"W-wait, really?" Göll gaped at this revelation, "B-but, then why have I never heard of this before? Sister Brunhilde NEVER said anything about there originally being 7 Archangels, nor have I heard anyone else mention about them subduing Jason?"
Her question was met with the high piercing laugh of Hera, who evidently had been listening in on to their conversation from where she stood, "Oh Göll, don't you already KNOW us gods by now? You should know EXACTLY why there was ABSOLUTELY zero mention of Jason's exploits in the records." The Queen of Olympus sneered.
"W-what do you mean?" Göll nervously replied, still frightened by Hera's previous outburst.
"The reason why MOST of heaven has no clue on who Jason is, or what he has done, is because as SOON as they had managed to subdue him, my husband and his fellow colleagues chose to REMOVE all mention of Jason's deeds and his victims from the record. Don't forget, the VERY IDEA of a human being able to defeat, much less KILL a god was absurd back then. So when Jason came along and murdered six gods, three of which on the level of a CHIEF GOD, it was a MOST shameful affair for us. And so the Chief Gods of the various pantheons chose to strike Jason's name as well as his victim's off the record, forcing those who knew even the slightest bit about the case to an oath of secrecy. Slowly but surely, the common masses of Heaven eventually forgot the whole fiasco and of those who were involved in it. Those who retained some memories of the events, wrote it off as mere urban legends, safeguarding our reputation."
There was a silence in the room as Pandora and Göll soaked in this morbid information. There was a silent agreement between all not to further discuss the matter, returning their attention to the battle below instead.
…
Back on the battlefield, both combatants were locked in combat once more as the audience cheered loudly for their respective fighter, while Heimdall struggled to make his commentary heard through the roar of the crowd, "And both fighters have engaged in melee ONCE AGAIN! Jason has just activated another boon granting him the strength of Ares! While Hel has taken on a WHOLE new appearance, equipped with fur, fangs and CLAWS! And check OUT her left side! The Queen of Helheim's new form appears to have replaced her hand with the head of a VICIOUS WOLF! Talk about having a STRONG southpaw!"
Jason originally assumed that without Hel's long snaking tail arm, he could push the battle to his advantage once more with his barrage of vicious attacks. However, the God Butcher found that Hel's new form did not just grant her a strange new appendage and looks. While her Midgard Serpent form provided her with a strong protection behind her tough green scales, and a way for her to engage and capture her opponent from a distance. Hel's Insatiable Wolf form now granted her increased speed, strength and senses, the Queen of Helheim now could keep up with Jason's attacks and pace with relative ease, blocking and dodging his attacks while returning some of her own.
It also didn't help that every time the God Butcher tried moving behind Hel and flanking her, the wolf head on the Queen of Helheim's left arm, whom she had affectionately named Fenris in honour of her deceased brother, would let out a loud bark as a warning to its mistress. Helping her to quickly react and counter his attacks, deterring Jason the opportunity to properly wound Hel."
Growling in frustration as he barely dodged a swing of Hel's halberd which chopped off a few locks of his hair, Jason could feel the effects of his boon slowly fading away as his boon timed out. Without the strength of Ares on his side, the God Butcher was no match for Hel's new form, as another string swing of the Queen of Helheim's halberd connected with his side, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Cursing, Jason quickly rolled out of the way once more as Hel brought the head of her halberd down on where he once laid with a mighty "THUD!" Getting to his feet once more, the God Butcher activated the Speed of Hermes, using the boon to increase his speed and momentum as he began to run circles around the Queen of Helheim, soon he was a dizzy blur to both Hel and the audience.
Eyeing the blurry circle that now raced around her, Hel moved her head from left to right, trying to gauge exactly where Jason would strike from next, Fenris did the same, growling as it sniffed the air trying to find the God Butcher's scent to no avail.
Suddenly, Hel's new wolf-like ears twitched and oh so slightly pointed to her right, Fenris too suddenly perked up and turned its head to the same general direction, snarling fiercely. Hel grinned, she had found her prey.
Suddenly, Jason seemed to suddenly appear from out of the circle, rushing straight towards the Queen of Helheim with his right fist raised, preparing to unleash a devastating blow to her head. However, instead of ambushing a confused and disorientated Hel, the God Butcher now found himself charging straight at Hel who was directly facing towards him, looking him dead in the eye as he made his way towards her.
Jason's eyes widened in shock, he couldn't believe that the Queen of Helheim was able to keep up with his speed! The God Butcher's shock turned to dread as Hel lifted up her left arm, the wolf head at the end was snarling and snapping at him ferociously whilst it writhed and convulsed vigorously, it's fur beginning to stand up on the end as its eyes glowing blue as drool and smoke of the same color began pouring out between its fangs. It almost seemed like it was… charging up for an attack!
At this sudden realization, Jason's entire body screamed at him to swerve and dodge the attack, but the God Butcher knew at the speed he was going, that would be immensely difficult, especially with how close he already was to his target. Nevertheless, he knew he had to try, and it was a good thing that he did too.
As soon as he forced his body to swerve out of the way, away from its intended trajectory, a blinding beam of blue light burst from within Fenris' open maw, the ray blazing straight towards his original position at top speed. Though Jason had moved out just enough of the way of Hel's attack to not get blasted point blank in the face, the God Butcher suddenly felt a searing pain on the right side of his body. Glancing down at where the pain was coming from, Jason found that the beam of blue light had indeed managed to strike him after all, as there now was a good chunk of his right shoulder that was now missing, leaving behind a large bloody wound. As Jason finally managed to stumble to a stop and collapse to the floor, clutching his new wounds and gritting his teeth in pain, he heard a loud, "BOOM!" from behind him.
Turning around revealed that the beam of light had collided with a massive ice spike behind him and Hel after missing its original target, and the results were devastating. That one single beam had caused the entire ice spike to collapse and explode into billions of tiny little ice fragments that rained down upon the arena in a massive cascade, with some even landing in between the screaming audience members in the rows closest to the battlefield.
In the VIP section of the gods, Huitzilopochtli hooted with laughter, "WHOA HO HO HO! DAMN! That's a lot of damage right there! And you thought she was running like a coward, Amy!" The Aztec God said to Amaterasu who was standing next to him open-mouthed at the immense display of power Hel had just demonstrated to them all.
"W-what on EARTH did Hel just do? The amount of power she must have behind that move is INSANE! And its destructive capabilities are... W-what WAS that attack, mother?" The Shinto Goddess said in disbelief towards Izanami, who was giddily giving a round of applause to the Queen of Helheim below.
"Fufufufufu! My OH my! She FINALLY pulled that little trick out, a good thing TOO! I was beginning to get worried for a moment there!" The Underworld Lord giggled dizzily.
"Mother!" Amaterasu grumbled in an exasperated tone, frustrated at Izanami ignoring her question as well as her seemingly fangirling behavior.
"OH! So sorry my dear!" Izanami said as she realized her daughter was speaking to her, "I got a little bit carried away there after seeing Hel's little attack. What was it you said to me again?"
"Your daughter was inquiring about the nature of Hel's recent attack, and frankly, I too wish to know what the Queen of Helheim just pulled off that nearly took the God Butcher's life." Ra replied in a tone that seemed to suggest that he was anything but interested, but one could never tell with the Sun God.
Izanami chuckled, "Oh! Well you see, Hel's brother Fenrir, the mighty wolf who frightened even the great god Odin himself, was said to possess a mighty howl that could send even the STRONGEST, most heaviest gods flying to the floor. Hel said he liked to call it his Power Roar, if you will. Isn't that cute?"
"MOTHER!" Amaterasu said once more in an exasperated tone.
"Yes, yes, I'm getting there sweetie! Don't need to rush me!" Izanami said, as she giggled at her daughter's impatience,
"Anyway, when Hel learnt to use the forms given to her by her deceased brother's souls, over the course of many decades, through arduous one on one training with Hades HIMSELF, she somehow managed to mold Fenrir's Power Roar from a simple attack that would simply just sweep her opponents off their feets." The Underworld Lord now wore a grin that terrified both Huitzilopochtli and Amaterasu.
"To a DEADLY BEAM OF LIGHT that could reduce ANYTHING foolish enough to get in its path to ATOMS! This devastating attack was given a name that has come to be said by denizens of Helheim with a SHIVER down their spine! It is called..."
"HOWLING BLAZER!"
Back in the arena, Hel slowly approached the wounded God Butcher who although gravely injured, still managed to find the strength in his body to curse at the Queen of Helheim, "THE FUCK?" He wheezed as he tightened his grip on his wound, trying fruitlessly to stem the bleeding by applying pressure on it, "You SERIOUSLY needed a literal, helping hand, on your side to wound me? Honestly at this point I don't know if I should LAUGH at or just pity you!"
"Big talk coming from the guy who just got his ass handed to him, also I think the damage done to you by my helping hand, is good enough reason for you to start panicking." Hel fired back at him, as Jason let out a few more curses at the Queen of Helheim, while trying to slowly hobble away from her.
"Well it seems like our little dance has come to an end, God Butcher," Hel sighed, "Honestly I am quite... underwhelmed to be honest. For one who claims to hate the gods so strongly and wishes to kill me most violently, your prowess in combat is rather... Sloppy, to say the least." She said as she stepped closer to the fallen fighter.
Jason snarled, "I'm not done YET, just you wait and see! I've killed gods whose power levels are MILES above your own! I'll rip that stupid wolf head off your arm and stuff it up your ASS! You'll die just like all those OTHER cocky bastards!"
As he said this, Jason's eyes bulged with fury and his mouth foamed with hate, even his golden armor seemed to darkened like his expression. Pure, unadulterated hatred for the gods and especially his current opponent coursing through every single vein in his body.
But why did Jason have such a strong resentment towards the gods? How did this hatred have manifested in a man once so favored by the gods? What could have possibly motivated him into committing the six gruesome murders that had landed him straight into Tartarus? The answer to all those questions could be found in the aftermath of the journey of the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
— The Kingdom of Cornith, Greece —
A younger Jason ran along the cobblestone path whilst under the darkness of the night, this past self of him looked as handsome and fit as he did now in his match against Hel. With the only difference being that he was not dressed in golden armor, but rather the attire of a newlywed back then in Ancient Greece. However, the expression of Jason's face completely opposed the happiness of the event his attire represented, for upon his face he wore a mixture of shock, desperation and anger, sweat trickling down the side of his face, and his throat dry and parched from all the running.
Not too far behind him, a horde of lights could be seen flickering in the distance, slowly getting closer and closer, following Jason's footsteps and moving towards him. If one were to look closer, it would have revealed that the lights came from a multitude of flaming torches, held in the hands of a large mob of angry Cornithians all of whom were making their way to the same destination as Jason was, the small stone cottage which was granted to the fallen hero by the King of Corinth after he had been ousted from Iolcus and had sought sanctuary in Corinth.
The house was where Jason and his family of four resided during their time spent in Corinth, even creating a few happy memories for him, but now, the fallen hero only felt anger as he ran up to the front door. Or more specifically, he felt rage towards a particular individual in the house, as did the angry mob not far behind him. The one responsible for him being in this whole mess in the first place, his wife the sorceress Medea.
Jason could have never predicted that his journey to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Kingdom of Colchis would end up with him gaining a wife, but even with the anger boiling inside of him, he could not deny that it had been a tremendous asset to the quest.
In order to get the Golden Fleece, Jason had to perform three impossible tasks for the evil King of Colchis Aeetes, all of which would have most definitely killed him in the process, were it not for Hera's interference to help her champion succeed. Her plan was simple: she would have the Greek God of Love, Eros, shoot his signature arrows of love at Aeetes' daughter Medea. Causing her to fall head over heels for Jason and use her magical abilities as priestess of the Greek Goddess of Magic, Hecate, to assist him in his quest in exchange for his hand in marriage.
Although Hera had acted in Jason's interest, her short sighted decision would come to be her champion's downfall, for even though Medea was now madly in love with Jason, the sorceress was known to be as heartless and bloodthirsty as her father, traits which would later come to haunt the hero in the near future.
With Medea's magic, Jason was able to complete all three tasks set by Aeetes. However, the evil king had no intentions of upholding his end of the deal and plotted to have the Argonauts assassinated. So with Medea's aid once more, Jason stole the Golden Fleece in the dead of the night and set sail on the Argos with his crew and wife, pursued by a vengeful Aeetes and his fleet of ships.
Once again, Medea came to Jason's aid. However, this time, her aid came in a much more gruesome and bloody form. First the sorceress had the Argo host a white sail of surrender, luring the captain of the ship closest to catching them, Medea's brother, to come aboard unarmed to negotiate with the crew. However, Medea instead killed her own brother and chopped into multiple pieces, she then had each piece thrown overboard into the sea below. Forcing her father and his remaining fleets to stop their pursuit of the Argo to pick up the pieces of his dismembered son to give him a proper burial.
Though Medea had saved the quest once more, this time her cruel actions carried grave consequences, for the murder of one's family was a crime highly frowned upon by the gods. And Jason, who some tales claimed assisted his wife in the murder, lost his favor with all the gods who had once seen great potential in him and had supported him throughout his journey.
Upon returning to Iolcus, Jason's uncle Pelias who had usurped the throne and stolen his birthright promised to name Jason as his successor in light of his accomplishment. However Medea, using her sorcery, claimed to Pelias' foolish daughters that she could make their father young once more by chopping him up and placing him in a boiling cauldron with magical herbs. Demonstrating the spell to the girls by doing it to an old ram who leapt out of the cauldron as a young lamb once more.
Pelias' daughters naively went through with the spell, slicing and dicing up their own father before tossing him into the cauldron. However, crafty Medea had not added the magical herbs into the cauldron, and in turn Pelias died.
While Medea had hoped that her husband could rise to power earlier with Pelias' untimely demise, the sorceress' actions only served the opposite. Seizing hold of this opportunity, Pelias' son Acastus drove both Jason and Medea into exile for murder, ascending to the throne himself, whilst the disgraced couple would eventually settle in the Kingdom of Corinth.
All of these misfortunes and tragedy had taken its toll on Jason, leaving him broken and bitter. Once upon a time he had truly loved Medea for all the aid and love she provided, but now her viciousness and cruelty had turned into a heavy burden on the fallen hero, clipping his wings and robbing him of everything he was ever promised. So when the King of Corinth, Creon who sympathized with Jason's plight, offered to make him his successor should he wed the king's daughter Creusa, the fallen hero jumped at the opportunity, not realizing that this act would most definitely earn him his wife's scorn, turning her dark magic which had assisted him for so long against him.
And so, Medea presented Jason's would-be bride with a beautiful wedding dress for the ceremony, and the foolish girl, enthralled by the beauty of it, accepted the dress without question and wore it to the joyous occasion. What Medea did not tell Creusa though, was that the wedding dress was cursed, and the moment she wore it, the cursed outfit became stuck to Creusa's skin and burned her and Creon, who had tried to save his daughter, to death.
And so because of this whole debacle, Jason was now frantically rushing home in a great rage to confront his wife over this matter, pursued by the angry mob of Cornithians who sought to punish his entire family for the murder of their king.
"MEDEA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" The man screamed angrily as he burst into his home, ready to enact his fury upon his wife for her crimes. However the moment he laid eyes upon the scene that lay in front of him in the living room, his rage turned to horror and grief.
On the floor lay his and Medea's two sons dead, blood pooling around them as their mother stood over them with a bloodied knife, indicating that the sorceress had done the unspeakable crime of murdering her flesh and blood once more.
"O-our boys? WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO THEM! THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! THEY AREN'T TO BLAME!" Jason sobbed in anguish.
Medea gave the man she once loved a hateful glare, "I did EVERYTHING in my power to assist you! I left my KINGDOM for you, betrayed my FATHER for you, killed my own KIN for you. And THIS is how you repay me? By STABBING me in the back! No foolish husband, I may have been the one to strike our children down, but YOU are the one who caused it! FAREWELL Jason! May you die alone and MISERABLE!"
"You'll PAY for this Medea! Even if I cannot bring you retribution, the gods will SURELY punish you for your heinous crimes." Jason retorted to his former wife.
Medea gave Jason a cold smile, "Oh silly Jason." She cackled as she climbed aboard a chariot pulled by two golden dragons that had materialised right next to her, "Do you not see the chariot sent to me by my grandfather, the Titan Helios as a way of escape? It is PROOF that the gods are still on my side, whilst you who are left alone and peerless, have COMPLETELY FALLEN FROM THEIR GRACES!"
With those final words, the sorceress aboard her ride fled from Corinth. Leaving Jason all by himself to deal with the horde of angry mobs who had finally caught up and stormed the house, forcing the disgraced hero to flee Corinth himself without the chance to even bury his deceased children, leading to the once great hero, beloved by mortals and gods alike to now wander Greece alone and miserable for the rest of his life.
A Year later
A tired and disheveled Jason grunted with effort as he stumbled towards his desired destination, the months had not been kind on the fallen hero. He now had a long dirty beard with leaves sticking out of it, his hair now scruffy and out of place, and his personal hygiene was all but gone. He looked so drastically different that anyone who laid their eyes upon him couldn't recognise the face of the famous hero who brought back the Golden Fleece, even though only a year had passed.
For the past few months, Jason had crawled across all of Greece, visiting the temples of the various gods who had once supported him. Praying, begging, pleading to them for help, to return to him his lost glory and reputation. But every time, there was no answer, no sign that the gods had any sort of pity on the fallen hero. And every time Jason realized that his prayers had been ignored, he would fly into a rage, desecrating the altar and temple before fleeing to avoid the wrath of the god whose temple he had just insulted.
Now finally, Jason had run out of gods to plead for help... Save for one that he had specially left for last. With one last grunt of effort, Jason now stood in front of a temple dedicated to the Goddess Hera, the Queen of Olympus had favored him the most and had chosen him to be her champion. Surely... Surely she would answer his prayers? Surely she wouldn't abandon him in his greatest time of need?
Stepping into the temple revealed that the interior consisted of an altar in the center of the room where worshippers came to make sacrifices to the Queen of Olympus, and behind the altar stood a majestic white statue of the Goddess herself that cast a long shadow across the entire room.
Falling to his knees, Jason halfed sobbed as he made his plea, "LADY HERA! GREAT QUEEN OF OLYMPUS! IT IS ME! YOUR CHOSEN ONE! JASON! I come to you begging for your aid! For years I have been wandering the land alone and half starved, cast out by people everywhere! But now, I humbly kneel before you once more pleading that you may grant me your divine assistance once more! Give me the power and influence to take back everything that I have once lost, and enact my vengeance on those who have WRONGED me!"
Jason's last few sentences echoed throughout the temple, before he stood once more in utter silence, waiting for any sign of reply from the Queen of Olympus, but there was no immediate response. "That's alright," Jason thought to himself, the gods don't always answer people's prayers immediately, but Lady Hera is bound to answer my prayers sooner or later! I'm her champion after all"
And so the fallen hero waited for a while more, seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours, hours turned to days. In the end, it took a whopping whole week for Jason to finally realize that Hera wasn't going to respond to his prayers.
"W-why isn't she responding?" Jason said in a shaky voice, "Don't tell me that EVEN Lady Hera has abandoned me too? That CAN'T be right! I'm HER champion! There's NO WAY she will just throw me to the side of the curb after using me right?" He said with a nervous giggle, looking up at the imposing face of the statue of Hera that looked down upon him.
As Jason looked at the solemn unforgiving face of the statue above, his face slowly contorted from one of desperate hopefulness to a mask of fury. For there was never going to be any aid from Hera, nor any other gods to his pleas. Medea was right, he had fallen from the gods' good graces, it didn't matter how hard he prayed or pleaded, there would be no help from the heavens above.
As this realization dawned upon him, Jason gritted his teeth in fury, slowly rising to his feet he took one final look at the statue of Hera, before a terrible howl came from his mouth. Cursing and hollering with all his might, Jason smashed his fist into the floor below, leaving a massive crater in the center of the temple as he raised his bloodied fist above his head.
"IS THIS HOW YOU TREAT ME?" He screamed in fury, "Is this how you gods repay me after I served your EVERY whim? I did EVERYTHING you asked of me, I retrieved the Golden Fleece! And THIS is how I'm rewarded? With you kicking me to the curb after I had served my purpose? ANSWER ME!"
There was no answer of any kind, further angering Jason, "I didn't ASK for that witch to fall in love with me! I didn't KNOW she was a psychopath! I didn't know she would do all those horrific acts of violence! Am I truly being punished for her crimes while she escapes scot free and unpunished? Is THIS the justice of the gods?" He continued.
Again, there was no sign of any response, the raging fire in his soul seemingly extinguished, Jason fell to his knees defeated, covering his face with his hands as he quietly began to sob. He had lost his kingdom, his reputation, his children and now that he was abandoned by the gods who he once thought would forever aid him, he truly had nothing left to his name.
Slowly, Jason crying ceased and he lifted his face from within his hands, a look of pure hatred as strong as acid replaced the previous one of self pity on his once handsome face as he began to cackle deliriously, "Hehehehehehehehehehehe! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So THAT'S how it's going to be, is it Hera? You expect me to go off and die in a ditch after I have served your needs? OH NO NO NO NO! That's NOT how this will end!" He said as he got to his feet with a maniacal spread across his face and the vengeful fire in his soul reignited stronger and fiercer than ever before.
"MARK MY WORDS HERA! I will NEVER forget this insult! YOU HEAR ME? Even if it takes me YEARS, even if it takes me DECADES, or even after my DEATH, I will NEVER rest until you and EVERY OTHER shitty god up on high Olympus is DEAD AND BURIED! One day, you will STARE IN HORROR at the monster you have created through your folly! And by then it would have been FAR TOO LATE for any regrets!" And with those words, Jason stumbled out of the temple laughing like a mad man and disappearing into the dark of the night.
Hera, who had of course been listening to Jason's every word up in the Heavens above, but chose to just ignore his rant at the time, scoffed at her former champion's declaration. The foolish man should have been grateful that the gods had not punished him for his various crimes, especially for defacing their temples. And who was he to talk about abandoning others? Had he not also left Medea despite the numerous occasions where he only managed to pull through due to her aid? Humans really were a bunch of unaware hypocrites.
However, Jason's last words unnerved her, he had been deadly serious about making her and the rest of the gods pay. That fire in his eyes and the venom in his words as he made that promise were proof enough. But of course he was just a mere human after all? There was no way he actually could pull something of that sort off in a million years, right? There wasn't going to be any serious consequences from these events, right?
Of course, Hera was gravel mistaken, and her past would indeed come back to haunt her. For the moment he arrived in Valhalla, Jason immediately sought out his ex-wife Medea to enact his revenge on her, and despite the sorceress having a multitude of dark magic and spells on her side, the fallen heroes' rage and vengeful fury saw her lying dead in an alleyway with her neck crushed and broken.
Afterwards, a single blade was stolen from the Forge of Hephaestus, and with it, Jason began to go on a murderous killing spree across the Heavens. It did not matter if he and his victim had any sort of bad blood or history between them, if they were a god of any sorts, he would go ahead and murder them in the most gruesome ways possible, for in his eyes, every god were cocky bastards who treated humanity as though they were simple playthings. It was not until his subsequent battle with the three Archangels dispatched to go and deal with him, was the newly dubbed, God Butcher, finally arrested and imprisoned for his crimes, locked away in Tartarus, with those who still remembered of his monstrous deeds praying that he never escaped.
Till now...
(Present Day)
Back in the battlefield, Hel now only stood a foot away from Jason, as he gazed upwards at her, his hateful glare met her face looking down upon him with a mixture of contempt, disgust and... Pity?
"I don't know what kind of injustice or crimes have been committed against you for you to harbor such a deep resentment against the gods to the point you murdered six innocent people. But I do know this." The Queen of Helheim said solemnly.
"Holding on to your hatred won't do you ANY good, believe me. I too have had certain gods do me a great wrong, and I too have felt the poisonous feeling of hatred take root within my mind and soul. But holding on to your anger is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies, a wise Underworld Lord taught me that long ago. No matter HOW many innocent gods you murder in cold blood, you won't regain whatever you have lost, and you certainly won't be hurting those who have truly earned your ire. So I hope that in your final moments, you will be able to make peace with yourself and your crimes." And with that Hel raised her halberd above her head, preparing to bring the blade down on Jason's neck to finish the battle.
With a mighty swing, Hel brought her weapon down upon the God Butcher, expecting to hear the blade tear into his flesh as she beheaded her wounded opponent. Instead all the Queen of Helheim heard was a heavy "CLANG!" echo throughout the arena.
"No, you ain't finishing me off THAT easy bitch,' came Jason's voice, as it was revealed to Hel and the audience that the God Butcher had blocked the heavy blow single handedly with his left gauntlet, with Hel's halberd now lodged deep in the armor without it harming Jason's flesh or skin. Slowly, the God Butcher rose to his feet, his wounded shoulder seeming to no longer have any sort of effect on him at all. And with a mighty grunt of effort, he dislodged the blade stuck in his gauntlet with a simple flick of his arm, sending Hel stumbling back a few feet away from him.
"I told you at the start of the battle didn't I? I don't intend on leaving this realm of existence without TAKING ONE FINAL GOD DOWN!"
The humans in the audience cheered at their representatives' sheer tenacity and willpower, they still had a fighting chance to win this match!
Hel sighed, "Foolish mortal, hate has caused many problems in your world, yet it has never solved one. Why do you insist on holding on to your anger? Regardless, you still stand NO chance of beating me!" She said confidently as she resumed her fighting stance, ready to engage in combat once more, till she noticed something different about the God Butcher's appearance.
Throughout the time Hel had taken while walking towards Jason and her talk with him, the God Butcher's armor had seemed to darkened alongside his expression. At first Hel had dismissed it as the lighting of the battlefield, but now it became evidently clear that the changes weren't just because of the light, for Jason's armor which was once a beautiful pearl gold color, had somehow darkened into a sinister pitch black with a new bloody red coating on his accents.
"W-what? How? When did this happen?" Hel questioned incredulously as Jason gave a cruel chuckle, "It's like you said, Queen of Helheim… Time to make peace before YOUR END!"
As he said this, long black tendrils of smoke began to seep out from each piece of Jason's armor, first covering the parts of his body where he wore them. Before expanding and snaking all across his body. Soon the black smoke covering Jason had now engulfed every part of his body save his head, turning into a swirling mass of pure darkness. The God Butcher began to cackle wildly as the black cocoon that surrounded his body seemed to shift and pulse as if something within was trying to burst out.
Hel's eyes widened in fear as the dark mass covering Jason's arms dissolved, revealing that the gauntlets that he once wore now had completely disappeared, but even more shocking was the fact that Jason's arms also had completely changed in appearances. Instead of regular human arms, the God Butcher now possessed huge muscular beefy arms as thick as tree trunks with thick coarse gray fur sprouting all over them, connected to each arm were giant paws with long gnarled fingers, each ending with black filthy jagged nails that were as deadly as they looked. These once belonged to the savage Egyptian God of Baboons, whose arms Jason had brutally torn off, before the God Butcher snapped his neck like a twig.
"BOON OF THE MURDERED GODS: CLAWS OF BABI!"
Next to dissolve was the black smoke covering Jason's legs, revealing legs not that of a human, but rather the brown furry hooved feet of a goat that had once been attached to the tricky Greek God of the wild, before the God Butcher ripped those legs off him to prevent him from escaping and proceeding to stomp on his head till he no longer drew breath.
"BOON OF THE MURDERED GODS: HOOVES OF PAN!"
After that, the smoke that covered the God Butcher's lower regions where he wore his warskirt disappeared as well. However, unlike the previous two, his armor still remained on him. The difference this time was the addition of the long and gigantic five segmented tail of an oversized scorpion, with a large curved stinger located on the end, filled with venom waiting to be injected into an unfortunate victim. This tail had once belonged to one of the legendary scorpion folk of the Mesopotamian Pantheon that guarded the gates of the Sun God Shamash, the unfortunate individual had gotten his tail ripped off by Jason, before the God Butcher used it to impale and kill the miserable beast itself.
"BOON OF THE MURDERED GODS: STING OF THE AQRABUAMELU!"
Last but not least, Jason's breastplate revealed itself from the smoke, it too had not disappeared with the smoke that once covered it. Instead, sprouting from, and folded behind his back were three large pairs of majestic and beautiful wings each a plumage of white feathers with a slight tint of gold at the tips. The wings shined with holy power, bringing awe and wonder to any who lay their eyes upon it. These, of course, were the wings of the three aforementioned Archangels. Camael, Jophiel and Zadkiel, whose wings Jason had cut off after their long and brutal fight which had rendered him weak enough to be subdued by the other gods. But now those wings that had once opposed him in battle were now attached to the God Butcher's own back.
"BOON OF THE MURDERED GODS: WINGS OF THE ARCHANGEL!"
Finally, Jason lifted his huge paws, and slowly raked his claws across his blonde hair and scalp. And as he did so, a strange looking helmet began to materialize atop his head, covering the entirety of the God Butcher's face and head. As Hel took a closer look, she was horrified to see that the helmet Jason wore, was in fact the large haunting skull of a ram, lower jaw and all. With huge curling horns on each side of his head, and deep empty eye sockets that acted as the visor of the morbid helmet. And as soon as this process was finished, Jason's arms dropped back to his side as his whole body seemed to shudder and freeze, his head dropping back down to face the ground.
Both gods and humans in the audience gazed in fear at the monstrous amalgamation that stood below them, the large hulking beast seemed to stand completely still as a statue, not moving a single muscle. Tentatively, Hel called out to the thing that was once Jason, "H-hello? Jason? Are you still there?"
For a few moments, nothing happened, and an uneasy silence filled the arena. Had the transformation somehow killed Jason? Was that why he wasn't moving anymore?
Then out of nowhere, Jason's entire body began to shudder and writhe as his limbs began to move once again. Shaking his head from left to right, before focusing his attention back upon his opponent and opening his mouth to speak. But much to everyone's horror, the voice that echoed out from within the ram's skull didn't exactly sound like Jason, it was indeed his voice. But it sounded as if someone had taken a recording of him speaking and turned it all garbled and disjointed, like the frequency of a broken radio. And as he spoke, the jaws of the skull he wore eerily began to move in tandem to every word he said, as if they were his actual mouth and lips.
"Jason is no more, Every trace of humanity in his body is now DEAD, and only I REMAIN!" The monstrous being announced, as it unfurled its mighty wings. The icy ground below him cracking with a loud, "CRUNCH!,' As he took a step forward with his two new gigantic hooves. His massive claws outstretched and ready to strike down any in his path, and the massive scorpion tail behind him raised, its stinger ready to strike.
Hel unwittingly took another step back at the sound of his voice, away from this monstrous behemoth that stood before her, her primal instincts telling her that this thing was extremely dangerous and she should proceed with the utmost caution, "T-then who the hell are you?" she whispered fearfully as even Fenris began to whimper and whine in terror.
Though the ram skull lacked any sort of lips, Hel could almost swear that it seemed to be grinning evilly as it answered her question with a booming cackle.
"I am THE GOD BUTCHER!"
