"I AM POSEIDON, GOD OF THE SEAS! YOU DAMN MORTALS SHOULD FEAR OUR PRESENCE!"
The boast rolled out from behind Hera, loud enough to rattle the stones of the northern wall, and it died halfway through its next breath. A spear punched through the air and struck him square in the chest, and the God of the Seas went tumbling backward across the plain, trailing spray and curses. Finn landed in front of the crater he had made, golden-white eyes steady, his spear already back in his hand.
The shadows at Poseidon's back coiled and thickened. Igris rose out of them in complete silence, crimson cape snapping in the wind, greatsword held low.
Poseidon dragged himself upright, one hand pressed against his ruined chest. He looked at the Pallum in front of him, then at the shadow knight behind, and his lip curled.
"A shadow and a damn mortal." His voice shook with wounded pride. "Fine. I will show you both what it means to challenge a god!"
He opened his palm. Water gathered there from nowhere, swirling and hardening until it settled into the shape of a trident, glittering and cold. He drove it into the earth. The ground trembled, and a tide rose beneath him, climbing his legs, swallowing them, until everything below his waist had become living water. He flowed forward like a wave wearing a man's shape, sliding across the plain with eerie ease.
Finn only tightened his grip.
...
"Heracles, you damn brat!" Hera pushed herself out of the trench Alcy's kick had carved, dust sliding off her robes. "I raised you myself!"
"You raised me to take over my body!" Alcy shouted back, sword resting on her shoulder. "You're a cheat and a bitch of a mother, and you never liked me anyway!"
Hera vanished.
She reappeared behind Alcy in the same heartbeat, a dagger already driving toward her spine. Alcy never saw it coming. A blade of wind and silver met the dagger an inch from her back, and the blow rang out across the plain. Ais stood there with Desperate drawn and her green wings flared, calm as still water.
Hera disappeared again. When she returned, she was standing in front of them both with her hand raised and her smile thin.
"You made a friend."
Alcy grinned, breathing hard. "Thanks, Ais. This treacherous bitch is not as weak as I expected."
"I have your back," Ais said quietly.
"You had better." Hera's eyes slid from Alcy to Ais, to the wings trembling behind her. "Once I am finished with her, I will rip those wings off your back."
...
Ottar and Vritra had hoped, privately, that they would not have to face this one.
He stood across from them in the open field, broad as a siege gate and thick around the middle, with the scarred face of a lifelong warrior and a small hammer in his fist that spat lightning at its head. The hammer looked like a toy in his hand. Nothing else about him did.
"Warriors," he rumbled. "Stand tall. You face the Great Thor, God of Thunder."
Vritra's golden eyes narrowed. "Careful, Ottar. This one is very strong."
"I can tell." Ottar's grey eyes did not leave the hammer. "But we have to win."
"That we do."
Thor spun the hammer lazily in his hand, once, twice, letting the lightning dance. Then he raised it over his head and brought it down between them. The world cracked in half.
...
Inside the black rectangle, the weaker gods were beginning to panic.
Several lay dead already, scattered through the glowing grass of the garden like discarded dolls. Those still standing pressed together, eyes wide in the dark, flinching at every sound. The silence was worse than the screams.
"COWARD!" Zeus's voice thundered into the black. "Face us!" Then, lower, he leaned toward Odin, who had been watching the dark with his one eye narrowed. "Well?"
"I cannot find a way to break this place," Odin admitted. "We will have to face him inside it."
"Fine. He planned for this, then." Zeus's grin returned, sharp and ugly. "I do not mind. Killing him here or outside makes no difference to me." He turned. "Ra. It is time. Do your thing."
"With pleasure."
The falcon-headed god smiled. A golden ankh rose out of the air behind him, vast and shining, and Ra lifted into the sky with the ankh at his back like a halo.
"You stand face to face with the sun itself," Ra said, and his voice rang across the darkness. "Your night can never destroy our light. RA!"
The ankh blazed.
Gold light exploded outward and the blackness shattered in an instant, and the entire garden was suddenly visible again. The surviving gods could see the bodies scattered through the grass, counting the dead. They could also see Damien, standing in the middle of it all with both daggers dripping red, smiling.
"The sun, eh?" Damien tilted his head, studying the glowing ankh with open interest. "Let's see if I can devour that too."
Lightning crawled up Zeus's arm and settled in his fist. Odin's spear gleamed in his hand, the point already angled forward.
"You have lived long enough, boy," Zeus said. "Time to die."
"Gods!" Odin's voice cracked like a whip. "ATTACK!"
Damien rolled his shoulders and let the shadows rise around him.
"Bring it."
...
Far from the battlefield, on a lonely hill that looked down on the plain, a single mage stood watching the war unfold. He wore dark robes and held a cup of wine, and he sipped it slowly, like a man watching a play he had written himself.
"So this is where you are."
The voice came from directly behind him. The mage did not startle. He turned slowly, and his smile thinned.
"You. Why are you here?"
"I came to see your work, Seratna," said the man.
Seratna sighed and turned back to the battle. "Just prepare what I told you. Then we win."
"Do you wish to win for him?" the man asked softly. "Or for you?"
"I do not like talking to people I do not know. Leave me be."
"My curse is not something I chose." The man's voice stayed even, though something old and tired moved beneath it. "I had thought you and I were friends already."
"You are Unknown," Seratna said, "and always will be. Even our father does not recognize you. Why you serve him is beyond me."
"Our father, the Lord of Light, will one day remember me." The man's gaze drifted to the clashing lights across the plain. "All of them will. And the truth shall open your hearts. But for now, the bloodshed continues, as the Monarch and the gods clash." A pause. "All part of your plan, dear Seratna?"
"Stop calling me that." The mage's voice hardened. "You know my name. Use it."
"Very well. My apologies." The Unknown bowed his head in mock courtesy. "My dear friend. My brother. King of the Dragons. Monarch of Destruction. Antares."
The mage who had been called Seratna said nothing, and the wine in his cup stopped moving.
"You tricked the gods beautifully," the Unknown went on. "Coaxed them here, taught them avatar magic, all wearing the face of a mage called Seratna." His lips curved. "So arrogant. So full of pride. And not a single one of them thought to simply say your name in reverse. Foolish gods. Truly, they should all perish."
"And they will," Antares said. His voice had changed. It was deeper now, rougher, carrying the weight of ages. "But for now, we wait."
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