God of War, Ares: Guardian

by Brandon Chen

  The manticore pounced through the air, crashing down on Ares, but the god hurled his spear into the creature, sending the weapon sliding up into the beast’s chest. The Guardian screamed in agony, a shrill cry that pierced the ears of everyone on the battlefield. Ares made a slight movement with his index finger and the spear continued to jam upwards, tearing out of the manticore’s back, sending a burst of blood splattering into the air. As the wounded creature fell upon Ares, the god drove a sinking punch into the beast’s stomach. There was an explosion of power that ignited between his knuckles and the creature, sending the manticore flying across the warzone and out of sight.

  Ares held out his arm, his spear automatically returning to his hand. He turned his head and watched as two Persian soldiers screamed in anguish, grabbing at their eyes. Every vein in their body became outlined and glowed bright red as if fire were coursing through their skin. Suddenly the soldiers disintegrated into ashes, disappearing in a single moment. The god turned his head and saw a lizard-like snake that slithered across the ground, with sharpened fangs and gleaming yellow eyes. The moment that Ares looked into the creature’s eyes, he felt a sharp pain erupting through his own. He glanced away, gasping as he felt his energy sapped from his body, dropping to his knees, weakened.

  That snake was a basilisk, a creature that could ordinarily kill a human with its glare alone. Its venomous bite was nothing to take lightly either, for even touching the tooth of such a monster could result in death. Luckily, since Ares was a god the creature’s stare would only enervate him. However, a direct bite would be dangerous.

  Ares winced, rubbing his eyes, looking up to see that the creature was snapping out at him. He felt the ground rumbling and also saw a giant humanoid Guardian rushing at him from behind. The monster had the head of a bull with giant, curved horns poking from the top of its skull. The creature had hooves and roared loudly as it charged Ares from behind, while the basilisk struck from the front. A minotaur — Ares had faced one of these vicious beasts once before in the Lost Sands. They were fierce and enduring, but didn’t really have brains.

  The god leapt into the air, flipping backward over the charging minotaur, who couldn’t slow to a stop. The bull-man snorted in frustration as it charged into the basilisk, slamming its horns deep into the hardened scales of the serpent. Blood spurted from the wound, but the basilisk was still alive, snarling. Ares hurled his spear and the weapon ripped through both Guardians, skewering them together.

  The boy held out his hand and the spear retracted from their bodies, sending the beasts crumpling to the ground in unison. Catching his weapon, Ares turned his head to see that Zahir had noticed his entrance. The Magus glared at the god’s interference, and suddenly disappeared into a puff of black smoke that began to float over the battlefield, slowly easing its way towards the chasm where Ahriman was located.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Ares yelled, preparing to break into a sprint after Zahir when suddenly a giant humanoid crashed down on the ground in front of him. The Guardian was about to get up when suddenly a giant icicle spike smashed down into the creature’s chest, burying itself deep into the monster’s flesh. Ares stumbled backwards, surprised. A stranger landed on the giant’s body, wearing a flapping white cloak and flowing hair the color of snow. His eyes, however, were unmistakable. “Yuu?”

  The figure turned his attention to Ares and his expression turned to disbelief. A smile spread across his face when he first saw the god, but quickly faded. He held a sword and extended the weapon to Ares, pointing its tip at the god. White bandages dangled from his wrists and his turquoise eyes lacked emotion. “Ares, is it?”

  “N-No! It’s me, Darien!” Ares exclaimed. “You remember me, right?” He lowered his spear as he smiled. “Come on, Yuu. Remember how Tetsu, you, and I used to hang out every single day at the castle?”

  “You’re the god of war, Ares,” Yuu said, convinced. “But how dare you transform to look like my old friend, Darien? Where is he now? Is he still alive?”

  “I’m not transformed!”

  “Silence!” Yuu yelled, waving his hand and a volley of needle-like icicles conjured before him, tearing through the air towards Ares. “What have you done to Darien, you cruel god?”

  Ares smashed his feet into the ground and took off into the air, leaping above the noble. Yuu was a Magus now? He had obtained direct control over magic and from the looks of it, his element was ice. How unexpected! “I don’t want to fight you!” Ares yelled, landing beside Yuu. “Please, just hear me out!”

  “I will not listen to a murderous god who preys on the weak,” Yuu murmured, his burning gaze making Ares melt. The noble wielded his sword with both hands and ripped the blade through the air in elegant slashes with perfect form. But despite Yuu’s perfected strokes, Ares was easily able to maneuver to avoid the blows.

  The god smiled. “You really haven’t changed. Your form is exactly the same as the royal fighting style of Persia, right from the books. You must’ve studied a lot, huh? After Tetsu and I were banished, I mean.”

  Yuu clenched his teeth, refusing to believe that Darien and Ares were the same person. Zahir had distinctly said that Ares would try to trick him. But with every word that left Ares’ lips, he was growing more and more convinced that this was Darien. Was it possible that Zahir could’ve tricked Yuu because he didn’t want the two of them reunited?

  There was a bark and Yuu suddenly snapped his attention back to the issue at hand. A pack of hounds with black fur and demonic red eyes were charging across the battlefield towards the two boys. The canine creatures had teeth as sharp as the tips of swords, with yellow saliva pooling around their mouths. “Hellhounds!” Yuu grunted, extending his hand to activate magic to fend off the oncoming wave of beasts. But the movement caused him to suddenly lose his balance, and he slipped off the dead giant that he stood upon and fell onto his back, landing hard on the sand. The wind was driven from his lungs and he gasped, trying desperately to regain his breath.

  Ares leapt forward, grabbing Yuu and pulling him away as the hellhounds leapt over the giant’s carcass, dashing towards their prey. The god grunted, grabbing his spear and jabbing it into the jaw of one of the dogs, sending blood spraying into the air. Pulling his blade from the slain hellhound, Ares gasped as the beasts overwhelmed him and rushed from all sides. He kicked one in the face as it snapped at him while he slashed the stomach of another pouncing hellhound that came from the other side. “Get up, Yuu!” Ares yelled. “It’s already hard enough defending myself against these monsters!”

  Yuu stared at Ares as the boy defended the noble from harm. Who else but Darien would risk his life for Yuu like that? The Magus forced himself his feet, stumbling forward as he pushed Ares out of the way, extending both of his hands in front of him, his eyes flashing a bright sapphire color. “Freeze.” All of the hounds suddenly became encased in giant blocks of ice, freezing in place. The noble closed his hands into tight fists and the ice detonated into millions of glittering shards of crystal that crumpled to the sand, melting in the baking sun.

  “Whoa!” Ares exclaimed, clapping his hands like an excited child. “That’s so cool! Where’d you learn to do stuff like that? I didn’t even know you were a Magus!”

  “Huh.” Yuu smirked. “And I didn’t even know you were alive, Darien.”

  “To be honest, I didn’t know you were either, Yuu.” Ares beamed.

  “You’ve got yourself a new name then? Ares, huh? I like it better than your old one anyway,” Yuu teased.

  “Joking already, school nerd?” Ares grinned and walked forward, embracing his old friend in a tight hug. “Man, I thought that you were dead after that stupid stunt you pulled in the throne room. You scared Tetsu and me both to death.”

  “I’m sorry.” Yuu laughed, patting Ares’ back. “But you haven’t aged a day, Darien. You look the same after all of these years.”

  “I’ll explain everything later. Right now we have to stop Zahir from obtaining that godly powe
r of Ahriman. You can’t possibly think that it’s right, do you? The amount of people that will suffer from his wrath will be countless. Millions will die and hundreds of thousands will be enslaved by the Persian Empire,” Ares said, pulling back from the hug. He clamped a firm hand on Yuu’s shoulder. “Will you help me fight Zahir?”

  Yuu hesitated. A part of him had always despised Zahir for defeating his two lost friends and for always making decisions that disregarded the value of human life. It was as if Zahir regarded the Magi as a separate race from humans. He looked down on all humans as lesser beings. Not to mention that Zahir had proved just how cruel he was when he had sent all of these Persians to sacrifice themselves to distract the Guardians while he headed off to awaken Ahriman’s power. Darien was right; once Zahir received the power of Ahriman he would abuse the power and crush human lives. Zahir was the person least qualified for that power. “Yes. But I have to help these soldiers first. Zahir ordered them to storm this wasteland without any idea that these Guardians would awaken.”

  “So he baited them into becoming human sacrifices so that he could just float across the chaotic battlefield and claim the power on his own, huh?” Ares growled, mashing his teeth in annoyance. “He seriously pisses me off.”

  Amon roared suddenly, smashing through a line of monsters with his arms raised into the air. I’m here! I’m here!

  “Amon!” Ares exclaimed, turning to his rock golem. His eyes narrowed when he spotted Aleysha on the giant’s shoulder. “Aleysha, I told you to stay back! Amon, why did you let her come?”

  The Guardian shrugged.

  “The two of us will handle the rest of the Guardians here, Ares. Just go on and head to the fissure!” Aleysha called down. “We saw Zahir fighting a few of the Guardians that were defending the fault!”

  “You better be careful, Aleysha. If you die, I swear … I’ll find a way to revive you just so that I can smack you upside the head,” Ares grumbled.

  “Nice friend you’ve got there.” Yuu whistled, sheathing his sword, examining Amon up and down in awe. “And a rock golem as your companion, Darien. How classy of you.”

  “I’m glad that you think that a banished prince still has the luxury of pretending he’s classy.” Ares scoffed and took Yuu by the hand. “Alright! My friends are going to handle the issue here. That means that we can head off to stop Zahir. Come on!” he exclaimed, jumping suddenly into the air, flying thousands of feet, dragging the noble behind him. Yuu screamed the whole way.

  Aleysha folded her arms as she sat on Amon’s shoulder, watching as Ares and his new friend flew through the air. “He likes doing that, doesn’t he? Scaring the crap out of people by taking them on a flight with him.” She knew first hand. “Who do you suppose that person is that’s with him?”

  Amon snorted. Who knows?

  Aleysha looked at the carnage around her. Before a couple weeks ago, she hadn’t even seen a monster before. Now she was witnessing hundreds of unique creatures slaughtering a bunch of Persians. This felt like something straight out of a tale that she had read as a child. “Well,” she murmured, pulling her giant shield off of her back and sighing as she unsheathed her sword, her eyes scanning the vast sea of monstrosities before her. “Come on, Amon. We promised Ares that we’d take care of this. So, let’s get to work.”

  ***

  Yuu yelped, the volume of his voice rising as he descended towards the ground. The sound of the howling wind that rushed into his face drowned out his terrified cries. Just before he hit the ground, Darien turned him sideways and caught him as if he were some type of fair maiden that needed saving. Then again, after falling from that height, anyone would need saving. Yuu gulped, realizing that he was now safe on the ground. His head slowly turned and he saw that they had jumped all the way from the battlefield to the fissure in a single leap. He looked at Darien, trembling. How had his old friend become so strong over the past five years? Yuu had thought that he had become much stronger in comparison to his old self. But compared to Darien, he knew he still didn’t stand a chance.

  The way that Darien stood, his confident aura could embolden anyone around him. The gleam of hope that beamed from his eyes and his brave smile that reflected liveliness left Yuu in awe before the new god. It was empowering and inspiring.

  Yuu rolled out of Darien’s arms and stumbled onto his feet, brushing some sand off of his pants. He harrumphed, feeling a slight stinging sensation in his throat from screaming so loud. It was the first time in many years that he had made such a shrill and terrified sound. He turned and found that there was a gigantic collapsed dragon beside the chasm along with a metallic robotic creation that was now in bronze scraps. The noble walked forward slowly to the edge of the fissure and raised an eyebrow, gazing over the edge into the pitch-black abyss below. “That’s deep.”

  “Yeah,” Darien said, taking a few steps back.

  “What are you doing?” Yuu said, turning to face Darien. He waved his hands in front of himself when the prince started rushing forward. “N-No! No, no, nooo!” The god tackled Yuu and sent the two flying off of the ledge into the gulf, disappearing into the darkness. Yuu’s final “no” stretched and echoed in the silence as they vanished into the shadows of the abyss.

  Darien caught Yuu in the air and landed hard on the solid ground after falling for what felt like minutes. Cracking the earth beneath his feet, the god slowly exhaled and let Yuu roll back to his feet. “Hey, there’s no better way to get down here,” he murmured when he saw the annoyed look that Yuu shot him.

  It took a minute of constant blinking for Yuu to finally adjust to the thick cloud of darkness that obscured his vision. He looked upward and saw the daylight just barely creeping into the bottom of the abyss. Gritting his teeth, the noble knew that he would have to find Zahir before the Magus reached Ahriman. Once Zahir claimed the power of a god, Yuu wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Grabbing the hilt of his sword, Yuu unsheathed his magnificently elegant blade, which he whirled through the darkness. “Which way do you expect the body is?” Yuu asked, his back against Darien’s. The two gazed down opposite directions of the fissure.

  “Only one way to find out. We go opposite directions,” Darien offered. “If you spot Zahir or the body then you use whatever magic you can to make as much noise as you can. I’ll come quickly. The same goes for me.”

  “Got it,” Yuu said with a nod. Without another word the two friends sprinted off in opposite directions. The noble breathed heavily as his armor clanked loudly in the silence. Even though his eyes had somewhat adjusted to the darkness of the abyss, he still found his vision cloudy. He could only see several feet in front of him. Past that point, his sight ran into a sheet of impenetrable blackness. If he happened to go in the same direction as Zahir then surely the Magus would hear him coming a mile away, but Yuu wouldn’t be able to react until Zahir finally came into his line of vision. By then, it would be too late.

  Yuu worked his jaw, knowing that he should probably be moving more cautiously. But if he didn’t hurry, he didn’t know whether he would actually catch up to Zahir, who already had a significant head start. After running for about fifteen minutes, Yuu figured that he had picked the wrong side. He slowed to a stop, debating whether or not he should just turn back and assume that Darien had gone the right way. Suddenly a large purple light illuminated the darkness, flooding the cave walls with its ominous glow.

  An evanescent light streaked across the walls once more and then vanished. Yuu slowly began to inch forward, making sure to keep as silent as possible. Pebbles crackled underneath his metal boots and he reached into his cloak, holding his sword between his armpit and his arm. He pulled out two iron gauntlets with open palms specially made for his hand, so that he could cast magic while protecting the majority of his hands from harm. Sliding the gauntlets onto his hands, he clicked them into place on his armor, and wielded his sword with both hands. Steadily creeping forward towards the glowing light, Yuu’s heart began to race.

&nbs
p; He spotted it now. There was a fallen corpse of a man with long, greasy, black hair that fell over his middle-aged face. He had been wearing a black robe, but it had been incinerated, and it looked like he was topless because most of the cloth had been burned off. Burn wounds and severe slashes covered his body, creating a pool of pure ruby blood beneath the god that glistened brighter than any human blood would. Kneeling at the foot of the deceased god was Zahir.

  Zahir reached forward, cupping his hands, about to catch some of the god’s blood in his hands.

  Yuu extended his palm and released a bolt of ice that tore through the air without warning and smashed against Zahir’s shoulder, sending the Magus flying backwards. Splintering ice scattered in all directions as the man smashed hard against the wall of the abyss, breaking off a chunk of rock before he crumpled to the ground. Yuu knew better than to give Zahir a moment to recover and he quickly sprinted forward with his sword brandished, fully prepared to bring an end to the insane mage.

  Zahir slowly pushed himself to one knee, wiping some blood off of his lip with a small smile. He glared at Yuu from the corners of his purple, gleaming eyes. “You dare to betray me, Yuu? What’s gotten into you?” He flicked his wrist and a surge of fire smashed straight into Yuu’s chest, sending dancing flames spraying across his body.

  The noble fell onto his back, gasping at the heat that surged through his chest. He smacked his head hard on the rock ground, making his head spin. But he forced himself to get up and stumble to his feet nevertheless. Facing his mentor, his cold gaze never left Zahir’s eyes.