Against All Gods

by Maz Evans

  ‘Oh, I think you’ll find it is,’ said Nyx, pulling the Hydra arrow back in the bow. ‘The Gods are right. You are the only one who can get through to the boy. And we can’t have that now, can we? Just do me a favour, will you? Die faster this time . . .’

  And she loosed the arrow straight at the Messenger God.

  ‘Hoimes! No!’ cried Hades, powerless to help his nephew.

  But his nephew wasn’t powerless to help himself.

  ‘Shield app!’ he cried into the phone. Immediately he and Hades were surrounded by a golden bubble. The arrow bounced harmlessly off it and landed on the floor at Hermes’s feet.

  ‘Mate!’ he roared at the stunned Nyx. ‘If I’ve said it once – the iGod is mightier than the arrow! Come here, you epic anti-babe!’

  He charged at the Goddess of the Night, who dropped the bow and flew for the door. She was fast, but Hermes was faster: he reached out, the tip of her wing almost in his grasp—

  SLAM!

  The door to the cell banged shut in his face, and the Messenger God crumpled in a heap on the floor. He heard the lock clunk back into place. He sprang to his feet and hammered at the door.

  ‘Hoimes – you OK?’ said Hades.

  ‘Let me out!’ shouted Hermes. ‘I’m not being funny, Nyx, but when I get my hands on you, it’s goodnight for good . . . LET ME OUT!’

  But if Nyx could hear him, she said nothing. Hades tried the door. It was shut tight.

  ‘That woman!’ raged Hermes. ‘I totes respect babes and everything, but I am going to rip her booming . . .’ He slammed his fist against the locked door in frustration.

  ‘That’s great, Hoimes, just great,’ said Hades, picking up the discarded iGod. ‘But I gots another idea. How’s about yous call us a locksmith first?’

  6. Fight Fire with Fire

  Elliot could feel the heat blazing all around him. It felt intense. It felt scorching. It felt final. And yet, Elliot was surprised to note, he was still feeling something.

  Being frazzled to a crisp was taking longer than he’d anticipated.

  He dared to open an eye. He was still within the fiery depths – what was taking so long?

  And then he noticed it.

  Shielding him from the flames was some kind of . . . golden glow. Yes, he was surrounded by fire on all sides, but this wasn’t fire. It wasn’t hot like the ferocity of the Phlegethon. Something was protecting him. But how? And what?

  ‘Elly.’

  The sound of his name startled him back to full consciousness. That voice – it couldn’t be . . .

  ‘Elly. Swim, my darling. You have to swim. It’s not your time.’

  ‘Mum?’

  He started to move his arms and legs, searching for the face that matched the voice. The flames licked and danced around him, but he was protected by the glow.

  ‘Mum!’

  The voice was coming from above. Elliot started to propel himself upwards, kicking hard with his legs and pushing the fiery water aside with strong arms.

  ‘You’re so nearly there, Elly. Keep going. I’m with you.’

  ‘MUM!’

  All coordination went out of his limbs: arms flailed, legs kicked, his breath exploded in uneven bursts. But Elliot commanded every atom of his being to reach his mother.

  He could make out a swirling figure on the surface of the river. It must be her. If he just took a few more strokes . . .

  ‘GOTCHA!’

  He felt strong arms grab him and pull him to the riverbank, where he collapsed in a breathless heap next to Hypnos, who was blowing on his scorched fingers from yanking Elliot out of the flames. He turned to greet his mother with a smile. But it wasn’t Josie staring back at him.

  ‘DID YOU GET IT?’ the voice roared in his ringing ears.

  Elliot looked around. His mum was nowhere to be seen. Looming above him was Thanatos, still holding Virgo by her hair.

  ‘My patience is running thin, boy,’ rasped the Daemon. ‘Did you get it, or not?’

  ‘Are you OK?’ Hypnos asked the spluttering boy.

  Elliot tried to get his ragged breath under control. He stared hard at the Daemon of Death. Then he opened his clenched fist. Nestling in his palm was the boundless blue of the mystical Fire Stone.

  ‘He did it!’ gasped Hypnos. ‘He really is the prophecy.’

  ‘Hand them over,’ said Thanatos. ‘All of them.’

  ‘Elliot, no!’ Virgo screamed, her face puce from pain.

  ‘Where is she?’ Elliot panted. ‘Where is my mum?’

  ‘She’s here,’ said Thanatos. ‘But you already know that. Give me the stones and I will give you her soul. I swear it on the Styx.’

  ‘Elliot – don’t do it!’ Virgo sobbed. ‘Please.’

  ‘What about her?’ said Elliot. ‘You have to set her free.’

  ‘She wasn’t part of our deal,’ Thanatos glowered, suspending Virgo over the flames.

  ‘She is now,’ said Elliot, holding the Fire Stone over the water. ‘Good luck getting this out again.’

  Thanatos’s dark eyes narrowed, projecting a beam of pure hatred at Elliot.

  ‘So be it,’ he said, dropping Virgo to the ground. ‘Now give me the stones.’

  Elliot took a deep breath and pulled his father’s watch out of his pocket, the watch that already contained the Earth, Air and Water Stones. The Chaos Stones that had nearly killed him umpteen times already. Zeus had warned him after he’d found the Earth Stone last year that they’d be a heavy burden to bear. Back then, Elliot had no idea how right the King of the Gods had been.

  He held the Fire Stone up to the watch, and, just as the other stones had done, it immediately shrank to fill the remaining quadrant. But then something new happened. At once, all four stones began to glow. The beams of white, green, red and now blue light mingled, the combined lustre so blindingly bright Elliot had to shield his eyes. He felt the watch trembling under the strain. But, just at the point the watch seemed as if it might explode, the light was suddenly sucked back inside and extinguished. When Elliot looked down, there were no longer four separate gems. They had melded together into one giant gem, the colours of its four parts marbled through it.

  Elliot looked at the breathtaking jewel. He’d done it. He’d reunited the Chaos Stones.

  When four stones are one, they can have but one master.

  He recalled the prophecy that had hinted he could control the universe. With the power of this elemental gem, he could have anything he wanted. Wealth. Power. The world. He could have anything he wanted. He could do anything he wanted. He could be anyone he wanted.

  Except for the one person he truly wanted to be.

  Josie Hooper’s son.

  He snapped the watch shut. This was the only way.

  With a trembling arm, he held out the watch to Thanatos, whose bony fingers stretched towards it with glee. They were close, so close they were almost touching—

  ‘NOOOOOOOOOOO!’

  Virgo charged towards Elliot, arms outstretched, ready to snatch the Chaos Stone from under Thanatos’s nose—

  ‘Virgo! Will you GO AWAY!’ he roared.

  ‘I don’t think so, young lady!’

  Virgo screamed as she was yanked violently upwards into the ash-filled air.

  Nyx, suspending Virgo from her talons, turned to Elliot. ‘Give my son what he is owed,’ she said. ‘I will not be asking again.’

  She waggled Virgo from her vast height to make her point.

  Something in Elliot crumbled. He was sick of watching the people he loved in danger. He was sick of negotiating impossible deals. He was sick of having the future of the world on his shoulders. And it was all because of this Chaos Stone. Yes, it would give him the world. But all he wanted was his world back again.

  Slowly, with a casual flick, Elliot Hooper gently tossed the watch to the Daemon of Death.

  ‘There,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s yours.’

  Thanatos stood completely still for a moment, as if he couldn’t
quite believe what had just happened. He flipped open the lid of the watch. His face was illuminated by the unearthly rainbow of colour from within. He smiled.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said finally. ‘It’s been a pleasure doing business with you. Mother – return the girl to the ground, please.’

  ‘As you wish,’ said Nyx, casually releasing Virgo and letting her plummet towards the ground. Virgo’s screams filled the air as she tumbled end over end towards her certain death.

  ‘In one piece,’ Thanatos added.

  ‘If you insist,’ sighed Nyx, swooping down and dumping Virgo on the ground.

  ‘You OK?’ Elliot asked.

  Virgo, ashen-faced, nodded, brushing herself down.

  Elliot watched as Nyx fluttered down beside Thanatos, taking in the eerie glow of the Chaos Stone alongside her son. They exchanged a look of unbridled triumph. Elliot had to look away to quell the sickness in his stomach.

  ‘You should leave,’ Thanatos commanded Virgo eventually. ‘Elliot and I need to conclude our business. This pathway will return you to Earth. It’s a fair walk, but Hypnos will point you in the right direction.’

  ‘But I—’ Virgo began.

  ‘Just go,’ croaked Elliot. ‘Please.’

  Virgo paused for a moment and stared at her companion. Elliot willed her to leave, to take safety while it was on offer. Maybe she understood, maybe she didn’t. But a few seconds later, with a compliant nod, she turned around and headed towards the tunnel that would take her to freedom.

  ‘So are you OK, hot stuff?’ Hypnos whispered to Elliot, as Thanatos and Nyx shared a muttered conversation. ‘That was quite the hot tub.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Elliot scowled. ‘I just want my mum.’

  ‘You’re gonna need her,’ Hypnos replied grimly. For once, the Daemon of Sleep didn’t appear to find himself funny. He flittered off after Virgo, and Elliot watched them disappear up the dimly lit pathway.

  Elliot turned to the Daemon of Death.

  ‘I want my mum’s soul,’ he said. ‘Now.’

  ‘Everything in good time,’ drawled Thanatos, his knuckles white from clutching the Chaos Stone in his hand. ‘First things first. You really should see this. Follow me.’

  ‘You swore!’ cried Elliot. ‘You swore you’d give her back!’

  ‘And I will,’ said Thanatos. ‘Oaths don’t have a deadline, you know. Come along. You should be the first to see what you have done.’

  Reluctantly, Elliot began to follow the Daemon across a bridge over the River Phlegethon and through the wasteland of Tartarus. It was not the first time he had been there with Thanatos, but back then the barren expanse of fiery land had been fairly empty, save for its few eternal prisoners.

  Now Tartarus was a hive of activity, with Elementals of all kinds busy crafting weapons and armour. To his right, a group of satyrs were making arrows out of sticks and flint. To his left, chimeras were forging swords in the flames of their own breath.

  ‘What are they doing?’ Elliot asked nervously.

  ‘Getting ready for war,’ said Thanatos. ‘I have a nasty feeling that your friends aren’t going to make world domination terribly easy for me.’

  ‘Although I can assure you,’ gloated Nyx, fluttering just overhead, ‘it’s going to be much harder on them.’

  They trudged on through Tartarus until they came to a spot that Elliot recognized. He had been here before. It was a murky lake, in the centre of which was a small island, surrounded by a river of fire. And at its heart was a stone prison: the prison that held Thanatos’s Daemon army.

  ‘Friends! Comrades!’ Thanatos cried over the raucous squabbling that came from the prison. ‘The day has come!’

  ‘It can’t be time to pay the gas bill again,’ complained a voice. ‘I swear we only just paid it . . .’

  ‘It is the day of reckoning!’ Thanatos boomed. ‘The day of justice! The day of your freedom!’

  ‘If we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a thousand times,’ came a new voice. ‘We haven’t got room for a conservatory!’

  ‘Your Lord and Master has come to free you!’ Nyx screeched. ‘Show some respect!’

  ‘Well, why didn’t you just say so?’ exclaimed a third voice. ‘Let’s get out of here!’

  ‘Yes, let’s,’ said Thanatos, looking down at Elliot, who quickly averted his eyes. He didn’t want to see what happened next.

  Thanatos flipped open the lid of the watch. The newly formed single Chaos Stone glowed at his command.

  ‘Fire!’ Thanatos roared. ‘Blaze!’

  At once, a ray of light burst from the watch, surrounding the lake with a blue flame, as if gas had ignited all around it. The flame burnt on the water, which hissed and fizzed, immediately turning into steam and evaporating into the dark air.

  ‘Air!’ Thanatos commanded. ‘Blow!’

  This time, the Chaos Stone emitted its supernatural emerald glow, summoning a strong wind that blew at the flames like candles on a birthday cake, until they were all extinguished.

  Thanatos and Elliot walked forward on the now-dry earth to the door of the prison.

  ‘Earth!’ Thanatos boomed. ‘Quake!’

  Immediately, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble. Elliot looked at the mighty stone prison. It was beginning to shake.

  Thanatos threw his head back and roared with laughter. Elliot knew that feeling. The feeling of ultimate control. The feeling he had only ever known with the Chaos Stones.

  He saw a large crack starting to snake its way down the front of the prison. And another on the side. And another around the base. As the Daemons whooped and hollered inside, the building began to crumble, huge stones falling from the mighty walls. Elliot dived out of the way as one landed inches from where he stood.

  Suddenly, with an almighty crack, the stone fortress came apart as if it were an egg being cracked on a pan, splitting down the middle as the walls collapsed on themselves. Elliot choked on the almighty dust cloud that rose as the prison collapsed in a heap of rubble.

  ‘Water!’ Thanatos directed. ‘Cleanse!’

  The sky was filled with a ruby-red glow. An almighty torrent of water fell from the sky, washing away the rubble in a flood. Elliot thought he would be washed away, but the enchanted water seemed only to act on the rubble, clearing it out of the way, leaving him and the Daemons standing firm.

  For a moment, all was quiet. Elliot wiped the mush of ash and dust from his eyes and stared at a mass of forms, all cowering beneath their wings, as far as the eye could see.

  ‘Come, my children!’ Thanatos yelled at his army. ‘Arise! You are free!’

  Slowly, the figure nearest Elliot unfurled its wings. It was like a red, furless bat, its scrawny, naked body showing the bones beneath. It rose on thin legs with three-toed feet, legs that reminded Elliot of the chickens they used to have on Home Farm. As it stood, it lifted its horned head cautiously, looking up in awe at its leader.

  ‘Master?’ it said eventually. ‘Is that really you?’

  ‘Yes, Pistis, Daemon of Trust,’ said Thanatos grandly, extending a hand towards the Daemon. ‘It is I.’

  ‘Thought so,’ said Pistis, eagerly kissing the hand. ‘Everyone – it’s him, it really is, I just know it.’

  Elliot watched as the hundreds of other similar forms, of all sizes and colours, slowly unfurled their bodies and came forward to greet their leader. As each one passed him, he felt a surge of different emotions, from fear to jealousy to hunger to tiredness.

  ‘Mendacium, Daemon of Lies – I trust you’re pleased to see me,’ Thanatos said to a brown Daemon.

  ‘Er . . . yeah,’ Mendacium replied cautiously. ‘I’ve been counting down the days. Honest.’

  ‘About time,’ huffed a blue Daemon. ‘It’s been awful down here.’

  ‘I know, Penthos, Daemon of Misery,’ soothed Thanatos. ‘But better days are coming. I swear it.’

  ‘Course they are,’ said a purple Daemon sarcastically. ‘And I’m Miss World.’
/>   ‘You are Corus, Daemon of Disdain,’ shouted Thanatos. ‘And you are all FREE!’

  A deafening cheer went up from the Daemons as they rose into the sky and flew about in a swirl of colour, like paint being washed down a drain. Elliot struggled to control the feelings of anger, jealousy, fear and hunger that raged within him as they passed overhead. If these were the feelings they inspired when they weren’t even trying, he tried not to imagine what they could do if they attacked mortalkind on Earth.

  The screeching rose to a deafening pitch, the Daemons whooping and hollering with joy at their emancipation.

  ‘Calm down, Hygeia!’ Thanatos shouted at a brown Daemon. ‘You won’t remain Daemon of Health for long if you—’

  His warning was too late: with a gloopy pop, Hygeia exploded in mid-air, showering the ground with a splattering of brown goo.

  ‘Physician, heal thyself . . .’ Thanatos muttered, shaking his head at the mess on the ground.

  ‘Eurgh!’ cried Elliot, wiping some Daemon slime off his shoulder. ‘What was that?’

  ‘Oh, dear. Mortal emotions and experiences are fragile things,’ sighed Thanatos. ‘And every Daemon here is comprised of them. Alas, they are not invulnerable and can all too easily be destroyed. That was a case in point. At a certain frequency, they simply explode.’

  ‘Gross,’ muttered Elliot, stepping in some Hygeia on the floor. ‘You’ve got your Daemon army. Now where’s my mum?’

  ‘All in good time,’ Thanatos drawled. ‘Now, if you’ll just excuse me for a moment, I need to rally the troops.’

  The Daemon of Death stepped into the centre of the swirling throng.

  ‘My comrades! Our time is coming!’ he announced. ‘For too long we have suffered at the hands of the Gods. For too long we have been bound unjustly for the crime of simply wanting what they have – the world. Well, now . . . the Gods will pay! It is our time to fight! It is our time to triumph! Friends – it is OUR TIME! TO WAR!’

  And, like a screeching hurricane, the Daemons all took flight, filling the sky with their distorted rainbow. Several more exploded mid-air, to the jubilant delight of their colleagues.

  Thanatos leant down to Elliot.

  ‘You see what you’ve done?’ he said. ‘Thank you.’