Tarous

by Jeremy W Eason

  I walked toward Hephaestus, glaring at him with intense anger in my eyes. He had been the one to send the other gods after me. He would be the one to pay for his transgressions.

  The power of four gods flowed through my body. The power swirled around and through my body, building like an on-coming storm. As the power grew, I felt that it was overwhelmingly stronger than before, and it wanted release. I was no longer a weak and dying boy. I was a god.

  One step at a time I drew closer to Hephaestus. The world seemed to melt away, the only ones to exist in it were Hephaestus and I. Soon there would only be me. A bolt of black death energy whipped out of my body and dug a trench of death through his soldiers. As if some unspoken command was given, the armies separated and left plenty of space between the two of us.

  THIS WAS A BATTLE OF GODS!

  A wing of pure white feathers grew out of his left armored leg. A second wing also grew out of his black metal boot on his right leg. Two tiny wings also emerged from the left and right side of his helmet. He rose into the air and a quiver of golden arrows appeared on his back and a golden bow appeared in his hands.

  I raised a wall of ice, but the arrows shot right through the ice with little resistance. With only moments before being impaled by his arrows, I summoned shadows and the arrows passed through my shadows and reappeared in the ground several miles away.

  Hephaestus tossed his bow away.

  “Bring it on, oh god of dragging feet,” I said with a smirk. I summoned my black ‘Cupid’s Bow’ and shot towards Hephaestus, but the arrow only glanced off of his armor.

  This time he took out something rather terrifying. In his hand appeared a three pronged bolt of lightning that hissed and wriggled. It seemed to want to be released, as if it had a mind of its own and it wanted to be free at all costs.

  My mind started racing with ways to dodge to the best of my ability.

  “CHAINS OF PROMETHEUS!” Hephaestus yelled with a deep thundering voice.

  Thick metal chains shot from the ground and wrapped themselves around me. They slithered up my legs like snakes. Soon they covered every inch of my body, except my face. I tried calling the shadows to escape, but it was pointless. These chains were designed to hold a god.

  Hephaestus walked towards me. There was no way for me to escape the chains that entrapped me. He raised the bolt of lightning above his head and prepared to strike when my scythe impaled him in his side.

  My shadow self was holding the handle of the scythe, whose blade was now imbedded in Hephaestus’s right side. The lightning bolt fizzled out. Not even his golden armor could stop death. Death comes for all, even gods eventually.

  Hephaestus’s deep voice rumbled from the armor. “Well met young god, but it takes more than that to kill someone as old as me.”

  He reached down and pulled the scythe from his body and examined the weapon.

  “Not one of mine, but still a fine work of art,” he tossed the scythe to the side. My shadow quickly disappeared again.

  His wound almost instantly healed and then so did his armor. Golden treads shot across the opening and it quickly knitted itself back together. I realized I was outclassed in this battle.

  A loud roar shook the battle field.

  “The God of War has fallen!” someone yelled.

  A deep rumbling filled the ground as a tiny dog with glowing red eyes stepped between me and Hephaestus.

  “Let slip the dog of war,” I whispered with a grin.

  With a speed that far surpassed even the fastest of gods, Crowley shot across the ground, up Hephaestus’s body, and latched onto the back of his neck.

  Hephaestus roared. He tried to swat the tiny dog with his hand, but Crowley was already gone from his neck. In the time it took him to realize the dog was gone he was bitten three more times. A tiny blur orbited his body, moving faster than he could reach.

  A golden glow surrounded his armor and a bubble of energy extended from it, keeping Crowley from getting close to him. He raised his hand and out of the surrounding people Nyxra shot through the air, his hand grasped her neck. She blasted him with an energy spell and then continued trying to cast other spells on him, but nothing was working. Hephaestus didn’t even appear to notice.

  I had never heard of powers or weapons like this in any of Earth’s legends or in any of the information that had been given to me about the other gods when I was in the City of the Gods. Hephaestus appeared to have stayed busy over the last few centuries.

  “You have killed so many of my allies. I have lost at least five gods now, including the God of War. You and your friends have dealt my people a devastating blow. I will offer you a deal. We shall leave. You can keep your temple of death, and in exchange I will take this one with me. This one will stay as payback for all those that you have taken. Isn’t the life a one mortal worth far less than the lives of the gods you took?”

  “No,” I replied.

  “No to the deal or no that you don’t think her life is a fair exchange for theirs?”

  “No,” I replied again.

  “If you do not agree, everyone here will die.”

  The fighting began to die down as others turned to see the decision that would decide this battle.

  “No,” I replied again. The steel in my voice carried easily across the space.

  “Are you a fool?” Hephaestus yelled.

  “Yes,” I answered.

  Nyxra’s face was beginning to turn blue as Hephaestus gripped tighter in anger.

  My skin tingled with power.

  “Let go of the woman I love.”

  “You are insane. You have killed everyone here. Our power is too equal, a swift victory is impossible. Only death awaits everyone here!”

  “I am death,” I replied.

  I called forth all of my power, every drop, and it wasn’t enough. So I reached deeper, from every place I could find, like a drowning man. The dead that had risen earlier to help in the battle dropped as I recalled all the power I had used to animate them.

  “Is her life worth your own death?”

  “She is worth my life and yours.” Power hummed beneath my skin. It felt like it was on fire.

  Hephaestus took a step back, but he didn’t release Nyxra.

  The chains binding me sagged and drooped as the power that coursed through me became too much for them to contain. Finally, they fell softly at my feet.

  “My life, your life, and even the lives of every living being in every world that exists are nothing to me when compared to her life!”

  I continued drawing in power from every source I could. Holding so much power was painful, and I wasn’t sure what would happen to me once I released all of it. I would only have one shot.

  I was not afraid. The cracks in the core of my soul were completely healed. I was fully prepared to commit everything to take down Hephaestus. After all, what is the point of living forever if everyone you love is dead?

  “You are insane!” Hephaestus yelled, taking another step back.

  The fire that coursed through my skin was hot enough to warm the grave itself. The entire world became black and all that blackness gathered into a single point.

  “Even death shall die,” I muttered.

  “I was old before the first human was even born, boy! Don’t think for one second you can win!”

  “You may be an old god, but even you, who is so old, fears me,” I said in a low voice that still carried clearly across the battle. It was a truth that Hephaestus did not argue against.

  “Here, take her!” said Hephaestus as he tossed Nyxra to the ground. Cronus appeared beside her and then quickly disappeared with her.

  “No matter where you go, death will always find you,” I whispered as I released my power. A wave of black energy flowed out of my body. It was targeted at only killing my enemies and leaving my allies unharmed.

  Hephaestus managed to jump through a portal before the wave could kill him, but his one good leg came into contact with the wave before
he disappeared. It would be a long time, if ever, before I would see Hephaestus again.

  I placed what was left of the Prometheus chains inside of my space ring along with any pieces of metallic gargoyles that I could find. Perhaps in the future I could have them re-forged. I hated to waste such a powerful weapon. I noticed Edward picking up a few things as well several yards away.

  I eventually made my way to the edge of the battlefield and came across Cupid. I noticed a few demons had survived my wave of death. Apparently they had been on the outside of the battle and had managed to survive. I gave them a friendly smile. Several of the demons screamed, and one even passed out.

  “Dude, you are freaking the demons out,” grumbled Cupid, but with a little awe in his voice.

  “Oh my, there will be no living with him from now on,” mumbled Nyxra as she and Cronus walked toward us.

  Chapter 41

  After the battle, I returned to the academy for some much needed rest.

  I opened my eyes to see Bob standing in the doorway with a golden knife in his hands.

  “I was wondering when you would act.”

  “You knew?”

  “From the moment I saw the anvil and hammer etched on Hephaestus’s armor, I knew. I also saw the symbol of faith when you dropped me and asked Cronus about it after the battle that you were conveniently absent from.”

  The instant I saw Hephaestus’s armor I had recognized the symbol from the tattoo I had noticed on Bob soon after we had met.

  “I’m sorry Tarous. He is my god and I have to follow him.”

  “I’m a god too Bob, you could always follow me instead. I promise to never lead you astray.” Drinking too much and going to strip clubs wasn’t leading him astray in my book.

  “It’s not the same. He has been a god longer than our race has existed.”

  “That just makes him old, not right.”

  “We were never truly friends,” he said right before he threw the knife.

  His watch beeped. He had lost track of time. As it beeped, his belief in me and our friendship returned. The blade had already left his hand and spun towards my heart and it was the easiest thing in the world for me to grab the knife and throw it back towards him.

  The blade sunk into his heart and he fell to his knees. It was one of Hephaestus’s golden god killing weapons. Like everything he made, they were deadly to both humans and gods.

  “Why did you kill me Tarous? We are best friends?” The confusion in his voice hurt me deeper than I care to admit.

  Despite having tried to kill me I walked over to him. He was still my best friend despite everything and right now he was confused and scared. A puddle of blood was forming under him. I never realized how much blood was in the human body until then.

  “You are fooling yourself, God of Faith. Bob.” My voice broke as I said his name. I knelt down beside his body.

  How can a god fool themselves? The God of Faith’s power was the ability to fully commit and believe in anything, even the lies we tell ourselves. It was Bob’s power to make himself completely believe the lie he was telling, even if it was only between the times of 3:00 am and 11:59 pm. To carry on his lie for so long he had to believe, to have complete faith in his own words.

  “I’m sorry, Tarous,” he whispered before coughing up blood. In death his mind was completely clear, and the two Bobs merged into one in that moment.

  “I really wanted to be your friend when we met. If only the reaper hadn’t chosen you to be his successor…”

  There were no long goodbyes as the light faded from his eyes.

  I could feel power swelling up inside me. I could feel the powers of another god flowing into my body. The powers of five gods swirled around inside of me and began to fuse.

  God of Death, God of Shadow, God of Ice, God of Nature, and God of Faith. The power of five gods is what it took to transform someone into an Elder God and that is exactly what I had.

  Reality seemed to change as the power of the universe descended. There was sudden enlightenment, instant understanding of the fundamental laws of reality, an entire shift in my world view. My mind was processing faster than any quantum computer.

  My body was strengthened. My bones, my muscles, and every organ and component inside my body was constantly shattering and reforming. Every second I was rising in power faster and faster. My rise in power was terrifying, and the increase in power inconceivable. There seemed to be no end in sight.

  My body began to change and reality began to ripple as my power grew. The five types of god power bubbled and frothed inside me. I concentrated on fusing it, but it was no easy task. The power became too great. My body couldn’t contain it. My body started to glow with a light so blinding it was like a miniature sun. Then my entire being imploded.

  Nothing was left behind but a tiny rip in reality.

  I was once again surrounded by nothing but blackness. This time I was floating, weightless, as if I was in a pool of pure darkness. Somehow the black nothingness was peaceful, and my body relaxed.

  I could still feel the five different god powers twisting around inside me. Then the powers seemed to leave my body and five different colored orbs of energy floated in front of me. I tried fusing them together again by pushing the orbs together and it seemed much easier now. I pushed the five powers together until they formed one big ball of energy. The fusion of five types of god power resulted in a new energy that was pure black in color.

  The pure black energy that didn’t contain even a hint of any other color flooded back through my body. I could see that a translucent skull was superimposed over my face. Suddenly I felt incredibly powerful. Mentally and physically supercharged. I truly felt like a god, like I could crush the sun in the palm of my hand. Like I could smash galaxies apart with my bare fist.

  I became even more connected to everything. I could feel everything and that made everything feel more real.

  With that, I once again imploded and reappeared back in my own plane of existence.

  Chapter 42

  I found Nyxra and we went out for a nice dinner. Then we went to a local park and watched the sun set.

  “I’ve missed you Tarous.”

  “I’ve missed you as well.”

  I reached for her hand and a black scythe appeared on her wrist. As much of my power as her body could handle had been transferred to her. It’s not like I needed it. I was now an Elder God with power to spare. Besides, it was less than one percent of my full power. More than that and she would have exploded.

  After my transformation, besides the increase in quality and amount of my energy, I noticed a few other changes. I no longer needed spells or techniques to control the death qi inside of me nor to access my god powers. I simply willed my powers to work and they happened instantly.

  It felt so simple. I no longer used the powers of death, I was the power of death. I was death and it was merely an extension of myself. I had become closer to the universe. I had started to merge with the very fabric of reality, and that is what made an Elder God.

  I knew now was not the time to rest. The other gods had wanted to kill me and take my powers before because I was a new god. What would they do to someone that had the powers of an Elder God and wasn’t even a century old?

  I sat back and enjoyed my time with Nyxra. That was a worry for another day.