Where Gods Dare (Divine Protector Book 4)

by Scott Kinkade

  Priscilia nodded and turned back to face the mutilated goddess. She had to kill her before she regained her strength. The acid had weakened her, but Priscilia couldn’t take any chances.

  So, despite being greatly weakened herself, conjured her shield and proceeded to bash Athena with it. Athena howled as her flesh was torn apart by the shield’s spikes, but she remained standing. Undaunted, Priscilia relentlessly beat her, pulverizing what remained of her body with a savage fury she didn’t know she possessed.

  She couldn’t tell how much time passed. She was unaware of anything except the enemy in front of her she desperately needed to kill. Eventually, though, Athena went down and didn’t get back up. It was then that Priscilia noticed her hands and shield were completely covered in blood.

  She looked down at Athena. Her body had been beaten beyond recognition, and no facial features remained. It was a disgusting sight. She knew on some level she should be horrified, but she was too exhausted.

  She collapsed onto the ground, her consciousness slipping away.

  * * *

  Maya hoped Priscilia was able to finish off Athena, but she didn’t have the luxury of turning her attention away from Artemis. So she chose to have faith in her friend. Funny—she hadn’t even realized they were friends until that moment.

  Artemis glared at her, arrows at the ready. “Ready to die, bitch?”

  Maya didn’t have a witty retort ready, so she simply raised her own bow. This ended here.

  Artemis loosed her arrows. Maya calmly took aim and shot them in mid-air. Betting Artemis was using magma arrows again, Maya countered with her ice arrows. The resulting cloud of steam told her she was correct.

  “What the…?” Artemis yelled. Apparently, she had never studied basic chemistry. Maya planned to use the cover to launch her own attack.

  However, when she took a step forward, her foot exploded in white-hot agony. She screamed as pain enveloped her. She looked down; magma covered the ground.

  Artemis laughed. “Did you really think that would work? Magma will always beat ice. You can’t freeze all my delicious orange goodness with your pissy arrows. You’ll need something a lot better than that.”

  Maya hobbled on one foot, quickly redirecting energy to heal. But Artemis didn’t give her a chance to recover; more arrows pierced the steam, heading right for her. Maya just barely managed to jump out of the way on one foot; thankfully, the steam obstructed Artemis’ view, making it harder to aim.

  Nevertheless, more magma covered the ground, and more arrows followed it. Maya was able to dodge them, but quickly found herself facing a new problem: now the molten rock surrounded her, and with her injured foot, she didn’t think she could jump or fly over it.

  Artemis emerged from the steam on the other side of the river of magma she had created. “I just had a great idea,” she said, malice dancing across her face. She put away her arrows and pulled out a new one. Almost immediately, a familiar black form appeared. “I’ll pull you through the magma with my singularity arrow.”

  Maya was now being pulled towards the deadly substance only a few feet away. In a matter of moments, her world would be excruciating pain followed by a slow death. She struggled against it, but what could one student do against the power of a black hole?

  She forced herself to calm down and think. The more immediate problem was the magma, so she needed to do something about it first. Think back to chemistry class, Maya. What can stop magma? She needed more than ice. She needed something colder, like… liquid nitrogen!

  OK, OK. Think back. Liquid nitrogen is created by fractional distillation of liquid air. It boils instantly upon being placed on a warmer object, which would be just about anything.

  “Just melt away,” Artemis was now singing. “Melt, melt, until you’re all gone!”

  But now Maya had it; she (hopefully) knew how to create liquid nitrogen. With only seconds to test this, she readied and arrow and shot it at the magma. Almost immediately, it exploded in a white gas, freezing the magma into crystals.

  And it didn’t stop there. It spread out rapidly, even freezing Artemis solid, her singularity snuffed out when its master’s concentration failed.

  Maya marveled at her newest creation and the speed at which it had moved. The scene before her had quickly turned into a beautiful sparkling wonderland. Perhaps she had created something even more powerful than liquid nitrogen.

  “Damn you!” Artemis yelled. It was then that Maya noticed her head had survived being frozen.

  “Don’t expect to break out of it this time. It was the acid that allowed you to escape before, wasn’t it?”

  “Let me go!”

  Maya ignored her. “I’ve been frozen before, so I know what it’s like. By now, your body’s probably shutting down.”

  “S-Shut up!” Her teeth were chattering.

  Maya readied one more arrow and aimed it at her heart. She pulled it back and released it. The arrow soared through the air before penetrating the ice and becoming lodged in Artemis’ chest. The elder god spit up blood and slumped forward, her life over within moments.

  Maya sighed, her own energy greatly diminished. She found Priscilia passed out amongst the ruins and counted the haughty girl lucky; the lava had frozen mere feet from her. In fact, Artemis’ arrows had melted a great deal of the house.

  Maya sat down next to her, tempted to go to sleep herself. Nevertheless, she knew they had to keep moving before any other enemies showed up. With that in mind, she nudged Priscilia. “Wake up.”

  Priscilia moaned softly and reluctantly opened her eyes, apparently surprised to see Maya here. “What’s going on?”

  Maya noticed the battered form of Athena lying nearby. “I might ask you the same question.”

  Priscilia looked at her handiwork and grimaced. “I didn’t have much choice, now did I? And before you ask, no, I’m not proud of that.”

  Maya sighed. She was very tired, but there was no time to lose. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Right,” Priscilia said. “That androgynous god said there’s an elevator somewhere in the house. Except I just blew it to hell. Dammit.”

  Maya replied wearily, “Nothing to do but start sifting through debris until we find it. Hopefully, it’s not too badly damaged.”

  To her surprise, Priscilia laughed. “It’s funny. We Academy students evidently can’t help blowing up buildings. You guys did the same thing last year in the Tru Republic. You trashed a house and destroyed a Zero Grade facility.”

  Maya began shoving chunks of debris aside. “I’d like to think we’re the heroes of this story. And in the comics, heroes cause a lot of damage.”

  Priscilia helped her search for the elevator. “If you asked me back then if I’d be here with you now, fighting Zero Grade, I would have had you committed, but here we are. Life’s funny that way.”

  “We were wrong about you,” Maya said. “We thought you were stuck-up, but you’re really not so bad. Well, your friends Jorg and Relm were.”

  “I’m not going to say they had me fooled about their true nature or that I was different. We came together because we were the same. But I will say I was wrong about you as well. I thought you were a traitor with no sense of loyalty. But here you are, fighting to save everyone. You’re a good person, Maya.”

  “Thank you, Priscilia. Oh—here!” They moved large pieces of a wall aside and found the elevator.

  “Looks like it’s still intact,” Priscilia said.

  Maya studied the door. “I think this is a retinal scanner.”

  “I have a pretty good idea whose eye goes in here.” Priscilia went back to Athena’s body, at which point Maya looked away, not wanting to see this. Priscilia then returned with an eye. Seeing her reaction, the silver-haired girl said, “After what I just did to her, do you really think this bothers me?”

  “I guess not.”

  Priscilia put the eye up against the scanner, which then turned green and the door opened. “Next stop—the cor
e.”

  Chapter XII

  Daryn, CiCi and Jaysin fought their way through Hephaestus’ futuristic wonderland, forced to beat up the many denizens under the control of his programming. It proved to be a very difficult task; thousands of them came hunting for the trio, and they weren’t playing around. They fought ferociously and the Academy students couldn’t go all-out against them because they were victims in all this.

  Eventually the trio made it to the tallest building in Lemnos and entered it, sealing the doors behind them. They found themselves in a massive lobby, with glass-encased elevator shafts rising thirty feet up to the ceiling. A reception desk stood in the center, though presently there was no one manning it. In fact, the lobby was completely deserted.

  “There’s no one here to fight,” CiCi said, relief in her voice.

  “We finally catch a break,” Jaysin added.

  “Don’t get too used to it,” Daryn said. “I’m sure Hephaestus has plenty in store for us.”

  “Right you are!” Hephaestus’ voice began echoing through the PA system. “Come to the roof, and we’ll settle things.”

  “Gladly,” Jaysin said.

  But Daryn motioned for him to be quiet as he led them into the elevator. “What’s wrong?” CiCi said.

  “Maybe we don’t have to fight him. Maybe this elevator will take us straight to the core.” He pointed to a button below all the others that said “Core.”

  “Doubt it’ll be that easy, but press it,” Jaysin said.

  Daryin did so. A panel next to the buttons opened up and a green light shown from it. “Retinal scan required,” Ragnarok’s voice said.

  Daryn Tsked. “Should have known. It must need Hephaestus’ eye.”

  “You know he’s not going to just give it to us,” Jaysin pointed out.

  Sighing, Daryn said, “Yeah. I was just hoping we could slip past without having to fight him.”

  Jaysin shook his head. “No such luck, mate.”

  “Can’t we just smash through it?” CiCi said.

  Daryn put his hand on the door. “It’s made of haradium. We’d never put a dent in it.”

  “Looks like we only have one option,” Jaysin said.

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” CiCi asked. “Let’s go up to the roof and kick his butt!”

  Daryn pushed the button labeled “Roof Access” and they ascended. It was an agonizing ride, knowing they would soon have to face a member of the Flawless Few in deadly combat.

  Eventually, though, the doors opened and they stepped out onto the roof, uncertain as to what they’d find. The air was cool and the cityscape spread out far below them.

  “Welcome!” Hephaestus stood gallantly at the center of the roof, between what looked like two stadium speakers that dwarfed him.

  The trio approached. “Let’s get this over with,” Daryn said.

  Hephaestus grinned. “As you wish.” He snapped his fingers and the speakers began humming. Very quickly, though, they erupted with brilliant crimson energy, encompassing both themselves and Hephaestus.

  “What is this?” Daryn said.

  “Your execution!” Hephaestus happily declared.

  He held out his hand, and the energy began to swell in front of it.

  “Get down!” Daryn yelled. He leapt out of the way as Jaysin tackled CiCi to the ground. Almost instantly, a crimson beam shot out from the field and put a smoking hole in the wall next to the elevator.

  “Bastard’s got some tricks,” Daryn said. He conjured his hammer and leapt to Hephaestus. He brought the weapon down upon the energy field, but it immediately repelled him. He flew violently back through the air and dropped to the ground with a thud.

  Jaysin helped him up. “Getting through that shield’s not going to be easy.”

  “Thanks for stating the obvious,” Daryn said.

  “So what do we do?” CiCi asked.

  A gleeful Hephaestus declared, “You die, of course!”

  More crimson beams fired from the shield. The trio hit the deck to avoid getting vaporized. The roof itself must also have been made of haradium, because it held up well to the assault, merely getting scorched.

  Hephaestus didn’t let up for a second. He fired volley after volley, and it was all the students could do to dodge them. “Witness the power of technology!” Hephaestus yelled with no small measure of pride.

  Jaysin managed to summon his staff and struck the ground, sending a beam sailing harmlessly over his head. “This guy’s not so tough.”

  “Oh?” Hephaestus said. “So you like altering gravity. Well I can do that, too.”

  Suddenly they became much heavier. The three students fell to their knees. “What the?” Jaysin said.

  “I just increased the gravity under you a hundredfold. It’s not as impressive as reversing gravity like you just did, but it suits my needs just find.”

  CiCi was on all four limbs now. “I… can’t… breathe.”

  Daryn said, “Jaysin, you’ve got to reverse the gravity around her. She’ll die at this rate.”

  “Unh!” Jaysin said as he tried to lift his staff. “This thing weighs a ton now. Not sure if I can do it.”

  “You have to!”

  Jaysin struggled to do it, then apparently decided on a better strategy. Instead, he let the staff fall, reversing gravity around him. Once free, he promptly did the same for CiCi.

  “Get her into the elevator!” Daryn ordered him.

  “I won’t abandon you!” CiCi said.

  “Listen,” Daryn said. “There has to be a generator for Hephaestus’ shield somewhere in this building. You have to find it.”

  She nodded, now understanding him. “I will. You can count on me.”

  Jaysin got her into the elevator. But Hephaestus wasn’t going to let her go that easily. “Oh, no, you don’t!”

  Another beam erupted from his shield. CiCi, confined to the elevator, had no way of dodging it, and Jaysin was too busy with her and didn’t have time to react.

  But the attack never reached them, because Daryn managed to get himself in between them and block the blast with his hammer. He did this on a combination of willpower and his own incredible strength.

  “Daryn!” CiCi yelled.

  But Daryn didn’t answer. He remained there on his knees, a red-hot blast of pure death mere inches from his face, his hammer the only thing keeping him from being cooked alive. He strained with the supreme effort required to stave off a horrible death.

  And then Jaysin was there, striking the ground and sending the blast upwards. A relieved Daryn managed to breathe again. “Thanks,” he huffed. His breaths came to him in ragged gasps.

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “CiCi?”

  “She’s headed down, mate.”

  An annoyed Hephaestus just shook his head. “She’ll never find the generator. At least, not in time to save you. This building is over a hundred stories, you know. And you’re already exhausted. Your weapon isn’t faring too well, either.”

  Daryn looked down. Sure enough, his hammer was half-melted, dripping molten metal onto the roof. He quickly discarded it and conjured a new one.

  “How long do you think you can keep this up?” Hephaestus asked. “Every time you create something, you use up precious god energy. And you don’t have a lot left.”

  Daryn stood up. “As long as I have to. CiCi will bring down your shield, and then we’ll crush you.”

  Hephaestus laughed. “She’ll have to search all one hundred stories, and one person can’t do that.”

  “CiCi can,” Jaysin said. “There’s no doubt.”

  “I love the confidence in your friend, but you’re being unrealistic. There’s no hurry, though; while we wait for her to bring down my shield,” he said mockingly, “let’s have some fun.”

  He raised his arms, and the generators opened up. Out flew a dozen metal orbs which passed through the shield and hovered above them.

  Jaysin recognized these things. “It’s the paint can
isters from the God Games.” He had had to play an intense game of dodgeball with Zero Grade’s Dionysus, which he narrowly won.

  Hephaestus beamed with pride. “Oh, you’ve seen these before?”

  “Yeah. They were filled with paint.”

  “Paint?” Hephaestus looked genuinely confused. “These are deadly weapons! Only a lunatic would fill them with paint.”

  “Clearly you never met Loki after an eternity in Gehenna,” Daryn shrugged.

  Hephaestus’ brow furrowed. “I won’t have my creations insulted by the likes of you. Behold!”