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Missouri 2003
"Today soldiers, you will be throwing LIVE grenades," a drill sergeant yelled. "This is a dangerous exercise. Understood?"
"YES DRILL SERGEANT," the platoon yelled.
"One at a time you will come to the bunker," the drill sergeant said. "When in the bunker, follow all the directions given to you. You will be engaging targets at twenty-five and thirty-five meters today. Understood?"
"YES DRILL SERGEANT," the platoon yelled.
"At the end of today, you WILL be qualified on grenades. Understood?"
"YES DRILL SERGEANT," the platoon yelled again.
One at a time the soldiers went into the bunker to finish their grenade qualification course. It was just another phase of training they had to complete before they could graduate and join their units. They were required to throw the grenades accurately into targeted zones multiple times. Before the live grenade exorcise, they had been using dummy grenades to practice their form and technique. It had been two weeks since they started practice with the dummy grenades, and it was finally time for the real deal.
"ENTERING DRILL SERGEANT," the soldier yelled into the bunker and walked in to face the drill sergeant.
"Your first target will be the fighting position over there at thirty-five meters. Understood," the drill sergeant said.
"Yes drill sergeant," the soldier replied.
All of the soldiers had been told the instructions time and time again. Now they had to demonstrate.
"Half ready," the drill sergeant said.
The soldier pulled the grenade from his grenade pouch. He held it in his fist in front of him.
"Ready," the drill sergeant said.
The soldier pulled the pin from the grenade. He kept his fist closed so the spoon did not move. The drill sergeant watched intently during this process. If any mistakes were made the grenade had to be thrown immediately. The drill sergeant would then throw himself and the soldier down into a safety trench inside the bunker.
"Take aim," the drill sergeant said.
With the grenade in his right hand, he moved his left arm up at an angle to aim at the target.
"Release," The drill sergeant said.
The soldier threw the grenade shot put style, then ducked behind the bunker wall. He had been practicing this for two weeks. The practice paid off. The grenade landed dead center in the target area and detonated. The soldier went through the same process again for the twenty-five-meter target. His throw was perfect again.
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The Greater Gods Life and Death were hosting a party at the grand palace. The palace was on the other side of the city from the Coliseum. It was a massive structure almost as tall as the Coliseum itself. It was white with black accents, topped with a golden-domed roof. Atop the roof were two statues, one of Life, the other of Death. It had four spires, one on each of the corners of the building. There were no windows anywhere on the building. It was a solid structure, the only entrance in was through two twenty-foot rectangular doors that opened outwards. The doors were solid gold with intricate depictions on them. One had The Greater God of Life walking through a lush garden. He had a gentle smile and appeared to be walking through a garden, nurturing the garden to vibrant life. The other door had The Greater God of Death floating in the air. He looked to be guiding a soul to its final rest. Around the building were lush gardens, lighted marble walkways, neatly trimmed grass, and a grand pavilion. The pillars holding up the pavilion had beautiful carvings showing different scenes of dancing, feasts, or grand gatherings. The pavilion had a ball floor in the center of it. Lesser and Ascended Gods could be seen dancing, or being attended to by servers carrying refreshment trays. Soft glowing lights illuminated everything in the pavilion and set a relaxed mood.
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Life and Death sat next to each other on an elevated dais at the end of the pavilion. They smiled and watched over their guests while having a conversation.
"Does a god truly die," Life asked quietly.
"I do not believe they have a true death no," Death answered.
"This leaves us with a problem then doesn't it," life asked.
"We will handle it. Even if Games comes back, he will be weak, easy to crush," Death said.
"I do hope you are correct," Life said. "It nearly cost us everything last time we put him down."
Across the pavilion, Mischief and Pain were talking to another Lesser God.
"You fools already gave favor, to a day one avatar, what is wrong with you," The Lesser God of Rage asked in an angry tone. Rage was a muscular minotaur with black fur and two long white horns.
"It is my nature to grant favor to those who give other exquisite agony," Pain answered. Mischief just chuckled. He said nothing to Rage.
"Hmph, I hear you evened out anyway by snagging some of Harmony's followers," Rage said.
"It was most welcome," Mischief responded. "Are you wanting to wager followers? One that has your favor fights ours tomorrow, does he not?"
"He does," Rage said. "Do you have followers to throw away?"
"We don't throw our followers away," Mischief said in mock hurt. "We may wager with their lives, but never just throw them away."
"Five followers," Rage said. "That's my wager."
"Each," Pain answered.
"The wager is ten followers, if you win you get five from each of us, if we win we each get five," Mischief said.
"HA, you fools think highly of your favored," Rage laughed. "I will gladly take five from each of you."
"Only if you win Rage, don't get ahead of yourself," Pain said.
"I have won already, your favored only has one ability unlocked, mine has five," Rage boasted.
Mischief and Pain smiled at Rage, together they said, "We will see tomorrow." Rage laughed and walked off sauntering onto the ball floor.
"We are going to need to nurture our favored," Mischief said quietly.
"Agreed," Pain said. "We cannot lose any of our followers in doing so though. The only way this works is by us continuously using up the other god's followers."
"Slowly, we will weaken them, and when the time comes they will not have the strength to intervene," Mischief said.
The two Lesser gods bowed their heads a little.
"This is a grand party friend," Mischief said. "Why don't we have a little fun?"
"Hmph," Pain said. "You go ahead, this isn't ideal for me. Too many niceties happening here."
Mischief chuckled and nodded to Pain. He walked through the crowd of gods making sure to pay attention to certain ones. He knew there were juicy nuggets of information to be gained in this place. The gods here had loose lips. They were always on their guard in the Coliseum, but here, they thought nothing of their conversations. Mischief blended into the crowd easily, getting a word from this god or the next, and of course, playing little tricks here and there. It was his nature of course.
Pain left the grand palace shortly after the conversation with Rage and Mischief. He had work to do in his domain and didn't want to be gone for long. He needed to finish all of the preparations for his side of the deal with Mischief. They had a short window to ensure everything they were working on was in place and ready to be enacted. The time was coming to raise another god, but first, their favored needed to win his match the next day and continue his path upwards.