Chapter 2
Milo let out a sigh of relief as he finally arrived back in the preparation area. The post-match interviews and celebration had gone on for nearly two hours and even his ability to play a crowd had been strained towards the end. He pulled off the hoodie covered with sponsorship logos and flopped down on the couch with his eyes closed. He was rubbing at his temples when he heard a strange sound ticking sound, he opened his eyes and saw that every light in the room was flickering. With a sigh he stood back up and mumbled to himself.
“The world’s biggest and most expensive stadium and they can't even keep the lights on…”
He hadn’t expected anyone to hear him which was why he almost yelped like a little girl when the voice of a woman answered him.
“It’s not their fault, this always happens when I manifest in this dimension, lightning and me have never been on good terms.”
Milo whirled around to find a woman looking at him. The woman was unusually tall and wore a tight-fitting black dress with red slashes that looked extremely well made. Her eyes were the colour of human blood, and her long onyx black hair framed a striking face that would make almost any man look twice or downright stare at her. What he could make out of her body was so perfectly proportioned that it looked like she had been sculpted in marble by some ancient artist. She was easily one of the most attractive women Milo had ever lain eyes on.
Now many men would no doubt be happy to find an attractive woman wearing high heels, contacts and dressed in some cosplay costume in their locker room but Milo wasn’t most men. His wealth, fame, athletic physique and decent good looks meant that he was used to attractive women making a pass at him. And this woman was not only cosplaying but also talking nonsense which meant there was a non-zero chance she could be dangerous. Milo slowly backed up to the tunnel and then cupped his hands around his mouth to shout.
“Security!”
Milo fully expected his five-man team of former elite military soldiers to come rushing down the tunnel at his call, instead he was greeted by complete silence. With a hint of annoyance, he turned back to face the woman who seemed to be satisfied simply observing him. He gave her a fake smile.
“Alright you just stay right there lady, I’ll be back shortly.”
The unknown woman scoffed but didn’t move.
“Nobody is coming to arrest me, you and I are completely alone.”
Her words made the alarm bells already going off in his head go crazy. He whirled around and ran back up the tunnel to find his security team. The tunnel was only 100 meters long and he made it to the exit in only 7 seconds. He burst trough the tunnel and immediately located his security team, they were currently watching the tunnel like hawks. He started to say something to their leader and then realised that the man wasn’t moving, at all, in fact none of them were.
Milo carefully approached one of his frozen guards and inspected the man. The man remained completely still so he tried to poke him. When that got no reaction he spoke to him.
“Patric, can you hear me?”
No response. Milo was starting to fear the worst, so he placed his finger against Patric’s neck to take his pulse. It took only a few seconds to confirm his worst fear, Patric had no pulse, ergo he was dead, only he didn’t look dead, he looked… frozen. Milo shifted his focus to the rest of the stadium, not a single person was talking and now that he studied them, they were all also frozen in place. His heart was beating faster as his mind offered up two possibilities. Either everyone in the stadium had been murdered and then somehow propped up or something had frozen time for everyone but himself. He slowly turned around and looked down the tunnel. He took a deep breath and then headed back down. When he arrived, the woman was still standing in the exact spot where he’d left her. She smiled at him.
“Find anything interesting?”
Milo’s eyes narrowed on the woman.
“What have you done?”
“Nothing extraordinary, I simply created a bubble of frozen time around this stadium so that me and you could talk in private.”
Milo gaped at her.
“That’s not possible…”
The woman arched an eyebrow at him.
“Oh? You refuse to believe the evidence of your own eyes?”
Milo slapped himself and the woman laughed.
“No, you’re not asleep, try again.”
“I must be hallucinating?”
“No, and I’m starting to run out of patience young warrior.”
Milo didn’t like the hint of danger which had crept into the woman’s voice. He decided to play along for now.
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“Who are you?”
“I have a thousand names, but you might know me as Kali the destroyer, or Athena the god of wisdom and warfare, or perhaps Freyja the goddess of love, war and sex. But if I had to chose one name to go by it would be Lilith, goddess of the demonic realm.”
Milo couldn’t stop his face from taking on a sceptical expression.
“You’re a god?”
“I prefer goddess but yes.”
Before Milo could stop himself, his mouth ran away from him.
“Prove it.”
Lilith spread her arms in a grandiose gesture as if she were moses parting the ocean. At first nothing happened then coils of what looked like liquid shadow snaked up her left arm, a few seconds later coils of liquid flame snaked up her right arm. The two streams of liquid met right above her bosom and then merged to create what looked like a sphere of liquid magma. Lilith placed her hands under the sphere and for a moment Milo expected her flesh to melt away instead she lifted the sphere before throwing it straight up at the roof. Instead of stopping the sphere continued upwards until Milo lost sight of it.
Now a normal person might have run away at that particular display, but Milo had always been a curious person. He carefully walked over to Lilith and stared up at the perfectly round hole in the roof. As far as he could tell the magma sphere had penetrated trough a nearly a hundred meters of concrete and steel without ever stopping.
“Huh…”
Lilith placed an arm on his shoulder and Milo jumped.
“I have frozen time and displayed the elements of my realm, do you need further proof of my divinity Milo Harper?”
Something told Milo it would be a bad idea to ask her to repeat the trick twice. Instead, he shook his head.
“Good, now to business, you are quite possibly the most talented warrior your species has ever produced, and I have great need of you.”
“Really? You’re a god who can stop time and throw unstoppable balls of magma, what exactly do you need me for?”
Lilith smiled in a way that sent chills down his spine.
“I am powerful, but so are my enemies. My pantheon is about to begin a contest which will decide who of us will rule and who will serve. It is for this contest I have need of you, you will become my champion, and you will lead my armies to glorious victory!”
Milo didn’t quite like how certain this Lilith sounded about his servitude. He decided to slow the conversation down to give him time to think.
“When you say pantheon what do you mean?”
“Me and my siblings were the first beings ever created; we have been around since the very birth of this universe. Each of us represent one or more elements and it was only after several million years that we discovered we could combine our powers to access creation itself. We began small by making moons and comets, but eventually we learned how to create entire solar systems, each one unique. For a long time, we lived in harmony, delighting in our creations, until we decided to create life.”
Milo could already see where this story was heading.
“Let me guess, you created life, that life worshipped you and you ended up fighting over worshippers?”
Lilith’s face took on a look of genuine surprise.
“You are correct, but it was not just our vanity that split my siblings apart. Worshippers are more than just believers in our divinity, they actually generate something called spirit essence for the gods they worship. This essence can be used for raw creation and we soon started fighting over worshippers as we all raced to cut our siblings out of the creation process and become the sole deity to rule the universe.”
“That must have been quite the war…”
Lilith grimaced.
“It was, each of us claimed at least one sentient species and used the spirit essence to create our own divine dimensions. We then fortified our dimensions with fortresses and soldiers and once we had enough troops we attacked the other gods.”
“So, why’d you stop?”
“In the beginning there were so many gods that each element was present in at least a dozen gods. But once our war got out of hand several elements went extinct. Once we realised that the extinction of certain elements meant we would no longer be able to create planets and life in the future a peace was called.”
“You realised that planets and people would eventually die and that without the ability to create more you would eventually lose access to spirit essence forever.”
Lilith nodded.
“Precisely.”
“So, what’s the tally? How many gods did your war kill?”
Lilith’s grimace returned.
“There are 52 of us left, we are the strongest and each of us represents two elements, but if any of us were to die…”
Milo was starting to understand.
“So, how do you plan to preserve peace while still deciding whose boss?”
“We considered many solutions, but in the end, we settled on a contest of might and wisdom. Each of us will send a champion to a newly created planet, our champions will fight and whoever wins will assume command of our pantheon.”
Milo frowned.
“You’re talking about some sort of deathmatch in a giant arena?”
“Nothing so simple. The planet we created for this contest is huge and full of life. Each champion will be dropped at a location chosen by their god, then they will build their armies and fight it out.”
“You want me to conquer an entire world?!”
“Yes.”
Milo gaped at the woman.
“You do realise that I am an athlete, right? I know very little about military strategy and I’ve never actually killed anyone except in a virtual reality. What makes you think I’m your guy?”
Lilith’s face drew into a knowing smirk.
“Oh, I know exactly who you are, after all I’ve been watching you and other potential champions since you first set foot inside the training grounds I created for you.”
Milo’s eyes grew wide.
“You’re saying you created the Cybervision virtual reality visor?”
Lilith scoffed.
“Did you not think it strange how humans went from computer monitors to virtual reality visors within a few years?”
Now that she mentioned it Milo remembered how stunned the public had been by the sudden leap forward in virtual reality tech. Cybervision’s visor had come out of nowhere and had taken the world by storm.
“I looked at many candidates, but in the end it was between you and Sebastian. And while Sebastian is a formidable force, I always preferred you and your charm to his brooding silence.”
“Why do you need a peerless warrior? Wouldn’t some general with a talent for tactics be a better choice if your champion needs to conquer an entire world?”
“I am the goddess of demons, not the goddess of wisdom and war. My realm is a brutal one, and my people are proud and eager for war, they will not follow some armchair general even if I told them to. My champion needs to be strong above all else, any other traits such as your charm and ability to play a crowd are merely a bonus.”
Milo nodded slowly and then asked the question that really mattered.
“Alright, not that fighting a divine war doesn’t sound fun but what’s in this for me? It sounds like I’ll be taking an insane risk.”
Lilith had clearly been expecting the question because she answered without thinking.
“Once we win the contest, I will have access to the collective power of the entire pantheon. With this power I could do nearly anything, including making you into a minor god. You would not only be immortal, but you could do almost anything you want.”
“And if I refuse?”
Lilith’s smile turned feral.
“Then I would have no further use for you.”
Milo looked up at the hole in the roof and then gulped.
“How do I know you won’t simply screw me over after I win?”
“Gods do not make idle promises, when we swear something, we do so on our very essence and that promise becomes unbreakable. It is the same method we used to enforce our current peace treaty and how we will ensure that no god meddles directly with the contest once it has started.”
Milo nodded.
“Then I do believe we have a deal, once you swear an oath to uphold your end I will accept the offer.”
Lilith placed her hands on her chest and started speaking in a strange tone that if Milo didn’t know better, he would’ve called magical.
“I, Lilith, goddess of demons, swear upon my essence that I will offer my chosen champion, Milo Harper divine ascension as soon as it is within my power to do so.”
The very air crackled and Milo felt an invisible weight upon his shoulders. He was about to ask what was going on when the feeling suddenly vanished.
“There, it is done. Now it’s your turn.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I accept this deal of my own free will.”
Milo hesitated a moment before repeating the words. As soon as the words were out of his mouth Lilith stepped forward and placed her right hand on his chest. Her other arm settled on his shoulder in a grip designed to keep him still. Once again, the alarm bells in his mind were going off.
“What are you doing?”
“Relax, it will soon be over.”
Milo tried to say something, but the words turned to a scream as a sudden flash of heat erupted from Lilith’s hand. He looked down at his chest and watched in horror as her hand melted trough cloth, flesh and ribs. His eyes were wild by the time he felt her hand close around his heart. The heat only increased, and Milo thought he could feel his very bones melt right before he finally passed out.