Chapter Thirty-Seven:
The Dark Ages
Odysseus
I sat on the couch in my living room with the Victorine Deorum in my hands, wrapped in a sweater so it didn’t look suspicious amongst my belongings. The bandages that swathed my body were thick and itchy, and caused me more agitation than I was presently feeling. A knock sounded on the front door, and a moment later, the God’s children began to enter the room one by one. They all wore masks of worry as they sat around me, trying not to gawk at my injuries. The portal I had crafted for the Shadow Walkers shimmered before the four stepped through, moving to sit crisscross on the ground before it.
I waited until everyone was comfortable before I folded my hands, my eyes serious as I spoke, “As you all know…” I began, “I was recently picked up by Pandora’s children.”
“Yes, we know…” Soren remorsefully croaked.
“Do you know the reason they tried to kill me?” I pressed. Everyone shook their heads, Shadow Walkers included, “It was because I found this.” I unraveled the book, which made everyone gasp unanimously.
“Kazakhstan; I was preparing to bring it home when Delias and Lillian kidnapped me.”
“Delias and Lillian!? No fucking way! where are they now?” Praxis cried.
“Dead. Atlas and Blaine killed them, then burned Pandora’s home to the ground.” I answered in a deadpan tone, my eyes narrowed.
“Why did no one tell us…?” Sebastian growled with pure green eyes.
“Why would they? They’ve never told us anything before? Why is this any different?” I fingered through a few pages of the book carefully, “I brought you here today to tell you everything they’ve refused to, to make sense of this ridiculous situation we find ourselves in.”
“And how do you know about all of this?” Griffin suspiciously snapped.
“The book tells of every secret the Gods have kept for thousands of years,” I stated, which made the Shadow Walkers tense up and I turn to them, “Including you’re dark secrets.”
“Their secrets?” Soren pressed.
“You thought you were sneaky, using only your initials to sign the register whenever you used the book. At first I had a hard time putting the initials together, until I realized that many shared similar last names.” I said, which made them frown ashamedly.
“What are you talking about, Odysseus?” Griffin groaned.
“Claude Bellamy, God of Electricity,” I began, which made the kids gasp, “Alice Bellamy, God of Fire. Stark Bellamy, God of Life. May Perry, God of Water. Jackson Morgan, God of Earth. Bianca Morgan, God of Wind. Seraphine McBride, God of Death.”
“Ok, you just dropped tons of information in one sentence!” Sebastian shrieked.
“Let me simplify it for you; all of Nicodemus’s Shadow Walkers are part of the Second Set of God’s chosen to rule the universe. They most likely kept this secret because of Nick’s parents. They were the ones who killed the Original Gods, so they are fully aware of what we’re up against here. That is the true reason that everyone is so weird about Nick’s Shadows… because they knew they were Gods, and that was sign enough of how powerful he is.”
{You know don’t you, Odysseus, about Chapter Two?} May whispered.
“Of course I do; following Chapter Nine, it was the next one I read.”
“What is Chapter Two?” Soren asked.
I cleared my throat and turned to the notes I had written about the chapter, “Secundo Adventu; the Second Coming. It’s a chapter that tells what happened to the first set of Gods, or the Originals, as we all call them. Basically, their powers were beginning to fail them, so they took precautionary measures to keep the universe safe. They tied their powers to a set of children who were meant to be born thousands of years in the future, who would share the same unique powers that the Originals had, and never lose their own powers the way the Gods of the past and present have, thus creating the perfect and ultimate immortal beings. Each God left a list of things that would need to be accomplished for everyone to know when the Successors had been born, which is why I called you here today.”
“And those kids are supposed to be… us…?” Soren stammered, barely able to keep himself upright as this washed over him.
Sebastian’s eyes widened, “This… this is what Pandora meant when she called us Successors, when she said she had been waiting centuries for us to be born. Gods, I thought being a God was bad… now, we’re some kind of prophetic set of immortal beings?”
“More or less. Tough pill to swallow, eh?” I snapped, glaring at Nick’s Shadows deeply. They cast me glances of shame, and duct their heads.
“What kind of things do… we… have to do?” Sebastian pressed.
I didn’t necessarily pause to let anyone catch up, “For example, Nicodemus. He needed to become Grim without being a God, become an Elite Bladedancer, contract more Shadow Walkers, and reap a soul without being a God.”
“But, he hasn’t done the last two…?”
[Not yet,] Alice began, [but with the whole situation with Halcyon, it’s obvious he will be completing the last two tasks very shortly. If he survives both the contract and the resurrection then it surely is proof that he is the Successor of Endymion.] She paused, and turned to me hesitantly, [How do you know that he has been talking to Halcyon?]
“I happened to check in on him at the right place and time.” I mumbled.
“What about you, Odysseus. What do you have to do?” Praxis continued.
“For the God of Life: create a soul without being a God, use your own spiritual essence to heal other Elementals, bring the Holy Sword to its final form, and disconnect a soul to absorb the Life Essence of another being.”
“Have you done any of them?” Soren said.
“I’ve brought the Holy Sword to its ultimate state once, but I can do it again with enough concentration. The vial I gave Ashlynn today was my essence, which I was able to obtain by drawing my own blood and using a spell to separate the energy from the liquid. As for detaching a soul…” My voice fell, and I looked to the book in my lap in shame, “Halcyon is my mother, my real mother. She sacrificed herself so that I could continue living, since she was never supposed to have children, and forced me to detach her soul so I wouldn’t die.”
“Oh Odysseus…” Sebastian whispered sadly, reaching out to grasp my hand with tears in his eyes, “I'm so sorry, sweetheart…?”
“Wait, so… your Mom is one of the original Gods?” Griffin croaked.
I shrugged wearily, “I guess so. I never knew until I found the book, and heard my Dad telling the other Gods about it. None of that matters right now, though. What matters is that I tell each of you what you have to accomplish. If you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s obvious that everyone in this room is one of the Successors. If that is the case, we need to start acting like it, because if we don’t step up Pandora is going to kill us and take the universe once more. ”
“We figured based on your implications,” Griffin said with a small smile.
“I know this is an insane amount of information, but bear with me as best as you can. Let’s start with Praxis: for the God of Wind, you would need to successfully siphon toxins from Elemental and Human bodies, create a tornado that surpasses the Humans’ Fujita scale and categorizes as a F10, be able to transform your body into the tornado ultimate, and create, repair, and fluctuate the atmosphere like Esen had.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Well, I'm getting close to many of those. I’ve siphoned toxins from Elementals before, so I just need to try it on a Human. I used an F10 multiple times to rip apart a dimension my mother made, I can transform into the tornado ultimate, and I’ve repaired holes in the atmosphere already. I'm currently working on creating an atmosphere for a dimension I'm using as a practice dummy.” She explained seriously, her nervous demeanor shifting as she began to swallow her fate.
“Then you’re well on your way, aren’t you?” Soren said with faked enthusiasm, fueled by his discomfort of the situation and reality that the pieces were finally lining up.
“What about the rest of us?” Griffin pressed, his bright eyes now dull beyond recognition.
“Griffin: you need to create and destroy electrical currents, learn how to master forging weapons made specifically for Gods, manipulate enough Electricity that you can power the entire Earth in one go, and create a big enough lightning storm to decimate a dimension.”
“Weapons? Why would the Electricity God do that?” Sebastian asked.
“Dunno. I guess Pandora was responsible for making all the weaponry that the God’s used. She’s the creator of all of our weapons, and our parent’s, which is yet another reason that she’s such a pain in the ass. It’s kind of an Electricity Elemental’s thing. What sets Griffin apart, would be that his weaponry would be made specifically for Elementals of extraordinary powers, and no regular Elemental could harness the energy needed to make the weapon work.”
“Well, I’ve done two already. I’ve been manipulating electrical currents for years, and my father has always been freaked out by that. He’s only able to maintain the ones that are presently in working order, while I can manifest and destroy them. He has his own dimension for me to play in, which I’ve obliterated multiple times with a lightning storm. I’ve yet to conjure a surge big enough to take control of Earth, but would love to see if I can try. My Dad told me that Electricity Elementals usually do make the weapons for other Elementals, and he’s showed me how they do it in the Electricity Realm, but I have yet to make any serious weaponry.”
“Where would you start?” I attempted curiously.
“I mean, I can definitely try and amp up our own weaponry to give us an advantage over Pandora. I know Soren’s been wanting some upgrades to his whip, and Praxis’s kukris could use some tweaking.” He offered with a slight shrug to the two.
“Well, so long as there isn’t much going on at the moment we’ll gladly hand them over for you to mess with, but make sure they don’t come back ruined.” Soren joked, which made he and his brother laugh while the Montgomery’s rolled their eyes.
I shook my head, “Ok, now to Soren. You would need to take the ultimate form of the Magma Monster, create a volcano with a magnitude of level ten, and summon an army of fire warriors, which are much like Shadow Walkers or Light Dancers.”
“I can definitely become the Magma Monster,” he said, then pursed his lips and cupped his chin, “Though, fire warriors, eh? I’ve never even thought about that. Blaine’s never shown me, nor brought it up to me. I wonder…?”
“What about the volcano?” Sebastian pressed.
“Pfft, are you kidding me? I’ve been cranking out level twelve volcanos for years!” Soren nonchalantly said, which made us gasp a little. “What?” He asked innocently.
“Level twelve?” I snapped, “That’s, insane?! Constantine was only able to go up to level ten! What kind of damage do they do?”
“Easily takes out a dimension, or two... Ok, maybe three…” he said with a blush.
“Well hot damn; way to tell us!” Sebastian joked with a wink, “Who’s next?”
“Well, the Water God would be next, but this is the insane part. Halcyon was never supposed to die. She was supposed to stay the Water God, so that she could lead the Successors properly the way the Originals had intended. That’s why we’ve never found another Water Elemental like us.” Pride radiated through my voice, “She can do some amazing things. She can take the form of a Siren, summon a category ten typhoon, and create an occurrence similar to what we call an ice age. She plagued the Earth with its first ice age during a fight with Constantine; imagine being able to do something like that just because you were pissed about a forest fire?”
“Wow, that’s, kind of cool!” Praxis tried.
“I suppose so. Now, finally, we have Sebastian, who besides Nicodemus has one of the more difficult list of tasks.”
“Of course,” he moaned, which made everyone giggle.
“You have to summon the Five Dragons, manipulate and create bodies of land, cause a category fifteen earthquake, and become the Stone Ultimate…?” I questioned curiously.
“Stone Ultimate? You have two ultimate moves?” Soren asked in shock.
Sebastian was staring ahead blankly, his face twisted in worry as he gnawed on his lip, “Technically, I suppose I do.” He whispered unsurely.
“Have you ever…?” Praxis pressed.
“Yes, I have, once. It was a very long time ago, and no one besides Dad has ever seen me do it,” he paused, then sighed softly, “I’ve actually accomplished all of them…” he murmured.
“What!?” Everyone gasped.
“How could you not tell us this?!” Soren barked.
“I didn’t think it meant I was the Successor of an all-powerful God, Soren!” He yelled, which made Soren frown sadly. “What was the highest recorded earthquake?” Sebastian snapped, eyeing his boyfriend angrily.
“Calypso’s highest summoned one was an eleven. Your father’s was a…”
“Nine point five, I know. Nineteen-sixty, the Chilean earthquake. It shook the Elemental world when he was able to accomplish that, but he’s never been able to go higher. My mother said that the energy he used to summon that one almost killed him as it was, and she made him promise to never do it again.” Sebastian stalely said.
“What was your biggest?” I hesitantly asked.
“Sixteen point seven…” he muttered.
“Gods, Sebastian, that’s amazing…” Soren sang, mesmerized.
Sebastian hugged himself with a thousand-yard stare, “I guess. What’s more important is that we get the rest of you up to speed as well, especially if it means Pandora falls.”
[What about Nick, Odysseus? What do you know about our situation?] Alice asked.
“When Nicodemus performs the contract ceremony, you must make sure that he contracts Stark and Bianca,” I said seriously, “The only way he can perform a spell of such high caliber is if he contracts powerful Shadow Walkers. You all, and them, are our best chance…”
(What makes you think we can find them…?) Claude scoffed, agony radiating through his expression, (I haven’t seen my brother in over two thousand years. When we died, our souls were scattered all throughout the Shadow Realm. Alice, May, and I only found one another by chance, and then we found Jackson when we were assigned to Nicodemus. Not only did I lose my brother, but Jackson lost his wife, May lost hers, and I almost lost Alice…) He morosely croaked, clutching Alice’s hand with tears in his eyes. She leaned into his side, kissing his jaw once while using her free hand to brush his cheek lovingly.
“Trust me, it will work. You all will be reunited, and Nicodemus will live. I promise.”
{And if he doesn’t?} May snapped, turning to me soullessly, {What do we do then, Odysseus? Not only do we lose one another again, but we lose our most beloved and cherished thing; Nicodemus. That boy is everything in the world and beyond to us. We have spent eighteen years watching him grow, watching him laugh, smile… and suffer. We did not invest ourselves into this child for nothing, and I will be damned if I lose him because of some stupid party trick in an old journal…?}
{I already lost Bexley, Jackson… I can’t lose him as well.} She choked brokenly, which made the Shadows all sigh.
“Bexley?” Soren asked.
{I didn’t think I’d ever love anything in the world as much as I loved Bexley… but when I met Nicodemus, I felt the love I had lost with her return to my soul. She was everything to me, the sun to my day, the moon to my night… but I would go another thousand years without Bexley if it meant I could spend them keeping Nicodemus safe…!” She cried before she began openly sobbing in grief. The other Shadows silently joined in, and buried their faces in their arms to hide their sadness from us.
The guys looked to one another sadly as I stood and walked to May’s side. She was hiccupping cries into her shirt as I knelt before her and laid my hand on where her shoulder would be, making her slowly peek up at me. I could see the seriousness in my eyes reflected in hers, and that seriousness made her own widen in awe. “I love him as much as you do...” I began softly, just enough for everyone to barely hear, “So much so that my hearts begins to ache whenever I think about him. The last thing I would do is put him in danger. This proceeds bringing my mother back; I accepted her loss a long time ago, and if I had to choose between the two, Nicodemus will always come first. If we don’t try this, May, he’s going to die, so this is our only option. I can’t do much right now, not with the state my health is in. But at least I can live vicariously through you all.”
She looked through my eyes and into my soul, which burned with the same passion my words conveyed. She finally smiled, {I know you will protect him, and love him just as much as we do. I'm just, scared for all of you. Pandora is…?}
“Pandora is causing a huge problem for herself by fucking with us,” Sebastian snapped, making May and I turn him, “She has no clue who she is messing with. Gods or not, Successor-things or not, we are all a team, family until the end. Everyone in this room, as well as Nicodemus, are who I consider to be my closest and most personal lifelong companions. I intend to live out that statement for many years to come. If she wants to keep her current living situation intact, she should probably stop while she’s ahead.” He triumphantly said.
“Sebby is right,” Praxis cried, standing to clap a hand on her brother’s shoulder, “We’ve been through a lot, and no matter how much worse it gets, we will overcome this together. Now that we have the knowledge to back up our cause, we will be unstoppable!”
“I agree.” I warmly replied.
“We’ll get you and Nick fixed up, find Halcyon, then become Gods and kick Pandora’s ass!” Griffin cheered, which made everyone laugh with nods and huge smiles.