Panic took Ishar, causing his limbs to tremble uncontrollably and spittle to drip down his lower lip as he watched Selarch Vigon approach Niada.

"Ovek, do something, please." He begged his God, tears blurring his vision of Ovek who stood beside him.

"It is her domain, Ishar, we are at her mercy." Ovek's words plunged Ishar deeper into the well of hopelessness. Her almond eyes were on him even as the blade was raised, she mouthed a sentence of three words as trails of tears flanked her lips.

Ishar threw himself to the ground, on his knees with his hands clasped before him. He was certain he lived up to the image of madness as he shook his interlocked fingers in Meena's direction. The Goddess raised a hand and Selarch halted, turning to regard Ishar with malicious glee evident on his barbaric face.

"Meena, Goddess above all. She who holds the realm in her palm and whose will is also law." Ishar could not hide the trembling from his words as his teeth chattered with every utterance. "Please hear my prayer, see my plea. I denounce my God. I choose you, please, spare the life of my beloved and take me in her stead."

The Goddess raised one golden eyebrow then laughed in what was a melodic tune but sounded like the screech of numerous birds of prey to Ishar. "You denounce your God? My, my, my! Ovek darling you were right about him willing to do anything for the sake of love." Meena took a step closer to Ishar and ran a warm hand across his cheek, wetting it with his tears. "You are willing to risk your God's curse for her?"

Ishar nodded. He did not understand what his actions meant but knew the results wouldn't be pleasant for him. Still, Niada mattered more to him. More than anything. He did not dare turn to see the look of betrayal on Ovek's face.

"Well, see how caged you are by love, Kolotian? It is a favor that I am showing you here and now. I am freeing you of all the chains that hold you back. You shall be born anew and oh how eager I am to see just how dazzling you'll be once polished free of this stain of Nyawe's love." Meena said. Ishar's eyes widened as he saw the Goddess begin to raise her hand, as he saw Selarch Vigon raise the blade once more. "As for your worship and service, Kolotians are too stained by Nyawe to ever truly be mine."

Ovek chuckled, causing Meena to pause and stare at him, freezing Selarch mid swing. The God of chaos walked over to where Ishar knelt before Meena and slapped away her hand from his face, forcing the Goddess to hiss at him. Ovek ignored Meena and forced Ishar's gaze to meet his own.

"You denounce me, Ishar?" His words were as casual as one asking about the weather.

"I just want Niada to live. It's my fault she's here. I just want her to live." Ishar said, he lowered his gaze free of Ovek's violet eyes and his shoulders shook with sobs. "I'm sorry Ovek, you chose wrong. In the end you chose wrong. I am not worthy of being your champion." "Why do you think yourself not worthy?" Ovek asked.

"Ovek darl-"

"Please, a moment." Ovek cut off the Goddess.

Ishar raised his head and met Niada's green eyes. She was in the same position as him, her dark smooth skin bathed in the golden glow of Meena's realm. Selarch looked to be enjoying himself from where he stood beside her, at his position of executioner Ishar saw exultation in the man's stance. When the sword plunged into Niada, Ishar knew she would die wherever she was. And in her death he would lose everything as his ability to hold on to meaning would disappear. In its place something else would grow.

"I am not worthy because I'm only committed to your purpose as long as it involves her well being. I don't care about anything else." Ishar said.

"And if she dies now? What then?" Ovek asked.

Ishar paused then replied. "I will burn everything to the ground, the blood of a Goddess will flow down hills, staining everything with its golden radiance. I will split mothers and their daughters open upon spears and force fathers and sons to watch before the same is done to them. I will bring about extinction that favors no one. Oceans of blood, waves of death will lap at my feet. The realm will unite in war against me and in the end only I will remain." His words were spoken in a calm tone that made Niada flinch, the golden grass beneath his feet transformed to black dust and the Goddess Meena took a step back.

"How did he know the color of my blood?" Meena asked.

"He has seen a point without order that is born of order. Kill Niada and you shall bleed." Ovek said.

Meena laughed, a hearty laugh that had her bust bouncing beneath her blood dress. "You're a silly God, Ovek, possessing him and uttering nonsense."

"I have not possessed him, I've simply led his thoughts to where madness dwells and he now stands at its edge. Can't you see his eyes? They glow amber while mine are currently violet." Ovek said with a hand pointing at the kneeling Ishar.

Meena scoffed. "Madness has no power in my domain. She turned to Selarch. "Kill he-"

He slammed into her midriff, lifting her off the ground, higher, higher, his feet left the ground with her and together they sailed towards the four suns within the sky. The force that brought things to the ground was nonsensical to Ishar, an imaginary thing that could be ignored. Meena screamed and punched at the Kolotian's back, the force sent Ishar whirling through the air to land in a deafening blast upon the ground, forming a crater and flinging everyone off their feet in a shock wave.

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Niada landed several paces away from the wielder of the gold sword and she struggled to crawl further away from him. The man regained his footing and his sword only to fix his eyes on where a crater had appeared, where Meena walked towards the hole in the ground. "Impossible" said the man.

"Nothing is impossible to Ishar anymore." The half naked man with Kolotian skin suddenly appeared beside the executioner, placing a hand on the man's white fur he continued, "It will be unwise to harm his lover at the moment, your Goddess might need her life to barter for her own."

The man in white fur shook off the hand. "Don't stain my coat with chaos, puny God. My Goddess cannot be defeated by a mere mortal, Ovek."

Ovek tilted his head back and laughed. "Selarch, Ishar is more than a mere mortal, he is a mortal driven by terrible purpose and let me assure you such a thing is every God's nightmare."

Selarch? Niada wondered. She turned her head to where the Goddess stood on the crest of the crater, peering inside it. Ocean of blood... She pondered as to where else she'd heard those words uttered by Ishar.

"YOU DARE STRIKE ME!" Meena screamed at him as he lay in the hole his body had dug into the ground. His legs were broken, so was his spine and arms. He decided the meaning of broken only applied to things that are no longer functional and his body was feeling very functional. Black dust suddenly surrounded him, engulfing him and as it did Meena's words trailed off, a look of shock on her face as he stood up from the bed of black dust. His body whole and functional.

"Kolotian, you-" Ishar sprinted at her, not allowing her to finish her words. Meena raised a hand and hit him to the side where he tumbled and rolled. "I am a Goddess! You hold no threat to me." Ishar rose once more and ran towards her again. Meena lifted a foot and kicked at his chest as he charged, flinging him backwards and into the ground. She walked over to him and pressed her foot onto his chest before he rose, the purple rope that had coiled around her ankle had vanished sometime during the battle. "You're weak." Meena declared.

Ishar gave the Goddess a bloody grin.

Meena raised her foot and brought it down on Ishar's chest, driving his upper body into the ground. She lifted her foot once more and descended it onto his face, forcing his legs to lift at the impact. Then she spat on him and turned away, walking towards where Ovek and Selarch stood with Niada sprawled on the ground behind them.

"So much for your terrible purpose." Selarch said without turning to Ovek as they both watched a furious Meena approach.

Ovek grunted, an amused grunt that forced Selarch to face him. The Binorian King saw the gleam of something unsettling within Ovek's eyes and abruptly turned towards Meena to see her walking not alone.

"Do you want to know what Meena's greatest fear is?" Ovek asked Selarch as they watched Ishar walking beside Meena. The Goddess gave a startled yelp and flinched away from him when she realized his presence beside her. Ishar's bloody head was caved in and ribs were sticking out of his depressed chest. And as he walked black dust swirled around him and where it touched he was made whole. "Her greatest fear is a mortal who doesn't believe in her."

Meena threw a punch packed with speed that couldn't be tracked by the naked eye. Ishar leaned his head to the side, glancing at Meena's ivory skin as her fist swept past. "I guess that is where her love for me came from. A need to exist in everything including where her opposite lies." Meena screeched and kicked at Ishar while at the same time clawing at his head. Ishar effortlessly sidestepped the attacks and parried a claw to the face at the cost of a broken wrist that was quickly mended by swirling black dust. "Meena understands her weakness when it comes to love, she seeks to escape it regardless of the cost of doing so. And why would she incur cost or even care about it? Her greatest fear is improbable. Who can fail to believe in the existence of order?" Ovek asked.

Ishar stepped out of range of Meena's swipe, she had the needles pinning her hair in hand, two of them, held evenly out. Her golden hair flowed down her face, curling upon her shoulders and dropping down her back. She swiped at him with the needles and each time he stood out of range, watching as the Goddess advanced with rage. "Only a mad person won't be able to believe in order, you see Selarch? Only a mad person can defy her laws." Ovek continued.

Ishar stood still, allowing Meena a shot at him. She drove the needles towards his head but he reached out a hand and grabbed her wrist, the tips of her weapons an inch away from his eyes. "And I have found my champion, blessed him with madness to fuel his terrible purpose that involves Meena's weakness, love."

Ishar watched the needles poised close to his face, then turned his gaze to the Goddess. She breathed in and out with disbelief, her blood dress flowing in a vigorous current around her body. "Ishar does not believe in her. And now she sees it in his eyes." Ovek said. "She faces her greatest fear."

Niada watched as Selarch's hand trembled until it let go of the gold sword whose fall was softened by the grass of a similar hue.

"Ovek chose well." Meena said with a smile, her wrist still held in Ishar's grip, shaking in her effort to free it. "I will consider mercy this time, Ishar, I will let you and your lover go." The Kolotian met her red gaze with his amber glare, seemingly unmoved by her words. "I will also-"

Gold liquid sprayed from Meena's face as Ishar's fist connected with her nose, sending her to the ground. One sun upon the endless sky vanished. Meena rose with fury only to meet a kick to the chest that brought her back down. Gold blood sputtered and stained her crimson lips. "I am a Goddess-" Ishar jumped on her midriff, pounding her into the ground with each bounce as another sun vanished. He started laughing like a maniac and Ovek echoed that laugh.

Ishar grabbed at Meena's hair and pulled her out of the depression in the ground, dragging her behind him and towards Ovek. Niada watched in awe as the Goddess screamed and kicked. Another sun vanished and the sky darkened further. The grass vanished, receding into the ground and in its place was black sand except where the Goddess was being dragged.

"Selar-" Meena called out but a kick to the side of her face shut her up. She screamed and Ishar let go of her hair, turned around and pounded his fists into her face. Gold liquid stained his hands to the elbow and Meena's attempts at a continuous scream died to a helpless squeal.

Selarch made to move to her but Ovek's grip on his shoulder held him in place. "Now now, there's still one sun left in the sky. The fun is only just beginning, where are you running off to?"

Selarch shook under the grip of the God of chaos. Ovek let go of his shoulder and slapped the man's head off. His headless body crumbled to the ground in a gush of red blood and his head rolled away over the black sand. Ovek turned his head to where Ishar was beating the living crap out of Meena and smiled before turning his attention to the singular sun of what remained of Meena's domain that was warding of full darkness with its presence. Only a moment until the domain was fully his once more. Then Meena will have one more thing to fear.