Arakiel grumbled as he flew northward, unexpectedly quickly, yes; but the speed wasn't what bothered him; the six-limbed shapeshifter sitting on his back did, his current form bearing a distinct resemblance to a spider. "Seriously, you didn't have a single soul who could destroy this place, in all this time? Why wouldn't you, if it was this dangerous?"
Loki gripped on tightly. His own enchantments augmented existing flight speed; and by default, the metahuman could now fly far faster than he... which was uncomfortably fast. "Until our re-emergence in the public light a few decades ago, we didn't really intervene in mortal affairs... even outside the US. We pretended to be... normal. Mount Olympus was a doomed, probably toxic and deadly mountain. Valhalla was nonexistant except in myth. Sightings of Valkyries harvesting the dead were hallucinations. A long-term, concerted effort could have... we just didn't consider it important. Apollo told us that, barring the unforeseen, nothing would even happen here, and until recently his predictions have been spot-on. Somehow this is another consequence of you two intervening in the future."
He could see the glow in the distance; and the sudden descent of a black speck, a sudden puff of dust into the sky as if something had slammed into the ground. Nice. Looks like Valkyrie had beat them there; she could handle things before they even showed up. Plan B for the win. Just a few miles more and he could see what she did to the poor bastard. He'd be there in less than...
A sudden boom. The earth shook, a shockwaves expanded out from that glowing arrangement... and he could just barely make out that same black speck hurtling back upwards... he looked up to trace its ascent... his HUD interfacing the the friendly canadian sattelite network. That was.... Valkyrie. And she was traveling well beyond escape velocity. Which meant... it was a one-way trip, unless someone out there could grab her. "Ahhh, fuck. There went plan B."
He dropped low. He'd been hoping, deep down, that Odin and company would have solved this. And if not? Obviously Valkyrie, pissed off as she was, would clean house. Whoever Butcher was, his death had ensured that the rage hit her even stronger than most... but it was directed at the right target, thank god. If it hadn't been, they all would've been very quickly... well. Valkyried? If anyone deserved to be a verb, it was her.
But... it hadn't turned out that way. "Okay. Since it's still glowing, plan A failed. Valkyrie currently headed into orbit means plan B failed. With Odin probably dead, that makes you the next best magic expert we've got. What's plan C?"
As they settled to the earth, just outside the crater, Loki dropped off of Arakiel's back, settling to the ground.
"Okay. Let me get a feel of it. Odin thought he had turned the whole thing into a power siphon, of sorts, and it was why he was doing it; turn himself into the closest thing to a god by killing a few million humans... only it got out of hand."
The insectoid-seeming, six-limbed figure made a series of gestures, and drew out a set of small green gems; tossing them into the air. One by one, they vanished; after the third, he glanced down. An overhead view of the surroundings appeared in the dirt; including the uncovered Control Array, just a few hundred meters away, all of its internal components glowing; one of them only partially exposed.
"Olympia, this is Loki. The target hit the Titan hard enough to knock her into the void. Need you to retrieve her immediately. Anyone not on that needs to come here. Me and Arakiel are going to give this a shot, but I don't give us good odds. The target, he's..." He tilted his head. "Honestly not the best at this. It's one of the dirtiest, weakest power siphons I've ever seen. But.... it's connected him to the entire planet, and the death toll is probably in the billions by now considering the intensity of the rage effect. I'm going to redirect the siphon to myself, and improve it, suck the juice back out of him; and then we're going to kick his ass. Maybe. More likely, since he's already got enough life force to kick a Titan into orbit with ease, we're gonna die before we get that done."
Arakiel nodded along as Loki spoke.. and crawled to the edge of the excavation. He could see the central structure; a few armored limbs laying in pools of blood outside. One of them looked distinctly like Odin's boot. Every one of them was right at the area that had line of sight with the main entrance, all in the same place, as if Odin and Imperious had died the moment they entered line of sight of the entrance.... and he could see a distinctive feathered wing, at least fifty feet out... alone, with no body attached. Other bodies, wearing ordinary clothing, were scattered across the rest of the site, and the rest of his... former girlfriend's remains... were nowhere to be seen.
"Odin is confirmed down; or at the very least, has been dismembered, alongside Imperious." He frowned. He truly didn't know how strong the man had been; though he had slain Titans before. Was it Zeus or Odin who killed Cronos? This... meant this was pretty bad. Where were Lightning and Steven? Had something happened to them?
He slid back a few feet, and turned to Loki. "Alright. He's inside the structure. Looks like the first group to move in just died right at the entryway. That would've been... Odin, Imperious, and Excalibur, and lord knows who else Excalibur grabbed en route. He might not be able to leave the structure while doing the siphon. Should that make things easier?"
Loki frowned; it looked... even more strange on his insectoid face than it had on his normal, nose-less one. "The moment I reverse the siphon he's gonna feel it. I've got my manipulators working on it now. Can you distract him until I've stolen enough of his power to take him out?"
"...Ehhh... I can try. I can see all possible futures in the immediate term, but I couldn't dodge if Lightning tried to hit me, and if this guy has that much power in him...."
"Well. Try. Plan D is on a countdown timer, and involves every nuke we can get launched amidst the chaos... and honestly this guy could probably survive a few nukes at this point, so our next best shot might be Valkyrie making a second attempt."
Arakiel nodded. "Alright. Tell me when you're gonna start. I'll... just bounce around and annoy him as long as I can."
Loki raised all four arms. "....Starting.... Now."
One moment, Arakiel was turning towards the structure. Using the short range of telekinesis to start pulling himself into the sky. The next...
He could see the massive, black-armored figure stepping out... and then the world went black.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
He could dodge up. Down. Left. Hurl rocks in his path. Shoot at him. The only path.... He hurled himself aside, ending up behind one of the crystals; and felt a moment of horrible burning pain... glancing down. His left arm, leg, and part of his torso were gone. The pain was... impossible. He couldn't even move as he saw the armored figure move closer; the strange, black, wrought-iron look, with the blue glow at the center of the torso, stopping over him.
"You interrupted the flow? Interesting. I haven't seen these runes before. So... delicate. Precise. I can use these." The helmet pointed down at him, after focusing on one of the crystals. "Thank you. This should improve my efficiency immensely. I wish you'd done it earlier... but not so much earlier you could've stopped me." A single hand raised... and the world went black.
***
Arakiel jerked awake, staring at the night sky. How far ahead was that? He was wearing his current armor, sure, but did he have any adjustments planned? Could it be tomorrow? Next week? Or was that hours from now? His long-term vision was never that specific, and Apollo's had been garbage for a while now.
He reached down, and gripped Imperious's shoulder. "Sweetheart. We gotta get going. And... I'll need your help for a few, I took another dose, need to make sure I don't collapse and have another vision while flying or something."
The angel blinked, stretching, wings unfurling in the dim light, shifting to stare at him for a moment... and grumbled, pulling to her feet. "Seriously? Alright, alright. What did you see?"
"Somewhere... cold. Permafrost, ash, and dust. A dig site, an ancient artifact... again. It seems every time I see my death there's some old-school Titan artifact involved. Some guy had already killed you and Odin, knocked Valkyrie into orbit, and me and Loki were trying to cobble some victory out of the ashes of defeat. I... don't think it worked. I can remember being... half of a person... for a few seconds before it ended. We need to call in to base... and then talk to Odin."
"Someone beat Valkyrie...Damn. Hell, we need to get that on our side."
Imperious gripping him by the shoulder just in case he blacked out again, she picked him up; grunting for a moment as she got him into a good position; Arakiel stabilizing and help lift himself with his own abilities. "Call the boss. We'll head over and interrupt Odin. Hopefully we don't piss them off too much."
***
Thomes studied the files on his desk absently; the Crab issue seemed to be sorting itself out in rapid order. Another day, two at the outside, and the apocalyptic swarm of giant crabs would be finished. His people were looking for possible opposition, any sort of plan that someone might have been waiting for the distraction to enact.... but nothing, yet.
His phone rang. He glanced down... and grimaced. "What new crisis do you have for me today? Perhaps a polar bear Kaiju down from the arctic?"
He slowly nodded, staring at the wall.... and sighed. "Got it. I'll have the speedsters investigate. Go ahead and explain to Odin and get ready, just in case they can't handle it. Your ride is on the way."
He sighed, and tapped out a text message; forwarding the voice recording to Lightning rather than bothering to call him; Lightning would play it in accelerated fashion and likely be headed there, possibly with his cousin, before he finished texting the pilot to head for the shore.
***
Hate studied the structure carefully from his little hidey-hole; he'd moved it the night before, having acquired what he felt were all the resources he would need to prepare for the ritual; and, of course, gathering enough power to fight off a hero or two if he had to; but, ideally, he'd never have to. The workers were just finishing up the dig; all of the sigils were exposed. His own makeshift framework would be placed over the control panel, he'd replace the control rods.... and it would start.
An aura of pure, unfiltered fury would spread across the globe; like the effect of his own channeling, but vastly more powerful. He'd then link his armor to the device.... and poof. Immortality. Enough power to face a Titan. Assuming, of course, that the aura didn't manage to take those out; the only one he was genuinely worried about was Valkyrie. He could probably add a blend of despair in there, and well. He would get faster, as well as stronger, as the ritual worked.
He inhaled deeply, watching the workers loading up their tools for the day....and frowned. Was that.... He saw a momentary flash of blue, and the workers were looking around, confused. Dust was stirred up into the air.
He stared at the ruins for a moment... was that.... Was there a speedster in the area? Or some sort of other trick? Nobody could possibly know what he was up to, this wasn't even his plan until he'd realized how far the connection to these ruins went. Had... that american, the Artificer, figured something out? All the evidence was in his little pocket dimension...
He closed his eyes. He might not have globe-spanning power, but he'd planned on triggering the same aura of Hate to have the workers kill each other before he started anyway. He picked up the overlay; a clumsy, twisted lump of stone and iron; and stood at the entrance; before activating the Hate rod.
One moment, the guards were looking around, confused. The next... the one in the fancy clothes and the nice hat was being beaten down by the surrounding workers. There were other, scattered fights; and a man using a piece of construction equipment to crush some of his co-workers.
He smiled; the man who was clearly the foreman of the job was already dead, the men beating him covered in blood as some turned on each other... and he could hear gunshots in the distance. Now.... was it working on the speedsters as well? He glanced around, looking for any evidence.... but nothing else showed. He looked at the main structure; the smooth, obelisk-like control tower which was connected to all of the various... amplifiers? Whatever they were, they weren't quite completely uncovered. Hopefully this was enough, he'd planned to wait til the excavation was complete.
Waiting a few more seconds.... surely if the speedsters were around they would have helped the foreman? He stepped out into the light, the doorway appearing on the side of the crater wall... as he neatly folded it up, storing it... hopefully the next time he relocated it, it was after becoming unstoppably powerful.... and started walking towards the tower. The rage aura grew even more intense now that it wasn't being pushed through the door, and by the time he reached the mob of workmen, the foreman was more mush than man; and the men had turned on each other.
Looking around one more time, he nodded... and headed into the tower, for the panel that was the home to the control rod he carried; it might take a few minutes, but he was almost there.
***
Thomes glanced at his phone as it beeped, interrupting his call; and blinked. The text message was from Steven, rather than Lightning. That.... was not a good sign.
~Director Thomes. On approach to the artifact site, initially no target was found. We inspected all of the locals, checking IDs and searching for the missing rods, without result; I consulted the IDs of the individuals present against possible suspect lists, while Lightning inspected containers and buildings. While we were there an unknown psychic phenomenon triggered; likely the same rage effect from earlier reports. Myself and Lightning had an altercation; I am injured, Lightning is deceased. GPS coordinates included, but I will undoubtedly recover by the time anyone can get here; Lightning threw me into what can, at best, be described as the depths of the canadian wilderness, and my torso has been penetrated by wood fragments. The psychic shielding in our existing helmets is clearly insufficient. I would recommend only sending individuals with existing psychic resistance, and using caution. Whatever Arakiel predicted is either happening now, or was jump-started to happen more quickly by our investigation.~
He stared at the message. At the GPS coordinates. "Jesus christ.." Before the words had left his lips he was dialing another number, the incoming call forgotten. He could text his people and set everyone moving immediately. But if Arakiel's prediction were true... and it certainly sounded like it was about to happen... he had to convince the president to nuke Canada to save the world.