I remember the great ages of the past. Every year, a dozen major deities would be killed, every year, a dozen would reform. But once a century, one of us would be missing. A major Deity would split into various other incarnations. Some, like Of Fortresses, would need a cataclysmic event to ever wipe out every minor mascot of the local castle at the same time to even have a chance at return.
Eventually, we realised we were wiping ourselves out. Now, I do not want to kill any of them. Divinity is the Light of this world, it should not be made extinct or reduced to nothing but Inventions simply because of our inability to keep the blades away from each other’s throats.
Even those I cannot personally stand, like Irinika.
Even someone like Arascus.
- Excerpt from Allasaria’s Diary. Dated to before the Great War.
Arascus took a heavy breath, his eyes cold, as he stepped off the edge of the balcony. So Allasaria had come. She had dragged whatever that monster was out of the surface of the ocean. The beast took another step, the multitude of octopus tentacles swinging from head from side to side as it pulled up the ocean along with it. One step pulled the water back as the ocean came to flood the area just taken up by that beast, the next cast it forwards again.
A thunderous tidal wave rolled over the firestorm that had just been called down by the bombers. Steam erupted skyward in a deafening roar, clouds billowing like ghostly spectres as fire fought water. Soldiers shielded their faces from the scalding mist, their cries lost in the chaos. Arascus would have handled that force in largely the same way, Kassie did know how to pick her men out. A lesser general would have wasted too much ammunition on such a minor threat. The God of Pride floated through the air as the army in Nanbasa’s animal reserve started to re-organize themselves. Arascus himself flew higher so that Allasaria would see him.
Allasaria herself would have to be kept away from the battle itself. Giant monsters were powerful, they could be unstoppable, but they rarely had the speed to cause as much damage as the strongest of Divines. An Olephia, an Irinika or an Allasaria were all far worse to face off than something that could be targeted with artillery. At least, that was what Arascus hoped for. He floated higher and withheld on attacking yet as the tidal wave caused by the monster’s lumbering steps finally ran out of energy to keep flooding onwards. The next one was from a shallower area of the ocean thankfully, and it only had half the amount of water as the first one.
Corpses of Uriamel’s army that had been swallowed by the firestorm of napalm were washed away. The giant crabs, their shells cracked open by the heat, the men and sea-wolves and porcupines, now reduced to dark liquid slurry discoloured by ash by flame, and the upper layer of rock and tarmac that had started to melt in the heat. The three giant turtles that had been chewing through what remained of Iniri’s seawall extended their legs and let themselves be taken by the current. As did the wrecks of the KAF bombers, each one a different model of requisitioned civilian plane.
Arascus took a deep breath and thought about ringing Helenna. No, there was no need. The Goddess would only get annoyed, and she was competent enough o be trusted that she was taking pictures right now. Allasaria was terribly strong and imposing, but if there was one thing Allasaria lacked, it was the ability to see the greater picture. Monsters like this could obliterate entire armies in battle, but monsters like this rarely turned the population towards them. Especially the more inhuman ones. Great beasts could at least rally some image of nobility. Monsters had strength, and that was all they had.
Arascus flew higher into the air as the monster took another step. He tapped into his own power, a golden disk appeared at his side. Then ten. A hundred. That should be enough to test the monster. Another appeared above him. A blade slid forth from each disk, simply the tip of a sword, a spear, a halberd, and axe or a javelin. Arascus gave one glance to Allasaria. She hovered in the distance, golden hair and white-gold dress whipping about in the wind, her hands extended, palms facing to the God of Pride. She was smiling, Arascus smiled back.
In the air like this, with her, he had honestly grown to miss it. It was nostalgic.
The blades shot forwards. They penetrated into that monsters head with barely any effect. A beam of blindingly blazing light left Allasaria’s palms, aiming straight for Arascus and large enough to bathe the whole God in its devouring heat. The disk above Arascus, with a huge blade, extended it downwards. It blocked the beam as two more shot out at Allasaria.
The Goddess of Light dodged to the side. A beam of light appeared from her side. It swept towards Arascus. He stood, unmoving in the air, as a blade fell from the sky to split it in half. The light peeled off, cascaded and reflected off the shining metal, and swept into a skyscraper, collapsing it. The blade twisted in the air, shot forwards at Allasaria. A beam of light wiped it from existence.
An axe swung from above Allasaria. From behind it, more of Allasaria’s power came. It destroyed the axe, then continued forwards at Arascus. The God parried the blow with a swing of a massive sword that fell out of yet another golden disk. Another skyscraper was hit, it started to slowly topple and fall, the glass crying out as it suddenly shattered under the tension of being bent.
The exchanges accelerated as the two Divines kept up with each other. They narrowed the gap slowly as Arascus’ weapons smashed into buildings around them, and Allasaria’s beams demolished building after building. Twice, her burning light hit the battle lines in the zoo. Lemur artillery and Lynx battle tank simply melted under the terrible heat that the Goddess of Light could put. Shells and ammunition set off from the heat, and it was only General Sokolowski’s quick orders and pulling the troops to the south that stopped more casualties. Arascus did what he could too, he positioned himself above Allasaria, so that anything she shot past him would harmlessly fly off into the air, and he slowly dragged her to the Northern Quarter of the city.
Sokolowski pulled the platoons and men who were garrisoning that section of Nanbasa out. Trucks and tanks slowly filtered out, towards the final lines of defence in Nanbasa’s governmental districts. For a moment, Arascus lost himself in the dance. Silver steel came to meet blinding light as Allasaria twirled in between skyscrapers. More of the steel giants started to topple under that deadly dance between the two Divines. They got closer and closer to each other, until Arascus could clearly make out Allasaria’s glowing eyes and the drops of sweat on her forehead. He knew she was tiring him out too, the back of his shirt felt damp. “Long time no see.” Arascus said.
“I have to thank you.” Allasaria shouted back. A beam of light lanced down from above, forcing Arascus to dive sideways. At the same moment, a spear materialized beneath him, hurtling upward toward Allasaria’s heart. The God dropped a shield from the sky, the Goddess enveloped herself in a bubble of light to block the attack. It disappeared after a moment and the two stared at each other as the monster took a step forwards. “Because this does blow off steam.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Arascus guffawed into the air. “Great and noble Allasaria? Needing to blow off steam? Never.” A beam of light that was quickly deflected by a sword shut him up. He was picking up the tricks in fighting her again though. It was like riding a bike, you never really lost the skill, but you did have to shake the rust off the wheels.
“I’d like to see you spend a millennium wrangling the White Pantheon.” Allasaria lifted up her arms and shot off another beam. Arascus started to conserve his energy, he merely dropped his flight for a moment, fell through the sky, and let the building behind him suddenly have a perfectly spherical hole in it. “You are weaker than in the past.”
“A thousand years in solitary confinement does that to you.” Arascus replied. He launched another blade at her for good measure. Allasaria had been tricky to kill back in the past when he was stronger than her. When it came to speed, there were only a few that could measure up against the Goddess of Light. “How goes your world?”
“Excellently.” Allasaria replied. “Until you came back.”
“If all it takes to knock your house over is a light breeze, it wasn’t a good house Allasaria.” Arascus said as he extended his arm to the huge monster that was taking its first step out of the ocean.
“You are correct. Mistakes were made. We went cheap on the foundations.” Allasaria lifted an arm up to the monster with its beard of tentacles. “As you can see, they’re going to be far stronger this time.”
“What benevolence.” Arascus shouted, chuckling. A sword-hilt materialized by his hand, he unsheathed the blade from the air and gave it a swing. The blade pulsed as if it had its own heartbeat, each pulse left a copy of it in reality. When the swing was finished, the dozen copies all short forwards. Allasaria spun in the air as Arascus closed the distance further.
“Do not pretend you are some paragon of benevolence either.” Allasaria argued back as her body was enveloped by a shield of light. Arascus’ blade passed through her, and where the metal should have drawn divine blood, it disappeared instead. Scorched from existence.
“It is not an argument of benevolence Allasaria.” Arascus shouted back. “It is an argument of the future.”
“This debate simply will never end Arascus.” Allasaria shouted back. Arascus simply could not accept the fact that this woman was so stubborn. Arascus slammed into the side of a skyscraper, rebounding off its glass facade just as Allasaria hurtled toward him. She moved like a comet wrapped in devouring light. He barely twisted out of the way in time, feeling the heat singe his skin as she grazed past him. “You will stagnate Arda.”
“Well we’ve seen a thousand years of your rule, haven’t we?” Arascus shouted back.
“A thousand years of peace, with centuries of technological advancements that have made even most magic irrelevant! Yes Arascus! Yes!” Allasaria shouted back in joyous rage. “Look and weep at what I have achieved!”
“I see it Allasaria!” Arascus shouted. “A world so magnificent all that was needed was a single kick on the door and the whole rotten structure is coming down!” More blades fell from the sky at the Goddess. Allasaria took a step back and let them pierce into the road and abandoned cars below her. “Where is Epa? Where is Arika? Truly this world loves to be ruled by you Allasaria!”
“No love is required, all that Arda needs is an example to follow.” Allasaria said coldly. “I am a guiding light for humanity. To steer them away from the rocks, but to let them command the ship themselves!” She flung her arms down at Arascus to launch another attack. From the Sun this time, a beam of light as thick as a skyscraper, directly at Arascus. The God of Pride, even if he wanted to dodge it, would have not been able to move that fast.
Arascus stood his ground, summoning a silver blade as wide as an ancient oak. With a single, sweeping motion, he cleaved the beam of light in two. The halves fizzled apart, carving twin trenches through the cityscape below. Arascus tutted, this truly would never end. To think that the Goddess of Light would be the most stubborn of them all. “Humanity makes ideas and ideas guide humanity. It is the same with us! Divinity is bestowed with a divine right to rule!”
“Then you Arascus, are an idea that should only exist in the history books.” And so the battle continued. “A world led by a Divine can never hope to surpass that Divine.”
“Then give it a Divine with limitless ambition.” Allasaria cracked a smile as they exchanged another series of blows. Another building started to topple, suddenly-shattering broken glass making a thin mist in the air.
“Delusion Arascus. That is what you are talking about. Pure delusion, do you think humanity will never imagine anything greater than you?”
“There will never be an Of Pride again Allasaria. My demesne will be split into a thousand others.” Arascus replied. “So no. If I die, no one will ever match me.” Allasaria snorted and rolled her eyes.
“You think too highly of yourself Arascus.”
“Ciria, Fortia, Maisara, even Kassandora! Do you think they’re not forged in the fires of humanity’s Pride? How many Abstracts exist on such a base level as me?”
“Simply foolish narcissism.” And the short pause was over. Once again Allasaria’s blinding light carved out a ravine through Nanbasa’s roads. Once again Arascus’ blades kept toppling buildings. Once again the God of Pride and the Goddess of Light danced through the air like two birds in song. Their tune signalling the destruction of Nanbasa’s entire northern quarter.
Blow after blow was exchanged, until both Allasaria and Arascus were breathing heavily. She had survived the Great War, of course she wouldn’t be an easy kill. But Arascus was disappointed couldn’t even get a scratch on her. Then again, she could not even singe the edge of his suit. Arascus put one arm up as drifted down to stand on a skyscraper. “Peace Allasaria, I have a question.”
If there was one thing that the man respected about the Goddess of Light, it was that she truly was an old breed. Older than most, and stubborn enough to have not been affected too much by Kassandora’s mentality of immediate violence. Someone like Fortia or Maisara would have gone for a swing as they saw the opening. Elassa would have already devastated the city. Worldbreaking-breed did not know honour in the way that those from the Age of Heroes did. “What is that Allasaria?” Arascus swung his blade to the monster as artillery expelled napalm over it. It did not even react to the flames, not to the pin-cushion of blades Arascus had shot into its head. The creature kept on walking.
“Uriamel’s Divine Titan.” Allasaria said. “It is Starspawn, not of this world.” Allasaria let Arascus gaze at it for a moment longer, her voice thick with pride. “Your monopoly on Titans has ended, I too have one now.” Arascus rolled his eyes. Allasaria was brilliant, but sometimes she really acted no better than a little girl.
Although maybe he did deserve it. He had been the only one to try and overshadow light. “Well done.” He answered sourly.
“Ktulu.” Allasaria said smugly. “We are not having a repeat of the Great War. Your insurrection ends here.” Arascus merely watched, at an angle, so he could keep an eye on Allasaria and on the battle happening in central Nanbasa. Planes were coming in rapidly, out of formation too. Sokolowski was simply requesting whatever was available.
Ktulu stopped. He swung his arms to the sides, then upwards. His head, no aflame with napalm and pin-cushioned by Arascus’ blades that fell from the sky, was twisted backwards to reveal the beak underneath that curtain of tentacles. The beak twisted, it opened. It started as a mere squeak, the sort squirrels would make. In a moment, it became an ear-piercing screech that shattered the glass windows of the skyscrapers in most of Nanbasa. A fog of shattered glass filled the ringed city for a moment before it started to dissipate.
Arascus looked down on the ground when he heard the cursed wailing of that monster. He looked down at the ground. Trees grew out of control, as if they were suddenly part of the creeping Jungle in the country’s western half. Yet the Jungle did not discolour them into a sickly, plagued black. It did not make the branches grow out of control either. They twisted and curled as if every inch of the wood had become its own lifeform and was trying to outcompete its neighbours.
And then Arascus saw the first trench-line of men. They had dropped their guns. Some had curled into balls on the ground, a few had shot themselves with their own guns. Those were the lucky ones. The ones who stayed alive lost control of themselves, their bodies grew pitch black. Skin became scales, teeth became fangs, eyes discoloured to terrible reds and blacks and browns. They stood up straight, turned and raced at men who once were their comrades.
And Ktulu took a step forwards. The cursed wailing hit the next trench line.