by Noah Layton
The metal of the corvette creaked and tore as Ascevious swept his hands against it, yelling with furious rage.
‘I WILL NOT BE KEPT IN ANOTHER CAGE!!!’
He burst free from the metal holding him in place, grabbing hold of James’s body and leaping into the sky. The ground rushed away too quickly before they descended onto a building ten stories up, slamming onto the concrete and rolling away from each other one last time.
In the street below, screams and shouts echoed upwards to where James limped up, his body struggling to repair the damage as fast as it was being dealt.
Ascevious arose, his eyes flaring purple as he reached into his cloak and produced a blade.
‘I didn’t want to hurt you…’ He breathed. ‘Not until I’d retrieved the final piece of my soul from you, anyway.’
‘You think a knife is going to kill me?’ James asked shaking his head. ‘Those powers you have are mine, too.’
‘They are indeed – but my totem, this dagger, is different. Alerian ensured that its powers would be nulled in the bastard dimension that he locked us in, but out here it works. It was crafted by the gods themselves, a tool crafted in the darkest depths of the universe, designed to kill anything… Even gods.
‘I was planning on waiting until I’d removed the final piece of my soul from you before I killed you… But I suppose I can do it to you with a knife sticking through your aorta.’
Ascevious sprinted towards James, who didn’t even have time to react. The god fell atop him, pinning him to the ground as he raised the dagger up and brought it down towards James’s chest.
James caught his forearm, gripping onto it with every semblance of strength that he could muster.
His arms tensed and shook, that same vibration of focused energy coursing through his entire body as the blade of the knife pushed closer and closer to his chest.
Ascevious stared him down, the slightest of smirks at the edge of his mouth.
‘Just let it happen, human.’
‘… No.’
James made his move, forcing the knife to the left. It snagged on his arm, a sharp sting hitting him before the knife twanged off the concrete ground. Pulling his arm back and gritting his teeth with anger, James launched his fist forward at Ascevious’s elbow.
The bones broke, the joint snapping like a tree branch and releasing an almighty scream from the god’s lungs. Concrete and stone may have done little damage upon them, but the strength behind their fists could.
James threw him off, striking Ascevious in the jaw and stumbling away, out of reach.
The god moaned in pain, clutching at his broken arm as it steadily healed, shifting back into place.
James ran to the knife, taking it up in his hand and striking Ascevious with it across the shoulder, ripping it free and then swiping it across his chest.
There was nothing heroic or glamorous about any of it. They may have possessed incredible powers and abilities, but in that moment James only saw himself and his enemy, two men who were damaged and bleeding and bruised, stumbling about on a rooftop while taking awkward, brutal strikes and jabs at each other.
James panted, shifting the handle of the knife in his hand while checking the scar on his side with the other.
It was true – it wasn’t healing.
Which meant that the knife’s powers were real.
James readied himself to attack Ascevious with the knife, to finally finish of his enemy, but-
‘Wait…’ Ascevious breathed, his shoulders slumping as he knelt on the ground. ‘Don’t… I yield.’
James didn’t make a move, remaining on the watch as checked his grasp once again on the knife.
He trusted Ascevious in precisely zero ways, but there was something about the god’s demeanour that made James believe him. The lines and movements of his body had changed from those of defiance to exhaustion and apathy.
James had never been apathetic, and he wasn’t now, but exhaustion was something he was all too familiar with… And all of the fighting and the chasing and killing had caught up with him too. He slumped down to sit on the ground, just a few yards from the defeated god nearby.
Ascevious did nothing for almost a minute, only inhaling and exhaling slowly, rhythmically, as he stared at the ground.
‘The merciful thing to do would be to kill me now,’ he finally growled. ‘This is a mockery, allowing me to sit here in shame and defeat.’
‘I just need to rest for a minute,’ James said, laughing lightly at the strangeness of the situation.
‘This is exactly why you are unworthy. The gods do not tire. Alerian and I were at war with each other within that small dimension for 80 years. Nothing but fighting. And here you are, after one small fight, taking a break… Embarrassing.’
James shook his head, smiling.
‘You’ve killed people. Unleashed a monster that ate humans. Murdered a god of your own kind. Caged a thousand goddesses from a thousand different kingdoms… And now you’re feeling sorry for yourself? Are you fucking kidding me?’
‘We do not think the same way that you think. You humans have finite lifespans. We have lived for so long that I am unsure if we even do die. And no, I do not feel sorry for myself.’
‘I think your mind is more similar to a human’s than you think. Your ego, for one. You reached too high. You had the audacity not to just take over this world, but to take over all of them.’
‘When you have lived as long as me you begin to see all life for what it really is; incompetent. You people cannot be relied on to look after these worlds that you occupy. Someone else should. I am not afraid to die… I simply regret not being able to complete my work.’
James looked at the old god, baffled by how frail he looked. It took nothing but a moment of weakness to bring him down, but now that it had actually happened the change couldn’t have been more staggering.
Silence fell upon them, save for the yelling in the aftermath of their fight in the street far below, the honking of car horns and the bustle of the city as it moved continuously.
‘Oh, what the fuck…’ Ascevious groaned, coughing violently. ‘Don’t leave me here any longer like this. Get it over with. Cut my throat.’
James continued to observe him before standing, the knife still clasped in his grip.
‘I’m not an executioner,’ James said bluntly, crossing to Ascevious and standing before him. He spun the knife in his hand, holding it out with the handle pointed towards him. ‘You may not have let many die with dignity, but I’ll afford you the honour.’
Ascevious let out a wheezing scoff and raised a hand, weakly taking the knife from him. James stepped back cautiously, but the god made no attempt to attack.
‘I spent time with the Japanese 500 years ago… I had the honour of witnessing one of their samurai committing seppuku after dishonouring his master. It was one of the most redeeming actions I have seen from one of your kind. To willingly end your life… What a notion. I have no master other than myself, but it is I whom I have dishonoured. I have failed myself… And this would seem the most appropriate way to redeem myself.’
Ascevious gave James one last, wordless look. Then, he turned the knife in his hand to point the blade down, raised it to his stomach, and plunged it into himself.
He coughed again, blackened blood dripping from his mouth. The seconds dragged on as James watched Ascevious’s torso rise and fall with breaths that heaved slower and slower… Until he found himself waiting for another breath from the god that never came.
Ascevious’s arms slumped to the sides, his body teetering in a kneeling position before collapsing to the side. It finally settled without motion, collapsing into a pile of dust.
James crossed to it, kneeling down by the pile of ashes and casting his hand over it. A purple light, weak and dying, drifting from his fingertips and into the pile of ashes.
The last of Ascevious’s soul, unable to survive on its own. James’s soul had grown too strong to keep it. Desper
ately it sought out what was left of its whole form, the pooled dust being its only refuge.
The light sank into the dust, disappearing completely, just as a stiff breeze swept by, scattering the ashes into nothingness, revealing the knife amongst it, James eyed it for a moment before taking it up and stowing it in his pocket.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Future
Footsteps clicking on a worn, marked floor. The rustle of cellophane wrapping, holding together a bouquet of flowers.
James turned into the hospital room for the fifth time that week, setting the flowers down next to the others and seating himself beside Helen’s bed.
The doctors said that she would be fine. A little bruised and scratched, but other than the signs of exhaustion that she was exhibiting she would be okay.
After returning to the train platform, James found Elena and Arifa finishing with Mira. They had pulled her body apart and Elena had immolated the remains, deeming it to be the only way to get rid of her. Once their final enemy was defeated, James took Helen in his arms and the three of them had escaped the abandoned platform, making their way back to the party just a few blocks away.
James had spent the entire time wondering how the hell he was going to explain to the cops how he and a girl from the party had found themselves on an abandoned train platform both beat up and covered in scratches. Fortunately chaos had been on his side; after the madness that had broken loose in the city, as well as the fact the back wall of the house that gave out onto the yard had collapsed completely during the abduction, their story had fallen into the backdrop of the fifty other stories of people who were present, and the 200 further stories of people who claimed to be present, that existed during what would later come to be known among college classes as the-time-Casey’s-house-decided-to-explode.
And that was disregarding the madness that had happened in the city, which everybody was talking about for weeks.
Elena and Arifa hung around, corroborating everything that James had said, and no problems had come their way.
Apart from the one that he faced now.
‘Hey…’ Helen said in a whisper, coughing a little as she sat up. ‘You again.’
James was startled, sitting up in his seat at the sudden sound of her voice.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Fine. Still a little groggy, but other than that not bad.’
‘Do you remember anything?’
‘Not really… The same as before. It’s weird, it’s like… I know the party happened, but I can’t remember anything before I got a cab… Other than you.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I know you kept me safe is what,’ she smiled. ‘Even though I was out I knew you were there. There’s a lot of other stuff too… Bright lights, shouting… I guess that was probably just the party, though, right?’
‘Yeah, definitely,’ James said resolutely. ‘I’ve stopped trying to figure out what happened. An earthquake, a burst gas main…’
‘I had a weird dream while I was out, too…’
‘Oh, yeah? What about?’
‘No, I’m not gonna tell you.’
‘Oh, come on! You can’t just say that and then not tell me the details.’
‘It’s stupid… I dreamt that you and I were, uhh… How do I put this… Intimate.’
‘Ri-i-ight…’ James grinned, trying his best to sound sarcastic.
‘And then you were the one who found me.’
James nodded, biting the inside of his mouth lightly. He had a lot to think about ever since his boot heel came down on the gemstone, but over the past few days there was only one thing that had been rolling around in his head.
‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Sure,’ Helen said, taking a sip from a glass of water.
‘Did you ever… Think about me that way before?’
‘Did you ever think about me that way?’
‘What do you think?’
Silence fell over the room again as they looked at each other.
‘Yeah…’ Helen said. ‘I did from time to time. Ever since I woke up the thought’s been buzzing about in my head, I just… Didn’t know how you felt about it. So… How about it? Do you want me to ask? Fine, I’ll say – do you wanna get a drink sometime?’
James’s eyeline dropped, looking to the darkness of the spot beneath the hospital bed.
He would have killed for her to ask him that question two weeks ago.
‘I… Don’t think it would be a good idea,’ James said slowly, looking back up at Helen. ‘Not that I mean to literally turn down a girl in a hospital bed. It’s just… What happened at the party was a pretty big deal, and we’re both pretty rattled by it. Plus I’ve got finals coming up next year, and I really need to be focusing on that right now. It’s not you… I hope you understand.’
‘Yeah, yeah, of course…’ Helen said, a little despondently. ‘No, I understand.’
James stayed behind for another fifteen minutes before heading off back to his apartment, wandering through the streets. Just like the stories that had been thrown around in the wake of the house collapse at the party and the battle downtown, all of the people around him were living in their own little worlds, caught up in their own worries and issues.
James’s issues just happened to revolve around having the powers of the gods within his soul.
After his time with Helen at the party, James had been running the thoughts of her over in his mind… But only for a few hours. That was how long it took for the realisation to sink in.
He hadn’t thought about her once since opening the locket, until her life was in danger.
He had pined after her in the back of his mind ever since meeting her at the start of college, but when it finally came down to it… Everything had changed. He was part of a different world now, one that housed a thousand other worlds.
And it was one where the new girls in his life resided.
‘Shut the fuck up…!’
James was on a usually quiet backstreet in the journey back to his apartment. It was still early in the morning, and this far out there weren’t many people around.
Except for the commuter in the alleyway right next to him pressed up against the wall, held there by two assholes who were about to beat the shit out of him and rob him for everything he had.
This isn’t just about being part-god, James thought. This is about a higher responsibility.
‘Hey!’ James shouted making his way into the alleyway.
‘Who the fuck is this guy?’ One of the men said, stepping away from the commuter and pulling a knife from inside his jacket. ‘You wanna get beat up as bad as this guy is about to be?’
James smiled, clenching his fist.
He hadn’t brought the axe or the knife out with him, but that was no problem.
***
James rolled over onto his back, collapsing into the comfort of his bed with Elena and Arifa at his side. They had been in bed all morning, teasing and enjoying each other’s bodies until they couldn’t keep away from each other any longer. In their final moments Elena had been on her back as James slammed his full length into her from above, Arifa sat atop Elena’s face as James licked and nibbled at her nipples, burying his face in her chest.
By the time he climaxed, finishing so hard that he almost lost balance, he and his goddesses could hardly hold themselves up.
‘So what now?’ James asked as the girls nestled up to him. ‘Kill an evil god, keep his powers, take two goddesses under my wings…’
‘I think I’m content staying in this bed for the next few weeks,’ Arifa said.
‘You’re a cat goddess, you would say that,’ James laughed. ‘Do you think about anything else besides cream and sex?’
‘Not really. Sometimes I think about the fastest way to kill people with my sword, but that’s only occasional.’
‘The path is up to you,’ Elena interjected. ‘The consortium of goddesses is still locked aw
ay… There are hundreds of them still stuck within their cages.’
‘That’s our first goal, then,’ James said. ‘We can’t just leave them out there.’
‘You’re right,’ Elena agreed. ‘Plus, for a mind like yours, the simple fact of adding many more women to this mix will be interesting to say the least.’
‘More goddesses,’ Arifa pouted. ‘We have to share our master even more?’
‘I’m loyal to you girls,’ James said. ‘I realised that over the past few days. You girls literally saved my life. You’ve been by my side through all of the crazy shit that’s happened. What more could a man ask from a woman, never mind two or more.’
‘So what about after that?’ Arifa continued. ‘What else?’
‘There’s something else I’ve been thinking about. I stopped Ascevious, but that was a mistake that I brought about myself. It might not have been intentional, but it was still me that caused it. But stopping him… I realised what I can do with these powers now, and what we can do together. Not just saving people, but building something real.
‘Together we’re going to restart the consortium of goddesses. We’re going to continue moving wealth and fortune through this world, and we’re going to be in charge of it all.’
‘In charge of it?’ Elena said.
‘Of course,’ James replied. ‘Somebody has to lead it, and with you girls at my side I don’t see another god or even half-god ready to step up and take the lead. Why shouldn’t it be me? I’ve got big plans.’
‘I must admit, master,’ Elena continued. ‘When I first found that it was a human who had taken on the godly souls, I was very weary. But knowing now what you truly have in mind for the future, I take it all back.’
‘I could get used to this,’ Arifa smiled. ‘Let’s do it. Let’s do what the consortium intended to do in the first place.’
‘Right,’ James smiled. ‘So, where should we start?’
‘With finalising your title,’ Elena suggested. ‘How does Goddess Master sound to you?’
‘Pretty good,’ James replied. ‘For now.’