by Brandon Chen
What would Darien have done? What would Tetsu have done? The two friends he knew from childhood would’ve stopped this madness immediately. They would’ve stepped forward and fought for what was right. Power hadn’t been everything in the world to them. Yuu remembered that. Darien didn’t even want to be king and Tetsu believed that power was what corrupted mankind, which was why he despised slavers.
Yuu cracked a tiny smile. He had become a Magus for the sole purpose of gaining power so that he could make a difference. Yet, here he was, still helpless. He straightened his back and groaned. “Screw this.”
Zahir turned to his apprentice and watched as Yuu leapt into the air and clicked his fingers, creating a pipe of ice that streamed down the sand dune to where the Persian soldiers were. The Magus leapt down the pipe, sliding at an incredible speed as he accelerated down the sandy hill. Reaching the bottom, Yuu snapped his fingers again and the pipe dissolved into water as he slid to his feet. The noble sprinted forward, swinging his arms as he lowered his head. He ignored Zahir’s disapproving shouting and continued onward to the Persian army. “Stop!” Yuu yelled, realizing that the Persians were getting far too close to the statues. But by the time his voice reached them, it was already too late.
A warrior stepped onto the wasteland, activating a chain reaction of events that scattered across the sandy plains. The ground began to rumble with a minor tremor, then a loud groan echoed through the silence as if a titan were awakening. Yuu watched in awe as the massive statues snapped and crackled to life. Some creatures transformed from stone to flesh, recovering their lost color. Some stayed in their stone form but were still as horrifically intimidating.
Yuu grabbed the hilt of his sword as an army of mythological monsters roared to life, all turning to face the force of the trembling Persian soldiers. The Magus knitted his eyebrows, realizing what he had just gotten himself into. This was most definitely not going to end well.
Becoming a God
“Darien, run!” Yuu’s voice echoed.
Darien blinked, realizing that he was staring at his feet. He was wearing his royal garb from before he became Ares. He held out his hands before his face, examining them, but they still looked the same. He looked forward and found that he was standing in the center of the Persian throne room. But he saw death everywhere around him. There were bloody corpses of Persian guards scattered on the marble floor, with streaks of crimson smeared beside their pale bodies. Yuu’s unmoving cadaver lay sprawled on the ground with a deep gash ripped across his back. Darien’s heart sank as he hesitantly crept towards his old friend. “Y-Yuu….”
The prince’s eyes snapped upward and saw that his mother and father were both dead on their thrones, blood splattered across their cheeks. A new throne had been conjured and forcefully inserted in between his father and mother’s thrones. Sitting upon the golden seat was Cambyses, who wore a wicked grin as he gazed upon Darien.
Darien began to breathe harder, sweat forming on his brow. He heard a choking sound and spun around to find Zahir squeezing the life out of Tetsu’s lungs. The boy was pale and was still fifteen, his legs dangling as he struggled for life. “Tetsu!” the prince yelled but his weak voice did nothing because the Magus crushed the boy’s windpipe and dropped the corpse to the ground, where it landed with an unnatural thud. Darien’s lips quivered and his eyes widened, his hands trembling at his side.
Zahir smiled fiendishly. “How does it feel knowing that you’ll lose everything that you’ve come to care about and you can’t do a thing about it?” He extended his hand and pointed his index finger at Darien’s forehead. “How does it feel to be powerless?”
Darien clenched his jaw, frustrated. The entire memory exploded into a puff of black mist that swirled around him, leaving him in a world of darkness. Standing behind him was man with red ancient markings engraved in his skin. It looked as if the tattoos were just recently burned into his flesh, for they glowed the color of lava. The stranger had tussled brown hair and wild orange eyes that looked like they belonged to a beast. He was completely shirtless and wore torn pants that were stained red. His very presence invoked the putrid stink of corpses and blood. The prince turned to look at this man and demanded, “Who are you?”
“I am Ares,” the man said.
“As am I.”
“No, you are Darien,” Ares said with a grin. “You are a betrayed, dying prince who was given my power five years ago. You, however, are not me, no matter what that foolish sun god, Ra, might think. No matter what anyone tells you, I am the true Ares. I am the real God of War. I may be dead, but my consciousness exists within you. It’s unfortunate that every day I have to sit inside of your body and watch you pathetically solve your problems like a mere inept human. You have the power of a god, a war god, and you don’t even use it to destroy your enemies.”
Darien said nothing.
“The memory you saw just now showed the individuals that have torn away everything from you. They hurt your friend, Tetsu. They killed your other friend, Yuu. They assassinated your parents, stole your rightful throne, and assumed control over the empire that was your birthright.” Ares touched his hand to his forehead, bursting out laughing. “Meanwhile you’re sitting here twiddling your thumbs doing nothing. Do you not care at all for vengeance?”
“Vengeance will bring me nothing.”
“It will bring your throne back. It will make you a hero. It will bring justice to those who deserve to be judged,” Ares growled. “The victims of Persia suffer drastically every day because of your poor decision not to eradicate the corrupt monarch and his pet magician. You are no longer human. You have joined the supreme race of gods that rule above the humans, making no mortal dream out of your reach. Yet you have no aspirations, Darien.
“Watching you wander the Lost Sands for five years has brought me to the realization that you are nothing but a sojourner that knows nothing of what he wants. You don’t know if you want revenge for your deceased parents or if you even want the throne at all. It’s almost as if you are relieved that the responsibility of the throne was stolen from you and taken by a hubristic king who simply abuses his power. Even now you seek to stop the revival of Ahriman, but for what purpose? To protect the innocent people of the east? Well, if that was your damned goal from the very beginning, why not just end the life of your accursed uncle and have the whole problem over with? You need to make up your mind, Darien. You don’t know what it is you want to do.”
“Then what do I do?” Darien demanded. “With this newfound power that I was granted, I am supposed to be responsible. I can’t just use this godly strength that was bestowed upon me to bring a whole empire crumbling down to the ground. Every man I’ve murdered died in an unfair way, for they never stood a chance. It’s just unnatural for a deity to live amongst humans and solve their problems.”
Ares reached out and drove his fist straight into Darien’s nose, sending the boy sprawling onto his back, pain spiking through his face. The god of war scowled, annoyed with the naïve prince. “Responsibility means that you use your power for justice. You use your power to protect the innocent and to make sure that darkness doesn’t rise in this world! Our duty as gods is to maintain balance. Is Persia bringing about balance? For five years you’ve waited patiently, allowing countless people to suffer under your uncle’s reign as you hunted for your purpose for existence. You may have never had any intention of murdering Cambyses, but know that in order to bring about balance, his death is required.”
Darien rubbed his face and groaned, pushing himself to his feet. Ares was right. For five long years, he had sat in the Lost Sands and done nothing while millions suffered at the hands of the empire that was supposed to be his. His mistake was allowing Cambyses take the throne without a fight. He had to correct that mistake.
“I know what you want me to do, Ares,” Darien said. “You want me to go to Persia and obliterate everyone in my path until Cambyses lies dead at my feet. You want me to bring justice to Dastia so that
balance can be achieved. I’ll go to Persepolis and I’ll stop Cambyses.”
“You’ll kill Cambyses,” Ares corrected.
“I’m going to do things my way,” Darien said. “I am a different person than you. Killing isn’t something that I enjoy, Ares. But for some reason whenever I’m in combat, I feel this growing rage that burns within my chest. All of this time, it’s been you, hasn’t it? This urge to murder surges through my veins and an unforgettable aura of bloodlust surrounds me when I enter the thrill of battle. But I refuse to be like you. No matter how much you try and take over, no matter how much you hate how I do things, I’m going to do things my way. You’re right. I’m not you, I’m Darien. And I won’t kill Cambyses, I’m not searching for justice or revenge. I’ll eliminate him from his throne of power to protect those that I care about and to ensure the safety of the innocents of Dastia.”
Ares cracked a tiny smile. “You’ve got guts. I’m glad we had this conversation because I was seriously sick and tired of watching you embark on this quest without real resolve. Something to acknowledge, though, is that if you die in battle, so do I. So I’ll keep trying to take over this weak child’s body of yours until finally I am reborn. Just a head’s up.”
“Try it,” Darien snarled. “I’ll never let you massacre hundreds of thousands of people again.”
Ares guffawed wickedly. “What can I say? The call of war beckons to me.”
***
Ares snapped his eyes open and he found himself looking up at the morning sky. A dream? Or was that truly a confrontation that he had with the original Ares? Either way, he now knew what he had to do. The young god was lying on the sand beside Amon, who sat on the ground with his gigantic legs outstretched. The golem was gazing up at the stretching skies, as he usually did. It was unfortunate that Amon couldn’t sleep, because he had to sit here and wait for Ares to wake. However, he definitely enjoyed looking at the sky. Amon claimed that looking to the skies passed the time as swiftly as water in a rushing stream.
Ares leaned forward, brushing some sand off his shoulder, and turned to see that Aleysha was awake. She was sitting and munching on a stick of meat that she had somehow found. The mercenary had been asleep for several days and hadn’t eaten the entire time. Ares had forced some water down her throat so that she didn’t get dehydrated, but food didn’t go down so well. The boy glanced over his shoulder at Amon, who snorted.
Yeah, I caught something for her. So what?
“Figures,” Ares murmured. He didn’t expect that Aleysha would be able to slay one of the legendary beasts of this desert on her own. He frowned. Then again, after her previous display of strength against the dog-headed Guardian, he could be wrong. His eyes wandered to a huge pile of cooked meat that she had piled up. A smothered fire showed that she had cooked the food herself. Ares winced. “Amon, how big was the monster that you caught?”
It was only a couple tons.
“That’s too big!” Ares exclaimed and turned back to Aleysha, who was eying him. “U-Uh … good morning! You must be hungry, I mean, you were unconscious for a couple days so….”
Aleysha picked up a piece of cooked meat and held it out to Ares. “You want some?”
“N-No!” Ares stammered, folding his arms and looking away. His stomach groaned, sounding like a choking cry. His face turned red as he bit his bottom lip hard, feeling Aleysha’s grin send waves of heat through his body. “I-I’m not hungry! Honest!” he insisted.
Unfortunately, the god didn’t even remember the last time that he had eaten a decent meal, and there was more than enough food to feed him and Aleysha. Temptation bested him and he eventually succumbed to the wafting aroma of succulent meat and walked over to the mercenary and sat down beside her. Ares bit down into the meat that Aleysha offered him and smiled at the delicious taste that swept into his mouth. It tasted as if it had been seasoned somehow. Or maybe it was just that he was that hungry. The meat, however, had an odd slimy texture that made his mouth twitch. Stuffing his face with more of the unknown meat, he talked with a full mouth. “So, what am I eating?”
“A core-digger,” Aleysha said, swallowing another piece of the meat as she leaned back.
Ares winced, almost spitting out the food. “You cooked a giant worm?”
“Yeah, surprisingly enough it actually has meat. It’s a little slimy tasting but I took what I could get.” Aleysha shrugged. “I was starving.”
Ares scooted away from the pile of meat, feeling his appetite fading. He had lived in this desert for many years and gotten accustomed to eating many things. But he wasn’t quite ready to start eating cooked worm yet. “I’m assuming that you’re quite full then.”
“Yep.” Aleysha smiled. “Thanks for taking care of me after I passed out. I didn’t know that I would lose so much energy from calling down the energy beam.”
Ares cleared his throat. Now that she was awake he could finally question her about her connection to Ra. He opened his mouth, about to speak, when suddenly the ground began to shake tremendously as if there were an earthquake. The god’s eyes widened when he suddenly felt the almighty presence of at least a hundred Guardians. And they were all awakening at once.
Amon grunted. That could only be one place.
“Ahriman’s body,” Ares said and stood up. Aleysha gathered her materials and suddenly was swept off her feet by the young boy. Ares jumped off of the ground and landed on Amon’s shoulder. “Amon, we need to head in that direction!”
Amon nodded and pushed himself to his feet, stomping on the ground a few times. The rock golem responded, its eyes blazing red with gleaming light as it broke into a sprint. Each step covered hundreds of meters, and soon Amon was dashing with haste across the Lost Sands. A powerful breeze blew back against Aleysha’s face as the wind grabbed at her cheeks and pulled them back. The mercenary squinted her eyes against the roaring gusts of wind that rushed at her. Soon she found that they were climbing over a massive sand dune. Peering over the peak of the hill, she saw that they had come across a stretching sea of packed sand.
Storming across the desert plain was an army of monstrous creatures that varied from phoenixes to minotaurs to dragons, and dozens of other species of mythical beasts that Aleysha had only read about in stories. The cluster of monsters was trampling towards a small army of terrified Persian soldiers that were scrambling about, trying desperately to fight back against the brutish creatures that attacked them, to no avail.
Ares gently bit his lower lip as he watched the Persians battle the Guardians. The gods truly had picked a dangerous bunch to defend Ahriman’s grave. His eyes flickered across the battlefield to a giant fault that was ripped across the earth. So that was where Ahriman was buried. It seemed that there were still several stagnant Guardians positioned around the fissure. They had yet to be awakened.
“We need to help them!” Aleysha exclaimed, pointing to the dispersing army of Persians. Thousands of men dispersed across the plains, battling their hardest against the relentless monsters that descended upon them. “They’re getting massacred out there!”
“Do you see him?” Ares asked Amon, scanning the battlefield for Zahir.
Amon snorted. On the hill, watching from afar.
Ares’ gaze followed the rock golem’s eyes and he spotted the Magus standing on a sand dune in the distance with his arms folded, watching as his subordinates were slaughtered by the Guardians. “Amon, do you think you’re a match for these Guardians?”
Amon pounded his chest in response.
“Alright, good. Throw me onto the battlefield. I’m going to carve my way to Zahir, I’ll make sure that he doesn’t get to the chasm,” Ares said, turning to Aleysha. “You should stay here. It’s really chaotic out there.”
“I want to help—” Aleysha began.
“And you will. But going out there now will just get you killed. Trust me,” Ares said. “Just because you handled one Guardian doesn’t mean that you can fight a hundred and expect to survive. This is out o
f your league. Your strength is impressive, Aleysha, but no human should be out there on that battlefield. Alright, Amon, throw me!”
Amon grabbed Ares off his shoulder and turned his body, hurling the boy at sonic speed into the air in the general direction of the warzone. The rock golem grunted, reaching to pluck Aleysha off his shoulder and put her down on the ground so that the elemental could proceed to the battlefield.
“W-Wait, Amon! Please,” Aleysha protested as the rocky hand of Amon approached her. “I can help, you just have to trust me! Just let me stay on your shoulder when you go into the battlefield. I’ll explain to you on the way there.”
Amon hesitated, unsure of what to do. He didn’t want to disobey Ares, but he also didn’t like doubting Aleysha.
“Trust me,” Aleysha reassured the Guardian. “I can make a difference here, I promise! Together we can defeat more Guardians and save more of those soldiers’ lives.”
Amon groaned and lowered his arm to his side, beginning to storm towards the battlefield after Ares. Whatever. Just hold on tight and don’t die. Otherwise Ares will be furious.
***
Ares felt the powerful wind yanking back his cheeks as he descended towards the battlefield from the sky. He grunted as he smashed into the earth, sending waves of dust and sand exploding in all directions. He sank into a gigantic crater in the ground created by his landing. He exhaled, opening his eyes to see that he had sent several Guardians and Persians flying backward from his landing shockwave. He held out his hand, conjuring his legendary golden spear into his palm. Gripping his signature weapon, he whirled the spear and wielded it with both hands, pointing its sharp tip at his first opponent.
A creature known as a manticore, with the head of a human, the body of a red lion and webbed wings, stepped forward. Its scalp was bald and had black horns protruding from the top of its skull. It snarled, its high-pitched voice more of a screech than an intimidating growl, revealing an array of tiny, pointed teeth that looked like they belonged to a shark. The manticore outstretched its large, bat-like wings and stormed forward on its four legs, scampering towards Ares. The abomination made Ares cringe; he’d never seen a manticore first hand before. He had only read about such a creature in Persian tales.