Tarous

by Jeremy W Eason

  A mechanical voice sounded in my head.

  [Welcome back God of Death. A foreign god’s power has been detected in an item that you currently possess.]

  The gold coin I had gotten at Zan’s shop floated out of my pocket and hovered in front of my face.

  [This item has god power similar to your God of Death powers. It can be used to create a pass to allow passage for others to enter the temple. The pass can be deactivated at any time by the current God of Death.]

  “If you can change it into a pass that allows passage for others, then do so.”

  The gold coin melted. The liquid floated upwards into the air and then turned black before it reformed into a coin. I took the coin and walked back across the line.

  “I’m not sure if this will work, you may still die instantly, but this is supposed to allow someone to cross the line with me.”

  Cronus and Bob looked at me, to the coin, to each other and back to the coin.

  “I’ll do it,” said Bob.

  I was extremely surprised.

  “Are you sure Bob? You could die.”

  “I have faith,” was his only response.

  Taking the coin, he stepped towards the line.

  “Stop!” I yelled. Bob froze where he was. “Place the coin in your mouth.”

  He did as I said without question. Somehow I knew it was the right thing to do. As soon as he placed the coin in his mouth it disappeared. Then he stepped across the line.

  He turned to look at me. “You coming?”

  I smiled at him for not dying horribly and followed him into the temple.

  [Master temple 74221 is at 13% operational capacity. Currently user has level 1 access. User with access item has been granted temporary level 1 access as your assistant. Access can be revoked at any time.]

  “What about level 2 access?” I asked out loud. Bob stared at me. Apparently he couldn’t hear the voice. I had assumed the voice was the temple, but perhaps I was just going crazy.

  [To gain level 2 access user would need to complete the trial for level 2 access.]

  “What benefits do I get for level 1 access? What benefits do I get for level 2 access?”

  [Level 1 access means you are allowed to enter the temple without being vaporized. Level 1 also grants you permission to attempt the level 2 trial. Level 2 access allows you to control the temple’s basic functions. Additional access includes level 3 access that allows you to enter into the pocket dimension inside of the temple.]

  A pocket dimension? Now that was interesting. This temple seemed to contain the world for the God of Death. I had my own world, just like Cupid did.

  “What are the temple’s basic functions?”

  Bob looked at his watch. He wasn’t freaked out at all by my talking to the temple. He just seemed bored. I appreciated that he didn’t assume I was crazy or force me to explain what was happening.

  [That information requires a level 2 access.]

  “Of course it does. What is inside the pocket dimension contained within the temple?”

  [That information requires a level 3 access.]

  Why did I even bother? I tapped my foot in annoyance for a second and then said, “Please begin the trial for level 2 access.”

  There was no immediate reaction from the temple. Thinking of the temple’s pocket dimension made me think of my space ring for the first time in a long time. The space within it was like a really tiny pocket dimension. With a thought, a bottle of water appeared from within the ring.

  I took a swig of the bottled water. I didn’t need water to live as a god, but the dustiness of the temple had made my throat dry. I offered Bob an unopened bottle of water but he declined.

  As we waited for the trial to begin, I felt my power being drained. I went from being a god to being mortal again. I hadn’t even known that was really possible. I felt so weak. I felt the path of eternity fade as I became destined to die once again.

  Before I could truly understand what was happening, the floor disappeared from under me. As I began to fall a hand reached down and grabbed me by my wrist.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got you buddy,” said Bob. The floor under his feet hadn’t disappeared.

  Bob pulled me all the way back up. I hadn’t realized he was that strong. As I got to my feet, another section of floor disappeared beside us.

  “Let’s move forward quickly,” I said. Fear gave me all the motivation I needed. I didn’t enjoy the feeling of dangling in midair.

  We ran further into the temple while sections of the floor of the temple kept randomly disappearing. As if that wasn’t enough, several undead monsters kept attacking us at random intervals. They were always undead and it required all of my necromancer knowledge to defeat them quickly. This appeared to all be part of the test. Bob wasn’t very helpful with the undead but everything was going well until the floor dropped out from under my feet again.

  Once again Bob caught me. This was getting very tiresome very quickly.

  “Don’t worry, I got you!” said Bob as he began to drag me up again.

  Suddenly his watch started to beep and a strange look appeared on his face. He had stopped pulling me up and I was still hanging over nothing.

  “Are you ok, Bob?”

  A tattoo of praying hands appeared on Bob’s forehead as he released my hand and I fell back into the darkness, completely surprised at the turn of events.

  Chapter 38

  Outside the temple, the small city that had popped up thanks to Cronus was glowing orange in the night. Someone had set the city on fire. I swear it wasn’t me, I was still falling.

  Outside the building that the workers had set up in the city, a guard stabbed a demon through the stomach, but the demon seemed unaffected. The guard turned to run, but the demon ripped his head off. He was dead before he even realized it. Luckily, he had died so fast he hadn’t felt any pain.

  “Don’t come any closer!” cried another guard as the demon stalked towards him. He continued stepping backwards until he tripped and the demon was upon him.

  Pressed up against the side of the building was the last guard currently alive. That guard grabbed the handle of the building door and upon finding it unlocked, he rushed inside. He slammed the door behind him and began moving everything he could find in front of the door, including a potted plant.

  When he turned around, he found a rather large and hairy man sitting behind a large desk doing paper work. The man was an accountant and as such, he was accustomed to working late.

  “Can I help you?” the accountant asked the panicking guard in a calm voice as he looked over his glasses.

  “Demons! Behind! Killing! Hurry!” was all the guard was able to say at the moment.

  The accountant looked at him over his glasses, waiting for him to continue.

  “Is there a backdoor? We need to get out of here!” screamed the guard.

  The man behind the desk put his pen down, stood up, and walked over to the stone wall behind him. The suit he was wearing looked particularly sharp. He pressed down hard on one of the stones in the wall and part of the wall swung outwards. Night air rushed into the room.

  “I came up with the idea after one particularly bad tax season,” the accountant stated.

  The demons began pounding on the door. The accountant turned to look back at the door that was shuttering under the pounding of demon fists. When he turned back, the guard was long gone.

  He shook his head from side to side and went to sit back down at his desk. He refused to run from demons. He was an accountant. He was no longer afraid of dying. He had paperwork he needed to finish. He always had paperwork he needed to finish. His name was Mark. He had thought being an accountant would be fun, but he had been wrong.

  The army of demons eventually managed to break down the door and get into his office. Mark looked up from his paperwork and looked right at them calmly.

  “Do you have an appointment?”

  “Arahgaa,” was the demon’s only reply.r />
  “If you don’t have an appointment, then I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”

  Mark opened the top drawers of his desk on the right and left side. From the drawers he removed two silver pistols. The demons continued forward and in moments the floor was covered with the bodies of dead demons, each with a bullet dead center in their head. Several more flooded into the room as Mark reloaded his guns.

  The guns packed an extra punch, as glowing blue runes covered the barrel and grip of each pistol. He knew people. Accountants know where all the bodies are buried.

  Sadly, he realized the number of demons pouring in far outweighed the number of bullets he had. He continued to sit at his desk, calmly reloading his guns as the demons got closer and closer.

  “Still not as bad as that tax season…” he mused to himself, reaching down and flipping a switch inside the drawer of his desk. Heavy metal started playing from speakers underneath his desk.

  He looked over at the wall where the escape exit was. He realized he wouldn’t be able to make it in time before the demons pulled him down. There were just too many of them.

  Demons continued to pour into his office. When they were less than a foot away, he reached across his desk with his left arm and pressed an imaginary intercom button, sending his last bullet into the skull of the nearest demon with his right arm.

  “Martha, please send in my next appointment,” he said.

  There was a concussive blast and then silence.

  Chapter 39

  I was falling, but I don’t know for how long. I knew it felt as if it had been a few years. I was bored out of my mind.

  Then I was swept up in illusions. I was placed into difficult scenarios and I managed to fail all of them. Despite that I kept trying my best and never gave up. At first I thought it was some kind of test. In time I began to realize it was actually a mental assault on my mind. Something was trying to break me.

  “I am Tarous, God of Death. You cannot break me.”

  In my mind I pictured my core, my essence, as some unbreakable marble. Nothing they could do would break me. Time continued forward. Far more years had passed than I had been alive. Had it been two centuries or three?

  I was forced to watch everyone I ever loved die, repeatedly. Every horrible scenario and every possible bad thing that could happen had happened. None of it broke me. I gained confidence in myself with every personal victory. It was my undoing.

  I was sure I had been trapped at least three centuries by now. Memories of my life had begun to fade. Had that ever really happened or was it also an illusion? I became mentally exhausted, something that should be impossible for a god, but still I refused to break. I just needed to hold out.

  It wasn’t some grand elaborate illusion that broke me. It started as a light pain. That little pain grew and grew until I was in more pain than I thought possible. All I wanted was the pain to end. I begged for death. I whimpered in the dark, alone, without hope.

  The black marble in my mind, my unbreakable core, cracked. It started with a single crack, but the speed of the cracking began to escalate. Soon my core, my very soul, was broken. Then it shattered. The tiny pieces continued to shatter until they became dust particles.

  Still it didn’t end. The death I begged for didn’t come. I was death and I could not die, no matter how much I begged for it. The fear of death I had always harbored in my heart was gone. I truly knew that there were things worse than death. How messed up was that?

  [Congratulations. You have passed the level 2 test. You now understand there are worse things in life than death. Your reward for becoming level 2 is to receive instruction from a God King of Death from another universe.]

  With that I was swallowed up by the blessed darkness.

  Chapter 40

  I awoke on the ground outside the temple entrance. Bob was nowhere in sight. It was night, but it wasn’t dark because most of the makeshift city was in flames. I didn’t move for several moments, as the euphoria of no longer being in pain mixed with the panic and confusion of the chaos around me. A loud blast shook the ground and echoed through the city.

  I finally sat up and got slowly to my feet, leaning against the side of the temple. My powers were back. I seemed to be in nearly the same condition as when I had entered the temple, and it did not appear that much time had passed. A few hours or days maybe.

  Demons ran everywhere. I summoned my scythe and started to walk through the city. It appeared that everyone in the city had been killed. Since we were not on Earth, the bodies had remained where they fell. Finally, I spotted Cronus. Tiny mountains of demons surrounded him.

  A large group of rather fierce looking demons came my way as I made my way toward Cronus. I fully embraced the power of death I had regained. I started to grow taller and my black robes began to billow out. The sky darkened and an insane laughter escaped my throat.

  I wanted to make the demons hurt like I had been hurt. I wanted to vent my pain.

  The demons all turned and ran. Every single demon. I think they recognized me. I gave chase, but their fear made them run extremely fast.

  One tripped and became my first prey. My black robes billowed around him and he began to scream. Soon from beneath my robes I threw out the skull then a few ribs and a thigh bone. After that I tossed a few more ribs and then the few remaining bones of the demon. They all landed in a pile with not a scrap of flesh left on any of the bones.

  I began to look for my next victim, but a beam of energy struck me in the chest, sending me flying backwards. Landing on my back, I shrank back down to my normal size to make myself less of a target. I hadn’t seen where it had come from, but that blast had the power of a god behind it.

  The sky grew even darker as black portals began to open up everywhere. From each portal a line of golden metallic gargoyles marched out onto the planet. Though it is hard to read the emotions on the face of a gargoyle, they didn’t look friendly.

  Each appeared to be at least twenty feet tall and made of gold. They moved with grace and coordination, despite their size. They also moved in perfect formation like a well-trained military. Their movements made me realize each of the creatures was intelligent.

  I also saw several gods mixed in with the creatures coming through the portals. Cronus limped over to me.

  “Two can play at that game,” he said with a smile as giant balls of light began to float all around us and Cronus opened his own portals.

  The first to step out was Cupid, God of Love. Many different people stepped out from the portals, but I didn’t recognize most of them. I could tell that several of them were gods. Finally, both sides appeared to be evenly matched.

  “Is this everyone?” I wondered out loud.

  “There is one more, handsome,” said a voice I recognized.

  I turned and swept Nyxra up in a hug.

  “Good to see you,” I replied.

  “Likewise.”

  “About what happened…”

  “I don’t need an explanation. I figured it out as soon as I cooled off, but you were already gone.”

  I just gave her a quick smile followed by a slow kiss.

  “Guys, as much as I love love, we are in the middle of a battle,” said Cupid.

  The two of us slowly released each other. Then behind Nyxra I saw Edward, Mary, Jeb, and a few other monsters that I didn’t recognize. My three monster friends all waved at me and I enthusiastically waved back. Mixed in among the monsters were about twenty witches that I vaguely recognized from the school, but didn’t know very well. Finally, there was Crowley, who came bounding through the portal at lightning speed and launched himself into my arms and then up onto my shoulder.

  I felt overwhelmed with happiness at realizing how many people had my back. My confidence soared as I looked around at the mix of gods, monsters, witches, and other creatures. It was an intimidating army, and I was glad they were on my side.

  While we had been gathering, more and more of those golden gargoyles stepped
through the portals on the other side. Behind them two men appeared along with several golden lions and large golden dogs.

  “Who are they?” I asked Cronus. If anyone would know it would be him.

  “That is Hephaestus, the current God of Fire, Earth, and Metal. Beside him is the current God of Darkness. Shadow and Ice were both part of their faction. Apparently they have decided to come here and reclaim the powers of Shadow and Ice personally.”

  Cupid turned and looked at me. “We need to be careful. That is The Hephaestus, the original Hephaestus. He is over a millennium old and he is as crafty as they come.”

  I looked at Hephaestus, covered in golden armor with an anvil and hammer etched onto his armor’s breast plate. The symbol of Hephaestus. He looked every bit a god.

  I summoned my shadow armor and covered every inch of my body in armor. Hephaestus wasn’t the only god with cool armor.

  “I call dibs on Hephaestus. The rest of you take out the demons and the God of Darkness.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Cronus.

  I nodded.

  Hephaestus was intimidating. His muscles had muscles. His right foot had a large metal boot that clanked when he took a step. In Greek myths I had always pictured it as comical and a little sad, but here and now the metal boot looked fierce and deadly. I imagined he had stomped more than one enemy to death with that heavy metal boot.

  Quickly before our battle started, I sent death qi outwards in a giant wave. It swirled around all the dead bodies and was slowly absorbed by them.

  “Arise.”

  My voice echoed across the desolate battlefield. Everything had grown quiet. The calm before the storm. All of those that had died were now mine to command. Demons and humans that had gone to their eternal rest rose once again. Slowly, one body after another managed to stagger to their feet.

  The zombies weren’t that strong individually, but together they were a powerful force. The zombies would also keep my enemies at bay while I focused on Hephaestus.