by Skyler Grant
Mela grinned at that and rose back to her feet, flinging her arms wide. The sky groaned with the grinding of gears before tearing apart.
The forces of Earth arrived. Undead monstrosities made of part-rotting meat fused with cybernetic exoskeletons, terrible war machines with spinning blades and fearsome spikes, all filled with the minds of those who had once called Earth home. Together they dropped from the sky and began to kill.
They were loyal to Mela, who was now loyal to Hubris. Hubris wasn’t as strong as Ashera, but she was the closest of the Nine. No longer did only one side have Art of War acting upon them. Heroes began to die, and each that fell was quickly set upon by other machines which ripped and tore into their flesh, resurrecting them to join the mechazombie horde.
“So are you dating my brother?” I asked. It wasn’t the right time, but in the face of such horror it somehow seemed more important than ever.
Mela held up a hand, it had a ring on it. Of course it did. Why wouldn’t it.
This family just kept getting larger and weirder. I could deal with it.
The Oga-Kar had been all but wiped out. The Earth forces were faring far better, but not well enough.
In the sky another moon turned red and the Oga-Kar began to stir, their bodies healing in an instant. A few started joyously hacking away at their newfound allies, but most stayed directed at the right enemy and turned back to Ashera’s forces.
Elsora gestured and pools of darkness formed on the ground. Out of them began to crawl and slither shadowy shapes, beasts of pure darkness.
“I thought you weren’t going to get directly involved?” I asked.
“I’d prefer not to. But even all of this is not enough,” Elsora said.
I didn’t know what she was talking about. It sure looked like we were holding our own now to me. Mela had really come through.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked.
“Take Walt and Ashley, Hubris can get you to Aphrodite. Tell her to launch her assault on the gates early,” Elsora said.
“She isn’t going to like that,” I said.
“Convince her,” Elsora said. The shadow beasts were beginning to dive into the fray.
Hubris grabbed for my hand as Walt and Ashley stepped in close, and suddenly we were elsewhere.
Aphrodite’s tent had an absurd number of mirrors for a battlefield. Currently she was dressed in a plate bikini and spinning in front of one.
I wasn’t that surprised. It was more or less the sort of activity and fashion choice I’d have expected.
“Liam! Plate, chainmail, or cloth?” Aphrodite asked, as her attire flickered between the three. It was distracting. Briefly between the options she was wearing nothing at all.
“How do you always wind up in these situations?” Ashley asked.
“I’m just grateful he does,” Hubris said.
I told myself to focus on the war and let out a low breath. “Plate. Really, you’re stunning in it.”
That wasn’t exactly true, but it did cover her up the most and I needed to do all I could to keep my mind on task.
“Really?” Aphrodite asked, peering in the mirror before giving a delighted shrug and the plate flickered back into place. “Why are you here? I doubt you brought your daughter, if your intent was to seduce me again.”
Really, I hadn’t seduced her the first time.
“We want you to march on the gates,” I said.
Aphrodite snapped her fingers. Every mirror in the room shimmered and began to display scenes from the battlefield. I hadn’t been gone for long and already the situation looked far worse. The Earth forces did seem to be an immortal army in their own right, the smashed machines slowly working at putting themselves back together. But it was a slow process. In one mirror I saw Ashera fighting three shadow beasts at once. With a deft slide under one and with a sword blazing with light, she cut it in two, before delivering a second punch forceful enough to send the beast tumbling backward.
“We were going to march on the gates when the army within was well and truly distracted. They aren’t,” Aphrodite said.
“Plans change,” I said.
“I commit my forces now, that army will fall on them and they’ll get torn apart,” Aphrodite said.
Hubris opened the flap to the tent and peeked outside. Over her shoulder I could see giants as far as the eye could see. Aphrodite didn’t skimp on the army.
“I think your army can handle it long enough to do what’s needed,” I said.
Aphrodite shook her head. “I had some minor interest in being on the winning side of this conflict. I’ve nothing to gain from being on the losing side.”
I could tell she didn’t mean it. I’d been manipulated enough to know Aphrodite only wanted to renegotiate terms.
“We’ve already offered to join our families. What more do you want?” I asked.
“What have you got?” Aphrodite asked.
I stepped forward and pressed a kiss to her lips, wrapping an arm around her waist.
Aphrodite wasn’t one to turn away a kiss, she deepened it and I allowed her, and it persisted for a long moment before she broke away. Of course, in the meantime her clothing had dropped away. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the time.
“Trouble,” I said.
“Promise?” Aphrodite asked, with a mischievous glimmer in her eye. Aphrodite wasn’t the least bit interested in me, not really. But the thrill, the excitement, the chase. Those were things that she could get behind.
“Promise,” I said.
Aphrodite stepped away and new armor shimmered around her. No bikini this time, although it was form-fitting and flattering in a way that physics should not have allowed. It was good to be a Goddess.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Aphrodite said. “We’ll take the gates.”
“I think you’ve got a crazy make-out Goddess sister on the way,” Ashley said.
“Might be nice to have a pretty one. We kind of don’t, with the everyone being clones thing,” Hubris said.
That was not the kind of trouble I’d promised. I hoped.
The mirrors showed a battle that had turned completely one-sided.
Aphrodite led the way outside the tent and ordered her forces into action.
It would be a short trip down the Silver Road to the battlefield.
The Silver City awaited and we were coming for it.
Chapter 30
Another two moons were burning in the sky by the time we reached the Silver City. Twice more the massive army of the Oga-Kar returned to life in full howling fury and twice more they had been put down. It wasn’t without cost to our enemy.
Ashera’s armies were the greatest of heroes led by the greatest of champions, and yet there was only so long that they could fight. Flesh grew weary and even the most minor of injuries took their toll. Of the army she had started with, perhaps a quarter had now fallen. It didn’t seem like much to pay for the complete devastation they had wreaked again and again.
So it was a weakened force that now faced the full fury of Olympus. Gods moved between the legs of giants, and champions warred against champions. They were just buying the giants time as they began to hammer upon the massive stone gates. I could feel those blows in my very bones—I wondered if all of reality could. Hits that echoed through all of creation as we worked to breach its core.
The efforts to breach the gates didn’t go unnoticed and soon we found ourselves in combat. I parried an attack from some woman wielding a massive spear. In an instant she was moving in for a second blow when Walt caught the spear in the Death-hand and Ashley took the opportunity to drive a dagger into the woman’s thigh.
Teamwork, it was necessary right now. Overhead another moon began to burn, buying us a little more time. I wished I knew which moon—which daughters were safe and consolidating power, and who were still in a struggle for their lives.
I felt a sword run me through, I hadn’t even seen the blow. I dropped to a knee in time to see Ashley and Wa
lt fall from wounds of their own.
It was Ashera.
“We’ll talk beloved when I’ve finished with your army,” Ashera said, leaning down to brush a kiss against my cheek before moving on. At least I managed to cough up a little blood on her.
Ashera was on to one of the giants. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to climb a giant primarily by stabbing it, but damned if she didn’t prove me wrong. I also would have sworn that her sword wasn’t nearly long enough to decapitate it, she proved me wrong there as well.
Space around Ashera warped and she was gone.
“Get up, Dad,” Hubris said, reaching down. With a snap of her fingers Walt and Ashley were healed. I was left with my wound, I supposed she was preserving her power knowing that I would heal.
“She isn’t going to like that,” I said.
“Not her you need to be worried about right now,” Diamond said, and I was thrown backwards as a bloom of ice erupted and exploded at my feet.
“Aunt,” Hubris said, as her hands sketched out a magical ward.
“And Uncle,” Tiger said, appearing from nowhere to throw a punch at my daughter’s head, which she adroitly avoided.
Hubris shot me a look. I knew what she was saying—that she had this. Diamond and Tiger were between them a powerful magical and physical force, but my daughter was both of those in one.
I’d have to trust to her.
I motioned to Walt and Ashley, who followed me between the feet of giants. The repeated blows to the gate had formed cracks, but not enough. Not nearly so many as we needed.
Nearby an Olympian goddess howled as an arrow split her throat open, her body exploding into a cascade of white and blue energy.
Aphrodite’s army was being butchered. They had taken their toll, perhaps half of Ashera’s original forces were still on the field, but that was still too many.
“Let me loose, Walt,” Ashley said.
“Not going to happen,” Walt said.
“What is going on here?” I asked.
“Veros and his power. It is inside of me, I can tap it. I’m so strong, if Walt will just stop holding me back,” Ashley said.
“You know all the trouble we went to just to keep her contained. I can feel it through my link with her. It isn’t something we want to let out,” Walt said.
Walt was right, of course. I knew how Veros’ power was obtained. We were no paragons of virtue and it made even us take a step back.
“I can take out the gate,” Ashley said. Her words were sincere, earnest, she believed them.
“Can she?” I asked Walt.
“I don’t know,” Walt said with a weary sigh. “The Death-hand can’t. So perhaps.”
We were being slaughtered. I was getting tired of saying I’d break Ashley and fix her later, but I kept being put into situations where it seemed the right call. Still, I didn’t want to make the decision alone.
“Yve?” I asked.
Yve stared at the gates and shook her head. “It isn’t worth it, Liam. You know it isn’t worth it and her judgment can’t be trusted. Let that wife of yours find another way.”
That made sense. I also believed it wasn’t by chance that Elsora had put us here at this point in time. It wasn’t by chance I was being given this decision to make.
She wasn’t here saying to not go through with it—proof that her other plans had failed. This option was the only one left.
“Do it,” I said. Sometimes you had to be the one to decide. That’s what it meant to be a King.
Walt made no gesture, he didn’t have to. Whatever magic holding back Ashley’s transformation ceased and she let out an agonized scream.
I wondered if she still had a bit of Snake in her. What was happening was very much like a snake breaking out of its skin. Something inside Ashley was sloughing off the flesh and blood. It was horrible to watch, bones cracking and splintering away to explode outward, a pile of blood and viscera pooling about her feet.
In the end what emerged from Ashley was Ashley—or some idealized version of her. Her skin had a faintly luminous golden glow. Her clothes were gone and I’d spent enough time in the past stealing surreptitious glances at a naked Ashley to see the proportions weren’t quite hers. This Ashley was taller, stronger, flawless.
“Eyes back in their sockets,” Ashley said, taking a moment to stretch. I found the sight as distracting as always.
Ashley frowned and then glanced at Yve staring at her. Ashley said, “So, what? You crazy Goddess types are always getting in and out of clothes with a snap of your fingers.”
Yve studied her frankly and said, “While I appreciate the view, try the actual finger snap. I know it sounds dumb, but it usually helps.”
Ashley snapped her fingers and was instantly clad in armor of golden hides.
“Right on,” Ashley said, and snapped her fingers again. This time a pair of gleaming daggers appeared in her hands.
The newborn Goddess unleashed a furious assault on the gates. If the giants had made reality echo, now it screamed.
“She seems happy,” I said.
Yve shook her head and scowled at me. No, she didn’t approve. Neither did Walt.
Reality didn’t seem too happy with it either judging by the shrieking as Ashley assailed those gates. I figured she would have some power, but I didn’t expect those gates to explode inward as quickly as they did. The rubble of scattered stones lay strewn before us.
The last remains of Ashley’s mortal form let out a squelch. The blood rose into the air and began to swirl into a circle glowing of energy. Out of it began to pass the Blood Witches, Sara in the lead.
“Could have used you a bit earlier,” I said.
“You needed our power for this last bit. It’s going to be rough. Follow us and provide protection,” Sara said.
I didn’t much like being ordered about now that I was King of the Universe. It seemed to happen an awful lot.
We followed the Witches into the empty streets of the Silver City. Hopefully things would be easy from this point forward.
Chapter 31
The streets were deserted. The last time I’d been to the Silver City they teemed with life, but now not a soul was to be seen. Perhaps the people were hiding indoors, or knowing of the confrontation to come, Ashera had seen them safely relocated.
Sara led the way and I recognized the route. We were headed to the palace.
I took a moment to slip on my glasses of Game Sight so I could look at the new Ashley.
Ashley: Goddess of Light
Long shaped by the God Veros to be strong, it was only natural that Ashley would become his successor. Upon his murder by her hand she gained his considerable power.
I didn’t find much in that very comforting. I was sure Ashley would hate the very thought of being shaped by Veros.
The doors to the palace were sealed when we arrived. With a roundhouse kick Ashley smashed them.
Sara frowned at the display, but wasted no time leading the way in.
“You don’t seem happy,” I said.
“Nor will you be, I think,” Sara said. “But what is done is done. Grieve not for the damned, for they do not hear you. We are seeking the source of the Silver Road.”
Sara tilted her head and hurried down a set of narrow stairs. They took us into a basement and through a winding series of corridors until we came to a large set of wooden doors.
Reality shimmered around us and everything glowed for several seconds.
Ashley kicked at this one too. These doors held. Another kick and a few splinters flew.
“Tough,” Ashley said.
“Ashera has entered the city,” Sara said.
The city made Ashera stronger. I hadn’t considered just how much stronger, in turn, Ashera made the city. If she hadn’t left we wouldn’t have breached the gates. With her returning, we might never breach these doors.
Ashley drew her daggers and set to work. Chips of wood flew and deep gouges were dug. It seemed a paltry ef
fort, but I could feel the power at work here.
Sara made a gesture and one of the witches began to dissolve in slow motion. Her screams pierced the air as her blood began to boil and bubble, ripping her apart. As the witch died Ashley became surrounded with a dim red glow and her motions began a blur.
“Are your people okay with you just murdering them like that?” I asked.
“Delilah had plans to kill me and take my place,” Sara said, sending a stern look toward the other witches. “I do like to make my kills serve multiple purposes, and there was a great deal of power within her blood that we needed.”
Right. These were my friends and allies, but I wasn’t feeling that good about having slept with Sara right now. Of course, I was feeling even worse at having slept with Delilah.
Ashley let out a cry of triumph as the door finally burst open.
The room beyond might have been any basement chamber, brick walls damp and chill. But in the center silver bricks entered from both sides and met in a central pedestal of twisted silver, a towering sculpture of the metal tipped with a small, silver ring. Plain, like a wedding ring.
“Is that it?” I asked.
Sara and the other witches stepped into the room.
“It is, but I don’t know what this is. More than the Silver Road is tied here, the entire Silver City is linked through this place. The power is incredible,” Sara said.
Ashley stepped forward and, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, climbed up and slipped her finger into the ring.
If the city had screamed when we attacked the gates, now it howled in agony. It thrashed and it wailed, and it tried to tear itself apart. The ground rocked beneath us. A silver glow surrounded Ashley as she dropped back to the floor.
“That isn’t yours, although I’m impressed that you can wear it,” said a voice from behind me.
Ashera had made her appearance. Fresh from battle she was covered with gore and still stunning beyond all reason—with a sword in one hand.
Sara went to snap her fingers and with a casual lunge Ashera cut off her hand. The blow was followed up with a backhand that shattered her jaw and sent the Blood Witch bouncing against the far wall, a limp heap.