Where Gods Dare (Divine Protector Book 4)

by Scott Kinkade

  He was about to order a second strike when a thunderous crash sounded behind him. A metal blur flew past him and crashed into the forward view screen, lodging there as sparks erupted from it. As he looked upon it, he realized it was the haradium blast door to the bridge they had just brought down.

  “Zeus!” a male voice roared behind him.

  Surprised, he turned around. Ev Bannen and small group of young people stormed the bridge. They were all glowing. Zeus balled a fist upon seeing this. “You little shit.” So that was what had happened: Bannen and his friends had exposed themselves to the Ultimus Point, gaining a tremendous power boost.

  To his rage, Bannen ignored him. He said to the dark-haired girl next to him, “You’ve got to stop this thing.”

  “What about Zeus?” she asked.

  “I’ve got him.” The nerve of this upstart, thinking he could take on the king of the gods after being so thoroughly defeated earlier. “Just focus on stopping this thing.”

  “Are you crazy? You can’t take him on by yourself.”

  “Watch me.”

  * * *

  Despite Maya’s protests, Ev had a score to settle with Zeus. He was the last of the Flawless Few, and the only one left for Ev to vent his frustrations on. Hades had been too easy, and Ev wasn’t satisfied yet.

  So, without thinking any further, Ev lunged at him. The student’s newfound power surprised him when they both went crashing through the far wall of the bridge before exploding out the side of the Titan. Ev felt fresh air on his face for the first time since leaving the planet days earlier. He didn’t have time to savor it, however; he was too busy exchanging blows with Zeus in the sky above Seraphim City.

  Despite his earlier humiliation by Zeus, Ev found the playing field this time to be far more balanced. He felt actual give when punching Zeus in his smug face. Ev’s punches had real power behind them now.

  And it wasn’t just his offense that had increased. He could now block Zeus’ attacks where, before, he was helpless against the ancient god’s might.

  This was it. It was just him and the leader of Zero Grade. No Carnival would stop him this time. Ev would end this war once and for all.

  * * *

  Maya fought to hold on when Ev and Zeus went crashing through the bridge wall. Explosive decompression happened almost immediately, sucking equipment and personnel out of Titan.

  Daryn yelled something at her, but she couldn’t hear him over the roar everything else. She mouthed, What?

  He tried again via telepathy. We have to save the crew members who have been sucked out!

  Why?

  They know how to stop this thing. We need them to help us shut it down.

  Maya sighed. He was right.

  She dove out of the Titan and began looking for the jettisoned crew members. But with everything else that was being ejected, she found it difficult to distinguish person from junk. Nevertheless, she descended and kept her eyes peeled to find a person.

  It soon occurred to her, though, to employ a different tactic. These were gods. Therefore, they could fly. With that in mind, she began looking for anything that had stopped falling.

  She eventually spotted a stationary object which she realized was one of the crew members. She flew towards him, but when he saw her, he beat a hasty retreat. Oh, no, you don’t, she thought and charged after him. She probably could have caught him without the power boost, but with it, this guy didn’t have a prayer in Narska of outrunning her.

  She quickly grabbed him and hauled his sorry ass back to the Titan’s bridge where she discovered Daryn and the others had also taken a few prisoners.

  Together, they sealed the hole and put the door back on its hinges and welded it shut. When that was finished, they took stock of the situation. Questioning the captured crew members took top priority.

  “How do we shut thing down?” Maya asked.

  He said, “Please don’t hurt us! We’re Second Gens. Zeus said he’d kill us if we didn’t help operate the Titan.”

  “We won’t,” Maya said. “Just tell us how to stop it.”

  One of them said, “You need Zeus’ authorization to deactivate the Titan, something he’ll never give you.”

  “Turning it off over the city might be a bad idea, anyway,” Jaysin said. “You know, with all the crashing.”

  Daryn said, “We don’t need to turn it off. We just need to get it out of the atmosphere.” To the crew members, he said, “Take us back into space.”

  But Maya said, “Wait. We’ve got a lot of firepower at our disposal. Maybe we can use it to help Ev.”

  “Help him how?” CiCi asked.

  To the crew members, she said, “Can you get a fix on Zeus’ current position?”

  One of them shrugged. “With all the power he gives off, it’d be hard not to.”

  “Good,” she said. “I want you to blast him.”

  * * *

  That had been a rough landing. Ev gingerly got up and looked around. He had landed on some ugly island. Probably the Murnau Islands. He stood on gray sand, and murky water lapped at the shore behind him. The thicket of trees ahead looked dead. Why couldn’t he have landed on a beautiful tropical island like in the movies?

  Ahead, a massive form rose to its feet. The suit was ragged and torn, but it was unmistakably Zeus. The king of the gods glared at him. “What gives you the right to challenge me? Huh? You know who I am?”

  Ev looked at him without an ounce of fear. Zeus could be beaten. That much had been made clear. “What gives you the right to kill all those people in Seraphim City?”

  “I can do anything I want with them!” Zeus insisted. “I created them.”

  “Rawrg shit.”

  “It’s true. When we emerged from Gehenna after countless millennia in suspended animation, we found this planet. It was just like Earth. But there was no life, so we made life. We seeded Narska. You, your friends, everyone—they all came from us! And now you would oppose those who created you. I’ll make you pay for that.”

  Ev spit out some blood. “That’s a nice little story. But I’ve heard those before. Arcturus Reich told me about the end of the previous universe. He thought that gave him the right to kill everyone. You’re the same way. I really don’t care what happened all those years ago. The mistakes of the past don’t justify the mistakes of the present. You’re a monster and I’m taking you down.”

  “Fine then!” Zeus roared. “Come at me, you little shit, and I’ll show you the power of the king of the gods!”

  Ev did just that, plowing into Zeus, the two of them tumbling head over ass into the forest. They crashed through trees, rocks and anything else that got in their way. Ev felt every hit, whether it came from Zeus or the environment. It hurt, but it felt good. All the power flowing him gave him a high he’d never felt before. Perhaps this was what motivated mighty gods like Zeus—they wanted to always feel this way. Maybe the adoration of mortals added to that. Ev didn’t know, and he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to understand these monsters, because understanding made them more pitiable and harder to kill. Ev had only one goal: to finish off Zeus.

  After several minutes of fighting, Zeus managed to separate from Ev and delivered a savage counterattack. Ev fought to block or counter his vicious kicks, haymakers and uppercuts. The king of the gods was an experienced fighter; his movements flowed seamlessly together, and it was all Ev could do to avoid being pounded to a bloody pile of chunks. In addition, his tremendous size gave him a substantial reach advantage. Several times during the fight, Ev misjudged the distance between them and paid for it, suffering crushing blows.

  Nevertheless, his enhanced god energy allowed him to keep going and, when Zeus finally made a mistake and missed an attack, Ev leapt at him, grabbing onto his tie and sent a volley of brutal punches to his face and hearing the satisfying crack of something breaking. Blood spattered the ancient god’s face, and it wasn’t Ev’s.

  Zeus eventually got a hold of Ev and threw him to the gro
und. Ev quickly got back to his feet and leapt at him again. This time, though, Zeus easily caught his fist and slammed him to the ground.

  Ev felt something break inside him. This last attack by Zeus had been far more punishing than anything in this fight so far. Had the elder god been holding back?

  With serious effort, Ev managed to get back to his feet. Pain wracked him from head to toe, resulting in harmonious agony. “You’ve been holding out on me,” he said, trying to maintain some semblance of confidence.

  “Fool,” Zeus said. “I’ve been giving you my all. I’ll let you in on a secret, though. Direct exposure to high levels of Ultimus energy results in a powerful burst of energy, but it’s fleeting. Unless you remain in contact with it for millennia, like I have.

  Ev spoke in ragged gasps. “You mean… it’s wearing off?”

  “Exactly. You no longer have the power to defeat me.”

  Ev sighed. “That’s why you gave that speech about creating mankind. You were buying time.”

  Zeus gave him a wicked smirk, despite the broken nose and missing teeth. “Exactly. Eons of life experience has given me the wisdom to win my battles. I would admit you were a worthy foe, but you were just scraping by on stolen power, weren’t you?”

  “Pooslicker,” Ev spat.

  The grin continued. “In the end, you’re nothing more than another insect I had to step on. You’re a miserable failure just like my son.” Hercules.

  “I’m not finished yet.” Ev hoped he sounded more confident than he felt.

  Zeus tsk’d. “We’re done here. I need to kill you and get back to the Titan. So long, kid.”

  The king of the gods raised his fist to finish off Ev. Without warning, though, a brilliant light appeared behind him.

  * * *

  “Have you got a lock on Zeus yet?” Maya asked the Titan crew member.

  “We’ve had a lock all along. But your friend is right in front of him. If we fire, he’ll get hit.”

  From a nearby station, Daryn said, “Well, you’d better do something quick. If I’m reading this right, Ev’s vitals are spiking. I’m no doctor, but at this rate, he’ll be dead within minutes.”

  “He’s right,” CiCi said. “Zeus is about to finish him off.”

  “But if we fire, we could easily hit Ev,” Maya said.

  But Jaysin said, “Not necessarily. The big guy’s bulk might just shield Ev from the blast.”

  Maya considered her options. Knowing how much Ev meant to her, Daryn was leaving this decision to her. If they fired, Ev might die. If they did nothing, Ev was almost guaranteed to die. That really left only one option. “Fire.”

  * * *

  The light hit Zeus before the boom of its arrival. For a moment, there was a brilliant luminescence, and the only sound was Zeus’ roar when it hit him. Ev stared at the spectacle, stunned.

  But then the sound arrived with a force Ev had never experienced before. It slammed into his ear drums like a truck exploding in a tornado. He cried out and tried to cover his ears. It was useless, though; nothing could stop the audible fury.

  He fell to his knees as the world exploded around him. The crimson beam that had exploded upon Zeus curved around his mass and incinerated the jungle/forest around them. In addition to the agonizing noise, the heat was unbearable and it threatened to melt him.

  Ev looked up. The back of Zeus’ clothes had been completely burned away, leaving only a giant, literally half-naked man in its place. The ancient god’s chiseled body radiated under the overwhelming force of the blast, and Ev realized just what a physical specimen he had been fighting.

  Ev shook his head. This was not the time for fear. He saw before him a real opportunity to be rid of Zero Grade’s leader once and for all. Zeus seemed to be holding up under the assault, having only gone to his knees, but what if Ev added to it?

  Summoning up all the strength he possibly could, he conjured his gauntlets and strode up to the giant. Then, without a second thought, he began pummeling his mid-section. Zeus seemed to cry out, but Ev couldn’t be sure since all he could hear was the blast. Nevertheless, he kept pounding him. Looking into Zeus’ eyes, he thought he saw a slight increase in the god king’s suffering while he wailed on him. Ev didn’t even know where he was getting the strength to do this; Zeus’ last attack had drained him. He chalked it up to a second wind and the desperation that was been driving him.

  After what seemed like an hour of this (but was probably more like a minute), Zeus still hadn’t gone down. Screw it, then. Ev did something he felt he should have done from the start.

  He punched Zeus in the balls.

  The giant’s defenses crumbled entirely and the blast enveloped him. He fell like a collapsing building onto Ev, and it was then that the student lost consciousness.

  * * *

  There was a hum that quickly faded. “That’s it,” the Titan crew member said. “The main cannon’s overheated. We can’t fire anymore.”

  “How long until it can be fired again,” Maya asked.

  He shook his head. “The barrel’s interior has been melted and warped by the unprecedented heat. If we try to fire it again, it’ll be like just like trying to fire a gun with a warped barrel. It’ll likely destroy the gun.”

  “You mean the Titan,” Daryn said.

  He nodded grimly.

  Another crew member, a young woman seated at a nearby console, announced, “I have confirmed the death of Zeus.”

  Maya could feel the mixed emotions in the room. The crew had just lost their leader and, despite him being a complete monster, they were nervous about what would happen now.

  Maya didn’t care. She was happy. Or would be, as soon as she confirmed one thing. “What about Ev?”

  “Let’s see—”

  She was cut off by the most surprising sound: Zeus’ voice. “Greetings, everyone.”

  “You said he was dead,” Maya said.

  “He is. All vital signs from him have ceased,” she insisted.

  Zeus continued via the PA system. “If you’re hearing this, it means I’m dead. It’s a scenario I didn’t think would occur, but I’m nothing if not thorough. If someone was strong enough to kill me, they likely have control of Titan. Or had control, anyway. You see, I had a special program installed. In the event the ship registers my death, the computer takes over and shall begin the complete bombardment of the planet’s surface. Every city has been designated a target and will now be destroyed. If I can’t have Narska, no one will. Farewell.”

  “This thing can’t really do that, can it?” Maya said. “I mean, the main gun is totaled.”

  The male crew member replied, “That’s far from the only weapon we have. The main cannon was the most powerful, but we have many smaller cannons that, together, can easily wipe out a city.”

  “Shut it down!” Daryn ordered.

  He shook his head. “Controls aren’t responding. I’m locked out.”

  “There has to be a way,” CiCi said.

  “You’d have to destroy each cannon one by one, and there are hundreds.”

  Jaysin chimed in. “Or we could just destroy this whole ship.”

  “How?” Maya said.

  “Like he said. Force the main cannon to fire. ‘Destroy the gun.’”

  “How are we supposed to do that when we’re locked out?” Maya said.

  “There must be a way,” Daryn said with hope.

  The crew member looked away, avoiding eye contact with them. “There is a way, isn’t there?” Maya said.

  “Well… Yes. But you won’t like it.”

  “Just tell us,” Maya said.

  He explained, “You’d have to go into the cannon itself and manually fire it.”

  “Yeah, that sounds dangerous,” Daryn said. “I can see why we wouldn’t like it.”

  Maya considered it. “How long would it take to do it?”

  “Not long,” the female crew member said.

  She nodded. “All right, let’s do it. But how do we ge
t the Titan away from populated areas?”

  The male crew member said, “It’s not enough to just move it to another area of the planet. The blast will take out a sizeable chunk of Narska. We need to move it into space.”

  “How do we do that?” Daryn said.

  “Same as with the main cannon. We have to go to the thrusters and reorient them to point downwards. We then have to manually activate them from the Titan’s core.”

  “How many thrusters are there?” CiCi asked.

  “Two primary thrusters One hundred and twenty-two secondary ones. The majority of them will need to be reoriented.”