by D L Colon
Jason has come and brought what would you call a prototype of their equipment because he needs materials that are only available on Earth to make them work to their full capacity and Osiris has taken notes on the things he needs to take care of once he goes back to Earth.
Jack has started to become more serious and War has been training with Jack. Death has been training with Conquest and Shadow has requested to train alone, but would come from time to time to train with everyone else, showing a lot of improvement. Famine has been training with Sphinx and they get along rather well, sharing their knowledge with each other. Cerberus has been constantly mock fighting with them and they have managed to push him, but he still has the advantage.
Osiris has been reading the parchment to see if there are any loopholes in it and he has seen several. He is going to talk to his team and see what they think about it so he heads to the Arena where they are and finds them standing around talking. Since it seems practice has already ended he gets everyone’s attention. “Gather around everyone. I want everyone to read this parchment and then you tell me if there’s any way to go around it without paying any consequences.”
Osiris hands the parchment to Cerberus. After he reads it he passes it to Jack and so on until everyone has read it. Once it is returned to Osiris he looks around expectantly and asks, “Well?”
Famine looks up and says, “It does not explain what the duty is so she could be fulfilling her duty by being with him and not pay any price for not following the parchment.”
Osiris nods, “Exactly, but there’s something else to this.”
Jack looks confused. “Such as?”
“What is it that most humans put before anything else?”
“Money.” Jack answers.
“Sex.” War says at the same time as Jack.
Death gives his opinion. “Drugs”
Famine, who has been listening to the answers from everyone, says. “The Parchment says it’s a Goddess, so it has to be simple. It would have to be duty.”
Osiris grins, “Exactly, you have come to the root of the problem”
Sphinx shakes his head. “But what makes you think this Goddess would do the same?”
Osiris looks at Sphinx and says, “You have a point. We don’t know that for sure, but this parchment will do the job for me.”
Osiris thinks for a minute before he speaks again. “I’ll tell you why it will happen this way. In human history the woman has had a leading role, but once they get married to a suitable partner their duty starts to change. It first becomes a duty to each other, the wife serves the husband and the other way around, until the wife gets pregnant. Once that happens her duty and his duty changes. It is then one to each other and the newborn child, but here is where the problem starts. In most cases the duty of serving her mate or his mate takes a secondary role, and it becomes their sole duty to raise the newborn child. It’s supposed to be a responsibly of both parents, but some males just procreate and leave that responsibility to their wife. This causes the woman to become a martyr because she takes care of the kids and doesn’t ask for any help. She sacrifices her love life, her social life and everything else for the kids. This brings the husband to look for someone who can relieve his sexual needs since he can’t get that from his wife, a situation he brought on himself, and this causes the relationship to crumble. After they become divorced the woman is set in her ways and her kids will come first. In some cases when the time comes that a true suitable partner comes to love her and the kids as if they were his own the woman won’t budge when it comes to raising the kids and let him become another authority figure. He has to watch from the background and see how she takes care of the kids by herself, not leaving enough room in their lives for his love. This forces him to walk away, when in reality he wanted the responsibility of being the one they turn to for support. When he brings this to her attention she will tell him, ‘If you can’t deal with this you weren’t ready for being in a relationship with me’, but the true issue is that she is so blinded by her duty that she pushed away the one man that would help carry her load instead of her having to carry the load alone. Humanity needs to understand that they don’t have to sacrifice love for duty or duty for love, you can have both. This is why the Goddess will fall. Her duty will come first.”
Osiris stops talking for a moment and when no one says anything he adds, “Well, that is how I see it, but that doesn’t change the fact that humanity is corrupted and I will use that corruption to my benefit because I want this world burned to the ground.”
When Osiris is finished he stands and walks away, showing everyone the power of his knowledge, but they still wonder what his physical powers are.
Chapter 21
Lucifer is on her throne watching Earth and how people still fight back against the rising number of Destroyers and Saviors and she keeps wondering why they fight so hard when their defeat is inevitable. Then she remembers how Noryad King was able to defeat her son Raphael, and take away his powers, rendering him useless and giving him a human form. Lucifer wanted to give him his powers back until she learned of his plot to overthrow her then she decided that his fate was sealed and that leaving him feeling useless was the best torture she could deliver upon him. But the one who did it was Noryad King, the now proclaimed savior of Earth, and there’s no one who can stop it. Suddenly there’s a knock on her door, which brings her out of her thoughts. Once she composes herself she says, “Come in.”
The door opens and two people come in. One she knows because he is one of her guards, but the other one she doesn’t know. The guard bows and says, “Master, I bring you news.”
“What kind of news?” She asks with a tilt of her head.
The guard pushes the other guy to the front. “Tell the Ruler of Hell what you have been saying in your cell the past few days, Prophet.”
The Prophet, whose eyes have a faraway look in them, starts talking: Two Kings shall face in a heated battle. One represents the light and the other the dark. The dark shall destroy the light, bringing total darkness and corruption to the land. But there is still hope for the King of Light. If he is ready to step on the throne then no darkness shall touch the light. Is the King of Light ready to step up or will the King of Darkness take his place, extinguishing any traces of light from this world?
Lucifer, with an annoyed expression, looks at the guard and asks, “How long has it been since he started saying this over and over again?”
The guard, with a fearful expression in his eyes, answers, “Master it has been since Champion Osiris said that he was going to be your Champion.”
Lucifer snaps her fingers and the guard starts screaming. After a moment he explodes, leaving traces of body parts all over the floor. Lucifer grins evilly and yells for another guard.
Another guard comes in quickly and bows as he enters the room. “Yes, Master?”
“Make sure no harm comes to him. Keep him on the safest level of the prison and if he starts saying anything new tell me immediately or you shall meet his fate, too.”
The guard nods quickly and proceeds to take the Prophet to the safest level of the prison. He pauses when he hears Lucifer say, “And send someone to clean this mess immediately.”
As soon as the guard leaves someone comes in to clean the mess on the floor. Lucifer grins after the mess is clean and turns back to start looking at Earth once more, but she’s still thinking about the words of the Prophet.
Chapter 22
Osiris is standing in the Arena. A championship match has been scheduled for him to defend his title. He is watching his opponents, this time it will be a three against one fight, but he doesn’t care. He looks towards the seats and sees everyone from his team sitting there and he can’t help but smile as he thinks to himself: If this doesn’t show them the magnitude of my power, and make them train harder than they are, I will have to be going to earth with Cerberus and Jason.
His opponents are looking at him and grinning, believing they are go
ing to beat him since they hold the advantage with numbers. Osiris looks at them and challenges them, “I don’t know why you even try to fight against me when the outcome is clear. You three are just walking corpses.”
Two of the guys look at each other, concerned at what Osiris said, but the third one, apparently the leader of the group, says in an anger filled voice, “You are just talking, Champ, your time is already up. I will make sure you pay for your insult against me, asshole.”
Osiris smiles and Cerberus grins, “Time to fight. Is everyone ready? And GO!”
Osiris, not waiting, raises his right hand and restrains the leader, not letting him move in any way, while the other two run to attack Osiris. Osiris lowers his right hand, but his power is still holding the leader and he starts to walk as the two warriors move closer. The moment the warriors raise their weapons and hit Osiris’ body they cut him and everyone sees his blood. Osiris starts to defend himself as the two warriors continue their attack, cutting him and making him bleed even faster. As the moments pass Osiris’ body is full of cuts and the floor is drenched in his blood. Everyone is looking in horror at what’s happening to their champion. Suddenly they cut his right shoulder deeply, causing a fountain of blood to rain down and everyone watches intently as Osiris puts his left arm on his shoulder. As the fight progresses the crowd watches as the warriors cut Osiris’ abdomen and everyone hears Cerberus says, “This is not a fight I expected to see.”
Everyone’s eyes are transfixed on the fight as the warriors continue to prolong their final judgement on Osiris. Before anyone knows what’s happening one of the warriors cuts Osiris’ left arm off and then the other one cuts his right arm off. Released from Osiris’ hold, the leader comes running toward Osiris and pulls out his sword, decapitating Osiris with one swift blow. The Arena fills with complete and total silence as everyone watches Osiris’ head roll across the floor. After a moment the sound of shattering crystal fills the Arena and they hear Osiris say. “How did your fight feel?”
Chapter 23
Once they hear Osiris’ voice the scene before them changes to show everyone that one of Osiris’ opponents is on the floor and the other is full of cuts from the fight. They have been fighting each other and were thinking it was Osiris. Everyone in the crowd saw the same scene before them and they can’t believe what they are seeing now. Osiris is standing beside the leader of the three, the leader is not moving, and the other warrior is looking at his partner on the floor with shock evident on this face.
Jack, who has been watching the fight very closely, turns to face Death and asks, “What just happened here?”
Death, not taking his eyes off Osiris, who has an expression full of excitement and pleasure on his face, answers, “What happened, Fallen God, is that Osiris has been manipulating this fight since the moment it started. He made us believe that he was being defeated, but in truth he was just deceiving us. He was showing us how powerful he is, but that still doesn’t answer our question about what is his true power is. I am sure that whatever it is we will find out only when the time is right.”
Jack listens to what Death is saying then he leans back in his seat and watches Osiris intently.
Osiris is walking toward the warrior with the cuts on his body. He is facing his partner and has a fearful expression on his face. As Osiris walks toward him he walks backwards trying to keep the distance between him and Osiris. Osiris grins at him devilishly and says, “Don’t run away. It will only take a second, I promise.”
The warrior keeps backing away and screams, “GET AWAY!” then he attacks Osiris. He sees his sword connect with Osiris’ body, but Osiris’ image becomes a blur and before anyone registers what is happening Osiris is behind the warrior. He touches him on the shoulder and the warrior turns around quickly.
“You know what I want, right?” Osiris asks in a low voice.
The warrior’s eyes turn completely white as he nods then walks to the middle of the Arena, grabs his sword and stabs himself in the abdomen, opening his belly until his intestines are falling out. While he stands there bleeding he reaches down, picks up his intestines and starts to eat them. Once he has finished, he falls face down on the Arena floor, dead. Osiris’ expression is gleeful as he starts laughing manically while everyone gapes at him.
When he turns his attention to the leader his face becomes hard as stone and he says in a cold voice, “If you think that was the end of it you couldn’t be more wrong. That was just the beginning. After all, you are still alive.”
He starts to walk toward the leader and the leader knows he is powerless. Frozen to the spot by Osiris’ power, he couldn’t move if he wanted to.
Chapter 24
Osiris is walking toward the leader of the three against one match, which was set up for him to lose, and with every step he takes a doppelganger copy of himself is created. When he stops in front of the leader there are fifty Osiris’ surrounding him. Osiris grins when he feels the mood of the audience. Everyone is uncomfortable with the turn of events, but Osiris doesn’t care. The time has come for him to prove his point that no matter who comes to fight him, they will suffer dearly.
Osiris’ grin widens as he takes out his sword and says, “Behold everyone, the Sword of Light, first seen in Hell before it was seen on Earth. It is out for blood and it will taste it fifty times.”
One of the fifty Osiris’ makes a shallow cut on the leader’s body and the leader screams in agony as the one who just cut him disappears. The next one proceeds to do the same and the process repeats over and over again, each time the leader’s screams of pain grow louder, until there is only one Osiris standing.
He is looking at the leader like he is his best kill ever. When Osiris lifts the Sword of Light and makes a cut straight down a flash of power crackles through the Arena. The leader is standing there looking like nothing happened to him when suddenly his eyes rolls back and his body falls silently to the Arena floor, split cleanly from head to toe in two identical pieces. Osiris turns around and doesn’t look back as he walks away.
The Arena is filled with complete and utter silence. No one can believe the scene before them. This was a completely one-sided fight and there are no marks on Osiris’ body. He was putting on a show. He wanted blood and gore and he got what he wanted. Even the arena knows it.
Osiris continues to walk away remembering the fight and the look on everyone’s faces. He walks straight to his room, not bothering to look for or wait for anyone to escort him and once he make his way into his room he closes the door and uses his magic to block any noise coming from the outside, including that from his team. Once that’s done he cleans the sword and puts it away then he showers off the dust from the battle and goes to bed, falling instantly asleep.
Chapter 25
Everyone leaves the Arena after watching Osiris’ fight, but none of them can shake the images in their mind of how ruthless Osiris was during the fight. They all recalled how quick he turned the tables on his opponent and they know that if they ever have a real fight against him they don’t stand a chance. He holds more power than any of them except for Cerberus, but they want to push him to take their fighting seriously. At least they know they have gotten stronger. Once everyone arrives at their rooms they head inside to sleep.
Once everyone gets a few hours of sleep they head to the Arena and are already warmed up when Osiris and Cerberus get there. Death approaches Osiris and says, “Mr. Osiris, we want to fight you and Cerberus again. We want you to see how much stronger we have gotten. We want to prove to you that we are ready for our fight against Lucifer’s team.”
Osiris turns to Cerberus and Cerberus nods. “They have been training for a while and I have seen their improvement, but the one they need to show their progress to is you. They have earned that right and I have to say that they are ready.”
Osiris looks at Death for a second before he looks at everyone else and sees their determination, and their improvement, in their eyes. He knows they have changed from
the team that started with him weeks ago so he nods and says, “Very well. The time has come for me to see how much you have improved.”
Osiris and Cerberus go to the middle of the Arena and Death, Jack, War, Famine, Conquest, Shadow and Sphinx face them. They all look at each other for a moment before they start running toward Cerberus and Osiris. As they are running they look like they aren’t synchronized, but as they got closer their formation changes. They shift and run toward them, forming a triangle with three on each side and one on the middle. As Jack and War come in contact with Cerberus and Osiris they jump high enough for the next two to attack. They keep attacking Cerberus and Osiris, pushing them back, as they keep jumping and switching off to the next person to attack, making their process unpredictable.
When they start cutting Cerberus’ and Osiris’ bodies they two team leaders get serious. Cerberus gets his sword out and Osiris brings out his magic staff and they turn the tables as they start attacking and in a matter of seconds send everyone to the ground.
Cerberus and Osiris stop and help them to their feet. Once everyone is standing again Osiris says, “You have done well, everyone. I can tell that you are ready to fight Lucifer’s team so now all we have to do is wait for her to summon me.”
Suddenly a voice comes from behind them. “There is no need for that, Osiris.”
Everyone turns around and sees a woman standing there with eight warriors behind her. They wonder who she is until Osiris says, “Well if it isn’t Lucifer herself. What brings you here?”