A hammer, flung from afar, plowed into the Dark God’s side before he could block it. The impact knocked him and Trynaught off the mountaintop. Both tumbled down its craggy slope.
Thor retrieved Mjolnir and then went after the Dark God, intending to hammer him to paste!
The Dark God arrested his tumble and launched himself at Thor with such speed he became a red and white streak.
The God of Thunder was not fast enough to avoid a kick to the gut. Thor doubled over, stymied by the pain! The Dark God grabbed Thor by the arm and flung him downward. The Thunder God hit the ground with a force that caused tremors for kilometers in every direction.
Zeus hurled a succession of lightning bolts at the Dark Lord while Amateratsu and Huitzilopochtli fired stellar energy beams.
The Dark Lord deflected their barrage and painted the black sky with energy clusters. Zeus tried to block an incoming cluster with a lightning bolt. The cluster absorbed his bolt and exploded within inches of the Olympian. He fell from the sky like a shattered doll.
Huitzilopochtli and Amateratsu eluded the Dark God’s bursts and charged him from opposite flanks. They launched converging beams of stellar energy, hoping to catch their foe in a crossfire.
One second, the Dark God was in their sights. The next, he was gone! Amateratsu balked. “What…?”
Sensing a presence behind her, Amateratsu started to turn. The Dark God blasted her in the back with a potent burst of his arcane energy. The Sun Goddess cried out in pain and twisted about, her hand alight with the stellar fury she intended to send in the faceless demon’s direction. Another burst from the Dark God caught her in the chest, throwing off her aim and sending her stellar bolt flashing into the upper atmosphere.
Huitzilopochtli leveled his scepter and unleashed a wide shaft of stellar energy, snaring the Dark God in its lethal light. The Dark God redirected the energy beam back at the Sun God. Huitzilopochtli flailed in a blinding furnace of his own making.
The Dark God increased the beam’s temperature and looked on with cruel glee as his victim baked at the heart of an artificial sun.
Trynaught grabbed the Dark God from behind and the two struggled as Huitzilopochtli’s scalded, semi conscious form dropped out of the sky.
“Such relentlessness! What a pity that you don’t know when you are beaten.”
The Dark God rammed a fist into Trynaught’s jaw, sending him crashing into the mountain.
“On the other hand, I created you. So you could only have inherited your tenacity from me.”
The Dark God advanced on the mountain.
Thor flew into his path, his bearded visage contorted in berserker fury.
Energy burst from the Dark God’s hand.
Thor swung Mjolnir with all the strength he could muster, dissipating every burst thrown at him.
Undaunted, the Dark God reached out and summoned invisible forces to confiscate his opponent’s hammer.
A tug of war ensued as Thor struggled to keep hold of Mjolnir while the Dark God attempted to pry it out of the other’s grasp.
Thor’s eyes widened with increasing astonishment as his grip on the hammer loosened.
“Impossible!” He shouted as the hammer slid further out of his grasp. “No force in the universe can take Mjolnir from me! Certainly not a worthless pretender god!”
Enflamed by the insult, the Dark God increased his effort to snatch Thor’s hammer.
All of a sudden, a tremendously sharp pain assailed the Dark God. He arched his back and looked down to see the head of a spear thrusting through his chest.
“Sometimes, the simplest weapon can be the most effective,” Ogun whispered in the Dark God’s ear, driving the spear through his opponent’s body until most of its shaft was colored in maroon blood.
The God of Iron pulled the spear out and flung his wounded foe down the mountainside.
Trynaught grabbed his creator and dragged his limp body to a ledge at the mountain’s broad base. He slammed the Dark God into the hard surface and stamped a foot on the latter’s throat.
The Dark God bled profusely from his chest wound. He pawed with futility at Trynaught’s foot.
“Yes. You did bring me into existence,” Trynaught acknowledged. “But you did so on a whim! I am not your whim. My existence is not trivial. It has a purpose!”
Ogun and Thor landed on either side of Trynaught. Huitzilopochtli, Amateratsu and Zeus hovered over the scene, barely recovered from their injuries.
Ogun handed Trynaught the spear. “It’ll be easier with this.”
Trynaught took the spear and plunged it through the Dark God’s throat without the barest hesitation. His creator’s breathing ceased instantly.
Trynaught wasn’t finished yet. He hacked away at his creator’s neck with the wide spear blade until the Dark God’s faceless head detached from his body. Holding up the head for all to see, Trynaught let out a triumphant shout.
****
The Dark God’s fleet had been defeated. The wreckage of his once mighty ships floated mournfully in the void. Trynaught’s replica ships combed through the debris, searching for survivors and killing them. Trynaught wanted no trace of the Dark God’s madness left alive.
“I want you to destroy this planet,” Trynaught demanded of the gods as they stood on the view deck of one of the replica ships.
“I see no purpose in erasing your past in such a wholesale manner,” said Ogun. “You must learn to embrace who you are.”
“Agreed,” Zeus chimed in. “There would be no point in destroying an entire world.”
“No point at all,” Ogun seconded.
Trynaught chuckled humorlessly, thrusting a judgmental finger at Ogun. “You say this, yet you laid waste that same world.”
“That was war,” Ogun emphasized. “Now, if you’re willing to take a break from vengeance, you should join us in celebrating our victory.”
Trynaught deliberated on the invitation, wondering if he was being too vindictive. Finally, he accepted Ogun’s offer.
“We wouldn’t have acceded to your request anyway,” said Amateratsu with a wry smile. “Our agreement with you was fulfilled the moment you killed the Dark God.”
Trynaught frowned. “Don’t remind me.”
****
The gods returned to a universe where the followers of Jehov no longer existed. In fact, no one had ever heard of a so-called one true God.
Ogun, Amateratsu, Huitzilopochtli, Thor, and Zeus saw that in Jehov’s absence, their followers had multiplied by billions!
Ogun took his place among his fellow Orishas and basked in the praising songs of his countless worshipers.
Zeus returned to Mt. Olympus, resuming his role as King of the Gods. He wept with joy at the many temples being constructed in his honor.
Amateratsu resided over the rebirth and expansion of the Land of the Rising Sun. Now, she was worshipped across the entirely of the largest continent on the planet!
Thor surveyed the multitude of his followers. Seated at the head of Valhalla’s endless dining hall, he downed an overflowing chalice of the sweetest Mead in celebration.
Pyramids symbolizing the resurrection of an ancient religion proliferated from horizon to horizon in the ‘New World’. Huitzilopochtli never thought he would witness the day when he would again be an object of worship. Where he once thought he would never receive another sacrifice, now rivers of mortal blood poured down the steps of mighty pyramids and the scent of burning hearts rose into the sky. How thrilling it was to hear his name venerated by a billion uplifted voices!
****
For Trynaught, the spoils of war were a ruined world within a dark universe. The more Trynaught walked the wastelands of the world which birthed him, the more he regretted his fate.
The new ruler of this broken world knew not what it looked like before Ogun’s apocalypse swept over it. However, he knew when it regained its original ecosystem it would harbor a beauty all its own.
The paltry few surviving inhabitants struggled to eke out an existence in the midst of cold, storm-lashed desolation. All organisms on the planet be they higher or lower life were biologically equipped to function in darkness.
That remained a point of fascination with Trynaught; the existence of creatures which had never seen the light…at least anything brighter than the planet’s own soft luminescence.
Perhaps he would change that. Trynaught now possessed the powers of his creator. He could fashion new life with his abilities. He could even remold worlds, construct new terrains, new environments! Perhaps, this world need not be so dark. Perhaps, this realm need not be devoid of stars!
The lingering hatred of the Dark God that had clung tenaciously to his soul, melted away in the wash of optimistic possibilities. No more bitterness, no more grievances. It was time to shed old emotions and assume his new exalted mantle of power. It was time for him to shape his realm!
“I am so proud of you.”
Trynaught plummeted out of his thoughts and looked around with alarm. That voice!
“You sought me out and took what you wanted, without hesitation, without remorse. You are truly a reflection of me.”
“No!” Trynaught stumbled like a drunkard, frantically searching for the source of that voice. “No…it can’t be!”
The ground beneath Trynaught’s feet crumbled away to be sucked into a whirling vortex. Everything around him disappeared into the vortex. The more material the vortex sucked in the larger it grew until it spanned the radius of a star system. Finally, it too vanished and Trynaught was left afloat in an empty, black void.
“No!” He screamed. “I killed you! I killed you!”
“Yes you did. Rest assured, what you experienced was real. I did indeed die by your hand. It was your desire to kill me and take my power, and you achieved those goals. I have allowed you your indulgence, now I reclaim what is mine.”
A new, smaller vortex opened up in front of Trynaught and light spilled into the void from the glimmering spatial fissure.
“Again, I send you off to distant corners of the multiverse to continue to learn and evolve. When you have had a full and proper education in all that is, only then... may you return to me. Farewell my Trynaught. May your journey be everlasting!”
Once more, the Dark God hurled Trynaught into the vortex, his booming laughter intermingling with his creation’s howls of rage….
****
Power. So delectable. Delectable as the spherical food product I hold in my grasping appendage…hand. The product’s outer coating is roughly textured, yet soft to the bite. Sweet juices fill my mouth. My teeth grind the portion I’ve bitten to pulp and I swallow. Digestive processes unfold and I repeat this pleasurable, yet life-sustaining act until the product is no more. Nutrients from the food product will perpetuate the survival of this biological form I’ve adopted….
The End
© 2014 Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Replies