Chapter 41: Chapter Forty-One: A Stop
Wars raged on and on in ancient Greece, as the gods competed in battle. Some fighting for status, some looking for stronger allies, some looking for revenge, and some out just for the kill. The Norse gods eventually came to the agreement amongst themselves to pull out of the war. But to do it, they needed to come up with a cover to stop Zeus from further pursuing Odin and the other strong fighters. However, the only way they could stop someone like Zeus was death. So death is what they chose. Or rather, they chose to lie about their death. In conspiracy with Nyx, the primordial goddess of night, they moved the home of the Norse gods; Valhalla; into a new space, a separate dimension of it's own. Nyx was the sister of Gaia, and told Gaia of their plan. Using Gaia's power, together they used part of the void that is their father, Khaos. Separating Valhalla from the real world. As they did this, they slowly moved the Norse gods to the new dimension one by one to the new Valhalla, under the lie that each one that was moved was killed. That way, when one of the gods vanished, nobody would look for them. This helped slow the spread of the fight, as those who were sought after all soon vanished. Thor and Loki played important roles in this plot. They used the three of Loki's children as part of the plot. They had Loki's son Jormungandr rise in the Baltic Sea. Spreading word that Jormungandr was attempting to devour the world. They then faked Odin's death by claiming Fenrir devoured him. All those Norse gods who didn't fall in battle were said to be taken by Loki's daughter, Hel. After Fenrir allegedly ate Odin, they claimed Loki was apprehended, and bound by chains made of Fenrir's flesh, as they claimed he was defeated in battle by Vidar. After which, they claimed that Thor took Jormungandr down in battle. However, Jormungandr fell as he poisoned Thor, and he fell as well. Gaia and Nyx had moved all of them safely to Valhalla, and Nyx joined them there to avoid arousing suspicions amongst her children. She knew that some of her children were under Zeus's influence, such as Eris, Dolos, Hypnos, the Moirai sisters, and Thanatos. With the Norse's plan being successful, the war come to a massive slow. However, the war still raged.
Chronos eventually came back to the battle, under unknown intentions. This put Gaia on the move to keep him out of the fight. Gaia, on one hand, wanted to help her siblings. On the other hand, she was more worried about what Chronos was after, and what was going on through his mind. As Gaia moved, Ishmael became more and more involved with the war. Ishmael wanted to end the war for good. He saw the fighting was destroying the Earth at an alarming rate. It even sparked additional wars amongst the humans. Eventually, the fighting even awoke someone they never thought they'd see join the fight, as well as brought back an enemy that Ishmael had long since thought they were past. Set came back for revenge against Ishmael. This time, both of his beastly hands covered in blood. However, Ishmael did not find himself fighting alone. As Set approached, the other God Slayer awoke. Gaia's left arm dissipates into a smoke as Naris came back. "I'm tired of watching this fighting" Naris says.
"So, they multiply" Set says. "I've only come for Ishmael. I have no time for the likes of you."
"How did you survive?" Ishmael asks.
"I'm much stronger than you know" Set says. "Though, my travels were a bit delayed by the freak known as Osiris."
"Osiris?" Ishmael asks.
"It's no matter now" Set says. "Osiris is dead. No use crying over spilt milk, as they say."
"This war ends now" Naris says. "You're too slow. Too soft, Ishmael. You need to be swift." Suddenly, a wall of black smoke flies from Naris and covers Set in a black veil. Set shields his eyes, and then swings his staff with armament magic at the smoke that is Naris's body. However, the staff simply passes through. "You can not kill me, worthless god. Unless you can possess the power of primeval gods, you stand no match. Stay there and perish." All of Set's magic was sapped from him, as Naris absorbed his endo into himself. Naris grew bigger and bigger, then finally withdrew to expose Set kneeling on the ground in exhaustion.
"What... the hell kind of power... is this?" Set asks between breaths.
From Naris's body, a single arm shaped cloud of endo grew. The arm pointed a finger at Set as he said "Now perish." A black pillar came from the heavens, and struck down on Set. The impact caused a mighty explosion that dug Set a deep grave. The pillar didn't expand, but rather stayed small. After Set was dead and sunk into the Earth, Naris used magic to force the ground to close the hole he just made. If Set was in one piece after that, he was surely now crushed into a pulp.
In Pilloa, another group of hunters came after Siran. This time, regular hunters rather than Ares's Drones. The revolutionary war in Omnia was slowing down as the revolutionary army was winning and gaining more territory against the American sent Ly'Lum. The Americans began pulling back to Omnium Guild. Soon, another turning point in the war arose when more Americans showed up in places like Farnhardt and outside of Giga Desert. However, these forces were American citizens that either migrated to Omnia or came to join the fight. The reason was unknown so far to the revolutionary army, but it made the push towards Omnium Guild faster and much quicker. Soon, it became America versus America, and Omnians gained more time to reinforce their defenses as the now HQ and improvised capital of Omnian forces that is Pilloa grew. The castle was expanded and became more modern and much larger. Now using Pilloa Castle as an headquarters, the revolutionary army set up communication networks across Omnia, with its base at Pilloa Castle which was now called HQ or the capital. With this network, they caught word that multiple hunter groups were now combing through Omnia in search of The Six Guns. With this news, the security team lead by Ryan Fokker, moved all of The Six Guns members that remained in HQ to a different location. "But if we're supposed to leave" Benjie asks, "then where would we go?"
"We'd need somewhere discreet" Ryan says. "Somewhere they can't find."
"But it should also be somewhere that the rest of the crew can meet up at" Ali says. "I'm not sure where we could go that the rest could find, if it's hidden enough to evade the hunter groups."
"Where could we go that's like that?" Benjie asks. "We still have to find a place where we can treat Siran until he finally wakes up."
"I know one place" Demetri says with a sigh, in a low tone. "We could go to Vega."
"But we've already been refused" Ali says. "We can't get in!"
"Then we'll force our way in" Silas says as he enters the room.
"You don't mean to take on the Vega mafia, do you?" Ali asks. "Do you have any idea what you're messing with?"
"Either that or be hunted by those hunters" Dana says.
"But we won't be safe there!" Ali says. "Especially if we start a war with them just to stay there! We'll be killed in our sleep!"
"Then we need a leverage" Carl says as he looks at Ali.
"What do you mean?" Benjie asks, looking back and forth between Carl and Ali.
"Wait... no" Ali says. "I know what you're thinking."
"What am I missing?" Benjie asks.
"You have the former boss of Wolfpack on speed dial, do you not?" Carl asks.
"You what!?" Benjie asks.
"There's no way that can work!" Ali says. "He's not their boss anymore! The new boss has no obligation to listen to Don!"
"It's better than nothing" Dana says. "Get him here. Tell him we need a favor."
"This isn't going to work..." Ali says as she pulls out her phone.
Holly, Tanya, Blake and Robin kept searching the bottom of Dead Crater. Eventually, Holly came across a large slab of rock that was broken off from the ground and leaning up against a pile of rock and dirt. The slab was cracked in half, but surely enough, there was a charm burned into it. "This must be it" Holly says.
"You found it?" Tanya asks in surprise.
"One of them" Holly says. "This must've been the seals that Siran placed." Holly takes out her laptop and scans the area. "This puts a bump in my path. If these weren't here, it would've been a direct link between Siran's methods and theirs. But, nonetheless, it's also good that we found it because now we can see the difference between this and the rest of the world."
Holly closely inspected the seal for hours. Eventually, Tanya asks "Find anything out yet?"
"No..." Holly says in disappointment. "It's weird. This area is just like the surrounding area. It's no different, in terms of the spread of endo."
"But if that's the case" Robin says, "then does that mean this was a bust?"
"Maybe..." Holly says, then puts up her laptop. "Or, maybe it means that the seals just... aren't the reason this place is flooded. But, if Naris's endo isn't the only thing flooding this place... then what is?"
"Shit, like we'd know a hard question like that" Blake complains. "We're no scientists. For all we know, the seals stopped having an effect or whatever after they were used, like a charm or something. Then they just... poof. Became useless. For all we know, the endo surrounding this place is just like... I dunno, from the gods doing the same thing but without a charm? I mean, they don't need charms to use magic, but we do... so..."
Holly slowly cocked her head towards Blake and stared at him in shock. Blake looked left and right nervously and finally asked "What?"
"No way..." Holly says. "That could be it!"
"What could be it?" Blake asks. "Gods use magic too. It's just mumbo-jumbo."
"You idiot" Holly says. "Don't you see? The seals weren't seals to begin with. They just moved Valhalla and Earth closer together. These are nothing more than charms! But if you had something to boost your power and could use magic without a charm..."
"L-like those shards we saw Ares with!" Tanya says.
"Yes!" Holly exclaims. "You could theoretically move the two dimensions closer too! Siran had to have the help of Naris's magic to do it. Now that the gods have a boost, they can too!"
"Which means the streams really weren't opened!" Tanya says.
"They were summoned..." Robin says as he thinks. "Which means..."
"They can be unsunmoned!" Holly shouts. "And we don't need Zeus or Ares to do it!"
"If we take that info back to Siran when he wakes up!" Tanya says. "Then they can find a way to stop it!"
"Let's go, right now!" Holly says.
"Finally!" Blake says with a breath of excitement.
They spend hours going back to their spot that they have all their climbing ropes set up and began to attach rappelling equipment to the ropes to scale the crater walls again. It took about a day to get out of Dead Crater, but they didn't have time to rest. They were slowly starting to feel sick and needed to get out as soon as they can. As long as they could make it back to Pilloa, they could get treated for endo poisoning before worse side effects kicked in. However, when they reached the top, they came across what was about to be a major setback, waiting for them as they pull the top half of their bodies over the rim of Dead Crater. "Long time no see" Jacob McNamara; the Secretary of Defense for the American government; said with a smile. "We've been waiting for you. It's been a long time since we last spoke."
"Oh, hell..." Holly says as she freezes.
"Stop killing people left and right!" Ishmael yells at Naris amidst the war. "We're supposed to stop the war! Not make it worse!"
"The war will be stopped when they're all dead!" Naris hisses.
"Don't make me do this!" Ishmael says as he gets in a fighting stance and shapeshifts into a most human form with his hair glowing white with reactive endo and his horns coming out of his head. His hands remained human, but his fingernails turned into claws. His sclera turned black like they usually are in his fox form. However, his purple eyes began glowing red from the use of clairvoyance magic being used. "I'll stop you if I have to."
"I won't lose to you twice, Ishmael" Naris growls.
"You two, stop it!" Inari cries.
"Stay back!" Ishmael warns. "He's a monster who doesn't know when to stop! If you get too close, you won't be able to protect yourself!"
"You call me the monster?" Naris asks. "Your hesitation only let many people die. At least if they die by me, they'll die a quick death. I was made to end the gods' reign of terror. Not protect humans. If humans die, then so be it."
"I won't let you" Ishmael warns.
"Naris, no!" Gaia shouts.
"This has to happen!" Naris shouts back. "At the very least, I'll save our mother. This time it's your turn to go back and watch as I do the work for you."
"Don't do this" Ishmael warns for a final time. "I don't want to do this."
"Another lie from a fox" Naris growls. "How typical."
"You damned monster!" Ishmael yells as he charges at Naris.
"You damned fox!" Naris yells back.
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