[Escape II]

Fate/Defiance

Chapter 8 [Escape II]

By theMadLad

Icarus couldn't believe he did it.

Looking down on all of Athens as he continued to gain altitude, he was amazed. He could see the city-state from one end to the other, with the horizon gaining size each passing moment he floated higher.

Euphoria filled his body and clotted his veins as he watched the fevered gazes below shrink smaller and smaller, their distant cheers of excitement and wonder growing quieter and quieter.

"Hahahaha!" He continued to boisterously laugh, his face frozen in a smile so wide that he began to feel pain as his lips struggled to stretch wider.

He was flying!

…Kinda, more like he was attached to something else that was. But, that doesn't matter, he made it after all!

Glancing back to look at the balloon shaped device behind him, he couldn't help but smirk in pride.

It was technically an air balloon, but it doesn't work in a way someone from the modern era would comprehend.

With it being the Age of the Gods, things like physics and science that are known as fact during the Age of Men are invalid here. Almost everything runs on mystery and superstition instead.

The Earth doesn't rotate around the Sun because of gravity, no the Sun rotates around the Earth because Helios' chariot pulls him across the sky each day.

The laws of man and science were meaningless and null to the might of gods, humans held no weight yet, the world didn't care for their thoughts.

But, none of that mattered to Icarus right now.

If the laws of science and physics were pointless, then he would simply decipher the laws of mystery instead. He would find out what made them tick, and then bend them to his will.

Just like how the humans of tomorrow will set out to do a thousand plus years later… until eventually, there were no longer any laws pertaining to mystery, when the time came for the minds of men to hold dominion of the might of gods.

But, that was in the distant future and currently irrelevant.

Icarus had to work with what he had, and to do so, he needed the knowledge to know how to.

When he was younger and Daedalus still had Perdix under his wing, Icarus used to run off on his own to experiment with how things worked and how they were different from what he knew.

It was during one of these times, that he was trying to experiment with water and air and how they worked in this Age in comparison to his own. After a few trials, he was able to deduct through his various tests that a fundamental law of physics simply didn't exist.

Density.

Wood placed on water to float didn't do so because the wood had a lower mass per volume, no—it did so because Posiedon, the God of Water, allowed it to do so.

While Icarus' thoughts at the time briefly wandered to the implications of this and how they affected everything else in this convoluted world, he quickly changed lanes to thoughts that he found much more important.

Namely, how he could exploit this.

…and exploit it he did.

Like a speedrunner trying desperately to find a way to further refine his any% percent speedrun, he quickly found ways to use this information to his advantage.

Air.

Why did it still float above the sea without density?

Why did it always desperately escape upwards when trapped under the water regardless?

Icarus had a bold hypothesis, one that led to an idea that was as much heretical as it was ingenious.

The air didn't escape because it was less dense than the water, no—it escaped because Posiedon was lower than Zeus on the totem pole that made up the Olympian Pantheon of Gods.

Because conceptually in every way shape or form, Zeus, the God of the Skies, was above Posiedon, the God of the Seas. It was as much a show of authority both literally and figuratively as it was the way the world worked.

The Gods were personifications of their domains and as such, Zeus, the King of the Gods, the God that reigned over all others, who held the authority of the skies—could never be constrained below water.

Air moved above water, because Zeus was above Poseidon.

…and that is what Icarus exploited.

The Authority of the Gods and how they interacted between each other.

Since air trapped in water always tries to float out of it, why not trap air in a seal of water to fool it into generating lift?

So that's exactly what he did.

He used the leftover storage pouches from his father and combined them all together until he modified them into the shape of a large balloon.

Then, using some of the magic remaining on it that was used to store objects, he converted it into a bounded field that could contain an airtight layer of water interwoven into the material used to make the balloon.

Then after filling the balloon with air and activating the bounded field, the air would have no choice but to go upwards, attempting to escape its conceptually confinement.

…and then fly.

While he had flown on airplanes before in his past life, Icarus had never been on an air balloon or skydiving before. So, being out floating in such open air without the confinement of a plane's cabin was an indescribable feeling.

Looking down from so high up in a world without skyscrapers and free from the future pollution of light and noise.

It made everything feel so small.

Everyone else was just ant-like in size, with buildings being miniaturized and even the entire city-state being in view.

It wasn't some massive metropolis with a skyline that reached the clouds or was it large enough to take up the horizon with an area that was made up by hundreds of square miles.

Athens was small in comparison.

Humanity was so much smaller than in the future.

There was a reason Athens was a city-state and not a country of its own.

It made him feel a subtle sympathy with that of the Gods.

…To be so high up that you could only look down.

But then he threw that thought out the metaphorical window in his mind.

He merely flew up in the air, who was he to compare himself to the Gods?

He shook his head with a weary smile, although the gods may have been all powerful, he never wanted to be like them.

The reason he was so unnerved and demoralized by the existence of the Gods, wasn't simply their almighty power.

No, it was their ability to restrict the one thing he valued above all else.

…His freedom.

———————

Aeschylus was drenched in cold sweat, the crowd's cheers of excitement ringing through his ears like mockery.

Cecrops was going to have his head after this.

Not only was everything he ever prided himself on so blatantly humiliated in front of this child.

No, that was not a child.

Icarus, he thought, Icarus was the boy's name.

He at least deserved that respect, son of Daedalus or not.

But regardless of his respect, now Aeschylus' standing beside his lord was in dire straits.

That was supposed to be his way to the top! He could feel the easy life beside Cecrops slipping through his fingers.

He couldn't allow that to happen!

His mind whirled as his desperation heightened, until eventually he had an idea.

Aeschylus' head whipped to his old 'friend' Alcaeus.

'Want to fuck me, huh…? Well, I'll fuck you instead!' He thought in vindictive glee and a sinister gleam entered his eyes.

"Alcaeus!" He shouted as the person in question turned to him with an intense glare. Maybe, if it was earlier Aeschylus may have flinched or wilted from the glare… but now, now he welcomed it.

"What." Alcaeus growled out in response.

Aeschylus smirked, "Shoot down Icarus."

Alcaeus' face soured as if he just sucked the juice from a rotted lemon, "…are you mad?" He replied as he stretched out his arms to emphasize the crowd surrounding them.

"Do you wish to fail, Cecrops." Aeschylus spoke as his smirk widened further, "…The only person keeping you safe from all your shit is him. Do you really dare and see how you fair when he cuts you loose after failing this mission…?"

Alcaeus' face paled at implications, he may have been carefree about his maliciousness, but he was well aware of the enemies he had offended with his actions.

…and without Cecrops to keep them at bay, he likely wouldn't live to see the next day.

But, to kill Icarus in front of all these people no less? He may as well tie the rope around his neck himself. But, if he took the fall… Cecrops might save him as a reward for his loyalty.

He had to rely on Cecrops' or he was as good as dead. He could even feel his face turn red as he spotted the smirk on Aeschylus' face stretch to eerie proportions when he realized it.

He had to kill Icarus.

He had no choice.

———————-

Cecrops glanced down at his nephew Daedalus with contempt and joy.

After all these years, he could finally root out the final thorn on his side. The last of Metion's sons that he had yet to eliminate on his path to the throne.

Finally, the crown would be his.

He would be king.

As he sat at one of the prominent seats adjacent to the other Eupatridaes surrounding the court, he could feel the raging sea of excitement in his heart as his ambition was only moments away from fruition.

Although the trial had taken place so early in the morning, he couldn't bring himself to feel even a lick of sleepiness.

He couldn't even fall asleep the night before, he was simply too restless. He had already blackmailed, bribed, or assassinated enough of the other nobles to guarantee his favored turnout.

He won.

This trial was a mere formality.

As he glanced at the surroundings, he swelled his chest in pride as half of Athens was in the audience to watch his final victory over his brother.

A vindictive smile overcame his face while looking down on Daedalus, who was restricted by ropes that were knotted above his arms as he was kneeling over the jagged hill, mirroring the imprisonment of Ares on this very hilltop many years prior.

What did it matter that he was some genius inventor, when the outcome would be the same regardless?

He was to be king after all and all that his subjects could do was kneel, regardless of talent.

…and those that decided to stick out, well, they'd be hammered down.

While the trial had begun to reach its conclusion and Cecrops finally left his fantasies, the final votes were to be passed.

Daedalus had been mostly silent the entire trial, but all those that looked towards him would involuntarily flinch away from the glare of madness on his face.

…It really didn't help their opinion on him.

Those who were against having him executed were instead pushing for a banishment. Either way, he was not going to be Athens' problem soon.

Soon enough, the votes came to an end.

He was to be executed.

Cecrops smiled.

No, more than a smile—he was practically vibrating in his seat at the outcome.

The road to the king had been paved, now he simply had to walk down it.

But just as he was completing his internal victory lap, the audience suddenly started to become rambunctious, gathering into a crowd as they pushed each other to get a look out towards the edge of the areopagus.

Most of the Eupatridaes also became curious from the sudden excitement, standing up from their seats in an attempt to get a look.

Cecrops himself was also rather perplexed about the sudden development, but wasn't too worried about it.

This was his triumphant day after all.

Putting a hand to his forehead to shade his eyes from Helios' brightness, he eventually saw what everyone seemed so fascinated with.

A small brown dot floating up towards the sky at the opposite end of Athens.

Curious.

After spotting it, he took out a spyglass that was made by his personal magian, grasping it in his hand as he peered into it towards the dot—before rapidly paling at what he saw through the lens.

Icarus.

Daedalus' son.

His own great-nephew.

Impossible, he thought—while suddenly standing up at a speed that would make someone blink in surprise.

His mind was unable to conjure up a reason for this sudden turn of events, entering an empty state of bafflement as he continued to watch on.

His hands were shaking as he peered through the spyglass, which was of good enough quality to even spot the expression on the boy's face from so far off.

Although Icarus seemed a little pale, Cecrops felt a pit of dread develop in his stomach on an instinctual level as he saw the wicked, smug, smirk on the boy's face.

He froze after seeing that expression, while somehow seeming to lock eyes with the boy through the spyglass that was lying on the side of the strange bow(?) he was wielding.

Cecrops barely noticed that strange bow being drawn back, only having the time to blink and then see it having been suddenly released.

—Then he heard it.

A sudden boom in the distance.

Then a second one just a moment later, but this time much closer—barely outside the areopagus.

The air seemed to suddenly rage as it was plowed through with an unknown projectile, blanketing the surroundings with tremendous force while only being overcome in attention by the sudden pain erupting from everyone's ears.

Everyone was confused, disoriented, and in pain from the inexplicable events—but not Cecrops.

He saw it all.

That was not some unknown projectile.

It was an arrow.

From that strange bow.

He shivered in fear as his legs struggled to not tumble to the floor.

Cold sweat drenched his body as he followed the arrow's path, watching as it shredded through the ropes binding Daedalus from above into nothingness before plowing into the hillside with the force of a divine bull.

Like a heated blade slicing through the cheese of a cow, the arrow disappeared into the hillside unabated, with only the faint explosion rocking out from the hole moments later signifying its entry.[1]

His legs gave out a moment later.

===============

Author's Notes

Finally released! Sorry for the delay, I had most of it planned in my head but I just couldn't put it into words!

Checkout the new cover! (Its adult Icarus!)

Next chapter will cover Icarus' side of the event and finally actually escape Athens.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Feedback is much appreciated, it is my main motivation!

Join my discord, at https://discord.gg/AMyqBN2

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Glossary

[1] Like a heated blade slicing through the cheese of a cow

Basically means, 'like a hot knife through butter.' But with butter being replaced with a more historically accurate term of 'cow cheese.'