Gods And Monsters (9): Alone In The World

There was calmness all around. A stillness that only allowed the sound of the waves returning to serenity to be heard. Everything was bleak. and the world seemed to have turned just a tad bit darker all of a sudden.

That was the picture Khronos and Asterios saw the moment they arrived at the location where both Lightning Gods had been battling. Their arrival changed nothing. In fact, it only made everything seem even more cold and unfeeling.

Both Gods descended onto the ocean below. Their feet soon connected with the dark waters, throwing little splashes around that added sound to the otherwise soundless world. The horses, muted by the force of Asterios' Divinity, were quick to disappear once their job was done.

The first thing they did was to observe their surroundings. Ironically, they seemed to be closer to Thor, making it look as if they were on the same side; though knowing how the atmosphere was, it was doubtful anyone was on anyone's side.

He didn't look exactly fine, but he didn't look outstandingly wounded either. The most characteristical difference compared to when they left was his moderately rough breathing and a red scar that went from his right shoulder to his left torso, producing some sort of sizzling sound as if his own skin was being cooked.

They then turned to Seth, and the sight made them a bit tense. Leaving aside how his right arm was bent backward, and his right chest caved in with some bones sticking out of his body in a gory picture of blood, what surprised them most was the fact that he had a different sort of aura around him.

It was not because for some reason his previously long hair was barely neck-length now, or how he looked a bit younger than before; it was just... the sheer feeling of wrongness that he was emitting. No matter how a person changed their looks, if you were familiar with them you would still recognize them. However, neither Khronos nor Asterios could say that they 'knew' him at all.

If that were all they would just attribute it to the use of an Authority manifestation. Yet, what really told them that wasn't the case were his eyes. His eyes were what made them tense. His eyes were what was wrong. They were the eyes of a humanoid machine; not in a metaphorical sense, but in a literal one. Seemingly unfocused, lifeless, cold, and detached.

He didn't even bother to acknowledge their presence; as if they didn't exist or he just couldn't recognize them. They were willing to bet it was the latter.

His actions were incomprehensible too. He was completely disregarding the state of his body, preferring to focus on his good arm instead; moving it around and observing it like it was the most interesting thing in the world. He wasn't making any sense—nothing was making any sense.

"You... What the hell did you do?" The one who broke the silence was Thor, but he didn't direct the question at Seth, he directed it at them.

The opposite party looked at him with visible frowns on their faces, seemingly having wanted to ask the same question. "That's what I want to ask. Your light show was not particularly subtle."

"Do not play dumb with me, you piece of scrap. We were having a great time before a bright light engulfed him. That distraction made our clash become boring and one-sided. Since then he has just been looking at his body like some narcissistic freak and not responding to anything I said or do." The words were said slowly but with power and venom behind them. An established one-on-one fight was close to sacred; winning by getting outside help was even worse than losing hence his evident anger.

'Light...? So I wasn't imagining things. That stupid mirror... literally transported my attack. And the target ended up being that brute. That would explain why he looks younger, as well as the suffocating feeling.' Archer didn't share his thoughts with Thor but seeing his frowning and pensive face was enough to tell the God of Thunder who was responsible.

"You—!"

"Hold it right there, sir." Khronos made a stop sign with his hand in Thor's direction while his eyes still remained locked onto the Desert God. After a few seconds, they finally addressed the fuming warrior.

"I wouldn't waste my energy if I were you. I won't go into full detail because honestly, we do not have the time. However, I will say that the slippery bastard we were fighting did something and now I probably regressed him a good couple thousand years into the past. Though looking at him now, it seems his mind regressed more than his body did for some reason." His explanation brought light into the matter, but it certainly didn't help in calming the redhead down.

"Do you want me to pat you on the back for having figured it out? Do something about it instead of talking!" It was clear by the tone of Thor's voice that the only reason why he wasn't attacking them was so that they could turn things back to normal, but even that had its limits.

"Tch. Don't order me around. I was planning to do that anyway." Khronos rolled his eyes while summoning his clock once more. Asterios observed their interactions with a tired face. What in the world has this devolved into?

'But something doesn't seem right here... Why does it feel as if the oppressive feeling is not coming from the outside but from within? Is Master's mind really that of an infant?' The Minotaur couldn't dive further into his thoughts as Archer got to work.

The white-haired man pointed a finger at Seth, who was still not paying any attention to them, as the arrows on the clock started spinning again, but unlike last time, they were spinning clockwise now.

"Timeless: Endless." Upon his words, the clock shot a white beam at the 'unsuspecting' Seth. Everything was going normally, and without complications, something that made the thought of finishing things without any complications arise... until it wasn't.

Boom! Splash!

"Huh?" Asterios and Thor widened their eyes at the sound behind them, frozen in position as if they had been paralyzed. However, the one that uttered that sudden exclamation was neither the Thunder God nor the Minotaur, but Khronos, or rather, his head.

Both Gods looked at the headless corpse next to them, before turning their heads back to where a 'comical' Seth was trying to get up from his crash-landing. Although, his now bent legs were making the task challenging. Even so, despite the silliness, no one was laughing.

'He is so fast... his body can't keep up with it?' This was the first time he has heard of it. Granted, he hasn't been accompanying his Master for long, but even so, it was hard to believe. However, it was true that he had occasionally heard him complain about his vessel in random mutters. Could it be possible that he was referring to this?

"Of course things wouldn't be so simple. I mean, why would they be?" As if nothing had happened, Archer — with his head now intact — complained in annoyance.

"You are not normal..." Asterios retort was completely ignored by the white-haired man in favor of looking at the person that just casually decapitated him some moments ago. His magical act had seemed to finally trigger a reaction in him, albeit a minor one. The only thing Seth did was pause in his attempts to stand up and tilt his head to the side.

"Anyway. We are not here to harm you, little guy. We just want to get you back to normal!" A forced, twitching smile was not helping him look harmless, and neither were the two dead pairs of eyes looking at him from the side.

It was obvious that Seth didn't believe him either as, as soon as he saw an opportunity, he swung his only good arm at Archer, creating a blade of wind that sliced him in half without giving any chance for compromises.

"As. I. Was. Saying." It was only a blink, yet the white-haired man was already completely fine as if nothing had happened. "We..." He pointed to himself, and then the others "...want to help you!" He then joined his hand in a praying form and pointed at him.

Stab!

A drill-like tendril of water piercing his stomach from behind was the Storm God's answer this time. Khronos coughed some blood while looking at his fellow God as if to say 'Really?'

Once again, a blink and it was all gone. The water construct was just piercing empty air while the white-haired man was beside it with his arms crossed in some form of smug superiority.

Seth narrowed his eyes at that. However, the expression on his face and eyes gave the feeling that it was in confusion, and not in anger. Nevertheless, he still decided to attack again, even if his previous attempts up until now had all been futile.

His hand was coated with fire this time. He retracted his arm back, going for a punching motion before throwing his fist forward, launching something akin to a torrent at him. Khronos sighed exasperatedly at that. "Look, that is not going to wo—"

"Piss off!" All of a sudden, Thor got in the way of the attack, swinging his lightning-coated hammer with incredible might and dispersing Seth's attempt at harming Archer.

"You carry yourself with supposed intelligence, and yet you are nothing but a momma's boy who has never seen the outside world." The sidelong glance the redhead was giving to Khronos was chilling.

"Are you that eager to show off, poster boy? You took him like some kind of mentally challenged kid when in reality he was playing you all along. The only thing you are achieving is making him understand how your power works every time you use it." After saying his piece to the now-dumbfounded Archer, he turned to his previous adversary. "Am I wrong?"

The Storm God didn't answer; he merely created water tendrils to coil around his legs, twisting them with sickening crunches and 'fixing' them in place. He then later grabbed his displaced shoulder and pushed it back forward, albeit with the drawback of having some organs punctured by the bones sticking out of his body.

"God or not, there is no way someone who is supposedly a kid can do that with a straight face." Asterios was already aware that this was going to go the hard way, so he immediately summoned his axes, though he didn't initiate an attack. In the first place, his Master only moved to harm Archer when he launched an 'attack' at him, regardless of the intentions, so it could be that he only responded to things that he perceived as threats.

Khronos woke up from the stupor of being scolded like a child by Thor and turned to Asterios. "Oy, aren't you his Servant? Can't you communicate with him through your link or something?"

His question was met with a shake of the head. It wasn't like he hadn't tried, but his Master was blocking it. He probably thought it was a sort of mental assault or something along those lines. To him, they were all unknown individuals with unknown intentions, so it kind of made sense to be alert about what they were trying to do.

A compromise seemed impossible to achieve, and there seemed to be no choice but to 'knock some sense into him' before they could return to what they originally came for. Leaving his weird behavior aside, it should be relatively easy.

Speaking of weird behavior, Seth began to gather his dripping blood and consume it, causing his wounds to start regenerating, and at the same time causing the others to be more than a little disturbed.

"Is this a competence to see who is the most freak among you...?" Even Thor was speechless at the behavior. However, he didn't let that distract him; not since he had seen how his opponent's eyes had turned golden some moments ago.

The fact that nothing has happened yet meant one of two things: he either was preparing an attack, or he was already performing it but it was not visual. 'Wait for a second... visual...?'

Thor widened his eyes before striking the water below him, creating a liquid screen between him and Seth. The strange thing came right after when the redhead couldn't see his foe behind the curtain of dark blue.

Acting quickly, he discharged lightning from his body in all directions, feeling how they impacted something invisible. Unfortunately, that devil-may-care of his attack also affected his pseudo-companions.

"Ey—You?! What the hell?!" Khronos and Asterios both retreated as soon as they sensed the danger of the apparently random moment of dementia the Thunder God had. However, the sounds of splashing water next to them brought the duo to full alert.

Like a ghost manifest, Seth slowly appeared out of thin air much to their confusion. The only one who was not surprised by it was Thor himself. In fact, he had a battle-crazy grin on his face. "You didn't think that would work on me, did you? My brother already pulled enough pranks on me to know when I am under an illusion."

"Illusions? Impossible! Master doesn't know how to do that!" Asterios exclaimed in shock after recovering from Thor's sudden outburst. He didn't know if he didn't want to believe it or if he was just hoping it wasn't true because otherwise, they were in serious trouble.

"Doesn't know or never did?" That question was enough to shut Berserker up. The main reason was that he wasn't confident in answering it. It was normal to have an ace in the hole in case of a bad situation. The problem was, he didn't seem to be in that much of a pinch to use something that was supposedly reserved as a trump card.

"...This got seriously messed up." Magical Energy erupted from Archer like a bottomless abyss. No longer he took the matter lightheartedly. Now he recognized the threat for what it was. 'I can't confirm how far into the past I sent him, but it's bad all the same. He was a crazy fucker for most of his life that it doesn't matter if it's too far or too close to his present self.'

"Speak for yourself. I came as part of the Wild Hunt, and I got a beast thinking I am his dinner right in front of me. It is the perfect situation for me." Similar to Archer, the redhead's power burst in full force. His muscles bulged and his size increased little by little.

Not long after, what stood in front of Seth was a towering giant of around five meters. If this world wasn't so dark currently, his whole body would have been enveloped by Thor's shadow.

Asterios sighed seeing all this. He also got ready to fight, enveloping himself on fire like a demon from hell. He might not be on par with them yet, but he had the advantage that he could drain his Master's Magical reserves to benefit them all. Of course, that could prove to be troublesome later on, but sadly he didn't have the luxury to worry about that right now.

"I am sorry, Master. I don't want to do this, but it's got to be the hard way." Seth tilted his head at the Minotaur's words. A strange glint flashes through his eyes but it disappeared as soon as it came.

"Don't sweat the small stuff, kid." Thor oddly reassured Asterios before resting Mjölnir on his shoulder and directing a gaze full of mirth to Seth. "Now, you have observed us enough. Isn't it time for you to jump for the kill, Godkiller?"

"..."

Seth lifted his head to look at Thor. Some seconds passed in silence until a cold wind blew up around them, bringing with it the feeling of death. Soon, darkness converged on his arm, and when it dispersed not long after, the black-haired man was already wielding his weapon. However, it was one that he had never used before, but one Asterios and Khronos knew too well.

In appearance, it couldn't look more ordinary and 'harmless' even if it tried. It was shaped like a spear but instead of a pointed head, it had a sort of hook at the end. It gave the impression of being a shepherd's crook instead of a weapon.

However, that strange appearance didn't stay for long. As if it had been the product of an Alteration spell, its shape began to change. The shaft became slightly curved and the head turned into a razor-sharp blade with some spikey protrusions at the top and back. The color also changed from grey to black with red as if blood itself was dripping from it. No, in fact, blood WAS dripping from an unknown source. Finally, a long chain emerged from the tail end, coiling itself around Seth.

"You bastard... How did you get Harpe?"

The Storm God didn't answer Archer's question; just as usual. He merely twirled his newly acquired scythe as shadow-like darkness grew behind him, covering himself and the others in an obscured world where he was King.

A world full of illusions.