Ascension of a Goddess

Sphere of the Gods

Egypt

July 2006

A lull falls over the battlefield as the bloody and battered figure groans, spits out blood from their mouth and slowly stands up. As the figure stands to their full height, the combatants are finally able to get a clear view of him. He stands at an impressive height of six feet six inches tall, possesses long red hair, a chin covered by a beard of the same color, blue eyes, and a powerful physique full of bulging muscles. He wears a grey cuirass over his shirtless chest, blue cloth over his lower body, grey gauntlets, boots, and belt, along with a winged helm and a blue cape.

Adjusting the helm over his head, the warrior surveys the battlefield, taking note of the destroyed realm of the Egyptian gods, the corpses of fallen gods, Scáthach and Azula before his eyes finally land on Steppenwolf.

"You!" exclaims the enraged god as he summons his hammer to his hand and begins to summon lightning. "You dogs of Apokolips are responsible for this! I WILL SMITE THEE!!!" roars the god of thunder as he launches himself at Steppenwolf and smashes his lightning wreathed hammer at his foe.

Unfortunately for him Steppenwolf has anticipated the attack and easily blocks it with his gigantic axe head. The resulting clash creates a shockwave powerful enough to crater the ground, send debris flying and destroy what remained of the sky barrier over the Egyptians' part of the Sphere of the Gods, allowing Scáthach and Azula to finally see the battle that the Norse gods themselves wage against Darkseid's army.

"This explains why the Norse didn't come to the Egyptians' aid. They are waging their own battle for survival." observes Azula as her eyes look past the vast distance between dimensions to watch the battle on Asgard.

"I see, he plans to eradicate every pantheon while empowering himself before assaulting Earth." says Scáthach with a frown as she sees a Valkyrie fall in battle to the lash of a glowing white warrior. "We must stop him before he becomes unstoppable,-" she says before turning to Steppenwolf and Thor's battle. "-but first we deal with Steppenwolf!" exclaims Scáthach as she and Azula rocket off towards Steppenwolf.

With lightning in her eyes Azula appears behind an unaware Steppenwolf and plunges her fist into his spine, shocking him for a second. Taking advantage of the opening, Scáthach stabs her spear into his chest while Thor smashes his hammer onto Steppenwolf's temple.

While they seem to have dealt a significant amount of damage to Steppenwolf, the empowered general of Apokolips quickly recovers and sends Thor flying away with a swing of the flat side of his axe before sending Azula flying towards the god of thunder with a well placed kick.

Recovering fast, Azula lands on her feet while sliding backwards due to her momentum, eventually coming to a stop next to Thor.

"Great warrior, you wield the lightning well." complements Thor. "However, I do not seem to recall what pantheon you hail from.�� he says as Scáthach crash lands next to Azula.

"Perhaps we can discuss the pantheons at a more appropriate time." says Scáthach as she brandishes her spear in preparation for Steppenwolf's incoming assault. "If we had the physical strength to hold him down we could easily return him to normal." mutters Scáthach to herself.

"Thy require strength?!" asks Thor, to which Scáthach simply nods in affirmative. "Very well. If it is strength that is needed, then it is strength that thy shall have. This will be my final aid to you before I return to Asgard. My people have need of me!" bellows out Thor as he launches himself at Steppenwolf with Scáthach and Azula not far behind him.

While Steppenwolf prepares himself for the incoming gods, he fails to notice an approaching Horus shrouded in Isis' magic. As such Steppenwolf is completely caught off guard when the Egyptian god of war plunges his khopesh through his back and out of his chest. Taking advantage of his upper hand, Horus releases his hold on his sword to put Steppenwolf into a choke hold. Seeing this opportunity, Thor grabs both of Steppenwolf's arms and incapacitates them while Scáthach comes from behind him and puts her Motherbox on Steppenwolf's stomach.

With a ping, Motherbox begins to glow white as she starts to drain Steppenwolf of his stolen powers, causing the god to begin to shrink and his blood red aura begins to flicker on and off. Realising what they are trying to do, Steppenwolf begins to fight back as much as he can. However, despite his best efforts, he finds that he cannot move his arms from Thor's grasp nor can he move his upper body due to how Horus has grabbed on to him, as such he chooses to move the only part of his body that he can, his legs. Unfortunately for him, just as he makes the decision to, the Earth rises and swallows him up to his waist.

"Did you honestly think that it was going to be that easy?" asks Azula as she appears in front of Steppenwolf with pale blue flames coming from her hands. "Don't answer that. I know your brute of a brain can't recognise a rhetorical question when it's asked." says Azula as she plunges her flame encased hands into Steppenwolf's chest, causing him to roar in pain.

With the pain from the flame burning his very being, Steppenwolf is unable to concentrate properly on battling Thor and Horus' grips and simply thrashes about in the hopes of freeing himself and finding relief. However, as he feels himself lose more and more power, Steppenwolf mounts one last desperate attempt to free himself.

Drawing as much of his power as he can within himself, Steppenwolf tightly compresses it before releasing it all in a shockwave. The resulting discharge launches the quartet away from him along with Motherbox.

Flying through the air, a disoriented Azula notices Motherbox falling alongside her. Reaching out, she easily catches her and hears a ping before Motherbox releases all of the power drained from Steppenwolf into her; and in a split second the world stops as Azula experiences something that she could never imagine nor properly describe.

As a budding goddess, Azula knows what it feels like to have an unimaginable amount of power at your fingertips. To be able to effortlessly shake the earth, command the brightest and hottest flames, and even be able to incinerate your enemies with a single bolt of lightning. However, this feeling is something that she cannot describe properly. She can describe it however she wants, call it unlimited power, mind numbing, or even a simple rush of euphoria, yet she will never be able to properly convey how she feels in this moment. Even so, even as she feels all this power, she doesn't feel complete. Almost as if something is missing. Something that would make her whole but is missing, and she isn't the only one who feels this way.

Morgan has described it herself after they retrieved Mordred. She described it as almost achieving something, but falling short. Despite her ascension to godhood she feels that somethings are missing. According to Hecate, those somethings are their domains and pantheons. Until they officially make claim to at least one domain and become part of a pantheon, they will not be considered complete goddesses by the Source.

As that split second comes to an end, the world resumes and Azula finds herself hovering in midair as opposed to her previous situation. Inspecting herself, she comes to the conclusion that she hasn't changed, at least not outwardly. Inwardly however, things are a bit different. As a child of Jupiter, Azula has always had dominion over the sky. Now she doesn't feel like she has power over the sky, she feels like she is the sky. As she enjoys her newfound power however, Azula fails to take note of an approaching Steppenwolf.

"Azula!" exclaims Scáthach, shaking Azula free from her thoughts just in time to see Steppenwolf arrive before her with his axe poised to decapitate her.

With a minimal amount of effort and without putting much thought into it, Azula simply flicks her wrist and sends Steppenwolf flying back with a gust of wind. Before he can recover, a bolt of lightning falls from the cloudless sky and continuously strikes him through the chest.

"Hahahaha!" bellows out Thor with a boisterous laughter. "A new goddess has ascended this day. I did not expect to ever witness such a phenomenon." he says as he takes to the sky and joins Azula's lightning with his own.

After a few minutes, Azula and Thor cease their attacks in order to see Steppenwolf's condition. Unsurprisingly, Steppenwolf lays on the ground with a body that is completely burnt. Unlike what Azula expected however, Steppenwolf doesn't get back up nor is his body recovering.

"Splendid. Now I may return to Asgard to smite that beast, Kalibak. I bid thee farewell warriors, may we meet once again in better circumstances!" exclaims the god of thunder before he takes to the sky and rockets off towards Asgard.

As Azula watches him fly away, she remembers Asgard's condition and turns to Scáthach.

"Go with him." says Azula as she tosses Motherbox to Scáthach. "They might need help, and I don't believe that Steppenwolf is defeated." she explains.

"Don't do anything reckless and do not toy with him. Finish it quickly." orders Scáthach before she quickly blasts off after Thor.

While Azula had been conversing with Scáthach, Horus had taken the opportunity to approach Steppenwolf's body in order to inspect it. Unseen by him however, is the slight twitch of one of Steppenwolf's fingers. As Horus draws close enough, he creates a khopesh and prepares to behead Steppenwolf with it. Before he can however, Steppenwolf's eyes open as he plunges his hand into Horus' chest, drains him of the Source before ripping his body apart and splattering his blood and guts everywhere.

"Hah." sighs Steppenwolf in contentment as he feels the rush of power and stands up while his body heals at a rate visible to the naked eye. "They finally leave, and now it's just you and me little goddess." he says as he summons his battle axe to him and discards Horus' body like trash.

"Oh? Complete sentences? What an accomplishment." says Azula with faux excitement as her eyes narrow at Steppenwolf's action.

Paying her no mind, Steppenwolf simply rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck.

"No comrades to aid you… no god of thunder to hold me down, and no Motherbox to drain me. Your godhood shall be shortly lived and you will fall like all before you!" exclaims Steppenwolf as he launches himself at Azula.

"You poor deluded fool." says an unimpressed Azula. "Let me show you why you should never place your expectations of me based on others." she says as an earth chain erupts from the ground and wraps itself around Steppenwolf's throat before pulling him crashing back down to the ground.

As Steppenwolf breaks free from the chains his veins begin to grotesquely swell and bulge.

"You know what I've always wondered?" asks Azula as Steppenwolf struggles to move. "What happens when someone's veins are oversaturated with blood and pops. I know that you're a god and won't die from this, but this must at least feel torturous, right?" she says as Steppenwolf begins to cough out blood and his veins pop. "Now what if I boil that?" she asks as his blood begins to boil inside of him and he screams in agony. "How about I make you see your worst nightmares?" she questions as she levitates him to her and places her hand on his forehead before making him experience his death countless times. Each time more painful and gruesome than the last, making his pained, horrified and tortured screams echo in the desolate battlefield.

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Sphere of the Gods

Asgard

July 2006

Asgard, the golden city of the Aesir and home of the Norse gods. Normally the city is shining, and prospering as the sun shines on the buildings made of gold and the people go about their lives. Now however, this shining faces a crisis that it has never faced before nor has it ever anticipated, the invasion of Darkseid.

The attack had come unannounced and unprovoked. It had been a normal day in Asgard, that was interrupted by a loud boom similar to the sound of thunder. Normally this would not phase the Asgardians as their crown prince is very much the god of thunder and is known for creating a ruckus, however this was no thunder but rather the opening of a boom tube. From them emerged countless parademons alongside Darkseid's son, Kalibak, Mantis, one of Darkseid's elite servants, and the Female Furies, Darkseid's elite strike force and honor guard.

Despite being caught off guard, the Asgardians were prepared for an invasion. For you see, in the past few months, the allies of Asgard throughout the nine worlds have gone silent. Heimdall's vision has become clouded, forcing Odin to send out gods to the nine worlds in order to see what is happening. Unfortunately, none have returned or sent messages back to Agard. This is how Asgard came to lose some of its most powerful warriors before the invasion, Sif, Tyr, The Warriors Three, and even the Valkyries Gudra and Fey. Baldur has not been heard of in months and neither has Loki.

Due to this, Odin elected to cut off Asgard completely from the rest of the multiverse in preparation for the inevitable attack. All travel to and from Asgard were stopped, weapons were sharpened, soldiers were recruited and training intensified, and even the warriors within the halls of Valhalla prepared themselves, all for the assault that the Asgardians knew was inevitable.

As such when Darkseid's army attacked, the Aesir were ready for battle, or so that's what they believed. When the battle began everything seemed to be going fine. The city's magical defenses took down the majority of the invaders and the ones who managed to make it to the city were swiftly dealt with. Then Kalibak and Mantis joined the fray and proceeded to make short work a good portion of the army until Thor himself intercepted them. The battle between the god of thunder and the two gods of Apokolips was fierce and shook the heavens, and for a while it seemed that Asgard managed to regain the upper hand.

Like their previous advantage however, this too was short lived as the Female Furies joined the battle. Unlike the dimwitted duo of Mantis and Kalibak, the furies knew that to break Asgard's army they must destroy their morale by making an example of their elites, the warriors of Valhalla and the Valkyries.

While the warriors of Valhalla boast the Norse pantheon's greatest mortal warriors in history, they were unfortunately no match for the Female Furies and quickly fell by the hundreds. The Valkyries fared no better as they are merely as physically powerful as the Amazons from the Greek pantheon, deadly towards any mortal but powerless in the face of a strike force trained to kill gods.

Eventually Frigga herself joined her Valkyries in order to defeat the Furies alongside the goddess Skadi. Unfortunately this was all part of the plan and the Furies quickly drained Frigga and Skadi of much of their Source energy before they were interrupted by the son of Frigga, Thor.

The enraged god of thunder attempted to make short work of the Furies only for Mantis and Kalibak to take advantage of his distraction to strike him so hard that he was sent crashing through the dimensional barrier that separated Asgard from Egypt.

This was ten minutes ago, and since then the city of Asgard has been completely destroyed with many of the Aesir dying with one question on their mind, where is Odin? The only remaining members of the Norse pantheon in the city are a few of the Valkyries alongside Frigga, Skadi, Freyja, and Brunhilde.

Beset on all sides by enemies, Freyja cannot help but wonder how it came to this.

"The sun is high my lady." says Freyja, second in command of the Valkyries, as she uses the lull in battle to glance up at the sky

"Indeed it is sister." answers Frigga to her right hand.

"This may not be Ragnarok, but it is a good day to die in battle all the same. My only regret is that we did not send those two remaining furies to wherever it is vile beings like them go after death." says Brunhilde as she points to the two remaining furies out of eight with her sword.

"Aye." simply answers Skadi as she, Frigga, Freya, Brunhilde and the remaining dozen Valkyries prepare themselves for their quickly returning foes.

As both sides prepare to take the initiative, thunder rumbles in the distance and a sonic boom can be heard not far behind. Before anyone can react, lightning strikes the legions of parademons surrounding the Valkyries while countless barbed red spears rain down from above, killing more parademons alongside one of the last Furies remaining.

"Come foul beasts, and prepare yourselves for your death. For Thor, god of thunder has returned!" bellows out the war god as he smacks Kalibak away with his hammer before kicking Mantis at him.

Lashina, the only remaining Fury alive and the leader of the strike force, launches herself at the Valkyries with her body glowing white with the stolen Source energy. Before she can reach them however, a barbed red spear impales itself into her heart before sending her flying backwards with its momentum and pinning her to a piece of rubble.

"Your opponent is me, you idiotice sow." says Scáthach as she lands between Lashina and the Valkyries.

"And who might you be, warrior?" asks an intrigued Frigga.

"You may know me from the Irish pantheon. I am Scáthach, Godslayer, Queen of the Land of Shadows, and Witch of Dun Scaith." answers the warrior she summons her barbed spear to her hand and prepares for the incoming battle.