Battle of the Gods

[This one will be an info dump. Just a warning.]

Before the age of mortals, powerful spirits governed the universe. The First Spirit, Chaos, ruled the cosmos and everywhere Chaos went, worlds were created and life took root.

There were many spirits born from Chaos, many whose entire being was a concept. Spirits of sunlight, spirits of wind, of fire, of life, and death.

Once Chaos got bored of creating, he began destroying. He created one final thing for his entertainment, and that was monsters.

Monsters were born from the energy that is in direct opposition to life. Chaos didn't just hatch a bunch of eggs and create monsters. No. He turned himself into a concept and no longer was a being that embodied only chaos. His entire being stretched across the universe and with that, the seeds of destruction were planted.

The 'Gods' who had become accustomed to being worshiped by thier own creations were outraged. The monsters Chaos created infected all of thier worlds and began even targeting the spirits themselves.

Mortal creatures of many races began transforming into monsters and in order to get control of the situation, the strongest spirits assembled to discuss cooperation.

"Damn it all, why is that our only option?! How many spirits will die to seal that fucker?! Are we actually considering this?" Said a ruggedly handsome man with one eye and the other one closed with a scar.

"Odin, calm down. What other choice do we have?" A strikingly beautiful woman, adorned head to toe in golden ornaments. Her flawless tan skin was accentuated by the gold giving her a very seductive yet dignified appearance. "What Zeus has proposed would be the best option to contain Chaos, but at the same time, who's going to be the one who holds the keys to the kingdom? I think we need to also discuss this ahead of time before we all commit forces to this."

"Ishtar, Do you have something to propose? Since you are the one to bring it up, it sounds like you have an idea?" A handsome man with bronze skin and blonde mane of hair asked, a lightning shaped spear at his side.

"Zeus, I do in fact have an idea." Ishtar smiled brightly at Zeus before saying, "A battle royale. Once Chaos is defeated, the remaining leaders will duke it out for the seat of power and the winner will decide the rules for our universe."

Zeus contemplated her proposal. He had ideas of his own on how things should be. He was a man who shared his love even with mortals and was one of the spirits that wanted to become true gods for them. Protecting and sheltering them and allowing them to prosper and grow. Many of the mortal races were created by the spirits so many spirits have a feeling of being parents to them.

Zeus stood up and then said, "Let's put this to a vote..."

***************************

A mighty battle took place that shook the cosmos. Worlds of mortal and spirit were hit hard from the clash of entities of such colossal power that with one strike an entire world could explode into powder.

The greatest spirits fought the forces of Chaos side by side in order to siphon all the energy of Chaos into a prison made to contain him. Millions of spirits died in the process but in the final battle, It was Zeus that dealt the last blow to the monster general. With the aid of Styx, who flowed through the enemies with the flowing grace of a river, the battle had been won and the majority of Chaos' energy was imprisoned.

Time however was not on thier side as the prison consumed mortal souls as fuel to contain Chaos. As per the oath all the leaders of the spirits made after drinking the water of Styx, a grand battle royale was quickly held.

The winner? The "Chief God of Olympus", Zeus had come out on top after a spectacular battle with many strong spirits. As such he was the one who decided how things were going to work. Much to the regret of the losers.

The first thing he did was to separate the mortal worlds from the worlds that spirits lived. He did this by sharing an Oath with Styx and had her become the barrier and bridge between the Mortal and Spirit realms.

He then created the underworld, which functions as an energy farm to fuel the prison containing Chaos. He gave the position to rule that kingdom to his brother, Hades.

Hades, understanding the importance of his role, took his job seriously and he designed the system in which souls are processed. Styx gave him her full support and connected to his kingdom with her waters, sending the souls of deceased mortals to the underworld for processing.

The other three kingdoms were composed of Olympus, which became the royal capital of the Spirit world, and home to the family of Zeus. Elysium, The kingdom where the powerful spirits that lost to Zeus were made to settle. Elysium is a vast kingdom comprising thousands of smaller domains belonging to the many spirits and their kin. And finally, the Forgotten Lands, a kingdom with no rulers. The spirits who did not agree with Zeus were banished to the desolate worlds where souls are not sent. Leaving the spirits living there always preying on each other to gain strength and hopefully move up to Elysium.

After Chaos was imprisoned, the last vestiges of his concept went dormant, and for hundreds of thousands of years of peace, many of the mortal races had advanced and proliferated greatly.

However after all those years of slumber, the remaining vestiges of Chaos arose and began infecting low intelligence lifeforms and transforming them into monsters.

It was the first time since the war that the great spirits assembled to discuss solutions. If the populations of the mortal races decrease, then so would the influx of souls. If the monster problem got too large and mortal races began perishing then the prison containing Chaos could potentially lose power and he could get free.

The solution they came up with is giving the mortals a blessing containing a fragment of their soul which would grant the mortals the ability to harness their concept. Doing this would allow the mortal to possess a power they could grow to enrich their soul, protecting them from Chaos' influence and allowing them to simultaneously defend themselves physically.

The contracting spirit gets residual spirit energy sent to them to grow their strength as well. That's why it's in their best interest if the mortal they contract with has a good potential and most importantly compatibility. This doesnt matter so much to lower ranking spirits, as they tend to accept whatever they get for a contractor.

After the spirits started forming contracts with mortals, the mortals themselves began fighting off the monsters. It was a win-win for everyone. And that's how things proceeded. The monsters were kept in check for the most part and mortals and spirits got stronger.

But the status quo once again changed not long after. A secret meeting was held, this time only between three of the great spirits. Zeus sat in his throne in Olympus, before him were his brother, Hades, and his loyal friend, Styx.

"Say that again? What happened, Hades."

A tall slender man with black fluttering robes, and wavy blue hair that danced like an open flame stood before Zeus. He wore round spectacles over his ice blue eyes and had a regal aura surrounding him. This was of course, Hades.

"Brother, Styx informed me of souls being siphoned away before they can reach her. There's no telling how long this has been going on as it was a small percentage that somehow went completely undetected." Hades spoke in a very straightforward way and then after pushing up his glasses, he continued.

"There are dozens of mortal worlds where this is occurring. I've sent a few spirits to investigate, but all of them either didn't find anything or never returned."

Zeus pondered about this for a moment before turning his attention to Styx. "What do you think?" He knew full well how seriously Styx took her Oath, and now that she's aware there's an issue, she is oath bound to try to solve it.

Styx who had been standing there quietly until then lifted her gaze to meet Zeus'. Her elegance and beauty has a dark charm to them, and have quite literally drowned many men that tried to court her. Her thin pink lips opened, and her voice rang out melodically.

"I think "they" are responsible."

Zeus wasn't surprised by her answer as he thought so too. She continued shorty after a slight pause.

"This may also be an opportunity for us." She looked between Zeus and Hades before saying. "We've never gotten any leads to where they went after the war. If "they" are the ones responsible for this, we may end up catching their tails." Styx paused and seductively licked her lips.

"There's also some research I've been wanting to conduct, and for that I'd like permission to..."

*******************************

A beauty with long silky legs and a perfect hourglass figure, walked through a portal of murky darkness before stepping into another spirits domain.

Styx, had arrived at the domain of one of the greatest primordial spirits in the spirit world. The ground was made of fluffy clouds and everywhere you looked threads of many different colors were sowed into the very fabric of space.

Styx didn't bother to admire the scenery as it is something she has seen thousands of times.

After walking along the cloudy path, she came upon a clearing with a lush garden. In the center of the garden was a waterfall that didn't contain water but instead an endless stream of multi-colored thread was pulled from a spatial hole from above and cascaded down through a spatial hole at the bottom.

And standing in front of that never ending wall of thread was three women. or more precisely, one little girl, one adult woman, and one old crone. The physical representations of past, present, and future. These were a single spirit known as The Fates.

"""Its good to see you again, Styx."""" The three always talked in unison, and the figures of the three women also changed. One second they would appear as looking one race and the next they would be another. It could be quite disorienting the first time in their presence.

Styx approached them as they greeted her as soon as she got into the garden, then said. "Its good to see you too. You know why I'm here correct?"

"Of course, we know. You are looking for a match. We have already found it." Each of the women pulled out a colored thread. Each threads color represented the past, present, and future all beings with souls. And these three threads all belong to a single mortal.

Styx looked greedily at the threads but held herself back. "The cost?" She knew The Fates charged a high price for their services.

The Fates smiled and then huddled in a circle. They wound the threads together in an intricate manner. No other being could perform this action as it was something only they could do. After a few moments of the three women weaving the threads, in their hands was now a scroll with black ink flowing across the paper. All one would have to do is think and the ink would move on it's own and show the user the desired target's fate.

The fates tossed the scroll after rolling it up, to Styx. "There's no cost this time."

Styx was shocked. Never in history did The Fates give a service away for free. "You're joking... right?" She asked.

"Not at all." They answered. "We just consider it an investment, that's all." Then they smiled which sent a shiver up Styx's spine.

"I... thank you. Till next time!" Then she left as quickly as she arrived. She always felt creeped out by The Fates and didn't want to stay there any longer. Everyone that's ever went to them has felt the same thing. Like all your secrets are laid bare.

As Styx left, The Fates just smiled. If she had stayed to see it how increasingly creepy those smiles became, she might have rethought accepting something for free from them.