42 Chapter Forty-Two: The Day It All Happened

  Several years passed as the war between the gods continued. However, the war was gradually slowing. Chronos had been spotted killing gods left and right, as Zeus had chosen a handful to band together from the victors of their battles. Ishmael continued trying to stop the battles, defeating several in his travels, as Naris; having been defeated again; was sent back to Gaia as she forced him to stay as punishment for indiscriminate killing even against humans. Gaia locked Naris within her own body, keeping him from leaving as he wished. Though, he was still alive, he was unable to act of his own free will. Soon, they found that Chronos was again showing up. This time, heading straight foe Zeus at Mount Olympus. However, several gods set up lines of defense, to stop Chronos in his tracks. Those areas they set up, were full of human colonies. When Ishmael heard about this news, he prepared to leave his family behind to stop them. Fearing the worst might happened, Ishmael was dedicated to stopping Chronos from clashing with Zeus, and didn't want his family caught up in the fight. He wanted to save the humans more than the gods, and he knew that if their fighting broke out near the colonies, the humans were surely bound to die just for the sake of a selfish war that shouldn't have started. "You don't have to save the whole world, you know" Inari tells him as she holds his hands gently. "You just have to make a difference where it counts. Nature will always follow the footsteps of growth. Adapt and survive. That's just how it is. The law of nature."

  "But what about the others?" Ishmael replies. "Those gods are all fighting for themselves. For what they want... not caring about what they destroy."

  "Well, that's true" Inari replies. "But you just have to remember. No two people are the same. You've come to realize that I'm different. So what's stopping you from thinking there could be more out there?"

  "But if someone doesn't stop them..." Ishmael says in a defeated voice. "If I don't stop them... the world will suffer and it'll come to nothing. Just like it has for the past thirty years. It's not fair that the humans, animals and the nature surrounding them has to suffer because of their ego."

  "I understand..." Inari says gently. "But remember, you could die out there. What am I supposed to do if I lose you?"

  "Then we're not letting him go alone" Heinnen says as he stands next to Ishmael.

  "You really think we'd let you go at this alone, father?" Kein asks with a smile.

  "Kids..." Ishmael says.

  "And I won't let my children go with you alone" Inari says. "I'm coming too. You may be ageless, but you can still die out there. I'm not going to sit back and just worry!"

  "I'm coming too" Laibah says as she stands up. "Hymn, you'll be in charge of the Amethyst tribe until I return. Make sure you take extra care in watching over your siblings and cousins."

  "Understood!" Hymn says as she stands upright, as if ready to salute her mother.

  "Guys... I love you" Ishmael says. "But if it gets any amount of dangerous, I want you to keep your distance. Got it?"

  "I'll pull you out of there by your neck if you do anything reckless by yourself!" Inari says.

  The five of them, Ishmael, Inari, Kein, Heinnen, and Laibah set out to clear the path that Chronos walked. As Chronos approached, Ishmael and the rest had evacuated the humans near where the gods stood, and then forced the gods to retreat back to Mount Olympus. Each time, having to fight the gods himself, Ishmael contained the battle to make sure they wouldn't kill anyone. Eventually though, the inevitable happened. Chronos and Zeus met. Though, Zeus had many to fight by his side. With a whole army against just one other, it seemed almost as if Chronos stood no chance. However, Chronos only smiled as he came face to face with Zeus and his army. "What is your goal, Chronos?" Zeus demands. "What are you planning on doing this time?"

  "What am I doing?" Chronos repeats. "Whatever I do so desire, Zeus. As I've always done. Whatever the hell I want."

  "What kind of plot have you made this time?" Zeus asks.

  "This time" Chronos says, "I felt like, on a whim, wouldn't it be nice to teach some lowly scum how it feels to eat dirt?" Chronos begins to laugh, then says "I don't care about the small things, like power or control. I simply want you to amuse me."

  "Disgusting" Zeus replies. "You'd go through all these efforts, and watch all these people and gods die just for a little amusement?"

  "A little?" Zeus asks. "No no no no no... it has been a lot of fun. You may see it as suffering, but I see it under a light the minds of like you posses can not see. Entertainment. When you have lived since the literal dawn of time, and if you live forever, you begin to grow bored often. I needed something... new. Something great. Something that would leave a mark forever. But then there's you. You're not fun anymore. As well as, I believe I owe this lesson to you in return for interrupting my meal."

  "My siblings are not a meal" Zeus growls.

  "I told you..." Chronos says. "I do what I want."

  Unfortunately, Ishmael and the others were late to stopping this fight. Being caught up in preventing the humans from being caught in the crossfire, they arrived to this battle late. When they got there, Chronos and the legion of many gods were already locked in battle. When they got there, Zeus had conjured a massive bolt of lightning in his hand and was prepare to strike Chronos, as Chronos was being held back by several other gods. Ishmael changed into his mostly human form that he fought Naris in. Using this form to remain small and hard to notice, he used massive magic spells to jump at Zeus in his titan form. When leapt at Zeus, he punched Zeus across the face, hitting his left cheek with reactive endo, interrupting Zeus's spell and sending his toppling sideways. Zeus's spell flew into the sky and exploded in the clouds with a bright flash of light that made such a bright light that some would've seen it as a second sun. Ishmael and his family now stand between Zeus and Chronos. "Stop this!" Ishmael yells at Chronos. "The world is falling apart! You two are destroying everything! And for what? Status? Power?"

  "Boredom" Chronos says.

  "Revenge!" Zeus yells as he stands back up.

  "So, that's it?..." Ishmael asks in a sad voice. "You'd kill everyone for those simple reasons?"

  "Stay out of my way, Ishmael" Chronos says.

  "I'll make you pay for that, God Slayer" Zeus bellows.

  "Then you two are helpless..." Ishmael says as he closes his eyes and focuses for a second. His form shifts into a human with large paws for hands and feet, grows nine tails, and hair grows longer as his pupils turn into slit shaped pupils, his teeth grow bigger and sharper, and all of his hair turned white and glowing with reactive endo. "Therian Style: Brawler Form" he says as he opens his eyes with his irises glowing red from clairvoyance magic. With an immense speed, he vanishes and reappears in front of Zeus's face. He punches Zeus in the jaw with an uppercut punch, and lifted the giant off the ground just a couple meters before he dropped and fell on his back. Ishmael then turns around to face Chronos, and he throws a reactive endo spear at Chronos. Chronos catches the spear, but Ishmael was already at his feet. Ishmael kicked one of Chonos's feet and caused his back to turn towards the mountain. With Chronos still holding onto the endo spear, Ishmael leapt up at Chronos's chest where the spear was being held, and punched the spear through Chonos's own hand and impaled him, pinning him to Mount Olympus. "This war is pointless and I'm putting it to an end!" Ishmael yells.

  "I will end Chronos's life!" Zeus yells.

  "Don't you see what will happen of you kill Chronos?" Ishmael asks as they look at Chronos. Chronos's body was beginning to crack around the spear that still impaled him, much like how Gaia was broken into shards when she was defeated. "If you kill him, the balance of time becomes unbalanced" Ishmael continues. "We don't know what kind of repercussions that holds for the humans!"

  "Screw the humans!" Chronos yells. "We're gods. We're much more important! Why should we care if humans live or die?" Zeus prepares another giant lightning bolt to prepare to strike Chronos. "Thank you for pinning him down, you fool! I'll finish this here!"

  "No!" Ishmael yells as he stands in front of Chronos to block the bolt.

  Inari jumps in the way and holds onto Ishmael tightly. "Ishmael, no!" She shouts.

  "Mom!" Kein shouts as he jumps in the way as well. The rest of the children also jump in the way to save Inari and Ishmael. Just as they thought they were going to die, they looked up as Zeus and saw Gaia standing in front of them with her one arm stretched out.

  "Mom?" Ishmael asks softly.

  "You kids stay safe for me" Gaia says to them. She finally turns her head to look at Ishmael and says with a sad look in her eyes "I never wanted this for you. But you have a good family. Please protect them, like I was unable to do for you... and Naris too, before he descended into madness."

  Ishmael heard a cracking noise behind him as Zeus was throwing his bolt. Ishmael turned to look behind him as the bolt flew at them, and saw Chronos with both of his hands digging his own finger into the cracks in his torso. Suddenly, everything turned white as the bolt hit, and Siran suddenly woke up again in Valhalla. "What just happened!?" Siran asks.

  "Those were your soul's memories of your original life" Gaia says.

  "What happened at the end?" Siran asks. "Why can't I remember?"

  "That's because there's endless realities of what happened from that exact moment" Gaia says. "It's not that you died there... but you were split."

  "Split?" Ishmael asks. "Like, I became shards like you did?"

  "No" Gaia says. "When that bolt hit me, I became shards again. Only this time, the parts of me that make up my consciousness remained intact, and me as you know me now was taken to Valhalla. This space now is within my mind. It's a space of me, within a space of Valhalla, within a space in the gaps between the universes."

  "Universes?" Siran asks.

  "From that exact moment on" Gaia says, "there became more than one universe. I was split into many pieces, but so was Chronos."

  "But... we saved him" Siran says.

  "Yes" Gaia says. "He wasn't defeated. He broke himself into pieces at the same time I broke. And you, as well as Inari and your three children... were caught between that. You see, when time and earth split into shards, it's the same thing as just replicating time and earth over and over. The time we split into pieces, the one universe that used to be got copied and mirrored each other in millions of universes. All mortals are copied with it. So, the gods weren't replicated as the Earth is not their domain. With the exception of a certain five, that is. You, Inari and your three children. Your grandchildren were copied in each universe and as such existed in every universe because they're mortals. You five though shouldn't have been. But since our shards passed through all of you at the time of the impact, you were replicated into every universe. Your memories stop there because your mind was scattered to every single universe. Where you and your family existed in each one. And in each one, you all eventually die. But since we can't be sure that you have a soul, I've reincarnated you and Inari over and over. You see, unless you're a mortal, you're not usually born with a soul. Though, some immortals do have a soul, we don't know if you do... but, I didn't want my children being sent to oblivion and never exist again. So I've been taking your consciousness and reincarnating the two of you each time you die to prevent you from vanishing without a trace. In every single universe... it happens so fast and often that I'm running out of power. I'm coming to the end of my cycle in my duties as Gaia, and I'll soon vanish. But you shouldn't have to. I can't save you this time. I don't have the power anymore. I'm sorry for making you and your wife suffer millions of deaths with my greed... I hope it doesn't make you hate me."

  Siran was silent for a while before he sits up and says "But you've saved me. And because of that, I met Inari- I mean... Zia. B-but if you can't save me, then what was the purpose of making me go through those memories?"

  "To give you the will to fight" Gaia says. "I want you to remember the resolve you had, in hopes it gives you enough strength to wake up."

  "But I don't know if I can do it..." Siran says as he thinks. Suddenly, it came to mind. "Wait" he asks. "What about our children? Kein, Heinnen and Laibah?"

  "They have natural souls" Gaia says. "Though, not all demi-gods have one, its much more common for them to have one rather than a normal god to have one. Though, we didn't know for sure until their time eventually came... my power is limited, and I have been kept awfully busy with you and Inari. By the time I noticed it, they had long since passed, but their souls moved on."

  "But then... what about their children?" Ishmael asks.

  "The laibahs?" Gaia asks. "Of course they have souls. They're mortals."

  "Well, I mean" Siran says as he thinks, "where are they?"

  "Oh!... oh..." Gaia says in a solemn tone. "They exist or... did exist in every universe. But... in your universe, the laibah race died out and went extinct..."

  "You didn't save them!?" Siran asks.

  "I'm sorry!" Gaia pleads.

  "How could this happen?" Siran demands.

  "Usually, they eventually get into a war with humans!" Gaia says. "Sometimes they win wars, sometimes they don't and they survive or... sometimes they die out completely..."

  "No... then I failed?" Siran asks.

  Gaia was silent for a long while before she says "I'm sorry. You were a better parent than I ever was. Under no circumstance should you be able to take the blame for this."

  "Then they're all gone in the real world... in my world..." Siran says.

  There was another long silence before Gaia finally says "Not entirely true. The laibahs may be gone, but your duties as a father haven't ended. There's more you have to protect!"

  Siran looks up, suddenly remembering his life and not Ishmael's. "Silas..." he whispers.

  "You know what you must do" Gaia says. "You must wake up!"