1 Benjamin and Beer
Somewhere in the vast cosmos is Startun's home: The Acropola, Startun's reign as ruler of all was coming to an end and slowly but surely he could feel his energy fading with every breath he took. Celestial beings did not age but due to the fact he had taken on the title as Cosmos or as most beings know, the ruler of the universe. The term that lasted four millennia had finally come to an end and his power will be transferred to one of his children.
His thirteen children gathered in front of him Leo, Aries, Taurus, Libra, Virgo, Aquarius, Pisces, Gemini, Scorpio, Cancer, Sagittarius, Capricornus, and the last Ophiuchus. He favored Ophiuchus his last son mostly because he was the only one of them who wasn't blessed with a proper constellation.
He felt more compassion than pity for the boy as he walked past Leo and the remaining of the upper four he looked at Virgo and stopped. Everyone stared at him but almost as quickly as he stopped he continued walking and this time towards the last.
He tapped Ophiuchus on his head and said to the boy in a weak raspy voice. "Find the tome of Benjamin and claim your title as the ruler of the cosmos," Startun coughed and then noticed his energy leaving his body like petals from a withering flower.
An hour had passed before all the zodiacs began to weep. They didn't share any physical properties with humans except for the way their bodies were formed meaning they cried, got angry, and possessed all the emotions, senses, and more all without the convenience of blood but that wasn't their true form.
Ophiuchus turned towards his siblings and to his surprise, none of them were smiling. Why was that, he knew they were supposed to be sad but the emotion he saw on their faces wasn't sadness. He was perplexed as he looked at each of their faces one by one. He saw bitterness, resentment, and unholy amounts of animosity as he opened his mouth to speak he saw Leo dash towards him with bloodlust so prominent you could sense it from the other side of the galaxy.
He awoke, What happened. it was dark, although he could still see faultlessly fine.
He looked around his body and there were no apparent wounds on him.
He felt he was forgetting something but he didn't know what exactly.
Was that teleportation?
He got up and studied his surroundings.
This wasn't the Acropola, although he had never observed any of the realms in the underworld before. He could tell this was it, For some reason, he has been transported to the planet with the number " 2380-A" or as the inhabitants of the planet might call it "Earth".
Startun had told all of them about this place but that was a mere story that only scratched the surface, who knew what was out there in the distant beyond of the cosmos.
Ophiuchus could still use his powers but without his Star armament which is a special armor or weapon that can draw out 100% of the power from his constellation, the least he could hope for at this point was at least 20%. He tried jumping out of the stratosphere but he fell back down arduously before he even reached the second. "Well that's a lot of pull." he brushed his clothes, which were nothing special. Just a dark shirt, an even darker trench coat, and jeans all of which were durable enough to stop a meteor without the slightest scrape on its fabric, He tried running and although back on Acropola he was the weakest, He didn't feel like it here. with each step he took as he ran the ground crumbled, the mountains shook and before he could realize it, He was close to a human settlement and if he wasn't mistaken the current year would be 2022 meaning Startun told him the story about roughly 2 thousand years ago, None of them could pick how they looked, they were created out of Startun's will and their bodies all stopped aging at random points in their lives. Sagittarius stopped at 33, Gemini stopped at 12 and Libra stopped at 100 but still looked like she wasn't a day over 40 even without any modifications, another problem they had were their gender assignments.
Even though he was born with a female body, Aquarius would rather bite the dust than admit she was a woman and to that end, she remodeled her body to her liking once she was granted her zodiac and for Ophiuchus. well, he was created as a normal guy with dark hair, dark eyes, a pale exterior, and cold to the touch skin.
"I wonder if they'd understand me. he could understand them more or less though he couldn't understand what a "Dag" is or what a "Drongo" implied but that was probably unnecessary. He thought to himself as he walked towards them slowly.
The campers didn't seem to like the idea of company at night as one of them pulled out a weapon of some sort, Ophiuchus did see traps on his way here maybe they were hunters. He raised his arms and said the lowest tone possible, "I-I not me--at." He almost regurgitated at the sound of the squeak he made. The four men that sat around the campfire along with the one that stood up pointing the gun at him all burst into laughter, laughter so garish Ophiuchus was confused at who it was directed at.
"Well, we know that much, you silly dog". said one of the campers with a light brown beard, a scarred face, and a trucker hat with the initials T.J inscribed on it.
"You lost lil' fella'". The one that held the shotgun said so slowly as to imply he should be wary of the weapon. " Fella- never mind that, I'm sorry to bother you guys but I'm lost." He said, and it was effective because the shotgun was lowered although he knew his clothes wouldn't be penetrated by anything on this planet there was still the slight chance that one shot of the weapon might be packing more of a punch than your average meteor. The campers were silent until one of them stood up and offered him an invitation to stay with them for the night.
A few hours had passed and all of them were laughing and drinking a liquid that should make you think illogically, "So what are you doing out 'ere anyway, don't tell me you were with a gal before." The scarred face camper grinned as he took a swig of fun juice "A gal- no never!" Ophiuchus covered his face with his hands and the campers burst into more laughter. "So what kind of woman do you like." Ophiuchus didn't respond to that question, to be fair relationships weren't necessary since they couldn't actively procreate. Ophiuchus dropped the bottle on the floor and as he slipped his arm out of his trench coat. He felt it- Bloodlust so terrifying, so massive that he wanted to run in the opposite direction post-haste.
His shirt was drenched with sweat which seemed to be leaking from his head and armpits with reckless abandon, He was gasping for air, he wheezed so much the most certainly drunk campers came to his assistance all of them asking what was wrong but to no avail, none of his senses functioned like normal, the campers who reeked of the drink they popularly called "beer" smelt relatively normal and his ears that could normally hear even the faintest sound in a 10-mile radius would occasionally pop up to a 50-mile radius and as well occasionally decrease to a 100-meter radius. His eyes were the worst they felt like they had acid poured in them and all of these things caused the amount of fear he felt to exponentially increase.
In an instant the fear that consumed him dramatically increased so much that his body automatically urinated and a liquid splashed on him but it wasn't his bodily excrement, It was warm and as he focused his vision on it all he saw was RED they were all dead all four of them on the ground with every bone in their body shattered. He looked above and it was his brother, The Goat king Capricorn and on his spears pike was the camper with T.J embroidered on his hat. Ophiuchus was never one to get angry even when he would be laughed at and teased about the fact most places don't regard his constellation as one of the zodiacs but for some reason at this moment he wanted to kill his brother. Not particularly because he had a strong bond with the campers but for a reason, he hadn't quite figured out yet.
In the instant he saw Capricorn, Ophiuchus hit him with all the strength he could muster only to get blown back by what felt like his own strength, "Oh no." Ophiuchus gasped as he looked at his brother and now he could see it now plain and simple the zodiac Capricorn came armed in the "goats merr" his star armament that reflected every hit, divine, cosmic or not back to its user and upon closer inspection Capricorn also wielded one of the 14 Forbidden weapons, "Wolf Killer".
Capricorn swung his spear towards the floor and the camper that was previously on it was thrown to the ground forcefully along with all the blood on the pike. Ophiuchus quickly grabbed a fallen tree and threw it at Capricorn but upon impact, it bounced back but he dodged swiftly, normally the goats merr is considered one of the strongest of the armaments even by Startun himself but however, it had one weakness. During one of their many discussions, Startun told Ophiuchus about the armaments specifically the whale's tusk and the goats merr.
"There's no way this works!" Ophiuchus shouted as he grabbed a handful of sand and tossed it directly at the goats merr and the instant it bounced back he punched Capricorn with all the might he could muster from his constellation. Capricorn was sent flying back into the woods but even after crashing through three of Startun's wonderful trees he still never let go of his spear, Ophiuchus had no idea the powers or strengths of the spear meaning he couldn't tie its power scale to anything he knew or might have encountered. But he knew for a fact it was strong enough to impale him right through his clothes, Ophiuchus stood there trying to focus his vision because he couldn't see Capricorn.
"How do you know about the time delay of my armament." Capricorn said and Ophiuchus could swear he pissed himself again because his brother was directly behind him. Ophiuchus quickly sidestepped the spear that was lunged at him and kicked Capricorn using the armaments ability to his advantage creating meters of space between them.
Capricorn spun his spear and stabilized it behind him, "Where is the tome?" Capricorn asked. "What tome?" Ophiuchus immediately answered him and jumped back to dodge the spear that was lunged at him. "What's happening, why are you trying to kill me, why did you kill them?"
"Where is the tome Ophi, This is your last chance my next attack will end you." Capricorn swung his spear around and directed the pike toward the ground.
Death is a weird concept for zodiac's, could their bodies be damaged beyond repair no, the only notion of death they knew was a strike to their constellation which was sealed in their hearts, located where it was in any other human. Capricorn whirled his spear in a circular pattern then heaved it into the air and as Ophiuchus turned his eyes to the spear he felt a punch so strong it could have killed him instantly, He stood up and he nodded his head to the power of the star armament because his shirt wasn't just torn, it was ripped to pieces, and his skin was not only cracked but unbelievably hot though his heart wasn't exposed yet.
He rolled out of the way and The Wolf Killer jammed into the ground with so much force the core of the planet was possibly in jeopardy, he couldn't still see Capricorn but he could see the wolf killer in front of him. He grabbed its staff and his hand almost burned off, Ophiuchus dropped it as fast as he picked it up, as he let go of the forbidden weapon he felt a boot kick his ribs so hard it penetrated his skin and sent him flying into the forest.
Ophiuchus used the last of his power to stand up using the stump of a tree he destroyed although not voluntarily as a hedge, he took one step off the stump and the spear landed right into his shoulder, piercing through his body but only skimming his heart. Ophiuchus groaned in pain as the spear impaled him, he couldn't cough out blood because there wasn't any blood to begin with. he could hear Capricorn's footsteps, they were slow footsteps either like he didn't want to finish the job or he wanted to strike more terror into Ophiuchus though the latter wasn't something his brother would normally do, As Capricorn stepped into the light he didn't see his brother or his spear but he heard a grunt behind him and quickly spun around to pin his brother down
"Stop you've already lost, I'll just have Pisces read your memories." Capricorn said while holding his brother down. "Say Caprice, where's your spear." Ophiuchus said as he slowly hit the goat's merr and at that point Capricorn could hear it, the Wolf Killer was descending. He immediately tried to back away but Ophiuchus grabbed him revealing his burnt palms that had begun healing whilst stuck to the armament. "Let's receive this last blow together, brother".
"You bastard!!" The spear jammed into Capricorn's chest splicing through his heart and into Ophiuchus's shoulder region.
It was only a moment but it felt like an eternity, Capricorn's body fell to the ground and Ophiuchus stayed there on the ground beside the corpse of number twelve, with a spear in his arm and tears in his eyes. "I like a woman with a big smile you know, a calm smile that would brighten up my day once I saw it."
