Marcus…
It felt strange to be sleeping in another woman’s bed after so long of being separated from Yukino. She was the only other person aside from Thalia that he held so close to his heart, and if the circumstances weren’t just right for him to have met her, then he might have stayed alone his entire life. He likely wouldn’t have believed he could find happiness with someone if he hadn’t met her.
Even as he was stuck in this other world, with no known way to return, he was thinking of Yukino.
As he lay in Selene’s bed, he turned his head to look at her briefly as he watched strands of her hair fall over her eyes.
He felt like a piece of garbage for thinking of Yukino while sharing a bed with another woman. Yet at the same time, he was choosing to move on with Selene despite everything that happened with him and Yukino.
If he didn’t know any better, he’d think that the woman Moyako was his guilt given form, trying to drag him back to Yukino and to…
As if she were his…
What’s wrong with me…? he thought to himself as he struggled to focus his initial thoughts on Moyako and Yukino.
The more he tried to think about it, the more distant the thought became and soon, a headache started to come from dwelling on it.
Perhaps it was just stress.
He shouldn’t be stressing out about the past, he should be looking towards the future.
Maybe that future lied with Selene, but if it did, then he would have to secure that future.
In the mean time though, he needed to sleep.
As the word ‘sleep’ came to mind, his eyelids became heavier and he was eventually lulled into another biblical nightmare.
Cain…
Ever since Lucifer and Hestia had left to seek out the other gods in the northern lands, Cain was left to lead the Greek gods and titans to Noah’s ark to aid in its construction and reinforce its strength.
Since the beings he was escorting were of such strength, they wouldn’t need to rest, and therefore it wouldn’t take long for them to reach the ark.
But before they left on their journey, Cain was met by Apophis once again, who arrived with some startling information.
She had revealed to him that not only was she a god, but one of such strength to stand among God himself. She had even said that even though she had lost, she once fought in a war against God.
If that wasn’t enough, she had said she was the second of the gods to manifest in the universe, while God was the seventh and the last of their race of gods called primordials.
His human mind could hardly comprehend what he was hearing.
“God is merely the seventh?”
“Yes, and he is undoubtedly the most powerful. A god without a true equal. The only one who was even remotely close in strength to him was Erebus, and he is dead. Truthfully, so am I, but being what I am, death makes little difference to me.”
“If that is true, then how am I talking to a dead god right now?” Cain asked, a mild panic creeping into his voice.
“How are you, a living corpse, walking and talking and carrying on with your life?” she asked, and he looked at her with a confused expression.
“I don’t understand where you are going with this.”
“Death means very little to a thing like me, or a thing like God. A being comprised of a concept so powerful that it can warp the very nature of reality, even warp the nature of death.”
“I understand a little as to why I am the way I am. God cursed me to live in my brother’s corpse and walk the earth for eternity. However, you say you are a god that has already died, yet you still live? Can you explain that bit of nonsense to me in a way I can understand?”
Apophis looked at him, pondering deeply about her response, before she said, “No. I cannot. If I were to explain it, it wouldn’t make any sense to you as you are right now. As a matter of fact, there are very few beings in this world who could comprehend it. Not even your friend Lucifer would understand it. I will tell you eventually, but you will first need to further educate yourself by conversing with Kronos. His knowledge will surely help you better grasp the concept.”
Cain sighed as he reluctantly accepted her answer, “Very well...I can respect the fact that my ignorance won’t do me any favors. Though can you tell me what you intend to do to help? You said that you wish to give me strength to fight against God. What exactly do you mean by that? How am I supposed to fight against someone who can bend reality to their whim?”
“As you are right now, you can’t. In fact, there is not a being in all of current existence who can.”
Cain’s eyes narrowed at the wording she had used.
“Current you say? As in, there will be a person who can?”
“Yes. One day, a being powerful enough to slay God, will come into this world. That being will wield the source of all of creation in his hand as a weapon, and kill God.”
Hearing this, a feeling of hope filled Cain’s heart at the thought of justice being fulfilled. He was so excited and relieved by her words that he held her by the shoulders, forgetting that she was still a Primordial God.
“When?! When will I see the day that God gets what he deserves?” he asked.
Apophis’s eyes looked down at his hands which were firmly clasped around her, and with an expression that was not unpleasant said, “A little too excited aren’t you?”
Cain ignored her words and stared at her, waiting for her to answer him.
She sighed and said, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know…? What do you mean? You had said that you knew that a time would arise when God is slain, yet you know not when?”
She nodded.
“How? How is it you know that it will happen, but you don’t know when? If you do not know when, then how can you be certain it will happen at all?” he asked, his voice getting more agitated and angry every second.
In a soft and patient tone, she said, “Cain, there are things in this world that you cannot yet comprehend. In fact, there are even things that I know, yet cannot fully comprehend them. At least, not yet. So I only ask of you, one thing.”
“You want something from me? You are a god, you could have anything you wanted. What do I have that is so great that you would need to ask of me for?”
She smiled and said, “I only ask that you take me with you. Take me with you on your journey, and I will help you to understand everything about the nature of this world. I will help grant you the strength you need to fight against the armies of God, and the very primordial who wronged you. You need only open yourself to me and take me with you.”
Cain pulled his hands away and asked, “Why? What would you hope to gain with joining me?”
“You perhaps? You interest me. Maybe a woman such as myself seeks the companionship of a man like yourself? Is that so strange?”
Cain took a surprised step back as he said, “But you are a god.”
“Who is to say that a god cannot fancy the companionship of a human?”
He took a moment of silence to think it over before he said, “If that is really all you want, then I will not stop you. Not that I could if I wanted to.”
He then turned around as he noticed the first light of the sun creep over the horizon.
“Come on then, it is time to go,” he said as he started walking back to the camp of gods and titans below.
Apophis merrily walked beside him on their way to Noah’s Ark.
While they made their way back to the campsite to meet up with the gods and titans, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.
A dark, shadowy figure ran through the woods and suddenly hid behind a tree.
Cain turned to look at whatever that thing was, but for some reason, when he turned his head to get a good look at it, it was gone.
Apophis noticed the change in his behavior and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“I...no, nothing is wrong. I thought I saw something but...maybe it was just a trick of the light,” he said as he turned to look back at her, “It must’ve been my-”
Then, behind Apophis, he saw that same dark figure standing behind her.
It took on the form of a small child, but other than that, it was impossible for him to make out any specific details about its appearance.
Its body vibrated and spasmed so much that he might have mistaken it for a mirage or illusion of sorts. However, he had no doubt in his mind that it was there.
“Apophis, behind you!” he shouted in warning, yet the moment he blinked, the child like figure had vanished.
She turned around to see what he was freaking out over but then looked him in the eyes with concern.
“Did you see something?” she asked.
“You didn’t notice it?”
“Notice what?” she asked, confused as to why he was reacting in such a manner.
“I…thought I saw something again…,” he muttered.
“Are you alright?”
Was he alright? There should be no reason that he is seeing something that a being of such unfathomable power could not.
Maybe he was going insane.
“Forget I said anything. We should get moving,” he said as he tried to push the thought out of his mind.
He continued walking back to camp and tried to ignore what he saw, but he could not get the thought of it out of his head.
The form of that shadowy being in the form of a child seemed oddly reminiscent of his little brother Abel.
While lost in his own thoughts, Apophis called out to him, “Cain? If you there is something bothering you, something that you do not understand, just tell me and I will do my best to help you.”
He stopped in place once more as he said, “Of course. You’ll be the first to know.”
Lucifer…
After he was finished speaking with the Norse gods with Hestia at his side, they left their palaces and went ahead to Noah’s Ark.
“The next place is the land of Egypt, where the pantheon commanded by the sun god Ra lies,” he said as he sat beside the fire that she tended to to keep him warm.
“Yes...the land of the oasis and desert sands… If not for such circumstances, I would be more delighted for the opportunity to travel the world,” she said with a kindly tone.
The two of them had taken shelter in a cave to escape the blizzard that was raging on outside. If not for Hestia’s flames keeping him warm, it would undoubtedly be most unpleasant.
“You should get some rest. We can leave for Egypt in the morning,” she said as she turned the coals in the bonfire with her bare hands.
“I will do that then, thank you,” he replied gratefully as he lied down next to the fire and closed his eyes.
With the comforting warmth of the flames, and the roar of the winds in the background, he was lulled to a surprisingly blissful sleep.
When he next awoke, he found that things had become eerily quiet. He no longer heard the roaring of the blizzard outside, the crackling of bonfire coals, or anything else.
It was a quiet so deep that it felt...unnatural.
He fully opened his eyes and sat up straight as he looked at his surroundings as he found that everything was not as it was before.
He was no longer inside of the cave with Hestia, but instead, he was in a vast, boundless chasm of darkness.
Despite the fact that he was certain of where he was before he fell asleep, he knew that he could not be awake. He could easily tell the difference between wide awake, and being in a dream.
This place, despite being far separated from where he was before, was very real, yet he couldn’t understand how or why he was here.
“Hestia? Are you there somewhere?” he called out, yet heard no response.
What is going on…?
Then, in the distance, he saw a flash of light and its reflection off of the surface of a body of water.
With narrowed eyes and uncertainty in what he was seeing, he walked over to the light until he reached a river.
The light he saw above the river continued to glow with such vibrancy that he had to squint when standing near it.
Something about it felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.
His eyes then focused on the river itself and he felt even more confused when he found that it was littered with things that he could not recognize.
There were thousands of objects floating within the river, cluttered together and overall making a real mess of it.
Who could have been so disgusting as to dump all this nonsense into a body of water so as to relieve themselves of waste?
As he stared deeper into the polluted river, a pair of eyes opened from underneath the surface. The eyes and face of a woman looked at him and began to rise to the surface.
It was so sudden and surprising that he fell backwards, scrambling to get away.
“What in the world…?”
Soon, the top of the woman’s head broke the surface of the river and the rest of her body followed after.
Once she had fully risen from the surface of the river, she appeared to be standing on its surface, walking on the water as if it were solid.
The river woman’s appearance was even more unusual that that of the river itself.
For one thing, she was fully nude, with her body being made of the same polluted water from which she rose.
Her eyes, which glowed a strange grey light, seemed to have countless stars and swirling galaxies contained within them. As if an entire universe were being stored within them.
Looking into her eyes was so hypnotizing that he felt himself getting sick trying to focus on all the details contained within them, so he had to avert her gaze.
Though as he looked away, he knew he had to ask, “What is this place, and why am I here?”
The woman tilted her head as she looked at him with curiosity.
“Answer me? While you’re at it, why don’t you tell me who you are. Did you bring me here?” he asked, to which she smiled.
“I’m surprised that you don’t recognize me in this form. I am the Styx,” she said, to which he took an involuntary step back and his skin went pale with fear.
“Styx? As in, one of the ancient gods that my father and I fought against all those eons ago? How? You should...you should be dead. Why am I seeing you here and now?” he asked her, his voice shaking as he realized that if it came down to it, he would not be able to fight her. Without Father’s light, he was powerless against a god of such strength.
“Do not be alarmed Lucifer, I am not here to fight. Nor do I hold any grudges towards you from the war long ago. I simply wish to speak with you, to be granted an audience with the progenitor of creation.”