In the worst of times, when I wished to fall
Onto my sword to end it all
To escape from the endless solitude,
What kept me going was the thought of you.
In my dreams, when I only knew peace
There I was, held tightly in your arms
In the warmth that came with a father’s embrace
As a child, watching movies, and laughing together
So real was it, like a core memory that I clung to.
Yet when I woke, you were not there
When I woke, It felt fear, loneliness, and despair
What were these false memories, if not a curse
What were these false hopes, if not a burden.
Why is it, when I close my eyes
That the image I see is you smiling down at me?
Why is it, when the sound of battle goes silent
I hear your voice say, ‘I will always love you?’
I don’t want the safe delusions of a dream
Nor the honeyed words of a comforting lie
I want to hear those words come from you
As I see you now, in this moment
Even with your sword drawn, and your will taut.
Why did fate leave me with these dreams of you
These false thoughts, these false memories
With everything I want to see from your
Only for all of it to be an illusion.
Because of this, I conquered Fate.
Because of this, I conquered Death.
Because of this, I conquered the flames
That which would burn my hopes to cinders
So that I might bring them back from the ashes.
I will defeat you and bend fate to my whim
So that I would turn my dream into reality.
Moyako…
Marcus’s eyes drifted over to the shattered remains of her mask, and his eyes narrowed with a wicked glint.
“That mask of yours, you used it to manifest the Japanese gods, but with it broken, I’m guessing you can’t do it anymore can you?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“So what? It doesn’t matter,” she said as if to brush it off, but in reality she was extremely worried.
The power that came with their blessings were incredibly important to how she was able to finish off battles if her flames were not enough on their own.
Of course, with enough concentration, she could still manifest them, but the mask aided in focusing on one specific god for her to use at any given time.
With it broken, the conscious wills of the gods were all active at the same time and it would be incredibly difficult to try and filter them apart from each other to use effectively.
With both of them being genetically immune to heat, Moyako’s magic was almost entirely useless, aside from the destructive kinetic energy that came with it.
If she couldn’t rely on the gods to aid her anymore, and her own magic was barely effective against him, then she would be forced to use her last resort.
A power she was so fearful and hesitant to use because of its outrageous potential for total annihilation.
If she were truly backed into a corner to the point she had no other choice but to use it, and if that happened and she made even the slightest mistake, she could risk destroying her father’s soul by accident.
“Well…I’m a little curious to try it out myself…,” Marcus said as he flicked his left wrist and Zeus’s Master Bolt appeared in his hand.
Moyako blinked in confusion and said, “Wait, what are you-?”
His grip on the twin-blade tightened and his voice began to change as he said, “Oh Lord Zeus. I call upon your strength to aid me in this battle. Bless your kin with the lightning that illuminates and commands the heavens of Olympus.”
Her blood ran cold as she watched Marcus’s appearance begin to change to match that of the King of the Olympians.
His hair grew longer and turned white, the color of his eyes turned into a deeper shade of electric blue, and the expression that came from them felt so much more ancient.
Even his clothes, what tattered remains that were left of them, were worn underneath a flowing white toga that was draped over his shoulders.
“I am curious…, which of the blessings of our gods is stronger. The gods of the East, or the gods of the West. I am so excited to find out,” Marcus said, with the voice of Zeus speaking through him, instigating her further.
Selene…
As she looked at this new form Marcus had taken to fight against Moyako, a part of her felt a little bit flustered at the sight of him in that strange robe and the long flowing hair.
Wow…he looks so-
Before she could finish the thought, it was interrupted by her mother’s voice as she stared at Marcus and said, “Father?!”
Selene’s head snapped around to stare at her, looking her dead in the eyes, horrified as she asked, “What did you just say?!”
The other people in the audience looked at her similarly confused until Artemis realized what she had just said and cleared out her throat.
“Uh, sorry. Zeus was my father. Marcus is manifesting his power and…I was a little shocked to see such a close resemblance between the two…,” she clarified so as to ease their confusion and mild panic.
Selene was still reeling from what she said but was starting to calm down as she said, “You had me worried there…”
“About what?” Artemis asked.
“Well…you know Marcus and I… It would be really weird and gross if the man I was dating was related to me,” she said, to which Artemis chuckled.
“Oh that…? Well...believe it or not, the humans of Terra came up with many weird stories about the Olympian’s origins. They believed that the original six, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera where the children of the titan Kronos.”
Selene looked up at the titan up above who had been present and watching every battle unfolding throughout the tournament.
“Him?”
Artemis nodded, “Yes, the very same. However, the truth is that the titans and the original six Olympians spawned from the remains of primordial gods that spread throughout creation. None of us are blood related. If we were, then Marcus would be my cousin, and you would be his first cousin, once removed.”
Selene had to resist the urge to vomit at the thought as she covered up her ears and groaned, “Please be quiet mother.”
Seeing her visible discomfort seemed to amuse Artemis as she laughed before saying, “That aside, it really is good to witness my father’s power once again after so long. I wonder how Marcus will intend to use it.”
Moyako…
Her instincts were on high alert, screaming at her to run for her life just by being near Marcus in this state.
Yet as nerve wracking as Zeus’s overwhelming presence was within her father, she dug her heels into the dirt, summoned as much power as she could within her sword, and charged after him.
But as fast as she was, as swift and skillful as her talent was with the sword, she struck nothing but air as he vanished with a flash.
Before she could have a chance to react, to look for him, to anticipate his next move, she felt his fingers grab a handful of her hair as he yanked her head back.
She looked up as he raised his right hand over his head, with a bolt of lightning held within it, just before he stabbed it into her chest.
With the force of an exploding star, the thunderbolt annihilated everything in its path in its effort to kill her.
When Moyako opened her eyes as her magic kicked in to bring her back to life, she tried to call upon Amaterasu to lend her strength but felt that her presence within her had been subjugated.
Her voice had gone silent as even the sun goddess of the heavens was too frightened of Zeus’s power.
“Amaterasu...please. I need your strength! Please, lend me your strength,” she pleaded, but there was no response.
“Give me something, anything!”
Silence…
“She will not answer you anymore, none of them will. Not so long as I am here,” Marcus said with Zeus’s voice overlapping his own.
“Why?! What did you do to them?!” Moyako demanded as she struggled to get to her feet. Zeus’s power was so great that its effects could even be felt after she was already revived.
“I haven’t done anything to them...but it is clear for them to see, the authority I hold upon all that I see before me. With my thunderbolts, I have struck down the sun. Wind and Lightning? They fall under MY domain. Even the powers over Life and Death have cowered in fear before my greatness. The gods you hold so dear to you are but flies in the vast skies that I command,” he said as he spread out his arms, with lightning crackling along his palms.
“BEHOLD!” he roared as the crackle of thunder followed the gargantuan scale of falling lightning all around them.
Everywhere a bolt struck the ground, a planet sized hole of scorched earth followed in its wake.
All the while, Marcus smiled at her as he asked, “In the face of this power, do you yield?”
While she was terrified at the outrageous level of power he had command over with manifesting Zeus’s will, the mere suggestion of surrender angered her so greatly that she could think of nothing else but to silence him over the thought.
“I will NEVER YIELD!” she roared and he just smiled even wider.
“As you wish,” he said as he disappeared for a split second only to reappear behind her with lightning crackled from his fingertips.
Not wanting to be killed so easily again, she turned herself into ash as his fist passed through her harmlessly.
While in this state, she concentrated the heat around her body to increase her speed to near that of light.
Since objects destroy themselves when they approach the speed of light, it was fine for her to do so in her ashen state if she could easily put herself back together before he could manage to destroy her.
While storing the mass of her power within her sword and using whatever was left to increase her speed to stay just barely faster than him, she was able to maintain control over the fight as they clashed.
Even as he maintained omnipresent dominion over everything around them, and even though his power was enough the threaten the stability of the infinite plane they fought upon, she was still far stronger, faster, and more skilled than him.
Yet his determination and ability to call upon powers even greater than himself were such a threat that she was worried about which one of them would exhaust their options first.
The skies above trembled and the earth below was razed short of oblivion as they clashed. Throughout their battle, Zeus’s lightning continued to rain down and destroy everything in its path.
As fast and as evasive as she was, even she was beginning to get overwhelmed as she juggled dodging the falling bolts, evading Marcus’s attacks, and struggling to find even a single opening for a counter attack.
This pace continued on until, eventually, she lost focus as Marcus appeared in front of her, feigning an attack as he thrust out both his hands as they were clasped together palm over palm.
She leaned back to avoid it only for him to separate his hands and the view of lightning arcing within them, followed by a flash of light reached her eyes and a disorienting roar of thunder burst her eardrums.
It was powerful enough to stun her, but not enough to kill her as she blacked out for just a moment as she fell.
She lost control over her power and died the moment her body hit the ground.
When she came to again, Marcus was already standing over her, still shaking with power.
He knelt down, and spoke in a gentler voice as he said, “You cannot win Moyako. Save yourself the embarrassment and yield.”
She coughed as she gripped Kakure Sakura tightly while looking up at him and said, “I will... not yield. Never…”
“You have exhausted all of your options. There is no scenario following this moment that exists beyond your own defeat. Give up, now.”
Moyako laughed as Marcus patiently watched her get back on her feet and say, “I still...have one thing...left. I have...a trump card...that even you...can’t win against.”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed as he stared at her and said, “You’re bluffing…”
“I’m not…I’m just...afraid of it. I’m afraid...if I use it...I will kill you. Permanently,” she said to him as she locked eyes with him, daring him to push her that far.
Marcus’s confidence started to waver at her words, but still he said, “There is nothing you can throw at me that I cannot handle.”
In a sweet voice, she said, “That is where you are wrong…”
Ruvick…
He felt guilty for having to force Thalia to sleep when she asked him to stay by her side, but he knew that he had to be there to witness the conclusion to the final match.
There was some inexplicable feeling he had that told him something truly disastrous was about to happen.
An event of such magnitude that it will shape the era to come after words. The penultimate turning point that all of creation hinged upon.
For some reason, he felt that Marcus and Moyako were at the center of it.
As he was about to teleport back to the arena, he felt an overwhelmingly crushing presence reverberate through him.
He tried to will himself to appear at the arena, but for some reason, the presence was suffocating his ability to do so without releasing more of his restraints.
What in the world is happening?
He rushed out of Marcus’s house just in time to see feathers falling out of the sky.
Trillions of them, blackened and burning to ashes as they fell.
When he tried to reach out and grab one, it passed right through his hands as if they weren’t even there.
From what he could tell, the appearance of these burning feathers was some strange phenomena of spiritual energy manifesting into reality.
But the only thing he could think of with the power to do something like this, manifesting one’s will into nature on such a scale…
Only a primordial god could do this...
“Oh shit…,” Ruvick swore as he released more of his limiters, destroying the street he was standing on in the process, as he forced himself to teleport back to the arena and stood next to Selene once more.
He had arrived just in time to bear witness to what seemed like the end of this fight as Marcus had fallen to his knees, looking up in awe as the Primordial Goddess of Rebirth had revealed herself to defeat him.