Children of the Gods: Arc 2 [Game/Closed]

[Not G. Ivingname]

Steven watched Andrew land shot after shot on the Furies.

"...I am sorry I doubted you," Steven said in amazement, "Remind me to not piss you off."

Steven saw that the Furies were hit by the arrows were slower, and easer to hit. Steven aimed, and shot one of them twice square in the chest, brining the already poisoned creature down. Did not want to give the creatures a chance to get desperate.

 

[Deu Sex]

Remus growled when he felt an arrow tear through his leg. Although inhumanly strong and invigorated, the demigod still felt pain like any other would. And having an arrowhead embedded in one's flesh stung like a *****. Remus fell onto his knee in reaction to the pain, yet his eyes were turned to the direction in which the projectile came rather than where it had landed. He saw the last unharmed Fury readying another shot. "No problem, I can handle this." the victorious energy flowing through his head convinced him. He wasn't certain how though. His shotgun was dry of shells and the Fury wasn't close enough to crush with his bare hands. "I could try hurling my sword at it..."

But before Remus could attempt that probably bad idea, the Fury was struck by an arrow itself. Cocking his head around, Remus spotted Andrew. He cracked a smile as the doctor approached him and began checking on his wound. "Aren't you full of surprises! I didn't expect you to be a marksman." He chuckled, then hissed a bit as the arrow was pulled out his calf. The pain quickly vanished though as Andrew worked his healing talents on the injury. "There was no need to heal me. I'm tough, I'd been fine without it." he said rather cockily. That surge of enthusiasm was really getting to him. "But you have my thanks anyways." Remus pulled himself up from the ground, ignoring the pain as he lifted his knee and resumed movement.

 

[Lunar Templar]

The furies fell surprisingly quickly, and with what amounted to minor injuries on their part, Steven seemed ok now and Remus was refusing aid, so it must not be that bad.

Aria, figuring the latest enemy was delt with, resumed the search for this person they where after, she might not know exactly what they where looking for, but she had a better idea then most of the group, and given her questions where being ignored now, she figured it be better to just resume the search and let the medic, whom was now on her shit list after that last glance at him when he spoke to her, she knew that fake smile all to well, let him do what ever he was doing.

 

[IFS]

"I'm sure Remus appreciates that. Will you be able to summon it again soon, or will we be without victory for a while?"

"I should be able to, but I think it gets weaker when I spread it around," she said, although given the energy she still felt she somehow doubted it would be much weaker in this case. They were doing a surprisingly good job of beating back the furies so far, but then that one had said that they weren't supposed to harm some of them so maybe they were going easy on them?

Regardless they needed to keep moving, Andrew was impressively good with his new bow, but they only had so many arrows and bullets. Besides that Andrew had already shown that he could only do so much healing, and having their medic burned out again would not be good.

She turned to Prometheus "Where to now?" she asked quickly, ready to run or fly as fast as she could.

 

[Green Shoes]

The Furies broke and stumbled away, enraged, making headway away from the stone city. A crowd had gathered to look at the fight, looking on with sad and mournful eyes. They quickly dissipated as it finished, returning to melancholy lumbering around eternal plains.

Prometheus turned to Nicole and pointed to the city.

"The city of Dis, and if I'm not mistaken, new home of Ahriman. We just need to find the soul, get the information, and leave."

The city itself was a sombre reconstruction of Vienna; canals ran this way and that, carrying the perpetually drowning, all moaning for salvation. Prometheus had to remind himself that this was the halfway between Life and whatever lay afterwards.

"It's just a domain, they'll be okay eventually."

He spoke to himself, though loud enough for others to hear.

Making their way through the crowd, they came across a wide, stone courtyard in the center of the city. A fight had broken out between two people. A greying, emaciated old man, and a physically imposing Persian. The old man wore a black tunic, and held a staff in his hand. The Persian was dressed in glittering silver mail, not unlike Vera's, and carried a vicious mace.

The withered man swept the Persian off his feet with his staff, before smashing it crudely over his neck. Coughing, but unharmed, the warrior mashed his mace into the man's stomach. It was clear they had been fighting for some time, neither making any true progress.

Prometheus turned to the others.

"Well, there are the two kings of Hel at this current point in time. Both of them will know where the soul is..."

A soft voice spoke among the crowd, though only Aria could understand her. She was calling, softly and sadly, as if trying to remember. Her lips were drawn and grey; her hair so fine it looked as if it may crumble.

"Remus...Remus is that you...?"

 

[Lunar Templar]

Due to the crowed Aria hadn't gone far enough to matter, and Prometheus said the where in the city of Dis, that sounded vaguely familiar.

She kinda hung back a bit as they walked through the city, distancing her self from the group mostly due to her revalation about Andrew, she figured it was better then her just back handing him if he said something she didn't like. So she instead admired the architecture, which she found interesting.

The group made their way threw and to the city center, where they found two men fighting, one looking far more ready for a fight then the other, not that it seemed to matter much, the pair seemed pretty evenly matched from what she saw. "Well, there are the two kings of Hel at this current point in time. Both of them will know where the soul is..." Prometheus said, which answer one burning question she had, but raised another, but before she could comment, she heard a female voice, asking after Remus "Crap" and poked Prometheus in the side and motion him to lean in close for a second "There's a woman trying to talk to Remus, how you think we should handle it? I doubt ignoring her is the best thing, I've seen what spirits do when ignored" she whispered to him

 

[Dogmatic99]

This place is.... insane...

Able reveled in the horrific site of Dis. Faces and withered bodies were washed by in a constant flow in the rapids of the river, thier faces breaking the surface to wail at the sky as they gnashed their teeth and cried for help. Prometheus gave a lackluster explanation for it in an attempt to put the group at their ease. It didn't help Able.

The whole place seemed to just get bleaker and bleaker as they went on. It wasn't hellish, but being trapped there long enough could easily be seen that way. But there were buildings and houses, places could call their own; maybe even make their own little sanctuary among all the depression. Able wracked his brains trying to remember anything he could ablout the name Dis but dante and co had only gotten a quick wikipedia look over when Abe was going mythology crazy. The name rang a bell but wasn't it supposed to be a city in hell. But this place seemed more like a crappy limbo.

Though I guess Limbo is kind of crappy by definition.

The uneasy feeling that this might be waiting for him started scratching at Able's thoughts, the creeping cold of his own mortality putting able even more on edge. I need to try and get in good with Dad. If this was real then odds were Valhalla was too and it had to beat an eternity in this place.

Then again, if you look at it at the right angle then it kind of looks like nicer parts of Tottenham. Able thought, trying to joke to himself.

It was a strange thing but Able seemed to be getting used to the sudden arrivals of crazy monster things. There wasn't as many chances to dwell on them when they were trying to rip his face off, fight or flight tended to kick in and do all the thinking for him. At least that had been Able's experience of it so far. The wird places on the other hand, well they were something else. Able had never been a big fan of traveling and neither Dis or Gaia's fever dream of a garden were changing that. What if something like Steven's deal happened to him and he got stuck here? What if he could never see home again?

And to think, I thought moving out to uni was a daunting prospect.

That was when they came across a town square like area with a group of depressed looking rags all gathered around watching two figures going at each other in the middle. The two of them stood out in the bleak world of Dis like a pair of beacons. Not that they were very bright in their own right, just that they weren't a shabby shade of grey.

"Well, there are the two kings of Hel at this current point in time. Both of them will know where the soul is..."

Seriously, kings? This wasn't what Able imagined when he thought of the ultimate clash between deities. It looks like the weirdest piece of street theatre I've ever seen. Either way Able's money was on the one with the mace.

 

[hiei82]

Vera watched the fight between the gods closely. He had no idea who the old man was, but he had a few guesses who the other was. The use of a mace suggested it was Mithra, but Mithra was a god of war and light - not exactly the kind of god who'd try to rule Hel. More likely, it was Asto Vidatu or Angra Mainyu; neither of them gods he particularly wanted to meet with.

Turning to the others with some concern, Vera asked "Anyone have any idea who the old man is?" As an addendum, she said "I'd personally rather not deal with any of the Persian gods of death if I don't have to."; which was true enough. She'd rather not deal with any god or gods, but you know what they say: when in Rome...

 

[DarkRawen]

"The city of Dis, and if I'm not mistaken, new home of Ahriman. We just need to find the soul, get the information, and leave."

Andrew looked around in the city. It was unique, for sure, eerie and melancholic, even. People were fighting in the water to reach the surface, drowning and desperate. He didn't want to linger, it brought something out in him. Not fear, not at all, but it was some sort of emotion. This was death? Well, some sort of it. The fifth circle of hell, if Dante's divine comedy was to be believed as a source. Wrath. If this was real, where would he go? What sin was his?

The eight circle was fraud, if I remember correctly.

Fraud. Tricking people into trusting you, and believing you were someone you weren't. Would he spend his time there? As arrogant as he was, even Andrew knew he wasn't going to avoid death.

I'm saving people's lives. But that's not going to mean a damn thing, once my sins are weighted up. Why is it such a serious sin to want to just pretend I'm like everyone else? Why is it the eight circle, out of nine?

Yet again, he had to ask himself whether or not it was worth it. Keeping it so that people wouldn't loathe him, or avoid him... he was always the one making the efforts. He was always the one smiling, sounding nice, doing nice things. None of them were worth it. They were just useless trash, if judging by the way they spoke about honesty and sincerity, yet never followed up on it.

Why should I go to hell because of them? Do I have to suffer forever because of these people? Because of everyone not me?

Of course, not a single part of him blamed himself.

"It's just a domain, they'll be okay eventually."

Prometheus murmured. Andrew sighed, obviously relieved, but not for everyone else. More for himself.

"That's good," he muttered. "Eternity is too long."

They walked over to two men fighting, an old man and a Persian. Prometheus commented on it.

"Well, there are the two kings of Hel at this current point in time. Both of them will know where the soul is..."

Andrew looked at them again. These were the kings? Something told him it wasn't a good idea to interrupt their fight.

 

[Green Shoes]

The Titans eyes widened as Aria whispered to him. He quickly pulled her aside, a medley of confusion and, strangely, anger on his face.

"What do you mean she's trying to talk to Remus? She shouldn't be able to speak! Someone gave her her tongue...Just...play it cool for a moment. For god's sake, don't tell Remus."

Prometheus stood tall and searched for this alleged woman. Unable to distinguish speech from the rabble, he turned back to Aria, keeping a close watch on Remus.

"Can you point her out when you see her, otherwise, don't acknowledge her. We can't have Remus distracted, nor can we take any passengers anywhere."

Back to the group, they watched on in interest as the Gods fought. Prometheus spoke coolly to Vera.

"I believe that's Dis Pater; or Hades, whatever name he likes to take today. What I don't understand is why they're fighting; why Ahriman is even down here. Do you know much about him?"

Both staff and mace clashed with a sudden burst of energy, sending both men sprawling. As the old man lifted himself off the ground, he caught Andrew's eye; sensed the life within him. His eyes widened as he began to see the semblance to his nephew Apollo. At the same time, Ahriman caught Vera's gaze, grinning, he spoke.

"Ah! Spawn of Verathragna! I was wondering when I would meet - !"

He was cut short by a swift staff to the face. The old man turned and cried out towards the group.

"By Zeus, help me!"

Off in the distance, only visible to Able, high in the sky, a small light burst into existence, sending a wave of calm over him. As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished back into the nether.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Aria made a very subtle gesture to the woman in question "Her" She said between Prometheus comments about the combatants, one of which said something in the groups direction, but was cut off the other, asked for help. Aria shrugged and sighed "So how we handling this?"

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Steven frowned.

"Again?" Steven pulled out his pistol, "We should help the old man right? The man isn't Satan and he's really fighting Jesus or something like that?"

 

[Dogmatic99]

The fight went on and the two piled in on asking the group for help, or at least one of them did. Why was it none of these people were capable of solving their own problems? Steven was ready to leap into action by the looks of it pulling out yet another gun. Just how many weapons did he have?

Able had no idea what to do about all this. He didn't even know what was going on right now or why they were fighting, but making snap decisions with no information on what was happening. He looked back and fourth between the others for some kind of signal or a lead to follow when something caught his eye.

It was like a star in the night sky. The light was, entrancing, he could stare at it all day. A dumb little smile spread across his face and for a moment the wailing waterways around them almost sounded wavves lapping against the shore. It was funny he'd pretty much stopped hearing the ocean back home but now that he was away its absence was almost deafening. It didn't make him sad though, the light reached out to him and it's warmth felt homely enough. Then it was gone, bringing him back to the present and leaving behind its welcome calming effect.

Well maybe I can do something make sense of all this.

Abe stepped forward into the opening, he wasn't interested in the two gods yet though. He scanned the crowd, watching them. Looking at their body language, the looks in their eyes, seeing if there were any ticks or tells as they watched the fight. If years of hanging back in all things social (and his occational stint behind a bar) had taught him anything it was how to spot the things most people missed. He didn't know if the dead displayed anything like emotional ticks but there was only one way to find out and it wasn't like he had anything to lose right now.

 

[hiei82]

"...Do you know much about him?" Prometheus asked in reference to the Persian god. Vera could only shake her head no. "The only god I'd met before this little adventure was Verathragna, so not much. I looked up some of the stories of the Zoroastrians after I found out who my father was though, so I know some of the myths. Suffice to say, he's not exactly well respected - he's supposed to be the root of all evil; the Zoroastrian version of Satan." she offered, a bit unsure how much of the information was true. After all, according to mythology, none of the other pantheons should even exist; or in the very least hate each other deeply.

That was when Ahriman spotted them. "Ah! Spawn of Verathragna! I was wondering when I would meet - !" he called out with a grin, before the old man - now identified as Hades - slammed his staff into the evil god's face. Vera couldn't help but cringe.

"So what do we want to do?" she asked to the group; hoping for some input.

 

[Terratina.]

"So what do we want to do?"

Etna wasn't really sure. She had been concentrating on the strange token anyway. Well, it was more of an attempt to block out of this weird stuff out. First her mother, then the underworld, and now clashing gods. What next? This venture into the land of the death was certainly a roller coaster ride of sorts. It was all too much at once. She hadn't even time to think over her mother's parting words. Which in her usual matter raised more questions than answers given. Etna concluded that it would be best to handle that particular issue when it cropped up again. Her thumb traced the angular shapes inscribed into the token. She at least knew some of the words by now. An answer in a world of questions.

With naught to do, she muttered them softy, "Oath by word..."

 

[DarkRawen]

"The only god I'd met before this little adventure was Verathragna, so not much. I looked up some of the stories of the Zoroastrians after I found out who my father was though, so I know some of the myths. Suffice to say, he's not exactly well respected - he's supposed to be the root of all evil; the Zoroastrian version of Satan."

So we have basically Satan, fighting Hades? It's getting harder to take hell seriously.

It was still rather heavy on his mind, though, but it wasn't about to make him worried.

"By Zeus, help me!"

The old man Hades seemed to not like to have to fight in order to be the king of his own place. Understandable, Andrew couldn't help but mentally side with him, although only barely. He didn't trust any of the gods, they all seemed to have their own plans and agendas. Steven readied his gun, the rest seemed to be asking each other what to do. Etna didn't seem to care at all, she just couldn't afford to give a fuck. Andrew sighed, although he didn't want to get involved in this, Steven did have sort of the right idea. Perhaps, he wasn't sure what the man was thinking most of the time.

Shooting either of them is a bit too much though. Wouldn't want the gods of hell to hate me.

He loaded the bow with a normal arrow, and aimed very carefully at a spot between the two, very much closest to Ahriman or whatever his name was. He then waited for a moment where the two weren't moving too much, and fired. He readied another arrow, but smiled, holding the bow up, ready to fire. "Say, would you two stop fighting for a short moment?" he asked, sounding as friendly one could while also sounding rather serious. "We need to ask you a question, and I'd appreciate it if either of you would answer it."

 

[Green Shoes]

Able stepped forward, but the crowd showed no signs of emotion; they were dead, lost and wandering, and looked on at the fight not with interest, but as if they were flies, attracted to light. He did, however, step into the opening, drawing attention to the group.

As if cementing their place in this realm, Andrew shot an arrow between the two, asking rather politely if they had time to answer a quick question.

Prometheus laid his hand on Vera's shoulder; he didn't know the relations between Persian Gods, but he also didn't like the way Ahriman looked at her.

"Don't do anything just yet; let Andrew handle it. I doubt the demon-god will be very friendly with the God of Victory. Say, are you able to whip up a wind down here? Just in case."

During this time, the Woman moaning Remus' name was getting closer to Aria, realising she was the only one who could hear her. She grasped at her wrists, still cooing gently, only intelligible to Aria.

Prometheus wheeled as Etna spoke, utterly surprised.

"...What did you just say?"

-------------------------------------

The two Gods froze, mid-swing, caught totally off-guard by the young man with the bow. Ahriman laughed, Hades simply ran towards him.

"You! Son of Apollo! Help me throw off this usurper! Help me and I'll find that missing soul!"

Ahriman called out over him, his voice booming.

"Come now young man; clearly you are far wiser as to side with the weak. Give me Dis, and you may have whichever souls you like!"

Both Hades and Ahriman stared intently on Andrew, weapons loose in their hands.

 

[hiei82]

Prometheus laid his hand on Vera's shoulder, keeping an eye on the bickering gods. "Don't do anything just yet; let Andrew handle it. I doubt the demon-god will be very friendly with the God of Victory. Say, are you able to whip up a wind down here? Just in case." he said, trying to keep her back.

for the first and perhaps only time, she was in agreement with the proto-god. Persian-Satan was hardly someone who'd take kindly to her - a descendent of one of his more powerful enemies. She nodded and remained on guard - her blade held in a defensive stance. Then she answered.

"I don't "whip up" wind; I become it. There shouldn't be a problem with wind, but if I transform I'll be stuck in that form for at least an hour; meaning one less magic sword, bull, or hawk on our side."

 

[DarkRawen]

"You! Son of Apollo! Help me throw off this usurper! Help me and I'll find that missing soul!"

"Come now young man; clearly you are far wiser as to side with the weak. Give me Dis, and you may have whichever souls you like!"

Oh, great. Couldn't they chose someone else?

"You sure this won't be solved peacefully?" he asked, but he stopped smiling, his face turning serious. His tone was a bit colder. "I'm guessing not."

I don't know if either of them are siding with Dionysus, but neither has attacked us. And Hades is the rightful owner of this place. Not to mention, the other guy is evil, and from what I know, Hades is not. Probably.

Andrew pointed at Ahriman. The arrow he had was a normal one, but he would shoot a poisoned one next. He fired, and hit, the arrow hitting the evil god in the neck. He quickly grabbed a poison arrow, and shot again. Not a great hit this time, it hit right above his knee, but good enough to make the plague spread. He readied his bow yet again, but the amount of arrows was starting to get low. Besides, the others should get the idea right around now, one of them were hurt, that was the guy to take care of.

Still... I hope I haven't made the wrong choice here. Neither are the best person to piss off.

 

[IFS]

Nicole wasn't sure what was going on, she wanted to side with Hades simply because she knew more about him, he wasn't even that bad of a guy in the myths, compared to some of the other gods he was a saint. It seemed the decision was in Andrew's hands though, and she barely even noticed that she was holding her breath as he made up his mind. He chose to help Hades, and she exhaled deeply, though her relief soon turned to worry as she realized that they were now up against yet another god, at least this time they had one on their side too.

She adopted a fighting stance, and her wings unfolded behind her this time visible in their brilliant golden form, she was more than ready to fight, run, or empower the others, but she remained in her stance for the moment, waiting to see how the god reacted to the arrows. Hopefully he'll just bow out gracefully, I mean they were evenly matched before so he's got to see things have tipped against him...