Chapter 514 The Joys of Children...
-Avernus, The Palace of Lucifer
Sitting on a throne within an empty, and somber grand hall was the Forgotten Sun of the Morning himself, Lucifer.
The once highly revered son of heaven looked like he was bored out of his mind, and trying to find some sort of interest in his own memories.
Or… not quite ‘his’ memories that is.
Primordial level gods and beings have one very special little ‘trick’ that they usually keep close to their chests.
It is called Parallel Awareness.
In each and every alternate reality, no matter how obscure or far away, they have complete and total awareness of their other selves.
Their memories, lived experiences, and even grudges and resentments, they can see them all.
But honestly, they hardly ever look at them.
It can make feelings complicated, as any experience an alternate self may have had, can not necessarily be replicated in their own realities.
Just because one version of themselves found five dollars underneath a toilet seat, does not mean that another version of them would find it too.
Besides.. in most alternate realities primordial gods stay out of sight and out of mind, living with only their families and fulfilling their duties. (If they have them.)
Finally, Lucifer opened his eyes after combing through another several hundred hours of lived memories from his alternate selves.
“As usual… there isn’t much but imprisonment and silly hijinks.. falling in love with a human, what madness. And why am I showing such interest in that boy with the snakes…?”
Suddenly, a woman appeared in front of Lucifer in a gust of fire.
She was older, with fiery orange hair that seemed to literally be alive and blood red eyes that were particularly unsettling.
Normally, Lucifer would have been happy to see her.
But lately, certain disagreements had begun to drive a wedge between them.
About a week ago, Lucifer’s prison trembled when he heard a monstrous roar the likes of which he nor his alternate selves had ever heard.
But as strange as it was, Lucifer was somehow able to recognize it instantly.
Since he was in hell, the devil had no knowledge of anything that was going on in the outside realm.
Sometimes, lesser demons came to tell him things about the chaos unfolding on earth, but he knew nothing of what was taking place in the heavens.
He didn’t know how Abaddon was becoming so strong so fast.
Nor did he know what he really was.
Nevertheless, the reason for the divide between Samael and Igrat was because of her reaction to Abaddon’s war cry.
Against his prior knowledge, the demoness still held a genuine fondness for her grandson, and when she heard his brazenly destructive roar, she neglected to hide her emotions properly.
As a result, Lucifer saw the strangely proud sparkle in her eye and lost his temper.
He accused her of conspiring against him, plotting on his downfall, and worshipping that scale bound traitor.
So he ‘punished’ her, as he felt it was his divine right to do.
This was the first time he had seen her in days, and he could see through her thin fabrics that any lacerations given had fully healed.
“I do believe I asked you not to appear in front of me for the time being. Has your affection for the betrayer clouded your mind?”
Igrat lowered her head out of fear and embarrassment.
“N-No, my king… I simply had some news that I thought you would have liked to hear.”
“I highly doubt you-“
“I am with child…”
Briefly, Lucifer blinked his eyes several times in a row as he tried to comprehend the totality of what was just said.This wasn’t like with the sins, who were all born through slightly ‘unnatural’ means.
This would be a real, blood child.
Therein lies a whole world of difference.
And he was so excited by the potential of his birth that he could hardly suppress the smile that formed on his face.
“Well… isn’t this quite the welcome surprise..!”
– The Du’at, Anubis’ Temple
In the aftermath of Athena’s preemptive strike against Thea, silence persisted throughout the temple.
In the face of her blatant mockery, Athena’s face twitched over and over again like a broken record.
“Y-You harlo-“
“Hiss!!”
“KYAAAA!!!”
Apophis opened his mouth to reveal his insanely long fangs and forked tongue.
A jet of dark colored purple venom jetted out of the glands in his mouth and landed directly in Athena’s left eye.
She went down like a sack of potatoes screaming bloody murder and holding her face.
She casted a large number of healing and protective spells on herself to stop the acid from eating through her flesh, but she was out of luck if she thought she was going to reverse the damage.
Apophis’ venom was only beneath his father’s and mothers in terms of potency, and healing wounds caused by it is the highest order of pipe dream.
“Well now! Sorry about that, but as you can see we’re a rather close knit bunch. Name calling’s not really going to fly around here.” Thea shrugged.
The eldest of the Tathamet sibling turned her attention back to Anubis, who seemed to be even more on edge now that he knew who they actually were.
“I would like you to give my sister back to her family now please. If you don’t, we are more than willing to take her by force… Though we would prefer not to make a mess out of such a beautiful realm if we can avoid it.”
Anubis’ face curled up into a snarl as he tightened his grip on his scepter.
“For all of your bluster about Athena’s bravado, you are unfortunately no better. You don’t even know well enough not to challenge a god in his own realm.”
Anubis slammed his scepter into the ground harder than before, and a tear appeared right in the ground underneath them.
In an instant, all of the Tathamet siblings were forcefully transported outside into the desert sands.
Mira : “Woah, that was cool!”
All: “MIRA!!”
“Sorry, sorry, I just like magic!”
With the siblings standing out in the open, the greek army could now see them once again.
They had been put on high alert when the seven of them disappeared from their vision before, but now that they were back in their sights they knew that something was wrong.
Before they could react, Athena emerged from the temple, enraged and holding the gross wound that was her eye.
“All of you, kill them! Kill them now!”
The front line of the army, consisting of warriors with shields and spears, all rushed towards the seven siblings.
Anubis emerged at Athena’s side and he held out his hand.
A spectral green energy left his palm and created a hole in the sky and a second army poured out from it.
These were also soldiers, but ones that had already lost the battle for their lives and fought with the vengeance of having them taken away.
The Tathamet siblings were completely surrounded with no way to escape, but they weren’t the least bit uncomfortable.
“Belloc, do you think you can wrestle away control of that army?” Thea unslung her sword from her back while it was still in it’s sheath.
“It would take too much time… I haven’t ascended into a full god yet and his control is greater than mine.”
“So destroying them is the only recourse then..? I was really hoping to avoid that.”
Gabbrielle : “Please remember that this is a war, dear sister. We can spare no worry for anyone other than our own.”
“Right… let them out.” Thea ordered.
Smiling, Belloc buried his axe in the ground at his feet and held up both of his hands with a huge smile on his face.
“No problem, big sis. I gotta say though…”
His claws stared to rip open a hole in the space in front of him and thousands of pairs could be seen in the darkness.
“I think we might have over prepared.”
From out of the shadows, a horde of bright red dragons appeared like omens to a coming calamity.
For the first time since receiving her injury, Athena smirked as if her mental gymnastics had already more than payed off.
“Honestly.. did you think we would not anticipate that the source of all dragons would come with an army of dragons to reclaim what he thinks is his? How unbearably idiotic.”
Before the young Tathamets knew what was happening, a new battalion of warriors fell from the sky.
They were all women, covered in the most beautiful silver armor and with huge white wings coming out of their backs.
Almost immediately, Thea’s heart dropped to the bottom of her heels.
Not because she felt threatened by the newcomers.
But because she knew that their arrival had the potential to throw the chemistry of her siblings out of balance.
And as she suspected, it was already happening.
She found her younger brother snarling ravenously behind her; his eyes losing their luster as he raked his claws across his face.
“Nords… NORDSS!!!”
Belloc tore out of his human looking shell and soared up to meet the warrior woman from the sky as a full dragon.
With her brother already running wild, Thea sighed and just decided to abandon her plan of cohesion altogether.
“Okay then… kill everyone but the dog dude, yea?”
“Got it!”
Mira didn’t need to be told twice as she rushed into the fray without the least bit of regard for her own safety.
Gabbrielle took on the responsible task of ensuring that she didn’t get herself killed, and ran off behind her.
“Twins, you’re with me!” Thea ordered.
“”Perfect!””
Together, the three of them leapt over the Greek army and made a direct beeline for it’s leader; Athena.
Apophis, who was left all by his lonesome, surveyed the battlefield with a bit of a dry gaze before he locked eyes with one of the few worthy opponents.
Anubis.
Excited, Apophis twirled his weapons around as he licked his fangs predatorally.
“Sister said I could not kill you… she did not say I couldn’t make you wish you were dead!”