Aquilia, 25,000 light-years from Earth
Quantum and Torn have seen their teammate Vesta angry before; she may be a peaceful goddess, but her wrath has been unleashed several times.
But they’ve rarely seen her upset out of combat: few things seem able to raise her temper.
Except now: she’s floating in front of her brother Zeus, above the results of the devastation summoned during her fight with her mother Rhea, and she’s just yelling at his face.
<Are you kidding me!? With everything going on in the Galaxy, you were hiding here all this time? What were you thinking!?>
<Oh come on, sis, I was just having a little vacation!> Zeus replies, attempting a nervous laughter as he scratches his thick white beard.
<A vacation!? You exiled me for twenty-seven hundred years and then went on vacation!?>
<I wasn’t here that long, it was just…> he tries to reply, counting on his fingers and giving up at four before asking:
<What year is this again?>
<I can’t believe it! I thought you were, I don’t know, captured by Typhon or something! Do you have any idea what I went through while you were on vacation!? Look at this, I almost had to kill our own mother while you were on vacation!> Vesta keeps yelling, gesturing towards the column of steam coming out of what used to be an ocean.
<Yeah, you did quite a number on the planet. Let me fix that.> Zeus says, taking some distance from his sister and raising a hand towards the sky.
The clouds follow his mental command: the water vapor condensates to create the thickest and most dense clouds seen on a terrestrial planet. Once he closes his hand, they release all the water they contain back into the seabed to recreate an entire ocean in a couple of minutes.
Normally this would create an even greater series of problems, but Zeus controls the weather better than any other god in the universe.
Repairing Aquilia’s climate is child’s play for him, and the extent of the reconstruction expands quickly as his attention turns towards the inhabited parts of the planet.
In front of Hestia’s palace
The earthquake caused by the battle with Rhea affected nearly every building in the hemisphere.
Fortunately for the population very few buildings are more than a couple floors high, but still a vast majority of houses have either been reduced to rubble or have been severely damaged.
Now the Aquilians can witness the most remarkable miracle in the history of their civilization: a natural disaster completely reversing itself.
Walls repair themselves, shards of glass reassemble themselves into windows, even broken bones or cuts heal spontaneously in a matter of minutes.
Even Leiko Tanaka, who has witnessed her fair share of divine powers, is flabbergasted by such a majestic and at the same time casual display of sheer power.
Rushing towards the city was counterintuitive and difficult, considering the number of Aquilians attempting to leave it. But she knew it would be the center of the action, considering her daughter Noriko had to be there in order to find Vesta.
In the middle of the chaos of a city praising their goddess for sparing the planet, however, the Slayer of Gods would be as easy to find as a needle in a haystack.
Especially since the palace of Hestia is completely surrounded by a crowd of worshippers.
When Leiko gets close enough to the building to actually see it, however, something remarkable happens: the crowd splits in two once they hear three single words.
<Let her pass.>
Leiko doesn’t recognize the dark-skinned woman who just talked, but she knows her golden eyes are a sign of trouble. Especially when they switch back to silver.
<Miss Tanaka, I presume. Can we talk in private?>
<That depends. Who are you and how do you know my name?>
<Roxiana Oxyartes, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You’re the first mortal I meet that seems to be completely immune to the use of golden eyes; you stick out like a sore thumb.>
<Should I trust you?>
<Goodness no, but you don’t trust anyone to begin with. Just follow me, I’ve already found the perfect hiding spot. As for the rest of you, forget you ever saw us.> Roxiana orders the crowd, which goes back to chanting the name of Hestia without acknowledging their presence.
Leiko takes notice of the ease with which Roxiana uses that power: if her mind wasn’t protected by the Vial of Destiny, she would likely be already under her control.
<Interesting ability. My sources tell me Null had a similar power but stopped using it because it was too dangerous for continuous use.> she shares, hoping her knowledge would impress Roxiana.
<Your sources are good. I’m better. And don’t base your opinion of me on your daughter, I’ve forgotten more than most Nexus holders have ever learned.> Roxiana says.
When she places her hand on Leiko’s shoulder, the latter doesn’t seem to notice the bracelet in her hands shines for a moment.
N01-Ragnarok, in orbit above Aquilia
25,000 light-years from Earth
Noriko Null can feel her body fighting to keep her conscious, as her eyes turn from silver to brown to recover from her use of the Final Abyss.
The constant noise of alarms going off helps keep her awake.
<What the heck is happening on the surface?> she wonders, just when the doors of the bridge open to let in a very worried Kari Zel duplicate.
<Nori! Are you alright?>
<I hope so. Can you make head or tails of this stuff?> she asks, pointing at the screen: until the Nexus powers up again, none of the readings make any sense to her.
<A little. I think you fried half of the ship’s computer, including its artificial intelligence and the navigational system.>
<Crap. Did I at least take out Rhea?>
<Say! This a fine ship!> a stranger interrupts before Kari can answer.
<I’m sorry, what?> Noriko asks, having little clue about the identity of the intruder who is looking around like a tourist.
<Neutral Matter hull, nice. Made by Nyx, isn’t it? I can never forget the smell of a goddess. Weird to see her getting her hands dirty! You must’ve made an impression on her, it took me centuries of courtship to let her drop the “I’m a cosmic force of nature” attitude and finally spread her…>
<The shields are still up, how did this Zeus lookalike get in?> Kari wonders.
<Kari… I don’t think… that this is a lookalike. You’re… you are the actual Zeus, isn’t it?>
<The one and only. Come to think of it, it’d probably be easier to explain myself just once.> Zeus realizes, then snaps his fingers.
Hestia’s palace
A second later, Zeus is sitting on a throne in the newly reconstructed palace. He’s brought everyone here: his sister, his mother back to her human form, Quantum, Torn, Noriko, and a bunch of Kari duplicates. To bring every Myridian up to speed, all the Kari fuse into one single body.
<Oh gods. Terastios was actually Zeus? I slept with a god!> she now realizes, finding the thought of having been intimate with the kind of being that enslaved her planet revolting.
<Yeah, sorry for spoiling your future partners by comparison. If it’s any consolation you weren’t half bad yourself, you’re at least in the top twenty best things I’ve had sex with this week.>
<If you can stop thinking about sex for five minutes, you owe me one hell of an explanation.> Vesta replies, not amused by her brother’s antics.
<Five whole minutes? What am I, Athena?> he complains.
<Let your brother talk, dear.> Rhea intervenes. Vesta jumps to her feet, and Quantum has to move at the speed of light between her and her mother to stop his teammate from doing something rushed.
<C’mon, not now. There’s no reason to fight again.> he tries to reason with her.
<She punched me through the planet!> Vesta reminds him.
<You needed someone to knock some sense into you.> Rhea scoffs at her daughter’s anger.
<See, this is exactly the kind of thing that made me leave.> Zeus comments, conjuring a golden goblet full of nectar that appears in his hand out of nowhere. The room falls quiet, waiting for him to explain himself after taking a long sip.
<It wasn’t the same without you, sis. I had no one to talk to… Demeter was always going on and on about how I shouldn’t have allowed her daughter to marry Hades, Athena was only focusing on her own federation, and Hera was her usual b#tchy self.
I thought of joining you on… what was the planet called again?>
<Earth. You could’ve come to talk to me, Zeus!> Vesta objects.
<Yeah, the thing is, Hera talked me into exiling Eris there when I had to punish her, so she would’ve caught me immediately. Then I noticed Hades hadn’t been using his helmet for ages, and that thing can make anyone undetectable by any god. So I had Hermes steal it for me; I figured I’d have at least a couple of centuries for myself.>
<And you chose Aquilia because you previously had Gaea shield it from the rest of the universe in order to prevent anyone from stealing the Absolute Defense device.> Noriko intervenes.
<Yes! Wow, you’re really smart. And cute. Are you doing anything tonight?> he flirts.
<I’m getting as far away from this planet as possible. Assuming the barrier can be removed.>
<Oh yeah, sure, that’s no problem at all!> Zeus answers, casually moving his arm to throw a lightning bolt out of the nearest window.
The energy reaches the barrier surrounding Aquilia in a second, and shortly thereafter the skies of the entire planet are covered by a lightning storm lasting a full minute.
<There. You can leave whenever you like.> Zeus adds nonchalantly.
<Won’t Gaea be upset about this?> Quantum worries.
<Oh grandma is a big softie. But if she tries something I can take her… we’re basically equal in power these days!>
“I don’t think he’s lying. He completely negated both Vesta’s strongest attack and a Final Abyss without taking any damage whatsoever… we should tread carefully.” Noriko thinks.
<If you did not care about ruling the Galaxy, why didn’t you just abdicate?> Torn asks.
<I thought about it. But that would’ve left Ares in charge, and that boy ain’t right in the head.>
<That’s not a problem anymore. I killed Ares.> Noriko reveals.
<Really? Well that’s a relief. I guess his sons are now fighting to take his place?>
<I… I also killed Phobos and Deimos.> she reluctantly adds.
<So then Hephaestus now moved next in line for the throne.> Zeus reasons, caressing his beard.
<I killed him as well.>
<Ilithyia?>
<Murdered by Ares. On Hera’s behalf.>
<Enyo?>
<Exiled by Hera for trying to assassinate her.>
<Please don’t tell me you also killed Hebe…>
<No, your daughter is still alive. You don’t seem… upset about all these deaths.>
<Have you met my family? Most of them are jerks. You know what, if you killed them a couple millennia ago, I might have abdicated. But now I’d have to deal with Hermes, Apollo and Demeter scheming to take over the throne.>
<Ehm…> Noriko nervously clears her throat.
<Don’t tell me: you killed them as well.>
<Just Demeter and Apollo. I don’t know where Hermes is, but I basically depowered him.>
<That’s quite a mess. Hebe is a sweetheart, she’d never last on the throne… I’d rather leave things to Athena, but Hera would never stop complaining about it. Maybe I’ll just let her decide who’s going to rule Olympus and be done with it.> Zeus decides, standing up from the throne.
<Wait a minute, you’re seriously going to abdicate!?> Vesta exclaims.
<Sure, why not. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to f##k my wife for a couple of months.> Zeus announces, turning into a bolt of lighting and disappearing in a flash of light.
Everyone left behind, whether mortal or divine, is thinking the same thing exclaimed by Noriko:
<What the f#ck just happened!?>
In a nearby underground canteen
While people on the surface are worried about the sky being an enormous lightning storm, Leiko is trying to get a feeling of what drives Roxiana. She knows from her dealing with the Scribe that former Nexus hosts are just as dangerous as her daughter.
<We should leave now. I assume you have a way to contact the Zenith?> Roxiana asks.
<How do you know about the Zenith?>
<Oh, Ulysses didn’t tell you? I used to be a member before I had to leave the team.>
<Why, what happened?>
<I died. But I stopped working with them much earlier: we had different goals. You see, Ulysses wants to overthrow divine rule and establish a galaxy-wide mortal democracy. I don’t care who rules anything, I’m only interested in uncovering the mysteries of the Drylon.>
<Let me guess. You want to offer me something in return for this.> Leiko deduces, holding up the bracelet called the Absolute Defense.
<I don’t need your permission for anything. It’s already mine.> Roxiana says, holding out her arm as the Absolute Defense slips out of Leiko’s hands and attaches to the wrist of the former host.
<How did you… it wasn’t active!> Leiko complains.
<This body is a copy of my original one, recreated using Zel’s duplicate… the device reads me as two separate DNAs, enough to be activated when I touched you. Now, would you mind asking the Zenith to get us out of here? I really need to catch up with what happened after my death… I have a feeling we’re about to make history here.>
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