39
Elgaldir looped arms with Dax and guided him through the maze of buildings that made up the War Department's work complex. Although it stood on the same hill as the palace he had inherited, it resembled a university campus more than a home. They passed training fields, a shooting range, several fortified armouries, a canteen, military intelligence and research and development buildings until Elgaldir found what he was looking for.
The pair stopped outside of a large building but did not enter, instead passing through a wrought iron gate into a small enclosed garden shielded from the wind by a curved grey brick wall. There were various ornamental grasses planted around the space, gently swaying in the slight breeze that had managed to circumvent the shelter provided by the wall.
This was certainly a place private enough for the conversation Dax wanted to have with Elgaldir. It was quiet, the risk of them being overheard was pretty low and being able to see the sky was soothing.
Dax could feel his hand shaking and he didn't really know how he was keeping himself upright after the burst of energy he'd let escape from him in the War Department's administrative office. He'd only been able to walk this far because Elgaldir had let him lean on his proffered arm more and more as his legs became increasingly shaky.
Hopefully the plants that were now sort of infesting the administrative office would be easy to remove.
As the pair walked Dax truly admired the planting and the fact that the God of War hadn't brought him to some large beige sweaty conference room. Ornamental grass brushed his bare ankle tickling the delicate skin there as they reached a bench.
"That was new." Dax said looking at his hands only noticing now that they were covered in a thin layer of moss. Its rust and green succulent-like clusters increased in density the closer they were to the tips of his fingers and it was starting to feel a little itchy. He nervously rubbed the palms of his hands together hoping that the friction would help get it off.
Nothing changed.
He wasn't shaking anymore but he was intensely embarrassed.
Dax could feel his cheeks heating more and more and he didn't need to see, to know that they were bright red. It seemed like every time he left the house, his track record of returning without completely destroying his self esteem and public image tanked yet again.
"Do you feel any better?" Elgaldir asked brushing some moss off of his own clothes where it had fallen, sprinkling him with a fine dust of plant matter.
"I honestly don't know." Dax countered the sheer panic had left his voice but it had been replaced with just as much if not more embarrassment. He didn't feel like he was dying the way he had before but Dax still felt like the ground could swallow him whole at any moment.
Clanging from the swords and the scent of smoke had knocked whatever he had wanted to ask Elgaldir out of his mind for a while. Now after standing in the garden for a few minutes staring up at the sky reminded Dax what he had been so desperate to ask.
What he had wanted to ask since recovering the memories in Mother Willow's garden.
"Look..." He sighed looking up at Elgaldir's concerned face, his legs were starting to burn and he didn't want to draw out this conversation for any longer than it had to be. "What was I like before all of this?"
"Some of the memories are coming back?" The God of War asked his face contracted in concern. He reached out gingerly as if expecting Dax to viciously reject him but when he didn't, placed a hand reassuringly on his shoulder.
"Yes, some." Dax answered. He was now staring fixedly at a butterfly that had landed on the fluffy head of a clump of fountain grass so that the God of War's piercing gaze wouldn't distract him from what it was he wanted to say.
Screams from the believers were still hanging out in his head, caught in a loop of memory unsure whether to fully resurface or to fade back into the darkness from whence they had come. Elgaldir was probably worried about what he memories had been recalled and if what Mother Willow had said was true, he was probably even more concerned that it was those from the battle.
"Then I guess I won't be able to talk to you like this for much longer." The comforting hand dropped away now clasped tightly by Elgaldir's other free one behind his back. His voice had quivered on 'won't' and Dax had noticed the watery look in the other's eyes from the corners of his own.
The butterfly had red wings.
"What makes you think that?" Dax questioned. Dythos might have cut off contact after what had happened but Dax was just a stranger possessing his body doing his best to not get noticed. Normally he would be worried that the system would reprimand him for being so OOC and pull out the threat of sending his soul to the void again but there was no such threat.
System had remained quiet ever since he'd decided to sneak out of Dythos' palace to ask his questions so right now Dax was feeling emboldened.
He could only make guesses as to the feelings and thoughts of the God of War, devoid as he was of most of Dythos' memories of Elgaldir. Right now he was left purely with his own understanding of the man after his own interactions with him and the incomplete slideshow of memories that belonged to Dythos.
"People must have told you what I did by now!" Elgaldir was shifting from foot to foot now looking like he would give anything to be able to run away from this situation.
Dax sighed rubbing both of his own hands across his face as he moved flopping down into a sitting position on the fancy enamel tiles that made up the garden path. They had little roses on them surrounded by a midnight blue and gold geometric pattern.
Very beautiful.
Very tasteful.
Very uncomfortable to sit on.
The design mirrored the actual roses dotted around the garden, beautiful yellows and oranges peeking out through the tall ornamental grasses that had dominated his attention until now. Whoever had picked them out had great taste.
Dax was just admiring them. Just appreciating the art in the middle of a conversation.
Totally hadn't had his legs give out underneath him at all.
They were shaking again and as he didn't want to be fussed about because of it, Dax decided to deflect from that by continuing this awkward conversation. "I've certainly heard some things."
It was vaguer than he had intended.
Elgaldir visibly deflated in front of him.
"But i'd rather hear about it directly from you than from broken memories and gossipy Heavenly Realm deities." Dax expected Elgaldir to avoid the conversation. His heart pounded in his chest wafting in the silence that spread out between them like a chasm.
But he didnt avoid the subject. Instead Elgaldir vowed to fill Dax in on what had happened from his own perspective. Nervousness was easy to see in the twitching of the God of War's eyes, Dax patted the ground next to him, inviting him to take a seat.
Recounting the past wasn't something that would take a small amount of time. His neck couldn't take craning up to see the others face as handsome as it may be the entire time that was happening. The sun was also angrily glaring into his eyes like a laser and that was intolerable. Dax refused to hold a conversation with someone where he was unable to keep his eyes open.
Squinting at someone seemed like it might be rude.
Leaving Elgaldir standing there on his own also felt rude.
System which had until now not even manifested in it's glowing orb form, butted in just as Elgaldir looked like he was going to start speaking again.
"Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!" Appeared on the System interface it flashed neon pink and yellow before being replaced with a less seizure inducing sky blue and lavender. "Angsty backstory unlocked." in a font size that had to be the largest available.
He wondered if they had had it custom made.
Personal websites in 2002 were less eye wateringly ugly. System seemed to be revelling in it's extremely questionable graphic design choices as in a time green tacky font it showed the points from this unlock rolling in.
This unlock's points were actually insane.
To think it had taken him so long to accrue enough points for the first purchasable and here he was sitting on a tiled patio floor a practical millionaire unable to purchase anything.
The status of his previous redeem's download, mocked him from the loading bar that was filling so slowly it felt like it wasn't moving at all.
~~~
Elgaldir had in the time he was interacting with the System, joined him sitting on the enamelled tile pathway. So they sat side by side as the God of War talked of the old days Dax had yet to remember.
"We were sworn brothers in those days." He hesitated looking at Dax as if he was reassuring himself that it really was okay to talk about this with him. Dax tried to smile encouragingly.
"Back then the deities living in the underworld were called Demons and the place itself, referred to as the Demon Realm. Bulmor, self titled Emperor of the Demon Realm led them in an effort to overthrow the Heavenly Realm."
Elgaldir's look of disgust when he mentioned the name Bulmor was palpable.
"The war had been raging for many years when the forces of my predecessor finally managed to turn the tide."
Dax imagined some faceless sea deity physically turning the tide around and almost choked himself when suppressing the snort of laughter that threat ended to bubble up. This wasn't the time to be laughing at the curve balls his brain was giving him.
'OOC traits detected.' System warned, flashing red.
Dax quickly rearranged his face to that of a pious altar boy leaning on every word spoken. 'As you should.' System chided. 'This is important backstory that you are really going to regret not listening to because I'm not going to explain to you.'
"The place we chased them to was the valley beneath the mountain village, your temple... your founding temple was located." Elgaldir's brow was becoming increasingly furrowed the longer he talked. "We fought in the valley. I sent someone to warn you. I don't know if they got to you in time. You were there... I think it was spring, there was a big festival."
"It was the marriage festival. It was a tradition to marry after the spring wheat had been sewn." Dax added. Where the words had come from he had no idea but they felt right. "For a fertility deity Spring is very busy."
What he said had thrown Elgaldir off of his stride. Words that had just been falling out of his mouth dried up and he took several minutes carefully pondering the next words to say.
~~~
The battle that had started on the borders of the Heavenly Realm now encroached on the Mortal World. Blasts of divine and demon powers thrown around without thought at one another could cause untold damage here. It was the humans that were most in danger.
None of their weapons could damage an immortal and even their greatest of heroes could be felled with just a flick of a finger from an immortal who would barely even notice what they had done.
The humans fled, scattering in every direction of the compass as their homes were lost to forest fires, floods, terrible winds, plagues... Hail the size of oxen rained down from the sky crushing everything beneath them. Great fissures opened in the earth, everything standing above them sliding into the bright glow of the molten rock below. What was left standing crumpled as the ground shook violently beneath them.
Houses, land and families were utterly destroyed in the warring deities path.
The prayers, wishes and fears of the believers in the face of this unprecedented destruction, only fanned the flames. Each of them increasing the power in the hands of those causing misery.
Humans started believing that they were living in the end times.
The end of the world truly had felt like it was only moments away.
The ground buckled, lava bubbling up only for these fissures to be slammed closed again forming jagged ridges of rock. Buildings fell like playing cards, silos burst, mountains crumbled and waves crashed over harbour walls pulling everything they touched back to lie in their dark briny depths.
"Many people chose to seek shelter in your temple." Elgaldir explained.
Dax could only imagine how terrified they must have been fleeing from one disaster only to find themselves in a place no safer than the one which they had left behind.
"They trusted me to keep them safe. Like I kept the harvest safe." He said these words too he'd had no idea he was going to say until they were already coming out of his mouth.
Dax stole a look at the System casually sitting on a rose flower. Its orb now safely returned to it's usual contented golden glow.
"I knew the battle was drawing too close to you but there was nothing I could do to prevent it. Things were going very badly." The God of War explained, his eyes were getting teary again and he had to swallow several times before being able to continue on with the tale.
The Heavenly Realm's army mobilised by the former God of War paled in number compared to their opponents forces. Every single demon, shade and evil spirit had flowed out of the Demon Realm swarming them from every side.
Human belief bolstered one side of the war but their fear had the same effect on the other.
The longer the battle took and the more carnage and destruction it wrought the stronger that fear grew.
Elgaldir had tried to get a warning to Dythos. He'd tried to do that himself, tried to get to the temple so that he at least could help defend it but he'd been the God of Peace four thousand years ago.
A god of peace had very little power in a war viewed as good versus evil.
How were you meant to write a peace treaty with something everyone thought was evil?
There had been someone that had heard his pleas. A fervent believer in peace who had taken the path up the mountain to warn Dythos. A human Elgaldir could never forget.
He'd made his priests count them among the martyrs for peace. Whose names were chanted in the temple's to Elgaldir hoping for their own ascension where they would serve at his side. Murals and statues lined his temples as reminders of what he stood for.
If things had not totally gone to shit already at that point then, they definitely did the moment Bulmor Emperor of the Demon Realm took to the field.
It had been hours that the former God of War had battled with him, from high mountain peak to waist deep in the mud churned up by the river. A fight that had taken hours was ended, by one blow of the giant axe Bulmor wielded. It came hammering down on the spiritual shield of the God of War. Sparks flew catching nearby dry grass on fire as the shield splintered, it's surface a crazed mass of stress fractures.
Instead of the glorious self sacrificing death that saved the world simultaneously taking out the bad guy and ending in a long speech about the nature of good and evil the humans had expected...
Well...
The death of the God of War was short, bloody and brutal. No time for any inspiring last words. No rallying cry. In history remembered only as a footnote somewhere near the end of the book.
He deserved better.
Many did, who had died there.
There wouldn't be time to mourn him. There wasn't time nor space to. They were facing the end of everything.
Elgaldir a god who in the grand scheme of things had a laughably small amount of power (peace was notoriously weak and thus easily broken) found himself thrust into the spotlight. His rank flying from the most junior position in the War Department's staff to 'THE GOD OF WAR™' in minutes.
It made no sense. There were hundreds, if not thousands of martial deities belonging to the War Department. All older, with bigger followings and considerably more experience than Elgaldir.
Power surged through him so strongly that it had blown him clear off of his feet. Crawling back up out of the freezing river water had cooled his head a little but coordinating his limbs had been pretty hard to do.
Elgaldir felt like he had been carrying around a large boulder and suddenly someone had taken off what he hadn't even known was there. Every movement, thought and pulse of magic barely took any attention or intention to make happen.
It was like giving someone a chainsaw to open an envelope.
The humans believed that he could be the God of War... and so he was.
That was the beauty and horror of belief.
The death of his mentor and the continued threat to Dythos and his temple full of believers were things he couldn't ignore but any plans he might have come up with were soon dashed.
He didn't even get a chance to process his change in employment as Bulmor Emperor of the Demon Realm turned his attention to him.
Steam was pouring out of every crevice of the demon's armour. Armour that was soot stained and dented by his previous fight. The axe that had killed Eldaldir's predecessor was still embedded in his chest hooked beneath what remained of the body's ribcage. Despite attempting to yank it free, Bulmor was forced to draw another blade.
He pulled, one handed from behind his back, a scythe.
Wielding a scythe marked the Emperor for what he had once been a lowly death god. A collector of mortal souls. The blade of the scythe was stained golden by the dried blood of Heavenly Realm residents unfortunate enough to cross his path. Residents who would never see their home again.
Its serrated edge was magnificent in its horror.
As Bulmor closed the gap between them, he stood on the body as it slowly disintegrated into a pile of shimmering sand. All that was left of a god worshipped the world over. Who's mantle Elgaldir would have to take up if he wanted anyone to survive.
A wave of red light pulsed from the scythe as Bulmor swung it over his head. Elgaldir, now God of War lifted his own sword in an attempt to parry the blade's magical blast. The leaf shaped blade exploded into a cloud of shrapnel and he was once again blown backwards, though he managed to remain on his feet this time.
The rocky outcrop he found himself standing on was way too close to Dythos' temple. He could feel it tremble beneath his feet. Looking back up the mountain, Elgaldir saw a chunk of stone hit the roof of the Wheat God's holy place and a tear ran down the dried blood covering his cheek.
He had to save Dythos.
Bulmor laughed at him, from behind his closed helmet, only his wild eyes visible beyond the metal.
Elgaldir no longer had a weapon and the power that had destroyed it had damaged Dythos' temple. From where he was standing Elgaldir could see the extensive chipping of the intricate carving the shrapnel had caused. Not to mention the partial destruction of the roof.
Damage to his temple was damage to Dythos himself.
Anything that caused Dythos pain was unacceptable!
Elgaldir the god known for his calm demeanour and reluctance to fight, felt all of that melt away. It was as if it never existed. Right now at this very moment he was really fucking angry.
An arm outstretched, found the giant sword of the God of War's hilt fly into it. His fingers tightened around the hilt of it communing with the sword spirit with the metal. Their meeting caused even more power to flow into his body, bursting out of him in sparks of lightning.
His skin itched. Elgaldir felt like his body could explode at any moment.
He was giving off sparks almost constantly and vibrating due to the pressure of prayers now laid upon him and his rage could no longer be contained.
With a sudden lunge, he attempted to plunge the unwieldy sword through the armour of the ancient demon standing in front of him.
Bulmor was still laughing.
Just as Bulmor had fought with one God of War so did he fight with this newly emerged one. From the summit of a mountain to the valley floor. In mud, in water and stood on precarious rock outcrops overlooking deep pools of lava.
Duelling every bit of it. Testing their blades against one another.
Sometimes the Emperor of the Demon Realm stood before him a human man dressed in soot blackened armour; at others he swirled around him as nothing more than a quickly moving impenetrable red mist. Bulmor's every move was a carefully choreographed dance contrasted by Elgaldir's own slow and overly forceful moments.
He was barely in control of his manifested form.
Every time the sword clashed with the scythe's blade the vibration rang up his arm making his fingers go numb.
The Demon Emperor was intentionally trying to draw him closer and closer to the temple of Dythos and for a while he didn't notice so intent was Elgaldir to keep a hold on his sword.
Its sheer size was almost entirely overwhelming so used to a short sword was he.
Realising that was what was happening, sent him into a panic that almost got him killed as his opponent swung his scythe yet again. The 'shing' as it passed through the air was his only warning as it passed across his stomach giving him enough time to take a healthy leap backwards and not lose any organs.
It wasn't a big enough jump to come away entirely unscathed, despite the last second leap.
The jump had left him unsteady on his feet and he fell dislodging stones as he went slipping down the side of the mountain. It wasn't until he reached the bottom covered in dirt and dislodged gravel, that Elgaldir noticed the blood seeping through his clothing and light armour. It was even longer than that before he felt the pain catch up with him.
High up on the mountain Bulmor was bent over double laughing for some time. Then he began to give an intensely forgettable speech. The sort of speech a villain gives, full of arrogance, that they are going to win and there is nothing the hero can do to stop them from winning just before... well just before they get their arses handed to them by the hero.
(A/n: I won't bore you with the details.)
That was exactly what was happening at this moment until...
"Oh shut up !" Elgaldir panted, holding his non-sword filled hand to the wound tightly as it continued bleeding. It was a good thing Dythos had talked him out of wearing white today.
'You'd never get the stains out.' The Wheat God had said before handing him a set whose colours he approved of to wear.
His wound was smarting and his nerves were on edge. He didn't want to have to sit here and listen to this guy gloat, especially when they were still this close to the temple of the Wheat God.
Elgaldir lost what little control he had, had over his rage and in turn over the newly gained powers at his disposal just thinking about how in danger Dythos was.
He didn't find out till much later the blade had been adulterated with mandrake, henbane, deadly nightshade and devil's trumpet. Poison but the sort of poison made you hallucinate wildly rather than causing immediate death.
The dosage concentrated and hidden beneath the dried blood also coating the blade would have almost instantly killed a human.
Even with this knowledge he still hadn't been able to forgive himself for many of the things that followed after.
Losing control was beyond terrifying when you had no idea of exactly how much damage you were capable of causing. Elgaldir had thrashed around on the floor like a wild animal overcome by the pain of his wounds expecting at any moment to feel the slicing blade coming down upon him again but it didn't.
He screamed lunging for the still laughing Bulmor, his powers now fully unrestrained. All sound seemed like it was far away or was he underwater? It didn't matter. He felt as if his entire boy was on fire, everything was burning.
When he'd screamed he'd given off a magical blast so strong that the entire mountain shook. Significant chunks of rock slid down its nearest face barely being held back by Dythos' protective array.
Eldaldir's vision turned entirely into a red mist as the humans sheltering in Dyhtos' temple began praying he would protect them and their God. Where once he had been a reluctant soldier he was now filled with bloodlust all aimed with pinpoint precision at the Emperor of the Demon Realm.
~~~
"The humans were scared." The God of War said, he was visibly sweating. Dax reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a handkerchief which he then gently dabbed Elgaldir's forehead with. The God of War was growing increasingly distressed the further into the story he got.
Dax couldn't help but feel that his own need for answers may have been rather selfish. He reached out and patted his companion's knee.
"They were very scared. It was the first time they had seen the sheer devastation deities from both realms could do...I don't remember when you came outside." Elgaldir said he was holding his head in his hands to hide the tears starting to spill from his eyes. These same tears he'd tried so hard to hide dripped from his hands wetting the rose tiles they were sitting on.
Dax decided not to remark on them, the man was embarrassed enough already without him pointing out that attempts to hide them had been ineffective.
When Dythos had left the relative safety of his temple and entered the battlefield might not be remembered by the God of War four thousand years after the fact...
but
Dax
suddenly
found
that
he
could.
Mini Theatre
Author: Battle scenes are so hard to write TT~TT
Dythos: Then don't do it.
Author: How else am I supposed to kill you off?
Dythos: I mean you did kill my replacement with beef noodles and a keyboard. I'm sure you would have thought of something.
Author: You overestimate my ability.