9. Fight of the Gods

Oeros was just in time to pull the entire group back to the Heavenly Palace. Ardex felt his Father tug for a little longer, trying to pull Gaia and him apart, but he didn’t let him. In his rage he even blew the Chiefgod far away from him.

Ardex studied the environment. Oeros had moved the fight to the largest area outside of the palace. His magic would be strongest here, and there was almost nothing to destroy.

“What god just lets his life die?” Gaia screamed. Her sword whizzed through the air like a bird of prey, faster than Ardex anticipated. He sent a barrage of fireballs to melt the weapon, but wasn’t fast enough.

The metal cleaved his appearance diagonally from top to bottom. Nobody would recover from that.

Ardex was mostly disappointed with himself—until he realized he was still alive and felt fine.

“What parents lock up their kid after being born?” Ardex roared. He fed his own rage, raised his inner fires higher and higher, knowing the strength it lend him. “What parents see their kid as evil and nothing but evil?”

What had Gaia’s sword done?

Ardex’ appearance grew until all wounds from the sword had been covered. Like a muscle that breaks down when used, but then grows back stronger. Yes, exactly that. The Firering had to change shape to still fit around him.

He grinned. Why had he ever been scared? Of course his Mother couldn’t do anything. She could only make, not destroy. Only grow, never shrink.

Without fear, Ardex charged Gaia. She held up her sword, but she knew it was hopeless, as if the weapon had suddenly grown too heavy to hold.

“Well,” Ardex said nonchalantly, “that’s what you get when you give all negative powers to someone else. You can’t fight, can you? You cannot hurt me in any serious way.”

He roared again, became a Sunbeamer lion, and sprinted at her. Tornadoes of fire circled his body like snakes, flames blown every which way by invisible winds. His manes sparkled with the light of stars, bright enough to blind everyone and himself.

“Oeros! Help me!” they both yelled in unison.

Oeros did nothing. He floated at a distance, covered in magical mists of a thousand colors, as if he held every possible spell and weapon ready and loaded—but he didn’t seem eager to fire any of them.

One leap and Ardex had Gaia dead to rights.

She could only make, so she made a black wall with unbreakable stone.

Ardex shapeshifted into mist, but even that was stopped. He roared and roared, using searing hot flames to burn away the wall. Once the hole was large enough, he continued at speed.

Gaia was nowhere to be found. Panicked, he circled and circled the area, until something hit his head.

Something … soft. It multiplied. More and more pinpricks hit his head, until steam swirled from his skin.

His mother was a watery silhouette in the distance, dancing and floating.

She’d called for a rainstorm.

Each droplet hurt. The water clashed with the fire within him. Sometimes his element won, sometimes hers. But losing half your body still hurt like never before.

“You promised to support me,” Ardex yelled at Oeros. The pain made his communication a messy signal. “Or are you a lying monster like your wife?”

He stood in a puddle of water, somehow growing deeper and deeper.

“I … I …” Oeros was speechless. Hopeless.

As Ardex grew up, he’d already learned that Gaia was the true Chiefgod and Oeros her pet. If Gaia was to win, Ardex would be the next slave, just like his sister, just like all children to come after it. If Gaia became the rules, the universe would be unbalanced and filled to the brim with wars, for she only made and never removed.

Ardex saw that Oeros was no less a toy than he. “Then I’ll destroy you both!”

At the last word, his body turned red and yellow. He produced an explosion so hot that all colors disappeared and you could only feel the heat. All rain in a wide radius immediately turned to steam, all puddles now swirling lava pools.

In return, his sight was disrupted by a thick white mist.

He used it as cover to find Gaia and secretly creep up on her from behind. But anger had made him stupid—gods could feel each other’s presence.

Gaia appeared in his back, a giant compared to him, and held him in a death grip. He was rendered motionless before he could respond.

Of course, Gaia could only kill you with a hug that’s too tight.

She grew plants and trees from the barren, burned floor. They grabbed Ardex and held him in place, like hundreds of hands.

She pulled all stardust from her surroundings and turned them into a shiny blanket that covered Ardex from above and pulled him down further.

She made small creatures that ignored the trashing demigod and tried to steal his Firering.

But whatever Gaia did, Ardex could destroy it all. Destruction was always easier than invention.

He gave himself sharp claws and cut the stalks as if they were paper.

He returned to his earlier self, a black hole of negative energy, pulling in stardust much faster than his Mother could.

He grabbed her creatures and corrupted them, like spoiling food with a terrible poison, turning them against their maker.

His spirals of fire burned holes in Gaia from all sides, but she refused to let go, even as the child inside her screamed.

He remembered his attack years ago. How one unexpected explosion sent Gaia flying and permanently weakened her. In a fit of madness, he tried the same again.

He broke free.

Like two fast Skydancers they chased after each other, drawing shapes and trails in the sky. Ardex led them back to the palace. They broke through the first wall as if it wasn’t there, and the second, until Ardex had to deviate from his path to avoid one of the magical portals.

Gaia repaired walls just before Ardex would hit them. He destroyed statues as he passed and sent the sharp pieces straight to his Mother.

But would he ever win? Could he win? Could an immortal god die?

And what then?

“Last chance, Oeros!” Arex roared. “Help me and end this fight!”

Oeros didn’t come. He was probably standing in a dark corner, mumbling Zyme.

That thought, dear reader, however small or quick, was Ardex’ demise. His head filled with memories of Father. Their years of training and conversations. It even filled with Mother’s smile. Her happiness and positive energy about … everything.

He didn’t want to fight. He wanted family. He wanted to welcome his little sister and show her the wonders of the world, an older brother who helped his siblings come into their power.

He was no monster, of that he was sure.

Gaia also wasn’t.

But if one would kill the other, then the monster would be born.

So there was only one solution.

He aimed for Eden. Avoiding the network of fountains, rivers, and bridges, he lingered far too long and only pretended to prepare some huge spell.

For once he was in range, Gaia did exactly what he expected. She made all fountains erupt at once, shooting walls of water into the sky. Like a hundred whales who surfaced at the same time to get air, but this time they hungered for a bite of the firegod.

The hit temporarily split his body from his magic, like he’d done to Gaia oh so long ago.

The pain overwhelmed him. The last thing he felt was the energy from a terrified Gaia who tentatively approached. The last thing he heard was her scream asking Oeros for immediate aid.

He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious.

When he woke up, he sat inside a tiny stone room. Underground. He recognized it immediately. The luminous walls that sparked, against which he fought for years during the first “monster test” from his parents.

A magical jail.