Keenan froze up when he heard his sister’s words, having never expected that the reason she called him here was for that. “You… what?”
“I know you have some pent up feelings for him…” Sam admitted, giving a caring smile towards Keenan. “So… once I got my divinity, I began training to try to track down family members. It took me a while, he keeps moving all over the place. Also, we may have a couple other siblings out there…” She gave a drawn-out sigh as she said that.
“Anyways, yesterday I finally managed to get a lock on him.” She looked up at Keenan with a wide smile after she said that. Her brother was no longer the small wild child that he had been before, and now looked like a true warrior.
His face was firm as he processed Sam’s words, working them through in his mind. He had thought about what he would do if he saw his father for a long time. Although his father had no way of controlling what aspect Keenan had been born with, it remained a fact that he was the cause of all of the problems that Keenan had faced growing up. And given what he was hearing now, it seemed as if his father had never changed his ways.
Thus, he knew exactly why he had been called here now, and he nodded his head. Jace smiled from the side. “And, you asked for me to be here, as well?”
“Keenan doesn’t go anywhere without you.” Sam said, sticking her tongue out playfully towards the felyn. “Besides, he said you gained the Sight domain? Why are your eyes still closed?”
“It’s a power that I am training.” Jace answered honestly. “I can use my domain to see normally, even if my eyes are closed I only see darkness in the physical sense. However, if my eyes open, I will be the only one to see.”
“Ooh… that’s a neat spin on the domain.” Sam nodded her head. “Can you do things like remote viewing? Our father just stopped moving, so I want to make sure he can’t sense me looking at him and is setting up a trap or something.”
Jace lifted a brow as he heard that. “For you to say such things about your father… I’m sure you have your reasons. Alright, if you tell me where he is, I can project my vision to the area.”
Sam smiled wide, nodding her head. “He’s on Desbar, roughly thirty miles south-east of the Fairy Ring. Two hundred meters underground, so probably in some kind of bunker.”
Jace’s brow twitched slightly, nodding as well. “That’s more detail than I expected. Very well, this shouldn’t take long.” He took a breath, focusing his divinity. “Desbar… I see the area.”
Jace;s brow furrowed as he projected his sight to the specific location that he had been given. “This… are you sure that this is the location of your father?” He asked, his head turning towards Sam.
“That’s right. Why, is something the matter?” She questioned, feeling as if things had just become far more complicated than she had initially expected.
“I see ten people there, all gods. One an elven woman with light blue hair, and the other nine men of different races. The woman is being strapped down, almost like a ceremonial or medical ritual.”
“W-What!?” Sam asked, her eyes going wide. She turned to look at her own mother, who shook her head.
“Don’t look at me, kiddo. He never did anything like that when I was around.” She denied, looking just as surprised as the others.
However, Jace’s words didn’t stop there. “One of the nine men appears to be a leader of the others. He’s holding a dagger. Wait, I think he senses–” Jace’s words were cut off as a dagger suddenly appeared in front of him, stabbing towards his chest.
Keenan’s hand lashed out, eyes wide with fury as he grabbed the dagger by the blade, gripping it tight. The tip of the dagger was just pressing against Jace’s skin. “That was a mistake.” Keenan muttered, black energy rolling off his hand and dissolving the dagger.
Jace’s body was stiff, and he only moved once the dagger had been fully destroyed, letting out a long breath of relief. “Thanks, Keenan…” He said with a grateful smile.
“Continue.” Keenan’s voice surprised Sam and her mother, though Jace nodded his head as if it were only natural.
“Right, sorry, I didn’t expect them to sense me and be able to retaliate. The leader can tell that his attack failed, now that you’ve destroyed his artifact. But, it looks like they’re continuing.”
“We’re going.” Keenan said, his voice firm. Sam looked as if she wanted to refuse, but ultimately nodded her head.
“Are you sure?” Jace asked in concern. “There are nine enemy gods there, and only four of us.”
“The kid’s right.” The motherly woman said with a sigh. “Sam doesn’t have any real combat experience. Even if we go, we would have to fight three gods each.”
“We’re going.” Keenan said again, his voice practically a growl. Sam and her mother didn’t know why his tone had suddenly turned so cold, but Sam nodded her head.
“Okay… if you want to do this, I’ll take us there.” This was the coldest that she had ever seen Keenan since their first meeting, and Sam got the feeling that something was wrong.
“Give me a second to get my bow.” Her mother said, seeming unwilling to send her daughter off to fight these gods without all of the backup that she could provide. She hurried back into the house, returning with a full suit of leather armor and a gilded bow strapped to her back.
“Sam.” Keenan said, not taking his eyes off of Jace. Sam merely nodded, focusing her divine domain. Golden light wrapped around the four individuals. A moment later, they were within a dimly lit room, one large enough to easily accommodate them and the ten figures on the far side.
As Jace had described, there were nine men standing around a stone table, where an elven woman was strapped to the table. She seemed to be struggling against metal bindings, her eyes going wide as she saw Keenan and the others appearing.
Without warning, Keenan released a black energy that dyed the surroundings in an artificial darkness. The metal bindings snapped, the woman able to pull free with a surprised gasp. “Get out, quick!” She shouted towards the four, though Sam and her mother were looking at Keenan in shock.
First, the power that he had released was preventing them from releasing any of their own powers outside of their bodies. And second… his fingers were wrapped around Jace’s throat, lifting him into the air. “All of you… tell me what you did to him.” He said in a commanding tone towards the nine individuals.
“What… what are you talking about?” Jace asked, his hands gripping Keenan’s wrist.
“That dagger passed some power into my friend’s body before I destroyed it. Did you replace him?” His eyes glared sharply at the nine individuals, though the woman was the first to speak.
“They didn’t!” She shouted. “If he was struck with that dagger, his mind is being controlled! That’s still your friend!”
“Who are you, and how do you know?” Keenan asked, his hand not loosening even as he heard this.
“I am Nimora, a Life Immortal from Spica. I followed the trail of this man to track him and his group down.” The elven woman pointed accusingly towards one of the nine figures, a human wearing a black cloak. “He is Thadius, a God of Deception. His artifact is the Black Hearted Dagger, and it allows him to implant a seed of his own mind into anyone his dagger touches.”
“I learned about his dagger through my connections, and have been using my domain to protect myself. They were trying to deplete my divinity so that they could use it on me when he suddenly threw the dagger into the air… I’m guessing to attack your friend. But how did it not get you..?”
“I never touch enchanted items with my bare hands. I wrapped chaos around my fingers when I grabbed it.” Keenan answered, his eyes focusing on the nine figures. Despite the situation that they found themselves in, these figures did not show a hint of anxiety. In fact, many of them were smiling.
“So, the children have finally come home.” One of them said in an eerie tone. “Family and… Chaos, was it? Not what we expected, but it was always going to be a lottery.”
“It’s fine, however.” Another one spoke. “Soon, you will become another me, one way or another.”
“Don’t… run…” Jace said, grunting as he continued to struggle against Keenan’s hand. “This one is a subordinate deity of Terra!”
Now that caused a shock to run through the nine figures, who flinched back. “What?” One of them asked with wide eyes, a sense of true terror in his gaze. “Why would you allow a subordinate of the Greater Pantheon to come here?!”
“It was… out of my control…” Jace said, and Keenan growled darkly at the words. The fact that the woman had confirmed that this was truly Jace was the only thing stopping him from taking drastic measures.
“You, woman. Can you fix him?” He asked, turning and sending a glare towards the Life Immortal.
“I… I mean, maybe. If I focus on killing the mental influence, it might be soon enough to save your friend’s mind. It’s only been a few minutes, so I think it could work?” The woman said with uncertainty, only to have Jace thrown to her feet like a sack of potatoes. Black bindings appeared at his wrists and ankles, tying them together.
“Do it.” He told her in a frigid tone, glancing towards Sam and her mother. “Stay out of this. You can’t protect yourselves against them.” As he said that, he turned, walking towards the nine gods.
“You think that you can handle all of us?” One of the nine asked, dumbfounded. “Even if you are a subordinate of Terra, that is arrogant. Your chaos realm may seal the use of our powers, but that is only so long as our powers are on the same level!”
As he said that, the nine people moved together, their bodies starting to glow. Keenan could vaguely sense that they were attempting to combine their divinities, but he spat out at that. “Useless.” He knew that he could draw upon the power of Terra to easily overcome their ability, but he did not do that. Instead, he held his hand out in front of him.
Black energy writhed in his hand, stretching out to form a long spear. “Even if you combine all your power into one person, only one of you will be able to escape.” He told them, as if issuing a death sentence for the other eight. He did not believe that they would be able to combine even their domains in such a short amount of time, and so he threw the spear forward.
One of the nine figures jumped out from the group of gods, taking the spear directly to the chest. The wound around the spear was instantly blackened, the dark spots spreading across the god’s body. This was the Spear of Undoing, the weapon that Keenan had created after becoming the God of Chaos.
Anything struck by this spear would have chaos spread throughout its entire body. Unless the opponent was a Fallen God, this meant almost certain doom. However, the other eight figures rejoiced, one of their number vanishing in a flicker of golden light.
“It’s too late. Our true self has left.” They said in unison, Keenan simply walking over and grabbing the spear that was still embedded in the man’s body.
“If you were nine people, you would have lived.” He muttered, wrenching the spear free from the body. The others looked like they didn’t understand, before they saw black spots beginning to appear on their skin. Keenan offered no explanation, simply turning his back to them and walking back to Jace.
As he stared at Nimora, he held the spear tight in one hand, his knuckles whitening. It took a great deal of control to slow the spread of Chaos in Jace’s body, but he could see small black dots appearing on his skin as well. “If he dies… you die.” He said in that same frigid tone, Nimora flinching and holding her hands on his shoulders
“Where did the dagger stab him?” She asked, not able to see a wound. “That will be the easiest place to remove the mental infection from.”
Keenan pointed at Jace’s chest with his spear, listening to the anguished screams of the other gods behind him. Since they were all connected via their minds, the power of Chaos had been able to infect them simply by having one of their number killed.
Nimora nodded, bringing her hands to his chest. Given the circumstances, Keenan had removed the restriction on Nimora’s divinity, allowing her to use her powers.
Starlight began to radiate off of Nimora’s body, nebulous clouds surrounding her and pouring into Jace’s chest. Keenan could see what appeared to be countless stars within the cloud, and his grip on the spear grew tighter. This was the first time that he had seen an Immortal act, and he wasn’t going to take any chances.
Jace grit his teeth, looking as if he were getting ready to cry out in pain, both from the infection being killed and the power of Chaos spreading in his body. Eventually, Nimora pulled back with a gasp. “It’s done… I killed everything I could in the infection. Everything I could find.”
Jace gasped at that, his ears pressing down against his skull. However, before he could say anything, the tip of Keenan’s spear was at his throat. “Tell me something that only Jace knows.”
Jace froze up, thinking about what he could possibly answer. “The first time we met… I followed you in the forest. I followed you for days, until the great Storm Shark ravaged the land, and we had to move.”
Keenan’s brow furrowed. “He was able to read your memories.” Keenan pointed out, recalling how Jace had mentioned that they were subordinates of Terra.
Jace paused, before grunting. “You dolt, if he’s reading my memories, how could I ever say something that was purely me?!” He asked, his cheeks puffing out. Off to the side, Sam and her mother nodded their heads in agreement.
However, Keenan simply smiled, finally dismissing the spear in his hand and removing the Chaos from Jace’s body. “It’s good to have you back.” He said in a much kinder tone, surprising Nimora. “Thank you..”
“No… I should be thanking you.” Nimora said with a faint sigh. “If you hadn’t shown up when you did, I would have become one of them.”
Keenan nodded his head, sweeping over Nimora’s body with his senses to ensure that there was no sign of Chaos in her body. Only then did he truly believe that she had not been connected to the others. “Let’s go… There’s nothing for us here anymore.” He muttered, the bodies of the eight gods erupting in black mist in time with his words.
Sam gasped, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth. She could clearly sense that one of those gods had been their father, but Keenan had killed him just like that. Of course, seeing the situation, she could somewhat understand why he had to do that. That wasn’t their father anymore… if the man was even the same person as when he conceived them.
