When I ca to, my entire left side was in pain. I lifted my arm to look at the damage. Part of my armor from [Arms of Light] had been torn away and my left arm was skinned from elbow to wrist. When I touched the side of my chest, I found my ribs were bruised and sore. I was still breathing okay, so that was good, but I wouldn't be surprised if I had multiple broken ribs.
"You know this wasn't the deal, Felketh," Fortuna said.
I looked up at two of the gods who were standing nearby. Before I could look around, Felketh put a clawed foot on my sore ribs, causing to gasp in pained shock.
Fortuna snarled at him. "Get your foot off her before I tear it off." Fortuna looked pissed, but it lost so of its effect since she looked like she was dressed as a Vegas magician's assistant. She was wearing a skimpy leotard with a long black tailcoat and a tophat. The outfit felt so weirdly out of place that it drew my attention away from the horrible situation I was in.
"Relaaaax. You're too high-strung. It's Sorsette's fault for accosting the mont I left the dungeon!" Felketh chirped.
I turned my head to look at the third goddess standing across from us. Sorsette looked burned and bloodied. She and Felketh must have been the two who were fighting this entire ti.
Sorsette scowled. "Felketh. I'll say this again, you creating an avatar is in violation of the accords. You know this."
Felketh giggled. "Accords this, accords that. We both know that the accords affect you the most negatively out of all of us. You should be on my side. The other gods don't care about the mortals the way that we do. They punished you for helping! Such an injustice!"
"I accepted my restrictions the sa way that you had until now, Felketh. As you say, I'm the one most punished by the accords. If anyone should be upset with them, it should be . But I still believe maintaining the accords is the best way forward. Another war of the gods will not benefit the people we protect. Release your avatar," Sorsette said through gritted teeth.
"Yet you're playing this ga with the Tamin church! They're the ones openly and flagrantly defying the accords, doubling up on followers the way they are. I just want to walk around a little, stretch my legs," Felketh said with amusent lacing his voice.
"We both know your presence here will cause problems," Sorsette growled out.
Felketh leaned more weight on when he spoke, which caused to gasp in pain again. "You've always been so serious Sorsette! We've been friends for so long, why can't you just look away for this one little thing for ? Ey?"
"Get off of her," Fortuna snarled. "Or she won't be the one fighting with you."
"Hm?" Felketh looked down at with his inhumanly large smile before eting Fortuna's gaze again. "So much attention on this one little mortal. I know why everyone else seems to fawn over this one, but just what is she to you, hmm? She has the mark and sll of Sorsette all over her, yet you're the one threatening right now. Just why are you so invested in her?"
"This wasn't the deal!" Fortuna yelled. "Take your foot off of her!"
Felketh sighed and finally pulled his foot away from my aching ribs. I took in a breath that hurt my sides. Fortuna looked mollified for the mont, but she was still squinting at Felketh, who hadn't moved away from standing over .
"There, are you happy?" he said with a laugh.
"No. I'm not," Fortuna replied.
"Fortuna, why did you help him break the accords?" Sorsette asked.
Fortuna gave Sorsette a sideways glance. "Technically, I didn't. I just set things up so the right people were in the right place at the right ti, at the direction of soone else. None of the things I did, technically broke the rules of the accords."
"They may not have broken the letter of the accords, but they broke the spirit of them," Sorsette yelled.
Fortuna shrugged. "I did what I had to. I'm in this for the long ga. I would have circled you in if you had been more anable, but you fought at every turn. Still, I'll win this ga for the both of us, I promise you that. Checkmate. Good luck in the next go around."
"Fortuna! You—" Sorsette made a gluk sound as blood sprayed from her mouth. A long blade had been shoved through her chest. The sudden pressure of a fourth god pressed down on us.
An elven woman with long blond hair, who hadn't been standing there a mont before, pulled back the large sword, and Sorsette's body fell limply to the ground. "I, Allerella, the God of Justice and Balance, have deed you guilty for your cris during the first war of the gods. Death, strip her of her godhood in accordance with my right to judge her." She turned her sword and pointed it at . "I will prevent the second war of the gods with your death next, succubus."
I gasped in pain as the pressure doubled and more gods suddenly appeared. Felketh rolled onto my back with his foot, and did sothing that relieved the pressure bearing down on from their presence. ("Too soon to die, kid,") he sohow said through the succubus bond.
From my back, I saw the new gods that appeared. Morkinnen, the god of love and beauty, Sielfrie, the lady of nature and decay, and Velenthel, the goddess of life and reincarnation, were standing on one side. Even though I had never seen so of them in person before, they were all instantly recognizable from their depictions. A handso human man, an elf wearing a dress made from bright green leaves and young sprouts, and Velenthel, currently in the form of a matronly looking ram beastkin, just like . On the other side, near Felketh and , were Allerella, the god of justice and balance, and a goddess hidden under a cloak who could only be Moira, the goddess of Fate and Future. Allerella looked like an elven woman in white and silver armor, and Moira wore a dark blue cloak that covered everything but her pale, human looking hands. Where her face would usually be, peering out from her hood, was an unnatural looking shadow that obscured all her features. Standing away from all of them was Charon, god of death and change. He looked just as I last saw him, a weary weathered human wearing a dark grey cloak.
Despite the gaping wound in her chest, Sorsette was still alive, but she hadn't moved once she had hit the ground. Her eyes were staring up at Charon with a resolute look on her face in defiance of what his presence there ant. As he approached, she glanced at the gods that had betrayed her, and it looked as if her determination intensified when her eyes returned to the god of death.
Charon frowned as he looked down at her. "I am sorry to do this, my young friend, but I am now returning you to the cycle of reincarnation. Perhaps one day your soul will reach godhood again, and we may continue our long talks. Goodnight." Charon bent down and pressed his thumb to her forehead, causing Sorsette's eyes to dull and her body to evaporate into pure mana.
[Global Alert: Sorsette has been killed by Felketh and the gods of the Tamin church, Allerella, the god of Justice and Balance, and Moira, the goddess of Fate and Future.]
[Global Alert: [Status] has lost power. [Status] will cease to function and the archive will be lost unless power is restored within two days.]
Felketh walked away from , standing near Allerella and Moira. Charon walked away from everyone before turning around to watch, declaring without words that he would not interfere.
"Fortuna, co over here. We'll need your strength in this battle," Moira quietly said. "Our plans are finally reaching fruition."
Fortuna looked at Moira for a mont before turning her head to lock eyes with mine. "I will side with whoever wins this coin toss." Then, with no other elaboration, she flipped a coin into the air.
Ti seed to slow, and my eyes widened as I watched the simple coin spin from her upturned thumb. It was a quarter. She locked eyes with . She wants to do sothing! It's a U.S. quarter, that has to an sothing!
"Tails," I rasped as I raised my hand to cast [Manipulate Probability] on the spinning piece of tal, dumping my entire mana pool into the spell.
"You liar!" Moira shrilly scread.
Fortuna laughed. "I told you I would help you reach this point of my own free will. My loyalty from this point forward is based on the outco of this coin toss. I'm letting luck decide here, not my will. I have never lied to you, even once. It's not my fault you're used to things always going your way, Fate." The way she said fate was as if it had been a curse.
The coin bounced and spun in the air again before settling in the dirt... eagle side up.
Felketh cackled as everything exploded. Allerella's blade t Morkinnen's directly above my head. They then began to move so quickly that I would be unable to perceive them if not for the waves of pressure that hit my beat-up body. I was yanked out from under the two of them and dropped at the feet of Velenthel, who healed back to pristine shape with a wave of her hand. Dark projectiles mixed with ones that glittered like the night sky and shot toward us before fizzling out to nothing once they reached the lady of decay. She lifted a hand and everything in front of her began to visibly lt... It was hard to describe what was happening to the terrain as everything began to erode before my eyes. The rocks seed to collapse in ways that benefited our side but hampered their side twice as much. Breaking rocks bounced at odd angles that pelted them from all sides, and they lost their footing when the ground cracked under their feet.
Through all of this, Charon stoically watched on as the gods fought in front of him. I was unsure what would qualify as a deathblow to the gods. I watched several of them be partially blown up or impaled on each other's weapons before continuing to fight as if the attacks hadn't happened. The damage they received didn't stick the way being impaled had stopped Sorsette.
Everything that would have hit or done any harm missed in ways that were uncanny. Through all of this chaos, Fortuna was protecting . I didn't know what to think. She seemingly had been instruntal in killing Sorsette, yet the mont the fight started, she switched sides to mine in an instant. But why? The book on the gods I read said Fortuna and Moira were enemies, but they had been clearly working together until now, why? I didn't understand.
A black explosion blew up near and threw off my feet again. I landed hard on the edge of a rock and began sliding off the cliff. A thin hand grabbed my wrist and yanked back up before tossing away just in ti to protect themselves from an attack. I rolled from the throw and looked up to see Fortuna, who was fighting with Moira now. The way that Fortuna fought was bizarre. Her magic looked like a cody magic routine. She danced around the other goddess, pulling random things out of her hat to attack her with. She also pulled things out from behind her back that clearly hadn't been there before, and assaulted the woman with playing cards that she threw around like a street perforr. Moira was only getting angrier as Fortuna barely looked like she was actually fighting. No. Fortuna was playing with her. She was insulting the goddess of fate by not taking the fight seriously. The mont the thought ca to mind, Fortuna turned to , t my gaze, and winked with a shit-eating grin on her face, all in the span of a second.
Moira scread and summoned three giant swords made from sothing resembling the starry sky. From nowhere, Fortuna pulled out a cape and ducked beneath it, only to reappear behind Allerella as the blades sank into the ground where the cape had landed. Fortuna shoved the goddess of justice forward and threw off her footing enough for Morkinnen to get in a deep slash through her chest and face. The attack hadn't killed her, but sothing changed after that. Allerella grit her suddenly repaired teeth, but was now on the back foot. The three gods were backing away and retreating.
Despite the slowly turning battle, Felketh seed to be having a blast. Just like Fortuna, he appeared as if he was hardly taking the fight seriously. His attacks were half-hearted, and he was being more disruptive than anything else. He was backing up with the other two, but it felt like sothing was different there. Unlike the others, he wasn't really attacking anyone directly.
"Fine. Get us out of here, Felketh!" Moira yelled in response to an unheard conversation.
Felketh laughed. "As you wish, my lady! It was nice playing with all of you! Until next ti!" He said, clapping his hands.
A black maw suddenly opened up beneath the three of them and ate them whole. Only monts later, the demonic creature that had tunneled up from below the ground was eviscerated, but the three gods were gone. All that was left of them was a demonic corpse, torn to shreds where the three had just been standing.
"I must go," Sielfrie said imdiately. The goddess of nature and decay disappeared without another word. Charon nodded and vanished as well.
I turned to the last three gods. Morkinnen ruffled my hair and smiled down at with a big grin. "I wish we could have t under better terms, Miss Lilith Baphot. But it is good to finally et you. I wish I could speak with you longer, but my followers need . Goodbye." Morkinnen turned around, took three steps, and vanished mid-stride.
Velenthel nodded. "I, too, must go. This will not be without repercussions, and I must manage the fallout among my followers as well. Please continue to protect my oracle. You will be one of the few people who can weather this incoming storm without fear." She turned to Fortuna. "I don't know what ga you're playing, but thank you for coming to our side. We will talk about this once things have evened out, Fortuna." Then Velenthel too disappeared, leaving only Fortuna and standing there on the half-destroyed mountain.
Before I could say anything, Fortuna pulled into a hug. "I'm glad you're safe," she whispered.
I froze. I didn't know what to do in response to that. "You... you helped kill Sorsette..."
Fortuna pulled away and looked at with a sad smile. "I'm sure not much of this makes sense to you, but Sorsette was dood. There are not many ways to fight against fate."
"But you can..." I replied weakly.
Fortuna nodded. "I can... but I have to pick my battles. Maybe I could have saved her if she had been more willing to work with , but she wasn't worth the price anymore. It was too late."
"What price?"
"You," Fortuna said before patting my arm and stepping away.
"Who are you, Fortuna?"
She shook her head. "It's still better that you don't know. It's easier this way."
I growled. "No! That's not fair! Not after tonight!"
Fortuna sighed. "Things are going to be hard soon. The heavens will be in chaos, and this world already is in chaos. Everyone will be freaking out without the system, and none of the lesser gods would dare replace Sorsette after what happened to her. If you're still determined to know more about , you'll have to either ask your oracle friend or rise to godhood yourself. I beg you to at least wait until after things calm down a little, though. Your friends and lovers are going to need you."
"How do—"
"Goodbye, Lilith." With that, Fortuna turned and disappeared.
I was left alone on the mountain.
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