THEOS

In the Holy Land of Vulcan, on a star-filled night, thousands had gathered atop the flattened peak of a great pyramid made of metal to witness the conclusion of The Tournament of Olympus. Among them were gods, mortals, and everything in between.

They were silent.

They wouldn’t be for long. Less time than it would take for Luke’s heart to beat, but the quiet was longer for it. It was a moment of calm where all those assembled took the measure of the two words uttered by the women who had hunted Luke since he died.

“God Seed.” Arke had said.

Luke wasn't sure whether it was by happenstance or by the will of some unknown cosmic force, but he found his eyes trained on Zeus, the King of Gods, when it happened.

He didn’t know what the king had expected Arke to say. Yet, fear, unmistakable and powerful, twisted Zeus’s face. It was gone, hidden by a mask of neutrality a moment later. So fast that Luke thought he may have imagined it, but he hadn’t. Luke knew he hadn’t, just like he knew that whatever could scare Zeus would not be good for him. At all.

Then the storm came.

Powerful auras belonging to powerful people blasted forth and vied for dominance atop the pyramid. The might of gods and their lesser counterparts bore down on those too weak to stand up to such vast power and pressed them to the floor.

Luke was no exception. Not yet.

One moment, he had been standing; the next, he was a crumpled heap on the cold metal floor. The skin of his face and hands tore from forcefully being pressed to the ground, and his bones creaked under the stress. He had felt once before the Presence of a god. Like the last time, Luke was overcome with feelings of being lesser, unworthy, and an intense desire to worship. Now, he knew that Hephaestus had been holding back then and had done him a great favor. Those same feelings and thoughts came spilling forth, but the seed of resolve that had been born at the very start of the tournament was still there.

And it fed, and it grew.

As it did, Luke’s body, bloody and broken, began to flood with mana. Had he not been near so many gods, he knew the Seed would have squirreled all that energy away in seconds. Even so, it wasn’t entirely wasted. The mana felt warm and energizing inside him, and it did some small part in restoring the injuries inflicted by the unrestrained presence of so many powerful beings, and that was the least of what it did.

Luke could feel the mana throwing itself against his Arcana and, to a lesser extent, his Constitution in a failed attempt to boost the attributes. The stats were already at the very edge of what was allowed of a Paragon, so the Aetherial Mana found no purchase. Instead, it worked its way into his muscles and his nerves.

He watched through his Status as his two lowest stats swelled, and he felt a change begin to propagate through him. One not quite like any he had felt before. Confused at what was happening, he briefly entertained the thought that he might be advancing to the Hero tier. That somehow, the pressure was forcing him over the edge. That was impossible, though. Even with the boost, his other stats still had a ways to go, and the Paragon’s Path couldn’t be broken or subverted.

Before he could dwell on the change occurring within him, the sudden roaring of thunder demanded his attention.

“Enough,” Zeus said, his voice not particularly loud but oddly present, as if he was speaking right into Luke’s ear. “There are mortals and children among us. Behave yourselves.” He commanded. His aura washed over the crowd and pushed back against the rest. Almost fearful, the other auras retreated just as fast as they had come, and the room was once again cast into a short-lived silence.

All around him, Luke heard groans of pain. What Zeus had said was true. There had been no restrictions on who could and couldn’t come here tonight. All the contestants had been given a hundred invitations, and while Luke couldn’t speak to what the other contestants had done, he knew that Clite had given some of his to children. And, unless something truly drastic had happened, then the Luminous Sky Society members that Arya had brought with her were mortals as well. If he had been hit hard enough to nearly break his bones, what had become of them?

It's probably nothing a healing potion can’t fix, but it's still pretty rude.

Wincing in pain, Luke anchored his mana to the space around him and used it to get off the floor. The feat was still more demanding than it would have been outside the Holy Land, but it seemed that Hephaestus had gotten rid of whatever restriction he had placed that had prevented them from flying the last time he had been here.

Luke blinked through the dizziness that came from standing too fast. Everything seemed too bright and dim all at once, but the nausea wore off just as quickly as it had come. A handful of seconds later, he was almost okay and getting closer to normality with every breath.

Let’s hope it stays that way. He thought, wearily eyeing the crowd atop the pyramid. The lack of control they had displayed, the fear in Zeus’s eyes, and the way everyone was milling nervously–

The only conclusion Luke could draw was that the God Seed played a more significant role than he realized on Theos. Luke had never really considered that before. All the Seed should be good for is raising a single mortal to divinity. That didn’t explain such a massive lack of decorum in beings who measured age in millennia if not millions of years. Or the fear.

Sure, a manhunt will mean chaos, but why would the King of Gods be scared of people hunting for me? That’s–

“That was something.” Spiros groaned as he climbed up next to him. “And what the hell is a god seed?” He asked while idly wiping the blood dripping from his nose with the back of his hand.

“Whatever it is, it's not something we should worry about considering this

“I mean, objectively, it was pretty b…” Luke's voice trailed off as he took in her appearance. She looked worse than both he and Spiros did.

Right, she’s joking. Luke realized. A moment later, the steel floor of the pyramid shimmered like the surface of a lake, and thousands of vials of healing potions broke through the floor and hovered in front of them.

After consideration, Luke grabbed the vial before him and swapped the healing potion with a lesser version already in his storage ring.

I think I'm home free, but with Arke just telling everyone about the Seed… I’ll keep the good stuff in reserve anyways. He thought to himself. He was nervous.

“Ahem.” Hephaestus cleared his throat. “Now that we’ve had our fill of chaos let us proceed to the event that brought us all here.” He said, his expression perfectly neutral as if nothing important had happened. Luke couldn’t help but wonder if the god actually thought that the Seed wasn’t significant or if he was merely pretending to be unfazed; no sooner had the thought crossed his mind that another god gave up the game.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Did you not hear her?” Apollo pointed at Arke, who had schooled her expression into a mask of neutrality and yelled at Hephaestus. “Someone has the God Seed!” He shouted, his voice so loud that a few mortals clutched their ears in pain.

He is not taking this well. Luke’s heart began to pound in his chest. Not good. At. All.

“What would you like me to do about it?” Hephaestus asked in turn. “The God Seed is back as it always is and will be. What did it take five hundred years this time? How fascinating.” He drolled, clearly not interested in continuing the debate. This time, though, the god’s intentions were more transparent. The facade had slipped. Hephaestus didn’t want to talk about the Seed here and now.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Apollo wasn’t as quick on the uptake, nor did he have the other deity’s composure. Golden light shone around Apollo, and he stared defiantly at Hephaestus. “You know as well as I, that–”

Thunder rumbled, and all around the pyramid, lightning rained onto the grass, setting it alight with a fire that spread so quickly that the night seemed to have turned to day.

“Hephaestus is right. While the news of the Seed’s reemergence is troubling, we have assembled here for a purpose. Let us get to it.” Zeus said.

“Bullshit.” Ares cursed. His tone sounded angry, but the smile on his lips told a different story. “There's too many people here. It won’t be long before the Titans come sniffing.”

“I said enough,” Zeus said.

Ares was undeterred. “And how did Arke find out about the Seed in the first place? The odds of her just happening to come across it are none. I demand we investigate im–”

A lightning bolt, as thick as a bus, crept down from the heavens and stopped just short of striking the god. Like a snake, it writhed in place, filled the world with the sound of incessant static, and cast all those present in blinding white light.

Luke felt his mouth dry at the sheer power emanating off the bolt and with the ease the god had summoned it. Zeus doesn’t fuck around, does he?

Ares was unimpressed. With a twitch of his hand, the lightning bolt turned to bloody red mist. The two gods, a king and his warrior, stared at each other, and for a moment, it seemed like they might even come to blows.

Ares shook his head and sighed. “This thing you're doing won’t work. It’s too late. Let me take Arke. We need questions answered, and I’ll have them by the time you finish with the Tournament. Would that satisfy you, my lord?” Ares asked, bowing his head to his king.

Zeus stared at him impassively, and everyone tensed. Ares looked back at him. The air seemed to fill with static and the stench of blood as they waged an unseen war for dominance. Luke worried that a battle was inevitable, but then Zeus nodded. Ares grinned, and the crowd let go of the breath they didn’t even know they were holding.

Red mist spilled forth from Ares’s body, and he disappeared from where he was standing and appeared in front of Arke, his arm outstretched to take her away– only to step back, annoyed, as a rainbow barrier shimmered to life in front of the white-haired angel.

Suddenly realizing he might be too close to a fight between two divines, Luke slowly inched away and pulled Spiros and Arya along with him. If the gods took notice or offense at their retreat, they left it unremarked.

“Why should I let him?” Iris asked, her gaze locked onto Ares's bald and armored form, but her words were for Zeus.

“You know why,” Zeus said. Even to Luke, he looked tired.

Iris glared at Ares. “And leave my sister alone with this warmongering pig? You should know me better than that, Lord Zeus.”

Ares smiled smugly at her words and looked over his shoulder at Zeus.

Zeus sighed. “I suppose I do, don’t I? Go with them then and wait for us at Olympus. The Council will assemble, and we can decide how to proceed in a way that satisfies us all. You have my word that no harm will come to your sister. Is that satisfactory?”

By the resentful frown on Iris’s face, Luke suspected it was anything but satisfactory. With a grimace, Iris turned toward the other gods in attendance, seeking support. None met her gaze. She snarled. “Very well.”

Iris stepped toward Arke and rested a hand on her shoulder. The barrier of rainbow light dissolved into flakes of bright light. Ares boldly stepped forward, and all three disappeared in a puff of scarlet mist. A heavy silence once again hung in the air.

“Hephaestus, if you will,” Zeus said.

“Right.” The god scratched his cheek. “I don’t think anyone here will have an appetite for what I originally had planned. So–” He clapped, and Luke’s world flickered orange and red.

When he came too, he and the fifteen remaining contestants were standing on a floating metal platform a few hundred feet from the side of the pyramid with Hephaestus hovering in the air before them.

“Your final ranking will be decided by who can throw the weapon furthest from this platform. Any questions?” the god asked.

Luke's thoughts churned as he tried to make sense of the situation. Events were moving too quickly, and none of it seemed natural. Even though the God Sees still wanted him to use a charge, a quick check of the Seed’s interface showed that the Quest to finish second in the tournament was still active.

And other than using a charge and running away, I can’t do anything here, can I? So I might as well finish what I came here to do.

Dismissing thoughts of the God Seed, Luke tried to figure out the tournament's final stage. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t find any hidden meaning in the god's words.

After all that, we finish with this?

I like it.

“That’s the final round?” Someone asked incredulously. Remembering the gods' earlier roll call, Luke realized he was Icarus of Athens. He looked equal parts shaken, offended, and confused, just like everyone else who was present.

At any other time, Luke would have been more interested in meeting another figure from mythology, especially someone who couldn’t smite him out of existence and had become a cautionary tale warning humans of their hubris. As it stood, he was just eager to go home and keep his head down for the foreseeable future.

Fingers crossed.

Luke was optimistic, but if the past had taught him anything, what he wanted was unlikely to happen. Too much had happened all at once, and he knew he would be dwelling on the events of this day for likely the rest of his life.

Things were bad enough when it was just Arke looking for the Seed, but now everyone would know that someone, at some point, had it. They would also know that person had been on an island in the Dolion Archipelago. Worst of all, Luke had become the first official suspect. Just thinking about that made him feel ill.

Sure, he had been able to take some creative liberties with the truth and absolve himself of Nefkha’s accusations, but deep in his gut, Luke knew that the burden of suspicion wouldn’t be so easily discarded. It didn’t matter that Luke had retold his past in a way that left no questions about his innocence or involvement with the God Seed. Or that the prospective thief would have had months to flee the Archipelago after Zeus made Arke leave. There would forever be whispers and rumors. Of course, they’d be quiet initially, and most people probably wouldn’t think much of him. Except, what would happen ten years from now? Or a hundred?

Perhaps things might have been different if Luke was uninvolved, but he did have the God Seed, which meant no one else would ever get caught with it. And having experienced the reaction the Seed had provoked, it was too much to hope that the buzz would die down. No, things would get much worse before they got better. He just wished he knew how.

Luke shook his head.

Alright, focus, Luke. I have a quest to complete, and a friend I need to help take first place in this tournament so that in a few decades, he has a shot at a date with the girl he likes. Not easy, but it’s worth it.

As Luke pulled Maximus free from its sheath and felt his mana flowing through it, he knew what he had to do.

I just hope that Menelaus, or whatever his name is, doesn’t get too mad if, but likely when, Spiros wins this thing and marries his fake ex-wife.