An Imperceptible Ruse Indeed (The Gods' Executioner Series) (11 page)

“
She’s been waiting in the lobby for the past fifteen minutes.” The vampire secretary replies.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner!?” Venus
angrily demands.

“Because you ordered me not
to interrupt you under any circumstances!” the vampire secretary quickly explains.

“Just send her up! And g
et away from the door when she steps up to the desk.” Venus commands, her irritation blatant in her voice.

The vampire
secretary leaves the back office and assumes his position at the front desk.

“Send her up.” The vampire
orders with his finger on an intercom.

Several minutes later, Tia exits the elevator
and walks across the room to the front desk.

“Hello, I’m here from the Aztec pantheon
.” Tia says and the vampire secretary jumps out of the way as the door to Venus’s office flies open.

I watch as Venus throws
the Void dagger into Tia’s chest, runs behind the secretary and his desk, breaks the window with a spell, and blasts Tia out of the window with a torrent of water.

“Now I just have to go collect the dagger—” Venus absentmindedly says before a worried look crosses her face and she ports away,
most likely upon sensing me port in to catch Tia. Since Venus isn’t a pantheon head, the only place she could have ported is Mount Olympus. I’m going to kill that bitch, but first…

I start moving
all of the tendrils in a spherical gyroscopic pattern around me, causing the tendrils to cut into the walls, ceiling, and floor. I float down through the newly made hole in the floor, slicing apart the sixteenth floor as I had with the seventeenth. I continue traveling down through the floors of the building, slicing apart any vampires that happen to be under me until I reach the ground floor. Once on the first floor, I spear the tendrils out in all directions and spin in a circle, cutting through the walls of the building at a fifteen degree slant towards the blocks of city that the vampires are occupying.

I retract the majority of the tendrils into me before flying out of the building and heading skyward to take in the view. The screams of the vampires that are still alive in the collapsing skyscraper reach my ears. After the skyscraper starts sliding off of its foundation, the major structural damage from my trip down causes the
building to collapse in on itself. As the plume of dust comes up towards my location, I port to Mount Olympus.

Chapter 11: Bittersweet Symphony of Revenge

Upon
arriving at the marble gazebo that serves at the gate to Mount Olympus, I look down at Tia. If it weren’t for the hole in her chest, I’d say she was sleeping peacefully… a renewed amount of anger fills me as I set Tia on the ground, take my jacket off, and cover her chest with it before picking her back up. I take to the sky and head over the cloud pathways toward the village, where I land beside the three tier fountain in the center of town.

“Iris, either open this gate before I count to three or I destroy your stupid fucking fountain and kill everyone. One, TWO, TH—” I shout before the rainbow
gate beams down.

I carry Tia through it and arrive at the
glittering palace of the Olympians. This place hasn’t changed in the past four years with the exception that the courtyard now has giant pillars bordering along the right and left sides leading to the palace. Now the question has become, how do I get Venus out here?

(Remember how you kept the title of King of the Gods because of your asinine thinking that it would cause Vesta to grow a penis? While the reason is still asinine, the power will come in handy)

I remember what Airi is talking about so I set Tia down off to the side of the entrance and walk to the center of the courtyard. I think of Venus standing in the courtyard and snap my fingers. Venus appears fifteen feet in front of me, looking bewildered for a moment before she notices me and her eyes go wide in terror.

“Hi.
” I greet with a malicious smile.

Utilizing the war god aspect, I charge forward and throw a left punch straight into her face faster than the speed at which she could react
. Venus sails back and smashes into a wall of the palace, nearly two hundred feet away. I follow after her and before she has time to recover, I grab her by the face with my left hand and throw her back into the courtyard. I’m sprinting back towards her when I stop, noticing a confused look on her face…or it might just be shock, but either way, I stop.

“
No, you bitch… You don’t get to look at me like that… You know exactly what you did…” I tell her with a grave tone as I slowly advance.

“
Feros? What is going on here?” I hear Diana ask behind me and to my right.

“Hello
, Diana. I’m about to brutally kill Venus, so just stay out of this and I’ll explain later.” I reply without turning towards her.

“Help me!”
Venus pleads, reaching out toward her fellow gods with her left hand as she props herself up with her right.

I flash over to Venus’s position
and bring my right boot into her face, knocking her back to the ground and landing her on her back. I raise my right leg into the air and bring my heel down on her head. The tile around underneath us cracks with my lack of restraint as her head sinks in a few inches.

“After what you’ve done, you no longer deserve to ask for help.” I tell her
.

Tendrils shoot out of my left arm and catch an arrow
twenty feet back and to my left, which had been traveling towards the back of my left knee, before disintegrating the arrow. I turn towards the source and see Apollo holding his bow made of light.

“Oh Apollo… you just had to try and take my left leg at the worst possible time, didn’t you?” I ask as I raise my left arm.

The tendrils spear forward to Apollo’s position, roughly one hundred feet away; normally they wouldn’t be able to reach that far, but something tells me that the tendrils can do it. At that distance, Apollo sees them coming and tries to out run them, but he’s not fast enough. The tendrils stab through Apollo’s left knee at one hundred fifty feet away, wrap around it, and drag Apollo back to me before dangling him upside-down until we are face to face.

“You see, on any other day, I might’ve just zapped you and gone about my business. However, today I am in a truly terrible mood, and since I still haven’t forgiven you for blowing off my right leg, I’ve decided to seriously fuck you up!” I exclaim.

My tendrils swing Apollo around through the air above my head. Once there is enough momentum, the tendrils extend out further and send Apollo crashing through a wall of columns on the left edge of the courtyard. He’s smashed through seven of them when I sense Venus trying to make a run for it. My tendrils shoot behind me and sink into both of her legs multiple times, causing Venus to scream out in pain as she face-plants. Before Venus has the time to use any spells, I flick my arm forward and my tendrils slam her into the tile in front of me. I flick my arm back, causing my tendrils to slam both Venus and Apollo into the tile behind me. I laugh as I flick my arm to the right and the left. A certain rhythm gets started as Apollo and Venus repeatedly slam into the ground, cracking the tile to the front, left, right, and behind me as they let out pained exclamations over the sound of my laughter.

“Feros, drop Venus and my brother this instant.” Diana says wi
th a stern tone from behind me.

I turn around
to see that the pantheon is armed and assembled; Diana even has an arrow knocked and aimed at me.

“Look… I really don’t want to kill you guys to kill Venus, but I will. That’s how serious I am.” I tell her.

“And my brother?” Diana asks.

“He
picked Venus’s bed and now he has to lie in it with her… figuratively… also probably literally given the amount of dudes Venus is involved with.” I reply.

“That isn’t acceptable, Feros.” Diana responds.

“Then you leave me with no choice.” I say as my tendrils drop Apollo and Venus.

Suddenly four stone slabs shoot out of the ground and encompass me in a
tepee-like rock cage while the ground beneath my feet opens up and swallows me. The earth fills in and restrains my arms and legs, leaving only my head above ground and inside the rock cage. Okay, how is this possible? Olympus is in the clouds so why is there dirt and stone? I suppose I can attribute the stone to the tile courtyard, but the dirt is still a conundrum.

“That was a lot easier than I expected.” I hear Diana say.

“I know. Restraining his arms so he can’t touch his triskele to port has effectively trapped him.” Ceres says; ah, so she must’ve used Neptune’s power over earthquakes to accomplish this… if I had known that power could do this, I would’ve kept it.

“So what was that all about?” Diana asks.

“I don’t know; he’s crazy! Feros summoned me out here and began beating me!” Venus exclaims, sounding like the epitome of innocence.

“Iris just reported that
Feros threatened to destroy her fountain and kill everyone in town.” Vesta says.

“See!? He’s finally snapped! He’s a threat to all of us!” Venus chimes in.

“He apparently was also carrying someone when he arrived.” Vesta adds.

“Over here.” An unfamiliar
female voice says while walking towards the group.

“That’s
Tlazolteotl; she was captured by Vulcan, Mars, and Apollo to lure Feros into coming to them when he was accused of killing Zeus. She’s practically Feros’s sister.” Diana recants.

“He must’ve killed her!” Venus exclaims and my rage reaches the boiling point.

“YOU DARE TO ACCUSE ME OF KILLING HER!?” I scream as my tendrils travel in the gyroscopic pattern, slicing through the dirt and my rock cage as I hover out of the newly made bowl in the ground while noticing that the sky has suddenly darkened.

“
YOU LYING LITTLE BITCH! YOU KILLED HER AND YOU KNOW IT!” I boom as black lightning strikes down around the courtyard. The gods start dodging the lightning while trying to get closer to stop me, but it’s not letting them.

“AND I’M GOING TO DESTROY YOU BECAUSE OF IT!” I shout as I send my tendrils through Venus’s hands, feet, shoulders, and t
highs, and pull her towards me.

Upon r
ealizing that they can’t get closer, Diana and Apollo start shooting arrows at me. More tendrils shoot out of my right leg and move in a gyroscopic formation to provide arrow coverage, slicing all arrows to bits before they can get within ten feet of me.

“I’m sorry!” Venus screams.

“You’re sorry? YOU’RE SORRY!? You apologizing won’t fix this… YOU APOLOGIZING WON’T BRING HER BACK!” I yell.

“Please!” Venus begs.

“I’ll give you one chance. Give me the information I want, and I won’t kill you.” I tell her and Venus looks hopeful.

“Tell me where Loki is.” I say and Venus’s face falls.

“But I don’t know where he is!” Venus exclaims.

“I know, I didn’t think you did.” I reply
with a malicious smile and hold my left hand up while enjoying Venus’s plunge into the depths of despair.

That’s the funny thing about hope: it can bring you to the highest peaks, but having it taken away can bring you l
ower than the deepest trenches. My fingertips turn into wicked-looking points like claws as a bladed spike emerges from each knuckle and is swept back. The undersides of my fingers sharpen down to an edge on each segment, forming small blades. After the transformation is finished, I clench my hand several times to see that the blades on each segment are slightly restricting my ability to do so while Venus looks on in horror.

“You know… my only regret, is that I didn’t let Chezarei kill you four year
s ago.” I whisper into her ear.

I spear my pointed hand through Venus’s stomach,
underneath her ribcage, and move into her chest as Venus shrieks out in pain. I reach her core and drag my index finger across it, feeling it turn to smoke where I scratch. Judging by the sounds coming from Venus, this is causing her immeasurable amounts of pain, so I keep doing it. I bask in her agonized screaming, enjoying the shivers that course through my body. Venus tries to say something, so I stop scratching.

“Please! I beg of you! Just kill me!
Just fucking kill me!” Venus pleads.

“Since you
asked so nicely… I’ll continue scratching. How about we go a little deeper?” I rhetorically ask and carve small trenches into her core; Venus screams even louder.

“Damn Venus! With the amount of pleasure you’re giving me, I’m going to need a smoke after this! You are certainly living up to your reputation!” I exclaim over her screams.

“You usually like being penetrated, don’t you?” I ask and laugh maniacally as I poke holes into her core with my index claw, causing the loudest screams yet.

“I think we should finish this with a bit of fisting!” I
exclaim and slam my whole hand into her core.

Venus falls silent as
I start absorbing the core while a hole is burned through her chest. When I’ve turned the golden mass in Venus’s chest to smoke and absorbed it into my arm, I toss her husk away like the garbage it is. Venus’s husk hits my gyroscopic wall of slicing tendrils and gets hacked to pieces, as though I’d thrown it into a garbage disposal, while I sink to ground-level. The lightning continues to strike around me and my tendrils swirl to provide protection against arrows.

“N
ow… what to do about all of you?” I ask with my malevolent grin as I turn towards the Greek pantheon.

Cheza is
suddenly jumping through the air towards me and my tendrils. My heart nearly stops as she reaches them, but the tendrils open up at the last second and let her in. Cheza tackles me to the ground with her mouth slamming into mine, her tongue frantically probing the inside of my mouth as I notice the tears in her eyes. She pulls back, sits up, and studies my face while straddling me.

I watch through Cheza’s eyes as my Void-black eyes sta
rt to fade and the silver iris in my right eye resurfaces. The five, black, tattoo-like spikes that are reaching into my left eye follow the black strip on my cheek as they retract down my neck while my left iris finally resurfaces. The strip flows down my neck to my shoulder, where it reconnects with the retracting black tattoo-like spikes that are on my left pectoral; they look a lot like my left hand does at the moment, which serves to send a chill down my spine. I assume that there is something similar on my left shoulder blade based on the prickling sensation I felt before and feel now.

The Void marks retract back across my shoulder, into my artificial arm
, and up to my fingertips, where my hand sits beside my head. Silver replaces the black as my fingers return to normal, the claws warping back to round tips. My vision snaps back as Cheza starts crying and wraps her arms around me.

“Oh thank goodness! I thought I’d lost you!”
Cheza sobs into my ear.

I get an image of Cheza freaking out and telling Natasha to call Pinga. Pinga shows up and ports the girls to Niflheim, where Cheza meets up with Jason. Jason ports Cheza to Persephone’s palace in Hades. Persephone proceeds to port Cheza to Mount Olympus before they rush to the town, through Iris’s gate, and to the palace. So that’s how she got here.
I lift my arms from the sides of my head and wrap them around her.

“She’s gone, Cheza… Tia’s dead…” I quietly say as I’m vaguely aware that the lightning has stopped and my tendrils have rescinded with the Void.