The Unknown Allegiance

| Chapter 11 || World Destruction: Pros and Cons |

Chapter Eleven

World Destruction: Pros and Cons

*First Person Point of View ~ Unknown*

Everything was going according to plan. Just as I'd hoped. I smiled as I watched the gods in their petty council meeting, all giving each other suspicious glances. They were my puppets of death, and once they completely succumbed to hatred and doubt, they'd bring beautiful destruction to their world. It would be beautiful and swift, leaving nothing but ashes in the wake of their paranoia.

The only one who I still needed to convince was that dreaded moon goddess. Contrary to popular belief, she was smarter than she appeared. Perhaps the smartest of the gods. Yes, Athena was the goddess of wisdom and strategy, but her knowledge came along with pride and stubbornness. It sometimes left her blind to the most important of facts. Artemis' wisdom, however, came from the forest itself, raw power and instinct telling her that something was wrong.

To trick her like all of the other gods, I'd have to counter her instincts, make her think that she's imagining things. To defeat Artemis, I'd have to make her go insane. That was the only way to put her down.

I grinned to myself. I would have her so completely crazy that even Dionysus himself would be jealous. After I was done with her, she'd never see the outside of a padded room for the rest of her immortal years. Well, until the world ended and her body faded like those of all the other immortals that have not dedicated themselves to my cause.

Turning swiftly, I left my pool of Sight and faced the remainder of my cave. It was mainly filled with shelves - shelves that carried jars of miscellaneous bits and pieces that I'd collected during the years of my exile. Droplets of water dripped down onto their lids from the stalactites along the ceiling, leaving rivulets of liquid running down their sides and pooling around their bases.

I sorted through the jars until I found the one I wanted. The label read, 'Essence of Violera', which was a very powerful herb found only at the edges of Tartarus, where Achlys resided.

By itself, it was used to destroy monsters. When diluted correctly, a single drop could rot the regeneration pod of any monster, permanently wiping it from the world. The only true way to kill a monster. I wasn't going to use it for that, though. It had another use, one which I needed to exploit. When boiled together with a few other hard-to-acquire objects, it could become one of the most powerful paranoia potions known to immortals and mortals alike.

Quickly collecting the remaining ingredients I needed, I laid them out in front of me. My cauldron, a bulbous pewter basin, was already filled halfway with water from the Lythe, which I used as the basis for most of my potions. It would take, if my math was correct, seven or eight days to complete, but I was nothing if not patient.

Artemis would have to wait, but I'd made sure that Perses was taking care of that. Hopefully, he didn't fail, or I'd have to deal with him myself, and I truly hated getting my hands dirty. That was what henchmen were for.

Turning my thoughts back to my potion, I opened the leather-bound book on my podium, my eyes scanning the loopy cursive carefully. I grinned.

Time to begin.

*First Point of View ~ Artemis*

Something was definitely wrong. I could tell the moment that I stepped into the throne room that my family didn't trust one another anymore. I mean, I that in general, they didn't trust each other, but they'd rarely ever been so... what was the word? Paranoid. All we had left was our trust to keep together our incredibly dysfunctional family, and if we lost that, we'd surely destroy each other and ourselves in the process.