The Lonely God (Rosekook)

13

A blast of energy turfed him away like twigs in a gale.

He tried to levitate again but after climbing a few feet the powerful tornado whirling around Eris' base blew him off course. Tendrils of the dark shadows shot out towards him, latching onto his butchered limbs as he thrashed in mid-air.

"Oh my poor poor boy," Eris' face loomed up at him, larger than a temple entrance. "Look around you-you're fighting a loosing battle. And unfortunately, you can't switch sides."

Jeongguk gasped and struggled as the tendrils tightened around his body, locking his limbs in place. His vision was fuzzy-he had taken a couple hard knocks when Eris blasted him out of the sky. She was undeniably strong, and his attacks were so puny and seemingly unaffecting her.

"I told you I was the one amplifying your powers before," she laughed at him, casually swatting away a flock of mounted griffin creatures, dispersing them easily as they and their riders fell out of the sky like flies.

"You're pretty average really...and yet, you're the only who doesn't seem afraid to face me head on....or it could be that you have no brain left in there. Which is it Jeon?"

With another diabolical laugh she pulled back her arm and then threw it forward like a javelin. The shadow bonds mimicked her action and Jeongguk went flying through the noxious rain until he hit the nearest mountain peak on the plain.

He crashed and crumpled in a heap, with an avalanche of boulders pounding on his shaky shield. Eventually the hail of boulders stopped and he tried to stand up only for his body to protest and he crumbled back, his chest rising and falling as he struggled to catch his breath.

He was fast giving up.

Jeongguk was tired and banged up-his whole body was sore and lacerated all over, bruises swelling over his eye until it was almost swollen shut. Blood gushed down his nose-a very bad sign meaning he had pushed past his limitations and was currently on his last reserves of energy, having expended his magical reservoir.

He pushed out of the pile of rocks that surrounded him and squinted out as Eris was currently sitting back and enjoying the spectacle, bursting into harsh cackles of glee as she raised a hand and struck down on unfortunates crossing her path.

She had transformed into a giantess, her laughter echoing all around the battlefield as she threw her head back. The sky had turned blood red, raining poison-green rain that burned like acid. Jungkook had to keep up a Shield spell while flying and battling Eris, expending his energy faster with his attempts to hold it steady as he juggled flying with attacking.

The sun had all but disappeared, a mere sickly yellow spot in the apocalyptic red haze. Monsters and warriors-mortal and divine alike-battled alongside each other. The putrid stench of death hung in the air, stifling and smothering.

Even the Gods had been engaged in the fight, descending down from the heavens to fight against the chtonic beasts that ravaged through the battlefield. The earth trembled and the rivers swelled up in a wall of water that reached up to the sky before it tumbled and crashed on the monsters. Lightning flashed and struck, with the horrible pungent smell of sizzling flesh hanging thickly in the polluted air.

Jeongguk had immediately zoned in on Eris the moment he appeared above the battle field: her diabolical cackling rang out clearly across the stretch of land where the sides clashed, not to mention she was now the size of the Colossus of Rhodes in the Mediterranean.

The deities tried to approach the rogue goddess from all directions but none could come close: she was too close to the portal-a high high tear in the very air itself- as the barrage of chtonic monsters that populated the depths of Tartarus spewed out relentlessly from their underworld prison: flying beasts and stampeding creatures, hideous and disgusting in form, uttering unearthly screeches and ululating as they joined the chaotic fray.