Tarous, стр. 73
I eventually made my way to the edge of the battlefield and came across Cupid. I noticed a few demons had survived my wave of death. Apparently they had been on the outside of the battle and had managed to survive. I gave them a friendly smile. Several of the demons screamed, and one even passed out.
“Dude, you are freaking the demons out,” grumbled Cupid, but with a little awe in his voice.
“Oh my, there will be no living with him from now on,” mumbled Nyxra as she and Cronus walked toward us.
Chapter 41
After the battle, I returned to the academy for some much needed rest.
I opened my eyes to see Bob standing in the doorway with a golden knife in his hands.
“I was wondering when you would act.”
“You knew?”
“From the moment I saw the anvil and hammer etched on Hephaestus’s armor, I knew. I also saw the symbol of faith when you dropped me and asked Cronus about it after the battle that you were conveniently absent from.”
The instant I saw Hephaestus’s armor I had recognized the symbol from the tattoo I had noticed on Bob soon after we had met.
“I’m sorry Tarous. He is my god and I have to follow him.”
“I’m a god too Bob, you could always follow me instead. I promise to never lead you astray.” Drinking too much and going to strip clubs wasn’t leading him astray in my book.
“It’s not the same. He has been a god longer than our race has existed.”
“That just makes him old, not right.”
“We were never truly friends,” he said right before he threw the knife.
His watch beeped. He had lost track of time. As it beeped, his belief in me and our friendship returned. The blade had already left his hand and spun towards my heart and it was the easiest thing in the world for me to grab the knife and throw it back towards him.
The blade sunk into his heart and he fell to his knees. It was one of Hephaestus’s golden god killing weapons. Like everything he made, they were deadly to both humans and gods.
“Why did you kill me Tarous? We are best friends?” The confusion in his voice hurt me deeper than I care to admit.
Despite having tried to kill me I walked over to him. He was still my best friend despite everything and right now he was confused and scared. A puddle of blood was forming under him. I never realized how much blood was in the human body until then.
“You are fooling yourself, God of Faith. Bob.” My voice broke as I said his name. I knelt down beside his body.
How can a god fool themselves? The God of Faith’s power was the ability to fully commit and believe in anything, even the lies we tell ourselves. It was Bob’s power to make himself completely believe the lie he was telling, even if it was only between the times of 3:00 am and 11:59 pm. To carry on his lie for so long he had to believe, to have complete faith in his own words.
“I’m sorry, Tarous,” he whispered before coughing up blood. In death his mind was completely clear, and the two Bobs merged into one in that moment.
“I really wanted to be your friend when we met. If only the reaper hadn’t chosen you to be his successor…”
There were no long goodbyes as the light faded from his eyes.
I could feel power swelling up inside me. I could feel the powers of another god flowing into my body. The powers of five gods swirled around inside of me and began to fuse.
God of Death, God of Shadow, God of Ice, God of Nature, and God of Faith. The power of five gods is what it took to transform someone into an Elder God and that is exactly what I had.
Reality seemed to change as the power of the universe descended. There was sudden enlightenment, instant understanding of the fundamental laws of reality, an entire shift in my world view. My mind was processing faster than any quantum computer.
My body was strengthened. My bones, my muscles, and every organ and component inside my body was constantly shattering and reforming. Every second I was rising in power faster and faster. My rise in power was terrifying, and the increase in power inconceivable. There seemed to be no end in sight.
My body began to change and reality began to ripple as my power grew. The five types of god power bubbled and frothed inside me. I concentrated on fusing it, but it was no easy task. The power became too great. My body couldn’t contain it. My body started to glow with a light so blinding it was like a miniature sun. Then my entire being imploded.
Nothing was left behind but a tiny rip in reality.
I was once again surrounded by nothing but blackness. This time I was floating, weightless, as if I was in a pool of pure darkness. Somehow the black nothingness was peaceful, and my body relaxed.
I could still feel the five different god powers twisting around inside me. Then the powers seemed to leave my body and five different colored orbs of energy floated in front of me. I tried fusing them together again by pushing the orbs together and it seemed much easier now. I pushed the five powers together until they formed one big ball of energy. The fusion of five types of god power resulted in a new energy that was pure black in color.
The pure black energy that didn’t contain even a hint of any other color flooded back through my body. I could see that a translucent skull was superimposed over my face. Suddenly I felt incredibly powerful. Mentally and physically supercharged. I truly felt like a god, like I could crush the sun in the palm of my hand. Like I could smash galaxies apart with my bare fist.
I became even more connected