Chapter 19

The momentI put that dried-out hunk of flesh in my mouth, my taste buds recoiled. Talk about gross. It didn't help I remained too aware I chewed something long dead.

My stomach twisted. The bitter and acrid taste made me want to retch. Instead, I chewed, chewed despite its toughness, chewed despite the grossness, chewed even as I watched the nails on my fingers turn soft and my knuckles flake, becoming red and raw.

I masticated faster and began to swallow, the dry chunks getting caught in my throat, making me gag. I wanted to spit it out. Instead, I forced it down and, despite my revulsion, noticed something interesting.

My skin stopped tingling. Even more promising, the decay of my flesh stopped. Maybe I wouldn't die cell by cell after all.

I swallowed the rest, and swore I felt it travelling down my gullet. If I lived, I really didn't want to see it when it came out the other end.

A wicked thirst and a dry mouth had me wishing for water. What I wouldn't give for a drink.

Splash.As if someone heard my wish, the trickle of water landing in a puddle had me whirling to see a basin filling with liquid. It took only a few strides before I cupped my hands and brought it to my lips. Cool and refreshing. The surprise fountain eased the pastiness of my tongue, and yet I remained parched.

My body craved something else.

"Is she dead? Can you see?" The shrill demand by Ariadne had me looking upward, the shaft I'd fallen down deep enough the top appeared as a tiny prick of light.

A blob leaned over the edge, the golden helm glinting. One of those who threw me down, trying to kill me.

Fucking asshole. My lips pursed. I wondered how he'd like to fall.

As if someone gave him a heave, the deusvenati suddenly fell in the well.

"Aah." The cry lasted only as long as his plummet then cut off abruptly, his armor crushing upon impact and doing nothing to protect the body within. Dead on arrival and I couldn't find any sympathy given what he'd done.

Too bad, not so fucking sad.

My thirst became an intense hunger, my stomach cramping, demanding sustenance, but I had no food.

The shelf by the basin suddenly held my favorite kind of pastry.

I frowned. I didn't usually eat sweets for a meal.

A bowl of pasta, still steaming, joined it.

I arched a brow. This was no coincidence. Something read my thoughts and was granting wishes. And for every wish that crossed my mind, my hunger intensified.

Coincidence? Or did this have to do with the chunk of flesh?

Suddenly, I was thrust into a vision. I could tell because the dude wandering around wasn't here in truth, and he walked right through me.

A glance down at my body showed me transparent like a ghost.

I appeared to be in the chamber at the bottom of the well before it got covered in bones. The bed still held blankets, torn in spots, stained as well. The fountain barely trickled. The man living in here was huge. Giant-sized in height and width, but gaunt. His cheeks hollowed. His appearance unkempt.

The dude, wearing a robe, paced, tugging at his beard and mumbling, "Ungrateful. Cruel." He glanced up the shaft, and I craned to see that it appeared covered. "Using my reservoir as a trap. I should have never told them about the metal. Stupid. Stupid." He hit himself in the head over and over.

In that moment I understood. The deusvenati god hadn't been killed quickly. They'd let him rot in a tiny room that sapped his magic. Trapped him and let him die slowly while madness consumed him.

How horrifying. It made me think of Typhon and how hard he must have had to work to not lose his mind. But would he succeed a second time? I dreaded what it might do to him to be trapped again.

The former Atlantean god kept pacing. "They think they're so clever. They think they can live in the paradise I made and treat me like this!" He stopped as he shook a fist over his head. "No. I'm done. Time for them to reap what they've sown. The magic is almost all gone. Soon they'll see their mistake. But it will be too late." He chuckled, and as he whirled to stomp back through my ghostly body, I saw the madness in his eyes, but I didn't grasp his plan until he'd plunged a knife into his flesh.

I gasped and gagged a little as he sawed through his own flesh, not making a single sound. The cracking noise would have made me puke if I had a corporeal body.

A beating heart emerged, dripping silver blood. As the dying god placed it in the alcove, he whispered, "To my successor I leave thee." He paused as he slumped, the hole in his chest leaking heavily. "I leave thee my godhood and planet." On his last exhalation, he huffed, "Avenge me."

I snapped out of the vision and licked my lips. The thick magic in the air coated my tongue, and upon tasting it, I hummed. "Mmm." I didn't remember power tasting so good.

My stomach fluttered.

Could fulfilling the dying god's wish be so simple?

I opened my mouth and inhaled.

Aaaah. A rush of magic entered me and lit my body.

I sucked in even deeper the next time, feeling a euphoric rush.

More, I needed more!

I gulped at all the magic they'd been dumping in the hopes of bringing back their god. A god that was dead and now being digested in my belly. His heart, now a part of me, making me a part of something bigger. I didn't understand how the chamber that slowly drained him could contain all that arcane power.

It didn't matter, because suddenly all that magic became mine, and as it flowed into me, my body jolted and my eyes closed. A tsunami of sensations hit. A torrent of information too.

Memories, not all of them mine but ghostly remnants of those who'd died screamed past my consciousness. I might have gone mad except for the fact my mind filtered the emotions out of it and kept only the pertinent parts.

As my consciousness expanded so did my awareness of the world around me.

And I meant world.

Suddenly, I could see everything all at once. From above the planet swirled with dirty clouds. When the mucky winds parted, I could see once-pristine oceans, murky and lifeless. At least on the surface. Below, far below ocean and land, sparks struggled to survive.

Waiting for a god to guide them back into paradise.

A beautiful world ruined by the deusvenati.

God killers.

The reason I was in a pit.

Behind the death of everyone in Zuzamenn.

They helped Ariadne exile Typhon.

They and Ariadne had to pay.

With the magic all mine, I exploded upwards. I didn't need a spell or even a how-to lesson. Flying was just something I could do.

I emerged from the well and floated above it, taking in the surprised expression on Ariadne's face. The golden soldiers froze in place, the women and their younglings cowered, except for one child.

A little boy pointed and said, "Pretty goddess."

Who, me?

Before I could smile, a young girl lisped, "She's naked."

A glance down showed my body nude and glowing. A nice body, I should add, but not something I wanted to expose to anyone but my lover.

It took but a thought to clothe myself, my magic fabricating the perfect outfit. A dark ensemble fit for an angry sorceress.

Because I was smoking mad.

Ariadne gaped before yelling, "You stole my power!"

She drew my attention and my smirk. "I stole?" I laughed, and the timber of it shook the very walls of the cave. "I wouldn't speak, thief."

It took but a flick of my fingers to divest her of her last remaining armband, the one that had kept Typhon weak.

It fell away, and Ariadne screeched as she scrambled to grab it. When she would have slapped it back on, I turned it to dust. I don't know how. Just that I wanted it gone and so it obeyed. Good. Nasty artifacts.

Her mouth rounded. "This wasn't supposed to happen. You were supposed to die."

"I told you to not mess with me," I growled.

"Kill her!" Ariadne screamed. "Kill her before she kills us all."

The deusvenati looked undecided. Most stood there bouncing their gazes between me and Ariadne.

Only a pair chose to advance on me. I let them.

When one of them drew near enough to swing his sword, I grabbed it and squeezed, crumbling it.

The soldier recoiled, exclaiming, "Her magic isn't affected."

An interesting thing to say and a reminder the last god had been trapped by it. It appeared I was the new-and-improved version of deity. I smiled and beckoned. "Who's next?"

The other guard thought better of attacking, but I reached for him anyhow, grabbing his cuirass and lifting him. The golden shine turned dull before the armor cracked and fell apart, leaving behind a man with wide eyes and trembling lips.

"Forgive me, goddess," he blubbered.

"Not forgiven," I spat before tossing him into the hole. He'd been the other soldier to help throw me down there. Not a bad thing as it turned out, but his intent at the time hadn't been to do good.

As I turned my gaze back, the rest of the golden-armored hit their knees, and weapons clattered as they dropped them. Their heads hit the floor as they begged for mercy.

I had no interest in them or those cowering by the wall. I sought someone else but couldn't find her.

Ariadne had fled.

Unacceptable. I wasn't done with her yet.

No one stood in my way as I floated into the corridor. I didn't know which way Ariadne had gone, and yet instinct guided me. It led me to the portal room just as Ariadne prepared to step through an archway.

"Don't tell me you're leaving so soon. We're not done chatting," I purred.

I grabbed her in a fist of power and dragged her before me.

Ariadne should have been terrified. After all, I was using my nice voice, but she turned a visage twisted with vitriol in my direction and spat, "Cunt! The godhood was meant to be mine."

"No, it was meant for a woman from a banned world with the monster god's magic. Sounds like it was always meant to be me." I smiled, not very nicely I should add. "Now to decide how to kill you. Slowly, making you scream? Do I take my time and draw it out?"

"Let me go. You've won," she whined.

"Let you go? After what you did to those innocent folk in Zuzamenn? The way you came after me and my sisters?" I spat.

"Your sisters survived."

"The townsfolk didn't."

"I kept Typhon alive," was her shrill defense.

"And sent him to the place he hated most!" The reminder had me shoving her until she slammed into a wall.

She grunted, and I liked the huff of pain, so I slammed her again. And again.

The smell of her blood pleased me, as did her terror. About time she finally showed fear.

She wailed, "You can't kill me! I know how to get to Typhon."

I cocked my head. "You're lying."

Ariadne licked her lips. "No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are." I got close enough to put my face a mere inch from hers. "You destroyed the door, and the one on Earth is a decade away."

"There is another," she hastened to say.

"You've used it?"

"Not exactly. But I know where it is. I studied up on that place. Not easily either since it's been a while since people visited. It was called Apoleia, and while it's true that most of its doors were destroyed lest the monsters that thrived escape, there are still a few. And I know how to get to one of them."

I couldn't have explained how I knew she spoke the truth. "Tell me what you know."

"If I tell you, you'll kill me," she argued. "Keep me alive and I'll show you."

"You just want to trick me!" My magic grabbed her and tossed her across the room. She landed by the tunnel entrance.

She pushed herself to her feet. "I want to—"

"False god!" The yodel came from the soldier that suddenly appeared in the doorway. I didn't have time to stop the spear. He stabbed Ariadne in the heart, his aim true and fast enough she didn't have time to make a sound. She died before telling me what she knew.

Died before I could find out how to save Typhon.

"You idiot!" I screamed and lashed out. The lightning fried the soldier on the spot, and I didn't care.

Those tin-canned fuckers had pissed me off for the last time. Time for them all to die.