Ancients‟ Royale II Wrath of Ages Christopher Ushko Copyright © 2016 Christopher Ushko All rights reserved. ISBN: 9781520978451 1 Foreword and Acknowledgements The following tale of gods and Titans turning our planet into their own personal playground is based on a true story. In fact, it may have happened last week. Nothing can be certain because of a little thing called divine intervention. With history already in flux, the accuracy of ancient mythology and world religions in this account may seem a little awry. Simply regard it all as fiction and avoid diving headfirst into any subtext. It‟s honestly not that deep. Also, hey – thanks for making it to the second book. Along with my family and friends, you‟re also included in this special thanks section because people like you are awesome. 2 Table of Contents Part I: Fall of the Fire-Bloods 1. The Morning After ........................................................ 6 2. A Night at the Opera .................................................. 14 3. The Man Who Would Be Destroyed ........................... 28 4. The Titans‟ Keep ........................................................ 47 5. Hunter‟s Tavern ......................................................... 56 6. Turbulence ................................................................. 69 7. The Hanging Gardens ................................................ 81 8. Fire and Shadow ........................................................ 88 9. Bound by Darkness .................................................... 98 10. An Aemon‟s Fury .................................................... 107 Part II: Scourge of the Titans 11. Movement in the Dark ........................................... 119 12. The First Awakening .............................................. 126 13. The Halls of Asgard ................................................ 134 14. Mission Launch ...................................................... 145 15. The Price of Fate.................................................... 161 16. Training Games ..................................................... 169 17. Landslide ............................................................... 178 18. Battle of the Serengeti ............................................ 186 19. Battle of the Serengeti, Pt. 2 .................................. 198 20. Banana Pancakes .................................................. 204 21. The Fallen Knight ................................................... 210 22. Guardian of the Dead ............................................. 215 23. The Well of Elysia ................................................... 224 24. No Way Out ........................................................... 235 25. The Fire-Blood ....................................................... 248 26. Into the Storm ........................................................ 255 III. Vault of the Gods 27. The Second Awakening ......................................... 269 28. Answers ................................................................. 277 3 29. A Vision of Despair ................................................. 284 30. Nigel the Man ......................................................... 295 31. The Present of Future Past .................................... 300 32. The Lighthouse ...................................................... 310 33. Realm of the Nightmare City .................................. 315 34. The King‟s Crux ..................................................... 321 35. Titans on Ice .......................................................... 329 36. Descent into Darkness ........................................... 343 37. Vir Ex Machina ....................................................... 351 38. Endgame ............................................................... 359 IV. Rise of the Shadow-Blood 39. The Third Awakening ............................................. 373 40. Total Recall ............................................................ 378 41. Return to Tartarus .................................................. 388 42. Twilight of the Gods ............................................... 395 43. Fall of the Zodiac.................................................... 408 44. A Soul to Keep ....................................................... 415 45. Wrath of Ages ........................................................ 421 46. Fool‟s Mate ............................................................ 430 47. Joyful and Triumphant ............................................ 437 48. Yet to Come ........................................................... 445 49. After Hours ............................................................. 452 4 Part I: Fall of the Fire-Bloods 5 1. The Morning After In the beginning, there was light. Christine Marx threw a blanket over her head as the Halifax morning sun entered her apartment window. Her head felt like a ton of bricks and her whole left side was numb from sleeping on it. As she wrapped herself in more blanket, her feet became exposed to the cold air. That‟s when she noticed she was still wearing socks. And above that were not her usual pajamas, but yesterday‟s jeans and pink blouse. And above that was her face chewing on her pillow as she tried to remember why she was hung over. Last night had been exceptionally ordinary. She hadn‟t gone out, she hadn‟t thrown a party, and she certainly didn‟t invite anybody over. At most, she remembered making travel arrangements for New York over the phone while doodling a vampire bunny on the back of her hand. Christine checked her hand and realized that between now and then, she had also drawn a Frankenstein Bunny, Wolfman Bunny, and Mummy Bunny as well. There was also a crudely-drawn Godzilla Bunny that she was positive wasn‟t her own work. She rolled over and fell out of bed. After twenty minutes of trying to sleep on the floor, Christine gave up and decided to solve the mystery of last night. She entered her living room and analyzed her 6 surroundings. Present was her studio of bunny paintings, misplaced laundry, empty bottles, and four mostly-eaten pizzas still in the boxes. There was also a man on the couch. He was tall with shaggy brown hair and a large red hoodie that looked very out-of-place given the hot weather. She immediately recognized him as a man named Jesse O‟Ryan. "Jesse?" she asked. Jesse mumbled and opened his eyes. A sly grin crept across his face. "Hey, good morning," he answered. "How are you feeling?" "I think I forgot math," she said, rubbing her head. "Think you could fill me on what happened last night? There‟s an empty tequila bottle over there and I rarely get through one a year." "You were a bottomless pit last night," he said as he sat up. "It was nice seeing you again, but we really didn‟t need to party this hard. There‟s leftover pizza if you‟re hungry.” Christine continued to piece things together in her head. Some very important details were missing, but she couldn‟t put her finger on them. "If it‟s all the same to you," she said, focusing on the pizza aftertaste in her mouth, "I think I‟ll cook up some bacon and eggs. You game?" "Hell, yeah!" Jesse said. He seemed extraordinarily satisfied with himself, as if he‟d just woken up to find out he‟d won the lottery. "You‟re unusually chipper this morning," she observed. "Oh, believe me, my head‟s killing me," he said, rubbing his temples. “You mix a mean margarita, girl." "That‟s funny," she said, grabbing her cooking pan and turning on the stove. "I thought Aemons couldn‟t get drunk." "What did you say?" he asked in surprise. 7 "Aemons can‟t get drunk, right?" she asked. "I just assumed that if your blood is forged from the fires of Heaven and Hell, you‟re automatically the designated driver." “This isn‟t right,” Jesse said aloud to himself. "So what do you do when you sleep anyway?" Christine asked. "I mean, your brain technically never needs rest, so do you just spent the night meditating or what?" “How much do you remember?” Jesse asked. “About what?” “About me!” Jesse exclaimed. “Tell me what you remember about me!” “Is this a test?” she inquired. “It‟s an emergency!” Jesse insisted. His flakiness was beginning to bother her. “You‟re a fire golem who was created nine thousand years ago to protect the key to Pandora‟s Box,” Christine said. “You lost your memory eighteen years ago, thought you were a vampire, saved me from a mugger last spring and then teamed up with your brother to save the city from Pandora last summer.” “So you remember my brother too?” Jesse asked. “Nigel?” she asked. “He‟s a grumpy old softie with a weapons locker in his bedroom.” “And Trish?” “Nigel‟s vampire girlfriend,” Christine said. “Drinks blood, makes chicken wings and doesn‟t have superpowers.” “Poseidon? Ptolemy? Patti?” “Greek God of the Sea, Zodiac Knight, Waitress. Are we going to be doing this all morning?” "Last night!" he finalized. "Do the words Deus Ex Machina mean anything to you?" "Mah-kina…?" Christine dropped her pan as her memory came flooding back. 8 She and Jesse looked at each other in complete surprise. "The gods were going to erase my memory!" she suddenly remembered. "The whole world‟s memory! It was supposed to happen at midnight!" "Exactly! You should be missing a month‟s worth of memories right now!" "So I gave myself a hangover for nothing?" Jesse tried to figured this out. "I don‟t know. Poseidon said it would happen at midnight, so he sent me here to warn you and… of course! The gods and Titans were meeting at Mount Olympus in Greece!