Page 83 of Crimson Skies

Cassius could only stare numbly.

“Your—your brother?!” Loki stammered.

Chaos nodded. “Aion, the God of Ages. We were Chronus’s first seeds.” His expression gentled as he studied Cassius’s ashen face. “The only time Aether took physical form was when he met your mother, Arielle.” He chuckled. “Nephele’s daughter gave him a merry chase before she granted him her affections.He was there when you were born. I’ve never seen him so happy as when he held you in his arms for the first time.You are very much loved, Icarus. Heaven’s Light originally belonged to your father.” The God of Creation faltered, his expression sobering. “But, like all Primordial Gods, he is not allowed to interfere with the fate of his one and only child.”

Blood pounded in Cassius’s skull.Heaven Light’s was my father’s gift to me?!

Chaos stirred, his eyes glittering. “And now, you must return to Earth, for Ivmir and your friends need you.”

Cassius startled. “You’re just going to let us go?”

“Yes.” Chaos made a face. “Not that I don’t enjoy your company, but I hardly need Ivmir and the rest of your allies pounding on the doors of the Abyss demanding I return the three of you. I can just imagine what a terrible din they would make. The only reason I kept Hypnos here is because it was the only way to soothe his ravaged mind.”

Cassius clenched his jaw. Chaos had given him the answer to defeating Elios. It was up to him to wield the weapons within his grasp and conquer the dark God.

Loki’s quavering voice scattered his grim thoughts. “Does this mean the Nether was never needed after all? And the artifacts created to banish you bear no meaning in the future?”

Cassius blinked. He hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“Do you know how much aggro my kids would give me if you guys got rid of the Nether and those weapons?” Chaos said leadenly. “Besides,there will likely be other Gods like Elios at some stage in the future. Those who allow the divine power they should wield with virtue and dignity to go to their heads. The might of the Guardians and those artifacts are not to be treated lightly in the face of such monsters.”

35

Morgan wipedthe blood trickling down his temple, his chest heaving with his breaths.

“Again!” he barked.

Black wind and Dryad magic burst around him as he and Victor arrowed toward Elios along with their Goddess sisters and Theo. Elios screamed as they carved away at his darkness. He retaliated with seething fury, the whips lashing out from his shapeless form scoring their armor and exposed skin.

The only reason none of them had suffered fatal wounds was the divine energy and magic throbbing through their veins.

They fell back. Pan and Boreas led the next onslaught with Eden and the Gods of the Underworld.

Morgan clenched his jaw as Elios’s incoherent shriek of rage clouded the sky and filled the air with corruption. The dark God had absorbed the demonic weapons he had made inside his core, amplifying his powers.

Dammit! We’re chipping away at him but that won’t be enough to kill the bastard!

He looked down at the warring forces below, his pulse thundering.

Ladon’s flames obliterated a swath of war demons some five hundred feet from their position. The Reapers and the spirits of the Underworld were felling the last Cyclops and Nephilim with the aid of the Gargantua. The Dryads swooped across San Francisco upon their eagles, assisting the humans and otherworldly on the ground in getting rid of the hellbeasts and ghouls trying to escape. The Nereids and Naiads had disposed of the final sea monsters and were making their way toward the city to help them.

Elios’s army was all but gone.

But that didn’t mean anything if they couldn’t defeat him.

The hairs rose on Morgan’s nape with his next heartbeat. He jerked his head up in time to see shadows burst forth around Elios on an explosive wave that drove back Pan and their second charge.

The dark God blurred.

Morgan moved.

He was too late to avoid Elios’s attack.

The dark God smashed into him in a veritable storm of bubbling wrath and carried him into the sky by his throat.

“Morgan!” Victor shouted.

“Ivmir!” Tenebra bellowed.

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