BXBX NOVEL Chapter 15: Cursed by the Gods.
With a quiet leap, Sol took off into the air like a bolt of lightning, approaching the clouds in an instant and stopping when the descending light halted just outside of the atmosphere.
[How dare you, a mere mortal-] He heard a male voice booming from the atmosphere around him, and in response, Sol chuckled and stuck his finger in his ear again.
"Trying to intimidate me to avoid a fight?" Sol asked with his brow raised. "Come on, come a little closer, come to daddy Sol and let me show you how easily a god can be broken!" Sol roared back to the skies, waving his spear angrily and causing the clouds to disappear from just swinging his weapon.
"I get it, I understand what's going on here, it's not that these people aren't praying, it's really that their gods have abandoned them, to you who created a system in place of your lazy blessings this is nothing but a game, while demons from another dimension run rampant, you treat it like entertainment!" He pointed his spear to the slowly retreating light.
[...]
"I said come and fight me!" Sol snapped again, taunting the god into action, but his taunt went unanswered a second time.
"...Or, is it that you're nothing but a coward, honestly I get it, my goddess has the power to govern an entire universe on her own, but you're a mere pantheon of separate consciousnesses, she's stronger than you are, maybe even stronger than all of you combined, you're too much of a coward to face her, or the mortal she has given herself to," Sol grinned, summoning white armour over his clothes.
[H-how dare you!] The skies boomed again causing thunder across the heavens as the light descended with a roar.
"That's more like it!" Sol's grin became feral and he turned his spear sideways, changing the weapon into a giant hammer and wailing it just as the god descended upon Arkadia slapping him back into the cosmos in an explosion that could be seen from any corner of the continent he was above.
"I don't care what you do here, but I can't stand those in power abusing it simply because they can, especially when they stick their noses into my business," Sol turned his back to the sky.
[Warm-]
[Impudence.] Sol heard the voice of another god above him, and turned just in time to block a blazing crimson sword from cleaving him in half.
[How dare you strike a god?]
"Well, this is a pleasant surprise," Sol chuckled as a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek.
"Where the hell were you hiding?" He asked staring as a female figure of white light holding a red flaming sword casually floated before him, she was as tall as a five story building, and even through the light he could see her armour and her long flowing hair, unlike the other god that had approached on impulse, this goddess was far more competent.
[Warning, Dr'ul, the goddess of war has taken spite against you]
[A curse of the gods has been afflicted upon you]
[Curse: DAMNED has been afflicted]
[Whenever facing an opponent of lower power their stats will increase by 80%]
[Whenever facing an opponent of lower stats, your overall stats will receive a 30% debuff]
"Shit, she's stronger than I expected, did I get myself killed by mouthing off to unknown gods?" Sol asked himself as another bead of sweat rolled down his cheek.
[Know your place human!] The goddess approached him in the blink of an eye and swung her ridiculously large sword again.
"Raaa!" Sol roared and swung his hammer putting his back into it and clashing against the goddess causing the skies to ripple and the atmosphere to tremble as his hammer and her sword were sent flying in two directions while her hand only shook, Sol's entire arms trembled as blood dripped from the creases of his armour.
[This is my only warning!] The goddess raised her fist and struck Sol after realising that a serious fight against him would probably kill everything beneath them, the punch itself shook Sol and caused his bones to rattle as he plummeted from the air, but before he could crash into the ground he vanished, appearing at Ikaris's side unharmed and confused.
"Interesting," Ikaris stared at the goddess of war with a smirk. "Master, shall I-"
"Don't," Sol grabbed her hand. "If you take action then all of them will join the fight, I hate to admit it but you would lose a fight like that, remember Ikaris, your immediate magic is limited," He reminded her, and a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek.
"Ah- yes, what was I thinking, I am a hero here!" She chuckled sheepishly and turned her back to the goddess as she slowly ascended with her hand that had swung the sword trembling from the aftershock of her clash with Sol.
[How in the gods did that monstrous human get summoned here, and with a foreign god too?] Dr'ul thought to herself as she disappeared. [If he behaves, he might be the answer, after all.]
"Are you okay?" Ikaris looked at Sol concerned, watching as he checked himself for any injuries. "Master?" She took his hands and squeezed them when she sensed the fear beneath his calm exterior, her blue eyes turned a sick and frightening red, and her godly demeanor became that of a devil as she stared at his hands intently.
"I am yours to command, of you give the word, I will destroy everything, their pantheon, their world, and them along with it all,"
"I just said you can't-"
"I will destroy them all!" Ikaris squeezed his hands, and Sol felt a surge of power beneath her anger that threatened to explode. "How dare they, how dare she!"
"Ikaris, stop," Sol took his hands from her grasp and rested his palm on her head, watching her calm down immediately and become docile.
"It was my arrogance that led to that encounter, technically, they're not at fault, and I may have jumped the gun with my assumptions too, it doesn't seem that their world is as black and white as we thought," He caressed her head gently. "Nobody was hurt, so let it be,"
He succeeded in calming her down at the expense of sharing the blame between himself and the gods.
"Fuck she nearly lost her shit, I don't want to fight gods like this, are you insane Ikaris!?" Sol had a meltdown in his mind as he thought of fighting a pantheon of gods.
"Thank you for getting mad on my behalf," Sol rubbed her cheek, and she hummed under his palm from being praised, but their moment was interrupted when they felt another magical presence approaching rapidly.
"I found you!"