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Read and believe, if you will, these the words that were passed down from the very gods.....

Ages have passed, beings have come to be, and they were once called back....

An explosion echoes throughout the complex. In the largest council room, dust falls from the ceiling to a table in the center with a multi-dimensional map. Three men stand around it, dressed in very different clothing from each other as they argued and positioned soldiers as needed. One, suited in leather-like armor with chain-mail and a cape strewn with stars, turned from the table as he yelled, "Damn thee, Zeus! They ain't gonna fall for that ridiculous ploy!" The one addressed as Zeus, wearing a toga lined in lightning bolts, looked up from the map. "Of course not, Odin! That's why we let them think Ra and Krishnu's forces are the ones that are coming to attack them, from the eastern sectors, while you bring your forces here, and strike down from the mountainous regions, where they will have their backs facing." Odin grimaced. "Bah! I still say we send out two thirds of the battalions to strike their stronghold and forget about all this thrice-damned strategy!" The third general, dressed in a pleated skirt with a battle-adorned headdress sitting atop his sun-weathered brow, took this chance to have his say. "We can not have this, Lord Odin. These are not the ice trolls you yourself have fought for time untold. They are the forces of the very chaos we came from! If we face them on their terms, we only give them strength, freeing them to take us back. That is what we are fighting now, if you remember..." Odin waved his hand, conceding the point. "Aye, aye... Still, I hate this sitting around, only thinking of ways to crush the enemy when I am best suited to riding into battle and doing it however I happen to feel like at the time.... And where are those blasted Mikoto twins and their forces?!" The door behind them burst open, showing a tall, young-seeming man in dark armor with ruby trim that seemed to glow in the shadows. "They are not coming, brothers...." The three around the table looked with relief toward him, but then dismay at his words. Zeus was the the first to speak. "What... What do you mean, my brother...? Are we not at war? Can they not see that we are at war? If we do not win, they will be absorbed back into the cosmos just as we who fight!" The black armored one stepped forward, listening to his brother-in-arms words with a silent grimness. Sighing, he replied, "They know, Zeus..... But they don't care. They say they and their own shall stay or go as the universe dictates...." Gape-mouthed, even Odin, his brashness forgotten, couldn't respond for a few minutes. Eventually, he sputtered out, "Those basterds!" Zeus and Ra only stayed silent, Zeus's eyes on the armored one while Ra's followed the forces on the map. Odin shook his head in disbelief and turned to the armored one. "Well, we will have to fight, and win, without them! Ha, they will regret leaving our sides!" Silent through his tirade, the one in black spoke softly, but the other three heard him all too clearly. "The time of gods has passed and the age of mortals is approaching... If we face them as you wish, we will lose, Odin...." This time, Odin wasted no time in his anger. "What do you mean! We have you and Zeus for strategists! We-we have you, -" His mouth moved as he gestured to his ebony-armored sibling, but the word he thought to speak didn't come out. Zeus looked up, with he and Ra staring, waiting on Odin's words. Zeus spoke. "Yes, we have -, so what else say you?" Odin glared, and it was obvious he didn't like being questioned. None of them did. They were god-kings, not weak-minded fools. "What do ya mean, what else? We have him, nothing else to say! And why did you pause, Thunder-brow?" Zeus looked puzzled and replied, "Whence did I pause, brother? You yourself stopped mid-sentence...." The one in black looked at Ra with a sad smile as the sun-god mouthed the same word they had tried to speak. "I didn't stop, ya blasted fool!" Zeus began to argue back that, yes, he had, when Ra held up his hand and spoke first. "Quiet and listen, brothers." He opened his mouth and his lips moved as if to issue a word, but no sound.... "What are we listening to, your impression of a rock?" Odin spoke, obviously not impressed, while Zeus looked on with curiosity. Ra looked at the one with the red-tinged hair and said to his brothers, "I thought to speak our brother's name, as I assume you both did as well.... And I assume you heard it not...?" Odin and Zeus looked at each other then both worked their mouths to no avail. They could not speak this word! Zeus looked and was the first to speak to the ebony-clad god-king. "What is the meaning of this? What has happened that we can not speak your name?" His eyes, like burning coals, turned to his brothers each in turn. "I have done what had to be done, if we were to save any piece of our way of life... I have committed to dying." The other three gasped, for even they could not grasp such a thing. A god, dying? To lose one's worshipers, that would result in lose of power, maybe even standing, but to die.... How could this come about? Ra was the one to pose the question. With a forlorn look at his three brothers, he maneuvered the pieces on the map, which of course moved the real forces as they were needed. "A god is a living god because he was given definition and recognized as a separate part of this cosmos. He then creates and separates followers to worship him and give him power and more recognition. The only thing that doesn't change, doesn't need to change, is that which is called his definition. this is the true source of his life, the reality of himself. Without being defined, he can not live. What I have done, my dearest brothers, is made a deal with that which we came from.... In exchange for my utter death, the universe has decreed that the rest of you shall be allowed to keep your dominion, as long as the place of man is kept established...." Zeus and Odin raised their objections, droning each other out, while Ra looked at the movements on the map. Raising his hand, the dark one silenced the two great debaters and spoke into the silence. "It was the only way...." With a curse, Odin replied, "How can that be the only way?! Why can't we fight and you survive?!?" Chuckling his brother looked at him, the glow in his eyes dimming slightly. "Because it is, brother..... By doing this, my followers and all mortals lose every bit of knowledge they have gained of me, and even you will lose something as well. You already see the corruption spreading into you, my closest brethren.... Soon, even the knowledge of what I could once do will be gone from your minds...." Only silence greeted his statements. In this, only their most powerful brother could tread. They saw this, even if it was hard to swallow.... With his words complete, he moved again toward the door. "Where do you think you are going...?" Odin spoke, but it was Zeus who moved to stand in his way, a tear tracing down his cheek. Looking over his shoulder, the raven-haired man could only smile at his battle-forged brother. "I find I am like you, dearest Odin.... I wish to fall with my blade in my hand, end this with a furious roar, not a sigh...." Odin nodded and Ra spoke next. "And Tiamat? Your steed, you would let her fall beside you, or do you think she would be agreeable to letting you go on this last adventure alone?" Shaking his head, he responded to his glowing sibling, "No, I would have her beside me in the end, but I shall not let her fall with me... At the end, I will send her away. I expect she will rage for a time, but she already has some worshipers so she will find some distraction in the ages to come.... Just watch out for her, eh, my brother....." Ra bowed, arms crossed over his heart in honor for this one's sacrifice. Looking toward Zeus, the dark one knew his words would come next. These two were the closest, bouncing ideas off of each other for untold times. Zeus's words were soft in the dim room, standing with his massive muscles blocking his brother from his destiny, still trying to protect that which needed none. "Why.... Why must it be you, -" He knew no one would hear the name, but still Zeus spoke it to himself. The ebony-clad one lifted his gauntleted hand and rested it on his brother's shoulder, slight pressure moving him to the side. As he stepped through the doorway, he called back without turning, "If anyone asks about this day, and they will.... Tell them only that I was one who gave so nothing had to be taken...... I'll be seeing you..... Hey, I may even remember you one day......" No more words, it was time for him to go, time for his destiny. Once he was gone, it was only Zeus who stayed away from the table in the center of the table. The other two watched as a large form made its way into view. It was a huge dragon, Tiamat the Devourer, with her rider, her master, her only partner atop of her. As they watched, this is what they saw... The forces of the cosmos, those serving it alone, stood arrayed against the battalion following the gigantic steed. As the forces clashed, those in the room felt in their very being each stroke of their brother's blade, each wound he took in their stead, each oath uttered from his lips. Tears flowed freely between them, and it was sure that the one on the field of battle felt their hearts with him. As Odin and Ra watched, they saw him leaping from his partner, waving her away from him and to freedom. With a cry of flame and rage, she soared into the sky, circling like a scavenger bird that sights its prey, before taking off to another destiny, another story. The war cry of their brother, of a god, echoed through reality as he struck with renewed force into the surrounding foes. His wounds grow worse, his blood flowed freely and his attacks grow more erratic and weak. Finally, he lifted his black-etched blade high into the air, yelling out to the cosmos, his words barely audible even from the great distance. The words spoke of an oath fulfilled, an oath made and done...... The final blow struck him, more following but the damage was done. His body fell, and knowledge fell as well. His forces scattered, confused over not knowing why they were even there... With a curse, Odin turned from the death as Ra looked on, always analyzing. Zeus moved back to the door and Odin called out to him, wondering where he was headed. "I am off to honor my brother. I go to collect his body and give him the rites he deserves as the greatest god-king of us all......" Odin swore and moved to follow, Ra gave one final look the map before heading after his brothers......

Time passes, eons come and go, someone wakes.........

"Well what are we to do, let him wander this realm with no knowledge of it's dangers?!" The voice was was deep and booming, like distant thunder while the one that replied was like a soft ripple of sunshine on a meadow. "Of course. He was once one of us, not only that but the greatest among us seven. Just him being alive in even this mortal form is proof of this." The thunder grumbled irritably. "Still, we can not let him be without a guiding light! Your own points testify to that, you must agr-" The silken voice of sunshine flowed into the current of thunder, stopping it in it's tracks. "Quiet, he stirs! I think he is awake...." Movement is heard, and a clothe is taken from the eyes. Before him stood a tanned man wearing a smile and a golden skirt, while just behind him, looking as anxious as a new mother, stood a heavily muscled man with white hair and a toga hung haphazardly over his bulk. Two golden arm-guards enclosed his forearms, embossed with a lightning bolt. The one looking upon this sits forward but is struck with a heavy dizziness. "Nay, don't try to move yet," called the silken sunshine, now revealed to be the voice of the tanned one. "Rest, you are safe...." The one in the toga revealed his own voice to be the thunder as he whispered, "How, how is he? Is he well? Are you well?" The last was directed to the one lying down, but no answer was forthcoming. Only a look of confusion, then surprise as he looked down at his body. Armor was in place of skin, glowing red like the hottest embers of a raging fire., Lifting his hand, he inspected the claw-like fingers on his gauntlets. "Wha-what's going on.... Who are you people? Who-who am I....?" This was mostly asked to himself, for he could drudge up no recollection of these two nor even of himself! "What does he mean, Ra? What does he mean, who are we?" The burnished one, Ra supposedly, turned to the speaker, the rumbling one. "Quiet, brother Zeus. He would have no memory of the knowledge before he died, or else he wouldn't have had to be dead, now would he?" The one in red looked back and forth between them, confusion in much too great evidence on his face. "What are you talking about?! I'm not dead, I'm alive!" Ra turned to him and spoke simply, "Yes, you are. But you aren't, are you....?" With those words, neither of them, not even the one called Zeus, would answer any other questions for a time. During which, the one in red was given food in bed and eventually let out into the main areas of the small house where he now sat on the veranda, listening to birds chirp as the two watched from a distance. In his hands sat a book, forgotten for the moment. It was one of many he had read over the days he had spent here, in between learning his abilities, surprising that they were. Looking to each other, the two across the room nodded in silent consensus and moved to sit before him. "I believe, since you now know some basic things about this world again, it's time to tell you some of the story...." Ra spoke first, but was quickly interrupted by the red one. "Some of what story? You people are crazy, just let me go...!" Zeus growled, silencing his protests effectively. Ra's word were soft in comparison, but no less effective. "Unfortunately, we can not let you roam yet, at least until we give you some basic knowledge.... You have told us you do not know us, yet we know you." The crimson-armored one scoffed at this, saying, "Oh? Then you would tell me my name, now wouldn't you?" Ra sighed and stated that, in fact, he could not. "Yes, I figured as much! You don't know me any more than I do, so just let me out so I can find someone who does!" Zeus spoke now, saying, "He can't, not because he doesn't know, but for the same reason you don't know it!" This silenced him, confusing him as he thought about those words. "What Zeus means, is that because of something you did, you shouldn't exist and in fact don't, at least the you that made the choice..." Ra motioned to the book, which the one in red handed to him. Ra marked his place and set it to the side, continuing. "By these books, you at least know now that we are two gods, in fact two of the six recorded god-kings that sprang from the very cosmos." The crimson one leaned forward, interrupting with, "Wait, what do you mean recorded? You mean there was more than you six?" Nodding, Ra answered, "Yes, and that one was you, my brother..." He could only gape slack-jawed at the two as they watched his reaction. "Oh, come now! How could I be a god, especially a so-called god-king!? I've seen you two, you can do things beyond anything I could even attempt!" Zeus rumbled out, "You are not a god-king now, you fool! You died and were erased!" He could only stammer out the question as to how, and they told him. They told him of how they came to be, what they did in this realm, how the cosmos sought to wring them back into itself for the age of man. They ended with the tale of how he had come on the final eve of battle, declaring the traitor-god and proclaiming his insane plan. An insane plan that worked, giving them a place in the new ages while his body had lain, untouched, until that which passes for a god's heart stirred. It signaled what they had hoped for, but only Ra and Zeus had came in answer. Odin and Krish-nu stayed in their domains, dealing with the ever-increasing business of being a god in a mortal's world. The traitor-god had stayed in his land, fearing retribution from the others for abandoning them to the whims of fate. Once they were finished telling the tale, he could only sit, dumbfounded. They were gods, they had no reason to lie to him and it was too fantastic to be a lie, in any case. Looking up, he asked what was to happen now. "Zeus believes you should be kept here, away from the dangers of this new world, and I partially agree, for you are something that has never happened before, and we must know more about it......" In his head, he could only think, They mean to imprison me here, study me like some experiment... He tuned out the two gods as they began arguing amongst themselves about his fate. They left him then, moving to a new room so as not to bother his thoughts and so as to better avoid letting him into their own councils. They were still gods, and they had grown used to not letting others listen as they discussed what they wanted, and his rebirth wasn't strong enough to change that. He looked away, listening to the bird again, wishing he had the same freedom as the small creature. Looking up, he smiled broadly. He did have the freedom! Standing slowly and moving to the large open window, he closed his eyes and concentrated. From his crimson back, bulges squirmed and grew. They quickly shaped themselves into large wings, strong enough to carry him from this place. Leaping outward and soaring off, he looked down over the lands below, as free as he had but a moment ago dreamed for. Back in the house, Zeus and Ra looked on, with Ra speaking. "Nay, let him be. You can watch from a distance, brother, but we both know he must find his own way, win his own destiny. It is what he gave us, so now we must return the gift to him...." He would indeed make his own way, flying by night and walking in the day, eventually coming to rest in the back streets of a small city in the dead of night. Looking out into the town, he tried to keep from being spotted. Alas, his old nature wasn't completely gone as, upon seeing an old man surrounded and accosted by a group of young thugs, he stepped into view. His armor made a few of the young men nervous, but the leader was either more courageous or less intelligent. He stepped up to our hero and asked, "What do you want, scum?" Our crimson-clad hero ignored him for the moment and instead focused on the elder. "Are you unhurt....?" The old man nodded weakly while the young leader scowled. He wasn't used to being ignored, and he wasn't going to stand for it. Sticking his finger in the armored one's face, he said, "Listen, boy, if you don't wanna get hurt yourself, you better back away now....." The other thugs had at least kept their brains intact as they started to move back. Common sense was a rare thing for them, but in this instance, they all knew that their leader had just stepped in it and they didn't want to follow in this venture. The leader, on the other hand, hadn't noticed his compatriots' choice and sneered with little regard. Once he realized the armored stranger wasn't moving, he lifted his fist brought it down as hard as he could upon the others jaw. When it struck, he had the unfortunate chance to hear the bones in his fist cracking. With a yelp, he fell back and, nursing his mangled hand, took off past his fellows who followed right quick. The old man hadn't noticed any of this, but our hero stood dumbfounded. He had felt the contact, but no pain. It had been as if the thug had caressed his chin with a finger, not hit him hard as was possible.... Putting these thoughts aside, he knelt next to the elder and helped him up. They began to make their way to the elder's home, our hero supporting the old man easily, as the old one's words drifted through the cool night air. "Thank ya kindly, young'n... I'm Master Halzic, the farrier in this town..... Ya remind me of my son, Marius.... He was an idiot who jumped into everyone's business, too.... Heheh, saved my life, and a few others, many a time he did...."