CHAPTER FOUR

Kronos reformed in the abyssal oceans that his master slept in somewhere on the plane of madness. His eyes opened and he swam to the surface of the ocean. Kronos felt his master all around him. He was grateful for the quick return to life but angry about being the pet of another. Olympus has fallen! The Forgotten One's voice boomed in the mind of Kronos.

"I have not gotten my revenge yet," Kronos retorted. You began your revenge. They tasted your power and you were still defeated. Grow your power by destroying those that do not stand so united first. Then seek out Zeus and his companions and enact your revenge without fear of failure. The Forgotten One instructed.

"Yes, my master." Kronos choked on his response. Kronos teleported to a distant plane where he sensed another pantheon of gods waiting for their imminent doom to come.

Kronos stood on the outskirts of Asgard. Ragnarok had come and passed. A great funeral was being held to honor the fallen god of thunder and son of Odin, Thor. He had fallen during his battle against the great serpent, Jormungandr who was also destroyed in battle. Asgard quaked frequently since the death of Jormungandr. The titanic serpent held the world and the plane of Asgard together much like Atlas once held up the sky. The army of seeker-titans arrived shortly after Kronos. Kronos did a quick count of his children. Those that fell would return but not for a thousand years. His army was half what he started with off of one battle against Olympus. Kronos huffed.

"How can the gods of Olympus be more powerful than my children?" He muttered as he shook his head in disbelief. "They mourn the loss of the prince of Asgard. Bring down the walls and bring me their gods so I may feed." Kronos roared. The seeker-titans charged the walls and the horns of Asgard sounded. The armies of Asgard were seasoned warriors and experienced in battling giants and their kin. They had not ever faced a titan before. The armies of Asgard were easily stomped asunder by the army of seeker-titans. The gods of Asgard were caught off-guard during the funeral of Thor.

That day, Asgard fell to the power of the seeker-titans and their father, Kronos. Odin was mortally wounded and forced to retreat with the few survivors of his pantheon. Kronos fed on Aegir, Uller, Njord, and Forseti. Odin could not bear to watch their fates. Kronos opened his maw and swallowed the gods whole, one-by-on. Without Thor to help defend their realm they could not hope to stop the power of the seeker-titans. The body of Thor had been burned to ashes before the seeker-titans arrived or else Kronos might have considered swallowing the dead carcass just out of spite.

One-by-one, the divine pantheons fell to the power of Kronos and his seekers. Worlds were assimilated into the plane of madness. Mortals, immortals, and beasts were mutated into nightmarish versions of their former selves. Planes of the multiverse were invaded. Denizens of every plane of existence known were assimilated by the minions of madness. For the first time in divine history, gods were being hunted and constantly on the move. The Void was an infinite plane like the Abyss, but without layers. It was formless and the perfect place to create mortal worlds to hide from other gods. It was the only plane that gods could become lost in, or hide in.

*****

Gods ran from the seekers and their general. They sought refuge from their assimilation and eternal destructions. The Keeper of Secrets became the savior of the remaining gods. He could detect the hidden seeds of life. Not wanting to divulge their locations to their enemies, he became more difficult to locate. Viscus had a close relationship with the lich god. He could find his friend and led a large group of fellow gods to the Keeper of Secrets.

"What is this?" The Keeper of Secrets gasped when he saw a great number of gods within his hidden domain.

"We need your help," Viscus answered.

"The Devourer of Gods will find you and you are the only one who can find the means of stopping him." Enamor added.

"He is sure to find us all now! With so many divine powers in one location and no magics to hide us we are doomed!" The Keeper of Secrets groaned.

"You hide like a coward! The only reason to hide is to make time to find a way to destroy our enemies." Zeus scolded.

"Ask one question but make it good or we are all doomed," the Keeper of Secrets warned.

"How can we hide from a power so great as the Forgotten One?" Enamor asked without hesitation. Zeus grimaced at the thought. The eyes of the Keeper of Secrets rolled in the back of his head as the divine mind of the god wandered across time to find the answer. The answer was so far back through the ages that the mind of the Keeper of Secrets began to hurt.

"Forge a seed of life, imbue it with your divine power. Within the seed of life, forge worlds to construct our towers. The power we sacrifice will make a divine pact, the veil will conceal us and madness cannot act. Only through sacrifice can another enter the realm, those that violate the laws of the pantheon will face a fate worse than Hell." The Keeper of Secrets collapsed to the floor unconscious.

"What does all of that mean?" Apollo asked with confusion.

"It means that we have to unite our divine energies into one focus point. We will be weakened but it will create a new universe within this one and keep the Forgotten One and his minions out." Hecate explained. As a sorceress, she understood the arcane arts well enough to make sense of even the most difficult of arcane rituals. The Keeper of Secrets awoke and began standing to his feet.

"That hurt! We must have two oppositions that will act as the balance points of our seed of life." The Keeper of Secrets informed the gods. Instantly the gods began arguing over who the two supreme gods should be.

"We are all going to die!" Zeus roared. The gods silenced suddenly.

"Zeus is right. We need to put our egos aside if we want to survive. We followed Viscus and Enamor here. It was them that led us to the Keeper of Secrets. I feel they should be the two in charge of this new universe." Odin barked before Zeus could chime in again. Zeus nodded his approval to the All-Father. The gods all agreed.

"Good. Now that we have that part done, let's get started on creating the seed of life before Kronos locates us." The Keeper of Secrets scoffed. He was the first to focus his divine power on a fixed point near the twin brothers, Enamor and Viscus. The Keeper of Secrets fell to his knees when his sacrifice was completed. Enamor and Viscus looked to one another as the many gods began sacrificing their power into the focus point. The seed of life ritual was a secret beyond the knowledge of most gods. It took a great deal of power to forge a universe. One-by-one the gods fell to their knees after making their sacrifice. The focus point began to take form. It was a seed of life.

"Touch it!" The Keeper of Secrets instructed Viscus and Enamor. The two brothers put their hands on the seed of life and it pulsed. A burst of great light erupted across the planes and teleported the gods from where they were to the vacuum of the infinite Void. The seed of life began expanding until the gods that made their sacrifice were all enveloped within its veil of protection. The gods watched as the galaxy formed that they would have dominion over. They saw great flashes of light that would become stars and planets before they fell into a great slumber.

Only Viscus and Enamor were awake to see the worlds begin to take form. They felt the power to manipulate them and forge the new galaxy in their image. Two worlds were born among the solar system of planets that resembled one another, twin planets to represent the twin gods.

"Athyx," Enamor declared and life began on the world.

"Dark Athyx," Viscus declared and the twin planet began sprouting the many variants of undead beings. Creation had begun and it took its toll on the brothers. Enamor and Viscus who fell into a great slumber. That balance of power forged a semi-sentient relic of great power to uphold law and order over the gods when it came to mortal life, the Marble of Godly Doom. The first law was no direct interference from gods with mortals. A god who was provoked could not directly attack a mortal but could send a servant or avatar to do so. The second law was that all gods had to create a home plane to exist upon. Demi-gods and lesser gods could create their home planes as demi-planes on the material plane if they so desired but mightier gods were too powerful to exist on the material realm without disrupting the ritual that hid the worlds from the Forgotten One. The third law was that no outside god could pass through the barrier that shrouded the seed of life, the galaxy without being reduced to demi-god status and allowing the seed of life to absorb the remaining power to continue to enforce the laws of the pantheon.

While the gods slept, two servants were born. One served Viscus and the other served enamor. The servant of Enamor was a celestial being named the Watcher. His temple resided in the southern most reaches of Athyx far from mortals. He could venture out and guide mortals by taking on their appearance and preaching the will of Enamor. He was not permitted to be seen in his true form outside of the temple of Enamor.

The servant of Viscus was the first wraith that was birthed on what Viscus called the Dark Athyx. The First Wraith was also the first servant of Viscus and resided on the Dark Athyx where it could interact with the denizens of the world directly.