A man named Xavier Plorer discovers a way into a world that perfectly mirrors Greek mythology. He must defeat a demon named Skia who is attempting to destroy this world.

Chapter one, The Exhibition

It was a stormy night in a land of strange creatures; where nymphs frolic and satires roam the lands. It was as if the land was the embodiment of all the Greek myths and more that we don’t know, soon to be destroyed. On a high mountain made of coal and other black materials, a smoky phantom with a red dot in its chest working as its sole eye, hovered over the frightening mountain mumbling of how this world would soon be his. As if intended to make this seem more dramatic, lightning struck three times; yet after this the phantom seemed to look sort of frazzled and breathed out a puff of smoke from the fact that the third lightning bolt hit him. The specter then tumbled down the mountain in extreme agony.

A few hours before the thunder struck in that distant world a man named Xavier was on an archaeological dig and would start a whole chain of events by his partner dropping a rock near his head.

“Look out!” hollered the man to Xavier as a warning of the rock. At the last possible moment; Xavier lifted his head to see what his assistant was talking about. After he lifted his head the rock fell down to his feet and broke into multiple shards.

“Good grief, if I didn’t lift my head, it would’ve been my head that would be the tiny little pieces instead of the rock! You should be more careful Austin!” said Xavier in a very shaky voice. Xavier was a plain man. He had white skin, red hair, and very calming eyes.

“Sorry about that sir, but I thought that I saw something in that rock, so I just had to bring it to the camp and have it examined, but it was heavier than I thought it was and it just slipped out of my hands,” said a trust-worthy Austin. Austin shared the same last name as the famous explorer Marco Polo but he had no relation with the famous man. He had more heritages in ancient Greece; he went to this archeological dig so he could learn more about his heritage.

“Well you should have should have asked someone to help you carry it either way, if it had as much value as you thought it did, you couldn’t risk breaking it.”

“I will be more careful next time sir.”

Xavier started to move the pieces of the rock from where they currently were being that he was digging there and they were in his way. When he cleared away a pile of rocks he noticed a certain rock that was different from the others. This one was a piece of onyx, as dark as ink. It was carved into the shape of a capital Sigma, the Greek equivalent of the letter “S”, surrounded by rock.

“Perhaps that rock was more valuable than you thought it was Austin; this rock contained an onyx gem in the shape of a capital Sigma. Please help me look for more!” The two searched for a while but they couldn’t find anymore gems like the first. However; the rock caused enough impact on the ground that it seemed to reveal a small cavern. They both looked curiously at the small opening of the hole and after enough time they opened it more so they could get through. Xavier looked in the cavern with the use of a lantern and discovered it was a glorious trove of Greek tales, some weren’t even recorded stories! Xavier pulled his head out and screamed in excitement. “We’re rich! We’re famous!”

“What are you talking about? It’s just an air pocket right?”

“NO! WE’VE DISCOVERED A LOST LIBRARY! ONE LIKE NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE! IT HAS THE STORIES WRITEN ON THE WALL!”

“On the wall?” asked a puzzled Austin, “Are you sure that rock didn’t hit you on the head?”

Xavier finally got into his inside voice and continued “I’m sure I didn’t, look for yourself.” Xavier pulled Austin over to the hole and showed him where he saw the words on the wall.

Austin suddenly leaped out of the pit and started jumping around yelling “We’re rich! We’re famous!”

“Now we shouldn’t get to excited; after all we might make the same mistake as you did earlier and be infamous instead. You go and get some of the other’s to help while I look around the hidden library and see if I can translate the stories on the walls.” Austin nodded his head and went to get more diggers. Xavier got out of his bag a mountain climbing kit and hammered the stake into the ground, tied the tether onto the rope, clipped the tether to himself, and slowly moved downward. The way to the ground was a very long one and he didn’t want to make a mess on the ground with himself. Half way to the ground Xavier noticed that he was slowly falling in short jerks. He looked upward and he saw that the stake wasn’t put in tight enough and he was going to fall! Knowing that he couldn’t make it back up to the top before the stake fell out and that he would make his fall even worse by going back up, he decided to go downward so that the fall would be much easier on him. He got a quarter of the way down before the stake fell out. It was very convenient that he had a hard hat on before he went down because the stake had fallen down with him and would have split his head open. Xavier was hurting all over his body from the fall. The room appeared to go on for many miles with words on every single foot of it. There was a statue of Zeus right in front of Xavier. Zeus was surrounded by thunderbolts being that he was the god of thunder as well as the king of the gods. At the bottom of the statue there were some more inscriptions. Xavier started translating that first. The inscriptions said…

“This is a sacred library set aside for all the stories of our glorious gods. The ink used to write these stories is sacred ink. It is said to be given to us by the gods so their tales will be known for all of eternity… but our oracles and seers warn us all that by doing this we’ve placed our gods into another world where they can no longer grant us their gifts and have put them in danger of being destroyed. We fear they are right for our glorious king has died and his four generals have been fighting over the land ever since. Our only hope is of another story that the seers tell us of. A man with brown clothes and wielding a large stick with two pointed ends will enter this world and with the power of the gods granted to him, he will free the gods by slaying a terrible demon known as _kia”

The inscription stopped there. Xavier was disturbed by the fact that those seers had described what sounded like an archeologist. He also noticed that the last word had possibly a segment of it missing. It seemed to be in the shape of the onyx piece Austin found earlier, along with the other letters of the last word.

“Perhaps it’s a puzzle.” thought Xavier to himself. He then placed the Sigma shaped onyx into the first slot.

All the gems turned into that black mist and were sucked into the words on the wall. Then, the words started bleeding ink; it covered the walls and the doors on the sides also. Eventually it sealed up the hole in the roof too. Xavier was in total darkness again. He then saw this strange red dot gliding over to him. He couldn’t see what it was because it was as black as the rest of the room. It then started to laugh in a very deep and menacing voice. Xavier felt these damp tentacles slowly creeping up his body until his head was the only thing left uncovered. Then, he started to sink into the ground. Xavier started to scream but it was muffled before it could get out.

Xavier later woke up in a different place than he was before…

Perhaps it was the world mentioned on the statue of Zeus!

Chapter Two

The Greek god Underground

Xavier was unconscious for a great deal of time, but when he woke up, he was woken by the sound of a lyre. There was very little light in the room, and mixed with the fact that his eyes weren’t in focus made it so Xavier couldn’t tell what was happening. The best he could tell was happening was that he was kidnapped and was in the middle of a bunch of drunken men in fuzzy pants dancing to the sound of this lyre, which frankly was the most civilized thing in the room. The music stopped for a while and everyone was staring at Xavier. A man walked over in to him and started to speak to him.

“Ah, yes! You’re finally awake,” said the man in ancient Greek. Xavier was puzzled by this until his eyes got adjusted to the light and even still he was sort of confused. Right in front of him was Austin, who for some reason decided to wear a golden robe.

“What’s the prank this time Austin? Are you trying to make me look like a loony?” Xavier paused because of the fact that he wasn’t speaking English either. He was speaking fluent ancient Greek! He then drew his attention to the men in fuzzy pants. They weren’t men; they were Satyrs! In an utter shock, Xavier scooted back from the group of mythical creatures and reached for the nearest thing to defend himself with. “Stay back! I’ve got a fig and I’m not afraid to use it,” said Xavier, who suddenly realized how ridiculous that sounded.

The supposed Austin laughed at how his guest reacted to the new surroundings. “I think that some explaining is required here. My name is Apollo, mighty god of the sun.”

“How do I know you really are? After all, the Austin I know would pounce at the chance to make me look like a fool.”

“By the River Styx I vow that I am who I say I am.” Instantly Xavier knew that this was Apollo; no matter how crazy it may seem. The first reason that he knows this is that Austin doesn’t know enough Greek mythology to know the greatest oath of the gods; secondly, if he did know that vow he wouldn’t be the one to abuse it. Because a prankster though he may be, he would not back against his word.

“Why are you in such a place as this and how did I get into this world,” said Xavier in great curiosity.

“You are here because you have placed the missing piece of the inscription on Zeus’ great statue at the sacred library, and thus, opening the portal to our world. I am here because the portal you opened has brought another creature into our world. The demon that the seers warned about. He has nearly conquered our world by capturing the other eleven Olympians and hewing the deceased spirits of twelve mighty beasts to them. The world and even the under world have nearly fallen into his grasp. All who are left are a small hand full of Satyrs, Pan, some scattered minor gods, and me. Yet I hold hardly any power for he has imprisoned Helios, leaving me powerless.”

“But the inscription said that your world was in danger. So why did this demon enter your world with me?”

“You truly haven’t finished all of the trials. You are meant to cast out this demon, Skia, from five worlds. If you succeed in all the worlds, you will be proven to be the mightiest mortal ruler of all eternity,” responded Apollo.

Xavier then got together to say that he’ll help him cast out this creature. “I don’t think that talking is going to get rid of Skia; let’s get on with saving your world.”

At that moment, Pan, the god of nature, stood up and said his thoughts. “Personally Apollo I don’t think that you should trust someone who brought this smoking pit of destruction into our world to stop him.”

“Pan!” yelled Apollo back at the goat-man, “This is no time to lack trust in each other! If he is a servant of Skia we have nothing to lose, our food is running short and our forces are dwindling. Now, open the door,” Pan then turned his face from the two and with a breath of distrust he opened the door with a very shrill note from his pan-pipes. The boulder standing as a door from the outside started to shake and slowly rolled away to reveal the outside world. Even though it was mid-day there was hardly any light. The outdoors was tinted with a dim, red light; like when there’s an eclipse. The grass had obviously not grown for a while, for lack of sunlight most likely. “This is the power of Skia, the demon of ink. He has made the land barren and useless by sealing away Demeter, and thirsted the population to death by capturing Dionysus and not giving the people wine for proper drink. Finally he has removed all hope by stealing away Helios, the sun, who got in the way before Skia could subdue me. If you go along with saving our hopeless world you will fight the full force of the gods. Are you sure you wish to venture forth?” Apollo phrased in a slow and depressed voice. Xavier nodded. “Then we shall start with facing Demeter. She has become a mighty flock of harpies which should be fairly easy for you strange sword to strike. We shall venture forth and go to the center of this great field where she feeds”

The path to the center of the field was very long and boring path. When they finally reached the place, it was obvious that there used to be a temple of some sort because of how there was marble pieces lying all over the place on the red earth. Many scraps of food were lying on the ground rotten or rancid yet most of it was obviously chewed on recently. There was a very menacing sun soaring above them that gave off a red glare from a pitch black center that seemed to describe death itself.

After a few seconds of staring at the pitiful ruins Apollo looked up and saw some strange dots coming from the west, they were fighting each other in aggressive ways as they got closer and closer until he could figure out what they were. “Steady your weapon! The Harpies approach,” yelled Apollo just before they swarmed by the thousands. Xavier tried to strike them but they were very swift and wouldn’t stay still long enough to get hit with his pick-axe.

“This is doing no good,” thought Xavier to himself, “I have to stop them for a while.” As if an answer to his thought, the harpies settled down to enjoy some food. You see, these harpies weren’t very bright, being that they had no need to use their brains for anything, so they couldn’t think of anything but food. Now Xavier could strike the harpies. He swung and killed a group of them, and after killing ten, a rather unique harpy stared at him with beady eyes and then looked at its dead friends. It shrieked in rage, and in a fury, attacked Xavier. The harpy attacking Xavier was truly unique compared to the others; for one thing, it had a more orange like skin and feathers, its hair seemed to sparkle and give the illusion of there being a crown on it, and certainly, there was the fact that it was smarter than the others. It flew swiftly around Xavier, scratching his clothes and scathing him. Smarter than the other though it may have been, it still seemed to fly in a pattern, and when Xavier found that pattern, he just stuck his pick in the way of the pattern and hit it directly in the head.

The harpy fell to the ground in an ear splitting cry, and almost like in response, the other harpies fell to the ground in equally ear splitting cries. The strangest part was yet to come though; the orange harpy seemed to sort of become a mere outline, like a sketch on a piece of paper. The strange happening also revealed that there was a crown on the harpy’s head, it was made out of cornucopias, and each cornucopia had a different symbol of Demeter on it as well. The other harpies seemed to slowly darken as they turned into what looked like ink. The ink from each of the harpies then flowed over to the dead Queen harpy, and as soon as all the ink flowed into the outline of the Queen, it all was soaked into the crown of cornucopia, which in turn fell to the ground and rolled to Xavier’s feet. Before his very eyes, the temple also reconstructed into a magnificent temple with a statue of Demeter in the center.

“Well done Xavier, you have nearly freed Demeter from her bondage. All that is left is to place that crown in front of Demeter’s image and she’ll be free.”

“But why did the harpies just turn to ink like that?”

“Right now is not the time, just do what I said.” Xavier agreed that that was not the best time to ask questions and placed the crown in front of the statue.

Suddenly, the statue started to crack. Pieces of stone flaked off like scales, revealing skin. The stone shed off and Demeter was left in its place. Her robe was brown like barley, she wore bracelets made out of flax seed, and her hands looked like those of a dedicated farmer yet smooth to the touch. She then opened her mouth to speak and her words sounded as calming as seeing grain sway by a cool summer breeze. “Young warrior,” she said in a soothing voice, “Thank you for freeing me from the bondage of that fruitless beast of destruction. He has made the other deities into horrible and savage monsters with the use of the magic ink that created him as well as banished us to this world. I hardly have any power to bless the earth to grow crops, because although Apollo is not under his power. Helios, the sun, is mere a shadow of his true self. While he is the beast known as the Python, a creature of wrath has taken his place as the sun; its name is Caseipetron; the burning stone. It circles the planet striking down men who still don’t bow to Skia with its blazing eyes and scorches those who bow to Skia, and burns all their crops to encourage them not to rebel. Now that you have shown rebellion to the smoking beast, Caseipetron will hunt you. I encourage you to stay here till night, for Caseipetron cannot hurt you in here.”

Apollo and Xavier agreed to stay in the temple till night fall and till then they spoke together. “So,” started Xavier, “Why is it safe to go at night but not day?”

“Because Caseipetron only wanders the earth during the daytime. Helios’ indentured sister, Selene, takes the night watch. There is nothing to worry about with though, as she would only cause trouble if you draw enough attention that Skia would go after you himself. There is also trouble on the fact that the dead wander the land,” said Demeter, “When Hades was captured, he was bound to Cerberus as his fourth head, putting Cerberus into a fit of confusion. He then darted into the under-world and thrashed at everything in sight. A small amount of the deceased decided to escape the underworld while they had the chance, but they only learned they would be turned into a small group of soldiers for Skia. There shouldn’t be much trouble from them either though, as they’re weak, and are very rarely seen.”

“Excellent, so now we need to decide which deity to free next. I say Helios, so that Demeter may bless the earth.” said Xavier.

“Nay, I fear that he would be to strong, and over whelm you. I say we free Athena so you may have wisdom.”

“I agree Athena is the best for now, rest for the journey.” said Demeter. Before Xavier took his after-noon nap, he decided to look around the small temple. There were four pillars holding up the building each made out of marble. The wall behind the statue of Demeter was covered by fruit trees and bushes. He noticed that there was a fig tree that grew red figs. He remembered that there was one lost story that he saw in the library that had to do with red figs, but he couldn’t make out the story entirely. Xavier then picked a red fig. It was slightly heavier than a regular fig. The fig had an almost bloody flavor that also seemed to result in him falling fast asleep.

Chapter Three

The Temple of Dionysus

When Xavier was unconscious, he had a dream. A dream where he was standing alone in a field where grapes were growing at great speeds and quickly wound around anything they could. But when the grapes were fully grown they burst open and made a stream of blood. The stream was heading straight for a nearby town and would have wiped it out if it weren’t for the fact that he was awakened at that moment.

Xavier woke up with a great shock from what he had just seen. “What happened?” asked Xavier.

“You had eaten the fig made out of the blood of Prometheus.” said Demeter.

“It is a forgotten part of the tale of how Prometheus was punished.” said Apollo. “When the first drop of blood hit the ground when the eagle first ate his liver, it grew into a strange fig that when eaten by someone, will put them to sleep and give them a vision of the future.”

“Then what I saw will happen. I saw these grapes that grew to great size and made a flood that would’ve wiped out a village if you two didn’t wake me up”

“Grape vines are a symbol of Dionysus! I have seen grapes growing near a village that refuses to bow to Skia and built their village under a large rock so that Caseipetron can’t strike them down! Skia must be using Dionysus to flood the village (Poseidon couldn’t flood them because the village was land-locked); we must hurry and stop him!”

Xavier got together his “weaponry” and started to head for the next temple when Demeter stopped him. “Before you go, please take this horn. With it, you can bring crops to harvest.” The horn that she gave him was simply a cornucopia that had its tip cut off and had multi-colored wheat tied to the front. Xavier didn’t know how this would work but he took it anyway.

The fields were cool at night, Skia didn’t seem to plague the night with a monstrous beast because there was still a pure white moon. The roads seemed to be safe from the dead that night and the temple of Dionysus was very near.

The temple of Dionysus seemed quite plain from the outside but it could go on for miles from the fact that it was built into a mountain. Xavier would have just walked into the temple if Otis and his brother weren’t standing guard outside of the temple. Xavier started to wonder how to deal with the two brutes being that he could not beat them in combat because they could over power Zeus himself.. Desperate for something to use against them he blew the cornucopia horn that Demeter gave him.

Grape vines started to rapidly grow onto the walls all around the entrance to the temple and being so close to the temple of Dionysus, the grapes instantly burst open and oozed rich, sweet, bubbling wine. Otis and Ephialtes could not resist the delicious wine and started to get all the wine they could. After they had a couple hundred cups full of wine they became greatly drunk. One of the two actually was so drunk that he dug into some nearby sand started bathing and after asking for some Worcestershire sauce (which didn’t exist yet) to scrub his hair with and then complained about there being to many pickles in his tub. Just to tease the two drunks Xavier ducked out of the way and threw a pebble at Otis.

“(Hiccup!) Hey, why did you schoot that arrow in my ear (Hiccup, hiccup!)?” said a stoned Otis who confused the pebble thrown in his eye with an arrow shot in his ear.

“Well you called thisch tiger on me firscht.” snapped back Ephialtes thinking that the squirrel cuddling up on his foot was a vicious tiger scratching at him.

“Hwi (hiccup) you! Do you want to fchight (hiccup)?”

“I schure do!” The two giants then started throwing rocks at each other and fell to the ground at the same time, dead as a drawing on a piece of paper.

“Well… That was interesting. Wasn’t it?” said Apollo completely surprised by how much one pebble did. “I must say, the way that Athena and I defeated those two wasn’t half as interesting to watch as yours was!”

Xavier looked at Apollo with a sort of guilty face. “Yes, it was but I sure do feel guilty about killing the two. I mean, I’ve gone bird hunting but I’ve never killed someone.”

“Fear not, they were only shadows, illusions that have the same power as the real thing, but without life of their own. This is the way of all of Skia’s minions.” Mentioned Apollo as he pointed over two the dead bodies which like the harpies, were becoming a mere outline, except that they then turned into black dust that blew in the direction of an outline of Caseipetron’s blood red sunrise.

“Come on! We need to get inside!” yelled Xavier as he was running for the shelter of the temple.

The temple was a very long and winding hallway that had stone leopards on the walls; some were ready to pounce with great strength and speed and some were peacefully resting. After wandering around in the long hallway for a few hours Xavier and Apollo came across a giant door that was even still about 300 yards away. The two rushed over to the door but before they reached it, they were stopped by a white bull with wisps of flame coming out of its nostrils. It was the fire-breathing bull that plagued the Cretans for a great time! Its eyes fumed with vibrant streaks of red and orange like in a fire, and it had a pitch-black nose, horns, and hooves. It opened its mouth to roar but no sound came out. Instead a blazing fire with heat that no one has ever seen (or technically felt) before. The bull charged at Xavier with great strength, but he dodged it in the nick of time.

Oddly, instead of Xavier falling frightened by the mighty bull, he was actually quite glad the bull came along. He jumped around like a mad-man for a few seconds and then reached into his bag and got out a red cape. Xavier had had experience being a matador from an earlier dig site in Spain where he learned to bull fight. He learned how to do this so that he could get a feel for how the native Spanish lived.

Xavier figured that instead of going through having to get scathed in painful ways by getting close to the beast to strike, he would use its speed and strength against it. So he propped himself near a wall and stood in a good position. He waited for the bull to charge and when it did, he dodged and it ran into the wall. The ceiling in turn started to crack and then fell on top of the bull. Black mist rose to the top of the hallway in curls that slowly disappearing into thin air. The rock pile rolled apart as more and more of the remains turned into smoke, eventually revealing a woman. The woman seemed to be elderly and wore a purple robe. Xavier approached to the seemingly dead body to examine who it was, and after close observation he realized it was a Maenad, one of the Nymphs who raised Dionysus.

The body slowly started to twitch which startled both Xavier and Apollo. She started to stand up and after looking around for a while she spoke. “Thank you for reviving me from that wicked and horrible beast.” she said with a quavering voice from the whole trouble that happened. “When that evil spirit came to this world, he left the spirit of the Minotaur in Dionysus’s place and made me the fire-breathing bull of Crete to guard him; but now that you have freed me, I will give some of Dionysus’s power to you; The power to ferment and age plants and animals!” She then reached into her pocket and brought out a bag of what looked like powder. “To use this fine magic powder, put a little in your hands and blow in the direction of the item you want to age. Remember, this can only work on plants and animals, not stones and other non-living items.

Xavier and Apollo then turned to the giant door that the fire-breathing bull was guarding. What a magnificent door it was! The door was made out of pure marble and on the marble, in gold framing was a picture of a gallant Greek pirate ship with Dionysus on the ship; vines were also growing and breaking the masts and main-frame of the ship. Many people were jumping off the ship but something caught Xavier’s eye. Some of the people in the water were a more grey colored skin and a few had either a snout or fins on their elbows and/or the back of the neck. The lower and lower he looked, the more and more the people looked like some sort of fish.

Apollo found it best for some reason to startle Xavier by just saying out random, “My, isn’t it a wonderful picture of the transformation of men into dolphins? You can actually see them moving if you look close enough.” and Apollo was right, if you looked close enough at the picture you could see the men who were diving, actually dive into the sea, and the men turning into dolphins slowly looked more and more like dolphins until they started gleefully playing with each other like real dolphins do.

“Now how exactly do we OPEN the door?” asked Xavier in curiosity.

“That my friend is hard to tell. Being that the door is too heavy for two beings to lift and I have no power because, without the true sun circling our earth, I’m left with none of my godly powers. We’ll just have to find another way on how to open the door.”

The two started thinking for sometime. Xavier eventually got so desperate that he asked the dolphins in the painting how they could open the door. To his surprise, the moving images of the playful dolphins started to somewhat “point” to some small dots on the ground. Xavier then remembered from his amateur days of being an archeologist when he would examine and recognize small seeds for agricultural studies, that those were very large grape seeds.

Xavier quickly got out the horn that Demeter gave him and blew with great strength. The room was silent for a while, silent except for the dolphins in the painting that were swimming as fast as they could off the edges of the painting. The grape vines suddenly burst out of the ground, wrapping themselves around the giant door, eventually squeezing it to the point of breaking. Now the problem was how to get the giant (and still growing violently) grape vines out of the way. Xavier, remembering the magic growth powder given to him earlier by the Maenad, reached into his pocket, got a hand full onto his palm and blew the powder straight towards the vines; which in turn, made the vines grow unbelievably fast until they started to slow down and turn brown and eventually made a heap of withered, old vines.

After the path was cleared, a great roar emerged from the dark path before them that seemed to scream with joy for freedom, jeer with fury for someone destroying its beautiful door, and heart-breakingly wail for some unknown sorrow.

The two stood in wonder and fear of what the strange roar was about. They stood motionless for a few minutes (approximately 4 minutes and 38.129 seconds), then looked at each other and started their walk into the eerie path ahead. It wasn’t long after they got to the other side before another roar came from the dark path ahead and afterward, something like an earthquake shook the ground and sealed them in with what ever was in there. On the bright side they at least had some light which was radiating from Apollo’s divine skin now shining like a very weak sun.

With the light now shining faintly from Apollo’s skin, they could see that the hall wasn’t a hall at all, it was a labyrinth! Xavier then put 4x + 2 = 10 and 0.5(4), together and figured out what was happening. “Dionysus has been bound to the Minotaur!” exclaimed Xavier.

Almost as if in response to Xavier’s remark, yet another bellow echoed through the maze; followed by that was the sound of large foot-like hooves slowly getting closer until the image of the beast was revealed. What an ugly figure he was, its fur was a shining black and its horns white as marble, not to mention naturally sharpened and ready to stab. The hands were quite interesting being that they looked like hands, but seemed to be armored by some sort of hoof-like substance. The eyes were a diseased-looking, yellow surrounding black, mindless pupils.

The beast roared once again before it charged at Xavier in the narrow section of the maze. If it weren’t for the pile of rocks blocking the door behind him, Xavier wouldn’t have been able to climb out of the way of the Minotaur and be utterly flattened. Xavier and Apollo made their way around the brute and once they were on level ground, Xavier charged at the bull. However, the Minotaur grabbed his pick and threw him all the way across the maze; he landed on his gut, right on one of the walls of the maze.

This left Apollo all by himself to face the Minotaur. At first, he was just hoping that he would survive whatever it delivered; but then, the beast just walked right past him probably looking for Xavier in his labyrinth somewhere. So here was where Apollo climbed up onto one of the walls and hollered over to Xavier, not really knowing where he was, “Xavier! Where are you!?” asked Apollo.

“I’m over Here!”

“Xavier! That beast is too strong for any form of close combat! Try and even the playing field!”

“With what!?”

“I don’t know! But you’d better come up with it quickly or your going to be ground into dust!”

“Dust, that’s it,” Xavier said to himself, “Thanks for the help Apollo! I’ll see you in a little bit!” Xavier then looked around for where the Minotaur was, and sure enough, it was already pretty close to him. So he just jumped down, waited for the beast to charge at him, and then he pulled out the magic powder he had. The beast only breathed in a little bit, but even still it quickly started to grow very weak and fell over nearly dead. Xavier was about to finish him off, but he saw something on the back of his neck. A small onyx ornament and knowing that that was the sacred gem of Skia from his past encounters, he yanked the stone off of the beast. The Minotaur gave off a loud yell and slowly became an ink outline like the beasts Xavier met before. As the outline shaped itself into it’s original form, so did the room, the walls started to tumble and light started to enter the room. The outline started to regain color then and revealed Dionysus as expected.

After letting his head recover a bit, Dionysus spoke, “I thank you for breaking the curse placed upon me and that kind Maenad who accompanied me at the moment we Olympians were attacked.” said a grateful Dionysus. “I’m sure that you noticed the onyx ornament on the back of my head, I know because that is the only way on how you could break my curse. Skia, the dreadful being that plagues our world uses those gems to force his will on people and will cause them to take on certain forms. I’ve taken notice that apparently Skia was using my power to wipe out a town of people who… don’t support him. There is no need to worry about that now, I have stopped the growth of the grapes and what Skia was planning on using to punish those people will wind up feeding them for quite some time. Now I do warn you, I will take you back to the outside of the temple, but Skia has probably already come to deal with you himself.”

“I accept your offer to take me back to the outside world because if he can move as fast as you say he does, he’s already in the temple.” answered Xavier.

“Very well, I will take you there now.” Suddenly a ray of light shot down on Xavier that temporarily blinded him. When he could see Xavier was out side staring right at Skia himself.

Chapter Four

The Encounter

            Skia circled around Xavier and Apollo for a while, causing a thick, black fog to descend around them until they were utterly surrounded by a black wall that appeared in the place of the fog. Skia then descended to see the two face to face. Skia’s complexion wasn’t really what any one would have expected, because instead of a horrifying black demon, there was this tiny black dot with a vibrant red light in the middle and a short, black tail.

“So this is the impudent human who dares defile my reign of terror? Ha!” said Skia in a much squeakier than expected voice. “You must be wondering why I’m smaller than you expected I am. Well, the answer’s the same as why you’ve been able to defeat these servants of mine.”

“Now that you mention it; the previous three enemies have been fairly simple. Haven’t they?” responded Xavier

“Well,” said Skia, “It is because I am only a fifth of what I really am.” Apollo and Xavier both looked puzzled at what he just said, but decided they would just think about it later. “I would kill you myself if it weren’t for that I need to take vengeance on some lightning. Instead, I think it would be fitting if Apollo were to be killed by his famous enemy; the Python!” Skia then flew into the sky and his tail trailed down to the ground, forming a pillar of smoke. There was then a flash of light and two eyes gleamed through the darkness and when Caseipetron rose to the center of the sky, the beast darted out, revealing it was the serpent Python, as Skia said. The serpent was a deep purple with a tint of venomous green in its scales, its eyes were as dark as a cinder block, and black spikes ran down its back. The Python spat out flaming venom toward Xavier before charging. Xavier would have just struck it then and there with his trusty pick-axe if it weren’t for Apollo pushing him out of the way.

“What are you thinking?” asked Apollo frantically. “The Python’s too fast to be hit, besides, look at your cloak; it’s singed from the heat of the Python’s skin.” Apollo was right; Xavier’s sleeve was singed by the heat of the Python’s scales and after a few minutes, shot up in flame before being snuffed out. “How about you try that powder you got?” Xavier agreed to that idea and threw some of the powder at the serpent; but alas, because the spirit of the Python was still an old spirit, the powder didn’t work. “Try your horn!” Xavier whipped out his horn and blew in it. Vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around the beast. However the skin of the Python was too hot and burned the vines off.

To make things worse for Apollo and Xavier, Caseipetron decided to join in on the fun and shoot his fireballs down on the two. They fell down quickly but with little accuracy and only in short bursts. In attempting to knock-out the Python, Xavier walked in front of a wall and taunted the spiked creature to charge. Everything worked as Xavier planned except for the fact that the Python’s head was incredibly hard and resilient. The technique didn’t even open up an escape for Xavier. After dodging some more fireballs along with the Python, Xavier clambered up a nearby tree to maybe by some time to figure out another tactic. Unfortunately, Caseipetron blew up the tree and knocked Xavier to the ground with a great deal of injury. Apollo was very upset when Xavier was wounded. In his fury Apollo grabbed a nearby branch from the destroyed tree and charged toward the Python. Just before they collided, Apollo used the branch to pole-vault over the Python. At the very moment Apollo landed on the ground a group of fireballs fell on the mighty serpent (now Caseipetron was not aiming for the Python, but it just shot a barrage of fireballs at Apollo when he jumped over the Python). The serpent’s body lay burning on the ground while from the ground, one could see Casiepetron crumbling into a million pieces as a beam of light shot up to the sky from the Python.

“It appears that Caseipetron and the Python are no more, and once again in their place is Helios.” said Apollo. But look at how wounded Xavier is; his lower torso is completely covered with scratches, his left arm is surely broken from how it’s bending, and everywhere else that there isn’t a twig or scratch is covered with bruises.

Apollo reached into his robe pulled out a little jar, (don’t ask how he kept it in there) he then opened the lid and dumped out a golden, smooth, and pure looking fluid that he then rubbed over Xavier’s body. Everywhere the liquid touched the cuts and the scrapes vanished; the broken arm also at least pulled back to a healthy position but there was still a need for a bandage to hold it still. To those who aren’t familiar with the reference, this fluid is the “ointment of the gods” able to heal all wounds (or at least heal them most of the way as with the broken arm).

Apollo then put the unconscious man on his shoulders and started the long way back to the hideout without fear of Caseipetron ever returning.

When he reached the cave that Pan, the fawns, and he stayed, Apollo placed Xavier on the ground and moved the boulder that was blocking the entrance out of the way. At that moment, Xavier started stirring and was faced with much curiosity.

“What happened?” asked Xavier.

“You were knocked out by one of Caseipetron’s fire balls; I took care of the rest and defeated the Python and Caseipetron.”

The two then entered the hideout. The cave seemed to be empty. Apollo and Xavier looked around but found no one, except for maybe a few of what they thought were bugs and a note that was written in Pan’s bad grammar and spelling. It said:

“Deare Apolo,

Skia has fienoly diskovered owr haideowt ande has sent the Missourees too plaig uss. Gawn too vilug northe uf Cairoe, R haiding thare.

P.S. woode halv ben ae betur aideu too putt the letre owtsaide sow Missourees doughn’t baite u.

P.S.S iff sea watre godess withe blound haier ande bloo aiys. Doughn’t tel hur whare eye amm!!!

Frum,

Panne”

The first though that came into Apollo’s mind was “Hmm, Pan’s spelling got better.” The next one was that they should get out of the cave before the Miseries find them; but it was too late because just before Apollo was going to say that, Xavier screamed as he pointed to where Apollo was just feeling a searing pain. He turned his head to look and saw Disability, the one of the Miseries responsible for all disabilities. Apollo threw the beast off his hand and with Xavier, dashed to the exit before receiving more bites from the foul creatures.

Gasping for breath, Xavier asked “(gasp, gasp) Apollo, are (gasp) you all right?”

“I’m afraid not (gasp, gasp, gasp) my friend,” said Apollo, “being bitten by Disability means that I cannot use my powers that were returned to me after that last fight. Come; let us go to Egypt to recover our wounds.

Chapter Five

The Shadows in Egypt (The Tale of Xavier)

When the two adventurers reached the small town in Egypt, Xavier noticed something crucial. There were no people, but there were shadows. “Apollo, what is the meaning of these shadows,” asked Xavier “Are they phantoms?”

“Some say they are, however, Athena has a different theory. I’m not going to mention” When the sun set over the land, the shadows of Egyptians grew longer, some pointed in curiosity to Apollo and Xavier walking by because of the fact that they only saw shadows too. They finally came to a house that was rather wrecked and abandoned looking. They walked in and found Pan and the remaining fawns and satires.

“Ah, you’re finally here. We’ve been waiting here for hours. Why didn’t you just use your regained power to warp here?” said Pan.

“Because,” answered Apollo, “I was bitten by Disability and I used my healing ointment to treat Xavier’s wounds.”

“Thus proving to my point that he can’t be trusted, clearly he’s the source to our problems!” Pan sneered as he looked at Xavier in disgust.

“Pan please! This isn’t the time to argue, do you have any healing ointment? I need it regain my power.”

“Sorry, but I used it to treat some wounds of other bites from the Miseries.”

“Then we’ll have to stay and wait till Xavier’s arm fully recovers”

“How long will that be?”

“The ointment did most of the work, it’ll heal in about a weak.”

When Pan finally got over yelling at Xavier for many petty reasons, they all then went into the ruined house to get some rest. Xavier was hardly able to get any sleep that night, and when he finally did, he only had a few winks until he heard the screams of people outside. He rushed outside with a torch to see what was happening.

Night time in this area of the world was very eerie because of how at almost every door was a sort of fire, but the disturbing thing was that the fire was some what translucent, one could see the light from it clearly but the fire itself was almost as if it were a ghost. There were no more shadows that walked on the ground and walls, but in their place were people made out of some sort of translucent crystal. They didn’t seem to pay any attention to Xavier, but they did seem to be running from something, sometimes paying so little attention to Xavier that they would walk right through him.

Xavier’s heart started pounding as he walked in the direction that the phantoms were running from. Xavier didn’t fear that the “what-ever-it-was” would hurt him, but he did fear what it was.

Xavier slowly advanced and after ten steps maybe, a house started to crumble, and out of it came the shape of a serpent; a giant serpent! Instead of this one looking like it was a translucent crystal however; it looked like it was some perfectly solid, perfectly smooth, perfectly black crystal in the shape of a terrifying snake. It looked left and right and seemed to smile at how much chaos was stirring until it came to focus on Xavier, who was pulling out his trusty pick-axe. The creature must have seen one of the phantom-like people that Xavier had all around him only carrying a weapon.

The two stared at each other for until all of the people had escaped the city, and then, they charged at each other.

The sight of Xavier swinging at the giant snake while the serpent jumped at him ready to bite was a dazzling site. The axe in Xavier’s hand ghosting through the snake’s head while the serpent passed right through Xavier’s chest, leaving not a single scratch on either side.

Xavier seemed to hesitate, from ghosting through the image of the serpent, forgetting that they were from parallel worlds, only seeing the image of the other. The silhouette didn’t seem to react in such a way; it just turned around and charged at Xavier with the same results.

“What is this thing?” asked Xavier, “Is it the spirit of the Python trying to take vengeance; or is it some sort of Egyptian beast trying to just make chaos?” After another joust and ghosting through the spirit, Xavier thought that he should think of a better tactic. He looked down and saw a large piece of rubble from the building this monster just destroyed and it hit him.

The serpent struck the ground in its frustration and the rock bounced up and hit him on the head (tricked you, didn’t I?).  Then he realized that the buildings, being that they are in both entities of the area, can touch either one of them. So he picked up a rock, waited for the beast to charge, and threw the rock straight into its mouth.

The snake tried to shriek with agony but couldn’t because of the rock was lodged in its throat. After a bit of squirming and coughing the creature seemed to start to slow down. Everything was silent for a minute or two until the monstrosity gagged one more time and spat the rock out.

“What is with this thing?!” said Xavier in a panicky voice, “Is it immortal?!” The two were about to charge again until a flash in the sky appeared. The flash looked a lot like a bird with a long, trailing snake tail. The black image remembered what it was supposed to be doing and darted in the direction of the light.

Curious about what was happening; Xavier followed the what-ever-it-was to the light. The snake was moving fast, yet slow enough for Xavier to keep up. It jumped half way over the Nile, but had to swim the rest of the way (Xavier used to bridge to cross). The two finally came to the Sphinx were the silhouette leaped into the air and struck the center of the chest of the monument. A door opened up and stairs fell down; the beast swiftly went up the stairs with Xavier behind him.

Everything was dark inside of the cavern. It was a long and narrow path. When Xavier finally got to the end, he saw Skia talking with the monster.

“Do you accept my offer?” asked Skia. The serpent nodded.

“Well then Apep, Egyptian god of darkness and chaos, draw the outline of the image you are standing on, and we shall first conquer this world, and then destroy Ra and let darkness reign over your world!”

Apep then dipped his large tail into the pot of ink next to Skia and started to outline the image. Apep outlined it perfectly with this amazing dance. His body twisted and turned giving him remarkable control over where his tail would move, not to mention great speed; he had finished half of the image in five seconds. Xavier stood in awe and wonder of what was happening.

When Apep finished the design Skia spoke again. “I feel I should warn you before I finish the ritual, that if you were to ever touch sun light in this world, the spell would be undone, you would be sent back to your world, and I could not redo the spell. Do you wish to continue?” Apep nodded again. In response, Skia nodded back and then spilled the pot of ink and as soon as it touched the circle, a loud noise cracked and startled all but Skia. The ink shot up and formed a wriggling cage around Apep. He looked to the left, the path was blocked by ink; he looked to the right, more ink. Eventually, the ink started to grab him, starting with the tip of the tail and rapidly moving upward. When it reached the head, Apep gave one last screech before the ink covered the outside and started to move to the inside of his body.

Apep stood still…

He then started to slowly move again as the ink slowly faded away to reveal scales, fangs, and a hood. Apep was a giant Cobra! In his panic, Xavier screamed. The two villains looked over to where Xavier was.

“Get him!” yelled Skia as Xavier ran away.

“But Skia,” responded Apep, “It ssssurely isssss dawn now. Won’t the sssspell be broken if I go after him?”

“Yes, but that is why I summoned all but one of the Anemoi to create a chaotic storm and block the sun, they shall follow you where ever you go.”

“But why not the fourth?”

“I did not summon Zephyr because he would cause the storm to be less chaotic with the peaceful winds he breathes. I can’t stand there being that much hope in the winds.” With no more arguments, Apep slithered after Xavier.  Apep finally caught up with Xavier outside where there certainly was a mighty storm brewing. Boreas was dropping giant hailstones, Notus was dumping water down in buckets, and Eurus was bringing his warm winds of misfortune to swirl with Boreas’s cold winds, producing many twisters around the area. Apep and Xavier stood face to face once again.

“Sssso,” said Apep the way that a snake would say “s”, “I finally sssee your face, I mussst be honessssst, I thought you would have a darker ssskin and maybe dressss lighter for the harshhhh Egyptian sssun. But that doessssn’t matter anymore, it all goesss through the sssyssstem well.”  They stood in silence for a while until Xavier pulled out his trusty pick-axe; then Apep charged with great anger and opened his mouth to bite with a screech.

Apep missed his mark at the first charge and when Xavier swung his pick, Apep’s strong tail broke it in two. Xavier’s only option then was to run away, because they were too far away from the Nile for plants to grow even with the magic horn and Apep was immortal, so age would not harm him.

Apep was gaining quickly on Xavier and would have just about caught him if it weren’t for that for some reason the clouds and Anemoi left.

When the sunlight hit Apep, he first felt and noticed nothing happening. Then he saw his tail starting to turn purple and after a few seconds, pulled down to the ground. Apep panicked knowing that he was being brought back to his world where he had no hope of defeating forces of good.

“You have sssomehow cheated your fate,” said Apep, “but we ssshall meet again. And I will dessstroy you.” Then, without delay. Apep attempted to bite Xavier before completely returning to his world. This was done in vane, because just before he bit him, he was completely pulled back into his world.

Xavier looked around himself wondering where Apep’s shadow was. He looked down and he found the shadow of Apep, biting at his heel.

“You silly snake!” scoffed Xavier as he picked up a nearby rock, “Take this you buffoon!” Xavier threw the rock in the air; he didn’t throw it at the shadow because he knew that it was fool hearty to do so, because after all; if you throw a rock at someone’s shadow, would it hurt? No, so he threw it up about where Apep’s jaw would be and hit it right on the mark. It’s quite funny to see this; for one reason, the rock stopped in mid air and fell to the ground as if there were something there. Secondly, Apep’s reaction to the rock was spinning his head around like he was dizzy and then slithering away angrily.

Xavier then made his way back to the hideout wondering what he would use for a weapon to fight against Skia’s forces.

Chapter Seven

The Shadows in Egypt (The Tale of Skia)

This chapter is the same story as the previous chapter; the only difference is that this is Skia’s portion of the story, starting about the time that Apollo slew the Python. At that moment, Skia was climbing up a very high mountain. He was mumbling about “Since he had already captured the other gods he would now take vengeance for the insult that the thunder god dealt to him.” He was probably half way up the mountain before a searing pain shot through him. He stood immobilized for a few seconds and then plummeted down the mountain.

UNFORTUNATELY, he wasn’t harmed by the long fall due to the fact that his body is made out of smoke and would just separate and re-establish after the fall.

Skia then rose up and screamed with fury. “Why must something always happen when I attempt to reach the top of mount Olympia?! First I was stricken down by thunder, and this time the pain of losing a third servant has snapped back and mentally wounded me!” he stood and grunted for a few seconds. “It’s like there’s some sort of force keeping me from entering that place!” he paused again and realized what to do. “Of course! I must confront the destiny weavers and force them to do my bidding!”

Skia then drew a circle with his tale, round and round he went constantly drawing over the finished circle with his tale until something happened. The circle started to darken in the middle and eventually became a well of ink.

Skia dove into the puddle and completely submerged, the ink slowly closed over Skia, recovering color and solidity. As it turned out, that well of ink was really a portal, because Skia surfaced in an entirely different area.

It was a house of some sort. It had no doors though, just walls, and the room was also filled with spools and looms and many other necessities for weaving, and three old hags working with them!

“Oh!” yelled Skia, “You three destiny weavers are uglier than I thought you were!”

“I wouldn’t speak thusly to those who could cut your thread of life in an instant fool.” responded Clotho still spinning the wool to create threads.

She was quite talented, she had this sort of loom that is quite hard for a mortal to describe; the best way to describe it would be to say that it is much wider than a regular loom so she could create many strings at the same time.

“What is it that you desire here ‘one who is destined to fail’?” questioned Lachesis making absolutely no eye contact, but continuing to work at her station.

“I do not know what you mean by I shall fail bu—“

“We mean that your goal to destroy this world is in vain!” interrupted Atropos as she was deciding how this one man should be brought into the after-world.

“How dare you say such a thing! I command you to do my bidding!”

“We do not fear you. You can’t get us to do your will just because you tell us.”

“Then I am forced to use my might to make you!” Skia then started created dark wisps of smoke and directed it toward the fates.

They simply wafted it away and continued to do their work.

“W-why do you destiny weavers refuse to break?!” asked Skia in great puzzlement.

“Because,” started Lachesis as she started to caste the lot for a certain point in someone’s life, “The only reason you have been able to force others to do your will is because it is our will to make this happen. We weave what happens in life, we move life in the direction it’s suppose to take.”

“If you were to control us, you would be over-whelmed by our responsibilities and then be destroyed,” said Atropos as she finally decided on the ‘peaceful’ death of being buried alive, “and that wouldn’t be good because we still have use for you.”

“Now be gone!” all three of the Fates yelled at the same time.

Lachesis stabbed a string into a certain carpet design she’d been working on and instantly, Skia’s own smoke surrounded him and was sent back to where he attempted to enter the Fates chamber.

“Blast!” said Skia to himself, “Now how will I possibly get my vengeance on thunder?…” Skia paused and then spoke again, “Unless, if the destiny weavers make people in this world do what they want only. Then they can’t do anything about a creature from another world! I will go to the desert cat and bring out the chaos snake!”

Skia then started to do his teleporting ritual and it all happened like last time only instead of landing in the chamber that the Fates lived, he landed in the desert; near the Sphinx. He advanced toward the Sphinx as if he were a snake and performed something quite interesting.

The middle part of his tiny head started to fatten as his tail lengthened; slowly, his head grew larger until it took on the form of a hood. The front of his head started to sharpen to distinguish it from the rest of his head and the end of his tail did the same. His structure started to solidify a little but it still held no complete shape.

Skia used this form to strike the center of the Sphinx. He slithered away to a safe distance as the part of the Sphinx he struck slowly opened. When it opened completely, a flight of stairs rolled out. Skia slithered up them.

When he reached the top the stairs the door closed, leaving him in complete darkness.

“Ah,” said Skia in relief, “Finally, total darkness. It’s been so hard on my eye even when Caseipetron was still alive!”

Skia moved through a long hallway until he came to a room. He then reluctantly turned on the lights and started to draw a circle in the middle of the air. Before the portal finished forming, a low blood-curdling howl emerged from the portal that shot a shiver down even Skia’s spine (that is, if he had one).

As the smoke cleared up, the image of a woman with a black dress, black hair, and a subtle smirk of her face appeared. “Ah, so you must be this Skia who’s made all the bad things in this world happen recently,” started the woman through the portal, “How can Hecate be of service to you?”

“I have been facing a very troublesome human who keeps stopping my plans. I think it might be because the creatures of this world are too weak. So I’d like to summon the chaos snake from the world of the desert river.”

“Well, it looks like you have chosen a good place to do it; there is a powerful spell inside the Sphinx that can teleport people farther than your spell can. It simply needs more power to cause trans-dimensional warps. I happen to have a potion that can do just that, but I’ll have to look for it a bit, just wait,” Hecate walked away from the portal and started to push things around, “MEEEOOOW!!!-Zzzap-Darn black cat! That better teach you to stay away from my frog eyes!” a strange, rather incoherent group of noises went. It was revealed what it all meant when some strange creature flew by the portal, it looked like a cat, only it had green scales, had three wings, no mouth, and extra legs, eyes, and other body parts. It meowed once before it flew out of sight, but it was hard to tell where it came from because it had no mouth.

“Sorry, I hope you weren’t disturbed by that, but I found that potion you want,” said Hecate as she threw the bag through the portal slowly reconstructing in the grasp of Skia’s tail, “Simply place a sprinkle on the potion into your ink and have him draw the design on the floor, the spell in the chamber will do the rest, it should also have effects on the portal too.”

“This better work, or I’ll make you look so bad that it would cost 3,000,000 drachmas to look as good as that feline that flew by!”

“And it will. However, if he comes into contact with sunlight; the spell would be dispelled, and my hands will be clean of the mess. For he would be sent back to his world, and the ritual would not work a second time on him.”

“A chance that I will have to take,” responded Skia as he took some of the powder out of the bag and blew it on the portal. The powder swirled around in the portal making it turn more of a dark blue color and increase slightly in size. It cleared up and revealed a frighteningly large snake with blazing red eyes.

It stuck its tongue out for a little bit before speaking, “Who are you? And what do you wishhhhh to sssssssspeak with me, Apep, about? It had better be good on the fact that I have jusssst been defeated oncccce again by Ra in trying to sssstop him on hisss sssssun journey,” said Apep.

“You could say that I’m a fellow god of chaos and darkness, but from another world. I have waged war against a mortal who has defeated me time after time and I think that if we work together, we could destroy my world and continue to your world and over throw Ra!”

“Hmmm, I like your idea. I’m in.”

“Good, simply step through the portal your gazing through and we can truly meet face to face.”

“Nah. I thhhhink I’ll ssssslither,” responded Apep.

“Fine, we’ll meet inside the giant desert lion.”

“If you mean the Sssssphinx I shhhhould be there in two hourssssss.”

“Good, dismissed,” ended Skia as he closed the portal and prepared for Apep’s arrival.

He started the preparations by crafting a bowl out of his ink and then pouring some unrefined ink into it, he then went on to dump the entire bag inside the bowl and mix it together. Taking consideration for Hecate’s remark on “If he comes into contact with sunlight; the spell would be dispelled… For he would be sent back to his world, and the ritual would not work a second time on him.” Skia once again warped to another place. This time, the side of a cliff with Aeolus, the god of storms guarding it.

“Halt Skia! Put your hands or… erm… whatever you have up in the air and slowly leave! I cannot let you get more gods to ravage this world!” ordered Aeolus. At this Skia surrounded him and shed off Aeolus’ armor.

“Now return the spring wind here or I’ll have to force you to.” Grunted Skia at Aeolus.

“First of all,” gasped Aeolus, “you already are forcing me to, and second, he has just returned and I was about to let out the next.”

“Well don’t and let me get through to take dominion over them,” said Skia as he threw Aeolus down and entered a small hole that the Anemoi’s winds could go through but they themselves could not. When he entered the hole in the cliff it was quite easy to take over the Anemoi being that it was too dark for them to see, yet Skia could see perfectly and could take them without any fuss. After securing the Anemoi by simply puffing out a few fumes and letting the Anemoi’s own winds intoxicate them. He gouged a hole in the wall large enough for them all to escape. “Meet me at the desert cat in the river desert, bring all of your power with you,” ordered Skia as he went through his portal back to the sphinx.

He waited at the Sphinx for a long time for Apep, past the amount of time that he was supposed to arrive. At first Skia didn’t mind because he had some concern with the portal being a dud or not. So he ventured further into the chamber and found something he thought was rather useless. A beautiful sarcophagus coated tastefully with bronze; bejeweled with rubies emeralds, topaz, and many other precious stones. Keep in mind that Skia is a creature obsessed with destroying this world, so precious metals and stones are of no use to him. He lugged this to the middle of the floor and started the ritual that Hecate instructed. By using the rest of the powder in the bag, Skia was able to choose what world he’d warp it to, and by manipulating the powder and his portals, he was able to send the sarcophagus to the center of that world (as not to have any chance of the people of that world suspect his coming). He first drew the circle to form his portal around the sarcophagus but didn’t start it completely yet. Then, he progressed to sprinkling some of the powder on the circle and finally started to outline the design on the floor. Slowly and attentively he worked at it, making sure he drew every line perfectly so the ritual would have full effect so his desired destination could be reached. He finally finished the design, and stepped back as so he didn’t get caught in it.

It then started to outline itself, and when it did. The ink leapt forward, twisted around the tomb and when it covered it entirely, Skia performed the final part of his portal to make it warp to where he wanted it. Though it was shrouded by the mist, one could still see the image of the entombment slowly sinking into the ground until the spell was complete and nothing remained where it was.

Skia then opened yet another portal so he could see if the spell had succeeded. It indeed did, because right before his eye the sarcophagus appeared in the center of the earth. This however caused two problems. One, was the tomb was making the earth around it push more outward and possibly caused a great earthquake there. The second and less important one was that the leftover ink from the portal had seeped into the rocks around the tomb and the tomb itself, but this didn’t bother him because all he wanted to do was warp Apep into this world.

After more waiting Skia grew tired of being patient and used his powers to make something kind of like a firework that would fly through a shaft in the Sphinx and explode in the shape of a beast with wings like a bird, bearing two human arms, and a serpent’s tail. This worked perfectly, and within a few minutes Apep had arrived.

“Do you accept my offer?” asked Skia. The serpent nodded.

“Well then Apep, Egyptian god of darkness and chaos, draw the outline of the image you are standing on, and we shall first conquer this world, and then destroy Ra and let darkness reign over your world!”

Apep then dipped his large tail into the pot of ink next to Skia and started to outline the image. Apep outlined it perfectly with this amazing dance. His body twisted and turned giving him remarkable control over where his tail would move, not to mention great speed; he had finished half of the image in five seconds. Xavier stood in awe and wonder of what was happening.

When Apep finished the design Skia spoke again. “I feel I should warn you before I finish the ritual, that if you were to ever touch sun light in this world, the spell would be undone, you would be sent back to your world, and I could not redo the spell. Do you wish to continue?” Apep nodded again. In response, Skia nodded back and then spilled the pot of ink and as soon as it touched the circle, a loud noise cracked and startled all but Skia. The ink shot up and formed a wriggling cage around Apep. He looked to the left, the path was blocked by ink; he looked to the right, more ink. Eventually, the ink started to grab him, starting with the tip of the tail and rapidly moving upward. When it reached the head, Apep gave one last screech before the ink covered the outside and started to move to the inside of his body.

Apep stood still…

He then started to slowly move again as the ink slowly faded away to reveal scales, fangs, and a hood. Apep was a giant Cobra! In his panic, Xavier screamed. The two villains looked over to where Xavier was.

“Get him!” yelled Skia as Xavier ran away.

“But Skia,” responded Apep, “It surely is dawn now. Won’t the spell be broken if I go after him?”

“Yes, but that is why I summoned all but one of the Anemoi to create a chaotic storm and block the sun, they shall follow you where ever you go.”

“But why not the fourth?”

“I did not summon Zephyr because he would cause the storm to be less chaotic with the peaceful winds he breathes. I can’t stand there being that much hope in the winds.” With no more arguments, Apep slithered after Xavier.

Skia once again made a portal to gaze through and speak to the Fates.

“What is it now, oh one who is destined to fail?” asked Lachesis.

“Ha ha!” retorted Skia with much enthusiasm, “Yield before me destiny weavers! Yield! For I have brought forth a god from another world, because you only have power over creatures in this world. You can’t stop him! So Yield!”

“And why does that matter?” asked Clotho still spinning the wool, “You are from another world, yet we still direct your footstep, or however you walk. This means that this being is just as vulnerable as you are.”

“Indeed, foolish is the one who thinks he is out of another’s grasp of control. But an even greater fool is he who knows he is under a greater being’s control yet thinks he can cheat and out do this being,” said Lachesis.

“He doesn’t even belong to this world, in contrast to you who can go between different worlds,” Atropos grinned before sticking a thread the color of a sun beam through a tapestry she was making and made the remark, “It’s awful sunny where you are right now. Why don’t you go and get some fresh air?”

At this, Skia gasped and ran outside knowing that this meant that Apep was dwindling back into his world. When he got outside, his fears were confirmed. Because there before his eye, he saw Apep’s shadow biting at Xavier’s heel and Xavier throwing a rock at where Apep’s jaw was. When both of them had left where Skia was, he grunted with anger and for the fourth time within the two days, Skia warped to another place.

This time he wound up in a dark witches house.

“Skia!” proclaimed Hecate, “What happened? Did the potion not work?”

“No, the potion wor-“ Skia paused as the morbid looking cat flew by again, but now looked indescribably more grotesque, “Did it get into the frog eyes again?”

“No, the ice room where I keep my porcupine fish this time. Can we continue? You were at telling me if the potion worked or not.”

“Oh yes, the potion worked fine, in fact, well enough that I desire to destroy you and salvage your powers for my own!” exclaimed Skia as he shrouded Hecate with his mist and seemed to crush her in it slowly disintegrating her. One could hear only a short scream before Hecate vanished and Skia tested out his new power. He pointed his tail at the poor, unfortunate cat and shot a red beam at it. This then caused it to transform a third time into a great big four winged cat with a tail like a mace, “Victory! With this achievement, my previous defeat is counted as void on a thousand levels, for now I can create beasts at will!” Skia went on to cackle before he continued to create a great army of beasts.