"Why are you glowing?"
Orion dropped to his knees, adrenaline crashing through him all at once. His limbs felt like jelly.
"What the F*** is going on? "he muttered, eyes darting between the fried chimera corpse and the man who looked like he bathed in a stormcloud
The electricity in the air began to fade
The man exhaled, his voice cool and edged with a strange calm
" I am Susanoo. God of sea and storms."
Orion's jaw practically hit the pavement
"like... God-god?"
Susanoo's eyebrow twitched. "I don't understand what you mean by 'god-god'. But yes-I am a god. Shinto pantheon. You're welcome, by the way."
"I-I just went out to buy food, "Orion whispered, gripping tight onto his phone tightly like it might shield him from reality. "Now, a glowing man with abs of lightning just smoked a demon from Greek nightmares?"
Susanoo turned away, scanning the cracked sky. His eyes narrowed and lightning danced faintly around his temples
"The Sky has cracked, the seal has been broken", he said to himself quietly, "that means others are coming."
Orion staggered to his feet. "Wait- What do you mean others? What seal? Like more of those?" he gestured to the smoking remains
"You need to get to safety," Susanoo replied, "find shelter. Do not trust what you see. Some of what's coming will wear human skin."
Orion stepped forward. "Please wait.... You're a god, right? I mean -For real? Just tell me what's going on. I've read about you before. Your siblings are Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi.
Susanno kissed his teeth, his eyes seemed filled with anger
Then, as if remembering the wait of the sky above them, he turned.
"Look, kid, it doesn't matter. All you need to know is that whatever comes out of that crack is gonna try to kill you, and if I were you, I would run as fast as I can"
And in a crackle of blue-white light, He vanished
Orion stood there confused, and then out of nowhere, a massive grin appeared on his face
The silence returned- but it was different now. Heavier. Watching
Orion took a deep breath and turned down the street, his shoes crunching on broken glass
He looked at his phone,
"No service. Of course"
As he walked, the world seemed to blur at the edges. Smoke drifted from building to building.
Houses had been turned to rubble. You would have thought a giant bulldozer came through and demolished the place
Up ahead, scattered across the road, were bodies, but not just people.
One had the horned head of a minotaur. Others had skeletal wings of some Egyptian nightmare. Another- its jaws still twitching- had the beak of a roc, feathers bloodied and mangled
All of them beasts from different mythologies lay dead on the tarmac like discarded props from a dream too vivid to forget.
Orion stepped back, His heart beating like a drum, but he knew that he had to continue
And above him, the crack in the sky widened ever so slightly
Orion couldn't remember how long he had been walking for, Minutes? Hours? The street signs appeared familiar to him, but the world felt like a stranger wearing its neighbourhood's skin.
He cut through an alleyway near a park, praying that it would take him closer to his route home. The streets were too exposed. Whatever had happened to the sky-To the world hadn't stopped with that first beast that he encountered. The air felt wrong.
Then, he heard it.
A low guttural growl -wet and rumbling like a chainsaw choked with blood.
Orion froze behind a dumpster, his breath caught in his throat. He peeked just enough to see it lumbering onto the street
This one looked worse than the last. It had the frame of a human, but its spine twisted out of its back in jagged obsidian shards. Where the face was supposed to be was a writhing mess of dark green tendrils, and each step left behind a smear of something smoking and black.
It sniffed the air loudly. Wet. Like it was tasting the wind
Orion pressed himself closer to the dumpster, not daring to breathe. He reached into his pocket, silencing his phone. His fingers trembled. His heart thudded so hard he swore the creature could hear it.
It stepped closer.
He gritted his teeth, shutting his eye, saying, "Please walk away"
Silence
Then the sound of claws scraping the pavement moved... away
He stood there still in fear that any slight movement would draw the attention of the monster back
Then he ran.
By the time he reached his road, Orion felt like his lungs had been grated with sandpaper. All of his muscles ached. His clothes reeked of smoke and fear.
He turned the corner.
Something was wrong. The world was quiet again
And then he saw it.
At the far end of the road, slumped there like a sleeping dragon, was a man. No, not a man. Something else
Bodies surrounded him, torn and mangled corpses from all races littered around him. Blood pooled across the road in thick puddles.
The figure played motionless, but somehow still regal muscles taut, purple skin dusted with ash and blood, long locks of dark hair braided with strings of gold. But what caught Orion's eye was a third one shut tight, resting in the middle of his forehead
The man slowly stirred
Orion didn't mean to take a step forward; his feet moved on their own
The Man opened one eye, His Third eye still shut tight
"Ah.." the man said with a tired yawn
"Another human"
Before Orion could blink or think, the man vanished- and reappeared behind him
"No need to be Afraid," he whispered into Orion's ear."You're already dead."
Orion's heart sank. His spine went cold
"You smell of stars," The man said in a curious voice
"I am Shiva." "That's all you need to know since your life is over, say hi to Hades for me"
But in that same moment, a shadow dropped from above and slammed into Shiva, flinging his body across the street
Orion stumbled backwards, watching the two titans separate.
Shiva landed on his arms, flipping himself onto his feet. He dusted himself off with two of his four arms. He rolled his neck with a crack, then began to smirk
"I've always wanted to kill a demigod. Why not Heracles?"
His opponnt-massive, bronze-skinned, wielding a large club, stepped forward
"You're not the first to try," said Heracles
The two stared each other down, the tension so thick it hurt to breathe.
Heracles didn't avert his gaze as he shouted, "Run, kid!"
"NOT AGAIN!"