Death and Destruction

Dream was keeping Thanatos’ power under control when he felt a presence approaching and raised his eyes toward the ceiling. A moment later, destruction energy slipped into his mountain, taking Seth’s form right before him.

“You’ve recovered your crown.” said Dream indifferently.

Seth nodded and didn’t reply right away, walking first toward Thanatos and placing a hand on his body.

“His consciousness is being held back by Elise and the blood treasure, but the power of Death inside him is slowly eating away at them. I don’t know what you’re planning, but you better do it fast since I don’t know how much they will last. My power is also quite drained.”

Seth nodded and looked up at Dream. “Release him. Elise, if you can hear me, do the same.”

Dream didn’t say anything and allowed his power to leave Thanatos’s body. Right after that, a dim-looking Blood Sun also left Thanatos’s chest, floating to the side.

“Did you leave Iris behind?” asked Seth, focusing primarily on Thanatos and the energy forming inside his body.

“I had no choice other than possessing him. He’s too strong for me to capture any other way, and even like this, the Blood Sun is almost completely drained of power.” replied Elise weakly.

“It’s fine. You did amazing.” whispered Seth, creating a small orb sealed in destruction energy and handing it to Elise as blood began leaking through the side of his mouth. “Take this and shield it from any temporal distortions. You can rest now. Everything will be over soon.”

Elise left out a slight noise of acknowledgment and whispered a warm “Good luck.” before the orb of destruction Seth handed her got sucked into the Blood Sun, and it floated down on the table, falling dormant.

“What about the other two and the armies of Endora, Dream?”

“Elise had Lisa teleport the both of them here, leaving the armies to delay Death. Pearl remained there, using all her power to do the same. I’m afraid they are all dead. Lisa is recuperating inside one of the rooms in the mountain.”

“I see...” muttered Seth, spotting the energies of death and destruction beginning to circulate inside Thanatos.

With a flash of Seth’s eyes, both Thanatos’ source and link with the Death treasure were severed, instantly turning him into nothing more than a human.

“ARRRGHHH.”

Seth ignored his pained howl, grabbing his neck tightly and lifting him from the table, bringing Thanatos’s pale face up to his. “Listen to me, Thanatos. You’ve already lost, so if you want a quick death, tell me exactly where that thing is hiding.”

Thanatos’s bloodshot eyes snapped open, looking fearfully into Seth’s. “You! What did you do? My power? *Cough, Cough*.”

Seth tightened his hold, the destruction energy swirling between his fingers and beginning to burn away at Thanatos’s skin as he said: “You have no more power. Tell me where Death is hiding Caitlin and I might take some mercy on your accursed soul, allowing it to return to the Spirit Well.”

“Haha, hahaha, hahaha.” Thanatos broke into a burst of crazed and sorrowful laughter and tried to spit into Seth’s face, but his spit was destroyed just as it left his mouth. “That life bitch? I’m sure Death had already devoured her whole. Hahaha. I might die, but you’ll also follow me. Haha.”

Having had enough of Thanatos’s antics, Seth started focusing on his divinity, letting a trace of its presence leak through his eyes. The moment Seth’s divinity spun, Thanatos’s eyes widened in horror, and he started choking on his laughter.

Thanatos started frothing at the mouth shortly after, with his body spasming as she scratched at Seth as if trying to get away. Seth kept his divine presence and asked in a cold tone. “Where is she?”

“F-fountain of life, deep under Cantos Castle. S-spare - “

Unfortunately, Thanatos didn’t get to finish his words, his entire body exploding from the sheer pressure of Seth’s divinity. Luckily, Seth destroyed all his blood and body parts before they could cover the whole room.

Pulling his hand back, Seth felt Lisa’s presence throughout the mountain and said to Dream: “Thank you for the help. I’ll leave Elise in your care as I’ll take care of everything.”

Dream nodded, picking the small Blood Sun from the table and making it sink inside his body. “Alright. Be easy on the girl… she’s been through a lot.”

Seth allowed himself to drift through his energy, materializing in Lisa’s room shortly after. Lisa was sitting on her bed, holding tightly onto her knees with her eyes closed and dried tear marks staining her cheeks.

Feeling Dream’s energy hovering around her, Seth heaved a long sigh and came to her bed, sitting by her side. After grabbing her hand, Seth spread his energy to remove Dream’s influence, and Lisa soon stirred awake.

She appeared confused at first, fixing her eyes on the warmth coming from her hand before the memories of what had happened came back to her at once. Her eyes became wet as she looked back at Seth and whispered sadly: “They are dead….”

Seth nodded, squeezing her hand tighter. “This timeline has only been filled with death and suffering, but as I already told you, there is still hope to bring everyone back. Still, I will need your help one last time to make that happen.”

“Are you going after that thing?”

“I am. Once I get Caitlin back, I’ll find Kronos and put everything back into place. Everyone who died will return, and all this misery will be forgotten even by time itself.”

Lisa removed her hand from Seth’s, wiped away the tears from her cheeks, and nodded. “Alright. Where are we going?”

“Not we.” Said Seth with a small smile. “I need you to break space for me, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

Lisa’s eyes clouded ever so slightly, but she ended up just nodding in agreement. She had seen Death with her very eyes, so she knew her presence there would not make that much of a difference.

After Seth told her where he needed to go, Lisa broke space right in front of the bed and turned to look at Seth. “Whatever you do, you better not fail them… us.”

“I won’t.” Replied Seth, unwavering confidence in his eyes.

After patting Lisa’s leg to reassure her, Seth stood up and slowly walked through the portal, his body disappearing into the broken space.

On the other side of the space hole was the Cantos Castle, where Thanatos resided while still alive. Even standing just outside the castle grounds, Seth could feel the pungent stench of death coming from within.

Ascended were placed on the castle’s battlements, energy already circulating, ready to guard the place with their lives. Seth didn’t know how, but it appeared Death was already expecting his arrival.

Seth let his will spread through the destruction energy inside the castle, looking for Caitlin’s presence, but just as he expected it to happen, she was not there. After checking again, Seth’s divinity began spinning, a horrid presence encompassing the whole Kingdom of Death.

Before the ascended inside could react, Seth waved his hand and the whole castle disappeared, not a trace of its existence remaining. In its stead, a massive, perfectly round crater remained.

Seth looked down from the edge of the grater at the horror that dwelled deep inside the lands of The Kingdom of Death. A mix between human and beast, with greenish-black skin covering its body.

Death’s incarnate—a being that would instill terror into every living being with but a simple gaze.

While Seth was staring down at it, Death’s greenish eyes opened, looking up at Seth from the bottom of the crater.

Its savage maw opened toward Seth, allowing him to see the small vortex inside. “Don’t move, or she will die.” these words resounded in Seth’s ear not long after.

Seth ignored him completely; his eyes focused on Caitlin’s source. He couldn’t care less about Death’s threats and was relieved she was alive.

“What a joke…” muttered Seth, a small sphere of destruction forming shortly around Caitlin’s source.

Death quickly snapped its jaw closed, attempting to consume Caitlin’s source, but his move misfired. The sphere of destruction pierced a hole through the head of the beast, making its way straight into Seth’s hands.

Seth allowed Caitlin’s source to sink inside his body and looked at the creature writhing in pain from above.

“Consider yourself lucky that ending you now serves no purpose, but don’t worry, I’ll be coming for you soon enough. You might not fear death, but that’s not what I deliver. Your destruction will come.”

Having finished his words, Seth turned around and prepared to leave when a massive pressure fell on his divinity, a strain not that much weaker than his divinity.

Turning his eyes back on Death, Seth could see a small well under its body, feeding him with powerful life and death energy.

“The link to the Spirit Well…” muttered Seth, delaying his departure and watching the scene in front of him with interest.

Death began absorbing more and more energy from the well, its size increasing at a monstrous rate. Soon enough, the whole crater on the ground could not contain it, and the beast started expanding even outside.

Death roared towards the sky, its loud cry spreading throughout the kingdom of Death, the closest humans to hear it dying directly on the spot. Even Seth could feel his energy being pressured by the strong cry of death, but the smile on his lips never changed.

“You need to learn, Death. No matter how strong you are, you are no God.”

With his words ending, one of the spikes of Seth’s divinity shattered, and a small orb, barely two inches in diameter, left his chest, floating gently toward the raging beast.

Death raised one of its claws, moving to attack Seth’s orb of energy, but the moment his claw hit it, the beast’s entire body disappeared completely. The pressure from before was also gone, leaving behind a small skull floating in mid-air.

Seth looked into the skull’s dim eyes and said: “I already told you. It’s pointless. Just sit there and await your destruction.”

After taunting the treasure of death one last time, Seth gave one more look toward the link to the spirit well before his body dematerialized completely, disappearing from the Kingdom of Death.

Seth then returned to Dream's mountain and left Caitlin's source with Elise while giving her a few instructions and convincing Julie to allow him to remove the treasure of the heart from inside her soul. With his power as a god, doing so was quite easy, and Julie agreed, but not before making Seth promise her something.

When he materialized next, Seth was sitting in the crater of what once was the capital of Endora and closed his eyes.

One day later, a small body of water formed by his side, prompting Seth to open his eyes.

“Seat of Destruction, I’ve found the time hole where Kronos is hiding. My mistress is currently keeping the area frozen so he can’t leave.”

“Thank you, Water. I guess it’s time to slay a god.”