Mountain of the Immortals

So absorbed was Modi in massaging his ego, that he didn't even open his eyes to see two gods slipping away from right under his nose. Having almost reached the exit, I contacted my goddesses to tell them we were ready to leave.

"Get them away from the doors, ladies," I said in the guild chat. "We're ready to leave. But don't make too much of a fuss. Their god is in here."

"Shit," was all Artemis replied at first. "Okay, we'll let you know once we've pulled them away far enough."

"Now we wait," I told Ares.

We both couldn't help but look at the Norse god again as he recovered from his trance. He opened his eyes slowly, exhaling deeply, as a smile spread across his face. This was a day to honor and celebrate him and he was enjoying it to the fullest. The devoutness of his followers and the bounty of gifts he was being presented with seemed to have no end, which made me think that perhaps I should establish a Zeus day myself.

He slowly turned to face his followers, his arms open as he addressed them.

"My faithful servants," he said, "this is a day of celebration. This is my birthday. I thank you all for coming."

If this was how he planned to celebrate his birthday, he must have known nothing of parties. Birthdays were about having fun, not formalities.

"I want to thank you all for your offerings, as well..." He trailed off as he turned to look at the altar and his eyes fell on the knuckles directly in front of him. "Can this be?"

He picked up the weapon and brought it closer to his face, examining it carefully.

"Who brought this glorious gift to me?" he shouted to his priests, who started looking at each other confused. "Let the one who made such an offering to me step forward so I can give them the highest of blessings."

Upon hearing that, a couple of the followers stepped forward, as if to take credit for whatever it was that had so pleased their god.

"Come forward so I can show you my gratitude, and then crush your puny little mortal body for bringing such trouble to me upon the day of my celebration!"

Everyone took a step back again.

"This weapon belongs to my brother, and it was a gift from our father. I have long yearned to steal it from him, but this--"

"Trouble coming your way," Aphrodite said through the clan chat.

A split second later, we saw exactly what she meant.

The thunderous sound of glass breaking took us all by surprise, most of all the god yelling at his followers. He seemed mostly shocked that someone would dare show this level of audacity to come barging in his temple, interrupting him in the midst of his chastising a group of poor mortals whose only plans for the day were dancing, feasting, and celebrating in his name.

But the man who shattered the thick window didn't care about this at all. In fact, judging by the raging anger in his face, he didn't care about anything other than attacking the god to whom this temple was dedicated.

* * *

Name: Magni Thorson

Race: Aesir Minor

Class: Fury of the Fist

Level: 52

* * *

Modi's brother looked very much like a more beautiful, polished version of Modi himself. His silvery hair was long and thick, while his clean-shaved chin was sharp enough to be used by woodworkers to check their angles. And instead of being barely dressed like his axe-wielding brother, he was wearing luxurious carved leather that perfectly wrapped around his muscular body, along with a couple of black knuckles with little spikes on his hands. His more polished image was only spoiled by the pieces of colorful glass that now stuck out of him at odd angles.

"Modi, you bastard. I should have known it was you who took my knuckles," the man said, as he leapt forward and punched his brother in the face.

The spikes from Magni's fist weapon embedded themselves deep inside Modi's cheek and pulled off a bit of flesh as the resident god flew backward, still holding the contended artifact in hand.

"You dare show yourself in my temple," Modi growled as he wiped away the blood from his face. "You break my window and you draw my blood on my birthday!"

"It is my birthday too, you dog," his brother replied, and spat on the ground. "Yet you had no problem stealing father's gift from me."

"I do not know how this stupid piece of junk ended up here. But seeing how it upsets you, I want to shake the hand of the one who brought it here and make them the richest person in Niflheim," Modi retorted, placing the artifact in his inventory.

"This is going much better than I imagined," Ares said, his low voice almost ecstatic. "And we're right here, watching as things unfold. Can you feel them, Zeus?"

"Feel what?" I asked.

"The drums of war," he responded lustfully. "The killing, and the burning hatred of devout followers killing in the name of their god. You can see the amount of blood that will be spilled just by looking into the eyes of these two."

"Give it back and I might consider not decimating your followers and razing this shithole town to the ground," Magni said.

"You think after what you just did, that you're going to leave here with anything?" Modi asked, taking a step forward. "You'll be lucky if you escape this place with your life."

"You really think you can kill me?" Magni retorted, pulling a thick piece of glass from his arm, causing the wound to sizzle and smoke for a brief moment before closing almost immediately. "Give me back father's gift."

"Father made a big mistake giving them to you," Modi said. "I'm taking them away to right this wrong. If I can't have an axe forged as a gift from father, nor can you have these."

"You miserable little pig!" Magni shouted, and jumped onto his worst enemy, fists first.

This time, however, Modi was prepared. He must have activated one of his divine skills as light filled the temple and four gigantic double axes appeared, spinning around him rapidly. One of them crashed into Magni but he managed to avoid being injured by them, though he was unable to push through them to reach his brother.

"You have been sitting on your ass for far too long, brother," Modi said. "I've even got a level on you. How pathetic the glory and praise of our father has made you."

"You think I am pathetic?" Magni scoffed in response. "Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You look like the god of bears, not of axes. You're so obsessed with the fact that you're not daddy's favorite that you've lost all connection with what is happening around you."

With that, a different glow filled the building as Magni used a divine skill of his own. A golden light seeped through every crack and corner, making everything look like they'd been colored by golden paint. Magni took a battle stance and from within his now-glowing body, two more versions of himself emerged, one to his left and one to his right.

The golden outlines slowly turned into exact replicas of their owner, even going as far as wearing the exact same gear, and only missing the wounds and pieces of embedded glass. All three of the identical warrior-gods charged at the axes spiraling around Modi, two of them creating an opening for the third to close the distance and engage in melee.

"This is just too good," Ares said, his breathing heavy with excitement.

Modi slashed at his brother with all his might but only managed to graze the metal on Magni's knuckles. When he did so, however, a blindingly bright force hit Magni and threw him back several feet, reuniting him with his two duplicates.

"Zeus, we tried pulling them away but they saw what was coming. They're coming back," Aphrodite said hastily in the guild chat.

"Who's coming back?"

Then suddenly the answer came crashing down on us.