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Morrigan's fingers drummed softly on the arm of the straight-back wooden chair in which she sat. Three months, and none of her Knights, not even Terra Knight, her best fighter, was unable to bring the miscreant home. Freyr Yamauchi had fled, leaving his own sister behind in order to escape with his own skin. A soft hiss escaped from her mouth, her crimson eyes seemingly glowing in the darkness.

"Kali..." The name was barely a whisper, but the small blonde girl still appeared, melting out of the shadows.

"You called, Mother...?"

For a long few seconds, Morrigan said nothing. She simply drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair, making a dull, hollow, ringing sound within the walls. Kali waited silently, her head down, crystal blue eyes staring steadly down at the floor. "I need you to find someone. Everyone else has failed. Can you do this, my daughter?"

"Of course, Mother."

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Kali walked back to her quarters, her expression one of dull lifelessness. Her once sparkling eyes were flat, as if seeing nothing. She had work to do, and a fellow to find before she set out. Her eyes landed on another door, and she knocked once. "Loki."

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Bright crimson eyes stared out at the fortress in front of him. A shock of blonde hair fell into his vision, and he shoved it out of the way. He was only half-listening to the man speaking behind him. There was simply too much on his mind.

"...And really, you know beter than anyone that there is not much of a way in, save for Kali's abilities, without being seen. As of now, your head is wanted on several different spikes, probably in quite a few pieces right now..." Amun raised a purple eyebrow. "Freyr, are you even listening to me?"

His eyes narrowed. "I thought I told you not to call me that. But then, I suppose you are the last person I can trust. Can I trust you?"

Amun smiled. "I never said you couldn't..." His grin grew wicked then. "But I never said you could, either."

Freyr huffed.

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Orb 15

The boy stirred and with a soft groan, he opened his brown eyes to see dancing in their corners a fire. There was a strange, weedy smell on the air and the ground beneath him felt of cotton. Turning his head, he saw on the other side of the fire, the back of a man. He was lying on his side with his head resting in the palm of his hand and a thin, reedy pipe extending from over his shoulder. Who was he? How did he get here?

The boy’s face scrunched up as he attempted to sit up. His body felt so weak and his stomach stretched thin. He managed to sit upwards and panted softly. Cautiously, he glanced at the man again to see that he hadn’t reacted to his shuffling.

“Um…sir?” the boy called.

He got no response.

Staring awkwardly at the back of the man’s head, the boy blinked when he recalled having fallen asleep or had that been what fainting felt like?

“Oh! Thank you for saving me.”

No answer.

“Um…” the boy stood and glanced around at the trees that surrounded them. “I um…I’m going to leave now. I, uh, I have to find my sister…good bye.”

The boy took two steps away from the camp and turned to regard the man once more, but with concern glinting in his eyes. Was he…alive? Glancing down at a stone at his feet, the boy crouched and picked it up. He then raised it and held it with hesitation, just long enough for him to swallow the nervous lump that had formed in his throat. Once he got his composure, he threw the rock, and it struck the man in the back of the head with a pop that had sounded harder than intended.

The man’s head bowed as it left the perch of his hand, and he rolled over to face the boy with a look that turned his soul to ice. The scowl on his face had been lethal. His beady eyes had been so sharp that the boy could feel them draining the blood from his body likes needles. With teeth gritted on the end of his pipe, one word had left the man, and it had been enough to send the boy sprinting in terror:

Korosu…(Japanese: Kill)

Waaaaaah!

The boy screamed as he sprinted through the woods.

“Wait! I didn’t mean it. You woke me up! What kind of person wakes someone with a rock?” the warrior shouted after the kid. He chased the boy through the woods until the kid ran out of steam, which hadn’t taken long.

Bent over with his hands on his knees, the boy panted as though his life road on every lungful of oxygen taken. His face was already moist with sweat, and when he felt the warrior stop behind him, he grabbed the nearest stick he saw and began swinging it at him like a sword.

The warrior backed away with his hands raised and a smirk on his face. “Woah, careful, you might poke someone’s eye out with that thing.”

Panting, the boy held the stick to the warrior as though it had been lethal and demanded, “Who are you and what do you want?”

“First of all, I saved your little ass. I happened to find you unconscious and dehydrated in the middle of the forest. Secondly, you can address your savior as Susanoo.”

The boy narrowed his eyes at the warrior, scrutinizing his face for honesty.

Does he really think I’m lying?” Susanoo wondered.

The boy lowered the stick and sniffed once before he began crying. Susanoo lowered his hands and glanced around as though searching for a more qualified adult to handle this situation. Fuck, he was never good with kids.

“They took my sister. I tried to go after them, but I don’t know where they went. I lost her and she made me promise to find her once I got help,” the boy explained.

“Is she hot?”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Hey kid, you want some rice?”

“I’m starving!”

Back at the camp

The boy, having learned over dinner that his name was Caleb, had eaten his fill and was plump and sleeping. Susanoo irritably stared at the empty pot.

The pig didn’t leave me one grain, he thought.

Standing, he walked over to his rations bag and his brows leapt on his forehead when he discovered that his rice bag was empty.

He ate everything!

Glaring over his shoulder at the kid, he thought optimistically, At least I have some salted salmon…

He grabbed that bag and watched it deflate with an empty cough.

The fuck? He ate that too? I didn’t even serve him that!

The warrior’s face flushed red as he threw down the bag and stood to fire eyebeams of hate and destruction at the boy. Raising his fingers to his forehead, he took a deep breath into his nostrils and exhaled slowly, calming his nerves.

“At least I have my booze,” he muttered.

The warrior walked back over to his spot by the fire to resume the position he was in at the beginning of this tale. He sucked some spirits from his drinking gourd and started to prepare another pipe.

Morning

Caleb had been crouched by the warrior’s head, poking the line of drool that was seeping from his mouth with a stick. He smelt of alcohol and that weedy smell he had smelled last night. Was he ever going to wake up?

A scream resonated through the woods and the boy stood like an alert hare.

“Chrysta!” he recognized.

Dropping to his knees, he rested his hands on the warrior’s chest and roughly shook him.

“Wake up, wake up, I hear my sister!” Caleb cried.

A hand snagged his wrist and the boy went rigid. His brown eyes caught the death glare of Susanoo.

Shinee…(Japanese: Die)

Waaaah!

There they were, starting all over again. The boy was running for his life and he was much faster than yesterday. Probably because he had gotten some food in his stomach.

“Really kid, you know assault isn’t the only way to wake someone up. You’re gonna get your ass kicked doing that!”

“I tried waking you up every other way!”

The two stopped when they came before three individuals. Two of the individuals had been armed with weapons, while the third rested on her knees in the clutches of the female knight. She yanked against the hold her captor had on her wrists.

“Let me go!” she screamed.

“Crysta, I’m here!” Caleb shouted.

“Cae!” she cried in relief to see that he was safe and well.

“Hey, you never said you had a little brother,” Knight 1 said with a smirk. “Good, we’ll bring Mother two then.”

“What about him?” Knight 2 asked, pointing to the warrior standing behind the boy.

Susanoo had been examining the situation. Chrysta had been a babe. Shoulder-length brown hair, fair milky skin, and those breasts…possibly a full C cup. Knight 2, however, almost seemed perfect. Her breasts were a D and her body was toned down to her swollen backside. Oh yes…this was going to be a good day.

“I brought help Chrysta. His name is Susanoo and he’s going to save you.”

The knights’ eyes grew in surprise.

“Susanoo? Where have I heard that name?” Knight 1 wondered aloud.

“He is Knight Sea. Mother wants him dead.”

“Knight Sea? That wash out? Ha! I heard Mother threw him out of the nest the moment he was born.”

“Yeah, well, your mother’s a bitch,” Susanoo said frankly.

“What did you say?” Knight 1 hissed.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to curse in front of little kids?” Knight 2 retorted.

Susanoo slowly arched a brow at Knight 2 and her poor retort. It had only taken but a moment for her to realize how stupid her taunt had been.

“Just kill him!” Knight 2 growled.

“With pleasure. He’s probably just a defect any way.”

Knight 1 lifted his hands to the sky as stone rose from the earth to swallow his body in a protective shell. The stone continued to build on him until he rose nine-feet into a massive golem. He raised and lowered his arms and legs as fragments of rock broke free to grant him mobility; and then like an ape, he pounded his fists against his boulder of a chest and roared at the god.

Knight 2 released one of Chrysta’s wrists and raised her hand as green vines began to coil around the girl and lift her into the air. The vines coiled about the girl’s thighs, hips, and breasts and when it reached the highest branch on a tree, it began to constrict, squeezing her until she began to scream and squirm. She began coughing as she felt herself losing breath. Her chest swiftly inflating and deflating and breasts quivering to her struggling. It wasn’t long before the girl went still and her head flopped forward.

“Chrysta!” Caleb screamed before he looked at Susanoo in fright to see the warrior with his back turned to the whole situation. He was discreetly holding a handkerchief against his nose and the boy angrily exclaimed, “What are you doing?”

Wiping his nose, Susanoo secretly tucked the bloody handkerchief away as he turned back to the situation at hand, “Sorry. I had something in my eye.”

He glanced to the golem and then to Knight 2 who was now brandishing a whip of ivy.

Damn. I left my gear at the camp, and there doesn’t seem to be a water source around, he perceived.

Without wasting any more time, the golem charged, swinging its bulky arms as it stomped toward Susanoo and the boy.

“Get out of the way kid,” Susanoo warned.

Caleb ran off to the side to hide behind a tree and watched as the golem grew closer to Susanoo. What was he doing? Did he want to get crushed?

“Run!” Caleb yelled.

The golem halted abruptly as its feet slid across the dirt. He swung his arm around like a hammer and just before his arm struck, Susanoo side-stepped the attack and sprinted for the gap between the golem’s leg. The golem’s fist came down with a thunderous thoom that sent dirt, root, and dust pluming and firing into the air. The warrior sprinted faster than he had when he was chasing Caleb, and his change in target had startled Knight 2.

Quickly with her whip, she snapped the vine in his direction. Susanoo rocked his shoulder back to dodge it, feeling the breeze caress his skin. Knight 2 hissed as she snapped her whip back and it formed into a thorn the length of a sword. Stabbing his heels into the dirt, Susanoo gave himself enough hesitation to feel her sword give a hairline scrape across his stomach. The momentum continued to roll the dirt under his feet as Knight 2 attempted to leap back to give herself some distance. Her green eyes widened when she saw Susanoo right on top of her and was about to bring her weapon across the side of his neck when she felt it…

Susanoo’s hand landed upon her left boob, squeezing it within his fingers and allowing it to spring and bob free of his grip. Knight 2’s mouth fell open in shock as humiliation blossomed like roses upon her cheeks. She had not been expecting that. The pig had caught her completely off guard and she had been too distracted to see that he had slipped behind her.

“Knight 2!” the golem bellowed as he tried to warn her.

Knight 2 swiftly turned her head over her shoulder to catch a sharp elbow against the side of her neck. The blow had snapped her head and thrown her across the ground in an unconscious heap. She bounced and rolled across the earth until her body slid to a stop before the golem’s feet.

Susanoo balled his hand into a fist as he savored the warmth of the malleable flesh that still lingered in it. Grasping the vines that held Chrysta with his free hand, he yanked her free as the vines loosened to drop the girl into his arms. Setting her down, he didn’t have to tell Caleb to watch her. The boy had already fled his hiding spot behind the tree and raced over to her.

The warrior stood and faced the golem with a deciphering stare. This one was going to be tricky. He knew that no matter what sort of attack he’d try to use on him, the man inside the rocky shell would still be safe. He had to get to his gear. Whirling around, Susanoo grabbed the boy under his left arm and hefted the girl over his shoulder.

“We need to return to camp,” Susanoo told him before he broke into a run.

“My sister isn’t breathing!” Caleb informed.

Susanoon frowned and hopped into the air to have the girl rise and drop against his shoulder. The light blow that was given to her diaphragm caused a rush of air to escape her lips, and the girl was soon heard coughing.

“Chrysta!” Caleb happily exclaimed.

“C-Caleb,” she rasped. She then blinked when she realized that they were moving and did her best to push her hands against Susanoo’s chest amidst all the jostling so that she could see his face. She had done exactly what he had been anticipating. Her beautiful mammaries smashed against the side of his face like a pillow full of tapioca, and somewhere inside him, he knew the luckiest man in the world was crying tears of joy.

“I’m-I’m sorry!” Chrysta panicked in her embarrassment.

“I got more important things to worry about than your boobs being in my face right now,” Susanoo replied. Really though, he didn’t have anything more important or as pleasant as that.

Chrysta gazed back at the pursuing golem as it bulldozed shrubs and pushed aside trees.

“It’s gaining on us! What are we going to do?” she cried.

“Almost there,” Susanoo told them.

The camp was just ahead and when they reached it, Susanoo set the family down and held his hand out to the large prayer beads that had been circling his bag. The necklace levitated off the ground and floated over to him. The beads circled around him as Susanoo held his hands, right over left, about a nonexistent sphere. He closed his eyes as he slipped into concentration and before the golem could flatten them, one of the beads released a jet of water that went straight into the golem’s mouth.

The golem staggered to a stop before another bead fired another beam of water into its mouth. Its stony foundations began to crack as Knight 1 began to lose focus. A third and fourth bead fired two more streams and the golem crumbled as the bloated knight dropped to his knees. Coughing up sparks of water, the knight held his hand out and pleaded, “Please, no more!”

His cries were ignored as more jets followed and his belly swelled like a balloon. The knight continued to expand until his belt snapped free and his armor split at the sides. He collapsed upon his back when his system had drowned, the water inside him audibly churning within his swaying stomach until it launched like a geyser into the sky. Knight 1 deflated back to normal size and the water that rained about him was absorbed by the earth.

Susanoo opened his eyes and sighed in disappointment. First all of his food was gone, and now he used all of his water to defeat the enemy.

Caleb stared at the unconscious knight from the arms of his sister, feeling spooked by how Susanoo had shown him no mercy.

“Is he…?” he questioned fearfully.

“Dead? No. I didn’t kill them,” Susanoo informed. “If I hadn’t incapacitated them, then they would still be trying to get you.”

“What are they? They knew who you were. And…wait, what are you?” Chrysta asked.

Susanoo turned to Chrysta with a smile and charm in his eyes that he liked to call his panty-soaker 3000.

“I’m a god,” he answered.

Caleb narrowed his eyes in disbelief. Did he really just say that? The tightened grip he felt from his sister made the boy cast his eyes up at her and his mouth hung open in shock.

“You can’t be ser-“

Chrysta clapped her hand over her brother’s mouth. “Wow. A god…I…I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s quite all right,” Susanoo said with a grin.

She was just eating it up. Caleb struggled in her hold and screamed against her hand: He’s not a god! You’re so stupid!

Facing the downed knight, Susanoo said with a lazy sigh, “I’m going to go take care of him and his girlfriend, and then I’ll be back to take you two home.”

“You never said what they are and how they know you,” said the nosy girl.

“They’re evil. That’s all you need to know; and when you’re a god as popular as I am, evil tends to follow you.”

“Hurry back. I’m afraid something might attack us while you’re gone.”

“You’ll be fine,” Susanoo reassured her as he stooped down and shouldered Knight 1. “I’ll return soon.”

When Susanoo left, Caleb was more than eager to tell his sister how foolish she was for believing his lies. He had no explanation for how he and “the evil” were able to manipulate nature, but somehow he knew that he wasn’t one. No god that he’d ever read about liked to drink and smoke stinky grass all night. He also had been a pervert. He noticed how he had looked at his sister and the evil lady.

Knight Sea took the two knights outside the orb into The Waste, and it was there that he sent them back to Mother as he liked to call it. He executed them both for they had discovered his location, and he buried them beneath the dirt. After he fulfilled his promise to the two humans, he was going to be on the road again, changing his location to a new orb.

Loki was angry. That wasn't particularly unnusual. Loki was quite temperamental, even for a "god". However, when before, Loki would let off steam through nasty tricks and chaos, he simply paced his room in thought. Mother had gone too far this time. To erase another's memories was something even he would never do. He valued individuality. Memories made you into the person you were. If his memories were erased, he'd be docile. For a time, of course. It wasn't in his nature to be controlled. Sooner or later, he'd find ways to rebel again, but Kali...

With a grunt, he allowed his powers to act up and set his room aflame. It mattered not. The servants could clean up the ash. Besides, he stored no truly valuable items under his mother's roof. He scowled darkly. Mother... She would pay for her insolence. Freyr too. It wash is sloppy rebellion and abandonment of his sister that caused Morrigan to erase Kali's memories. He would....

He heard a knock on his door and, without a thought, made himself into pure flame and thrust it open without looking. He solidified and whispered in the visitor's ear.

"What?"

Only then did he see Kali, her eyes blank. He felt a pang in his heart.

"Kali, correct?" he asked, knowing this would be the first time she met him in her eyes.

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