Kingdom of the Gods: Godkiller (Sequel to Mythical Madness)

Chapter 11

11: Baby, I'll EAT You Up

MAX'S POV

Since we were in a rush to get to the Shard and put its power into Jack's swords before Asag came, Jack opened an Abyss Passage and teleported us down to the very south coast of England where Kahungu told us Fortress Crag was. The effort of opening up the Passage really drained Jack, and he was horribly tired when we stepped out onto an abandoned rocky beach facing a massive mountain-like rock that came out of the sea.

"Jack, do you want to stay behind while we get the Shard?" Piper asked him, concerned, as she and Kevin temporarily rejuvinated him with their nature and water magic.

"No. I'm not letting you guys do the work to get something that was meant for me. Let's go," Jack said, always trying to act the tough guy and impress us.

Alice and Piper both rolled their eyes, and we advanced into the cave, walking through a massive opening in the side of Fortress Crag. Inside, it was dark, but Piper snapped her fingers, and a swarm of fireflies flooded into the cave, lighting the way for us. I hoisted my backpack a little more onto my back, and we proceeded into the cave.

Kevin had his tomahawk drawn, and was keeping an eye out for any sort of monsters, even though Kahungu's blessing would protect us from the animal ones. We went a little ways down the cave, and we came into a large open cavern where a large lake took up a lot of the room. It was quiet except for the drip of water from the ceiling into the lake, but then suddenly, there was a faint noise...like chanting and marching.

"Maka-dere, kachei! SAYA! Dana, fomu, nadja! SAYA! TIri kanor, parei, saya! KA-KA-KA!"

The chant grew lounder and louder, and I could hear marching feet in the distance. With each of the sharp "KA!"'s at the end of the chant, I could also hear metal clanging on metal, or wood pounding on wood. The water fromt he cave roof that was dripping onto me started to get colder, and it almost started to hurt as each drop fell onto me.

"The Nightwarriors! Everyone, get down! Drop to your bellies!" Piper cried.

Everybody obeyed and dropped flat to the ground. As I touched the floor, I felt water and other liquids from the cave floor seep through my shirt, but I didn't care. The chant was getting louder and louder, and the marching feet were coming closer. Piper was running around the team in a circle, sprinkling something like white flakes from a pouch onto the floor around us in a circle. I sniffed the stuff, and it smelled like salt.

"Piper, are you daft? Sprinkling pinches of salt on the floor like a ninny when you can hear an army advancing on us?!" Alice cried angrily.

"It's for good purposes!" Piper cried, dropping to the floor inside the circle of salt as well.

Just as she did, a whole troop of armed warriors tromped into the cavern from a side tunnel. All of the warriors were dressed in little but reed loincloths, feathery headresses, and what looked like ornate mini-carpets hanging from their heads and hiding their faces from us. They carried bows, spears tipped with shells and bone, and wooden clubs with carvings of differnt animals on them.

Each warrior was painted with white chalk on one half of their body and blue war paint on the other, with intricate Hawaiian designs of black paint on top of the chalk and blue paint.But the oddest thing is that they seemd to be...ghostly.

A green aura hovered around all of them, and they floated a bit above the ground as they walked. Their limited clothing fluttered in the air similar to the way Alice's Victorian clothing ruffles flapped sometimes when she was flying.

"Whoa are those?" Alice whispered as the painted warriors came closer to our salt circle.

"The Nightwarriors. Undead warriors from Hawaiian mythology. If they come upon you, they'll make you into one of them, almost like the Wild Hunt. Luckily, if you drop to your stomach or make a circle of salt around you, they'll go away, so we're okay," Piper explained.

The lead warrior approached the circle, but as he came close, he recoiled, his form flickering and shuddering. He gave us a you've-only-gotten-away-this-time look and tromped back the way he had come with his warriors. We all stood up, and my heart was racing.

"Now, we can continue," Alice said, brushing her clothes off.

We moved on through the tunnels, and we saw a couple more cave animals, but no more monsters. We finally emerged into an empty chamber. At the far end of the chamber, another tunnel stretched away, and from inside the tunnel, a bit of red-orange light spilled out. We had made it to Moloch's cave.

"Alright guys, let's stay calm and ready. Don't draw your weapons, but if it comes to a fight, just know to be on your guard," Jack said.

And with that, we moved into the tunnel. The air steadily got warmer, and less water was on the ceilings and floor. We came out into a pretty large chambers, where rock terraces lined the walls and floor. Fires burned in about ten little pits on each terrace. And sitting at the very top-back terrace was Moloch himself.

The Semetic demon-god looked like a tall-stocky Middle Eastern man. He wore gold and red armor and clothings, and at his side was a massive mace with spikes of gold. His eyes glowed red, and he was sitting cross-legged, looking down at the floor. As we walked in, he looked to us. An aura of fire started to glow around him. That's when I noticed the glowing green crystal on the floor at his feet. The Shard.

"Demigods...and a ghost. Why are you here? Are you here to take my Shard?" he asked.

"Not to take it. More like borrow for world-saving purposes," Jack said. Moloch laughed, grinning a set of sharp teeth in a fierce grin.

"You can't have it, I'm afraid. I need to keep this until somebody suitable can come along to handle it. Are you suitable?" Moloch asked, getting to his feet and picking up his massive mace. I took out my pencil and twirled it, turning it into my spear.

"I...think?" Kevin said, drawing his tomahawk.

With a grin and a laugh, Moloch leapt at us, whirling his mighty weapon over his head like a toy. I leapt aside, and everyone else did as well. Moloch smashed down ontot he ground where we just were, smashing his mace down onto what would have been Jack's head. He got up and whirled around, metal armor plates clinking as he faced us.

Piper loosed an arrow into his shoulder. Moloch charged us, knocking aside Jack and Kevin with the hilt of his mace. I ran at him, jabbing into a gap in his armor and stabbing his legs. Moloch cried out, and I dodged a swipe of his mace. He hurled a fireball at me, and I dodged most of that too, although the shock wave from it hitting the ground blew me back a few feet.

"Do you know what I did back in Canaan and Phoenicia? They used to sacrifice babies to me! I burned them, ate them up! The priests used to beat drums as the children burned so that their parents wouldn't hear the screams!" Moloch said, with a horrible grin.

At those terrible words, I could almost hear a baby screaming, drums beating, the crackle and snap of fire burning...I shook it off, although I was horribly disgusted by the vision. Moloch gave anoth smile, but Jack knocked him aside with a tornado. Moloch stumbled, and Kevin hit him in the side with an earth pillar. Moloch swung around, smashing through the pillar and narrowly missing Alice's head with his mace.

Alice dove at him and cracked her fist across his face. Moloch gave a grunt, and Piper sent an arrow flying into his leg before snapping a vine across his cheek. I launched a sonic boom at the god, and he stumbled aside. Moloch crashed into the wall, and slumped to the floor.

"You...you're stronger than I thought...I was only using a fraction of my whole power...you guys are good..." Moloch said, before his eyes closed and he fell unconscious.

"And another god beaten..." Jack said, walking over the terraces and grabbing the crystal. As he grabbed it and held it up to his swords, the crystal glowed and green light flooded from it into the swords.

"Now that's positively wizard!" Alice cried as green light filled the chamber.

When the light cleared, Jack's sword were glowing eerily with the light as well. Jack smiled, and suddenly, the whole rock shook. The ground trembled, and the roof shook. One of the fires on a terrace nearly spilled over, btut then the shaking stopped. We all looked around, confused, but then we heard a huge roar from outside the rock and a second tremble came, larger this time.

"Asag's here," I said.