The Loyal God

A Foolish Challenge

"Horus...!" Isis called for her son amongst the dust that had swelled up.

"Horus!!!"

She stumbled through the cloud, Neith only being able to perceive her movement because of her enhanced senses. Very briefly, Neith thought of how pathetic the great god of magic, once sought after far and wide for her potions and spells, looked in that moment. Compared to her King, who had been nothing but in control of himself, save for the odd deserved outburst, this whole time, she looked like a toddler, pitching a fit about her doll being in the possession of someone else for the time being.

"Osiris!!! Aah...!! My king!! Osiris! Only you can be the rightful king of Egypt! You are our savior! My king! Please save Egypt! Please save Horus!" Isis sobbed, falling into Osiris' arms.

Osiris merely wiped her tears away, seemingly lamentful about something. Neith scoffed slightly, she doubted the pathetic man could feel lament about anything. He'd never seemed to feel lament during his reign as king, she'd seen how he had looked at Seth. Even when Seth was with Anubis and Nephthys, his family, Osiris had looked at him, or rather Nephthys, with contempt. With desire and spite, as if imagining himself in one of the pair's place. It had always made her skin crawl with ill-disguised disgust. The barely disguised lust with which Osiris looked at Seth, and even sometimes herself, was a wretched thing. So shameful was the king of Egypt that he would look at the gods of war in such a manner, Seth the most, whilst his own wife, whom he claimed to love with a love as undying and eternal as himself, was standing beside him. It made her physically sick, so much so that she would go into the desert for years at a time to escape that gaze, to escape the picture of him looking at her precious twin in that manner. Oftentimes, Seth would find her and sob, claiming that he had been looking for years with no luck in finding her, fearing that she had been taken by foreigners who meant to do harm to them who had taken her to their homeland and forced her to converge into their own pantheon. She remembered laughing at the thought of that, but now she wasn't so sure that it would have been such a bad thing.

"Isis... With this body, I can no longer protect Egypt. Don't you know this already? I don't have much time left..." Osiris sighed.

'Oh? What an interesting predicament. My King should very much like to be indulged in this discovery. Osiris cannot exist within the world of the living for long? That is wonderful...' Neith found herself thinking.

"My body can no longer..." Osiris began.

He was cut off by a loud racket as Seth reformed into a towering giant made of sand.

"Enough playing games. Now... it's my turn...... to judge all of you. I sentence you all to death," Seth growled, looking down on the gods who had betrayed him.

"Uncle, you think that the strongest god should be king of Egypt and the second strongest should serve them loyally for all of time? Then will you acknowledge me and relinquish your control of Aunt if I prove that I'm stronger than you?" Horus demanded.

Neith paled. She would admit that Horus was strong, perhaps stronger than most demigods were, but to challenge the god of war and supreme ruler of Egypt in a battle of strength was surely suicide! And should he somehow win sovereignty of Egypt, would she be forced to serve him and carry out the sentence for her crimes under him instead of alongside her King? She would rather be stripped of all her powers and divinity, would rather be made as if human, than serve anyone other than her beloved King. Her King was all she had ever known, fighting alongside him, serving under him, being by his side. To strip her of him would be as much torture as stripping her of a fraction of her powers.

"H- Horus! You're not yet...!" Isis began to reprimand her son, her voice coated in fear, the acrid scent hanging thick in the air, clashing with Isis' scent.

Osiris placed a hand on Isis' shoulder, effectively preventing her from continuing. Seth burst into bone chilling laughter at Horus' proposal.

"You sure know how to amuse me," he chuckled, picking Horus up and bringing the god-spawn close to his face.

"Are you saying you want to fight me for the throne right now?" Seth grinned.

"Stop!!! How dare you interrupt this sacred trial! Do you seriously plan on going against the law of the gods?!" Maat raged.

Osiris stepped forward, grabbing Maat's shoulder to gain the god's attention.

"Maat."

"Osiris!"

"Do you honestly have the strength to control Seth right now?" Osiris asked.

Realization spread across Maat's face.

"If you want to maintain authority, have Horus deal with this trial. You of all people would know what the wisest thing to do is," Osiris pointed out.

Maat took a moment to ponder this solution.

"Alright," she conceded.

"Why're you just standing there? Come on, amuse me!" Seth demanded, holding Horus in place.

Horus did not move, which only served to anger Seth even more.

"I'm right here, so go on and come at me all you want!" Seth urged him.

He slammed Horus onto the ground, eliciting a huge explosion. However, when he opened his eyes, he was not where he was but moments before, but in a scale. On one side was Seth and the other, Horus. Maat knelt before them.

"You bastard!! What did you do? Where are we?" Seth raged, accusing Horus of transporting them there.

"Seth and Horus. Because both of you wish it, you two shall compete for the throne of Egypt under the supervision of the law. However, the events will be chosen at random by the Ennead, and the best of three wins," Maat explained. 

"What? Why should I have to go through such trouble? I could just kill you all and call it a day," Seth claimed.

"Seth. Are you not confident that you can win?" Maat provoked.

"Bullshit. You think you can get me to agree by provoking me like this?" Seth scoffed, seeing through Maat's plans.

"If you win, you'll be acknowledged as the rightful king of Egypt. Nobody will ever try to seize the throne from you, nor will anyone raise objection to your sovereignty," Maat enticed.

"Everyone will accept you as their king."

"I, too, shall grovel at your feet, Uncle. And I will serve you with sincerity," Horus proposed.

"Will you compete with me?"