Witnessing the spectacle happening before them, Odin and Zeus felt great trepidation as they beheld the face of the calamity they were about to face.
From the veil ripped asunder came demonic Gods born from the darkest pits of darkness;
The Lord of the Fiery Pits of Damnation and Harbinger of Souls – Satannish.
The Serpent of the End – Set.
The First Demon and He Who Holds the Darkness – Chthon.
And behind them all was a taboo that shook even the souls of Abstracts, The True End, or at least part of it – The Chaos King.
Never had such a lineup of evil beings converged at one place at the same time.
The chaos that flowed out of them was so wrong that weaker men and minor Gods who gazed at them without the required mental fortitude were reduced to madness and had their souls annihilated.
"H-How?" Zeus couldn't believe what his divine eyes showed him that he had to ask Odin, the One-Eyed God, if his sights had failed him.
"By the fathers." Odin muttered under his breath as his sole eye set before him a truth he would have preferred to be a lie, a forgotten nightmare.
The weakest demon among them was Satannish and even he was a serious threat given the energy that he was emitting. This was Satannish in his truest form, having fully stepped inside the universe without an imposition on him.
And then there were two Elder Gods, Set and Chthon.
Not even Odin knew how long he could fare against one. He fancied his chances were better against the first serpent but not against Chthon. He knew he would lose against either but the difference between the two was how long it would take him before he lost.
Stalemating one was possible, defeating on the hand was…
"Why? Why would they come? There is nothing to gain by doing this and there is no way you can tell me it's all because of a mortal." Zeus was beyond enraged as lighting shot out from his body, its light bathing multiple galaxies over in perpetual daylight.
"This is the result of a chain reaction he started. The only reason why I think that that snake and the demon are interested is because this very battle can drown the multiverse in unending chaos and they are staking their bets with their presence, hoping it'll help facilitate it faster." Odin spoke, not minding as other Gods appeared besides him and Zeus.
"All they needed was a reason. The impetus of a joint cause. They each have a separate agenda for being here, but does it matter? Nay. It matters not." As Odin spoke, the spear he held in his hand, the fabled Gungnir, thrummed to life with power unbridled.
"Let the tales be told;
Olden Gods of forgotten might,
Of demons of hellish whisper,
Vainglory and Valor, on which we hath thrived;
Hear me, O ye ballads of unending myths,
With arms drawn, we charge
Though as Gods we rise, as man we fall:
Hear hear~"
"Hear hear!"
Odin's words roused the spirits of all the Gods present and in response to the brave fronts, darkness and lightning roared and with its wake came a serpent. One so mythical and gigantic that the tip of its tail created gusts of winds that broke down planets to dust.
It sprouted seven heads, each one more vile than the other and in each mouth carried curses that would bind even the most mighty of Gods.
Every hiss that sounded from its mouths mocked the very existence of the Gods gathered.
He was Set, the deceiver; also known as the Serpent God of Death. The fate that finds us. The snake that binds us.
Odin with his Gungnir, Zeus with his Thunderbolts, along with a host of other Gods from other pantheons, each armed with their divine armaments, charged at the greatest representation of death they would ever see with determination bleeding through their hearts.
Satannish growled as hellfire flowed from both his mouth and the scar that ran through them. He didn't care about what the others wanted as all he cared for was reducing this stupid universe to a molten slug.
He also would partake in the feast before him and feed on the souls of Gods to get stronger which was something everyone here was very interested in, except maybe him.
As far as he knew, those two Elder Gods wanted to nourish themselves with the souls of these Gods and then use their newfound power to fan the chaos that was already wrecking the multiverse even further.
And to achieve that, they needed him to truly descend.
The true Oblivion.
"Your soul is mine!" Satannish howled in delight as his fists smashed into the face of the first Goddess and killed her immediately while his other face ripped apart her soul and fed on it.
"You were banished from this reality once before, so it shall be again." Odin's voice boomed with power as he confronted Set while Zeus made his way towards Chthon who just stood still and had nothing from the beginning.
"How foolish of you, Odin. You think this pitiful attempt of yoursss will amount to anything? You think the ssssacrifices that are constantly being heaped on your head will sssuddenly be worth it when you triumph?" Set mocked as his other heads fired cursed breaths at the Asgardian Allfather.
Holding Gungnir with a strong grip, Odin cut a downward slash that shot a crescent energy blast towards the incoming foul breaths of Set.
BOOOM!
Odin charged at Set with a cry. "Standing on this battlefield is no God. Just an old king and a mighty warrior. I will repay their sacrifices by decorating the halls of Asgard with your hide." His mastery and familiarity with Gungnir needed no complexity except the most basic of swings and slashes, cutting down anything that dared bar his path from the snake.
Set let out an amused chuckle as he saw the fire that burned in Odin's eye. From his body, reptilian beings of different types emerged and charged towards the army of Gods and warriors making their way towards their creator.
"Begone!" Power erupted from Odin's voice that vaporized all the scaled monsters that were unfortunate enough to be in the range of his power. "Ha!"
In front of Odin's spear slash, Set let a great hiss and swing his tail to collide with Gungnir with the Allfather being pushed back in the confrontation.
Set's hiss grew in intensity as he saw a little graze on his tail from the Allfather's spear, meanwhile Odin's face became harder as he felt the hardness of Set's skin vibrating from his weapon to his hands.
"I've decided. Sssince you fear the fabled Ragnarok ssso much, how about I reenact it for you? What do you say, Odin?" He snarled and taunted Odin as venom dripped from his mouths.
"Let not the name of mine people slither through your foul tongue, ye serpent." Odin disappeared and appeared above one of Set's heads quicker than the Elder God could react and brought down his spear with rage unto it.
PIERCE!
Half of Gungnir's bladed edge sank into the skull of Set's head making the great serpent hiss out in pain, only for it to increase to a full blown howl as Odin channeled his energy through the spear and blasted it into the head on which he stood upon.
Magic rolled off of Odin as he drew upon the greatest power of Asgard, the Odinforce, and wielded it in a bid to slay this fat assed snake, even if he died doing so.
…
*Cough cough*
Zeus coughed as blood leaked through his lips as he once again picked himself to face off against Chthon. The demon clad in red with a giant book at his side.
From his connection to his people, he could feel their lives being reaped with every passing moment, both God and soldier. He was lucky they faced off against the threat out in the void of space because had this been Olympus, all of his people would have been massacred, dying meaningless death.
His children were fighting, some alongside him while others faced off against lesser threats and his heart gripped.
Facing off against Satannish was the white haired Goddess of the Sky, Gaea's chosen, alongside the son of Odin, Thor. Their battle was quite personal as he could feel the rage and hate both the Goddess and Satannish held for each other.
The only thing saving them was that he was still yet to step in, mostly likely because of the army of Celestials that were trying to fix the veil as if their life depended on it, because it actually did.
Wielding his authority of Order, Zeus commanded the universe for his people to be healed and it was so while he cackled with divine lightning as he once again prepared to face off against Chthon.
No words needed to be said between the two of them since it was visibly apparent what they thought of each other – a dead God.
Zeus traversed the distance between him and Chthon in but an instant as the world before him changed with every step he took.
CRACK!
God's wrath met the devil's magic, creating a blistering heat that wouldn't lose out to the hottest star out there, obliterating everything that was too close to them.
Zeus punched at Chthon only for his fist to impact against a dark barrier that cracked upon contact but that wasn't enough to stop his momentum.
He channeled more of his lightning through his body and the cracks on the barrier increased until it started giving away.
The moment the barrier fully broke, Zeus wasn't given the time to celebrate his little win before a kick was sent to his stomach that seemed to wring out everything in his stomach as he shot backwards and disappeared into the distance in a flickering light.
"Futility is the only outcome when the weak oppose those above them." Chthon's words never got the chance to fully spread in the void as it was overshadowed by a boisterous shout of thunder before a fist impacted the side of his face faster than he could react to and sent him stumbling back.
Zeus stood with an impassive face as all semblance of an emotion was erased from his mind. This was his authority of Justice taking control of him after he made the decision to vanquish the foe before him at all costs, regardless of any sacrifice he had to make.
Despite the change in Zeus, Chthon remained unfazed as the only thing that was the surge of darkness from him.
"Struggle. Fight. Desire victory. Sacrifice all your limbs even. It will achieve nothing. I had created my first demons before any of your kind emerged from our embers. Maybe I should show you… what despair looks like." Chthon said as another book emerged at his other side and flipped through pages on its own. "Don't die yet, little Zeus."
Zeus didn't grace his mockery with an answer and blitzed himself towards him with his Thunderbolt ready for his strike only for him to slow down as reality around him changed.
He found himself in a red realm of pure destruction and chaos that even his Thunderbolt's resplendent light dimmed.
"Welcome, to the place I set my throne upon. Otherwise known as your deathbed."
Zeus turned fiercely as Chthon's voice reverberated through the entire realm but he couldn't locate him, that was until he looked upwards.
Taller than the highest peak on which Olympus was seated, Chthon's massive form covered the entire red lightning-filled sky which caused Zeus' impassive façade to break like the expression of a hurt child.
"Do you feel it yet? What you feel right now is mostly confusion and a fervent rejection of the current reality. Let me change it to despair for you."