u/Craftex101

-The Jade Palace-

Yu Huang and Ao Kuang sit and watch the arena intermission, Yu Huang letting out a loud sigh. “So… that is the end of Arthur Pendragon…” He stands, crossing his arms behind his back.

Ao Kuang gulps seeing his father in such deep contemplation. “... father. You spoke of him in quite strange terms. May I know why?”

Yu Huang nods. “Of course, my boy. It is because… he is the man who made me vote for the destruction of humanity.”

“W-what?! I suppose… I had never considered or doubted your reasons…”

“Yes. He was a destructive and brazen man. He killed many dragons in the name of conquest. His legends as well… caused the extermination of the dragons of Earth back in that time. And yet I cannot truly find myself hating him. How… hypocritical of me. To blame a man who had changed from who he once was.”

Ao Kuang walks up beside his father looking out over their cloud-riding Xulong dragons dancing across the sky outside. “I do not think so, father. You have torn down your very core and rebuilt yourself while he merely changed his outlook, not his very being.”

Yu Huang gives Ao Kuang a gentle affirming squeeze on the shoulder. “Thank you, my boy. Say, my son. It has been long since we went and did something together.”

Ao Kuang nods. “That is true. I could use the distraction. I was going to go the round and check on the dragons. Would you care to join me?” 

Yu Huang strokes his beard. “Ah yes. That sounds quite wonderful. Where to first, my boy?”

Ao Kuang takes out a stone tablet which inscribes a few things on it. “Well a few days ago, one of our young wyverns hurt its wing. Perhaps we ought to check up on him.”

Yu Huang nods. “Oh dear. Let us do so, posthaste. Why did you not inform me of this?” Ao Kuang whistles, causing one of the xiaolong dragons to float down in front of him and he gets on top. Yu Huang meanwhile makes a gesture with his hands and a jade crystal cloud forms in front of him which he steps onto as they set off.

“You have been… rather busy with Ragnarok these past few days, father.”

A silence falls over them, thinking about Ragnarok. “... Quite so…” Yu Huang brings himself to say, looking to Ao Kuang who is deep in thoughts, clenching the xiaolong’s back fin as it runs along the clouds. “She had fun, Ao Kuang. And she fought well.”

Ao Kuang gives a soft smile, somewhat full of regret. “Yes she did. But it is hard to believe she is truly gone. It does not feel like it. We do not see each other often… I had not seen her since her ‘curse’ after all.”

Yu Huang tries to find some words of comfort. “... Time spent together does not measure a friendship the same as a reunion after time apart does. I saw you with her after you reunited. As though no time had passed at all,” He recalls when Ao Kuang was still young and playing in the gardens of Shinto with Tsukuyomi. Back when he was… someone else.

Ao Kuang laughs. “And yet so much had changed. But I suppose she found her match in that man, Houdini. Even if his… brazen display after her… death, annoyed me to no end,” 

“Annoyed? Past tense?” Yu Huang steps off the cloud into one of the wyvern habitats. A floating island with the beginnings of snow gently falling. Orange, withering leaves on all the trees, a gentle cool breeze at all times. Wyverns are highly territorial and familial, so even this large island is home to only a single wyvern clan.

Ao Kuang nods as he gives a light shiver from the sudden drop in temperature. “In the moment, I was furious. Not befitting a member of the Jade Palace. But I recall the moment vividly. Something about his attitude change felt rather… insincere. But regardless we are here,” 

Yu Huang steps off the dragons, seeing someone approaching. It is Ao Kuang’s twin brother, Ao Run. “Ah, father. A pleasure to see you here,” He bows and Yu Huang bows back.

“The pleasure is mine. But I am told… that a young dragon has been hurt? I was wondering if I may meet it to ensure it is healing well?”

Ao Run nods. “Of course. Right this way,” He gestures to the large expansive cave opening in front of them. 

Ao Kuang shivers a bit and rubs his arms to heat up. “I have never understood how you can exist here without freezing, brother.”

Ao Run laughs gently. “I believe it is my natural constitution, brother. But it is not THAT cold. Just think how cold Ao Shun’s habitats are.”

“Do not remind me…”

As they step closer something MASSIVE suddenly crashes to the ground in front of them. A wyvern. Twice the size of the one Yu Huang had used as a construct in his battle with Hartmann. Pale white scales, and rimfrost-like patterns flowing through its wings. 

It ROARS in their faces, but the Celestial Sage does not budge, merely folding his hands into his sleeves. “This one is Roar, father. The father of the clan,” Ao Run informs him.

“Aaaaah yes. I recall his hatching, many many years ago,” Yu Huang smiles with joy, despite the aggressive behavior. “Apologies for intruding upon your lands, oh mighty dragon,” He bows deeply. “We are here to see your young injured whelp,” He reaches out a hand. “I know you are scared and protective of your weakened young. But please. You know me, young man.”

The wyvern stares at Yu Huang for a while, sniffing at his hand, huffing and stomping its feet, before it slowly back away and allows them to follow it into the cave where an even larger Wyvern is lying, huddled up around a nest of heated rocks. It angrily huffs at Yu Huang and the sons as they approach. But Roar seems to huff and convey they mean no harm. And after sniffing Yu Huang a few times seems to recognize the scent. “And this is your mate? What a powerful beauty you have found, my friend,” He bows to the large wyvern. Female wyverns generally grow far larger than their male counterparts. The female wyvern spreads her tail and removes her wing, revealing a young whelp under her wing with bandages on its wing, folding it closed. “... hm. What happened to this one, Ao Run?” He gets closer, causing the whelp to squeal and squirm until it feels Yu Huang’s gentle hand on its snout. “Calm yourself, young man. This is no way for a noble dragon to behave,”

Ao Run steps in closer, much more carefully than his father. “It got into a fight with one of its siblings and was crushed by a falling tree that fell.”

“Oh young can be so rough and eager to prove themselves,” He reaches to his belt, gently cupping the wyvern gem. “Your Lord blesses you, young whelp,” He takes a deep breath and focuses on the gem, making it glow faintly and he holds it over the wound. “It will not heal just from this, young whelp. But should help it along. You are strong. Cherish your sibling,” He stands and bows to the dragons before the two of them head out, the big wyvern poking her brood with her nose as if to check on him, the younger dragon letting out a cute sneeze of frost fire.

Getting back on their dragon and cloud. “What a terrible accident. I am glad you were here, Ao Run,” Yu Huang says with a smile.

Ao Run bows. “Thank you for coming by, father. It was lovely to see you again. You as well, brother,” 

The two set off again. Yu Huang chuckles to himself. “I am reminded of a moment from YOUR youth. You and Ao Run had not seen eye to eye on a matter and got into an altercation much like this one.”

Ao Kuang blinks in confusion. “I… you remember that?”

Yu Huang lowers his gaze. “I am aware I did not… handle it well back then. I hope I have improved my parenting. Not that you four require it any longer.”

Ao Kuang laughs. “I still have much to learn from you, father. Now… Next would be-” However Ao Kuang is interrupted by an explosion on a nearby island. 

“What in the name of the dragon lords is that…?” Yu Huang changes course with haste, speeding far past Ao Kuang’s Xiaolong’s running speed. Approaching one of the large habitats, expansive in many directions he sees a drake, the size of his own Dracomancy construct scorching the earth with its powerful firebreath. Ao Qin, the youngest of his children desperately flying around it. 

“Gaidrus! Please calm yourself! This is no way for a Dragon Lord to behave!” He angrily strikes the giant dragon with his dragon spear, but it’s no use. Suddenly from within the ground the Fire Drake is scorching erupts a massive Xiaolong with icy blue scales, which grabs hold of the Gaidrus and bites down on its neck. “Dammit Ao Shun! Didn’t we agree NEVER to bring their territories close!?” Ao Qin calls out as Ao Shun is standing at the back of the giant Xiaolong pulling on its tail rather pointlessly trying to wrestle it away from the drake, his legs frozen to the wintery ground around him.

“I do not control where Di Dao floats his island! Just get him away and we’ll move his island, before they wipe out this entire territory and we’ll yell at each other LATER!”

The two dragon lords roar at one another in anger, Gaidrus preparing a massive fireball while Di Dao quickly climbs around the massive dragon and jerking its head away, blasting the massive fireball straight at Yu Huang who approaches with haste. Yu Huang pulls his arm back, thrusting forward with two fingers, piercing the fireball which easily outsizes him and it simply dissipates. “My sons! RETREAT AT ONCE!” He orders and Ao Qin and Ao Shun both look up at the tiny cloud approaching them.

“Father be careful! These are the new Dragon Lo-” 

“WHAT!!!!!???? IS THE MEANING!?? OF THIS!!!!???” Yu Huang erupts off the top of his lungs catching the attention of the two dragon lords who roar at Yu Huang before continuing their fight. “You do not wish to heed my warnings? So be it!” Yu Huang dives off his cloud, falling straight down towards the two massive dragons, he reaches back, grabbing two of his stones, clenching them tightly. “Then perhaps I will remind you of the authority entrusted to me!” 

Two monstrously large projections appear around him of a faint jade-like glass. A drake and xiaolong. Majestic and proud, yet calm and with a quiet flaming anger about them. The two dragon lords instantly cease their fighting and almost whimper to the floor as Yu Huang floats between the two, a stone in each hand. “I am aware of, and understand your need for battle. Your pride taints your very nature and it is nothing to be ashamed of. HOWEVER!” Yu Huang gestures around the area which is in flames, many far smaller dragon species and other fauna hurrying out of the burning trees and seeking shelter. “Your foolish actions have consequences! And bring shame upon your names! Gaidrus! Di Dao!” Yu Huang holds his hands up, gesturing to the two massive dragons. “As future Dragon Kings! These two. Are the standards to which you must rise. Noble. Fair. Powerful. DO NOT make me teach you this lesson the hard way!” 

The two large dragons naturally do not understand his words exactly, however the quiet judgmental gaze of their ancestors beaming down on them convey approximately the same message in far less words. The Gaidrus gives one final roar at Di Dao before he shoots off to a nearby island where he stands at the edge, watching Di Dao’s cloud-borne island floating away. Yu Huang slowly sets down and lets out a heaving gasp as the projections disappear. “Paaaaaah… goodness. That truly does take much from me still… I am showing my age, hohoh,” He chuckles as Ao Qin and Ao Shun come to his aid to help him up. 

“Father! Thank goodness you arrived so swiftly… Ao Shun really was slacking on his duties.”

Ao Shun crosses his arms, towering over the two others. “Apologies but there are MANY Xiaolongs who carry their islands wherever they so please. I cannot control them, any more than YOU cannot control the Drakes.”

Yu Huang coughs a little. “Boys. My dear boys… do not… make me teach YOU a lesson too,” He laughs and pats them both on the shoulder. “The work you do to keep the dragons safe is instrumental. I truly do value you both. In the future… please do not put yourselves in such danger.”

“... we had to, father. There were others at stake.”

“... it is as you taught us. Save and care for others, whenever the need arises.”

“We are the ones strong enough to do so,” The two brothers’ eyes connect and Ao Shun shrugs. “Apologies for my negligence…”

Ao Qin clears his throat. “... I should have seen it coming. The fault is mine…”

Ao Shun squints. “Nay. It lies with me.”

“No ME!” the two once more scowl at each other.

Ao Kuang finally arrives at the scene. His dragon had, wisely, decided to remain at a distance from the dragon lords. “Father! Are you alright?” 

Yu Huang laughs and fixes his robe. “A little exercise never harmed an old man. Shall we?” He gets back on his cloud.

Ao Shun and Ao Qin both bow. “Thank you, father. Safe travels.”

As they fly away Yu Huang gives another soft smile. “Ah those two. Always at odds. And yet they clearly care for one another.”

Ao Kuang gives a soft chuckle. “Siblings will drive you to madness, and yet you would lay down your life for your brother.”

Yu Huang nods folding his hands back in his sleeves. “Yes. As would I for my children. I only regret that it took destroying countless families for me to learn the importance of them…”

“Your mind drifts to Wukong, father?”

A sigh escapes the Celestial Sage’s lips. “Yes. Often so. I can never truly make up for what I have done to that boy… I will never expect his forgiveness so long as I draw breath… or even after I cease. And that is okay. I am eternally grateful to him for sparring not just my life… but the lives of you four as well.”

A rather somber silence falls over the two of them as they fly. “Ahem… where to, my boy?”

Ao Kuang beams up all of a sudden. “OH! Yes! Hurry father! We are late!” He gives a smack on his Xiaolong and it speeds up, rushing towards the Jade Palace.

“Late? Whatever for!?” Yu Huang speeds up as well. 

“It matters not, does it father! Shall we race!? For fun?” 

Yu Huang laughs and strokes his beard. “Oh dear a race! Very well, my boy!” Yu Huang sets off faster, Ao Kuang and him laughing as they zoom across the skies, Ao Kuang attempting to use his large dragon to get in Yu Huang’s way. In the end the young dragon king arrives first with Yu Huang shortly behind, his hair windswept now and he quickly fixes his beard. “Ohohoho. You really have gotten better as a dragon handler, my boy,” He pats his son on the back looking around. They are standing at the coastline of one of the massive ‘on site’ habitats of the Jade Palace. “Aaaah. I see. Kiaka’s habitat,” he smiles softly. One of the younger dragons who live at the Jade Palace. Weak at birth, with no mother, Ao Kuang has personally seen to her growth.

Ao Kuang nods. “Yes. I have felt it father. They are ready.”

Yu Huang smiles widely. “Her eggs are hatching!? Oh most wonderful. Shall we head inside and see it from the glass?” He suggests and Ao Kuang laughs as he takes off his robes. 

“Of course not father! This you MUST see in person. Come on!” Ao Kuang jumps into the water with a quick splash and springs from the water like a dolphin. Soon after something stirs in the water as Ao Kuang is lifted out of the water by a large sharp head. Followed by another. And another. And another. And yet another. “Kiaka! How’re you doing, girls!?” He scratches the head he’s on and any that come close. Each head about the size of himself. 

Yu Huang chuckles. “I will simply watch from inside, my boy.”

“What?! No! Come on father! Whyever not?!” 

Yu Huang sheepishly blushes. “I… ahem… I do not know how to swim.”

Ao Kuang pauses a little before jumping off Kiaka’s head, the hydra approaching Yu Huang with her heads for scratches as well. “... I… did not expect that father. You have always felt so skilled in all fields.”

Yu Huang strokes his beard. “Well… I know which fields I excel in… and mostly choose to do activities that involve those. I do know how to move in water using my magic. However… with Kiaka’s eggs I do not wish to disturb them accidentally… I will watch from with-”

Ao Kuang takes Yu Huang’s hand. “I’ll help you, father! I’ll guide you along. You only need to focus on breathing underwater. Trust me father. Allow me to assist you.”

Yu Huang’s eyes widen. This boy truly has grown a lot since he was young. “What a fine young man you have become, my boy,” Yu Huang gets his own robe neatly folded next to Ao Kuang’s. Despite his older age he is quite fit underneath, but bandaged up to keep himself from hurting. The two step into the water. As the Dragon King of the West River, Ao Kuang can naturally breathe underwater, but Yu Huang needs to use a magical technique to maintain the ability to do so. 

Yu Huang feels rather powerless as he begins to sink to the bottom, Ao Kuang taking his hands and swimming backwards with ease, gesturing down to Yu Huang telling him to kick his legs. The Celestial Sage does so, though his technique is flawed, Ao Kuang giving a low chuckle, making Yu Huang blush and furrow a brow a little as if saying ‘do not laugh at your father’. 

The cerulean lake of water shudders and moves as Kiaka fully reveals herself underneath them, a rather small yet fully grown hydra with ‘only’ five heads. She pokes Yu Huang along down to her nest on the bottom. Where her four large eggs are laying with a window into the Jade Palace right next to it. The angels inside, cleaning all notice Yu Huang in the water and point in surprise. He gives a nervous wave as they set down next to the eggs. 

Kiaka beams with pride at her eggs. Yu Huang gently places a hand on one of the eggs. They are brimming with life. Any moment now. One of the eggs shakes. Kiaka’s many heads zero in on the egg with big eyes. The baby within struggles to break through the shell and Kiaka gives a grunt but Ao Kuang holds her back from poking it. This is something the whelp needs to do on its own. Yu Huang smiles as he sees a crack in the egg and the dragon within manages to finally poke itself out, a little tiny head which lets out its biggest roar it can manage. Its eyes are closed and Kiaka gently pokes it with one of her beaks. Yu Huang stands back as the other eggs follow suit and the tiny waterborn dragons flood out into pool, Kiaka’s heads swirling around to keep them close to the nest, with the fifth head finding some food which seems to attract the whelps back to the nest to eat their first meal.

Yu Huang wraps an arm around his son and looks down at him with a smile. He is glad he trusted him and saw this up close with his own eyes. It is beautiful. The birth of new life. And a new mother, excited for parenthood. This is what strength is meant to protect.

Pandora sits in the Akashic Records, staring blankly at the screen in front of her. It’s turned off, only reflecting her face back at her. A face full of regret. Of pain. Longing. Grief.

She stands up slowly, sniffling ever so slightly before putting on her bravest face. She steps out of the room, coming face to face with Hephaestus again and she blinks. “Father… I thought you- … you were… waiting out here?”

Hephaestus nods. “O-of course… You said… you said you wanted to be alone but… I don’t know what else to do.”

Pandora smiles and steps forward to hug against her dad’s big metal beard. “Thanks dad. It means a lot. Can we- Go to Crete? I need to… to see them,” She says keeping a smile forced on her face.

Hephaestus gently picks her up. “Okay my treasure… but… you cannot fool your father with a smile like that. Let it out if you need.”

Pandora feels tears welling up in her eyes as she quietly lies herself against his shoulder to sob. “He was really incredible wasn’t he?” She mutters, her father smiling.

“He was. It is rare to find boys his age who are so in tune with his own heart.”

“He really just always did what he thought was right… no matter what anyone else told him…” She smiles softly. “I… He really upset me that one time… with Michael. Made me cry. I wish… this was just that again…” She sniffles. “That he just made me cry by yelling at me. And hating me. Instead of being-” Her words get caught in her throat and she rolls deeper into Hephaestus’s shoulder.

“I know, Pandora. I know.”

-Crete-

The doors to Crete open up with ease as Hephaestus sets Pandora down to let her walk on her own, waiting for her at the exit. The guards don’t stop her. They saw the battle… they felt her pain. The rules be damned. King Minos would not want this.

She walks towards the town which is eerie and quiet for once. Completely unlike what Pandora experienced just an hour or so earlier. She walks into the town, the people still around their feasting area, looking around not really knowing what to do.

The atmosphere is crushing. Pandora feels like she might pass out from the sheer pressure.

As soon as they spot Pandora, several of them stand up. “I-I… I’m sorry. I couldn’t… I don’t have any excuse I-I just… need to see Daedalus… Please. E-even if you’ll hate me. I just need to see him.”

Sisyphus is the first to speak, nodding. “Understood…” He brings her to the tower, fetching a tall ladder they use to enter the window. “... You did… you did good, kid,” He adds before walking somberly back to the others, a quiet dread hanging over his head. 

Pandora hangs her head for a few seconds before looking up the ladder. Icarus was really the only one who could easily come and go. They never use this ladder. She ascends, her vision blurring as she does. What will she even say to him? What could she POSSIBLY say to convey what she feels? There’s NOTHING in this world she can say that excuses her failure. She sets down inside the dimly lit room of Daedalus.

She hears troubled breathing… looking around she sees shredded paper. Blueprints for Project Naucrate and its many weapons. All written over with black markers and crumbled and ripped apart in a frenzy. The wall of wings is gone, only empty hooks. Daedalus put them all into Naucrate after all. The single lantern in the room is on the floor, knocked over and extinguished. “Haaaah… my boy… I-I…” She looks into the corner of the room seeing the incredibly small figure of Daedalus sitting, crouched over.

“M-Mister Daedalus?” Pandora makes herself known and Daedalus completely freezes up, letting the already cold room fall into an eerie silence. The only light in the room is the sunlight from the window fully illuminating Pandora, leaving the grieving father in shadow.

“...” He remains silent.

 “I… I just… I wanted to say- I mean-” She bites her lips to quell her quivering lips. “I-I should have stopped him! I-It’s my fault he’s gone! Your Project Naucrate was AMAZING! It was ME who failed him! I-I ki-” She starts when suddenly Daedalus SPRINGS to life, charging straight at her. She jumps when she feels him TIGHTLY embrace her. A hand on the back of her head.

“Don’t! Don’t say that, Pandora. You did not kill him. You did not fail him. Okay?” He gently cups her cheek, making Pandora recall Icarus doing the exact same thing when they were attempting to Volund. “I saw the fight. I saw EXACTLY what you did. You threw yourself into the fray to save him. I could not ask for more. Are you okay?”

Pandora feels the floodgates opening up once. “No…” She whispers and Daedalus tightly hugs her again.

“I-I know I am practically just a stranger to you but… would you like to talk?” Pandora nods. The two take a seat and Daedalus gently takes her hands and rubs his thumbs over the back of them. “I am so glad.”

Pandora looks a little puzzled. “G-Glad? What do you mean, mister Daedalus?”

“I’m glad that my… my boy’s final moments he got to see how much- How much you care about him,” He says clearly suppressing so much pain.

Pandora sniffles a little. “Yeah. I wish… I had-”

“We all have regrets, Pandora,” He gives her hands a tight squeeze. “But…” He chuckles a little. “Do you REALLY think you could have stopped him?” He finishes with a tender smile.

Pandora lets out a suppressed snort. “Hah… I-I guess not. He was so stubborn. He wanted to go-”

“So he went,” Daedalus finishes and the two have a soft chuckle together. “I… I knew he…” He stifles a sob. “I knew that he knew he was going to lose… that he was… walking into his death.”

Pandora’s eyes widen. “??!!”

“When you two left my tower. He said ‘I love you’... he didn’t… he didn’t say goodbye. He always says goodbye or ‘see you later, dad’. But… not this time.”

Pandora is now the one to squeeze Daedalus’s hands. “Because he knew it’d be too painful to say.”

The silence falls over them again. It is slightly more comfortable now. At ease with itself. Eventually they chat a little more about Icarus. Daedalus sharing anecdotes from his time on Crete. Pandora sharing moments from their date to Camelot. From their time spent in Ichiko’s room.

They laugh. They cry.

Daedalus sniffles a little as they finish talking. “He was… my everything. My reason… my reason for living. I don’t know- What is an old withered man like me to do… now that he’s gone?” He sobs, letting go of her hands and putting them over his face.

Pandora suddenly realizes. This man… he is putting on such a brave front. He must be hurting even more than she is. He lost his only child. He must blame himself equally as much for it. And here she came along. And she is crying and talking about HER grief. Forcing him to suppress his grief for HER sake. Making herself a burden to him… no. That’s not right.

Pandora takes a look around the room before smiling gently at Daedalus. “You are… a brilliant inventor, Daedalus. You can do so much good. That’s WHY you built Naucrate. To help Icarus be better…? So… do it again. For others. It will… maybe never be the same for you but… you HAVE TO keep living, Mister Daedalus. Promise me. For Icarus.”

Daedalus laughs and with teary eyes gives Pandora a bright smile. Or… as bright as he is able. “He really was not wrong about choosing to believe in you, Pandora. I-I can see why he would die for you.”

“Not just for me… for Crete too. And for you. I know it.”

Daedalus and her smile a little. A gentle smile of melancholy. Daedalus stands. “Pandora. I have something I want you to have,” He goes over to a chest and opens it up, pulling out… a zip-up hoodie. The same colors as the one Icarus usually wore. He hands it to the young girl. “I know it is… not much. But please. Take it. I don’t… I don’t have many things of his remaining but… He really loved his hoodies.”

Pandora looks down at the piece of clothing in her hands. “He really did… Thank you, Daedalus. I-I… I should go.”

“Of course. Of course… I wish you the best, Pandora. Please… be safe.”

She nods and as she steps out of the window, she looks over her shoulder. “See you later, Daedalus.”

“See you later, Pandora…” However as soon as she is out of the window frame Daedalus falls to his knees, burying his head in his hands once again. “... My boy… my darling boy…” He starts mumbling.

Pandora’s face falls from a smile as well as she descends the ladder. They were two people trying to keep the tone and feeling light but… both were hurting more than they could possibly express to one another. But she shouldn’t be a burden.

 As she gets to the bottom of the ladder she approaches the town once again. People are sobbing against one another. The sky is clear and the sunlight bathing over the island. “C-Citizens of Crete!” She yells out, getting everyone’s attention. “I-I’M SORRY!” She bows deeply. “I’m sorry, Icarus is gone! But… I WON’T let his sacrifice be in vain! PLEASE believe me! Icarus is still here! Inside your hearts! I could feel it when I was here earlier today! I could feel his presence all over this wonderful island! DON’T LET IT DISAPPEAR!” She screams out. “If you do that then… then he will TRULY disappear!” 

The citizens of Crete look to one another, before Narcissus slams his cup on the table. “I MISS HIM ALREADY!”

Echo mirrors his movements. “I MISS HIM ALREADY!”

Sisyphus follows suit. “I’ll drink to that. TO ICARUS! And FUCK RA!”

Theseus laughs. “He truly was my WORST student! He had NO talent with a blade and shield but BY CRETE if he did not give it his all!” He raises his cup. “TO ICARUS!”

“TO ICARUS! The sweetest boy we knew!” One of The Danaïdes calls out. “Could always count on him to bring a smile to our faces. Though he never DID let us cut that messy mane of hair!”

“TO ICARUS!” “TO ICARUS!” “TO ICARUS!” Crete repeats one by one and begins to laugh. Laughing at the heavens. 

“Go in peace Pandora. Crete will be fine!” Sisyphus finishes.

Pandora once more can tell. This is not joyous laughter. Of course it isn’t. Of course they’re not okay. However she turns her back and strides towards the exit to Crete. The laughter is all full of tears dripping into their drinks. She knows they’re laughing to hide it… maybe for their own sake… maybe even for HER sake… But they will not be fine. Not for a long time.

As she exits and the heavy gates slam behind her she sighs loudly. Hephaestus is once more waiting for her. “Pandora… my sweetness. How… are they doing?”

Pandora looks up at her titanic father and nods. “They’ll be fine, dad. We… we have a tournament to win…” She starts striding down the hallway on her own.

Hephaestus frowns after her. His little girl. She is being strong. “Of course, Pandora. Your dad will always be here for you. Okay?”

Pandora smiles back at him. “Of course, dad. I love you.”

“Love you too, Pandora.”

As Pandora returns to the Akashic Records she sits down at the table again. She unfurls the hoodie Daedalus gifted her. Icarus’s little cartoonish wing-symbol on the back. And a small feather-shape like a badge at the front. It is pretty stylish… She tries it on. It must be a fair bit old because it fits her quite well.

She looks around for a bit before finding a knife. She bundles her incredibly long hair up behind her. She loves her long hair. Icarus loved it too. She takes a deep breath and in one swift motion she SLASHES it off with the knife. She lets out a sigh of relief. “I can’t… I can’t lose this…” She says to herself in the mirror of the black screen. She gently places the feather that fell on her in the arena into her flower-crown. “WE won’t lose this, Icarus…”

-Babel-

Thoth has gotten up from the sofa, and is already back to work. Giza nervously pacing back and forth. “Lord Thoth…?”

“Yes Giza?” The god casually responds.

“Are you… not… upset? That fight… it ended so… tragically.”

Thoth pauses his movements for a moment. “... I did not know Icarus. And to expect a happy ending to a death match as serious as Ragnarok is to set yourself up for pain. It is a truth of the world that death is sad. … Very sad. But I understand if you need to collect yourself.”

Giza shakes a little. “I think… it is okay to be sad. Even if you knew it would happen. Even if you knew there’s nothing to be done, Lord Thoth.”

“... that would be nice. I was hoping for a different outcome as well. But unfortunately… Icarus put himself against Ra. The outcome could not have been different,” He adds, before smirking slightly. “But that human. He well and truly exceeded my expectations. By quite a large margin. I did not expect him to push Ra to such extremes,” The screen in front of him pops up with a hieroglyphic ‘notification’. “Hm. Speaking of the sun. Just in time.”

As Thoth taps the button of a hawk with unfurled wings he ‘picks up’ the call, showing Ra sitting in one of the healing pods, his eye currently with a healing orb attached. “Thoth.”

“Ra. Allow me to guess. You were utterly, utterly humiliated in your battle of Ragnarok, which, need I remind you, you said you needn’t participate in, and now you are going to ask ME to represent Heaven in the 12th round. How close am I?” Thoth can’t help but let on a little smirk.

“I am NOT in the mood for your attitude, Thoth! I do not CARE about Babel anymore. You WILL fight for me or Babel will be BURNED TO THE GROUND!” Ra angrily declares.

Thoth grimaces a little. “You will have to go through me for that to happen, Ra. But now that The Duat has seen you for the pathetic man-child I know you to be… I don’t imagine you will have the manpower to declare war on Babel. And you KNOW I am prepared for a fight with you. Even moreso than Icarus.”

“Don’t… say that name…”

“... Icarus.”

“GRRR… Thoth! I would like you to fight next. That is final.” Thoth rolls his eyes. “You DARE roll your eyes at-” Ra begins before another notification pops up on Thoth’s screen, taking his attention.

“One moment.”

“Don’t you DARE put me on hold, Thoth! You-” Beeeeeep…

Thoth’s computer voice speaks up. ‘Unknown signature’: 100% completed. Current matches: 53. Location spread-”

“How many here at Babel?”

‘Babel: 0. Other locations. Mt. Olympus: 1. Mt. Svarga: 1. Asgard: 1. The Duat: 11. Tópan: 1-’

“Skip to highest concentrations.”

‘Highest concentration of Unknown Signature: Valhalla Arena. Matches: 27.’

“... Project over a blueprint of Valhalla arena,” A blueprint of Valhalla arena appears on the screen with small black dots of smoke appearing on the screen at various places. “... The nooks and crannies I see… What… are you? Hm?” He notes however two particularly large dots. One over the ‘rooms’ and one near… “What???” He thinks for a moment. “BoT. Send this data to Heimdall with instructions to be subtle in the collection of these. It should look coincidental in their discovery. I want them here by nightfall.”

‘Sending data to Heimdall. Anything else I may do for y-’ Thoth swipes away his screen and Ra pops back up on the screen. 

“THOTH! You piece of-” 

“I will fight in the 12th round. It appears our goals align for once.”

Ra scoffs. “Good. I knew you would see sense.”

Thoth slams his book shut. “But allow me to make one thing, CRYSTAL clear. I am NOT fighting for you. I am fighting for Heaven. With that being said. Allow me to show you, Ra… what TRUE strength of character is. In case you did not learn your lesson from Icarus.”

“I told you not to-!” Beeeeeep

Thoth looks to Giza, who is honestly just shocked at Thoth’s behavior. He’s never seen him act so… openly disrespectful to another god. “Giza. I am entrusting you with Babel, until my return and…” He leans down and gently places a small emblem in her hand. “In case I do not return… you deserve to know the truth. You will know.”

Giza looks confused from Thoth, to the emblem, to the screen as Thoth walks away. “B-but Lord Thoth! LORD THOTH!?! I… I don’t understand. W-what changed your mind!?”

“It is something I must see for myself… if it is true… humanity may be the least of our concerns.”

Giza looks up at the schematic of Valhalla Arena, seeing the highlighted dot right outside a door in a hallway. Giza reads the label on the room it’s in front of. “The… Akashic Records?”

-Valhalla Arena-

Pandora sits at the table looking at her final two choices on her roster, a single tear rolling down her cheek as she looks over the crossed out faces, Icarus now among them. “We HAVE to win… I won’t… allow anyone else to die. So the only possible choice is…”

There’s a knock on the door and she stands and puts her hands in her new pockets.

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“It must be him… Come on in!” The door swings open and in the doorway stands a silhouette, the bright light of the corridor bathing his figure in enough light to completely obscure his figure.

“It would appear it is FINALLY time for the MAIN CHARACTER to swoop onto the scene and SAVE THE DAY!” 

https://preview.redd.it/q3ie9wbmt07h1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=41884ae541282655e489cdb9bf8bf2e05579f54a

Pandora sighs. “Hello Dante.”

(A/N: This chapter is part of a double release this week. Make sure you read The Previous Chapter before reading this one. 😄**)**

There HAS to be something he can do… right? Surely! There’s ALWAYS something. But no matter how much Icarus thinks… Nothing. No pods… no wings. No weapons. Not even protection from the heat anymore… he can BARELY think with this heat as is…

And yet he does all he can. Struggles and pulls and wiggles. Anything… something has to do SOMETHING! But Ra’s grip on his throat is too strong.

Osiris is looking smugly at the arena. “...” In Babel, Thoth, Sobek, Giza and the other sphinxes are watching intently. In the Jade Palace Yu Huang is watching with his sons. In Shinto, Raijin and Izanagi are watching. From the dark confines of his room, Michael and Friend are watching, Friend with a wicked smile on his pitch-black face. From his own room Cthulhu watches in silence. “Heh… so much for being fearsome, Ra.”

In the stands, Hephaestus, Sun Tzu, Beethoven, Wukong, Tyr, Ichiko, and Houdini all glare up at Ra holding their 11th champion, angrily striking him more and more.

From Crete, Icarus’s family watches. Sisyphus, The Danaïdes, Narcissus, Echo, Tantalus, Salmoneus, Theseus, Orpheus, Eurydice, Bellerophon, Midas, Sciron, Antaeus, Pallas, even King Minos watches from afar.

Up in his tower sits Daedalus, his eyes already filled with tears as he watches his son struggle against the sun. He hears a small ‘clink’ from behind him and briefly turns his head to see… the small gifted bird Icarus made for him… it fell off the shelf and sprung apart on impact. “... My boy… My little boy.”

ALL OF HEAVEN watches as Ra continues to strike Icarus in the face. “DO YOU NOT FEAR DEATH!? Do you WISH to die!? WHAT!? WHY AREN’T YOU-... AAAAAH!” Ra screams.

Icarus smirks as best he can. “Spooky… real… spooky.”

However one person does not sit idly by. “NO! This is OVER! WE CONCEDE!” Pandora yells out. “HE CAN’T WIN! WE GIVE UP!”

Ra scoffs. “I don’t fucking care,” He answers scornfully. “Watch me kill your foolish lover and despair, Little Pandora.”

Her eyes well up with tears. “Icarus… No…”

“Pandora…” Icarus answers almost unprompted. He can’t really hear her from up here.

Ra squeezes tighter around his throat. “Yes… it is really HER fault. When I’m done with you. It will be her turn.”

Icarus furrows a brow and strikes at Ra once again, but it does nothing. “You leave her ALONE!”

Pandora feels her heart pounding harder. “I-I need to go to him. Ichiko!” She yells as she steps onto the railing and LEAPS off the arena, past Tyr’s shield which is only one way.

Tyr’s eye widens. “Pandora? Stop! It’s dangerous!”

Ichiko however instantly leaps after her, forcing Tyr to focus on the shields. “I AM HERE! WE GO, GENERAL PANDORA!” He catches Pandora on his back. SUN-WOLF STYLE: TSUBAKI! He begins to leap into the air on his flaming flowers. Ra sees them coming and holds his other hand towards them, a sunball forming and he blasts it at them. “GO FRIEND PANDORA!” Ichiko TOSSES Pandora off of himself, getting shot down by Ra’s sunflames.

Pandora flies through the air at Icarus, her hair beginning to burn at the tips as she approaches from Ra’s heat.

Icarus’s eyes go wide. “Pan… dora???” He whispers as she begins to glow vibrantly.

“I’LL SAVE YOU, ICARUS! WE NEED EACH OTHER!” She yells out as Icarus weakly holds out his hand to touch hers.

In an instant the two suddenly almost find themselves in a blank void. Icarus completely healed. “Hey Pandora…” Icarus says and Pandora looks up at him with tears in her eyes.

“Icarus! Is this… Volund?”

Icarus looks around. “Looks like it… a lot whiter than I expected… And I guess time is slowing to a crawl too.”

“T-this isn’t the time for jokes! I’m here to save you! We have to do SOMETHING!”

Icarus smiles softly, reaches forward and gently cups her cheek. “I know you’re here to save me. Thank you. I guess we’ll be disqualified though…”

“I don’t CARE! We will win the next one! But I WON’T lose you!” She hugs him tightly, refusing to let go.

Icarus chuckles. “Pandora.”

“I won’t! I refuse!” She angrily clenches her entire body against his back.

“Pandoraaaaa…?”

“... No. Shut up! I know what you’re going to say,” She whispers, barely getting the words out through her quivering lips.

Icarus forces her to let the hug go and holds her out at arm’s length with a soft smile. “You have to let go. Don’t Volund with me… I gave it EVERYTHING I had. Everything. If we Volund now… you’re going to die.”

“Then we’ll die TOGETHER!” Icarus raises his hand as if to slap her, but stops.

“That’s… such a you thing to say. But… no. They need you. Humanity needs Pandora. It doesn’t need Icarus.”

Pandora stomps her foot. “But I need you!”

Icarus blinks a few times. Letting on a gentle grin. “I’m… that makes me really happy to hear…” He pats her head. “But it can’t happen. I’m sorry… I told you… it was a selfish request.”

“W-what are you talking about?!”

Icarus laughs a little. “I… I had a feeling I was going to die here, if I’m being honest. Trying to fight the sun has historically not really been my forté, haha. But I did well! I had a plan, I executed it! I really thought I had him too but… as soon as I saw him transform I pretty much knew I was going to die. He’s ridiculously strong…” He says rubbing the back of his head with a grin and sheepish laughter. “I guess saying it out loud… sounds pretty stupid, huh?”

Pandora angrily bangs on his chest. “Then WHY!? Why did you do it!?”

“I wanted to show YOU that with YOUR help… with the help of those I love… I could reach Ra. And YOU can reach him too. YOU can win this. Just this fight alone… you took command. You helped me fight. More than you know. Not just with an emblem and protecting the audience…”

Pandora sniffles. “Icarus I- … I can’t stop this… I want to be with you longer. I-I want us to go for… walks on the beach o-or go back to Camelot for another date! I-I want to… I want you to be by my side! I-I can’t force myself to leave you!”

Icarus smiles. “I know… which is why…” His eyes fill with tears, as he plants a soft kiss on her lips. “I’m going to use whatever tiny scraps of ‘hate’ I have left over for you… to do this. Please check up on my dad for me okay? Be strong, Pandora. I know you can be! You got this.”

“W-what?” Pandora mutters before Icarus SHOVES Pandora back to reality and the white glow SNAPS like electricity and Pandora is launched away from Icarus, caught by Ichiko. Pandora reaches out to Icarus, who responds by returning a peacesign and his brightest smile. “ICARUUUUUUUUUS!!” Her eyes well with tears.

Icarus’s eyes begin to tremble a little, feeling his heart pounding harder and louder, seeing her like this. “Come on now… don’t cry… I’ll get scar-,”

CRACK!!!!!

Ra’s grip finally SNAPS Icarus’s neck and he goes limp, blood flooding into his eyes, replacing the fire of defiance. However Ra’s anger does not subside. “SEE!? YOU COULD NEVER HOPE TO MATCH UP TO ME!” He winds his fist back again and STRIKES Icarus, again and again and again and again, pummeling his face to pieces. A brutal sight for all to see. “YOU! FILTHY! FUCKING! WORM!” He finally HURLS Icarus’s body towards the arena. It spins with his one wing fluttering lifelessly as his body slowly turns to dust, each shard breaking off like feathers from his wings.

Pandora is trembling. It feels as though her heart is being torn from her chest. Like her entire body is aflame. “No… No Icarus… Icarus…?” She mutters as Ichiko sets down on the arena and she falls off, scraping her knee on the way. Icarus’s dust falls to the ground in front of her, his body never even hitting the arena. “Icarus… I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” She crawls forward, helplessly grabbing at the dust as it fully disappears. “Please don’t leave me… don’t leave me alone again… please… I’m begging you… I need you!” She puts her head in her hands and sobs softly. The only thing that snaps her out of it is feeling something landing on his head and she picks it off. A slightly burnt feather. Icarus’s feather. She clutches it to her heart. “I’m sorry I wasn’t… good enough for you. If only… I hadn’t hesitated. If I got there just a little earlier. I’m so… so sorry,” She completely crouches down and screams. “AAAAAAAH!” The entirety of both sides of this Ragnarok recognize her grief. Silence. Not even Heimdall dares to speak the result of the round out loud.

Ra vs Icarus

Match length: 1 hour, 0 minutes, 1 seconds

Deciding move: Neck Snap

Victor: Ra

Ra lands in the arena with a booming crash. “YOU… it was YOU who made a fool of me. You disgusting homunculus,” He says, trembling in his entire body, though rather than Pandora’s grief it is sheer unbridled rage. He picks his staff off the floor and Pandora’s brow furrows. She crawls forward, picking up the broken sword of Theseus Icarus used and lifts it up towards Ra. Her stance is completely sluggish and she nearly drops it as she holds it out.

“I’m not… I’m not s-scared of you… Icarus is not scared of you… so I won’t be… e-either. Y-you made a fool out of yourself!”

Ra’s heat instantly knocks her down however. “Those damned eyes… You dare to speak to me in this defiant tone? I made no fool out of myself. I am RA! I am THE SUN HIMSELF! I MAKE FOOLS OUT OF THOSE WHO DARE STAND AGAINST ME!” However, just as he is about to step forward towards Pandora, his view is obstructed by a sight. Benkei, Wukong, and Ichiko all stepping in front of her, shielding her from him.

“You’ll have to go through us, birdy. I’ve half a mind to kill you right fucking now,” Wukong says.

Ra stomps his foot. His breathing is exasperated and irritated moreso than ever before. “Always… in my way… RAAAAAAAAAAWR!!” He roars before BLASTING into the sky and out of view, launching up a massive cloud of dust, disappearing over the side of the arena..

Quickly Heimdall reassembles the arena now that Ra has left, Hephaestus leaping down off the audience seats that finally reattached. “Pandora! My sweet… my… my baby girl.”

Houdini, Beethoven and Sun Tzu are joining them as well. All huddling around her. “Is there… is there anything we can do, Pandora?”

Pandora sobs and looks at the feather. “B-bring him back…” She holds it out to Wukong, Hephaestus, the audience of gods. “Please… is there ANYONE who can… w-who can do it? B-bring him back?” She desperately tries but as she attempts to walk closer to the gods, Beethoven grabs her shoulder and pulls her back, kneeling down a little and hugging her tightly.

“...” He solemnly puts a hand on her head as she sobs into his shoulder briefly before pulling away and Hephaestus picks her up.

“Dad… c-can we… can I… Can we go…? I want to be alone…”

Hephaestus nods. “Of course, Pandora…”

-Ra’s Viewing Chamber-

Ra crashes through the glass roof of his old viewing room, falling to his knees as he touches down, grabbing at the indent Icarus left on his chest. The scratches and bruises from Icarus’s punches and kicks. The scar over his eye. … Pain. “I won. I killed you. You are dead, and I am alive. So why…? Why do I feel like this? I am Ra! Ra does not make mistakes! Then… why?” He angrily strikes the floor as he transforms back into his normal self.

“Ooooohohoho. Why? The answer is simple. Humanity,” He hears a familiar old voice and looks up.

“Zeus,” He mutters in annoyance. “I would like you to leave. NOW!” His heat bursts forth and entraps Zeus within it, but unlike last time, Zeus barely budges a muscle.

Zeus skips up to the sun god. “Ohohoho. This heat of yours really is something… unless you’re prepared for it…” He pats Ra’s shoulder. “There there. Now I am sure…” He suddenly puts a hand on the back of Ra’s head and his muscles expand and he shoves Ra into the floor. Just as Ra tries to lift his head back up, Zeus places his muscled index finger to Ra’s temple, completely pinning him in place. “You have some apologizing to do, Little Ra. Oh what was it you said? Let me seeeeeeee… ‘We will win 7-0’. ‘There is no doubt that my judgement is better than yours.’. You believed I was… frivolous in even fighting myself and yet… you fought as well. And you lost.”

Ra angrily pushes himself off the ground. “I… did NOT… LOSE!” However Zeus simply pushes him right back into the floor cracking the floor beneath the weight of his muscles.

“Oh Ra. Little itty bitty, Ra. You did lose. You made a bet with Icarus. And you lost that bet. You lost your eye. Even when you pivoted to breaking Icarus’s spirit through your sheer power… You lost again. You couldn’t do it. Not even a little. But I guess you DID kill him in the end. We will see which of these losses and victories people will remember. But no matter what happens now, for you…!” He lets Ra go and jovially begins to skip away, leaving Ra lying with his head in the cratered floor. “I am sure you see humanity is QUITE something else. Not to be taken lightly. And that we GREEKS are not so easily pushed over. Oh and one last thing…” He looks back as he pushes on the doors that were rehinged from last time he was in this room. “If you so much as TRY to take that icky feeling in your chest out on little Pandora or Crete or any humans for that matter…” His old jolly face suddenly falls under a dark shadow as his eyes glow within their sunken sockets. “I will murder you, Ra. If you want to really prove yourself and regain some of that status you so desperately cling to; defeat humanity in Ragnarok,” He just as swiftly swaps back to his old self. “Toodles! Hohohohoh!” He pushes the doors off the hinges again, skipping away, leaving Ra staring at the wall.

“Such… a child.”

-Akashic Records-

As Hephaestus sets Pandora down in front of the Akashic Records he sighs. “I am truly sorry, Pandora… He was… he was something special.”

Pandora nods, looking at the feather in her hand. “Yeah. He was… amazing. I… I loved him dad… I really loved him…” He sets her down.

“Are you certain you wish to be alone?”

“Not for long… I just… I need to be alone right now okay, dad? I love you,” She smiles up at the giant smithing god who smiles and pats her head with just a finger.

“I love you, Pandora. Please if there’s anything you need… I will move the heavens and the earth to make it happen.”

Pandora smiles rather solemnly. “Thanks dad…” She steps into the room and closes the door. She slumps down against the door and continues to cry. Why… Why did she listen to him…? She should have been more firm… If she was more firm then maybe he wouldn’t be dead right now. But she listened. He thought about her in his last moments… he told her not to cry… he told her to be strong. He told her not to cry… he told her to be strong… and he’ll never tell her anything else… ever again.

She raises her gaze to the table in the room… it has his old wing on it… She stands up, picking it up. He wrapped this wing around her a lot of times since they met… She summons her box, opening it up into the ‘standard’ compartment that appears when you don’t put in a key. She never really had anything she considered worthy of being in here… until now. She gently places his wing in the box, closing it up, before slumping over it and sobbing some more. Like needles to the heart and eyes… she can’t even force out anymore tears anymore.

She will miss him.

Ra has just crashed back onto the arena, filled with divine fury. Icarus looks at him with his fiery eyes, clutching Ra’s staff in his hand. It is incredibly heavy in his hand. “Back for more?” He confidently starts before Ra shoots forward. He grabs at Icarus’s emblem, but Icarus folds his wings in front of him to block. Ra strikes with concentration he has rarely shown this fight, taking an actual trained stance to throw a second strike, his hand glowing with his sunflame. Icarus is pushed back, but he doesn’t falter.

“You are OUTMATCHED! Face it!” Ra screeches out as he bursts forward using his heat, circling around and knocking Icarus aside, forming two sunballs on his fists, crashing them together and blasting it forward as a beam, Icarus jamming Ra’s staff into the ground, both to keep himself on his feet and it seems to absorb Ra’s flames to block the attack.

“Not. Gonna. Happen. I’m gonna fight you forever if I have to. I’m not… stopping. EVER! Too many people are COUNTING ON ME!” He picks up Ra’s staff and points it back at Ra, the accumulated sunfire blasting back at the sun god.

In the stands, Pandora clutches her hands over her heart. On Crete the Cretans have all stopped the festivities and are watching with the same intense desperation.

Ra catches his sunflames and they swirl around his fist before disappearing. “What does it matter? Why do all of you filthy cockroaches always insist upon this herd mentality. NO ONE powerful requires ANYONE else! THAT is the rule of the strong!” He shoots forward and Icarus puts Ra’s staff out in front of him, Ra grabbing hold of it, pushing the young boy back. ‘It is THE RULE! So why… why is it always… those eyes when you talk about your ‘companions’ and ‘people counting on you’. Why is it that you MOCK ME with those DAMN EYES!?’ He gets a brief flash of a face projecting over Icarus. It angers him as he lets go with one hand and strikes Icarus in the face. “STOP THAT!”

Icarus’s head reels back. “I don’t know what you mean. Haha. HAHAHA!” He laughs loudly as Ra slams him in the face again, breaking his nose, and Icarus lets out an almost sarcastic grunt. “Angh! Pffft! Come on? COME ON! Is that the best you got?”

Ra looks behind the young man, seeing Icarus’s wings boosting him forward. The only thing keeping him steady. “... I see,” He suddenly forces Icarus to the floor leaping over the young boy and in the same move attempts to grab Icarus’s wings, but Icarus allows himself to fall onto the floor to dodge the grab. “Tsk!” Icarus shoots off the floor into the sky once again, Ra following suit. Icarus turns back only to see Ra coming straight at him.

Icarus smugly grins at him. “You just can’t leave me alone, can you?”

“SHUT UP! RIGHT NOW!” Ra catches up to him and clasps both hands together and they burst with sunfire. He SLAMS them down on Icarus. RA’S SUNLIGHT HAMMER!

Icarus shoots towards the ground once again. He feels a flash in his mind. Crete, seen from the top of the mountain. The sounds. Vibrance. People going about their lives. “Heh… yeah… it is beautiful. I’d miss it a lot…” He whispers as Ra finally catches up to him, grabbing hold of his wing and grabbing his shoulder, TEARING it off violently, leaving the young boy with only one wing once more. “GAAAH!” Icarus howls in pain.

Ra angrily strikes him in the face. “There goes your LAST HOPE! You cannot even FLY away anymore!”

“Last Hope…? Ha… haha. HAHAHAHA!” Icarus grins brightly as Ra angrily winds his fist back again. “Good one.”

Ra clenches his fist tightly, rather than striking Icarus he grabs and tears off the medallion and crushing it in his hand, Icarus instantly feeling the intense heat again, BLAZING through the tattered remains of his tank-top, making him drop Ra’s staff which falls onto the arena with a metallic plink. “Who do you think you are!?!”

Icarus smirks as well as he can. “I’m a son. A friend… A stranger. I’m… a human,” He mutters, using all his might to lift his fist. He unleashes a strike with all his might! Ra feels the weak strike on his cheek. “And to you… an enemy.”

The sun god trembles as he holds Icarus by the throat. ‘What… is this joke? You’re just like… him. How can you be… like that?’ Ra feels a strange feeling deep in his heart. Stress. 

-Shortly after the death of Amaterasu-

Deep in the jungle kingdom. Neighboring Maya, Dinétah and Hanan Pacha lies Tópan. Home to the gods of the Aztec pantheon. Far from the nearest glorious city of this great kingdom is an old abandoned temple. Poking out of the top of the many tall jungle trees the temple contains a large platform, allowing someone to observe the comings and goings as they wish. Coming up the steps on the side of the temple is Ra. Walking calmly and with the poise one might expect of a chief god. “... your temples are far too tall,” He comments to a god standing opposite him looking over the area.

He is a tall blue-skinned man with a bare chest only covered lightly with a white leather mantle. He wears a crown of feathers, black warpaint over his eyes. A combat skirt in various shades of white, orange and green and long green feathered cape. In the ground next to him sits a massive macuahuitl, the most iconic of weapons from his pantheon. Practically the height of this already titanic and bulky man, made of a sunny golden material, yet clearly more sturdy to make it a proper weapon. He takes a deep breath.

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“They are tall, yes. But look upon the view. The beauty of my lands,” He says his voice deep and mighty, yet with an air of gentleness about it.

Ra scoffs. “I have seen it many times.”

“Of course! And yet its beauty is unrivaled. Now… you did not wish to meet because you wanted to take in the view did you?” He picks up the weapon and turns to face Ra. This man was obviously none other than Huitzilopochtli. The king of Tópan. The kind and well-regarded Chief god of the Aztec Pantheon. And to Ra… the only sun-god he would ever consider his equal in power.

The two shake hands, Huitzilopochtli having a few inches on Ra, and about twice his weight in muscle. “No.”

“I like you, Ra. Always direct and to the point. Now I must say… I am very sorry about your wife. This sun-assassination is quite strange. Helios, Enti, Surya, Sol. And of course your dearest Amaterasu. Again. Condolences. And so many more…”

Ra scoffs. “Hm. Helios, Enti, Surya, Sol… were weak. That is why they died.”

Huitzilopochtli sighs. “Maybe so. But that is no reason for them to die. The sun shares its blessings with everyone, don’t you think? It grants life to the plants! It grants warmth to those in need! It graces the world with ENERGY which sets it in motion. Beautiful!”

“I did not come here to listen to meaningless ramblings, Huitzilopochtli.”

Huitzilopochtli snaps his fingers, seemingly catching himself in his speech. “Right! And please. My friends call me Huitzy!” 

“... So Huitzilopochtli… Are you done?”

“Oof. Harsh, but I understand. Fellow chiefs. Respectful. Now then. To discuss what comes next. This ‘sun assassin’ surely has not come for us because we are quite powerful. He would be a fool to do so. And yet he must be coming soon. But why? You would have to be quite prideful or vengeful to do something like this,” Huitzilopochtli strides around the large platform. “Let us see… He did not kill anyone else. Barely injured most of the guards. So if I wished to kill one of the most powerful gods in Heaven. Chief god no less!” He says with righteous fury in his voice. “I suppose the best way to go about such a task would be to lure one of us away from our palaces. Into isolation.”

Ra slowly starts approaching from behind, the Aztec god with his back turned. “Right.”

“... Prideful… isolate. Far from anyone who may wish to stop you… kind of like you did calling this-” He pauses. Ra pauses. A rare moment of hesitation from the Duat god. “... I see…” Ra gathers himself and leaps forward with a thrust of his staff at the Tópan king’s back! Huitzilopochtli digs his massive macuahuitl into the ground where it already was standing and with strength that seems to utterly dwarf even his already mighty frame ROARS up nearly the entire floor beneath Ra’s feet in one massive slab. 

Ra immediately transforms into his primal form, and opens his Omniscient gaze! However in the very brief moment he blinked. the entire floor flipped up above the both of them, placing them firmly in the shade. And within the time it takes Ra to blink once more to turn off his Omniscient Gaze once again, Huitzilopochtli is directly in front of him. The Aztec god takes a mighty swing of his macuahuitl and thrashing Ra straight down through the temple’s many floors and he crashes into the earthy floor at the bottom.

Huitzilopochtli jumps down after him. “Just answer me this. Why?” He asks in solemn anger. “What could possibly make you do this? Your own wife?”

Ra floats back to his feet and scoffs. “What god needs a reason to want his domain for himself? Especially one as powerful and great as me?”

Huitzilopochtli's eyes fire up with wrath and his muscles bulge even further as his pulse increases. Ra can practically hear the strong heartbeat of him from there. “‘His Domain’? Are you completely insane!? SO MUCH BLOOD spilled!? For what?! Your pride can’t handle sharing!? I knew you were ruthless. Cunning. Deadly. But this? It ends-” He grabs a firm grip of his weapon and flexes his shins so hard the ground beneath him cracks. A golden glow appears from within his body. In his heart. Spreading golden glowing blood through his veins. YOLLI ORO: MALHUILI TONALMITL: 50%! (Golden Heart: The Sunshine That Protects) His entire body BURSTS with power, the cracks in the ground growing larger and larger as if his strength is increasing accordingly. “RIGHT! NOW!”

Ra takes a deep breath. “I am glad, Huitzilopochtli. I have always wanted to kill you in a fair fight. You disgust me. Playing in the mud with the children of your nation. When you hold such great power and you wield it with such frivolous nonsense,” He gathers a large ball of sunflames in his palm.

“That… is NOT frivolous nonsense. That’s what a LEADER does! SHARES his gifts and wisdom with those who choose to follow!” He calls out springing forward as Ra casually unleashes the sunflames in a beam at Huitzilopochtli, enveloping the Aztec god in the sun pillar. RA’S BLINDING RAY! Huitzilopochtli drives his macuahuitl straight through it to come down on Ra! 

Ra dodges and launches a sunball into the air, breaking a hole in the ceiling creating more sunlight into the room. As Huitzilopochtli’s strike slams into the ground it explodes with brilliant light, knocking Ra back. “I am The Sun Himself. And I do not wish to share my brilliance with you lesser gods. Always so pathetically huddling together. I see nothing but a culling of the herd.”

“Pathetically huddling together? We Tópan people are proud of our unity. But I suppose a god who thinks only of himself would never understand.”

“No. I do not.”

“Always direct… I still like that honestly. Very well… ENOUGH TALK!” Ra looks into his eyes as the Tópan king leaps back at him. Ra looks into his eyes, filled with that combative flame. That fire will be extinguished soon enough!

-LATER-

Ra stands atop of Huitzilopochtli’s head, the Tópan king’s arms burned to a crisp. His macuahuitl nowhere in sight, clearly lost somewhere in the fight. The entire temple has crumbled around them from their battle. The trees around are burning or fallen from one of their strikes. “Do you see it now, Huitzilopochtli? The clear difference between us. Where are your ‘united people’ now?” He says smugly. Although he is bleeding and out of breath, just like Huitzilopochtli.

“Haaaah. They would be here… if you had not chosen such a remote location. They are on their way. I made QUITE a ruckus…”

“And by that time you will be dead. And soon after so will they. And your kingdom will be without a king. This is what happens when you cross me.”

Huitzilopochtli simply scoffs. “Heh. My kingdom will live on without me. And you know what… when you… nnngh,” Ra tightens his grip on his face. “When you eventually meet your end. Your kingdom will live on without you too. You will die alone. And you’ll be replaced. Just like me. The difference between us is that I will be missed. You will simply become a stain on your history,”

Ra grits his beak and raises his staff. “I will never die! There are none who can match me! So WHY do you think YOU, a WEAKER god can inform my future!?”

“Because tyrants always fall. You will be no exception. I tried to be a good king. Seems history had other plans,” Ra tenses up seeing Huitzilopochtli’s eyes. So brimming with ‘life’ and fire. No matter the advantage Ra took in their fight. When he took his arm. Nothing changed. Took his armor… nothing. His weapon was broken and discarded… his skin burnt. And even now. With NOTHING… still those DAMN EYES! Ra stabs his staff straight through the Aztec god’s skull, killing him.

Ra vs Huitzilopochtli

Match length: 1 hour, 0 minutes, 0 seconds

Deciding move: Stab to the skull

Victor: Ra

Just after, Tópan troops arrive. Large, but not larger than their chief, wielding spears and their own macuahuitls. “L-Lord Ra!? W-what are you doing to Lord Huitzilopochtli!?” One of them screams out before they all fall to their knees from the sheer heat.

“Who asked you to speak… lowly peasant…?”

However after they acclimate to the initial heat-burst, they all raise their own weapons to him, stepping back to their feet, though rather unsteady. “Unhand our king… right this instance!” Ra looks into their eyes deeply… those eyes again… They piss him off so much. 

Ra steps off Huitzilopochtli’s body, his head at a menacing tilt. “Stop… looking at me like that. You lowly worm peasants. and FALL!” Ra bursts forth with his heatwave making the soldiers all fall to their knees.

-Present-

Icarus pointlessly grabs at Ra’s wrist to try and force his claws off his throat. “What is WITH YOU!? You DARE assume the same ARROGANT and IDIOTIC attitude! You are a HUMAN!” Ra punctuates his words with angry strikes to Icarus’s face. However Icarus refuses to even speak back. “And STOP! WITH! THOSE! EYES!!!” He screeches, his entire body shaking. “I’m gonna KILL YOU!” 

Icarus just smirks rather cockily. “Heh.”

Ra floats above the arena, his eye frantically shooting between the many viewer platforms where Pandora, alongside the Einherjar and Benkei’s Legion are helping the injured from Ra’s onslaught. “GRRRRRR!” His eyes lock onto Icarus again. “You… ICARUS!”

Icarus is panting heavily but his smirk remains on his face. “That’s my name. Glad you’re finally learning it!” He holds out his sword of Theseus and his new shield of Pallas which is constructed a lot more mechanically. Both of them feel heavy in his hands. But he can’t let it show… He clenches both of his fists around the grips of his weapons and shoots off towards Ra.

Ra, through a gritted beak, envelops his fists in sunballs and moves in as well. RA’S MIGHTY SUNFISTS! “You dare think you are anyone worth remembering!? Your foolish companions refuse to stop SHOUTING your name at the heavens!” He grunts as he deflects Icarus’s initial swing of the sword, throwing a straight at the young boy who jerks his head away and throws an uppercut with his shield.

Ra slams his fist down on it to knock it away, Icarus being forced to let it go before he’s struck in the chest, Ra aiming for the emblem, but he managed to move out of the way and be struck directly instead! “Heh. Just admit it… you know who I am,” Icarus mutters as he newly freed hand holds onto Ra’s arm to not be flung away.

Ra, in annoyance, winds his fist back. “Unhand me, peasant!” he strikes Icarus in the face. “You. And your worthless island of misfits! Your worthless SPECIES will crumble under my feet! To dust!” He keeps striking Icarus in the face as if to accentuate his point.

Icarus’s head reels back from each strike but he simply pulls himself back, refusing to release Ra’s arm. “That… the best… you got?” Icarus mumbles with a grin still on his face! He takes a heavy swing with his blade, Ra being unable to move out of the way, but he doesn’t need to! The Sun God simply grabs hold of the blade, the blazing heat from his sunfists sizzling against the metal, his sharp claws scratching against the surface.

Icarus quickly realizes his sword will literally melt if he doesn’t get it free! He lets go of Ra’s arm and spins for a spinning kick to Ra’s head! Ra scoffs as he twists Icarus’s sword, forcing his hand to twist with it and stopping his kick JUST before it can connect. “PATHETIC!” He chops at the sword with his other hand, snapping the blade in half due to the softening from his heat!

However as soon as the blade snaps, Icarus uses his wings to continue his kick, following through with his OTHER leg and finally landing another solid hit on Ra. “How’s that for pathetic!?”

However as Icarus finishes his spin, he feels a tight tug on his wings. Ra grabbed hold of one of them with his talons on his feet. “Very pathetic,” Ra strains his open palm, collecting a ball of sunflames! He twists Icarus up to face him, though they are upside down compared to one another. Icarus’s eyes widen as Ra slams him straight on with the ball, sending Icarus flying back.

Pandora gasps from one of the stands where she’s taken refuge, right next to Tyr and Ichiko. “!!!” Her worry instantly doubles when suddenly Icarus’s wings start to… BURN?! “W-what!? But… isn’t he… he’s heat-proof! And his wings!”

Tyr grunts. “At least… he was… That medallion on his chest. It was the item your box produced, correct?”

“Y-yeah! It makes him immune to Ra’s heat!”

Tyr nods. “I see… well… then I am afraid that boy is… doomed…” He comments as Icarus softens his landing on the ground with a single flap of his wings. He flaps his wings to stop the flames from spreading. He looks down at his chest, realizing in the same moment as Pandora and the rest of the audience. The medallion is CRACKED! “... Or? Hm.”

As soon as Icarus lands he falls to his knees, dropping the hilt of the blade he was carrying! His vision blurring due to an immense increase in degrees. His lips instantly chapping and tearing in places from dryness. His heart starts beating faster and faster. He feels dizzy. Disoriented. Just breathing the air feels like it’s burning his lungs! How… how are you supposed to fight this guy WITHOUT negating this HEAT!? He was fighting in THIS the whole time? “Hah. Hah… nnngh… Pandora… you really saved me… a ton… of… pain…” He mutters under his breath.

Ra lands with extra speed, cracking the floor on impact and Icarus looks up at him. “It would appear that the heat has gotten to you now. Do you feel it? The anger of The Sun Himself?” Ra spits with venom on his breath. Icarus tries getting up, slowly but steadily, rocky on his feet. “Now that your little ‘gift’ is taken care of… I am going to enjoy this!” The Sun God adds with almost a look of delight on his face as he balls up his fist and winds it back. Icarus tries to put up a block but his arms are even heavier now and he gets a solid strike to the face. “A human like you… a human like you truly thought he could stand up to me!? ME!?” He calls out as Icarus rolls along the ground, rather pathetically.

Icarus tries to get up again, struggling against the heat through gritted teeth. His skin feels like it’s bubbling. Melting! Ra steps up behind him. “You wish to be on your feet?” He grips Icarus’s hair, pulling him to his feet, looking into his eyes. “You see how pointless it is? Your struggle? Every choice in your life? All it amounted to was being a stain on the flo-” Icarus interrupts Ra by spitting in his face, of course Icarus’s saliva has already evaporated long before he even could… but just when Ra is about to gloat Icarus takes a sudden swing at him. Ra’s eyes widen as he reacts quickly by CRUSHING Icarus into the floor. “DESPERATE! LITTLE! ANT!” Ra slams his face into the stone floor over and over again, leaving a bloody stain on it. “I would like you to beg for your life. Go on. Maybe I will be merciful.”

Icarus feels his head being raised to allow him to ‘beg’. “Heh. As if you would.”

Ra scoffs. “For once… we agree,” He hoists Icarus back on his feet, slamming his fists together, making them erupt in flames. RA’S MIGHTY SUNFISTS! He begins a beatdown on Icarus, who can barely keep himself on his feet! Let alone fighting back. Each meaty hit met with the equally visceral sound of sizzling flesh from the heat. Each strike to Icarus’s tank-top tearing another hole in it. “I am certain when you had that FLUKE earlier!” He lands a firm fist right in Icarus’s fist. “Striking a god as powerful as ME! That made you feel powerful! Like you were worth a damn! It was the GREATEST moment in your pathetic life!” He uppercuts Icarus with vigor. “But now you feel how fleeting of a moment that was! NOTHING-!” BAM! “BUT-!” BAM! “DISTANT-!” CRACK! “FORGOTTEN-!” POW! “MEMORY!” Ra winds back his fist for a final devastating blow! Icarus exhales sharply and tries to throw a weak counter attack but Ra simply grabs his fist out of the air, his sunfists disappearing as he crushes Icarus’s hand, digging his talons into it, making the young man scream in anguish and drop to his knees as he feels the bones in his hand crack like twigs under Ra’s immense strength. But before it even registers fully Icarus feels Ra’s knee connecting with his face. “Keep it down, worm,” He grabs Icarus’s leg with his foot to pull him a little closer. “Do you not realize what is happening, worm? Your life is in my hands now.”

Icarus weakly presses some buttons on his gauntlet, Naucrate firing a few pods down towards the two of them. “I am not done… just. Yet.”

Ra scoffs and shoots both pods out of the sky with barely a thought. “Hmpf. So you still hold hope in that device,” He smirks and steps on Icarus’s back to keep him pinned, as he takes aim at Naucrate, forming a massive Sunball in his hands. RA’S GLORIOUS RA-!? Icarus, using his technological wings rather than muscles, shoots himself off the ground, making Ra lose his footing and miss his shot, striking one of the platform shields instead. “Grrrr…” He angrily punches Icarus back into the floor. “You little pest!”

Ra pushes Icarus with his foot. He points with a talon which forms tiny Sunballs which Ra begins happily shooting at Icarus, making them explode and push him around. “Look at you! Without your toys! You are nothing! Without help! You. Are. NOTHING!” Icarus lands against the downed Danaus and slowly hoists himself up against the slanted wall. His legs are shaky.

‘It hurts… so bad. His words sting just as much as his flames. I know it’s true. I can’t do anything on my own. I’ve never… ever… done anything without help… But-’ He smirks, raising his fists, supporting himself mostly on the wall behind him. He can barely make out a faint blob of color against the sandstone walls that must be Ra. “... is that… supposed to make me feel… bad? Obviously I’m nothing… without my friends. My family. The people I know and care about. The people who care enough about me to help me. They make me who I am. Make me… your worst nightmare.”

Ra feels his eye twitch and he swaps from one finger to his whole fist. He strikes the air and fires a sunbeam at Icarus who manages to roll aside just in time, another giant hole being dug into Danaus. “MY WORST NIGHTMARE?! You think there exists such a thing as a nightmare for ME!?” Icarus rolls BACK around and into the hole in Danaus. “After such a speech, you HIDE!? How truly HUMAN of you!”

Ra strides over and picks up his staff again, flicking it up with his foot rather than bend down and giving it a quick spin. He points it at Danaus, forming a sunball rapidly and launching it at the fallen Pod.

As the sunball TEARS through the wooden and metal frame a figure erupts from the side. Ra smirking. “It is futile to run. My heat will-” However as Ra turns to face Icarus, he notes something strange in the young man’s hand. DANAÏDES #33: ANTHELEIA! And his body is doused in water. The water from the pods that Ra can’t evaporate! He’s using it to cool himself down?! Icarus swings a leg at Ra, aiming high! “CLEVER! But FUTILE!” Ra easily dodges the attack, even as Icarus follows up by swinging the pod at Ra, the sun god simply smashes it to pieces with his staff and kicks Icarus straight in the stomach, his sharp talons tearing into his chest.

Icarus tumbles back, panting as he tries to get up. Even if the water isn’t evaporating… it’s still getting warmer… and dripping off. He grits his teeth. “Thanks. I thought it was… pretty clever myself too,” He grumbles as he gets to his feet now a little dizzy again.

“Don’t flatter yourself. Clever for a worm,” Icarus’s eyes shift towards Danaus for only a moment. Ra instantly reacts, firing another another Sunball at Danaus, completely breaking it as the rubble goes flying off the edge of the arena. “No more of that. You see? It is trivial for a god such as me to manifest my will into reality. While you must claw and scratch away at the world for even the slightest advantage. Watch. Or I suppose in your state you must simply FEEL as I take away your last. Possible… advantage. And despair as you are OUT! OF OPTIONS!” Ra raises his staff, floating into the air. With his free hand he continues to shoot at Icarus with tiny sunballs, forcing him to weakly dodge however he regains some of his vision seeing Ra aiming for Naucrate. “Now… despair.”

Icarus swiftly puts a thumb on the ‘wheel’ on his gauntlet spinning it the whole way around and slamming his hand down on it. Naucrate suddenly opens up every door and fires out EVERY remaining pod just in time for Ra’s sunball to crash into the massive structure and send it crashing towards the ground below. Icarus suddenly feels a strong heatwave erupt once more, dropping to his knees. Ra looks around at the pods flying all over the place, calmly shooting as many out of the sky as he can. Icarus grits his teeth as he rushes at Ra attempting to tackle him to the ground! However the heat is rendering his muscles weak and he barely manages to budge Ra as he grapples around his waist. “AAAAH! Just… FALL ALREADY, you asshole bird!” Icarus yells out weakly punching the sun god in the side.

“Hmpf. Still kicking?” Ra grabs Icarus’s wing, forcing him to his knees. He winds back his knee. “No weapons left, no strength in your muscles! No tricks up your sleeve!” He knees Icarus in the face, and immediately strikes him with his staff, sending him tumbling to the ground. “Truly. You have lost. In every sense of the word. I am beyond you, worm,” He says as Icarus tries to push himself off the ground, but fails. ‘I AM beyond you. I am beyond your entire SPECIES… so what is it…? That irritates me so?’

Pandora feels tears well up in his ears. “Oh no… Icarus…”

Tyr closes his eyes solemnly. “You did all you cou-”

Ichiko however howls at the sky. “HE’S NOT GIVING UP! ICARUS FIGHT ON!!”

Ra seems to have noticed the same thing as Ichiko as he looks into Icarus’s eyes as the human stares up at him, while trembling in every limb as he stands. ‘What… is with those eyes? Those DAMN eyes!’ He thinks as he grits his beak. “YOU WISH TO DIE ON YOUR HILL OF DELUSION!? So be it! But I would like you to PERISH!” He suddenly shoots into the sky. “OBSERVE! And realize your powerlessness,” He focuses his all into his raised hand, a sunball unlike any other forming. More brilliantly white, more bursting with power. And it grows. And grows. And grow… Until its size equals the diameter of the arena itself. RA’S SOLAR DOMINUS! He swings his arm as hard as he can, launching the massive sphere down towards the arena. “BE TURNED TO ASH!”

Pandora tightens her grip on the railing. ‘I should… do something! No… he’s going to di-’ However her thoughts are interrupted as Icarus looks over at her and… smiles?

Sun Tzu elsewhere has settled down amongst humanity, with Houdini at his side. “Hehehe…”

“What??! You’re LAUGHING at this?”

“Appear weak when you are strong… and strong when you are weak…”

“... aaaaah.”

Icarus’s wings begin to rev with power, every single bit of energy they have left pouring into them, drowned out by the massive crackling of the sunball. He shoots off the ground at IMMENSE speeds. STRAIGHT into the Solar Dominus!

All Ra sees moments later is Icarus BURSTING forth from his Solar Dominus, bursting it apart like a particularly hot soap-bubble, foot aimed DIRECTLY at him. “WHAT?! HOW!?”

“CAUSE I GOT GUTS, RA!” BOOOOOM! Icarus STRIKES! RISING PHOENIX: SPEAR OF CRETE! The echo of the kick to Ra’s stomach reverberates into the arena and makes several gods grab their own stomachs in turn. The speed of a bullet and the full weight of Icarus, concentrated into Ra’s chest! More force than any of his previous strikes!

As Ra’s vision blurs from the pain and sudden pressure in his solar plexus he looks into Icarus’s eyes again. “You… fucking piece of shit,”

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Ra practically EXPLODES backwards, as if the laws of physics required a moment to compute the accurate force with which to launch him. He drops his staff as he flies off, Icarus catching it as he begins his clumsy descent.

Panting and heaving, the Cretan touches down on the ground.. “Haaaaaah… Got him,” He simply whispers as he raises his fist to the sky. 

Tyr looks closely at the boy. “It is a wonder he can stand. But that was clever.” Pandora and Ichiko look to the war god, both tilting their heads simultaneously in identical manners. “The medallion didn’t break. Only the ‘glass’. He turned it off manually.”

They both go wide-eyed. “But… He got so hurt!” Ichiko barks. “Hurt is BAD!”

“Yeah! But…” She puts the pieces together. “He endured ALL of that just to make Ra lower his guard for this big attack! TO LAND THE FINISHING BLOW!”

Humanity erupts in cheers and even the gods are impressed as applause joins the cheers. “The kid did it!?” “That’s CRAZY!” “Ra was DEFEATED!?” 

Icarus looks to Pandora giving her a peacesign and a toothy grin. “Looks like I got him, finally!”

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Heimdall lets out a sigh of relief. “It seems that it is OVER! With a decisive blow Icarus has DEFEATED Ra! The winner-”

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“Who defeated me, exactly?” Ra’s voice echoes as he crashes down into the arena, behind Icarus who can barely muster the courage to turn around. Ra has a massive footprint on his stomach, torn through his skin and bleeding slightly but it appears the sun god seared it shut with his own flames. “You? Defeat ME? Such accusations will not be tolerated. The only one who decides anything in this tournament… is ME!”

Icarus’s fear flashes for only a few brief moments before he inhales sharply and turns his head around. “... Back… for more huh?”

Icarus and Ra clash in midair, sword to staff. “You truly believe you can defeat me? When you are this WEAK!?” Ra easily pushes Icarus back. Ra holds his free hand out. “Behold the power of a TRUE GOD!” He blasts a massive beam of sunfire at Icarus. The young boy recovers from the push and is instantly putting up his shield to block, the beam pushing him back against one of the floating audience platforms. Icarus grits his teeth, before slowly rising above the platform, as Ra focuses the flame on him. As he rises above the platform, Icarus SHOOTS off into the sky. “Bothersome pest…” Ra scoffs as he sets off in pursuit. 

Icarus spins in the sky looking down at Ra. He’s panting and heaving, his sweat slowly starting to evaporate the closer Ra gets. “I really could use a plan right about now…” He mutters under his breath before shooting down towards Ra!

The sun god stops mid-air on a dime, pointing his staff forward. RA’S BLINDING RAY! The sunfire collects and once more shoots forward, far faster being channeled through his staff rather than his hand! Icarus swerves around the beam even as Ra corrects his aim. However as Icarus approaches him using this strategy Ra smugly smirks. “You are naive…” He grins sadistically as he grips the staff tighter and the beam widens in an instant, swallowing Icarus up within it. 

Pandora gasps. “ICARUS!”

Ichiko growls angrily. “Grrrr! Sun is meant to be bright and NICE! Not evil! Bird is evil!”

Wukong pats Ichiko on the head. “You got a real way with words, pup. But yeah… That Ra is no joke…” Icarus shoots out from the beam, flying away from Ra, out of control and plunging towards the ground. “Woah woah wait… is he… unconscious?” 

Pandora’s eyes widen. “N-no… Icarus?” However as Ra breaks his beam and shoots towards the young boy, Icarus seems to wake up and shake his head back to reality. He corrects himself just in time for Ra to wind his fist back, taking aim at the emblem on his chest. With only a split second to react, Icarus simply LAUNCHES himself as hard as he can further down, Ra striking him in the stomach instead and sending him hurtling towards the ground even faster!

Ra, continuing his pursuit, holds his arms back as he shoots down! Behind him a trail of sunballs begin to form. Icarus corrects once more, RIGHT before hitting the ground beneath the arena! Gritting his teeth and firing himself back into the air. If he touches the ground he loses. He CAN’T allow that! Ra stops his charge, as if using his momentum to swing his staff, sending the 50 or so sunballs that have trailed behind him down at Icarus. 

Icarus pants and heaves as he shoots himself up and away dodging and cutting the spheres as he does! 

Up in the arena the crowd is muttering amongst themselves. “This is… brutal. That kid really doesn’t stand a chance anymore does he?” “He should just give up…” The gods mutter. “Yeah but also… he kind of kicked Ra’s ass before.” “I’ve NEVER seen Ra use this transformation power. Didn’t even know he had it.” 

“Ra really got pushed this far by some random human?” 

Another spectator shakes his head. “No he’s not a random human. Remember when that human tried to fly to the top of Olympus? By flying? That was him. I’m pretty sure anyways…”

“Well… still. Ra might not be as powerful as he seems.”

In the shadows Osiris stands in dead silence, a dark expression fallen over his face as he looks at the screens of the fight. “... Hm,” He suddenly steps into the light and raises a fist. “YOU DARE think such lowly things about THE Ra!? The mighty King of the Duat!? His heat-wave alone would have been PLENTY to defeat ANY previous member of humanity’s chosen! But Icarus CHEATED! That emblem on his chest is absorbing all of the heat! If he did not he would be ASH!” He declares with vigor and righteous fury!

However the gods look back and forth. “Well yeah. But he’s got it… and Ra hasn’t taken it off of him yet.”

Osiris scoffs. “Suit yourselves. However when Ra wins this bout you will ALL be in for it!”

Suddenly both fighters zoom past the audience stand Ra lands on the arena grounds again, Icarus continuing to soar. Ra looks up at Icarus who circles the arena like a vulture. “Such a nimble little gnat…” He grumbles as he grips his claws into the floor crossing his arms. “So be it. If you truly wish to feel the full-” However a voice cuts through the crowd. 

“GO, LORD RA! DESTROY HIM!” Osiris calls out and Ra’s eye twitches.

Ra suddenly points and a small sunball forms on his fingertip, firing past Osiris’s head and burying into the seat behind him, luckily missing the audience member who ducks in time. “You DARE order me around, Osiris!? You think I require a CHEER!? You think I care about the words of this foolish audience.”

Osiris nervously laughs and sculks back into his seat. “N-no of course not, Lord Ra. How foolish of me. Please. I beg your forgiveness.”

“Tsk. I was about to destroy this annoyance regardless,” Ra aims into the air and begins rapidly blasting sunballs into the sky! Each one floating around and forming a veritable minefield for Icarus to navigate. Eventually collecting his hands, Ra forms another large ball in his hands and fires it at Icarus. “GET DOWN HERE, YOU WORM!”

Icarus zooms around in the air. ‘I’d really love to! But I can’t get close right now… I need a plan… something… anything! There HAS to be a weakpoint to exploit!’ He glances to Naucrate looking for an answer but finding nothing.

Ra furiously screeches as Icarus keeps expertly dodging his attacks… even when he’s struck he just won’t fall again. Ra stops his attack and prepares to shoot into the sky after him again, but he pauses.

The voice of the audience once more in his ear. “Mommy I’m worried for mister Icarus… will he be able to win?” “That bastard Ra. How bottomless is his power!?” “Ra would even attack his most faithful advisor for annoying him?” 

A creepy smile forms on his beak. “Hmmm… I see…” He thinks back a little. “Get down!” Icarus’s voice echoes in his ears. “Lord Ra. might I ask you… refrain from disturbing the audience?” Heimdall’s voice repeats as well. “Hope of Crete… fighting for the sake of others. Hmhmhmh. HAHAHA!” Ra laughs out loud. 

Icarus pauses in the air hearing Ra… laugh. “What’s so funny!?” 

Ra however doesn’t answer, simply holding his hand out towards Icarus forming a sunball, larger than the small mines he was placing. Icarus prepares to dodge it when suddenly Ra aims to the side instead. Straight at the audience. “Your weakness… has been staring at me this entire time,” He fires the sunsphere at the audience, Icarus’s eyes widening and he zooms down as fast as he can! The humans all shield their loved ones before Icarus stops the attack with his shield. 

Ra follows up the attack with a barrage of sunballs! Icarus slashing at the sunballs with fervor using his sword, deflecting with his shield. A few of the spheres striking him, feeling to him like solid spheres of metal being thrown at high speeds.

Ra smiles cockily. “You truly are predictable. And weak. I do not even need to aim at you like this. You will simply fly into the way of my bullets. Watch,” He then fires at the next platform over, filled with gods. Icarus once more shooting from his perch to block the attack, not quite making it in time to block with his shield, throwing his wings in front of them instead, gritting his teeth as he stands on the railing. 

Ra unleashes another flurry of attacks at the platform, forcing Icarus to block, dodge or allow them to strike him, lest they strike the audience who have nowhere to go due to the platforms floating away from the exits! 

“... Everyone alright back there?” Icarus mutters as more blood drips from his body than before. The parent of a young god in the front row, who was shielding his son, looks up from their ducked stances only to see Icarus still in front of their platform, shield and sword in hand, both with plentiful scorch-marks, Icarus himself having a few burns on him. “He… protected us?” He mutters under his breath. 

Icarus wipes the blood off his lips. “You scumbag… You really don’t have any integrity do you?” 

Ra holds out his clawed hand collecting tiny sun-spheres on the tips of his claws. “Integrity? What for? Those weaklings you so foolishly protected? Why should I, a mighty chief god, concern myself with the well-being of those beneath me!? But since you care SO VERY MUCH-!” He clenches his fist and the five spheres form a bigger one around his hand. He holds it towards Icarus who quickly flies up and away from the audience. “Then I see no reason not to exploit such failings!” His aim breaks from Icarus and instead points towards the human audience who all panic and try to move away, but the arena is densely packed and people are tripping over one another.

“YOU-!” Icarus launches from his spot as fast as he can, intercepting Ra’s beam with his shield, forced to stand on the railing to hold back the beam, the shield slowly but surely bending and distending from the heat, melting away. Icarus jumps forward, travelling up the beam with his melting shield until he reaches Ra who takes a swing at him with his staff! At the same time Icarus goes for a spinning kick to the head, both landing their strikes, but only Icarus goes flying, recovering as he hits back on the arena ground! “Every time I think you can’t get lower… you start digging,” He growls in annoyance taking small hops back, slicing apart the sunballs with his sword. 

“The judgement of a human, nay, ALL humans, all gods. It means NOTHING to me. THEY mean nothing to me! Only their subjugation matters,” He blindly points to the audience once again. Icarus, through gritted teeth jumps in the way again. “What FOOLISH heroic instincts. They will be the end of you. AHAHAHA!” 

Pandora and the gang all look on in horror as Icarus is forced to suddenly expend all his energy protecting the crowd! “This is bad… those fireballs-” Sun Tzu starts.

However Pandora interrupts him with a quick twirl. “Ichiko! Come on!” Ichiko quickly jumps off his perch to follow.

“Yes Friend Pandora! We go! … Where are we going!?”

Pandora stomps down the hallway with purpose. “We’re going to go help!”

“How!? I wanna help!” Ichiko calls out with an affirming bark.

“I don’t know just yet…! But we have to DO SOMETHING! That’s NOT fair!” 

However Houdini is on the other side of her. “Wait, we don't have a plan? We’re just… going?”

“Houdini!?”

“Yeah? And the others too obviously!” Pandora looks behind her as she runs through the halls seeing the rest of her present company following behind her.

“At your command, general!” Wukong says with a boisterous laughter. “But… please make a plan!”

“Benkei and his legion of followers are at your command,” Benkei adds stoically.

“I… I have an idea! Wukong! Ichiko! I need you two to-”

Hephaestus looks down at Pandora’s determined look as he strides after the group. “... you really have grown a lot in such a short time…” He whispers, feeling a single tear trickle down his chin. He feels something against his foot and looks down seeing Beethoven giving him a reassuring pat.

“ON IT!” Wukong calls out, speeding ahead, Ichiko leaping after him, followed by Benkei.

“I will save everyone, Friend Pandora!” Ichiko barks.

Houdini splits off from the main group. “Mister Hephaestus. With me, please.”

Hephaestus blinks in confusion. “Me? Very well. Pandora!” He calls out and Pandora looks over her shoulder, walking with Beethoven and Sun Tzu. “Please take care, my dear.”

“Of course! But I WILL save Icarus!” She calls out, before disappearing around a corner. Hephaestus follows Houdini, easily catching up to him given the sheer size-difference.

Icarus floats in front of the audience, panting as Ra has been striking him with his sunballs over and over. Even if he has struck most of the spheres and beams out of the air… he cannot deflect them all and has had to take some of them on his body. His sigil is fine. He taps it. “Haaaah. Is that… the best the Almighty Omnipotent Ra can do? Hold the audience hostage? You’re pathetic…” He mutters silently.

“ME!? Pathetic! It is YOU who is the pathetic one! I am Ra! If you wish for me to stop taking it so leisurely on them! Then I would like you to beg for my mercy!” The sun god focuses his power on his staff, a massive sunball forming on the tip of his staff. He fires it to the side, Icarus pressing a button on his gauntlet and Naucrate whirls up, blasting several pods out, one of which intercepts Icarus as he lands on the attacked platform, folding around his gauntlet into a gigantic metal shield. PROJECT NAUCRATE: POD 41: SHIELD OF PALLAS! The shield expands with extra plating into a near towershield which Icarus uses to block the giant sunball. “Hmpf. As expected but…” Ra points to the other side. “What will you do if I fire a second one?” He hovers the second one at arm’s length with a sadistic grin. 

Icarus grits his teeth. “Please… Ra… they have nothing to do with this…”

“A good plea. But… Not. Good. Enough.” Ra smugly says, firing the second EQUALLY large one at another audience platform, Icarus gritting his teeth as he can barely hold this one back.

He feels a tear forced from his eye from the pressure as he finally manages to flick the sunball above the audience. “I’m… sorry…” He whispers almost timidly looking at the other platform about to be struck.

“Do not be sorry, Boy!” A voice suddenly erupts as a loud CRASH falls onto the other platform. “Steel your heart! And place your trust in US!” Benkei stands tall reaching both hands out, CATCHING the sunball with his bare chest and hands. “Just as we have put OUR trust in YOU!”

“B-Benkei?!” Icarus calls out looking up at where he came from seeing Ichiko rushing down from his flaming flowers. “Ichiko!?”

Ra scoffs. “You interfere with the fight!? You DARE!?”

Benkei scoffs. “Nay. Benkei merely stands here. And will continue to stand here.”

Ichiko perches himself on another platform. Ra angrily grits his teeth at the sight of the sun-wolf. “YOU?!”

“ME!” Ichiko proudly says howling. “And US!” As Ra attacks another platform, it suddenly MOVES out of the way.

“Hello Hello? I really hope that worked? Had to hack into the arena controls. Sorry Heimdall. I got this done a while ago,” A voice echoes over the speakers. Houdini’s.

Ra grits his teeth. “What… is this?”

“This is… the Einherjar,” Icarus says feeling a wave of relief washing over him.

A bunch of chariots suddenly arrive, driven by Pandora, Sun Tzu, Beethoven and various monks from Benkei’s legion! Parking near some of the platforms. “Everyone who’s injured. Get on board! Let’s get you out of here!” Pandora calls out and some of the humans and gods alike get onto the chariots.

Ra’s breathing intensifies. “Haaaaah!? YOU?! Little Pandora!? YOU DARE!?” His hands are covered in intense flames and he BLASTS a beam at her, but she doesn’t even flinch just glaring at him with an intensity that makes his eye widen. “That look…” His gaze to Pandora is interrupted by Icarus appearing in between them and blocking the attack with his new shield. “No matter… YOU CANNOT STOP ME! Even ALL TOGETHER!”

However a new voice joins the fray. “We don’t need to BEAT you together! Little Birdy’s got THAT covered. We’re just making it FAIR!” Wukong calls out as he falls from the sky on his cloud along with someone else! “Sorry I’m late! Had to go PRETTY far to get this guy!”

SHIELD OF VANAHEIM! Tyr lands on one of the godly viewing platforms, next to Ichiko, enveloping it and all the others in his shields.

“TYR?! You dare betray me!?”

Tyr sits down and focuses on his magic. “This is no betrayal. It is a favor. For Wukong. The man who allowed me to prove myself. Young wolf. If you would?” He says and Ichiko nods, instantly sitting down and Tyr pats his head gently. Ichiko glows brilliantly. SHIELD OF VANAHEIM: SUN-PROTECTED! 

Ra grits his teeth and collects another massive ball. “SILENCE! THE LOT OF YOU! I AM RA! I AM THE SUN HIMSELF! AND YOU WILL NOT CHEAT ME!” The sphere explodes into countless smaller spheres, that begin to rain down all over the arena. RA’S RAIN OF GLORY! However they all strike Tyr’s shields making them all shake and tremble but the shields hold strong with pained grunts from both the war god and sun-wolf but they hold firm. “TSK!” Ra grits his teeth looking around frantically to the Einherjar helping out the audience, Tyr and Ichiko holding up the blockade. He prepares a massive sunball at the tip of his staff as his eye lands on Pandora! Outside the protected shields. “PANDORAAAAA!! You DARE OPPOSE ME THIS BRAZENLY?! THEN PERISH!”

However LONG before he can launch it, the sun god feels a fist connect with his cheek, sending him tumbling back in the air. “Hey! Remember me!?” Icarus calls out. “It’s just you and me now! As it should be!” He looks back at Pandora who is helping an old lady up on the chariot. “Thanks…”

Pandora smiles at him. “No problem! Go get him, Tiger!”

Icarus turns back, revving his wings. “ON IT, GENERAL!” He calls out, reinvigorated as he feels the warmth from behind him, and the searing glare from Ra in front of him.

Icarus stares blankly at the newly transformed Ra. “I… was really REALLY hoping I could finish you off before… this happened…” He takes a fighting stance. “Well at least I pushed you to this!” he takes a deep breath, wincing slightly at a sharp pain in his chest. “Alright let’s do this!”

Ra holds out his hand. “You did not push me, you pest! You CANNOT push me! Now DIE!” A large ball of orange and golden flames which he fires out, another forming before it has even hit its mark. RA’S SACRED BULLETS! Icarus lowers his stance, moving forward through the barrage Ra is blasting out! However as soon as he gets remotely close Ra covers himself in a pillar of flames. RA’S SACRED PILLAR!

Icarus does not waste time leaping into the flames with great haste, zooming through the pillar, kicking Ra out the middle of it, zooming off the edge of the arena with Ra stuck to the end of his kick. “Tch. That burns… guess I’m heatproof but not… fireproof.”

Ra does not seem particularly bothered by the kick to the stomach. His remaining good eye focuses down on the emblem on Icarus’s chest. “Of course you are! And I am finished with not trying to destroy THAT!” He says his clenched clawed fist erupting into burning orange and red flames.

Icarus’s eyes widen and he swiftly alters course, but ducking FAR back to avoid the strike from Ra, barely not being grazed by the attack, before zooming away. Ra begins falling towards the ground below, the arena above the both of them. “Lucky dodge! Just try to dodge THIS!” The flames bursting from his hands collect in front of him into another gold and orange sphere of fire. RA’S BLINDING RAY! He throws both hands forward, the sphere firing forward into a massive beam. Icarus’s eyes widen as he zips out of the way, Ra following him with the beam.

Up above the stage Heimdall is fiddling with the screens. “A-apologies, everyone! I did not expect this fight to end up like this! One moment and I’ll have it back onli-” However his thoughts are interrupted as the beam of fire shoots clean through the arena’s floor into the sky, dragging around as Ra aims it somewhere beneath. “YEEP!” Heimdall ducks as it drags over the audience, barely missing them, a few screams of terror echoing into the air.

Icarus, hearing the screams quickly realizes what is happening. “Hey, big guy! Down here!” He shoots down further, making Ra fire down at him instead, avoiding the audience stands. Ra’s sphere finally runs out of juice and the sun god clenches his fists and suddenly begins to hover in the air. “Come on then! Let’s take this up to your territory!” Icarus shoots up through the hole Ra put in the arena, Ra flying after him. As they both enter the general view of the audience once more Ra opens fire on Icarus again, the Cretan ensuring he is not putting the audience in the line of fire, by flying higher and higher!

Pandora grits her teeth. “That Ra. First he broke his word and did not let Icarus win from hitting him! And now he’s using even MORE power! This is… this is not a fair fight!”

However before she can panic further, Beethoven feels something warm by the door. “...” He knows that feeling. He goes to open up swiftly. “!!!” As he does Ichiko SHOOTS through the doors at Pandora in full sun-wolf transformation.

“FRIEND PANDORA! Do not be sad! Icarus will win! He will!” He cheerfully calls out as he jumps up at her and licks her face excitedly.

“Ichiko!? Y-yeah! YEAH! We trust him. I know. It’s so good to see you!”

“You too! All of you are good friends!” His tail cannot stop waggling as he looks between the group. “I can watch with you guys, right!?”

Wukong laughs. “Sure thing, pup!” He sets down Ruyi Jingu Bang and it distends into a stool of sorts. More like a big drum which Ichiko jumps onto to sit and watch over the railing.

“Icarus is strong! I trust him!”

“Speaking of trust-” Houdini starts pointing to Sun Tzu, almost passing the torch to him.

Sun Tzu smiles. “Know your enemy and know yourself and you need not fear the result of a thousand battles. Quote: The Art of War.”

Before Pandora can even act confused, Houdini interjects. “He means that Icarus knows Ra. Probably better than most on account of all the hatred for that nasty fall of his.”

Wukong laughs. “Yeah there ain’t no way Feathers TRUSTED Ra wasn’t gonna lose it if he hit him.”

Pandora gulps. “So why did he let Ra WAIL on him that hard…?” She starts, putting a hand on her chin to think.

“Well you see-” Sun Tzu starts before Beethoven puts a hand on his shoulder and gesturing for him to quiet down for now. “...” The two share a nod. 

Pandora smacks her fist into an open palm. “Oooooh I see! Because Ra’s eye was his strongest weapon!”

“Exactly!” Sun Tzu says excitedly.

“You’re a bright little one, aren’t you?” Houdini adds and Wukong just leans back laughing a little looking at Pandora proud in her revelation.

“He knew Ra would KEEP fighting more SERIOUSLY after he got that first hit in! And so he needed that hit to even the playing field instead of being a meaningless strike!” Pandora continues. “That’s the ONLY thing that makes sense… after watching you all fight I mean…”

Ichiko howls. “Friend Pandora is so smart!”

Pandora smiles and hugs Ichiko tightly. “T-thank you guys…” She looks back up to Icarus who is dodging and flying out of the way of Ra’s attacks still, the sun god furiously launching his sunballs and fists at him whenever an opening arrives. “I feel better knowing… he has a plan for this.”

Icarus who swerves and weaves, turning in the air and kicking one of them to make it disperse, the sparks flying past his wings. However as soon as he finishes the kick Ra is up in his face with a hand, burning with heat so intense it’s glowing bright white. RA’S ALMIGHTY PALM! He aims for Icarus’s chest again, Icarus quickly flapping back just out of reach, tucking up his knees and kicking off Ra’s palm to create some distance, the sun god scoffing at the feeble attempt! “Pathetic worm.” He clenches his fist as the dirt Icarus left behind is incinerated. 

Icarus smirks. “Heh. You want my emblem? Gotta do better than that. COME ON!” Icarus suddenly takes a dive towards the arena again, easily able to tell Ra follows by the near constant low growling in annoyance. 

“There is NONE better than RA!” He calls out firing more sunballs towards the ground, each one burning a deep hole in the floor. Icarus zooms towards the ground, swerving out of the way of the bullets, only getting grazed in places. He takes a swift falcon-like movement to correct himself and zoom along the arena floor, picking up the Theseus sword and shield along the way, Ra doing the same for his staff. 

Ra does a full frontal flip into a standing position and swings his staff along the ground with immense strength. Icarus’s eyes widen as Ra digs into the arena stone like its melting soft butter, and flings a massive hail of lava shards at him! Icarus ducks behind his shield letting the pellets strike the shield rather than him! However as he peeks over the shield once again Ra is right up in his, the head of his staff glowing with heat. He grabs Icarus’s shield with his free hand, TEARING it away from protecting the young boy before hammering at him with the staff! 

Icarus BARELY manages to throw his sword in front to block the strike to his chest, feeling the vibrations shoot through his entire body as he is launched back. He flips a few times, before correcting himself, right above one of the many platforms containing the god audience. “Hey there,” He waves at a young god who points towards Ra. Icarus is already looking back at Ra who tightly grips his staff with both hands. RA’S DIVINE ARRAY! The tip of the staff emits sunballs which all float around the sun god.

“Get down!” Icarus calls out before shooting into the air out of the way as Ra swings his staff at the air sending the many spheres at him. Icarus blazes a trail forward, dodging the spheres as they explode around him, knocking him around a little. However with a few rolls and swings of the blade and shield he manages to stay in the air. Ra points up with two claws, another sunball forming at the tips of his fingers. He blasts it off at immense speeds, the young Cretan getting his shield up just in time to block but gets the wind knocked out of him, flying further upwards!

As he finally recovers from his spin Ra is floating just above him. “What was it you said, Pest!? For old time’s sake!? Then allow me to remind you of your DOWNFALL!” He raises his staff and slams Icarus down towards the arena, the Cretan not managing to get his shield up in time. 

Icarus spits up blood as he hurtles towards the arena at immense speeds. ‘Dammit… he’s… so fast now too!?’ He thinks as he recovers, zooming away from the arena as Ra unleashes a barrage of sunballs that rain down all over the arena. Icarus manages to dodge them all! He surges back towards Ra trying to dodge the sunballs and approach Ra at the same time! 

However Ra simply redoubles his efforts, making MORE sunballs than Icarus is capable of dodging. “Fall again if you WISH!” Icarus’s wings are struck again and again, the glass-like crystals shattering from being chipped over and over. As he closes in on Ra the sun god smirks, winding back his fist, several of the smaller spheres rotating and melding into a disk. “You are a FOOL to approach THE SUN!” He launches the disk at Icarus with fervor, the whirling heat practically distorting the air around the two of them. 

Icarus grits his teeth, spinning around the disk, grinding along it with his sword to get within range of the mighty Sun Himself once again! ‘I’m close again! But-’

“If you’re close to me! Then I am close enough to YOU!” Ra says a look of pure joy on his beaked face, as he clenches his fist, moving back slightly in the air, dodging Icarus’s sword swing! Ra then moves back in his fist erupting in flames and attempts to strike Icarus’s emblem on his chest, but the young man twists his body slightly merely getting struck straight in the gut! “I outclass you in every sense of the word! You foolish, WORM!” Ra calls out continuing the rain of sunballs as Icarus hurtles towards the ground.

Pandora clenches her fists together. “Icarus…” She mutters as the other fighters see Icarus attempting to recover but his wings are somewhat in tatters so he’s quite unsteady. 

She feels a few hands on her shoulders from the others. “Don’t worry, Friend Pandora! Icarus will WIN!” Ichiko calls out.

Icarus lands with a rather ungraceful stumble and roll, looking up to the rain of sunballs, forced to dodge around. Gasping for air, sweating like crazy. “Oh no… he’s…” Pandora starts. 

“Exhausted beyond conventional measure… The young Icarus has been pushing himself beyond the limit since the very beginning,” Yet another voice starts. The floor practically rumbles as the giant Benkei enters.

“Benkei! W-why are you all… here?”

“The Young Icarus has fascinated Benkei. After his display against the odds… Benkei has come to respect him. So it is only right that we show our solidarity by observing from up close?”

Pandora nods. “Yeah… but… if he’s so exhausted… What can he even do?”

Benkei gestures to Naucrate with a headnod. “He does not fight alone.”

And sure enough Icarus taps a few buttons on his gauntlet as a fresh pair of wings, wrapped up in a pod shoot from Naucrate. Icarus sidesteps several sunballs resting his hand over the eject-button on his gauntlet to replace his wings. 

Ra however focuses a larger sphere of sunfire in his palm. “I think not! These toys have annoyed me LONG ENOUGH!” He fires it at the pod exploding it in the air. Icarus grits his teeth as the debris crashes onto the audience located beneath the point of impact. They manage to move out of the way or shield themselves mostly. 

Heimdall gulps. “L-Lord Ra… might I ask you… refrain from disturbing the audience?” He tries but Ra scoffs.

“They chose to be here!” Ra calls back his focus remaining purely on Icarus, blasting down at the ground over and over. “HAHAHAHA! That’s right! Run! You’re TRAPPED! This is YOUR END!”

Icarus tries once more to summon a pair of wings but the same thing happens again. He shields himself from an exploding sunball as he gets knocked around. ‘Dammit… Dammit dammit! I can’t get close… I can’t stay far away… What do I do!?’ He thinks before looking up at the stands seeing Pandora’s worried face, gripping the railings and he smirks. “Heh… how stupid of me… To even think that for a moment… The answer’s so obvious…” He suddenly takes a full sprint through the minefield of exploding sunballs. “I’m just gonna have to WIN THIS!” He presses a button on his gauntlet as he leaps off the edge of the arena, spinning to face Ra with a double middle finger and sticking his tongue out childishly.

Ra scoffs seeing the pod he summoned try to blast down after him. He shoots after the pod and Icarus, knocking it out of the way with his staff. “You are a FOOL!” Ra prepares a sunbeam before he notices a second pod coming from the side. ‘He summoned two sets of wings?’ It is far closer than the other got. It has been moving for longer! “Hmpf! Worthless trash!” He shoots the second pod. “One or two. What is the difference? You will still never-” Ra turns his gaze back to Icarus before needing to dodge Icarus’s sword! Grazing up his chest, Icarus follows up the missed strike with a kick to the face. His back has gotten a new pair of sharp metal wings with large propulsion engines on a few of the elongated feathers. PROJECT NAUCRATE: POD 1: FEATHERS OF ICARUS MK. 4! 

“The difference is that you’re not thinking TWO steps ahead, Ra!” Icarus goes on the offensive! Wildly swinging his sword and chasing down Ra as he backs away, not allowing the sun god an inch of distance to prepare a sunball or even the time to concentrate and form a sunpillar to shield himself! 

Ra grits his teeth as his body flares up. “You persistent INSECT!” He takes a swift swing at Icarus, the young man deflecting it with his shield and stabbing a Ra, his sword digging into Ra’s feather-crown, Icarus attempting to swing down from here, but Ra moves back to dodge. “Why you…” Icarus follows after him but finds his energy dipping briefly, Ra gathering a fist of sunfire, uppercutting him straight in the jaw, sending Icarus blasting up through the arena again, the massive flaming pillar digging a hole through the arena for him to fly through.

-Babel-

Giza clutches onto Thoth’s arm. “L-Lord Thoth! Ra is so…”

“Powerful. Yes. Ridiculously so. In all honesty… he is still holding back. He does not want to admit he needs more power than he’s already used. It’s nothing but stubborn pride. But that emblem is intact so the damage from the sunflames is minimized…”

Sobek crosses his arms. “Huh… you think I could push him beyond that level?”

Thoth gives Sobek a slightly annoyed look. “You battle maniac… You would probably know better than me. If I had to say… yes. Just to get through your tough skin would require more than brute force.”

Sobek scratches his chin. “I guess the biggest trouble would be that he can fly somehow.”

“Heat is how. He directs the heat from his ‘Glorious Presence’ towards the ground primarily. Functions like a jet engine those humans created.”

“I-I don’t think Lord Sobek knows what that is Lord Thoth…”

Sobek nods. “Correct, little sphinx!”

“... Erich Hartmann’s machine. From the seventh round.”

“Aaaaah! Thanks for the explanation!”

Thoth nods. “No problem. Let us see how Icarus pushes through this. Mayhaps… in silence?”

-Valhalla Arena-

Icarus is on his back, panting and heaving. His body feels heavy. Even raising the shield and sword is a tough endeavor. However as Ra bursts from the floor, Icarus simply grits his teeth and leaps to his feet. “AAAAAARGH!” He angrily exclaims steeling his nerves. “You’re still here? Thought you’d be BORED by now!” 

Ra scoffs, shooting down at Icarus, with a strike from his staff, Icarus blocking it with both sword and shield, forcing the young man to his knees. “Do not mistake my anger for lack of joy. I am enjoying seeing you squirm, so helpless and pathetic!”

Icarus revs up his wing-jets to slowly push himself onto his feet and even slightly off the ground! He grabs Ra’s staff and opposite wrist, before headbutting the bird-god as hard as he can, sending Ra stumbling back. “And yet you’re flying around… shooting me with those sunballs… Not getting close… Are you that scared of a fair fight?” Icarus says with a tilted head, blood dripping from his forehead from Ra’s hard beak, his entire shape practically clad in a shadow except for his eyes which are still burning with fighting spirit.

Ra grits his non-existent teeth as he looks at Icarus’s almost… creepily doll-like posture. “I am not scared of ANYTHING! It is YOU who should fear ME!”

Icarus begins to float with his wings again, spreading his arms out. “Not. Happening.”

Ra shoots up after him, the two clashing weapons once again. “We shall see. I will break you and you will beg yet!”