Return of the Nine: Divine Protector, #6

By Scott Kinkade

The gods created man, but who created the gods? Everyone will find out the hard way when an unknown force attacks Olympus, seizing all its gods for themselves. Ev and friends spring into action to save their allies on the moon, but they're not ready to face this threat. It will take an unlikely savior to bring their power to the next level. Everyone will risk their lives in the earth-shattering finale of the Divine Protector saga, but not everyone will survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Kinkade
• Release date: Aug 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9798215879702

Book preview

Prologue

On the observation deck of the Reticulai, Indrid Cold peered through space at the rocky sphere in front of the ship while lounging on the couch.

The whoosh of the circular room’s door announced the arrival of a visitor who proceeded to march across the hard metal floor and stopped right behind the couch.

How did the meeting go? Cold asked.

A gruff voice replied, You would know, had you bothered to show up. Nuit.

Cold waved a hand, dismissing his compatriot’s concerns. Ah, you don’t need me. One person’s absence hardly means you’ll lose the majority.

Maybe, Nuit said. But you should take things more seriously. Maybe we decided upon something you won’t like.

Cold had to roll his eyes at that. "Please. We’ve been planning this for billions of xelnons. You’re not going to suddenly change your minds."

I suppose I’ll have to grant you that. Anyway, as you’ve probably surmised, we voted to move into the final phase of the plan.

Cold rubbed his hands together gleefully. I’ve been waiting for this! Look at that. He pointed at the moon which loomed large in the distance behind the canopy window which filled the entire rear wall. "That whole thing is full of people with power. Even the children have their uses. And it’s all ours to take."

I still maintain we shouldn’t have let those kids kill the most powerful of them, Nuit said. Zeus, Athena, Hephaestus, Hades, Artemis; we could have gained so much from them.

"We don’t need them. If they could be killed by upstarts, they weren’t much use to us anyway. Besides, they kept the moon relatively unified. Without them, the gods are

under new management—weak, inexperienced management. They’ll fall before us in no time. He leapt to his feet and pointed a finger at the moon. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

You’d better get ready, Nuit said. "The operation begins in twelve remnons. And take this seriously!"

Yeah, yeah.

1

The refghast exploded into gooey, wet chunks the instant Ev Bannen put his armored fist through it. The black, spindly creatures had been running wild ever since the death of their master, Hades. And while no longer a threat to any mildly experienced student at Divine Protector Academy, the world’s premier school for gods, they could still tear a mere mortal to shreds with their claw-like fingers attached to large, bulbous arms. The things still creeped him out with the odd proportions of their toothpick legs to the rest of their bodies.

Ev was surrounded now in the dark alley of Seraphim City where many of the refghasts had chosen to make their home following the destruction of Titan and the Flawless Few. These pooslickers only came out at night, a fact that was interfering with Ev’s sleep. And, of course, Bethos would send him and his friends to deal with the threat since they had the most experience out of all the students at the Academy.

The city had been steadily rebuilding over the past few years. Some areas were a higher priority, while others had been more or less abandoned. Downtown (the beating heart of the city) had been mostly restored with outlying areas still clamoring for attention. Many people had died in Zeus’ attack, and city leadership had been desperate to entice outsiders to move here.

He sighed. This was pest control, pure and simple. There was no challenge and thus, no satisfaction. He wanted to wrap this up and go home. With that in mind, he raised his twin gauntlets and got busy.

* * *

With the battle over, Ev checked his watch. They’d be late for the concert if they didn’t hurry. And they had a lot of homework. Fortunately, this was his last semester. He, Maya, Jaysin and CiCi would be graduating soon, meaning they would become full-fledged gods.

Ev! Maya jogged down the alley towards him, her long black hair blending into the night. She hugged him, a ritual she always performed after a battle now. I’m so—ugh, you’re all slimy.

Ev shook every part of his body that he could in an attempt to get refghast blood—at least, he assumed it was blood—off of him. Job hazard, he said simply.

I think this calls for a shower, she said, grinning.

He pretended not to notice the seduction. She had been getting friskier as of late, a fact he could most definitely not complain about. I’ll take one as soon as I get back.

You’ll need someone to help you get into every nook and cranny with the soap, she said.

He stared at her with exaggerated shock. Why, Maya Brünhart! Such things are against Academy rules.

I won’t tell if you won’t, she said, staring at him with hungry eyes.

She leaned in to kiss him, but they were interrupted by the arrival of what had become known as the Divine Protectors. Hope we’re not interrupting anything, Jaysin said as the five of them approached.

No, nothing, Maya said, now keeping her hands to herself.

CiCi giggled; she had obviously seen them, even though, with her dark skin, Ev could barely see her. She came over and gave Maya a behind-the-back high-five. The two had been best friends ever since the Academy had paired them up as roommates.

Well, this is… huh, Joss said, staring at a gore-covered Ev. You’ve, uh, got a spot there. He had joined the team after the destruction of Titan, filling the spot left by his roommate and lover Daryn who had sacrificed his life to blow up Zeus’ warship before it could decimate the surface of Narska as it had with Seraphim City.

I noticed, Ev said.

Deep Matthews laughed. Yo, man, you’re the only one of us who got covered in refghast guts. We’re all sparkling clean.

Ev protested, saying, Your weapons all have some kind of range that lets you kill from a distance. I have to get right up in their faces, and that results in splash damage because refghast are very explodey when punched.

He’s right, Deep. Go easy on him, Sahara Alato said. She and Deep had joined the Academy after a contingent from there had rescued them during the Stiftung Crisis.

These seven young adults formed the main Academy team which was frequently sent to the front lines to deal with supernatural threats or participate in goodwill missions. There had been more experienced students, of course, but they had either graduated or been killed in the last war a few years ago. But these were no slouches; they had taken on legendary gods and won, and had saved the world from Zero Grade. There was nothing they couldn’t handle.

Maya sighed. Well, Ev, I hope you can get yourself cleaned up in a hurry, because in case you forgot, we have Ice Cold Chilly Pepper tickets tonight across town.

It’s okay, Ev replied. I’ll hop into the Najine River near the Fodo Arena and then apply warm energy to every part of my body to dry myself off.

Deep rolled his eyes. A little wordy, Ev. You could have simply said, ‘I’ll wash myself and then dry myself off.’

Fine, whatever, Ev replied.

All right, we’ll see you all later, Maya said.

They exchanged goodbyes and split off into different directions. Ev and Maya headed off towards the arena, while the rest of them flew east towards Mt. Orleia and the Academy. Ev could still hear them for a few moments.

Hey, Sahara? Deep said.

Yeah?

"You wanna, maybe, I don’t know, do something

later?"

Sorry, Deep. I’m not into guys.

Damn.

2

The next day, Ev, Maya, Jaysin, and CiCi reported to Religious History, a class taught by Nabu, the god of history who usually wore a horned cap and brown robes. He had a long-braided beard and also had his hair long in the back. As he stood at the head of the class, he announced, Today, I have a question for you all. Where do the gods come from?

The students looked at one another, puzzled. They all knew the answer to this question… right? Maya raised her hand. The gods were created by energy from the Ultimus Points, weren’t they?

Nabu nodded. That’s the official story, yes. But, curiously, none of the gods from the previous universe can remember a time from before they were gods.

Ev chimed in. But Bethos likes to talk about how he became a god and what he did before that.

Yes, Nabu said. The memory loss only applies to the older gods of the previous universe. The newer ones such as Bethos can remember quite well what happened before they achieved divinity.

That’s weird! Why is that? CiCi said.

Scratching his chin, he replied, Honestly, I just think even gods have a limit to how many memories they can store. I don’t think we were ever meant to live this long. He turned around to write on the blackboard. Unfortunately, there’s one problem with this theory." He proceeded to write:

The Great Flood (5000 B.C.?)

5000 what? Ev said.

Sorry, Nabu said. That’s B.C, meaning Before Christ. Jesus Christ was a religious figure in the previous universe. B.C. was the dating standard before he came along, as with today we use N.Y., for Narska Year. Anyway, our memories only go back to about this time. In order for my theory to be correct, every god would have had to have been born at the same time. Evidence suggests this is not the case, so that leaves important questions, such as…?

There was silence for a moment. ‘What happened in 5000 B.C.? And what was the Great Flood? Maya said.

Nabu gave her a thumbs-up. Both excellent questions. The memories of every god of the previous universe began at a time when the world was submerged in water. Gradually the waters went down and we all tried to resume whatever lives we had been living up to that point, a difficult endeavor to say the least considering we didn’t know who we were. This was around the year 5000 B.C. None of us are quite sure about the actual date.

So, this flood happens and you lose your memories. Weird! CiCi said.

Maybe you were born in the flood, Jaysin suggested. Maybe the water was filled with Ultimus energy.

Nabu beamed from ear to ear. You all are very sharp kids! You’re coming up with ideas I never thought of. However, that universe is long gone, so we have no way of testing whether the water was filled with Ultimus energy. All we can do is speculate. Different cultures had different versions of the flood story. The Christians believed their god brought forth the flood to cleanse the world of sinful humans.

How horrible! CiCi said.

Definitely overkill, Jaysin added. The rest of the students all murmured their agreement.

What can I say? Nabu replied. Gods aren’t always nice. Just look at Zero Grade. Was what Zeus tried to do any better? Anyway, all we know is the flood was real, and all our memories began around that time.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, Ev said. But what are we supposed to take away from all this? You can’t tell us what caused the flood, so there isn’t much to learn.

Nabu said, A valid question. Among the gods of the previous universe, there is no greater mystery than this. No matter what we try, we can’t remember what happened before the flood. Why is that? No one knows. I’m merely trying to educate you on what is perhaps the single most important event in our history. Maybe someday, one of you will solve the mystery.

Ev frowned. It didn’t seem very likely.

* * *

The rest of the faculty who did not currently have classes in session were currently gathered in the Academy conference room for the weekly call to Olympus, the moon colony established by Zero Grade as their base of operations. The conference room was currently occupied by Academy president Bethos, teachers Brandon Strong and Freya, physical instructor Atlas and Academy physician Dian Cecht. A phone was built into the room’s table and connected to a satellite they had established on the roof of the Academy. With it, they were able to contact the moon.

Br-reep, br-reep, br-reep, br-reep. Click. Hello? Bethos?

Yes, Bethos said. Minerva?

That’s me. How’s it going?

He said, Pretty good. The restoration of Seraphim City is still a long way from complete, but at least seventy-five percent of the city has power now.

How are Ev and friends? Minerva asked. She had gotten to know Ev during their now-legendary jail break and had met the others while working to stop Titan.

Bethos grinned and looked to the others in the room. I think it’s best if I let their teachers field that question. Guys?

Freya put on a look of fake hurt. I’m not a guy, Mr. President, but I can answer Minerva’s question. Those kids have made amazing progress in the few years they’ve been here. Honestly, I can’t even believe it.

I can, Minerva said. They had to go to war, and like it or not, war drives growth. We saw it during the World Wars, and we saw it during the god wars. You grow or you die.

Brandon replied, "Too true. I don’t like it but I can’t argue with it, either. Those kids had to learn fast in order to take on the most powerful enemies to ever live.

Atlas exploded a booming laugh. "I think that’s enough of this grim little memoir. The current student body is the toughest that has ever been produced by this academy. They learned to fly in record time, they built up their strength to levels usually only achieved by veteran gods, and they’re still going! Honestly, they’ll be running this place before long."

Another voice sounded on the line. "I knew it! I knew as soon as I met Ev, I knew he was going to be trouble for someone."

Is that you, Ghorj? Bethos said.

Minerva’s husband, a second-generation god, responded, Yeah, it’s me.

How’s Sumi? Freya said. Sumi was their daughter.

Hmmm, he said. Minerva taught me an expression from the previous universe. Sumi’s growing like a reed.

A weed, Minerva said.

Right, right. You should see her now. She comes up to my chest.

Freya beamed. I can’t wait to see her again.

This was nice and all, but Bethos wanted to get to the heart of the matter. How are things going on Olympus?

Minerva replied, As you know, after the deaths of the Flawless Few, us escapees from the Eden prison got together and formed a provisional government. Things were fine for a while, but now the people are clamoring for full representation. Since we don’t want to run things the way Zero Grade did, we’ve decided to have full elections a month from today. The people of Olympus will finally have the voice they’ve always wanted.

That’s great! Freya said.

Boy, that would’ve never happened with Zeus in charge, Brandon said.

Good thing the bastard’s dead, then, Atlas added.

Brandon leaned in and whispered, Maybe don’t say that around Hercules.

A deep baritone voice boomed from the phone: Too late. I heard.

Alarm burst from Atlas’ eyes like laser beams. Even the big man didn’t want to cross Hercules. Sorry, Herc. I, ahem, meant no disrespect.

I assure you, none was taken. I can well understand the enmity my father garnered throughout his life. But I would suggest not speaking ill of the deed in any case.

Understood, Atlas said.

It was then that the stoic Dian Cecht chimed in. "Medically speaking, how are you all faring without the Flawless Few’s leadership? Do you have enough medical supplies? I understand much of it was destroyed along with Titan. How about food and water?"

We have enough of the latter, Minerva said. There are entire sections of Olympus that function solely as farms and hydroponic bays. Medicine’s in short supply, but fortunately gods don’t get sick as much as mortals. There were, however, certain ailments that solely affected gods, such as addiction to divine drugs. CiCi once suffered from addiction to a drug she created to relieve stress.

Dian, I want you to prepare another shipment of medicine for them, just to be safe, Bethos said.

Understood.

Thank you, Bethos, Minerva said. I really appreciate— She was cut off by a metallic sound.

Minerva? Bethos said. Hello?

No response.

Must be having technical difficulties, Brandon said.

Bethos tried calling them back, with no success. There was no ringing sound, only the same weird metallic noise. Bethos shrugged. I’m sure they’ll call back. In the meantime, I guess everyone can get back to their regular duties.

3

What happened? Ghorj asked.

They were currently gathered around a sturdy black conference table in the main hall of Athena’s Crystal Palace which they had rebuilt