Chapter 13

Aoife charged forward, screaming like some kinda banshee, which Jackie guessed she kinda was. The sonic scream echoed across the street, throwing up all kindsa debris as it thundered at Jackie. Jackie dodged behind a statue of Herakles, taking cover behind the God of Strength. The sonic scream smashed Herakles' statue, causing cracks to spiderweb through the marble and causing a buncha rock shards to fly off it. Jackie darted around the statue using the Quicksilver Stepping Method to move fast and dodge the statue as it fell offa its plinth.

As he did so, Aoife came in fists blazing with some kinda divine fire slamming a haymaker into Jackie's Guard. The powerful blow echoed through the plaza and shattered whatever glass was left facing the street from the sonic boom. Jackie skidded back a few feet from the force of the punch but it ain't done more than superficial damage to his forearms. Unfortunately, Aoife ain't done yet as she flew up in a big-ass loop to gain momentum before slamming a diving kick into Jackie's Guard.

The street cratered beneath both of 'em and Jackie found himself smashed through the flagstones and down back into the steam tunnels. Aoife let out a big whoop of triumph as she plowed on underground after him, slamming her fists down into Jackie's guard one more time. This time when they broke through the floor, it ain't the sewers or steam tunnels they went into, but a natural sorta cavern under even that, plowing down into the heart of the mountain. They ain't in the Ganymede tunnels exactly, but it was the same sorta deal.

As Jackie stood up, he looked around and saw they were in some kinda buried city street. Ruins were overgrown with cave moss and the dust of ages. It was a different architectural style too, more cyclopean and shit. As Jackie stood back up, he looked around, spotting the fucking ghastly form of a giant serpent with a kinda humanoid head that'd coiled itself around a desiccated corpse with one eye socket. The Serpent'd been turned to stone, but the Cyclops' corpse ain't been petrified.

He ain't got time to gawk, though, cause Aoife came in like a thunderbolt, streaking right at him in that flying swimmer's pose Jackie'd seen Princess Diana pull a couple times. He crossed his arms in front of him as she plowed into him and sent him careening through a nearby pillar to land near the petrified snake-thing and dead Cyclops.

"Getting real fucking tired of being kicked around." Spat Jackie.

"Then do something about it." Challenged Aoife.

She was huffing and puffing, though. The kicking him around shit had taken a buncha her energy since he was now a lot stronger than she was on her own. She hadta put a shitload of power behind each hit. Fair dues to her, Jackie's arms were bruised to shit from taking a few of her strongest hits, but Aoife clearly ain't never fought someone who could take those kindsa hits more than twice and get up and ask for more. She was tired, now which'd make her sloppy. Just like Jackie'd planned for,

"Have it your way!" Grunted Jackie.

Then, Jackie dredged up a buncha mystic power from his reserves and launched a net of magic lightning at Aoife via the Archmage-level Wuxing Elementalism he'd gotten from the Books he'd been given by Wenchang Wang. Aoife's eyes widened as she saw the incoming net and she hadta strain to dodge most of it. She still got caught by a glancing hit from the edge of the net, which blasted her back through a dilapidated row of columns. Jackie followed up the hit with a leaping punch that'd come with a buncha his enhancements tacked on top. Aoife just barely avoided being hit with that by rolling to the side at the last minute. Jackie's punch broke through the stone of the overgrown street and cratered the ground of the cavern, knocking a hole clean through to the Ganymede Tunnels below.

Aoife let out a sonic scream at him at point blank range, only Jackie faded away in a plume of sand using the Great Sand River Bears Away the Serpent Technique that he'd been taught by Brother Sandy. Doing that took a decent chunk of his Chi reserves since it was Chi-intensive even for him. A good chunk of his full reserves drained into the technique, and he'd already been down a decent chunk from earlier. He still had plenty left in the tank when he reappeared behind Aoife to end the fight though.

Jackie launched a kick at Aoife that smashed into her, breaking three of her ribs and sending her careening into the Snake-thing Statue. Aoife hit the statue back of her head-first and busted her head open on it, bleeding onto the scales before lying still on the stone floor, out like a light. Jackie huffed to himself and grabbed his last remaining Chi and healing pills, popping them into his mouth as he celebrated his victory in his head.

As his aches and wounds vanished and his chi reserves filled back up, there was a crackling noise from over by where Aoife'd landed. Jackie frowned, looking over to see a buncha spiderwebs cracking through the Snake-Thing Statue to reveal wet black scales underneath. It started with a tremor as the Snake-Thing's Tail broke free of its stony prison first, wicked barb gleaming in the light. Then the rest of it freed itself, with the head getting freed last.

"By the Blood of Zeus, I have awoken from my deathly slumber! No Cyclops' Blade or Skyfather's Thunderbolt could slay Orphion indefinitely!" Roared the Snake-Thing, Orphion.

"Oh fuck." Muttered Jackie. That seemed like it was the wrong sorta thing to do, though, cause the Snake-Thing looked over at Jackie as he muttered those words.

"I hunger! You will do nicely to sate my hunger after millennia entombed in stone!" Hissed Orphion.

Orphion reared up, then dove for Jackie, almost too fast for Jackie to dodge. If he ain't had the Great Sand River Bears Away the Serpent Technique, he woulda been snake food just now. Instead, Orphion got a mouthful of sand and Jackie reappeared over toward where the dead Cyclops'd been, now with even more of his reserves drained. Silently cursing his luck, Jackie knew that relying on that to dodge was gonna tucker him out pretty damn quick, but he just ain't fast enough to dodge Orphion without it.

"How dare you!" Sputtered Orphion, mouth full of sand.

Jackie'd tried striking while the Iron was hot, launching a full-on mystic assault against Orphion, lightning nets, flaming rocks moving faster than the speed of sound, spikes of razor-sharp, deathly cold, ice with points honed to the micrometer, and more all shot at Orphion. Whatever Orphion was, though, it was made of the kinda stuff that it took actual, full-on Gods, to deal with. His barrage only seemed to do minor damage to Orphion, who let out a howl of indignation and a little pain before slamming his tail into Jackie's torso.

Jackie'd already been moving backward using both the Wave Step and Quicksilver Stepping Method, so he'd robbed some of the momentum from the attack. That, plus his defensive techniques and the Armor he'd pilfered from the Colchian Dragon's lair were a combined defense that ain't easy to punch through. It was all that saved his life as the tail smashed into him and he flew back through a trio of half-ruined, moss-covered buildings to land in a dried-up fountain. His side ached, letting him know something was broke, more than just a rib or two, but Jackie grit his teeth and shoved the pain aside. Forcing himself to move to avoid being eaten, he realized he was on borrowed fucking time right now. If he didn't get healed soon, that was gonna be it for him.

Fortunately, his sworn brothers must've noticed that he was having trouble, cause as Jackie made his way back over three streets toward the main plaza area, he spotted Brother Sandy and Brother Piggsy battling it out with Orphion a few blocks away. They must've shown up while he was trying to make his way back to the square and knocked Orphion's scaly ass back through a couple buildings.

Jackie made his way over toward where Aoife lay, still out cold, and found she had a couple of healing pills on her. Jackie took two outta the three she had on her. He felt the ache in his side fade as his busted spleen and broken ribs healed up from the double dose of healing pills. That took care of that.

Looking down at the unconscious Aoife, Jackie sighed. "Sorry, but I needed 'em more than you did."

Then a roar echoed through the cavern as Jackie looked over and saw Orphion'd somehow managed to knock Brother Piggsy through the cavern wall, breaking through into a nearby cavern. Brother Sandy ain't gonna last long on his own. Frowning, Jackie realized if his sworn brothers bit the dust, he was next and began looking around for something to use. After all, didn't Orphion say some shit about a Cyclops' Blade?

He found what he was looking for near the twelve-foot-tall, desiccated, one-eyed, corpse. A blade that must've been a standard Xiphos for the big-ass Cyclops but Jackie'd need two hands to wield properly lay nearby. It was worked outta a single piece of Orichalcum and lined with Glyphs that held enough mystic power in 'em to slay a Major God. Jackie snatched up the blade in both hands, hoping that the power in the blade'd be enough to take out whatever Orphion was.

Then, he hefted the blade and charged toward the sounds of fighting. . .

XXXX

Sha Wujing had to admit, this Snake Beast was a formidable foe. He and Brother Piggsy were barely enough to stall the creature working together, though he knew that were Brother Monkey here with them, he'd be capable of defeating it. Unfortunately, Brother Monkey was not here, and he and Brother Piggsy had engaged the Snake-Beast in a short but brutal melee. They'd hit the beast thousands of times in a few minutes, two of them attempting to emulate Guanyin's Ten-Thousand Wrathful Hands. They'd fallen short of the mark, even after a couple of minutes of hitting the beast together, but not by much. In return, they had been lashed with the beast's barbed tail and divine fire from its eyes at a similar rate.

The battle had demolished multiple blocks of this strange, buried city, plowing through one and a half square miles of deserted ruins in their battle. It was only as they fought that Sha Wujing realized that this must have been one of the original districts of the Second Level of Olympus, decimated during the Titanomachy and buried under the weight of ages. In their battle with their foe, he and Brother Piggsy had destroyed much of what had remained standing. Were this a mortal, living, human city, the death toll would be in the tens of thousands at least. Sha Wujing was thankful that was not the case.

Now, they were both bruised and battered, burned cut up, and drained of Chi. However, if they were worn down from the brief, but intense fight, then so was the foe. The wrath of two Gods versus an ancient primordial monstrosity taking much out of both sides in just two minutes of fighting.

"Brother Piggsy, do you think we should do it?" Questioned Sha Wujing.

"I don't think we've got much choice, Brother Sandy." Huffed Brother Piggsy.

"The Jade Emperor isn't going to like it." Cautioned Sha Wujing.

"He'll get over it." Insisted Brother Piggsy.

"What are you two soon-to-be-dead Gods babbling about now?" Queried the Snake Beast.

"We've got something we haven't brought out for centuries that we've been saving for a special occasion." Answered Sha Wujing.

"We were hoping we wouldn't have to use it, but desperate times call for desperate measures." Added Brother Piggsy.

"Oh? What could you two possibly do to slay a Titan such as I? Not even Zeus could permanently slay me, his thunderbolts merely leaving me in a deathly stone slumber! You cannot possibly think you could match that sort of feat can you?" Asked the Snake Beast.

"Well, for one thing, these aren't our true forms." Intoned Brother Piggsy.

"Fair warning, though, once we take our true forms, there's no sealing us until the job is done." Warned Sha Wujing.

"Ha! I can taste your power, little Gods. I know how much you've kept back and both of you together cannot hope to defeat me! Give me your best, I shall take it head on and devour your true forms gladly!" Taunted the Snake Beast.

"You asked for it!" Snorted Brother Piggsy.

Then, in a release of divine energy, both Sha Wujing and Zhu Baije shed their more benign forms and took their true, demonic, forms. After all, both were once Demons before redeeming themselves during their famed Journey to the West. Brother Piggsy's skin darkened, and he grew more muscular, gaining long, sharp, razor-like tusks that gleamed like ivory steel and growing a thick mane of wild red hair. Sha Wujing, meanwhile grew more bulky, his skin turning rubbery and mottled as his hair fell out and teeth turned to razor-sharp points. His hands gained webbing and claws as his beard solidified into the whiskers of a catfish.

The Strong-Maned Pig and the Monster of the Quicksand River had emerged once again, for the first time since repenting. Zhu Baije trailed flames of dark crimson with each step and Sha Wujing trailed sand that flowed from inside his robes and his exposed skin as easily as if he were shedding water. Then together, they struck, pouncing for the Snake Beast.

Their Foe bathed them in divine flames as they charged in at speeds so fast that no mortal cultivator would be able to follow. The Divine flames burned white hot, melting even the stones of the broken masonry and cave floor into puddles of liquid rock. On charged Sha Wujing and Zhu Baije, slamming into their Opponent with blows that would shatter mountains and sink whole islands. The Snake Beast was rocked back smashing through several blocks of the abandoned city, wrecking most of what was left standing as they battled it out with their opponent, striking thousands of times in the span of a minute.

The Snake Beast tried fighting back, gnashing with fangs and lashing about with its tail. Each time it did so, Sha Wujing would evaporate in a cloud of sand and Zhu Baije would do the same in a puff of flames. Only the divine fire it breathed seemed to harm the pair and massive burns opened up on their demonic flesh, skin sloughing off and healing in turn as the pair suffused their bodies with divine and demonic energies by turns.

After another two minutes, another thirteen square miles of city had been wrecked, leaving only a small area around where the fight had begun largely intact. Unfortunately, their onslaught was unable to completely put down their opponent. Sha Wujing and Zhu Baije were forced to take up their normal forms once again to conserve energy, however their foe didn't look too good. Large sections of the Snake Beast's flesh had been burned off or abraded away by divine flame and sand, while several fangs had been cracked off and one eye put out under the onslaught.

"Ow 'are ou! I'll 'ill ou!" Roared the Snake Beast through a mouthful of broken fangs.

Exhausted as they were, Sha Wujing and Brother Piggsy wouldn't be able to avoid the next mass of attacks completely. The pair steeled themselves for the counterattack, knowing that it was likely to seal their fate. Even if they managed to weather the storm, as drained as taking their true forms for even a few minutes had left them after so many centuries without doing so, they would at best manage a mutual knockout with their opponent.

"Not so fast, Asshole!" Shouted Brother Drinky as he rushed back onto the field. He had an odd blade held in both hands that he flashed forward into a thrust with. As beaten as their opponent was from taking the blows of Sha Wujing and Zhu Baije's true forms, it couldn't dodge the thrust in time to avoid it. Brother Drinky was oddly fresh, which had to mean he had taken the last of his alchemical pills.

As the odd blade struck true, there was an explosion of golden light that filled the cavern and the destroyed cityscape. As it did, Brother Drinky was sent flying backward through the ruins in the small area that remained standing, being knocked unconscious in the process. Then, as the light subsided, it revealed that the Snake Beast was turned to stone, the hilt of the odd-looking blade buried in its breast and stuck fast. They had won.

Now it was time to collect Brother Drinky's unconscious form and return to base to await the others' return. . .

XXXX

Aoife MacDougall liked to think of herself as a pretty fearless person. She'd had to be with Ares as a father. Unfortunately, even she wasn't prepared for what she'd seen when she'd woken up. The Titan Orphion was free and fighting once again, only to be beaten back by what looked like a giant Boar Demon and a similarly giant Catfish Demon. It was a sight that transfixed her for a few long moments before the pain of her broken ribs snapped her out of it.

She'd reached for her pouch of pills to discover she'd been left with only one healing pill. Figuring that the Yuen Kid had taken the other two, she put the thought aside for later revenge. Right now, she had to leave before that fight came back this way. It was already wrecking massive swathes of what was left of this sunken city. She wanted to be nowhere close to it when it inevitably came back around. This was officially above her pay grade now.

Popping her last healing pill into her Mouth and feeling broken ribs turn into cracked ribs and settle somewhere between cracked and bruised, Aoife judged that was good enough. She slinked away from the fighting. Luckily, the Yuen Kid had blasted a hole down to a lower stretch of tunnels earlier while they'd been fighting. She took the hole down now, flying down into the darkness to land in a pit full of treasure plus the corpse of the Colchian Dragon.

"No sense wasting good gold." Mused Aoife to herself.

She cast about for a pack, finding one made of some sort of leather, and started scooping treasure into it, only to find it was bigger on the inside than on the outside. When that became apparent, Aoife began casting around for magic to take with her. She found what she was looking for as she spotted a suit of Orichalcum Scale Thorax, scooping that up into the pack, alongside a Phoenician-style Dagger of Celestial Bronze that was inlaid with precious stones.

Once her pack was full, however, Aoife headed down through the tunnels, eventually coming out near the gates of Olympus. Here, with a minor investment of energy, she could take the gates down to the Mortal Realm. Her father could do what he wanted, Aoife wasn't so certain he was going to win anymore, not after what she'd just witnessed. With a burst of energy into the Gateway, the gates crackled to life and Aoife Stepped through.

She materialized at the base of Mount Olympus in the mortal realm, just outside the town of Litochoro, ready to start her new life. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the end of Jackie's part of the Fighting on Mount Olympus. He beat Aoife MacDougall again only to wind up waking up a long-dormant Titan in the process, getting his ass kicked by Orphion, and having to come back with a specially made weapon to deal with it. In the process of dealing with that, Aoife managed to escape.

Notably, Sha Wujing and Zhu Baije had to take their true, demonic, forms in order to play for time and weaken Orphion enough to where Jackie could land the finishing blow. In the process, they destroyed an area of ruins around the same square mileage as the City of Athens in Greece in just under five minutes of fighting. That's the sort of destruction that God-level Combat can wreak.

As to who Orphion is, Orphion was the original Skyfather. In Greek Mythology, he was a primordial snake-being who aided in the creation of the world and who Cronus defeated in a wrestling match to claim dominion over the world for himself and the other Titans. In effect, this was the sort of opponent that Jackie wasn't going to be able to beat on his own no matter how smart he played things. Even Sha Wujing and Zhu Baije working together weren't going to do more than possibly get a mutual knockout. Fortunately, there was a sword lying nearby specifically meant for killing Titans, for a given value of kill, anyway.

Unlike Gods, Titans and other Primordials can't actually be killed. They can be rendered dormant, they can be sealed away, but they can't really be killed. To do so would require killing a fundamental part of the universe. It isn't like with Gods, where they have a mantle that simply passes on to another user after the God is killed. Titans and their mantles are one and the same, indistinguishable from each other. it's why they were locked away in Tartarus, because even Zeus couldn't kill them permanently.

At any rate, the next chapter will be an interlude with Wonder Woman, Sun Wukong, Erlang Shen, and Poseidon in Tartarus as they try to stop Ares and Circe's Ritual.

Stay tuned. . .