The Path of the Gods Part F: The Pact of Champions
Zeus moved the Master Bolt and attacked Miraak again, this time with all his power.
The lightning descended like an absolute column of destruction, cutting straight through Mount Olympus at its center. The mountain trembled as the energy split it apart, and the bolt continued its path directly toward the human world.
But it did not reach it.
A field of magic rose suddenly and stopped the attack before it could advance any farther.
It was not the barrier of a single being.
There were several.
Zeus noticed immediately.
He said nothing, but he understood. Even so, he had no time to react, because another attack from Miraak completely engulfed him. An explosion of fire erupted over Olympus, covering the entire summit. The structures that barely remained standing collapsed one after another, reduced to rubble.
The servants of the minor gods were hurriedly protected by their lords. All of them were armed, tense, prepared to enter battle the instant Zeus gave the order.
But Zeus knew it would be useless.
The longer this continued, the more the pride of the Greek pantheon would be destroyed. And the worst part was not the destruction itself, but the gazes.
Foreign gazes.
From other places. From other pantheons.
Watching.
As if they were witnessing a spectacle.
Zeus had always protected one thing above all else.
The pride of his pantheon.
That Mount Olympus was being destroyed by a mere battle was already humiliating. But for it to continue being razed without them being able to kill the one responsible was something far worse.
And the cruelest part of all was this:
Miraak was not even stronger than him.
If Zeus unleashed all his power and still failed to destroy him, the result would not be an incomplete victory.
It would be absolute ridicule.
He had already done it once.
And Miraak had returned.
Now, with so many eyes watching, failing again was something he could not allow.
"Enough!" Zeus shouted, abruptly halting his attacks.
Silence fell for an instant.
Miraak also stopped.
His expression was different from Zeus's. There was no fury. There was no tension. There was something far more dangerous.
Excitement.
After all, he was facing a being clearly superior to him in raw power. And yet, he felt no fear. He did not fear being destroyed. Because that was no longer possible.
And if he were defeated, he would simply return.
Again.
And again.
There was no longer any divine being capable of erasing him completely. He could only disappear if he himself wished it. He stood outside the system of this world. Even outside the system of his own world.
Only a few existed in a similar league.
Talos.
Vivec.
They too had reached CHIM.
But even among them there were differences. Talos became a god through CHIM. Vivec shaped reality to his will.
Miraak could not yet do that.
Not yet.
Miraak looked at Zeus with absolute confidence.
The confidence of someone who knows he may be weaker, but never destroyable.
And that gaze ignited something dark within Zeus.
Because Zeus could feel all those gazes upon him as well.
"Why do you wish to become an enemy of Olympus?" Zeus said, his voice heavy with threat. "Do you think the Greek gods lack the power to capture you and cast you into Chaos itself?"
Miraak met his gaze without looking away.
"I am not the enemy of your Olympus," he replied coldly. "I am your enemy."
He took a step forward.
"You attacked me the day I arrived. You attacked my student repeatedly. And you tried again in front of me."
His eyes never left Zeus.
"This is between you and me. And no one else."
The words echoed across the summit.
Zeus clenched his teeth.
Saying that in front of all the gods cornered him. If he attacked with all of Olympus backing him, he would not be seen as a king defending his domain, but as a coward unable to face his true enemy.
"You are nothing but a stranger from who knows where," Zeus replied with disdain. "You are arrogant."
His body began to glow with an intense golden light. Divinity poured from him like a rising sun, a clear sign that he was about to use all his power.
Even if he could not destroy him, he would seal him. Trap him. Do something to him.
Miraak's body reacted as well.
But instead of shining, the light around him began to vanish. His figure seemed to devour the illumination of the surroundings, as if existence itself bent around his presence.
Both were ready to stop testing each other.
To use everything.
And in terms of pure power, Miraak had everything to lose.
But this time, he would not fall easily.
This time, he was ready to bite back.
"You can stop," a voice suddenly said.
It did not come from any particular place.
It was simply there.
Both of them turned at the same time.
Several figures now stood around the shattered summit of Olympus. Beings who observed with calm attention. Some gazes settled on Zeus.
Others, with far greater interest, on Miraak.
"What are you doing here?" Zeus demanded as he recognized them.
"Does that really matter now?" Odin replied, standing among them with a faintly amused smile. "You are making quite a lot of noise. It was impossible not to draw our attention."
His eyes slid toward Miraak, and he gave him a light wink.
At his side, a man whose mere presence seemed to scorch the surroundings watched in silence. When he opened his eyes, he did so slowly.
"Your battle will cause great instability," he said. His voice was calm, but heavy with authority. "It cannot continue."
Zeus frowned.
He knew exactly what that meant.
"Why do the gods of different pantheons not fight each other, if many of them hate one another?" Odin asked, looking at Zeus with intent. The question carried more weight than it seemed. "And yet, they do not unite to erase one another."
"After all, we share domains. If one pantheon disappears, another will take its place."
"He is not a god," Zeus said seriously, pointing at Miraak.
"He is, if he wishes to be. And he is not, if he does not," Odin replied. "That is how he exists."
Then he looked at Miraak and gave him a slight nod.
"If you wish to face a god of another pantheon," Odin added calmly, "do it as it was agreed."
"Do you answer for him?" Zeus asked, looking at Odin with absolute seriousness.
"Yes," Odin replied without hesitation. Then he turned his head slightly. "And I am not the only one."
Zeus followed his gaze.
There they were.
The three brothers whom Miraak had helped in the past to obtain impossible materials. The merchant who, thanks to him, had been able to have his first child. All of them, as witnesses.
Zeus clenched his jaw.
"Then so be it," he finally said. With a sharp gesture, an absolute command, he expelled them from his domain. "But if I win, he must return to where he came from. And never return."
The air vibrated with those words.
Miraak looked at Odin for a moment. Then he turned his head toward Zeus, who watched him with open, undisguised hatred. Little by little, the divinity emanating from Zeus's body began to withdraw.
The agreement was sealed.
The other beings vanished instantly, as if they had never been there.
Olympus fell silent.
A blink later, Miraak and Odin appeared in another place.
The Hotel Valhalla.
The moment he arrived, Miraak nearly fell to his knees. Exhaustion struck him head-on, brutal, accumulated. Even so, through sheer willpower, he kept his knee from touching the floor.
"Truly very much in our style," Odin remarked with an amused smile. "You went through the CHIM of your existence. That alone must have consumed an absurd amount of energy."
He stepped a little closer.
"And then you fought Zeus, one of the most powerful principal gods. Comparable to only a few, like myself… and a handful of others."
He shook his head with a mix of reproach and admiration.
"Without fully controlling your existence, you could have erased yourself. You realized that, didn't you?"
"Hmph. This is nothing," Miraak replied, straightening up. Even so, his body betrayed the exhaustion.
"Truly stubborn," Odin said with a crooked smile. "Now I understand why Thor grew fond of you. You are almost identical."
Miraak did not respond to the joke.
"Tell me what this pact is," he demanded, fixing Odin with his gaze.
Odin rested his staff gently on the floor.
"A long time ago, when the gods walked the world without restrictions, there were far more wars than you can imagine. Divinities contradict one another. Some are versions of others. Some compete for the same concepts."
He made a broad gesture with his hand.
"Fights over believers, over domains, over names."
"The gods cannot destroy one another," he continued. "But we can destroy the believers of other pantheons. And that would only lead to total annihilation."
He sighed.
"So a pact was created. When two pantheons have a true conflict, they do not wage war. They choose champions. Each sends their own. They fight. And the winner takes what they want from the loser."
"Champions…" Miraak murmured, frowning.
"In theory, you are not a god," Odin admitted. "But your existence is bound to reality. And reality accepted you… by force."
His expression grew more serious.
"When you were passing through CHIM, reality changed. Not a small change. Not something the gods could ignore. It was a change that affected, equally, every god who had ever seen you or heard of you."
He locked eyes with Miraak.
"Now tell me. What do you think would happen if someone like you were erased?"
He did not wait for an answer.
"We do not know. And that is what terrifies them. Something that could affect their own reality is something they do not want to accept exists."
He smiled faintly.
"But they cannot erase you either. So here you are."
Then he added, almost lightly:
"And I am also certain that many will want you to join their pantheons. You are far more valuable now than you were before."
Miraak looked at him with distrust, but said nothing.
"I recommend that you rest," Odin concluded with a shrug. "Before long, the letter of the pact will arrive."
Miraak held his gaze for another second.
Then he vanished in a flash of magic.