Chapter Thirty-Six
Fallen Gods
Haku landed from the trees into the clearing surrounding Mito's home. He was followed closely by Sasuke, the boy struggling a bit with his new legs and feet. The two of them had split from the main group as they went to their own sources of information. Jiraiya and Tayuya made the choice to stay at the restaurant and help clean up.
"Before we continue, I want you to understand this." The Yuki turned in the Uchiha with a stern stare. "Stay quiet. Do not speak no matter what is said unless it is to answer a question directly given to you. Do not interrupt me or I will make sure all of the people we are meeting know that you killed Naruto."
"Why… would that matter?" Sasuke asked, trying not to sound rude or argumentative.
"Let's just say he is a very important person." Haku answered before turning around and marching towards the entrance of the home. "Just listen to me."
Sasuke nodded his head.
"Mito-sama," Haku called out when he was right outside the door. "May I come in?"
"Yes, dear!"
He opened the door when he heard her voice inside and waved Sasuke inside. He followed him in and closed the door before making his way for the living area. That was where he found the people he was looking for.
"How is everything at Naruto's restaurant," Mito asked as she drank her tea. "Was everything handled?"
"That's the reason I am here," Haku answered as he shifted his focus to Eir.
The hellfox raised her eyebrows at the boy's gaze. "What did I do?"
"Nothing," Haku answered as he sat next to her. "But I have a lot of questions. You knew who had attacked our home, you called him the 'fallen god Mars', and he had his people steal two of my friends."
"Shit," Eir muttered to herself. "Were they saved?"
"Yes, but Naruto had given himself to accomplish that."
Eir swallowed thickly at that. "That means they got him."
"I want to know who they are." Haku's chocolate eyes darkened and the temperature in the room seemed to drop to freezing. "Give me every detail about these fallen gods. Do not hold anything out on me or I will make sure Naruto will never have known you arrived."
Eir glanced to the side and was silenced when she saw that Mito nor Minato were going to stop the boy threatening her. She realized with their gazes that they too wanted everything on her former god and his allies. That made her stammer for a few moments as she tried to gain composure.
"I can't tell you everything about all of them as I only served the god Óðinn. Mars is but one of his allies, the Greek god of war, and so his pantheon had no association with mine." Eir took a calm breath as she let that first bit tumble out anxiously. "Óðinn is the Alföðr, Hrafnáss, Bölverkr, and the Gangleri. He is the king of the Aesir, the pantheon he had created long ago. However, before the formation of his godhood, he was just an angel of a different name."
"What was his name?"
Eir shrugged at Haku's question. "It has been lost to time after he lost his war against the Heavenly Host. He wasn't the only angel to fashion himself as a god, other region watchers having done the same, but they were all defeated by God's forces."
"He used to be quite loyal to Heaven," Eir chuckled as she had heard of that from some of the oldest serving Legates. "But then the mortals he was guiding had begun to worship him by building idols and giving him the name Allfather. The worship gave him power and instead of stopping their idolatry he ended up influencing more of it. He made himself into a god with his closest companions as the main chunk of his pantheon. His wife, his son, and his best friend made up the central figures around him."
"And when did Heaven catch wind of his heresy?" Mito asked.
"It did not take long as other regions have succumbed to the same ideas. The Elders condemned all of the angels as heretics and their punishments were to be death if they did not return to Heaven to atone for their sins."
"And they didn't," Haku assumed, getting a nod. "How did Odin escape?"
"He had been betrayed by his best friend, leading his wife and many sons to die to the angels." Wir's eyes darkened as she wrapped up the tale. "As his kingdom was destroyed, he had escaped and traveled the cosmos of Earth's dimension to recover his power. He had vowed to get his vengeance and become a true god. That's how he came to join the New Order."
"How many are part of this New Order?"
Eir shrugged at Haku's question.
"Five." Minato answered, surprising everyone. "The main circle who run everything are five members but their true number of leaders number in the thousands. That's not counting their armies."
"How do you know this?" Haku turned to the man now. "I thought you were under the Shinigami's control."
"I was, but I had been around long enough to know about my captors," Minato answered grimly. "I do not know their names but there are five central leaders. The only ones confirmed are the Shinigami, Odin, and Mars. I do know they have someone in Hell who is a supporting member and an alien with immense amounts of chakra who is friends with the Shinigami."
Haku sat back as he digested that information, his eyes glancing down to the floor. His hand crawled up to his necklace again, gaining the attention of the Uzumaki matriarch, before wordlessly speaking to himself. The elder woman just watched, fascinated, before her eyes went to the boy that still stood wordlessly at the door.
She can tell an Uchiha when she sees one, but she was wondering why he was there. As far as she knew, none of that clan was a part of Naruto's group and Jiraiya and Tayuya had a special hate for Uchiha. That made her very curious.
"So who are you, boy," she finally asked and Sasuke's eyes turned to her immediately. "Are you mute? It's not right to ignore your elders."
"My name…" he turned to look at Haku but the boy had not moved from his spot or even acknowledged the question. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha."
"Fugaku's kid?" Minato was surprised with wide eyes. "Man, I remember hearing about Mikoto being born with a second son. Did you die recently, I'm guessing?"
Sasuke nodded his head silently but he noticed that Mito was quiet after his answer. He glanced up and he saw the stern look in her eyes that seemed to recognize him. Does she know about his history with Naruto?
But it wasn't him that she was analyzing. It was the mark on his energy that she recognized.
"Daddy! Mama!"
Charlie closed the door behind her as she looked around the entrance of her home. Her voice echoed further into the home as she had shouted pretty loudly. Her parents could be further into the house for all she knew.
"We're in here, Charchar!" Her father called from their living room.
Charlie walked towards the room and found the door to the room cracked open enough to see that they had the fireplace going. Opening it, she found her father resting against her mother as they cuddled on the couch. Her mother was reading an original copy of the Iliad while her father was cuddling into her.
"Hello, sweetie," Lilith smiled as she set her book down into her lap. "Did Naruto arrive back yet? Was he successful in saving Helsa and Loona?"
"That's… what I wanted to talk to you about," Charlie frowned sadly as she took a seat in the small red, cushioned ottoman chair. "Helsa should be back with her parents and Loona is resting at the restaurant. They are fine; Loona only has minor injuries but Naruto had healed her considerably so she isn't in any discomfort."
"That's good," Lilith smiled but she noticed the hesitance in her daughter's eyes. "That's not all, is it?"
Charlie shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks. "Naruto was captured." Her lip quivered as she said that and she bit back a whimper. "He had his clones leave with Helsa and Loona but he had to stay behind. He's been captured, Daddy, mama."
"Oh, dear," Lilith sighed as she set her book down and moved to sit with her daughter on the chair. "I'm so sorry."
Lucifer sat up and watched painfully as his daughter began to cry into his wife's chest. He grimaced at how much his daughter hurt, more than she was when she found out about Seviathan, and it made him hurt for her. He could tell that she genuinely loved the ningen from the bottom of her heart.
Lilith whispered sweet, soothing words into her daughter's ear and rocked her to let her cry everything out. She ran her hands through Charlie's long hair, kissing the top of her head as she did so. She won't say it but she had a feeling what was going on between her daughter and the boy that made her like this.
She knows of the relationship between Naruto and Beelzebub for the last two months and yet he was now also mated to Stolas' daughter. It was unlikely something the boy had wanted from the smart, he never stood out as someone who sought after multiple partners. She wouldn't have sent her daughter if that was the impression he gave.
So her daughter had fallen in love with the young boy, but still had enough of a relationship with Helsa von Eldritch to openly call themselves girlfriends. It wasn't what she expected to happen, especially at the time she offered Naruto the job of taking care of Charlie and giving her friends close to her physical age.
Charlie calmed down enough to wipe her eyes before looking at her father. "He was taken by someone named Mars or Ares. He was called a fallen god or something, but I know his name as one of those pantheons created by humans. I didn't know he truly existed?"
"Is that so?" Lucifer's eyes widened as he sat back. "Are you sure that was the name given? You had mentioned Ares before at the restaurant but I thought you were still dealing with the attack."
"I'm sure, even Haku thinks so," Charlie nodded her head. "Why, who is he?"
Lucifer looked at his wife and she just stared back with soft eyes. She gave him no indication on what she thought he should do, and it seems Charlie had seen it.
She looked at her mother before turning back to her father. "What are you not not telling me?"
"We should just tell her now, love," Lilith told Lucifer with a tilt of her head. "She's old enough, and with this attack it's better if she knows."
Lucifer sighed and hung his head back. "Okay. You're right. Of course you're right."
Charlie raised her eyebrow at the way her father chuckled to himself and sat further on the sofa.
"Charlie, now every conflict that involved either Heaven or Hell had been taught to you," Lucifer started as he looked into his daughter's eyes. "The last war you had been taught was the war on the nephilim seven thousand years ago. That is not the last war to have occurred."
Charlie's eyes widened when she heard the final statement and had to look at her mime to see if that was true. It was. "But how can that be? After the war with the nephilim, there was the flood and then Grandpa did not get involved on Earth until Uncle was born!"
"That's not entirely true, dear," Lilith shook her head and held her daughter. "The Father promised to not kill His creations like He did with the flood ever again and let them choose the life they wish to live. However, that was not a promise given to the angels."
"When humans spread across the globe once more, each region was to be overseen by a small group of angel watchers. They were responsible for the safety of humans while also making sure Darkness doesn't corrupt them much farther." Lucifer waved his hand as he was still sore that humans associate him with all the dark and evil that the Darkness creates. "However, a few of these groups of watchers started presenting themselves as gods to the humans. That's what created the Egyptian, Norse, and the Greek and Roman pantheons the humans started worshiping."
"Their names are stricken from history and no one remembers who they were before their fall. They are only known by the fake godnames they gave themselves."
"So the stories like the Iliad and Odyssey?" Charlie raised a questioning eyebrow.
"The gods they believed in were true beings just not actual gods," Lucifer shrugged. "They had created the so-called demihumans you see in those old stories but they were only half angels. But that's why those types of stories became rarer until Jesus' birth and were then nonexistent. Heaven had excommunicated the angels for heresy and went to war to end the falsehoods."
"Clearly some of them escaped," Lilith sighed.
"Why haven't you told me of this before?" Charlie felt betrayed by this.
She had always thought that her parents were honest about everything with her. Within reason of course! She understood there were some things she just had no reason knowing. But if she can know the story of her father's fall then why couldn't she know about this?
"There are darker moments of history of which you and most of Hell do not know, Charchar," Lucifer told his daughter honestly. "The things that we just shared with you are only known by a small group of demons. Your mother and I, the Princes, and the first generation of the Goetia."
"The angels that survived had been a handful and posed no threat anymore, going into the cosmos to live out the rest of existence in Exile," Lilith told her daughter. "The only one who voluntarily faced judgment was Anubis and they were imprisoned into a black hole as punishment."
"Charlie, I'm going to be honest with you," Lucifer's voice is soft but honest and his daughter looked at him with her wide innocent eyes. "Whoever these people are, they're not like how they were as angels. They are powerful and you can see what they are willing to do to get what and who they want. Naruto is wanted by them for whatever reason, and they pose a threat to yours and everyone's safety so long as you stay around him."
Charlie's eyes widened and her mouth opened wordlessly. "W-what… what are you saying, dad?"
"I'm saying," Lucifer sighed and hung his head. "I think you need to consider very carefully how much longer you wish to be around the boy. This time you weren't their target, but you cannot guarantee that will be every time."
Charlie shot to her feet as she realized what her father was trying to say. "I will not leave Naruto! He- he's my friend, and-and he's taken care of me, and-and-and…"
Charlie was trying to get the words out and the sad gaze her father gave just made her blurt out. "And I love him!"
She drew in shaky breaths as if she was winded from something, the gravity of her words coming to life dawning on her. She had just openly admitted, practically shouted her feelings for her friend. And yet her father was not as surprised as she was.
"I know, Charlie," Lucifer finally said with a sigh. "I know."
It's been a bit over a decade since Octavia had last seen her great grandfather. Her father had been unable to develop a close relationship with the first King, mostly due to grandpa Paimon's actions. The King believed his son too eccentric and nonconforming as it was, to meet the King who had given imps and hellbeasts stations of respect would have made it worse.
And so, Octavia had really only seen her elder grandfather during large Goetia events hosted by the fallen angel. She would only exchange a few words though as he would always be dragged into conversations with other royal Goetia who sought favor or blessings.
This will be a first where it's in a casual setting, Octavia mused to herself as she knocked on the door. I wonder if it's a bad time?
"Yes?" The door opened to reveal a winged imp that stood at four feet and wearing a suit.
"Um- I'm here to see my great grandfather," Octavia tried not to stammer out her response. "I'm Octavia Goetia, daughter of Prince Stolas."
The man nodded his head and opened the door for her to enter. "Wait here."
She nodded her head but the imp butler had walked away as soon as he closed the door.
She wasn't there for long before steps quickly made its way from further into the home.
"Octavia!" The exuberant voice of her great grandfather shouted just as the man came around the corner.
"Hi, great grandpa," Octavia smiled before squeaking when she was lifted by the man.
"Oh, look at you!" He twirled her around before lowering her gently back onto the floor. "You're getting so tall! And your feathers!"
Octavia blushed and flattened her tail feathers embarrassedly. "Are they bad?"
"Nonsense!" Bael shook his head. "You are absolutely stunning, my girl."
"I would hope so," Octavia was spooked by the sudden appearance of Bee. "She mated with my boyfriend, after all."
Octavia looked down now, expecting the Prince of Gluttony to be upset with her.
"Ah, that explains the vibrant life to them now," Bael nodded his head as he inspected the feathers. "I give it a fifty out of ten. One of the best feather designs I've seen."
"I agree! My boy sure knows how to pick them!"
Octavia's head snapped up when she heard Bee laugh and agree with the Goatia patriarch. She had expected anger, jealousy, something of the usually possessive woman!
Bee tilted her head as she tasted the vibes coming from the girl and tittered humorously. "No, I'm obsessive, not possessive, Octavia. I've been pushing Naruto to actually talk to you girls about your feelings for him."
"Ah, that boy sure is a gentleman," Bael said to himself before nodding. "Good thing, too, I would have been upset if he was a slimy character."
Octavia slowly worked out some incoherent words before shaking her head. "I'm… not here for that. I've come to ask some questions, grandpa."
Bael and Bee noticed the girl's emotions in her words even without having to tap into their unique abilities. The elder King nodded his head and began motioning her into the dining room.
"Come, come, we will talk over dinner."
Octavia followed the man but on the way Bee had wrapped her arm around her. She thought she was just trying to hug her but the Prince of Gluttony had leaned over as they walked to whisper in her ear.
"Something happened to Naruto?"
Octavia's silence spoke more than any words she could have uttered and yet the woman did not react badly. She was silent, which made Octavia concerned for her, but she rubbed her shoulder soothingly. It was like she was trying to comfort her yet they both lost someone dear to them.
The three of them made it to the dining room and Bael motioned to the two seats closest to his at the end of the table. "Sit with me. No point keeping distance and yelling across the room."
Bee chuckled at her father's excuse to not have a professional meal with his family, something that he always had outside of his closest children. And those were really only with her and Asmodeus as his other kids did not come to eat with him often. A few thousand years ago the families had started to drift apart until now when they only saw each other during large events.
"So," Bael started as he scooted in his chair into a comfortable position. "What do you have to talk about, my girl?"
Octavia was pushed in by one of the imp butlers, which she thanks softly. "Um, it- it's about Naruto."
"If you're wanting the fertility drug being developed by Belphegor, you will have to go ask her," Bael interrupted as if that was what she was trying to get to. "I do have to warn, it is still experimental as she hasn't found any willing participants to test the drug."
"That's not what I was trying to say," Octavia blushed heavily, much to Bee's amusement as she watched. "He's- I mean, N-Naruto is… gone."
Bael raised an eyebrow and sat back in his chair. "Where has he gone? I thought I heard he returned from Envy when he saved his two kidnapped companions."
"Those were clones," Octavia muttered in response, surprising the two demons. "He gave himself up to save them. Now he's captured by the people who wanted him."
"Oh, dear," Bael was surprised and his tone showed it. "Is there anything you need, my girl? I can brush off the old tome and go hunting for the men?"
The old tome Bael was referring to is the complete and forbidden book of knowledge that he has not and will not pass on to his children. The book contains the most complete collection of cosmic secrets he has gained through his long life of studying and pushing science to the extremes. Despite that, it was nowhere comparable to the Book of Mysteries carried by the Angel of Mysteries.
"I more want to know if you know anything about the people that took Naruto," Octavia shook her head as she was pretty sure the book would not be able to find these people. "They were calling themselves fallen gods or something like that."
Bee was silent as the term had not been familiar to her but Bael was something else entirely. The man had froze in his seat and his eyes turned on his great granddaughter silently. He did not speak for a long moment and his emotions had surprised his daughter to how palpable his surprise and anger was.
"Where have you heard that, Octavia?" The man's tone was noticeably different and yet his voice did not escalate at all.
"It was spoken by the people who attacked the restaurant," Octavia answered truthfully. "The specific person they referred to was Mars or Ares but there was more than just him."
Bael sat back against his seat and just turned to the plate in front of him. "That's not good, my girl. Not good at all."
"So you know about them?" Octavia hopefully perked up in her seat but had to lean back as the staff brought out their dishes. "Does that mean you know where they are?"
"Calm down, Octavia," Bee told the girl as she noticed how stressed her father became the more he thought on her words. "Give him a moment."
Octavia slouched in her chair and winced as she realized what she was doing. "Sorry."
Bael shook his head and raised his hand at her to ease her worries. "Don't be, my girl. I just…never thought I would hear those names again."
The King took a deep breath before pouring himself some wine into his glass. He took a long drink from the cup before sighing and sitting forward in his seat.
"Long ago, when the war with Heaven had come to a close and a bunch of angels either died or fell to our side, the Heavenly Host was low on a number of warrior angels. They didn't have the numbers to pull from the virtuous humans who made their way to Heaven like they do now. That meant they could not completely cover Earth and fight back the Darkness without being spread too thin."
"So they made small groups of angelic watchers who were in charge of entire regions. These regions were cultural lines that were developed naturally after the flood. However, these groups were largely left autonomous with a Dominion leading a few Principalities and rookie warriors."
"But…" Octavia's eyes narrowed as she articulated her question before voicing it. "Doesn't that mean they are spending too long away from Heaven's Light?"
Bael nodded his head at the girl's perceptive comment. "You're right. They had been left outside of God's Light for too long and in that time they were corrupted. Not all, but enough of them to warrant concern from Heaven. These corrupted angels would begin to craft their own religions and make themselves worshiped as gods of their own regions. Norse, Romano-Greek, and the Egyptians were the largest religions to sprout long enough after the flood to survive today."
"So Mars…?"
"The Roman god of war Mars, and the Greek god of war Ares," Bael confirmed with a nod of his head. "Few of the angels were unaccounted for and most were hunted to their hiding places in the galaxy surrounding Earth. Others, like Anubis of the Egyptian pantheon, were voluntarily imprisoned for their heresy."
"But because the damage was done, corruption had wormed itself into the hearts of humanity once more on a large scale. But because the Father made the promise to not harm his creations after sending the flood and the Son to die for their sins, he was left with nothing but punishing the angels that did this."
"But you said some were unaccounted for," Octavia brought up as she wondered who they were. "Do you know who?"
Bael nodded his head as he chewed his food. "Mars was one, but there was Odin of the Norse pantheon, and Anubis but she was imprisoned into a massive black hole."
The man paused to drink from his wine before continuing. "However, there is one who popped up a bit over one thousand years ago solely in the Ninkai universe. The Shinigami."
Octavia didn't know why, but the way her great grandfather said the name made her shiver.
"He is an enigma to even the Heavenly Host, and they don't know anything but his existence on Ninkai," Bael sighed at his own words. "He is no angel, that much I can understand from the accounts of ningen, but his form is too human to be a creature evolved from Darkness."