Godhood: for Dummies - Chapter 29

A normal person would have trouble opening their eyes in this kind of environment. 

That was the first thought that went through Nathan’s mind when the pair appeared. The air itself was hot. Too hot. Like standing right next to a three-story tall bonfire, he could feel the moisture evaporating from his eyeballs. 

Nathan flexed his fingers, spawning a floating spear of energy that immediately impaled a charging demon. More of an imp, really. It was small and floated around with unmoving wings. It disintegrated into sparks a second after his spear touched it. 

To his left, Galacta absently bisected another with her energy-fork. A small frown was her only outward reaction, glancing over the battlefield. 

Hell on Earth was apt. The sky was a burning red and full of storm clouds that for some reason weren’t visible from space. Everything was either in embers, or actively burning. Cars were overturned with their tires melting into the pavement. The putrid smell of burnt rubber assaulted his senses, and he was forced to flinch with every breath he took. What had once been street-side shops and townhouses were little more than rubble. 

The bricks were on fire, and even the asphalt was melting - tar stuck to the sole of his shoes when he tried to take a step. 

Nathan looked off to the side where tens of smouldering bodies laid in a pile on the sidewalk as if they were collected for some reason, then discarded. He frowned and spread his senses. Not a single living human in his immediate vicinity, but there were still plenty to save. He wasn’t too late. 

Sorcerers were spread around the city in groups, flashing with Eldritch power every so often. 

Demons of every shape and size were literally crawling out of the woodwork. Out of the ground, falling from the clouds above, bursting from corpses like the alien from - oh god that’s disgusting. He glanced again at the pile of bodies and waved, dispersing them into dust and removing a potential spawning point. 

A soft glow caught the corner of his eye. He looked down at the center of the intersection that he teleported them to, only to see a small, singular rune by his feet. Pulsing in a soft, malevolent red light.  

Nathan flicked his hand - his eyes never leaving the rune, sending the energy spear flying in a different direction and decapitated another wandering demon. The rune was carved into the asphalt crudely - filled with blood and melted tar. Like a particularly evil pothole. Shaped like the tip of a lightning bolt bisecting a circle. 

“That’s gross.” Galacta sneered in disgust, following his eyes to the rune. 

“It’s part of an array,” he said, and looked down the street to the next intersection. “They’re probably spread around the city.”

“Nasan!” A familiar called from behind him. 

He couldn’t help the small smile that came to him. “Isabelle! Been a minute!” 

He turned to find one of his first few friends at Kamar-Taj jumping down from one of the ruined buildings. “It ‘as,” the French woman said. “We’ll ‘ave to catch up plus tard, ‘zough.”

“Your accent got worse,” Nathan chuckled.

“Excuse-moi, I ‘avent left Paris in a few ‘ears. Englais iz très difficile.” 

He huffed a laugh, the heat in the air not particularly bothering him, but he could tell that just speaking was causing Isabelle some problems. 

She looked worn. Her eyes were covered with a thin layer of golden energy, protecting them from the heat, but it was at most a temporary solution. They were already reddening, and a soft glow that wasn’t supposed to be there was starting to form. Under Godeye and Eldritch Sight, he quickly picked through her protections and it really wasn’t enough. 

Nathan closed his eyes and held out a clenched fist. “Disperge calorem, retine aquam, aequa temperiem. Al yishlach shum shed yad bo,” he chanted quickly, layering the Latin and Hebrew enchantments into the vibranium ring that formed in his palm. 

Opening his eyes, he glanced over the ring to check his work, and handed it over to his friend. 

She blinked at him, but took the ring without a word and slid it down a finger. Then immediately sighed in relief. “‘Sank you, Nasan. Zat is bien mieux.” 

Nathan nodded. “It’s not a permanent enchantment. Should only last a few days - maybe a week, and won’t do much if this gets worse,” he gestured to everything around them. “It should stop your soul from getting burned away like it was, though.”

She blinked at him again. “Iz zat what ‘as been ‘appening?” 

“Sorry to interrupt, but, you know… Demons?” Galacta interjected, and pointed off to a particularly large one with horns in the distance. Splashes of golden energy bounced off of it from what Nathan could only assume was a squad of sorcerers. 

“Well don’t let me keep you,” he replied. “Go have your fill. I need to regroup with mom to try and reverse this whole shindig.” 

Both ladies just stared at him.

“What?”

A giggle let out from his wrist where his Kimoyo bracelet was, reminding him yet again that his daughter was in a dangerous situation. 

“The scary lady’s your mom?!” 

Nathan tilted his head. “Um, no?” Well kinda, but also… what?

Galacta threw her arms in the air. “But you just-” she cut herself off with a huff. “Whatever, I’m gonna go be productive. Bye.” 

Nathan, confused,  watched her leave. As one of the very few on the planet that could actually track her movement, he kind of took advantage. To everyone else, it just looked like the giant demon got bisected down the middle out of nowhere. 

Purple really looked good on her- He shook off the thought and turned to Isabelle. “What was that about?”

Isabelle just chuckled and shook her head. “We will talk about eet later. I want deetails on ‘your new amour.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “But now, we must - az you say, regroup.” 

“Amour?” Nathan asked with a raised eyebrow. “We met-

__________

“-like thirty minutes ago,” he finished, taking Isabelle’s teleport in stride. 

“Later,” she said simply. The earlier levity left her entirely, and she pushed him gently in the direction of the Ancient One. “We ‘ave already lost many. Let us not lose more.” 

“Right.” 

The two split up at that, Isabelle beelining it towards a sort-of defensive wall that was erected around the makeshift HQ-slash-forward-battle-camp, and Nathan towards his teacher.

The city they landed in was basically in the center of Georgia, or at least that’s what he thought anyway. Can’t exactly see state lines from orbit. The sorcerer camp was in the middle of a small park with a little amphitheater, which the Ancient One had apparently claimed as a nexus for whatever she was doing. 

There were nearly a hundred sorcerers spread around the park. Most were around the edges behind various types of magical barriers and taking potshots at dive-bombing demons. Some were wounded and being treated, or being sent through portals away from the fight. 

One thing that Nathan noticed was that the demonic veil of heat and soul-burning was noticeably lighter here. He wasn’t particularly certain why, though. 

“Nathan,” the woman said as he approached. Her eyes were closed, and rings of golden energy were bursting from her clasped hands. “Glad you could make it.” 

“Don’t sass me,” he replied. “The veil messed with the teleport. Was flying blind until I touched down.” 

He took a moment to study what his teacher was doing before nodding and clasping his own hands. A blue and golden ring of his own formed around him before erupting to cover the park in a shimmering dome. 

The Ancient One sagged a little before ending her spell. “Thank you, that one’s a bit tough to hold for a mortal.” 

He just nodded, focusing on trying to anchor the spell so that he could go and do other things. 

This was one of the spells that his teacher insisted on him learning years back. It was like an all-purpose demon repellant - able to completely keep out and lock down the smaller ones, and offered a bit of protection against the larger. It wouldn’t hold under a sustained assault, but it was a damn-near necessity in a situation like this.

The problem was that it was a divine spell. It could be cast with Chi, but the thing was invented by a long-dead, Canaanite god. Being dead, the god’s power couldn’t be called on to cast it, but it was still usable if the caster had enough Chi.

Nathan had a lot of a similar resource to burn. Not to mention being a god himself, now. It was just easier for him to use it than anyone else at the moment. 

It still wouldn’t account for the veil being… lighter here, though. He posed the question.

“There are at least four churches and a synagogue in the immediate area-”

“And a dentist’s office,” he flicked his head towards the offending building, but didn’t break his concentration.

“The combined holy ground is creating a buffer for us,” she said blandly, ignoring his input.

Nathan hummed. That would do it. “And here I was thinking that the hellspawn were afraid of the tooth doctor.”

She sighed.

“What? Have you seen their teeth? They’re all definitely overdue for an appointment.” Nathan felt the spell click and thrust his hands downward where a blueish-gold halo of light merged with the concrete.

He stepped back and watched it, making sure it would hold. It was draining his reserves, but not by all that much for his standards. 

“Galacta is on a snack binge, though I don’t know if she likes spicy food. What are we looking at?”

The Ancient One’s lips curled in a small smile, but sobered quickly. “I noticed. We’ll have to thank her properly later, but for now we need to find the source of this breach.”

“You don’t know where it is yet?”

She shook her head in the negative. “We were nearly overrun immediately. We had to fall back and establish a base or we would have lost everyone. I dealt with one of Mephistopheles’ generals, and we focused their attention here.” She gestured towards the make-shift battlements and an oncoming wall of demons. 

“If you arrived any later, I would have sent everyone to the other fronts. My barrier wouldn’t have held against that.”

Nathan watched in vague interest as the tide of demons crashed along the dome. Swords, axes, claws, and fists all crashed down creating ripples along the wall of energy. Hundreds - closing in on thousands of them - all dogpiling and trampling each other to try and get through themselves. 

He felt his spell start to pull more from him, but it was still manageable.

Morbidly, he likened it to a particularly malevolent horde of zombies as his gaze drifted higher and higher. Each demon climbing on the back of the one in front of it until they were piled halfway up the dome. 

“A few squads are still out there, trying to evacuate anyone who’s still alive, or pulling attention,” his teacher continued. “How long can you hold this?”

“A couple days, if needed,” he shrugged. He had a lot of power to pull on nowadays. “Though that’s if it’s only the small guys. How long until the big boy shows up, you think?”

“A couple hours, at most,” she replied.

“Welp, then we’re good here. If this isn’t solved in a couple hours, then we’re screwed regardless.” He looked to his teacher. “Pull everyone back to hold the line or send them off. Galacta’s cleaning house over the rest of the city, she can drop any survivors back here.” 

The Ancient One hummed, then nodded. “We’ll set up an evacuation point here, then. I’ll get to work on-”

“Uh… Nathan? Is this working?”

The two glanced at each other, and the Ancient One nodded at him. “Galacta? Yeah, what’s up?” He sent back over a telepathic channel. 

“Oh good. Well, there’s a really big foot in the sky. I think it’s attached to an even bigger body.”

“Well that moves up our timetable a bit,” the elder sorcerer said. 

Nathan followed her gaze, only to see the most toe-cheese riddled, most utterly disgusting foot he had ever seen in his life. It was like athlete’s foot and moldy bread had a baby. Oh, and it was about the size of a city block. It seemed to be slowly sinking through the storm clouds above like quicksand. Untrimmed and jagged toenails wiggling in anticipation. 

Blegh.

The good news was that it definitely wasn’t Mephisto. The guy took better care of himself than that. Every depiction of him had him in a suit and tie, after all. So this was probably one of his generals. 

“I’ll handle that.” The Ancient One stated, flipping up her hood and unfolding her battle raiment. “I need you to find the source of the breach.” 

“Will do,” he nodded, then turned his mind to Galacta. “Focus on evac. Bring anyone that’s still alive to the dome. The ‘scary lady’s handling the foot fungus.”

She sent the mental equivalent of a snort at him, probably unintentionally. “Got it.”

Nathan raised his wrist. “Alice, gonna need your help on this one.”

“Sir yes sir!” Her little hologram flickered to life above his bracelet. “I already started mapping the city for potential sigil placements. Satellite imagery of the area was luckily updated a couple months ago. Once I get an accurate map of the them, I should be able to pinpoint the altar.”

Nathan was very happy he had asked her to scan a buttload of magical texts from the Kamar-Taj library. It had already been super useful when he was making Starsplitter, and it was paying dividends. 

He smiled proudly down at his daughter. “You’re the best.”

“And don’t you forget it!” Her avatar’s nose elongated like Pinocchio. “But really, we should start on this. You can’t move at full speed either, I need time to scan.” 

“Full speed?”

She raised a digital eyebrow at him. “My internal clock is out of sync with every server I’ve connected with since we were at Tony’s tower. I’m nearly five minutes behind.”

Nathan scrunched his eyebrows. “What caused that?”

“You did,” she deadpanned. “I only have flashes of what happened during your fight with the pretty purple lady. By the time Grandma showed up, we were quite literally existing before we left the tower.”

“Wait,” he blinked, “so were there two sets of us around at the same time?”

She shrugged. “Probably not important right now, father.”

“Feels pretty important,” he countered. “If I fucked the time-duck, I’d like to know.”

“Oh my god.” She slapped her own face with a little, digital hand. “The point, is that I can’t have you ducking around with time shenanigans while I scan. We’ll worry about breaking causality later.”

Nathan grinned down at his daughter, and started to float up out of the dome. “Don’t chastise me and make a pun at the same time.”

“I’m getting used to your vernacular. You’re not supposed to swear around children, father.” 

“Do what I say, not what I do,” he puffed sarcastically. 

“You’re incorrigible,” she sighed, but turned serious quickly after. “Go south, and start making your way east over the city. If I’m right, the altar should be in that direction.”

Nathan did as she bade, rising a couple hundred feet above the ground, and held his Kimoyo bracelet out in front of him so his daughter could scan the streets below. This place really didn’t look like a city. There wasn’t a single large building, or multi-story complex that he associated with the term, but it did sprawl out over a pretty big area. Still, he would have sooner called it a town, than a city.

“Where are we, anyway,” he asked, and glanced over to where he felt Galacta was. Flashes of purple light were all that he could see of her from this distance - that and a second tide of red-skinned creatures that were converging on her location from every angle.

“You good over there?” He sent.

There was a slight pause, then; “Have you ever eaten too much curry before? It feels like my mouth is on fire.”

He huffed a laugh. “I’m caucasian. Black pepper is sometimes too spicy for me.” 

“And you said I need to fix my tastebuds. Culture yourself.”

“I maintain that asparagus is disgusting, and will not be convinced otherwise.” He found himself smiling despite the situation. “We’ll get you a nice, cool glass of milk after this. Thanks for the help.”

A hesitant sort of appreciation drifted through their link. “Well, I live here too, you know?” 

“Macon Georgia.” Alice responded, unaware of the telepathic conversation. “Eleven o’clock. Group of two upholding the second amendment.”

Nathan locked in on the scene, and dropped feet first. 

Two men were taking cover behind a black car on the side of the road, and firing pot-shots with shotguns into a charging group of imps. Somehow, their slugs were actually managing to burst the demonic cherubs, but that was absolutely not enough firepower to deal with the other thing that was coming towards them.

Some two-story tall, minotaur-esque monster with an axe stomped towards them from behind the line of imps, cracking the ground it stepped on and backhanding any cars in its way with casual ease. 

While falling, Nathan noted that neither of the two guys were running. In fact, one of them was reaching into the open trunk of the black car, and pulled out a…

Rocket launcher? 

“Dynamic Entry!” Nathan yelled out, crashing directly into the horned head of the bigger demon, cratering it into the ground, and splattering its entire upper half. 

Five spears of blue energy blinked into existence around his crouched superhero landing, only to impale the remaining imps into the ground a split second after.

“That was unnecessary.” Alice said.

Nathan stood up slowly, and dusted himself off. “I am accruing cool points. Leave me alone.” 

She looked up at him. “Are you counting them? I haven’t been counting them.” 

“I’ve got an internal tally,” he said proudly. “I’m winning.” 

“Winning in what, exactly? Embarrassing your daughter?”

He laughed. “Parent’s prerogative.”

“Who are you supposed to be?”

Nathan blinked up to see a shotgun and rocket launcher pointed at his face, courtesy of the two he had just - arguably - saved. Depending on what exactly was loaded in that rocket launcher, they might have had that handled - considering they were able to kill imps with shotguns. 

Normal weapons don’t really work on demons. The most a normal bullet would do is bruise them, completely unable to break the skin. 

“I’m Nathan,” he said, squinting past the barrels of their weapons. These two looked… familiar. 

He looked back at the black car, then back to the two, and felt a profound sense of dread spreading through his own core. This didn’t make any sense. No way were these two here - in the middle of this shit. 

He studied their faces for a moment, just to make sure he wasn’t remembering them wrong. He studied the fabric of reality with Godeye, to make sure that the two weren’t an illusion. He dived into his own mind to make sure that some entity wasn’t playing tricks on him. 

He wasn’t misremembering them. Reality wasn’t bent or broken beyond the current hellscape. His mind palace was locked tight against foreign influence.

These two were really there. Standing in front of him.

“What kind of bullshit brought the Winchesters to Georgia today?”