Destroyer of gods an ise.., p.1
Destroyer of Gods: An Isekai Portal Fantasy Adventure, page 1
Destroyer of Gods
An Isekai Portal Fantasy Adventure
Trevor Arctus
Copyright © 2024 Trevor Arctus
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 9781234567890
ISBN-10: 1477123456
Cover design by: Kaya Volnaya
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
— One —
— Two —
— Three —
— Four —
— Five —
— Six —
— Seven —
— Eight —
— Nine —
— Ten —
— Eleven —
— Twelve —
— Thirteen —
— Fourteen —
— Fifteen —
— Sixteen —
— Seventeen —
— Eighteen —
— Nineteen —
— Twenty —
— Twenty One —
— Twenty Two —
— Twenty Three —
— Twenty Four —
— Twenty Five —
— Twenty Six —
— Twenty Seven —
— Twenty Eight —
— Twenty Nine —
— Thirty —
— Thirty One —
— Thirty Two —
— Thirty Three —
— Thirty Four —
— Thirty Five —
— Thirty Six —
— Thirty Seven —
— Thirty Eight —
— Thirty Nine —
— Forty —
— Forty One —
— Forty Two —
— Forty Three —
— Forty Four —
— Forty Five —
Afterword
— Rebuilding the Island —
— The Greatest Dragonrider in the West —
About The Author
About The Artist
— One —
The Same Parking Lot Problem
After a long time of eating nothing but medieval food in a whole other fantasy world, I couldn’t describe how amazing the pizza from Joe Andand Benny’s Pizza smelled. It was as if the scent called to me, an inviting hand waving me forward in one of those old-fashioned cartoons. When we stepped foot in the restaurant, it was like stepping into heaven.
“Warrick!” one of the hosts called out and clapped me on the back. “Man, we haven’t seen you in too damn long. What the hell?” He took a look at my clothes and his eyebrows shot to his hairline. “New look? You kids these days…”
By the new look, he wasn’t referring to my beard that had grown out or the new muscles, he was clearly talking about the medieval-style chainmail and the bear fur on my shoulders. I’d left the heavy cloak with the golden clasp at home, but I might as well have brought it. The cooks from the kitchen peered out from the serving window, elbowing each other.
“Warrick!” one of them waved. “What’s up with the uh—the get-up?”
“It’s a story for sure,” I assured them. “Could we get a booth?”
“Anything for you and Maeve and…?” The host’s words trailed off when he spotted my company behind me.
If it was like any other Tuesday night, it’d be me and my best friend Maeve hitting up Joe and Benny’s Pizza for half-off jalapeño poppers hot out of the fryer, and live music from the Rolling Stones cover band. But it wasn’t any other Tuesday.
In my traveling party were four women who couldn’t be more different. Princess Byrid hung off my arm, her thick, blonde hair draped over her shoulders, her wide, amber eyes on everything and anything in the restaurant. She had been the definition of a spoiled princess when I first met her, but she’d proven herself to be a great ally with her bow and arrows, general knowledge about the kingdom, and helping to kick her brother’s ass when we took over.
“They’re cosplay ears,” I explained her fluffy lynx cat ears, flickering with curiosity. “Super high-tech. Expensive as hell.”
The host laughed and Byrid giggled, even if she had no idea what he was laughing about. She was a legitimate cat girl with lynx ears and a little cat tail that twitched just as much.
“What is he saying?” Byrid whispered to me.
“He’s saying he likes your ears,” I replied.
The host stared at me. “Holy shit, Warrick, I didn’t know you could speak anything else. What is that?”
“What is this fat man saying now?” Auror grumbled, remaining motionless with her arms folded over her chest.
The silver-haired fox girl was a no-nonsense warrior, a woman who’d cauterized her own wounds when her enemies left her for dead. She was as sexy as she was capable with the sword but with me, she had learned how to find that soft side of hers, deep, deep, deep down. And now she was one of my three common-law wives.
“It’s one of those almost-dead languages,” I informed them. “They’re just visiting.”
We all are.
The host led us through the restaurant between full tables of people that Maeve and I knew, all enjoying their dinners. Everybody gawked at us. They didn’t even try to hide it. Little kids scurried out of the way, an elderly couple in the corner pointed.
I wasn’t too worried. That was just how it was going to be now.
The booth turned out to be another problem. There were only two seats next to me and I had three wives plus a best friend I hadn’t seen in ages.
“If you think you’re sitting next to Warrick,” Byrid warned the other two girls who’d traveled through the portal with me, “you’ve got another thing coming. Move.”
“You don’t have your weapon,” Auror pointed out, her eyebrow raised.
“Is that a threat?”
Keeose cleared her throat and gave a respectful nod to Maeve. “I could not possibly sit next to a goddess…”
“Auror and I are sitting on the other side,” I decided. I wanted a view of the window. Old habits from their fantasy world died hard and it was good to see the vantage points, even if I couldn’t imagine any of our enemies sneaking up on us in Joe and Benny’s Pizza. After countless adventures, we were the safest we’d ever been.
What am I so worried about?
“I’m so sorry,” Keeose apologized over and over again to Maeve, like she hadn’t known her back on Earth. Now that we discovered Maeve was Moruun, the goddess of fire and life, Keeose couldn’t stop bowing to her. Maeve just gave an uncomfortable smile, propping her backpack up in the seat.
It’d been a gift for me when we traveled to a carnival together. There was a huge Lovecraftian leviathan on the front. Just the kind of weirdo fantasy thing that Maeve loved.
Or Moruun loved. Whichever.
“What do we want to drink?” our waiter asked, coming up with the menus.
I rubbed my jaw. “I’m going to need a beer.”
Auror nodded. “Whatever he gets.”
“I don’t understand.” Byrid frowned over the menu, her cat ears flickering. “What is chalk-let milk?”
For a second, the whole dangerous situation we’d found ourselves in took a pause. I glanced over at Byrid with a grin. “You’re going to want that.” But I snapped back to look at Maeve again, shifting always in the stares.
How in the hell did I not realize my best friend was a goddess? It was hard to keep all the questions to myself while the waiter took our drink orders. Maeve’s fiery red hair was gorgeous, but it didn’t look particularly magical. There was a little scar on her jaw from when she’d tripped over some volleyballs at the community center last year and I’d patched her up in the infirmary with Pokémon band aids. She wore carpal tunnel braces to bed because she played video games at all other hours.
A goddess? Maeve? I still couldn’t believe what we’d uncovered.
The moment the waiter walked away, I broke the silence. “You’re a goddess.”
Maeve winced and it was like the floodgates opened.
“I do not think she is a goddess,” Auror announced, blunt as always. “We saw gods in our fight against the prince. They certainly did not look as weak as this one.”
Keeose stared at Maeve, eyes wide as saucers. “I’ve been searching for you for so long…”
“She looks like just anybody to me,” Byrid sniffed.
Everyone spoke over each other for a second but that wasn’t helpful. I held up a hand and stopped the ramble of conversation. Pointing at her, I said her title. “You’re Moruun. Goddess of fire.”
“Do you have to say it so loudly, Wars?” Maeve flinched and whispered the nickname only she used. “People are going to think you’re crazy.”
Byrid perked up. “So, she’s not a goddess—”
“No—no—” With her shoulders slumped, Maeve put her face in her hands.
I’d never seen her so embarrassed
She sighed heavily. “I used to be a goddess. But that’s done. It ended. It’s finished. We don’t need to talk about it. I’m much more concerned about what you’ve been up to, Wars.”
Keeose stared at her, unmoving. “What?”
The goth sorceress, Keeose, had arrived on Earth with one mission and one mission only: to find the goddess Moruun. As her loyal servant, it’d been her only ambition. Everything she’d done to this point had been to find Morunn, and when she’d found out that the goddess of fire had dedicated her life to being just a buddy who used to come into her shop, the shock had stunned Keeose.
That was nothing though. Finding out that the goddess that she’d been searching for didn’t even claim to be a goddess? I could’ve knocked Keeose over with a feather.
“Hold up.” I tried to keep us on track. “How did you used to be a goddess?”
“I introduced things to humans,” Maeve explained, a blush to her cheeks. “Fire and um…” Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Other things. I was banished from my world, but a god gave me a charm—I can’t believe we’re talking about this. The charm let me travel to other worlds.”
“What happened to the charm?” I asked.
Another flush crept up her neck. “It…broke.”
The way she stumbled over her words reminded me of something. I thought back to the cave, when Keeose and I had talked about how we’d first been yanked out of that parking lot and brought to the fantasy world.
“You can’t remember, can you?” I asked. “Maeve, how long have you been here?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“How long?”
For a moment, Maeve didn’t say anything. She gazed around at the faces of the girls at the table. “I’ve been working at the community center for—”
“No, not how long it’s been since you met me. How long have you been here?”
She opened her mouth to respond but there was nothing she could say. Her eyes flickered across the table and new lines appeared on her face as she tried to answer my question, to think of exactly when she’d come to this world. But there wasn’t an answer to give because the same amnesia that had plagued both Keeose and me had clearly affected Maeve.
“Got your drinks here!” Our waiter beamed at the table, a silver tray in hand. “Who ordered the chocolate milk?”
— Two —
Impossibilities We’re Already Dealing With
The drinks were placed on the table, I ordered a couple pizzas, and the cup of chocolate milk was set in front of Byrid. They even gave her a pink straw. It took her a moment to figure out what to do with it, but it finally connected when the liquid hit her tongue. A shiver ran up her body. Her cat ears flattened, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
“What is that?” she whispered, breathless. She hesitated for only a moment before she tossed the straw to the table and gulped down the drink.
“I don’t understand something,” Maeve said. “Wars, you’re traveling between worlds?”
“We all are,” Auror said stiffly.
“So, what?” Maeve pressed. “You were given a charm too?”
Keeose drew in a slow breath. “We don’t pretend to know more than a goddess does but…I have traveled far and wide to seek you and am an apprentice in portal magic—”
“She’s fucking great at it,” I interrupted.
A blush crossed Keeose’s face, and she ducked her head for a moment, struggling to say anything at all. I understood. This was a lot for her.
But an explanation was needed.
“Keeose and I were taken from a parking lot,” I told Maeve and her eyebrows furrowed. “Remember when I worked for a week at Rocco’s?”
“Remember?” Maeve blinked at me. “Wars, that’s the last place anybody saw you alive. I’ve been out of my mind with worry!”
“And I’m sorry about that.”
“It is not as if he had a choice,” Auror butted in with a frown. “Warrick was in much danger. It would benefit you to remember that.”
I reached over and stroked Auror’s silver tail between us, calming her down instantly. “We were tossed through someone’s portal and put towards the other side, into your world,” I explained. “All four of us were tangled with slavers, ones that worked with Byrid’s kingdom. We got through them, and we fought her brother before he called the Harvest Gods to sacrifice a shit ton of people.”
“The—the Harvest Gods?” Maeve blinked. “That’s—”
“Impossible, we know.” I shrugged. “I’m just telling you what happened.”
It took a while to explain everything to Maeve, about crashing into her world, beating the slavers at their own game, the axe-throwing tournament, claiming the kingdom, and everything in between. The more we told her, the more color drained out of her face.
Whenever I’d thought about Moruun, the goddess of fire and life that everyone feared so much, I’d always pictured a terrifying deity. And I’d even thought that Moruun had been the person to toss me through the portal, that Moruun was the one who branded the rune on the back of my neck.
But Maeve stared at me gobsmacked. When our waiter returned with two pizzas, she didn’t budge. She didn’t move a damn muscle.
“What is this again?” Byrid asked, poking at the golden-brown crust. “Piss-ah?”
“I will see if it is poisonous,” Auror announced and picked up one of the slices, fresh from the oven. “My light has not dimmed. It burns until my task is done.”
I shook my head. “Auror, it’s not poisonous.”
“You have many enemies, Warrick.”
“I’m not arguing that but the pizza’s hot as hell—”
It was so fresh the cheese was still bubbling. That didn’t mean anything to Auror. She took an enormous bite and clamped her mouth shut to let the “poison” do its work.
“Woah, Auror.” I tried to stop her. “Baby, it’s hot!”
The fox girl didn’t say anything, but she choked a little, narrowing her eyes in concentration while a fire burned in her mouth. Taking deep breaths through her nose, she brushed her gorgeous silver hair behind her shoulders, her eyes watering. “Yes,” she managed. “It is not poisonous.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Auror! Why would you do that?”
“Thank you!” Byrid replied happily, and threw a piece on her plate, wrapping a long string of cheese around her finger.
“Wait a minute.” Maeve stopped us and rubbed her temples like she had a headache coming on. “There is something I’m really not understanding here—”
I raised an eyebrow. “Besides the fact that you talk like you were born in Chicago?”
She mirrored my expression, raising an eyebrow back. That familiar smug look crossed her lips, the one that told me when she was about to beat my ass in Mario Kart. Her voice dropped down to a whisper. The hairs on the back of my neck rose.
“Shyiuh nespes vurkil,” Maeve said, each word creeping up on each other.
Keeose’s mouth fell open. “The ancient language.”
“Of course, I’m a—” Maeve stopped herself. “I was a goddess. No longer, I was banished! I made my peace with it.” The more she repeated those words though, the more I had to wonder if she was just saying them for us. She groaned. “What I can’t understand is where you guys are coming from? You must be jumping between worlds. My home—” She stopped herself. “My original world was…nothing more than dirt and a few villages. Simple people.”
Auror scoffed. “Simple people.”
“You can’t call them simple people,” Byrid said, munching happily on a piece of pizza. “Warrick gets upset and starts giving speeches.”
I placed my thumb under the chainmail that crept up my shoulder and held it out for her inspection. “Maeve, does this look simple to you? We’re from your world, but something’s going on with the whole timeline here…” Slowly, I glanced over to the goth sorceress and I frowned. “How long has it been since Maeve was there?”
Keeose blinked slowly. A little of her pale color went away and she nodded, focused on the problem. “If Maeve hasn’t been here that long and all that time has passed…”
