All Chapters of The Last God: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
10 chapters
Chapter 1: The Cage
The basement smelled like rust and old blood.Marcus Chen pressed his face against the cold concrete floor, tasting copper on his split lip. Above him, footsteps echoed. Heavy boots. Three of them tonight."Get up, freak."The voice belonged to Dmitri, the enforcer who enjoyed his work too much. Marcus did not move. Moving only made it worse.A kick landed in his ribs. Pain exploded through his chest, but Marcus swallowed the scream. They fed on screams."I said get up."Marcus pushed himself to his knees, chains rattling from his wrists. The iron collar around his neck dug into his skin, covered in symbols he could not read. Symbols that kept him weak. Kept him trapped."Boss wants to see you," Dmitri said, grabbing Marcus by the hair and dragging him toward the stairs.Marcus stumbled, bare feet sliding on the slick floor. How long had he been down here? Weeks? Months? Time blurred when you lived in darkness.They hauled him up three flights to Viktor Kozlov's office. The room was t
Chapter 2: The Crucible
The Crucible was not a place. It was a nightmare made real.They drove Marcus through Chicago's empty streets, past closed shops and sleeping towers. The city looked peaceful. It was a lie. Marcus could feel the tension in the air, thick and wrong, like the moment before lightning struck.The van stopped in front of an abandoned meatpacking plant. Dmitri hauled Marcus out and shoved him toward the entrance. Two other guards flanked them, hands on their guns.Inside, the smell hit Marcus first. Blood and ozone and something else. Something that made his instincts scream.Magic.The main floor had been cleared, replaced by a massive circle carved into concrete. Symbols glowed faintly around its edge, pulsing like a heartbeat. In the center sat a stone chair, black and ancient, covered in chains.Viktor waited beside it, checking his watch. "Strap him in. The Vesper wants this done before dawn."They forced Marcus into the chair. The stone was ice cold against his back. Metal cuffs locke
Chapter 3: Blood and Thunder
The Norse warriors moved through Chicago like ghosts.Marcus ran beside them, his legs burning but steady. The weakness that had plagued him for months was gone, replaced by something fierce and unfamiliar. Power hummed beneath his skin, making every step feel too light, too fast.They cut through alleyways and abandoned lots, avoiding main streets. The leader, the one with the blue glowing eyes, kept glancing back at Marcus with an expression that might have been concern or calculation."Where are we going?" Marcus asked, breathless."Somewhere the Vesper cannot reach," the warrior said. "My name is Bjorn. I serve the Allfather's court.""The Allfather. You mean Odin?""The same." Bjorn raised his hand, signaling a stop. They had reached an old subway entrance, chains stretched across the entrance with faded warning signs. "Down here."One of the warriors ripped the chains apart like paper. They descended into darkness, boots echoing on cracked tile. The air grew colder with each ste
Chapter 4: The Hunt Begins
They dumped Marcus on Michigan Avenue at midnight.No weapons. No armor. Just the torn clothes on his back and the mark burning beneath his skin. Bjorn had given him one piece of advice before shoving him out of Valhalla's Gate."Trust your instincts. The mark will try to protect you. Let it."Then the door had vanished, leaving Marcus alone on empty Chicago streets.The city felt wrong. Too quiet. Street lights flickered like dying stars. Cars sat abandoned at intersections, doors hanging open. Everyone had fled or hidden, sensing the danger that prowled tonight.Marcus started moving. He had three hours until dawn. Three hours to stay alive.His feet carried him south, away from the lake. The mark pulsed with each heartbeat, warm against his chest. It whispered to him in a language he did not know but somehow understood.Danger. Close. Move.He ducked into an alley as shadows rippled across the street behind him. Not natural shadows. These moved with purpose, flowing like oil, searc
Chapter 5: Broken Sanctuary
The police station should have been safe.They processed Marcus in silence, taking his fingerprints and photograph. The officers looked nervous, glancing at the windows every few seconds. They felt it too. The wrongness in the air. The sense that something terrible was watching."Name," the desk sergeant said, fingers hovering over his keyboard."Marcus Chen."The sergeant typed, then frowned at his screen. "Says, here you were reported missing six months ago. The family filed a report." He looked up. "Where have you been?"Marcus said nothing. What could he say? Tortured in a basement by people who work for a goddess? They would lock him in a psych ward."He is in shock," another officer said. "Get him some water. We will question him after he calms down."They led Marcus to a holding cell. The space was small, just a bench and barred walls. Two other men sat inside, one sleeping, one staring at nothing.Marcus collapsed onto the bench. His body was shutting down. The mark had pushed
Chapter 6: Dawn's Reckoning
The police station burned with golden fire.Not real flames. Something worse. Divine energy poured from Marcus like water from a broken dam, melting steel, cracking stone, warping reality itself.He could not stop it. Could not control it. The mark had taken over, and Ares's rage consumed everything."Marcus!" Athena's voice cut through the chaos. "Focus! Pull it back!"He tried. The power ignored him, flooding out, searching for something to destroy.The Vesper laughed from the shadows. "Look at him. A mortal body cannot contain a god's essence. He will burn himself to ash within minutes."She was right. Marcus could feel it. His skin was too hot. His heart beat too fast. The power was killing him from the inside."Help me," Marcus gasped, falling to his knees.Athena moved fast. Her spear flashed, and she drove it into the ground beside Marcus. Lightning erupted from the weapon, forming a circle around him. The energy crashed against the barrier, contained but not stopped."Listen t
Chapter 7: False Witness
The girl's words echoed through the marble chamber."He killed the god. I saw him do it."Marcus felt the world tilt. Every eye turned toward him with fresh hatred. Apollo rose from his throne, golden light radiating from his skin like fury made visible."Liar," Marcus breathed. "Rachel, tell them the truth. I saved you."The girl flinched at her name but did not look at him. Her eyes were distant, hollow. Someone had broken this child and rebuilt her as a weapon."Describe what you saw," Zeus commanded, his voice shaking the pillars.Rachel spoke in a flat monotone, like reciting memorized lines. "The war god was fighting. The Asian man stabbed him from behind with a black blade. The god fell. The man drank his blood. He laughed while the god died."Each word was a nail in Marcus's coffin. None of it was true, but delivered in a traumatized child's voice, it sounded devastatingly real."Enough," Apollo said, descending from his throne. Lightning crackled around his fists. "I will end
Chapter 8: Secrets and Shadows
Elena drove through Chicago traffic like the laws did not apply to her.Marcus gripped the door handle, watching buildings blur past. Athena sat in the back seat, silent and calculating. The tension in the car was thick enough to cut."Where are we going?" Marcus finally asked."Somewhere the pantheons cannot track us," Elena said, cutting across three lanes without signaling. "A dead zone. No divine surveillance, no magic signatures. Completely off grid.""How does a mortal detective know about dead zones?" Athena asked, her tone sharp.Elena met the goddess's eyes in the rearview mirror. "I am not mortal. Not completely. My father was Hephaestus. Which you already knew, or you would not be in my car right now."Marcus turned to stare at her. "Your father was a god?""Was being the key word." Elena's jaw tightened. "He died six months ago. During the Crimson Night. Same night Ares supposedly died."The car fell silent except for the engine's hum."I did not know Hephaestus fell that
Chapter 9: Sunlight and Fury
Apollo's spear turned night into day.The factory flooded with blinding light. Marcus threw his arm across his eyes, the mark burning in response to the divine power. Shadows screamed as Apollo's radiance destroyed them, the Vesper's hunters evaporating like smoke."I am not here for shadows," Apollo said, stepping through the wreckage. "I am here for the murderer.""Stand down, Apollo," Athena commanded, moving between him and Marcus. "Zeus gave him three days.""Zeus is not here." Apollo's eyes blazed gold. "And I am done waiting for justice."He thrust the spear forward. Athena deflected it with her blade, bronze meeting sunlight in a shower of sparks. The impact shook the building's foundation."Elena, get Marcus out of here!" Athena shouted, engaging Apollo fully.Elena grabbed Marcus's arm, dragging him toward the back exit. Bjorn covered their retreat, his war axe appearing in his hands as more shadows poured through the windows."This way!" Elena kicked open a service door.Th
Chapter 10: The Facility
The facility sat thirty miles outside Chicago, disguised as a private medical center.Kara killed the motorcycle's lights a quarter mile out, coasting to a stop behind a cluster of trees. Elena and Marcus climbed off, studying the building through the darkness."Looks normal," Marcus said."That is the point." Kara pulled binoculars from her jacket. "Three floors. David Park is in the basement. Guards rotate every four hours. The next shift change is in twenty minutes.""How do you know all this?" Elena asked."I have been watching this place for weeks." Kara handed her the binoculars. "See the parking lot? Seven cars. Five belong to staff. Two are personal vehicles for demigod guards. The silver sedan is Deimos's. He is here tonight."Marcus felt the mark pulse. Danger. Close. But also something else. Anticipation. The part of him that was Ares wanted to face Deimos. Wanted violence.He pushed the feeling down."We cannot fight a god," Marcus said. "Even with three of us.""We do not