FALSE GODS

01 Prologue I: Wild Wild Country

Niobe and Felix glided low in the air, just above the topmost foliage of the trees. The two were riding pegasi—winged stallions reared at Mt. Radomir. They were hunting a herd of white devil-boars this evening.

Niobe's pegasus was a double-striped black, while Felix's was a brown-white. They were roughly twelve miles outside the border walls of Theikos. It was a bold venture into the dangerous outlands, even for game hunters, especially since it was only the two of them out there.

"Cura, take me!" Niobe screamed the goddess's name in joy over the deafening beating of wings. "This is amazing!"

"Let us go hunting together in the evening… You know… Just the two of us," she had suggested to Felix in the morning. "I am tired of party hunts. A god-prime always watches over us, and we don't even get to flirt with each other."

The Ascendancy Divine Government ruled over the mortal population of Theikos. The government members were categorized into princeps, priors, primes, and titans based on increasing levels of their divine power.

Niobe was a prior while Felix was a freshly recruited princep. The two had been romantically involved for a while. Official hunting parties comprised eight princeps, two priors, and one prime in charge of the entire hunt.

As agreed in the morning, Niobe and Felix escaped on their pegasi after dark for some outdoor amusement.

Pegasi were fast creatures. It took only two hours to fly from the citadel on Mt. Radomir down to the border walls surrounding the land of Theikos. That evening, urged on by Niobe's adventurous mood, they flew another half hour across the woods to a grassy woodland patch marked on the maps.

The young goddess wanted to hunt white devil-boars. The creature's meat, when cooked with veal stock and red wine, made a delectable feast. But more importantly, Niobe was bored with Ascendancy politics and wanted to hunt, especially with her lover, Felix.

A magical white orb that Niobe had produced raced ahead of them, lighting the terrain. The two hunters loosened arrows whenever a boar appeared through the foliage. It was fun and thrilling, considering how late it was in the day.

Felix had agreed to accompany Niobe on this wanton quest because he hoped they would finally have sex. The couple had been going steady for some time now, but hadn't consummated their relationship yet.

Meanwhile, they had followed all the rules of courtship. According to the appendices of the Bibliotheca, they could engage in consensual intercourse as long as it did not end with impregnation.

The God-King, Marcus Petromax, ruled the land of Theikos with his titans. He had prohibited childbearing among gods and goddesses. Violators could have their divinity stripped and even be put to death. The Citadel members didn't want children anyway. They spent their lives in luxury and depravity.

Niobe and Felix had already brought down four devil-boars. Their pegasi could carry two each. Niobe still wanted to press on into the outlands. Perhaps she craved the thrill of slaughtering an entire herd of devil boars. 

"Niobe, my love!" Felix called out. "I think we have braved far enough! We should turn back and return to the citadel! What if our pegasi collapse from exhaustion? We would be stuck here all night. It is dangerous!"

"Oh, come on! You are a divine being!" Niobe answered with laughter. "Learn to act like one!"

"Look at me!" she added. Playfully, she let go of the harness controlling her pegasus. She whooped into the wilderness, spreading her arms wide.

Felix became anxious about her foolhardiness, but he looked at the goddess longingly under the starlight. She was a divine spectacle—cheerful and beautiful. Her golden hair bounced in the wind behind her. Her chiton tunic pressed against her body and rode up her radiant thighs.

"If only I could keep watching you, and we could keep flying forever," Felix mused to himself.

Suddenly, he frantically pointed ahead. "Watch out!"

Crack! Niobe's pegasus hit a high protruding branch and veered dangerously to the right. It crashed into Felix's brown-white. The collision was loud and destructive, and both creatures nose-dived into the forest.

The accident made a racket. Two large flying beasts with wingspans over forty feet plummeted from the skies into the wild. Branches splintered, cracked, and snapped as they tumbled towards the ground.

Finally, the drop ended, and the forest foliage parted. The hunters were tossed into a clearing along with their pegasi.

Felix was on his back. He opened his eyes and groaned. For the first time that night, he observed how bright the stars were. The Sagittarius constellation embellished the southern sky—a centaur pulling a bow.

Felix was reminded of a boring book he had read recently. In the Bibliotheca, the blessed philosopher Apollodorus rejected constellations as gods. "Seek not the vaunted verse of the cycle," he wrote, "but look within, and you shall find all of what you see is in the image of Aion and Sol."

Felix had read the book from cover to cover while preparing to take part in the Labors. This challenging test inducted mortals into the Ascendancy government. "What would the progenitor of the gods think of our adventure?' he wondered aloud.

Felix turned his head and saw Niobe lying flat on her back as well. Naturally, she was unhurt like him. The fall was treacherous and would ordinarily kill a mortal.

However, the duo were god and goddess. Felix was a princep, the lowest in the hierarchy of divine beings living on Mt. Radomir. Niobe was in a position higher, that is, a prior. Regardless, they had divine protection and were immune to injury.

If you ran a sharp blade against a princep's arm, the blade would lose its edge. Only weapons imbued with stronger divinity or corruption could remotely scratch a divine being. Therefore, even after suffering a deadly drop from the sky, Niobe and Felix were unscathed. Even their clothes seemed as good as new.