It was past ten at night in Ibiza’s main city. The dark sky was beginning to cloud over as brief flashes of lightning started illuminating the perpetual darkness of the area.
The sea, which had grown strange and unsettled, was finally beginning to calm. The fish and other sea creatures had fled from there, knowing something terrible was about to happen; the same was true of the birds along the coast.
Dogs began howling inside the city in their desperation at being unable to escape. Cats meowed in anger, while hundreds of rats and cockroaches fled the port and threw themselves into the waters surrounding the island.
People left their homes after feeling the terrible earthquake that had occurred. Although, miraculously, none of the houses showed damage aside from a few cracks and broken jars, no greater destruction had happened.
However, what was noticeable to all the people who came out of their homes, or from the cavern where they had been treated, was that there was a man floating in the sky, and his presence could be felt… heavy. It was as if he caused an oppression in the chests of the people around him, because they could not feel his terrifying divine presence, but it was strong enough for humans to know there was a matter of imminent danger.
Tania, together with Nabu and Tul, looked in horror at the man floating in the sky. Humans could not see the barrier the Mesopotamian god had raised, and which Heracles, the man in the sky, had destroyed with a single strike from his foot. Crystals of energy slowly fell to the ground, evaporating like smoke the moment they touched the surface of the city of Ibiza.
Suddenly, heavy rain began to fall over the city. Lightning illuminated the grim scene, while powerful thunder could be heard in the distance, six or eight seconds away.
Water slowly ran along Ibiza’s paved streets, soaking the houses, markets, and even the people who stared in terror at the being in the sky.
Tania, Tul, and Nabu were drenched as they continued watching Heracles, who was dressed in an ocher tunic that also looked soaked because of the ostentatious rain.
The god of Babylon, as a reflex, pulled a dimension from his garments and threw it to the ground. Upon activating, it covered not only the islands of Ibiza and Mallorca, but also a large part of the Mediterranean and Spain, reaching as far as the distant island of Sicily.
“You know a flimsy little dimension like that ain’t gonna stop me, don’t ya, dumbass?” Heracles asked with a smile. Although his face could barely be seen, his mouth was visible along with his beard.
“I believe that, even if you are an ally of Lel, you understand the importance of nonintervention in the human world,” the god of Mesopotamia answered. “Why did you perform such a conspicuous act before hundreds of witnesses?” he asked.
The Greek hero began to laugh. Nabu and the two goddesses watched the act with disdain.
“Tell me, dumbass. Do ya know what power is?” Heracles asked mockingly.
“In political and sociological terms, it is the capacity to influence a group of people in order to achieve certain personal objectives,” Nabu replied.
Heracles laughed again.
“What a book-learned definition! Boring as hell!” the Greek hero replied.
Heracles then descended from the sky and stood before the cavern where the three gods were maintaining a defensive position.
“Gods and humans gather in groups because the more people they control, the more power they got, just like ya said,” Heracles continued explaining.
“But… they do that ’cause, on their own, they’re weak, and they gotta follow rules and norms set by those who got power,” he added.
At that moment, Heracles removed his tunic and threw it to the ground while pointing at himself with his thumb.
“The difference with me is that I am power, and I don’t answer to nobody. So I can do whatever I damn well please without fearing repercussions from Olympus or Lel,” the hero replied, full of pride.
“Is that why you have no fear of being seen destroying a divine barrier or showing yourself floating in the sky?” Tania asked angrily.
Heracles nodded with a smile.
“Then why do you follow Lel’s orders by coming here to search for these two goddesses?” Nabu asked.
Heracles smiled again.
“Because I like living in Olympus,” he replied. “They give me a palace to live in, a beautiful wife, multiple lovers, ambrosia, feasts, hot springs, and every pleasure I couldn’t get with my power anywhere else.”
“If those pleasures disappeared, I wouldn’t have no reason to stay there,” the hero added.
At that moment, Tania became furious at those words.
“You think you can come commit genocide against people just so they’ll wipe your ass in Olympus?!” the Punic goddess shouted angrily.
Heracles smiled at the goddess with an arrogant look.
“That’s the definition of power, beautiful,” he replied.
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The Greek hero, who wore a singular linen tunic and stood more than two meters tall, began walking toward the three gods, who could only observe the powerful being.
“Do you not know that I have influence among Lel’s allies?!” Nabu asked aggressively. “If you touch a single stone of this city, they may arrest you and sentence you to death for transgressing the peace among the gods!”
But immediately, before Nabu could finish his sentence, the Greek hero slapped his cheek, hurling the Babylonian god hundreds of meters across Ibiza until he fell unconscious before the port. As he was thrown, he destroyed everything before him. Fortunately, being inside an alternate dimension, he caused no real damage in the human world.
“I left him alive outta simple compassion, but I hate being threatened like that,” the Greek hero said arrogantly.
Then he set his gaze on Tania, whose face was filled with wrath. The Greek hero looked at the Punic goddess’s chest and moistened his lips with his tongue.
“They told me I had to take ya to that pigsty called Lel, but I wanna sample the goods first,” the Greek hero continued saying with a lecherous look.
But Tania quickly threw Tul behind her, telling her to flee as far away from there as she could.
However, Heracles quickly grabbed Tania’s right arm and broke it as if it were a dry branch. The goddess made a gesture of pain, but without removing the furious look she had.
“Don’t you worry about your little friend. She’s next,” the malevolent hero said.
Without answering or showing an expression of pain, Tania transformed into her Manticore form, while still being held by the arm by Heracles.
“So you’re gonna put up a fight?” Heracles asked cynically.
But while he was still speaking, Tania fired a powerful burst of fire at the Greek hero’s face with her free hand.
Heracles took a few steps back as he released Tania’s arm. The goddess quickly used the moment to fly far away from Heracles.
Immediately, Tania grew her two claws of fire and hurled herself toward Heracles while shouting:
“If you dare touch my dear Tul, I will skin you alive myself!”
Tania launched several bursts of fire with her burning claws. The explosions completely destroyed the island of Ibiza, while the seawater rapidly evaporated. The rain in the sky vanished as it turned dark, like smoke from an erupting volcano.
Still surrounded by smoke and fire, making it impossible to see the Greek hero’s body, Tania lifted her hands toward the sky and created a gigantic ball of fire. The phenomenon was so enormous that it completely covered the island of Ibiza.
“Galad esh Resh (Fire Sphere No. 500)!” the Punic goddess shouted at the top of her lungs as she hurled the gigantic sun toward where Heracles’s body should have been.
A muffled explosion blew everything around her to pieces. The island of Ibiza and the Mediterranean Sea disappeared, leaving only a dry landscape filled with fire and lava beneath a dark sky. Smoke rose from the crater caused by the attack.
Tania breathed deeply and heavily. She had used a large amount of her power to make that attack, but she hoped she had done enough damage to Heracles, whom she had seen was not wearing his totema.
The goddess then looked everywhere for Tul. She hoped the attack had not injured her indirectly. However, as she did so, Heracles appeared behind the goddess without a single wound.
“That all the power ya got?” the Greek hero asked mockingly, just as he grabbed the goddess by the neck.
Tania tried to scream from the pain, but her voice would not come out because of the pressure Heracles was applying to her.
“I see you care a whole lot about your companion,” the Greek hero continued saying. “I reckon it’ll be better to start with her, so you learn how to behave.”
Tania struggled to free herself, but it was useless. Then Heracles flew toward the ground and smashed Tania’s face into it, leaving the goddess embedded in the surface.
Heracles then, with a movement of his hands, dissipated the smoke Tania’s fire had caused. Then he saw the rabbit goddess tending to Nabu behind a group of stones she had used to dissipate the damage from her friend’s attack.
“Well, ain’t you a naughty little gal,” the Greek hero said as he approached a Tul who was frozen with fear.
Tul nervously put her hand into her bag to pull out something to defend herself, but Heracles arrived in front of the Maya goddess so quickly that she had no time to do so. He quickly threw her bag to the ground and lifted her by her tunic, causing her veil to fall to the ground.
“Well now, ain’t that a curious thing… you’re a rabbit woman!” the Greek hero said while looking at the small goddess with lust.
Using his hand, he tore away the tunic covering Tul’s body. The goddess fell onto her back on the ground, completely naked, while Heracles looked at her lecherously.
Heracles held both her arms and lay over her while licking her face with sexual desire. Tul closed her eyes and clenched her teeth tightly. Whatever happened, she was not going to give that monstrous being the pleasure of screaming or crying.
“Playing hard to get?” the Greek hero asked. “That just riles me up even more.”
Heracles continued licking Tul’s naked body while she tried to think of something else.
At that moment, Tania appeared behind Heracles with a look like that of a demon. Her body was completely enveloped in steam, and it could be seen coming even from her mouth.
“What the hell are you doing to my Tul?” she asked in a dry, furious voice.
Heracles turned to look at Tania with a smile, but before he could do anything, Tania grabbed him by the face and hurled him toward the dimensional wall covering the space.
Furiously, Tania struck Heracles with her steam-covered claws, while he seemed unable to defend himself. After this, the goddess pulled the powerful hero by his hair and threw him to the ground, creating a gigantic crater over what had been Spain in that alternate dimension.
Heracles rose, covered in blood, from where Spain had once been. But Tania was not finished. Screaming like a madwoman, she created a huge ball of steam with both hands and fired it at the Greek hero.
“Malka ’Arya Sapān (Silver Lioness Queen)!” Tania shouted as she fired the ball of steam, which took the shape of a lioness that hurled itself onto Heracles’s body. The hero made no attempt to defend himself, so his body split in half upon impact.
When it struck the ground, a geyser of smoke and steam rose from the surface, destroying everything in its path. The alternate dimension was left wrapped in eternal fog.
Tania panted after exerting so much effort, but she hoped she had damaged Heracles with her full power. However, the Greek hero walked out from the fog completely healed, with only a cut in his clothing.
“Now that was dangerous. You almost got me excited about your power,” the Greek hero said with a smile as he made his pectorals dance and flexed his enormous biceps.
Tania then looked in disbelief at what was happening. She had not done any damage to him, even without his totema.
At that moment, Heracles took a necklace from inside his tunic. It had the figurine of a man dressed in a lion’s pelt and holding a club. The hero looked at Tania with a smile.
“You oughta be happy. It’s been centuries since anybody forced me to use my totema,” the hero said with a smile. “No doubt about it, you’re strong for being a daughter of that El fella. But this here’s the mountain you’ll never reach.”
Tania bit her tongue at that fact, but she knew she had to stay there to stop that monster. Otherwise, he would surely assault Tul and, outside the alternate dimension, destroy all of Ibiza. She could not lose. She did not have the right to.
Meanwhile, among the rubble, the man with the silver mask peered out, watching the approaching battle.
“Tannit…” the man said quietly.