Day of Reckoning II

Saint-Domingue, Cayes-Jacmel

Fort Quintus

October 17, 1798

Smoke twirls into the air and ashes fall down as the majority of the castle in Fort Quintus is reduced to rubble with the only area remaining unscathed is a few feet of land with Atem standing at its center. Not too far from a plump hand coated in blood can be seen lying on the floor limply while the rest of the body is buried under wreckage.

Looking at this scene, one could be understood if they claimed that a battle of great proportions recently took place. The previously massive gladiatorial arena can no longer be seen and now lies in ruins; its walls have crumbled under the force of the explosion, the observation area where Augustus and Basilius observed the battles is destroyed, and the ceiling has been completely destroyed along with floors above it, allowing silver rays of moonlight to shine down on Atem along with making the starry night sky visible.

"The night sky… I had forgotten how beautiful it can be." says Atem to himself as he looks up at the clear dark sky filled with stars for the first time in four years with serene yet joyful eyes while the rays of moonlight illuminate the destroyed arena.

While Atem admires the starry, the debris meters away from him begins to move. Yet despite being aware of it, Atem pays it no mind and continues to admire the night. For a few minutes the only sound that can be heard in the immediate vicinity are the moving bricks before Basilius finally frees himself from the wreckage.

"You!" exclaims an enraged Basilius with a voice dripping with venom. "How did you do this?" he questions as he limps away towards Atem. "Answer me you nigger." he commands when he notices Atem ignoring him. "I did not teach you this, nor is there anyone else in this entire vicinity capable of teaching you. So tell me boy…" says Basilius before abruptly stopping and narrowing his eyes at Atem. "Why can't I sense the slave mark on your soul?" he asks with a whisper that Atem easily hears.

"It seems that you aren't as idiotic as I believed." comments Atem as he finally turns his attention to Basilius, the joy in his eyes disappearing and replaced with nothing but contempt. "You finally noticed that I am not under your enslavement…albeit four years too late." says the boy as he takes in his enslaver's appearance.

The previously calm, cold, and collected man is long gone, now replaced with an enraged magus that looks to be losing his mind. His well tended to and combed black hair is now completely disheveled with areas that are singed and burnt, his previously calm and cold eyes now look mad as they wildly look around the destroyed arena, and his formerly fashionable clothes are mostly ripped to shreds and covered in soot and dust with his black trousers being the only clothing item that is still doing its job of covering him while his cane is nowhere to be found.

While his clothes are in horrible condition, his body does not fare much better. His left leg is broken, his right arm is mangled and twisted beyond repair, and his left eye seems to have been stabbed by a piece of debris.

"How does it feel, Basilius, to be completely helpless?" asks Atem, enraging the magus.

"Not as good as it felt to have your mother mewling under me as I had my way with her!" screams Basilius with bloodshot eyes as the ring around his right middle finger lights up and he throws a pillar of flames at Atem.

"Se-kebeb" chants Atem, causing the surrounding area to frost over and extinguishing the pillar of fire. "A'max" chants Atem while snapping his fingers towards Basilius. Without delay, Basilius' entire body is ignited with dark red and orange flames. Facing more pain now than he has in his entire lifetime, all Basilius can do is scream while attempting to extinguish the flames.

Unfortunately for the magus these are no ordinary flames. While they certainly aren't the hottest magical flames, they cannot be extinguished unless the caster wills it. As such, no matter what Basilius attempts the flames refuse to be extinguished, causing his anguished screams to fill the air along with the smell of his burnt flesh.

"Please…make it stop." begs Basilius as he crawls his way towards Atem.

"This isn't as entertaining as I thought it would be." comments Atem before extinguishing the flames with a snap of his fingers.

"Thank you." says Basilius with a sigh of relief and a hoarse voice.

"Do not thank me yet. You still need to atone for Adanna's suffering" replies Atem. "Sa-mir" chants Atem, causing Basilius' body to be engulfed by hieroglyphs of the word pain that quickly begin to spark. With a bloodcurdling scream, Basilius' convulses as an untold amount of pain, worse than being burned, envelops his entire being.

"If you think that because I do not find any sense of enjoyment from this that I will let you go then you are sadly mistaken." says Atem as he looks at the thrashing body of Basilius, the screams of the magus not bothering him at all. "For every tear that Adanna has shed, you shall spend a minute experiencing this pain, for every silent cry she has uttered you shall spend five minutes suffering, for every scar that was engraved on her body you shall suffer for an hour, and finally for every year that she has suffered you shall suffer ten more." says Atem indifferently as Basilius looks up at him and silently begs to be put out of his misery.

Rather than answer him verbally, Atem concentrates on his Millennium Eye. Soon after a golden light erupts from the eye and envelops Basilius' body, causing it to disappear. With a grunt denoting his discomfort, Atem rubs his eyes for a few seconds.

"Atem, what is the meaning of this?" asks Aknadin from within his soul. "Why is there a charred body within your soul?"

"That is Basilius. Keep his body alive if possible and increase the power of Sa-mir whenever he seems to adapt to it. If his body can't be kept alive then get rid of it but keep his soul. As long as he can suffer I care not if he has a body or is simply a soul. As long as he can suffer for 360 years I will be satisfied." says Atem as he begins to make his way towards Augustus' body buried under the rubble.

"What do you plan to do once his mind breaks from the suffering?" asks Aknadin.

"I will repair it before making him suffer in a different manner. Humanity is hundreds of thousands of years old, I'm sure that I can make one measly soul suffer for 360 years." answers Atem as he begins to dig the body out.

"And how exactly do you plan to live for 360 years?" wonders Aknadin.

Before Atem can answer, another explosion rocks the castle and the ground where Atem stands explodes upwards, sending the boy flying. As he adjusts himself in the air, Atem catches a glimpse of the one responsible, a tall, horned but humanoid figure with blackened wings.

Landing on his feet with a crouch, Atem looks up at the figure and for the second time in his life Atem truly feels fear. The being possesses the head of a goat's skull with four orange fiery eyes, and a pentagram on his forehead. In between the horns is a blood red flame that also gives the man a halo that feels wrong, perverted, and a mockery of the halo that one typically sees around the head of saintly figures like Jesus. In addition to the goat skull for a head, the being possesses goat legs with inky black fur connected to a toned yet lanky human chest. Emerging from his back is a pair of massive black angel wings.

Looking upon this being, Atem can feel madness quickly encroaching on his mind. It makes him want to kill, murder, burn everything down, destroy, enslave, or torture. It doesn't matter as long as he just rampages, as long as he ki… Before the thought can be completed, Atem shakes the thoughts from his mind and banishes the madness.

"You…" begins Atem with a shuddered and heavy breath as he stands tall and looks up at the being fearlessly. "You dare to attempt to subvert my mind and turn me mad?" he questions. "Not only do you dare to do so, but you have the audacity to put Adanna in danger?" he says as he hears the sounds of everyone in the plantation going mad being him. "I don't care if you are a Heretic God, a Campione, or even the creator of the universe, today you will die." he says he opens golden energy coalesces around his palms before taking the form of two khopeshes.

Without any further delay, Atem launches himself at the being. Before he can even make it halfway to his target, a giant golem of at least ten feet tall rises from the ground and punches Atem. Before the fist can reach him, Atem jumps over it, causing it to shatter the ground where Atem previously stood. Landing on the arm, Atem uses it to catapult himself in front of the golem's face where he slashes the head off before destroying the torso with a shout of "Ha-Di!".

"Oooh, divine words. Not bad, not bad, not bad at all."says the Heretic God with a disjointed voice as three more golems along with a chimera appear and attack Atem. "Not only do you withstand the madness of me, Baphomet, but you can also use divine words. How interesting." says Baphomet as he watches Atem easily dispatch his opponents before jumping to meet Baphomet in the air.

"If you think that your mere presence is enough to drive me, a Pharaoh, into madness then you must be as mentallly incompetent as you look, "Ipet-isut Ma'at!" shouts Atem, causing a golden light to erupt from him and engulf the entire castle.

As the golden light disappears, Atem and Baphomet find themselves in a massive desert that stretches as far as the eye can see. The sky, rather than being blue, is filled with the beautiful purple and orange hues of dusk while a sun, bigger than the one seen on Earth, shines its final light onto the golden sand of the desert, making it comfortably warm. On a tall mound of sand, one can find a white and gold throne situated on a raised with a flight of stairs leading up to it.

Sitting on the throne with his jaw resting on his fist is none other than Atem who is flanked by Bastet and Sekhmet on his right and left respectively while Aknadin stands at the foot of the staircase.

"Do you feel it? The weakness and loss of power that all who oppose me experience upon entering my reality marble, Ipet-isut Ma'at: The Most Selected of Temples of Ma'at?" asks Atem as Baphomet and every single living being within the castle appear within the desert in an unconscious state. "Here, I reign supreme. It does not matter whether you are a Heretic God, a Campione, or a mere cur. Within this desert your passive authority that causes one to become mad is not only null, but it is also countered. Here I am…" says Atem before he stops when a familiar body appears within his desert.

Without wasting a second, Atem launches himself from his throne and appears in front of the woman that Bjarte had used to summon Baphomet.

"Adanna?" calls out Atem as he gently picks her up from the floor to see that it is indeed Adanna, his surrogate mother. "You actually dare!" furiously exclaims Atem as he looks at Bjarte who is standing close by.

"Oh, is that someone important to you?" wonders Baphomet. "I do remember her being the first to succumb to the madness. Although, if I didn't decide to spare that doctor he would have succumbed first." he says before he is forced to dodge when Sekhmet appears in front of him and slashes her claws towards Baphome's head. Despite dodging her attack, Baphomet finds himself facing danger again when Bastet appears behind him and stabs her claws towards his back with a roar.

Slightly turning to face her, Baphomet grabs her paw and his eyes begin to glow as he attempts to seize control of the sphinx only for her to blast him with a pillar of flames that send him flying back.

"You overestimate yourself, cur." says Atem as he appears in front of Baphomet with one of his golden khopesh slicing its way towards Baphmet's neck. "Only a Pharaoh has the right to command a sphinx. Mongrels like you can only admire their majesty while praying not to be eaten." says Atem even as Baphomet dodges and creates some distance between himself and his attacker.

"Truly the arrogance of a mere man knows no bounds." says Baphomet where he takes to the sky before clapping his hands and summoning an army of beasts ranging from mere wolves to massive dragons. "Come 'Pharoah' show me the power that you claim to possess before dying for my enjoyment." screams out Baphomet with a laugh.

"Arrogance… Is it arrogance if the words spoken are based on truth?" asks Atem as the golden khopeshes in his hands dissolve. "Is it arrogance if I am indeed superior to you?" he asks before taking a deep breath. "Five minutes, within five minutes your body will be broken and you will answer me, is proclaiming one's superiority arrogance!?" exclaims Atem as a shockwave explodes out from him and golden magical energy surrounds his body before quickly growing and taking the form of a 15 meter tall combat avatar, a giant holographic like shell in the form of featureless warrior which surrounds the caster.

Not to be outdone by their master, Bastet and Sekhmet let roar as their bodies quickly grew to stand as tall as the shoulders of Atem's combat avatar.

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AN: Here's the chapter, as usual tell me what you think and comment on your theories, I love reading them.

Also, if you can please support me on my Pat re on which is (pat re on .com / servantambrosius), the next chapter is there. And follow my writing account on instagram at servant_ambrosius I will most be posting about my current original story.