Captain Alexander Vasilyevich Manukov glared at the hateful giant clad head to toe in some archaic steel armor like something out of Alexander Nevski. The damn monster kept standing there in front of the huge rift that was currently defiling Mother Russia.

Alexander watched with impotent rage as another giant stepped through the rift. This one was even taller than the first, she had had to duck to step through that rift. A blue skinned woman with purple hair wearing loose robes.

The First monster screamed and seemed to go mad pointing his sword and using it to shoot streams of fire around. Alexander’s lips thinned in pain, he just knew he had just lost more men. Then he smiled in satisfaction as a Konkurs impacted the giantess. There was a splash of blood under her breast.

Then the armored one fired more fire. Alexander only hoped that the hero who had fired the anti-tank missile had changed position in time.

Shimmering shields enveloped the giantess even as her wound closed.

Alexander withdrew behind the crest of the hill even as he used his communicator to check that the repositioning of his men was proceeding smoothly. Then once again he peered cautiously at the two giants. They seemed to be having a serious discussion. The giantess was gesturing freely as she spoke. They were still standing in front of the rift that was desecrating his Russia.

All in all this had been a hellish week. He had lost friends and comrades than he cared to think off. The men under his command had suffered grievously. He truly hated these invaders, his men were soldiers and he might have been able to forgive their loss, though to be honest he would never have forgiven that. But what was truly unforgivable was what they’d done to the ordinary citizens of the surrounding villages. To the innocent civilians who had been going about their ordinary lives.

Alexander felt his shoulders tense. They were nearly ready now. He had slowly withdrawn his men as ordered. They were now all in a position that would allow them to withdraw behind the surrounding hills. He grinned bitterly; while he wasn’t sure what HQ had planned, he suspected those two monsters weren’t going to like what was coming next.

* * *

The word finally came, and Captain Alexander Vasilyevich Manukov signaled his men to withdraw; the remaining APC crews abandoned their vehicles and joined the infantry as they made their way cautiously over the crests of the hills. The Artillery batteries launched a truly devastating bombardment, they all knew it wouldn’t hurt the giants but hopefully it would prevent them from sniping at the infantry.

Once the men were behind the hills and out of sight of the giants they broke into a run towards the newly built reinforced hangers that had been erected behind the most suitable hills in the vicinity.

“Yes!” exclaimed Alexander Vasilyevich Manukov as he observed the smoke trails that marked the six rapidly approaching cruise missiles.

Sergeant Vasili Novosiltsev delayed his withdrawal and remained in his post until his communicator started a twenty second countdown. When it reached eight, he rolled to his feet and threw himself over the crest of the hill and ran recklessly downhill.

Behind him a blinding bar of light reached down from the heavens as a bomb pumped laser that had been fired from an orbiting satelite hit Feroxibus, greatly depleting his manna reserves.

Vasili kept running, heading for the rendezvous as four cruise missiles passed him on their way to the rift. They rolled to avoid the area being covered by the artillery bombardment and then disappeared one after the other through the rift.

When Vasili arrived at the hanger, he was panting hard, and he barely noted the two trailing cruise missiles passing overhead.

= = O = =

Antonio was still missing his cat. Once again, as was his habit he parked his ancient car behind the low dunes at his favourite beach. He switched off his headlights and killed the motor. Behind him the sun was barely over the horizon. Collecting his things from the back seat he made his way slowly to the beach with his cooler and rod.

He couldn’t forget that weird dream he had had that night. A huge, and yet somehow benevolent looking lioness walking out of the sea, with Felicia riding on her shoulders, scaring the tourists. And then, looking straight at him, with eyes glowing with intelligence, and saying, “my blessings of health and battle, you’ll need them now the System’s here.”

Then he’d won the lottery, he’d been the sole winner too. As if that wasn’t enough, when he’d gone to the casino at Figueira da Foz to celebrate, he’d won big again. So now he had no financial worries, but he still felt somewhat depressed. Not helped by his grandson Pedro’s antics. Antonio gazed out at the sea as he contemplated his greedy grandson’s so far futile attempts to get his hands on his newly won wealth.

Antonio assembled his rod and made his first cast of the day. A few hours later he stopped and dismantled his rod, put his catch in his cooler and placed that in the shade of a scrubby tree at the edge of the beach. He headed back to sea, where he dived through the breakers and started to indulge in his favourite pastime, exploring the bottom of the sea.

A long lifetimes practice meant that he could stay under for several minutes at a time.

= = O = =

On Badonia three falcons had almost arrived at the world gate being used by the gods for their invasion when a large flying metallic golem transited from the far size and oriented on the city of the gods.

« Not a golem – a cruise missile belonging to the sons of the Rus – hurry my dear you have less than a minute to avoid death. Once through the gate turn right and fly through the small gate I have provided. The sons of the Rus have finished playing. Once through my gate land and brace yourself. This is going to be rough – the manna released when the City of Gods is destroyed and the Gods slain is not going to be funny. Ha ha ha ha! »

Shal strained her wings and pushed herself even harder. She passed through the world gate just after the second Cruise Missile passed through it and headed for the City of the Gods. On turning to her right, or West, she spotted Loki’s gate and made for it. Behind her the fourth missile was nosing into the gate as the two smaller falcons that were following her emerged, oriented themselves and flew after her. All three had barely made it through Loki’s gate when it snapped shut.

Shal landed in a huge wheat field resumed her human form, and collapsed. Lilly and Elorinal joined her, also collapsing on resuming their normal shapes.

“What was all that about? And why the sudden hur—” panted Lilly.

= = O = =

Feroxibus, the pre-eminent god of war of the world of Badonia was stunned. His armour was partially melted and he had fallen to one knee, his sword however remained in his right hand. Beside him Sisanna the goddess of magic was swaying and her hair was smoking. Her eyes were unfocused as she frantically tried to regain control of the bindings that secured this world’s magic.

Neither of them noticed the two cruise missiles that bobbed over the small mountain to their south and moved to position themselves to cause maximum damage to their target. The gods and the world gate.

On Badonia the four missiles ringed the city of the gods, watched by several uncomprehending lesser gods, followers and slaves. When they attained what their onboard computers decided was an optimal position they went off nearly simultaneously and Badonia experienced its first taste of atomic war.

The city of the gods was destroyed, as was part of the mountain. Every being present in the city was killed. Still things might not have been too bad for the gods and some of the greater ones might have been able to reintegrate themselves if not for the massive manna reserves that the Gods had been stockpiling under their city for more than a millennia. These reserves were ruptured and reacted with the atomic fires. The resulting explosions acted on both a physical and mystical plane. The city and a good third of the great mountain it had sat on were vaporised.

As were the remains of the gods, eliminating any chance of their resurrection.

The two missiles on Earth went off bare seconds after the ones on Badonia. So Feroxibus and Sisanna, reeling from the psychic shock of their fellow gods demise and damaged by the massively powerful laser, had no chance of resisting the two bombs that killed them and vaporised their bodies.

The fact that Earth at this point possessed virtually no manna and that the massive world gate was close to the mountain of the gods meant that much of the manna released, in fact a majority of it was blasted through the world gate destabilizing it. It shredded and collapsed causing countless powerful manna storms to ravage the Earth. These storms finished the task of destroying the seals on Earth’s manna springs that had been weakened by the Goddess Sisanna. This only served to increase the power of the manna storms.

Everyone on six worlds heard the System’s announcement:

ting: The Russian Federation has slain the Gods Feroxibus and Sisanna defeating the Gods of Light’s invasion of their country. Their counter strike rendered the City of Gods and much of the Holy Mountain into radioactive dust. The Gods and their followers who were present in the city were killed.

* * *

The System gathered the manna that was ravaging the world and had a field day.