To Kill a God
an excerpt

“BACK AWAY FROM ME!” The now very awake Zior shouted. Merran practically jumped out of his skin, falling backwards, eyes wide seeing the now awake mage, who’s voice was far louder then seemed possible. Back farther, where the others stood, Death sighed, the Scout jumped, and Selki burst out laughing.
“Sh-shut up!” Merran called to Selki from his none too comfortable position on the ground.
“You!” The mage shouted at Death. “I told you not to come here! I’LL KILL YOU!”
“But I’ve not yet freed you from your chains.”
“I don’t care! Get out of here!”
“I’m afraid that is not possible we need you.” During this, Merran had been slowly backing away, hoping not to get obliterated by some spell or another.
“I can’t help. I’m not coming down!”
“You don’t have that choice, Zior. You were right. The balance of light and dark has been thrown awry. We need you to help fix it.
“You need me? You need ME?! What do you need me for?! You messed the whole thing up fine yourself! All powerful God not even powerful enough to clean up after himself?! You make me sick!”
“I didn’t do it by myself, you know that. You helped me. It was thanks to you that the war of the gods was won. You need to help.”
“No. NO! I helped on your command! If it was not for your… Your ultimate stupidity, you wouldn’t be in this mess!”
“We. We’re in this together. Our mess is yours.”
“You’re wrong! I could not care any less then I already do about your pitiful soul troubles. It means nothing to me, you hear me?! NOTHING!”
“Minions, I can see we are not getting through to- Merran, get back here!” the scared Merran, who had almost made it out of the building, came walking nervously back. “Stick to fighting. Sneaking isn’t for you. As I was saying, talking sense into this mage will not-”
“That’s because there’s no sense to be had!” The mage shouted from across the room.
“Quiet, you. Merran, go break his chains.” Merran gave Death the kind of look that said; ‘you want me to do that?’, and Death nodded encouragement. “Go on. He can’t use magic while chained.”
“But he won’t be chained when I free him!”
“He’ll take his anger out on me, not you. Now go. That’s an order.” Merran slowly walked up to the mage, hoping he would not scream again. Or at least not vaporize him. The mage seemed fairly passive though, so Merran went to work. He jumped in the air, and put all his weight down on the chain. It gave a little pull, so he tried again. After the second time, the mage whispered, low enough so that only Merran could hear, and said;
“If you free me from my chains, I will make your bones wish they had not been given such a horribly tortured body as yours, while they are disintegrating.” Merran walked quickly back to the group, and said;
“Err, maybe Selki should do it.”
“You coward!” Death shouted, “You will-”
“I’ll do it…” Selki said. “Not a big deal.” She jogged to the chains with a confident air, and as she got there, the mage whispered a similar threat to Selki, who paid it no heed. She examined the first chain for a moment. She got a firm grip on it, and with one mighty pull, the first chain broke. The group stared in awe, as she did the same with the next chain.
“I’ll boil your flesh using a spell to keep you alive and feed it to you!” The third chain. “I’ll… I’ll… Damnit! Get off!” As Selki pulled the final chain from its place, she decided not to tell Merran that she had used a strength spell to accomplish her feat. Selki took some steps back as the arch-mage dropped to the ground, and stared for a moment at Death. Then, with a mighty roar, charged at Death. Death took an easy step to the side, grabbed the fist that the mage had thrown, and twisted his arm, forcing him to the ground.
Zior shook with rage, and stood up, glaring at Death. “Fine. But I won’t use magic.”
“Yes you will.”
“No I won’t!”
“Yes, you will.”
“Fine! But nothing violent.”
“Yes you will.” The mage glared at Death. “Just kidding.”