Ministers And Gods

The construction wasn’t going exactly as Tyronis had foreseen it, this may have been a paradise but the scenery came with a price, the soil was impossible to work with. It was hard to find a spot to build a house without it caving down in the mucky tropical ground, despite these drawbacks he could still see progress.

As of yet there were about a dozen completed houses, all of very simplistic square designs varying in size depending on the size of the family. Ranking would not affect the housing in this society, New Eradonia would be different.

Now there was one thing to discuss before it could truly be considered a society, or to be more precise, three more things to discuss. One was the matter of government, Tyronis and many others refused to succumb to anarchy, despite its failings Tyronis was going for a monarchy.

At the meeting table in the first building ever constructed in New Eradonia, a building standing over the powerful river with large steel poles keeping it deep underground, it had taken all of Gomlin’s might to do this but now that it was completed, nothing short of a hurricane could knock this building down.

Sitting at the table were five Greek representatives, Adonis and the remainder of the original sevenfold, excluding Ares. " Monarchy, you really want to make the same mistake we did last time. We can’t have a tyranny, democracy’s a sham and monarchy’s a joke."

Tyronis sighed in annoyance, every single meeting Dominic was like this, arguing with every idea he gave, " And then what would you have us do, turn into an anarchy. Become savages, survival of the fittest and all that crap you cherish so much? We need order, not chaos."

Dominic laughed at this, it seemed at each meeting that all the others were always silent and it was just the two of them there, as though no one else actually cared. They just sat there, anticipating a fight to break out between these two at any time, ready to interfere, " No, that’s our problem. We are looking at the cliche here, we need something new, a new form of government."

Rising to his feet everyone frowned at him, " Make our own rules, our own proceedings and stick with them. We need to combine all the governments into one, control of a dictatorship in matters of war, but the right to vote in civilian matters, anarchy freedoms with a limit and the respect of a monarchy. Why stick with one and watch its inevitable failure, when we can mix them all up and create something new?"

Loki began laughing hard at this, looking around he coughed to stop laughing, " That is absurd, there is a reason you cannot mix them together, there is a reason its never been done, you can’t have total freedom with total control. You..."

Interrupting him Dominic jumped on the table right in front of him, crouching he said right in his face, " Watch me, that’s exactly why we should do it. Its never been done, its impossible, I happen to like impossible because no one anticipates impossible. We want that edge, we want to see the plan no one else can see, we won’t see it if we follow the same rule book than the Greeks, or some other predecessor."

Doing a backflip back in his chair, evidently full of energy making him overly eccentric he placed his feet on the table, " Lets burn the book, the Greeks may have mastered the book but we’ll write our own book, our own rules, they’ll never see it coming."

It was an interesting idea to contemplate, putting aside his eccentric behaviour Kulos rose to his feet, " I have been silent in these matters, not caring much for this New Eradonia. But I agree with our eccentric friend here, we cannot fall in the same trap that dragged Eradonia down in the first place. We seen one society rise and fall, we can learn from that now, use it to our advantage."

Tyronis was dumbfounded by what he was hearing, even Loki seemed to be agreeing now. How could they approve to such madness, " Are you not listening to his words? This is folly, you can’t take the government so lightly, its going to cause a devastating mess and..."

One thing was clear as Dominic interrupted, they did not have the Greek discipline, " Haven’t you ever cleaned your room Tyronis, I guess not knowing you it probably never changed appearances in all the years you lived in it. In my experience if you really wanna clean your room you gotta mess it up and redo it from scratch, consider New Eradonia as a giant room."

As Tyronis grew even more astounded at this crazy talk Cyranos coughed to get their attention. Ever since he’d regained his true elvish form he’d only grown ten times more arrogant, reminding them of his lineage as often as he could as though anyone cared, " If I may insert a comment in this rather perplexing dilemma, I must agree with Dominic here."

Looking over at Celestria Tyronis asked in an annoyed voice, " Since everyone is losing their minds here lets see what the sage thinks of the situation, what do you think we should do Celestria?"

Everyone looked at her intensily, they already knew Gomlin’s answer because he always pretended to be of the majority, but Celestria was unpredictable at best. Taking notice of this new attention she said sarcastically " Does it really matter what I think? We have a majority here if we should go for democracy, or one of us could simply force the others to agree, or better yet, lets all do what we want and hope to hell nothing bad happens."

As they now frowned at her, never having seen her in such a state she faced Tyronis directly, " They are not insane, you are a coward stuck to a destructive pattern. Your like a man given answers to a challenge, but ignoring the answers and going with the plan that failed previously. We need a change, its going to be risky, but we need a change."

And that was the first issue, Tyronis hated the idea as much as a priest hated the devil but knew he had no choice, unless he could overpower them which was highly unlikely the decision had been made. It didn’t really matter what the Greeks wanted, they couldn’t do shit even if they disagreed.

However they agreed nonetheless, among the Greeks the only one Tyronis gave respect to was Medrius, at least he had a voice to speak out. They still had two more issues to deal with, at times it seemed to Tyronis that he was the only one who even took all of this seriously.

Everyone giving their full attention, not having much else to pay attention to he resumed, " This second issue is just as important as the first, we evidently need to separate our tasks so each one of us is responsible for one part of New Eradonia."

"I know I may not be a diplomat but I know we’ll need a war minister, someone with a violent mind and genius tactics. Diplomatic minister, we won’t survive without allies. Magic Minister, and yes we should consider teaching these people magic, they have it in them."

Excusing himself politely they all looked as Medrius said, " If I may be so blunt as to say this is not going to work, it is evident we have no power here. Did you think you could give us authority and expect us to be quiet. I know you overpower me, but I will be heard, the way you talk its as though all your ministers are preselected."

This one had more mouth than he’d first guessed, Dominic gave Tyronis a do you want me to kill him look, Tyronis ignored him, " We vote, if you want go choose two more Greeks and it will be an equal number. But we should begin votes now."

At the mention of votes Loki erupted in yet another fit of laughter, something he was prone to do as of late, maybe it was the lack of blood that was getting to his head, " We’re seriously going to vote on this, its obvious what we have to do, we know who’s good at what, why vote. What is Medrius going to do, kill me?"

Those were both good points, and when it came down to it wether they voted or not the results would be the same. Knowing this a vote would at least keep Medrius on their side, he might prove a useful insight in the Greek military protocol. Although Dominic had already learnt much from Adonis’ library, they could use first hand experience.

Looking around the room he began, " As I was saying, lets begin the votes now. If you really want a position sign up for it and we’ll start voting. Medrius, get two more representatives and they can vote as well."

The votes began, it was the most tedious task they had to endure as of yet. Even the construction delays was nothing compared to this, although the candidates rose quite quickly but the voting proved to be more difficulty than he’d anticipated, meeting many stale mates and re-votes they stayed in that tent for two days.

Two days of annoyance, arguing and hate, but it was eventually done. Pens were a pain in the ass, having to dip the pen in the ink every five minutes and even then it always dried up, and there were now 14 papers per post.

Tyronis who was the unofficial mediator rose, getting everyone’s attention he began giving the votes. Although the results did not finish him, when it came down to it Tyronis became the leader of the entire New Eradonia, people had felt that he would be the best leader, being the most level headed of them all.

Dominic became the official war minister, being of a more volatile nature than the others. Celestria being the diplomatic minister because they could not deny that she was the most tranquil, peaceful person any of them had ever met, and she held no grudges and chose no sides.

Loki being the most back stabbing sinister of nature was automatically chosen as the intelligence minister, other posts were given but by the end of the day it was all done at last. The government was settled, the rankings were in place and now all that would be left would be to announce it to their new people.

As he walked out to announce what was now completed, all the people gathered together awaiting the news, like sheep waiting for a shepherd, he wondered what had gone wrong with Ares, why was it always the evil ones that gained all the power?

***

He enjoyed the view now that he was free of that small enclosed prison, watching as the reparations were being made after Adonis’ mad dash out of Athens. It had been a predictable move at best, but today was a day of great importance. He turned, facing the Senate he smiled at the changes that were going to take place. At least, the changes that would take place if his father had really done what he said he had.

They all looked nervous, to Ares they represented the gods very well, they feared Ares and anyone of his power, they were probably as nervous as these mortals, if not more. One thing he’d learnt, with great power came a great fear of losing it, that fear drove one to greater power and greater fear, it was a never ending cycle.

Finally the Emperor walked in the room, bearing his usual sinister look the Senate grew even more nervous, he laughed that when Dark Fairy walked in they did not seem to fear her as much, she was of equal power and malice than themselves, she deserved to be feared.

Standing in a triangle formation, Emperor at point he began, " It is time for a change, for too long have things been this way, the people lead us by the nose here, the gods lead us by the nose, democracy leads us by the nose. No more manipulation, and that means we start from new, scrap democracy and bring in the superior government."

Their faces turned to a contorted outraged face, although they were too cowardly to say anything. Walking by them Dark Fairy smiled, " We won’t be needing you all anymore, time to meet your gods." Raising her hands they began to tremble as their life essences were sucked out of them.

They screamed in pain as their bodies began to cave in, blood dried, bones snapping. When it was over they were nothing but piles of ashes, turning to Ares she said, " You know what to do now, time to take way the gods’s power."

Ares smiled, teleporting right outside the temple dedicated to Zeus he watched as the many worshippers placed their sacrifices and bowed down to that large statue, summoning a great amount of physical power he smashed his foot into the ground, a large crack forming from where his foot left all the way to the temple.

Crossing the whole temple the ground began to shake, foundation broken everyone began to run in panic. However, the worshippers never made it out as the ground beneath the temple opened in two, like a door underground, the temple that was cracked in two crumpled down easily, falling into the bottomless pit, killing all inside.

Satisfied by this work he went to the next one, there were a lot of temples to destroy in a lot of cities, and he would be glad to destroy every one of them.

***

Senate now dead the Emperor could finally put his plan into action, " Your wondering what my plan is, I anticipated a moment such as this one for a long time, a dream I’ve had since childhood. Unlike most I was born with the curse, I am the curse. I secretly infected twelve people, my son included."

Dark Fairy who was a very perceptive person caught on immediately, " And your going to replace the gods with them, your the new Cronus and they will be the new gods of Olympia. But where are they, I think people would notice people of Ares’ power grade if there were any."

The Emperor smiled at that, although it was not a pleasant sight to see, it was more like the smile of a shark before it ate its prey, " The curse is in a sleeper mode, and usually it goes in phases. Phase one is simple little power, it takes a long time to kick in usually, the more one kills the more evident it becomes."

"But I can speed it up, skip phase two and even phase three, and go right to phase four. Ares is phase three but when the others are assembled, they will all be phase four. All evil, all with the same gifts of the gods but this time we will have more control. Once we control Olympia, the whole world will worship us."