The Next Guest
Copyright© 2025 by Pars001
Chapter 13
Ephus - Demi-god
Quinn Markov - human wife of Ephus, blessed by multiple gods
Egyptian Dieties
Bast - Goddess of cats, protection, joy, dance, music, family, and love
Serket - Goddess of scorpions, medicine, magic, and healing venomous stings and bites
Anhur - God of war and the sky bearer - Full brother of Bast and Sekhmet
Thoth - God of knowledge
Greek deity
Enyo - goddess of war and destruction
Japanese Dietes
Amaterasu - Japanese Goddess of the sun (head goddess)
Wakahiru-me - younger sister of Amaterasu, goddess of the rising sun
Benten - Japanese Goddess of love
Hachiman - Japanese God of war
Shuten-dōji - King of Japanese Demons
Ibaraki-dōji - subordinate and Lieutenant of Shuten-dōji
Hachiman appeared a moment later with a somewhat glad look on his face. “Is all well brother?” Ephus asked.
Hachiman looked up and saw a worried Ephus. “As far as I know, it is my brother. I have been patrolling the now more protected areas and outside of them. As of yet, I have not detected Shuten-dōji, though I know he is still here.”
Ephus was now female free as they had all gone to another room to await him. “I will be out with you soon as it appears, that I have a few requests from those three,” here he indicated the three minor goddesses.
Hachiman sighed, then smiled, “Duty has to be completed before patrol. I will be waiting for you when you are finished,” he then slapped Ephus’s back as they parted.
More than four hours later, three well-satisfied and passed-out minor goddesses were checked by Serket. “Husband, they are with child, though they are rather exhausted. I remember that each time we were together,” here she bowed slightly. “Thank you husband,” she said as she blushed, then left.
Ephus smiled wide as he walked to Hachiman. “I believe I am ready,” he said to a slightly shocked and smiling Hachiman.
A great distance away, the lips of Shuten-dōji had a part of the face behind them. Shuten-dōji was as mad as he could be well what there was of him.
As he was growing back, he only had a trickle of power. He could feel another demon appear to help heal him. Damn, he thought this was going to take a long while.
He looked at the minor demon that was starting to pour what power it had into him. It was a few more minutes before two more minor demons appeared as they also added their power.
Shuten-dōji felt them, but as of yet, they weren’t really helping much. It was several hours later that no less than a hundred minor demons were pouring power into him. Still hardly helping though, he felt a trickle now on his face.
If he could have, he would have sighed, though as of yet he had no eyes. As for now, he was filled, as much as he was, with an acute sense of nothing but revenge.
First he thought as soon as he was whole again he’d start on the upstart Ephus. He was a mere demi-god, there was no way that he had more power than him, the king of demons.
Then, of course, he’d erode the shield that that bitch goddess had erected. She was his to use and abuse at his leisure, at least ‘til she was used up.
He felt his healing actually speed up a bit as another hundred minor demons appeared. As the first of his eyes started to start to appear, he started to try and plan more.
Shuten-dōji didn’t know how, but he would have revenge against Ephus for destroying all his perfect plans. For now, he had to manage to get whole as soon as possible.
With the addition of an eye, he felt a new surge in his power as he had more now. Being able to actually see was an added bonus to his abilities.
An hour later, his other eyes came into being, adding another surge to his power. He also felt his top lip start to form, which would facilitate him being able to speak soon.
He saw that almost all of his minor demons were back but a great deal of the stronger, higher demons were gone. Well, he thought, they had obviously gone at this far harder than he thought they would.
He was going to have to create more when he was back, he needed their added power. He looked over all the minor demons that were still around, he needed to promote a few.
With all this decided, he started to add his own healing with the added surges. Ah, yes! He could feel the healing start to advance faster, good! Both Hachiman and Ephus were out amongst the area that had been reclaimed by Amaterasu. It appeared that her power was almost up to full now as her influence was spreading far faster.
Ephus could see the love and respect that the people of the land felt for her. It appeared that, just like the other three realms that he had helped save, it was still the same.
The belief and love of the people seemed to empower the gods and goddesses. It also appeared that Amaterasu was loved and thought of more than the other three realm’s deities, interesting.
Now he thought they still had to rid this realm of the demon that was trying to destroy it. Ephus had been trying to change his power so that he could easier detect Shuten-dōji, no dice yet.
He was still working on it when he passed through a very low power frequency. The brief feeling of Shuten-dōji he got surprised him so greatly that he almost fell out of the sky.
A sly smile appeared on his face as he backed up and went through the frequency again. Again as before, he got a quick feeling of the demon king, then it faded as fast.
Ephus flew close to Hachiman, describing just what he’d felt. As with him, Hachiman got a very sly smile on his face, a smile that seemed to promise a bit of violence.
“It appears that we are finally gaining an advantage on that demon parasite, Hachiman said. “Soon perhaps, we can finally destroy this useless demon.”
Ephus smiled as he agreed, the demons had killed a good many innocent people. Then he remembered that there were also three strong female demons still out there. They hadn’t done anything for a while, perhaps they were destroyed? He had no way of truly knowing.
He sighed as he and Hachiman headed more in the direction he had felt Shuten-dōji. With any luck, he’d be able to end the demon ass that had tried to take what was his, his family.
Ephus continued to work through several frequencies, not really getting a feeling of Shuten-dōji. He noticed that he was getting lower and lower as he searched.
He had a thought as they continued to search, was it because Shuten-dōji was badly hurt? He had used an excessive amount of energy to hit him when he got angry. It had sapped him almost to the point of unconsciousness, not good.
He had been fortunate that three of his wives and brother-in-law had been there to retrieve him. He sighed as it hadn’t been his proudest moment that was for sure, especially with Hachiman there.
Then again, he thought, they all had, had really bad days themselves. He had been fortunate that they had been there to aid him after all.
Hachiman flew next to him as he looked at Ephus with a concerned look on his face. “My brother, is there anything I can do to ease your errant thoughts?” Hachiman asked.
Ephus sighed as they both stopped and hovered where they were. “I am more uncertain than I have ever been,” Ephus said.
Hachiman looked at him concerned, “In what way, my brother?” Hachiman asked.
“When I started this saving of the realms, I was certain that I knew what to do. I defeated two hell-bent gods on their quest for Chaos. I managed to completely save the three realms, but here? It seems that my efforts are backfiring greatly,” Ephus said.
Hachiman looked at Ephus as if the demi-god had lost his mind ‘til he thought about it for a moment. “Brother, your efforts are not backfiring, as you said. You have rescued all the major and minor gods and goddesses, not a little thing. You did this almost alone, another major undertaking, you are far stronger than almost all I have ever seen.”
Ephus looked into Hachbiman’s eyes, seeing nothing but sincerity there. That was when a shimmering appeared next to him as Anhur appeared, a look of glee that almost matched Hachiman’s.
A wide smile appeared on Hachiman’s face when he saw the other god of war. “Hoa brother, it seems a good day to hunt nasty demons,” Anhur said.
“The help is more than welcome,” Hachiman said with a wide smile.
A minute later, another shimmering appeared next to Ephus. A tall female goddess appeared with a spear and a torch.
“Enyo, Ephus said in surprise. “I had thought that this was too minor for you.”
An almost sinister smile appeared on her face as she looked all there. “As a goddess of war, I am more than ready to help with this blood-letting,” Enyo said.
Hachiman and Anhur looked at the spear and torch and smiled. “Another war deity is more than welcome, especially with the extreme numbers this demon has,” Ephus said with a smile.
All three of the war deities smiled at the thought of destroying the demons to come. “I heard you mention that you felt them this way?” Anhur asked. “Mayhaps we should spread out feeling for them.”
They all agreed that that might be prudent for the moment. They again set out in the direction that Ephus had felt the demon king last.
An hour later they were closing in on an area of mountains that they hadn’t been to yet. Ephus held up a hand as he had started to feel something even though it was weak.