Blessed by Night

Unsurprisingly, the one who stepped forward claiming to have a solution to the group's current predicament was none other than the devil himself; Lucifer.

Wearing his usual dark suit, he floated down towards the colosseum grounds and placed a hand on the back of the heaving nightmare that was Malachi.

"We should let those who have actually blessed him decide if they think he is worth the risk. After all, they surely must know his heart better than most."

Nyx seemed to like that idea unsurprisingly, and her face started to light up.

Unfortunately, the devil was good for nothing if not bursting one's bubble.

"Ah, but not you, Nyx. Your personal attachment to our boy here is a real conflict of interest. We'll have to come up with some different stipulations of course."

While the goddess of the night looked pissed, the rest of the primordials looked like they were finally in the mood to listen.

The air in the colosseum became noticeably less oppressive, and the lesser gods and higher beings were finally able to breathe.

"How about this!" Lucifer said confidently. "Each of the gods who have given our boy here a blessing will be free to test him however they want within their domain!

Once they have made a decision on whether or not they want to let him keep his blessings, they will pass him to the next god. When all four have made their decision we will return here, and cast a vote."

"Four?"

"I thought Nyx wasn't allowed to participate?"

"Oh, pardon me." Lucifer remembered. "Our dear nightmare here received Erebus' blessing at the last minute outside of the ceremony. Sorry you were all late to that party."

Everyone's eyes drifted towards the human shaped mass of darkness with a throne right beside Nyx's.

If he had some kind of remorse over it, he certainly did not show it.

Although he did flip Lucifer off as if he was not fully okay with being outed.

"Whoops. Sorry, bud."

"Eat shit, Seraphim."

"Yes, yes." Lucifer waived away the primordial's unkind words and instead focused on his proposal.

"If more than half of the panel agree that he should not have his powers and decide to take them away, then Nyx you must also retract your blessing from the boy."

Immediately, the night goddess became enraged again and Lucifer quickly tried to diffuse her ticking bomb.

"Now now, Nyx. Finish listening to me before you get all antsy like that. In the event that an astounding none of the highers decided that they want to trust him, his powers can be reinstated, but some kind of contingency plan will be enacted."

"You would have my son bent to your will like some kind of mongrel? I think not!"

"Be realistic here, Nyx. There are no other options other than the one I've laid out."

"I can hear all of you..." Malachi muttered in a very tired voice.

His monstrous figure stood up from the ground, still rubbing his head as if he were not quite over everything that had happened earlier.

Lucifer cooly slipped his hands back into his pocket as he looked the large creature up and down. "Then you tell us what you want to do, Mal. I'm sure you won't be as difficult to deal with as your mother is."

"Fuck you!"

"See?"

Malachi finally changed back into his normal appearnhace and looked at each and every one of the gods and goddesses who had blessed him aside from his mother.

Michael, Bastet, Raijin, and possibly even Erebus were all looking at him with some degree of suspicion.

Almost as if they'd already had their minds made up about him before things even began.

It reminded him an awful lot of the stares he was receiving before he left earth, and everything that came with them.

Before, he felt a bit sad because he was receiving these glares from humans who truly didn't know any better.

But these were gods who should have had more understanding.

He was not a vicious person.

He wasn't a monster or a tyrant who wanted to dine on every living being in existence.

And yet he was being treated as one for no reason at all.

It was all mind numbingly ironic.

"I'll take these damn tests of yours... but if I pass and you see that there's nothing malevolent about me, none of you will ever call me here ever again."

"And if you fail them?"

"Do what you want. I don't really give a shit anymore."

"Mala-" Nyx began.

"I'm alright, Ma. I just want to get this all out the way and go home." he said sincerely.

Nyx gritted her teeth and did not comment anything further.

A storm of emotions raged inside her; all of them depressing and negative.

As a mother, how could she not protect her son from this sort of awful ordeal?

Were she able, she would take her son back to her domain and hid him there for all of eternity; never letting him leave the blanket that represented her love.

But she knew that wasn't what her son wanted for himself or the future.

He wanted to get married to his girls who were sleeping in bed back home, and welcome the arrival of his baby that was currently nestled within Luna's womb.

And despite the massively selfish being that she was, she loved her child too much to take that from him.

'Malachi... I am sorry.' she thought sincerely.

"Well, alright then! Since the man himself has no objections then it seems there isn't anything else for us to discuss."

His eyes went towards the four special highers within the crowd and he made a time is ticking gesture on his wrist.

"So? Which one of you wants to take him first and put our young nightmare to the test?"

"...I will." Bastet stood up first and leapt from her seat all the way down to the colosseum sands.

The panther headed goddess stared at Malachi almost as coldly as she had when she first met him, and it nearly made him scoff out loud.

Bast snapped her fingers and opened up a swirling emerald green portal right behind them.

"Come."

She started walking without waiting to ensure that he was following behind her, and Mal hesitated a bit before his feet started to move too.

He wanted to look back at his mother and offer her a smile, but for some reason he just couldn't.

He could feel just how bad she was hurting, and he thought that it would break his own iron faced resolve if he saw his mother on the verge of crying.

However, he did send her a message telepathically.

'There isn't a thing you could have done to change any of this, and I will never blame you for a single second. You know how much I love you, Ma. Nothing will ever stop that."

Nyx smiled sweetly at Malachi's back and a single tear dropped from her eyes in that moment.

Honestly... how could someone be so consistently warm and kind?

Malachi's back disappeared through the portal a moment later, and she felt as if the brightest star in her night's sky had just died out.

-

Bastet's portal led to a very large throne room lined with treasures and big cats of every variety.

The goddess moved to sit on her throne and crossed her legs as she waited for Malachi to come through, but a problem soon arose.

He was taking way too long.

A few second later, her portal finally closed and yet there was no Malachi standing within her domain.

Even worse, she could no longer sense or feel him in any capacity.

Since she had blessed him, she should have had a basic method to track him and tell his vital signs with only a thought.

But she couldn't.

It was like he'd been erased from reality entirely.

"What is going on...?"

-

"Alright, I suppose we should adjourn the meeting today given all that has happened, yea?" Lucifer suggested.

Unsurprisingly, a great many of the highers nodded in agreement; each of them exhausted from everything they had suffered through today.

Nyx was especially ready to go; as she was feeling particularly emotionally raw.

She was half way out the door when she suddenly froze dead in her tracks; her ancient mind not at all willing to accept this reality that she unfortunately knew to be true.

"No... no no no no no no..."

Her insane muttering drew a great deal of attention as she clutched her head so tightly that she very nearl pulled out her own hair.

"Nyx?" Odin questioned. "What is-"

"YOU FUCKERS!"

If before Nyx's voice was cold and empty when mad, now it was booming and more demonic than even one of the 72.

Just the mere sound made the eyes and ears of the higher gods bleed terribly as they fell out of their seats one by one.

Though to them it sounded horrendous and oppressive; beings at her level would easily recognize the true heartbreak that followed whenever she spoke.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY SON?!"