War of Gods, page 1
part #3 of Paternus Series
PRAISE FOR WAR OF GODS
“War of Gods is the epochal ending to The Paternus Trilogy. Ashton writes with flair, wit and a certain je ne sais quoi that makes the read uniquely special. War of Gods does it all on a ‘maha’ level with its magical battles and insane action sequences, and confirms why Ashton should be considered the Tolkien of the Twenty-first century.”
–Fantasy Book Critic
“This is urban fantasy at its utter best. If you love massive battles, mythology, engaging narratives and satisfying conclusions, you have to read this book.”
–Novel Notions
“It’s like standing on a mountain summit at night, seeing the universe laid out before you. And it’s a battlefield. It. Is. Amazing.”
–The Speculative Faction, Phil Parker, author of The Knights’ Protocol Trilogy
“Epic, emotional, and wonderful.”
–The Bibliophile
“One of the most epic, heartbreaking and satisfying conclusions to a fantasy series I've ever had the joy of experiencing. It’s simply phenomenal.”
–Laura M. Hughes, author of Danse Macabre
“Brace yourself for an epic battle that makes Avengers: Endgame feel like a school chess match. War of Gods is a triumph.”
–Phil Charles R Blog
“The last 300+ pages are a marvel of keeping up a driving, reader-hooking pace. People are going to LOVE this book.”
–Dorian Hart, author of The Ventifact Colossus
Paternus: War of Gods
Dyrk Ashton
Paternus Books Media
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Paternus: War of Gods is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is entirely coincidental.
2020 Paternus Books Media
Copyright © 2020 by Dyrk Ashton.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Paternus Books Media, DBA
P.O. Box 1027
Perrysburg, OH 43552
www.paternusbooks.com
Paternus: War of Gods / Dyrk Ashton. — 1st ed.
ISBN 9780997173741
Cover Illustration: John Anthony Di Giovanni
Cover Design: STK-Kreations
PBM Logo: Brie Rapp
Author’s Photograph: Lee Fearnside
To:
Richard & Harriette Ashton
Nelson Sr. & Alice Campbell
Ralph & Maggie Ashton
and
Tom Oldham
“Before the consummation of the age, the world will shake with great thundering. The rulers will see the coming of their death. The angels will mourn for their humankind, and the demons will weep over their seasons.
“The sun will become dark, and the moon will cause its light to cease. The stars of the sky will cancel their circuits, and a mighty clap of thunder will come out of a great power that is above all the forces of chaos.
“Indeed, by their acts and their knowledge, each person will make their own nature known.”
–Gnostic Prophecy
Contents
The Story So Far - Book One
The Story So Far - Book Two
The Characters So Far
Glossary
Part I
1. New Vanaheim
2. Africa
3. Oslo
4. Asgard
5. Oslo 2
6. Asgard 2
7. Africa 2
8. Asgard 3
9. New Vanaheim 2
10. Oslo 3
11. Asgard 4
12. Africa 3
13. Oslo 4
14. Africa 4
15. Oslo 5
16. Asgard 5
17. New Vanaheim 3
18. Africa 5
19. New Vanaheim 4
20. Oslo 6
21. Africa 6
22. Oslo 7
23. New Vanaheim 5
Part II
24. Kumari Kandam
25. Africa 7
26. Erset La Tari
27. England
28. Erset La Tari 2
29. Africa 8
30. Kumari Kandam 2
31. Africa 9
32. Kumari Kandam 3
33. Kumari Kandam 4
34. Kumari Kandam 5
35. Erset La Tari 3
36. Kumari Kandam 6
37. Kumari Kandam 7
38. Erset La Tari 4
39. Kumari Kandam 8
40. Kumari Kandam 9
Part III
41. Erset La Tari 5
42. Erset La Tari 6
43. Erset La Tari 7
44. Aeons
45. Erset La Tari 8
46. Erset La Tari 9
47. Erset La Tari 10
48. Erset La Tari 11
49. Erset La Tari 12
50. A Discovery
51. Erset La Tari 13
52. Erset La Tari 14
53. Erset La Tari 15
54. Erset La Tari 16
55. Erset La Tari 17
56. Erset La Tari 18
57. Erset La Tari 19
58. Erset La Tari 20
59. Erset La Tari 21
60. Erset La Tari 22
61. Erset La Tari 23
62. Erset La Tari 24
63. Erset La Tari 25
64. Erset La Tari 26
65. Erset La Tari 27
66. Mumbai
67. Mumbai 2
68. Old West End
Epilogue
Thank you!
Also by Dyrk Ashton
Acknowledgments
About the Author
The Story So Far - Book One
Paternus: Rise of Gods
The story told in book one took place today, in this world, but the veil of normality was gradually peeled back to reveal that the gods and monsters of myth and legend really did exist, all sired by one being, The Father (The Pater), and born of various natural animals throughout the history of life on the planet. They are called Firstborn. Those who sided with their father to protect humankind in ancient wars are the Deva, and those who opposed them, the Asura.
First, we were introduced to Kabir, a bodyguard in Detroit, who was attacked in an alley by a creature named Maskim Xul (The Spider), also known as Max. In Toledo, Ohio, we then met Fiona Megan Patterson, Fi for short, and her (possible) boyfriend, Zeke Prisco. While talking on the sidewalk outside her uncle’s home where she lives, Fi’s uncle’s enormous dog, Molossus (Mol) showed up. Fi experienced a seizure in which she had a vision of a baby floating in a red ocean on a world with shooting stars and erupting volcanoes.
Fi had the creepy feeling she was being watched by the moon, but attributed it to her being crazy – which she really wasn’t, just a bit high strung. Inside the house we were introduced to her stuffy British Uncle Edgar.
The story shifted to South America, where Baphomet (The Goat), Ao Guang (The Gharial), and Idimmu Mulla (Dimmi, The Hyaena) had a run-in with a frightening lizard-beast in a cave – whom we later found out was the legendary Prathamaja Nandana, The First Daughter, one of the oldest living Firstborn.
Meanwhile, in the Mendip Hills of England, a big fellow named Bödvar Bjarki (The Bear) was spotted by Fintán mac Bóchra (The Falcon) seeking the cave where Myrddin Wyllt (Merlin, The Madman) had been trapped 1,500 years ago. In subsequent chapters, Bödvar found Myrddin and released Lamia (The Leech), who nearly killed Myrddin before Fintán arrived to save him.
We also followed the story of Tanuki, Arges (The Rhinoceros, also the armorer of the gods in many myths), and Asterion, (The Bull), who all lived in a mountain dwelling above the Order of the Bull monastery in Turkey. They were attacked by Asura Firstborn Ziz (The Quetzalcoatlus) and Xecotcovach (Xeco, The Terror Bird). Arges was killed and Asterion fell from the cliff, while Tanuki escaped to a safe room on the other side of the mountains.
Back in Ohio, Fi was an intern at a local hospital for the aged. Her best friend, Billy, was an orderly, and Zeke played guitar for the old folks there. Fi’s primary job was to take care of a catatonic old man named Peter. The hospital was attacked by Kleron (The Bat, whom we found out later was Lucifer and Master of the Asura himself), a gang of wampyr and werewolves, Max, and the Cerberus brothers – Cù Sìth (red eyes), Wepwawet (blue eyes), and Surma (with yellow eyes and only one arm). Mol, Uncle Edgar's dog, arrived unexpectedly and killed a bunch of wampyr and weres, but was driven off. Billy, revealed to be Samson, fought back and was killed. Peter “slipped” Fi and Zeke to other worlds until they came to the white sands and milky ocean of World Memory, where Peter was transformed into a man who appeared to be in his early forties, and who we later learned is The
Fi and Zeke followed Peter to retrieve his spear (Gungnir), identification, and cash from a bank on another world, and we found out Zeke also has the ability to slip – a rare thing for anyone, especially a human. While at the bank, Zeke spotted a man outside and followed him. He was shaken and pale upon his return, but divulged nothing of what had happened.
Fi and Zeke left Peter at a restaurant and ran into Fi’s Uncle Edgar, as well as Mol, who had escaped the hospital. Edgar took them to his employer’s manor in the country along the river. Peter was there and they discovered he had been Edgar’s employer all along. Kleron and his posse showed up, leading to a battle which included Asura brought back from the dead – Mahisha (The Buffalo Demon), and Tengu-Andrealphus (The Peafowl).
Zeke inadvertently slipped Fi, Edgar and Mol away, and they saw that other worlds had been overrun with swarms of infernal locusts. At one point, Peter went to save Zeke and saw the locusts as well.
Back at Peter’s house, Cù Sìth defied Master Kleron by killing his Cerberus brothers and saving the life of Kabir, brought as a bargaining chip by Kleron and Max.
At the end of the battle, Edgar, Mol, Fi and Zeke escaped into tunnels beneath Peter’s home, and Kleron’s minions detonated bombs that destroyed the house, burying Peter. Fi and Zeke were saved from the collapsing tunnels by none other than Mrs. Mirskaya, Fi’s old babysitter and owner of a Russian market where Fi once worked. Together in a chamber in the tunnels, Edgar and Mrs. Mirskaya told Fi and Zeke who Peter was and what the Firstborn were. Edgar revealed himself to be Thirdborn and Sir Galahad, and that Mrs. Mirskaya was Firstborn and the ancient Slavic deity Mokosh. They then revealed to Fi that she herself was Firstborn and therefore Peter was her long-lost father who abandoned her mother before Fi was born. (Fi’s mom died in a plane crash when Fi was seven, which was why she lived with Edgar).
Kleron and Max showed up again, and not even Edgar/Galahad and Mrs. Mirskaya/Mokosh could fight them off. Kleron was about to bite Edgar’s face off when The Prathamaja Nandana arrived with Baphomet, Ao Guang, and Dimmi as her prisoners. Kleron and Max were no match for her, so they fled – but not before Kleron had Max bite Fi with his poisonous fangs.
Peter finally made his way to them, and Pratha did her best to save Fi while Zeke panicked. They took her, unconscious but still alive, to a boat, then downriver toward Lake Erie, but not before Peter tossed an old coin on an islet in the river below his home for Kabir and Cù Sìth to find.
Fintán and Myrddin Wyllt left England to locate their father, and Myrddin vowed to find his estranged grandson, Galahad. Asterion arrived, gravely injured, in the safe room where Tanuki had been grieving. Kabir and Cù Sìth swam to the islet and found the coin, which Kabir knew was a call for a gathering of the Warriors of Old – the Deva Firstborn who fought in the ancient wars they called the First and Second Holocausts, but we humans know as the mythic battles between gods and titans, light and darkness, heaven and earth. Though Kabir didn’t trust Cù Sìth, he agreed to take him with him to meet the other Firstborn (though there weren’t that many of them left). At the end, the motif of the moon watching the events taking place on earth was repeated.
The Story So Far - Book Two
Paternus: Wrath of Gods
Book two began with Zeke having nightmares of another life, a terrible life of abuse, addiction, violence and even murder. He woke up on an airplane, flying off the coast of Scotland on the way to the abode of Freyja, The Mother of Cats and Dogs, in Norway. Edgar (Galahad), Mol (Edgar’s dog, The Hound of War), and Mrs. Mirskaya (Mokosh) were also on the plane, as were Prathamaja Nandana (The First Daughter), Baphomet (The Goat), Idimmu Mulla (Dimmi, The Hyaena), and Peter. To Zeke’s surprise and joy, Fi had awakened and was recovering from the bite of Maskim Xul (Max, The Spider). Through a window, Zeke saw Myrddin Wyllt (Merlin, The Madman) riding on the back of Fintán mac Bóchra (The Falcon). Unfortunately, they were also being pursued by fighter jets and were forced to abandon the plane.
The group gathered on the coast of Scotland and hid in a box canyon to repair the truck they had airdropped from the plane. Zeke passed out from fatigue, and while Pratha tended him, Baphomet killed Dimmi. The only reason Peter did not kill him in return was they wanted to interrogate him, and since they were already in Scotland, they would take him to the underground vault of The Lady of the Lake, beneath a remote loch. The Lady had ancient treasures stored there, including the Siege Perilous, a chair built by Myrddin Wyllt for King Arthur. To tell a lie while sitting in it meant certain death.
Having repaired the truck, they began their trek to the lake. Along the way, Peter gave Zeke lessons on slipping between worlds. When the lessons were complete, Nidhogg swallowed Peter and ran off. To Fintán’s surprise, Zeke picked up Peter’s spear (Gungnir), something not even Elder Firstborn should be able to do without serious injury or death. Zeke and Fintán followed Nidhogg and Peter escaped.
In the truck, Fi had a seizure, during which she saw through the eyes of Kleron (Lucifer) as he slipped to a mountain complex on a desolate hidden world. By Pratha’s leave, Baphomet explained how Fi’s clairvoyance worked, and Pratha said if Fi could learn to control it, she could be a great help to the Deva.
The truck broke down and the group was forced into a maze of canyons by a military force under control of the Asura. The group was split up and Fi killed a soldier who was about to shoot Edgar in the back. Fi, Edgar, Mol and Baphomet were cornered in a canyon. Peter and Fintán arrived and destroyed assault helicopters, Pratha came out of the maze in the enormous form of four-armed Kali, and Mrs. Mirskaya called upon a river to flood the canyon.
Zeke, separated from the fight, made his way toward the sounds of gunfire, but had a vision of a world being utterly destroyed by none other than himself – another Zeke, who had lived a very different life from his own. When he leaned on a boulder, he heard the stone calling to him. When the flood came, the watered inexplicably carried him gently, keeping him safe.
Back in the canyon, the enemy soldiers were regrouping, but a different military force arrived and forced them to surrender. The leader of the new arrivals was Colonel Jaqueline Bryant-Hughes, who was revealed to also be a high-ranking member of the secret order of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ – the Knights Templar. To everyone’s surprise, she knew that Edgar was Galahad.
