11: God of War

  Taufers Castle, Northern Italy 1943, September 25th.

  "Sir! I bring news!"

  Generalmajünther Braun exhaled the smoke he had been holding in his lungs, lowered the pipe in his hands, and looked up from the dots on his desk. His cold eyes turowards the messenger who had abruptly entered his office, but he didn't show irritation; instead, he owards the soldier and raised his hand for the guards who had aimed their ons to stand down.

  Only now did the messenger notiore than 8 men had been pointing their guns directly at him, sweat trickled down his neck, and he couldn't help but swallow nervously.

  "Speak," Generalmajor said, and the soldier nodded.

  "W-We've lost all tact with the base in Uttenheim. The st thing we mao find out was that a group of partisaanitiated a frontal atta them 6 ho. Sihen, unications have been lost, and any reaissaroop sent to verify the situation has lost tact with us."

  Günther Braun looked at the soldier sternly before standing up. With his hands behind his back, he walked towards the window in his office, admiring the views that Taufers Castle offered due to its location.

  Even more impressive was the army of over 15 thousand men surrounding the pce, preparing for the decisive blow towards Italy.

  Günther Braun caressed the ring on his left hand as he pohe ret events. Günther Braun was not just a Generalmajor; he was also a member of Hydra, one of the few important members uhe and of Johann Schmidt. His stay in Sand in Taufers was a st-minute assig.

  inally, the German army was supposed to liberate Mussolini and use him tain their influen Italy; after all, Italy was crucial for a proper defense of Southern Europe.

  But befermany could even begin to pn how to do it, Mussolini was assassinated, just five days after being ousted as Prime Minister of Italy by the Grand Fascist cil and arrested by orders of King Vimanuel III. Benito Mussolini died from a gunshot to the head.

  The perpetrator of his assassination was not made public, but thanks to the German intelligework, it was discovered that it was the work of a resentful former Italian soldier against the former Prime Minister.

  With their pn tain influen Italy interrupted in that way, things had to ge.

  Thus, the Third Reich assigned Günther Braun as the new responsible party to es power over Italy. At first, Generalmajor was unsure about it; the Allies would undoubtedly use this opportunity to try to cross the borders with Austria into Germany, and if he didn't hahings correctly, this could have serious sequences.

  That's why he had turo Hydra.

  If he wao ensure his victory, he needed more than just the support of the Third Reich; he o gain the support of the gods.

  And Hydra now possessed the power of the gods.

  It should have been easy; he should have been able to make his way to Bolzano ihan a day, so why? Why, i 48 hours, had he lost not only o three important bases?!

  He ched his teeth and recalled the most important information he had been receiving over the st few hours: a tall, imposing figure dressed in blue, red, and white, with a star on his chest and a metal shield on his arm, a super soldier capable of overing any obstacle aing any on.

  Captain America.

  Just uttering that name in his mind made him want to spit. He had sent troops, ons beyond any other on, a his men were losing. No matter how much he wao deny it, the reality was that he was in trouble.

  He was supposed to be just a circus monkey, a giving flowery and stupid speeches to cheer the masses, so why? Why did he possess so much power?!

  "Listen to my and, have a Staffeln (squadron) of Kampfgeschwader (unit of aerial bombers) take off towards Uttenheim. I want them to bombard the entire ptil it's dust, all the way to Bolzano if necessary!"

  "B-but sir, our meill—" The soldier was cut off by a cold and fierce gre from Generalmajor.

  "Do you question my orders, soldier?" The messenger swallowed hard and quickly stood upright, saluting with his hand, sweat running down his forehead.

  "No sir!"

  And so, more than 16 never-before-seen pnes began preparations for their takeoff, their engines r with pulses of unknown energy that emitted a blue glow.

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  "What araordinary thing," the words came from a middle-aged man named Emilio. His hands carefully examined one of the dozens of Hydra ons that the partisaance army had stolen, tools of different types scattered across the worktable that had been specially prepared for him.

  Beside him, John nodded as he watched Emilio remove one of the batteries p the ons.

  After quering San Giio, their advance didn't halt. They capitalized on the high morale to keep attag until Uttenheim. With the neons and John's active assistan the front, even if the number of eationed in Uttenheim outnumbered them, they were still able to quickly quer the pce.

  Their tactic was simple but devastating. John would rush into the fray himself, using his superhuman strength to quickly deal with eanks and heavy ons. Then, with Raven's help and her "bombardments," they could sow ong the nazi soldiers. And sihe resistance also possessed tanks and armored vehicles, it was only a matter of time before the Nazi base in Uttenheim fell.

  Many German soldiers didn't want to die. Seeing the situation, they voluntarily surrendered, ying down their arms. So even if they were outnumbered, with their morale and spirits high, the resistance easily overcame their enemies.

  The captured Nazi soldiers posed a difficult problem. Therefore, they were forced to halt their advan Uttenheim while they thought of a way to deal with them.

  They had killed many, but there were still just over two thousand captured German soldiers. The resistance didn't have the o guard them all, and they could not split up and leave men behind to take care of the prisoners, or the Germans might try to use that to their advantage and find a way to escape.

  They used the still-intact facilities in Uttenheim as a temporary prison, but they needed a better way to deal with them.

  While Frand the other three resistance leaders pohis, John had been focused on something more important to him.

  Carefully, he took the blue energy battery, small pulses of energy could be felt being released from the object like the beats of a heart.

  "I would advise you not to touch it too much, sir. I don't know what it tains, but I'm sure it's extremely dangerous," Emilio said. The man had been part of the Italian army as a mainteei responsible for keeping military equipment in optimal dition.

  John had used his help to "dissect" some of the Hydra ons. Of course, he didn't expect the man to reverse-engineer anything; that would be Howard's job. What he wanted were some of the batteries ihe ons. He could have do himself, forcibly extrag the power source, but he wasn't that stupid. It was too risky. He didn't know what kind of protective meisms the ons might have.

  If something was going to explode, he wasn't going to be near it, at least not until he was sure his body could withstand it.

  "Don't worry, Emilio, I know what I'm doing. Anyway, thanks for the help. You go rest. We still have a fierce fight ahead, and I need everyoo give their best," he patted the man's shoulder, who nodded and soo, leaving John alone in the makeshift workshop.

  John looked at the four batteries that Emilio had mao extract without causing any acts. They were all from fully charged and unused ons. John had made sure of that.

  He paced in circles, deep in thought.

  inally, he believed that with the Super Soldier Serum and pound V in his veins, he was already strong enough. But with Raven's appearahings ged. His strength didn't seem as secure now. He didn't know what kind of enemies awaited him iure, but he knew without a doubt that if he wao ensure he could fulfill his role brilliantly, he had to take certain risks.

  "The Russians experimented on him for years, using all sorts of 'ons' to try to kill him. Nothing worked, and wheried radiation, it only made him stronger..."

  He recalled some ses from "The Boys" series and then thought about the Tesseract.

  "Its energy emits a certain amount of gamma radiation, that's how Tony and Bruce mao find it," he remembered that se from the first Avengers movie.

  "No! This is crazy!..." He couldn't help but furrow his brows. Even if it were true, even if the Tesseract's energy tained radiation, that didn't guara could be used safely.

  "But haven't I already done something Crazy?" Remembering how he ied himself with pound V after using the Super Soldier Serum, John couldn't help but have doubts.

  Others, with more knowledge and greater intelligence, could surely devise dozens of pns and know dozens of ways to gain power. John wasn't one of them; his knowledge was limited, and with the iion of mutants into the se, that knowledge had bee less reliable.

  For now, John only knew one way to bee stronger, something that had beeed on the inal Soldierboy and had yielded certain ued results...

  Radiation.

  Accessing rge amounts of radiation without justification would be difficult, but now Hydra had served up an energy source like no other on a silver ptter for him...

  Now there was only one questio oable: would he dare?

  He looked at the four batteries pulsing with energy and couldn't help but let doubts creep into his mind. Was it necessary? Maybe he was overreag. Maybe his current strength was enough...

  "John!" Raven's voiapped him out of his ptions. He looked out the workshop window just to see her rushing in. She had been flying over the base's skies at his request to ehey weren't ambushed suddenly.

  "What's going on?" he asked quickly.

  "There are pnes! 16 of them are approag fast!" John furrowed his brows and quickly exited the workshop, leaping to the top of a nearby standing building.

  He focused his gaze only to watch as the fighter pnes approached. He had never seen designs like those, and he had studied the different types of military vehicles of the time. He saw the blue light beied from their rear, and he immediately khese weren't just any pnes.

  They were Hydra's.

  "Everyoake cover!" He shouted loudly, his voice eg across the base.

  The resistance soldiers were quick to obey. John was the ohey respected the most, so even if they didn't know what was happening, they didn't hesitate to heed his words.

  They all began to move, several of them looking up at the sky, their pupils diting as they saw the pnes getting closer and closer.

  John quickly made his way to one of the anti-aircraft guns that the German army had installed at the base. It was a Fkvierling 37. Other resistance soldiers followed his lead, preparing different types of ons and aiming towards the sky in haste. Those who didn't know how to use such ons or didn't have any took cover as best as they could, already anticipating what was ing.

  The pnes were fast, faster than any other pnes of the time. In a matter of moments, they were only seds away from reag them.

  "FIRE!" John yelled and aimed skillfully, whether it was the shield, a gun, or any other type of on. He had bee quite adept at making the mental calcutions o aim without fail.

  The on fired forcefully, its recoil strong enough to numb an ordinary soldier's arms, but for John, it was as easy as firing any other firearm.

  The high-impact pierg projectile flew through the air at great speed, its trajectory fixed on one of the 16 attag phe closest to the base.

  One of the pne's wings was suddenly pierced, causing it to lose trol slightly. Despite this, its pilot didn't hesitate and tinued advang with a clear objective. John didn't stop attag, and a dozen more projectiles struck the pne's ter, enveloping it in a cloud of smoke followed by an explosion that lit up the sky with a brilliant blue light.

  "Shit!" John cursed. Even though he had destroyed one of them, he didn't feel happy because now he had lost sight of the other 15.

  The resistance soldiers didn't stop firing eveheir vision was obstructed. Many of them, having witnessed aerial bombings before, khey couldn't let the enemy pnes maneuver freely over them, or they would die.

  Angelo gripped the MG 34 tightly in his hands. He had been chosen to aim the on with the help of two other soldiers. His accuracy was well-known among his rades, so they didn't hesitate to entrust him with the oe his young age.

  When it came to shooting down pnes, precision was necessary.

  Uher soldiers who shot into the sky without thinking, Angelo waited. He waited with his heart pounding furiously in his chest. Ses, images from the past came ba with force: how his town was ravaged, how his house was destroyed, how his family died in the midst of a bombing.

  No, he wouldn't let it happen again!

  He swallowed hard and stared unblinkingly at the sky. Each sed felt eternal. Theiced it, how the smoke moved against the dire of the wind. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger. The Hydra pne couldn't finish emerging from the smoke clouds when it was uedly hit by hundreds of bullets.

  The pilot tried to mao evade, but other resistance groups had already set their sights on him, and he was engulfed in a hail of projectiles that turned him into scrap metal in a matter of Seds.

  Of course, it was then that the remaining 14 ptacked, not with mae guns, but with a rain of blue shots that traveled faster than any bullet seen before.

  Their attacks were indiscriminate. Whether it was the partisaance army or the captured German soldiers, the entire pce was attacked without hesitation.

  Explosions began to engulf the base. John clicked his tongue as he saw one of the Paanks they had hijacked instantly destroyed by a single shot.

  The power of the ons powered by the Tesseract was undoubtedly monstrous.

  He fired several more times, bringing down another four Hydra pnes, but the sky and the base were too vast; he couldn't take them all down just by staying on the ground.

  He had been w how strong he really was, how much his strength had grown with the bination of both serums, and if that strength was enough... it seemed it was time to find out.

  Without hesitatioopped firing and started running towards a clear area, keeping his eyes on two Hydra pnes. If his calcutions were correct, they should be about 3,000 meters above the ground and closing in.

  He fixed his target and tensed his muscles. This time, he didn't doubt and used every ounce of strength he believed he had. He crouched down and with all that accumuted power in his legs, he unched himself into the sky.

  The grouh his feet sank, his figure became blurry, and the air shattered. A supersonic explosion was left behind as his body soared high into the sky, colliding directly with one of the two pnes he had chosen.

  His body tore through the armor as if it were wet cardboard. Like a ballistic missile, he caused the po break apart in midair, exploding violently.

  John maneuvered through the air, disoriehe metal shield in his hand had shattered... he had just repaired it, but it seemed it would no longer be useful.

  He listened carefully and found the sed pne he had seen earlier.

  "Let's see if this works," he thought, recalling his first strength test iel bathroom. John positioned himself in the air and kicked forcefully. The sound barrier broke once again, and his body ropelled towards his sed target.

  His haended, and his fingers dug into the metal of the pne, gripping it tightly.

  He crawled to the cockpit and, with a punch, broke the protective gss. The pne's pilot screamed in arm, turning his head only to have his face grabbed forcefully by John. With a siion, John yahe pilot and dragged him out, sending him flying through the air. The safety belts did nothing to prevent the poor pilot from being forcibly ejected from the cockpit.

  The pne, now without a pilot, began to lose trol, but John was quid took the trols without hesitation. He didn't want to keep the pne because he had no way to signal his men on the ground not to attack it, so he simply ged its dire and aimed it directly at another nearby Hydra pne.

  When he was sure, he let both pnes collide, causing another explosion to fill the sky.

  "Five left," he thought as he let his body navigate through the sky. The resistance soldiers had mao shoot down two more while John erf his maneuver in the air, and he saw them fall in the distance.

  He o destroy them quickly before they caused more damage.

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  "What the hell?" Nico stared at the sky in fusion as several enemy pnes were suddenly destroyed.

  "It's the Captain!" one of his men said as he looked up into the sky with his binocurs, Quickly Nico took them off and looked up into the sky, only to see John navigating through the air.

  How the Fuck did he get up there?!

  "Quick! unicate with everyone else. Tell them not to attack him!" Nico didn't know what this war was turning into—unpreted ons, flying super soldiers—what was ? But regardless of what came, he and his men were ihick of it, and it was their duty to fight, even against the impossible.

  Still, he couldn't help but smile as he watched Captain America collide with an enemy pne, causing it to explode into a thousand pieces, the super soldier emerging from the smoke cloud unscathed, targeting his objective.

  Their enemies might be fierce, but somehow, Nico felt they would win. Because as absurd as it sounded, even though he hadn't been very religious before, right now, in this pce, he felt like they had a god on their side in this battle.

  A god of war.

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  Note:

  I have listeo all your ents, there have been many and varied, and they have certainly helped me think more about the future. In the chapter, the fight for Italy cludes (with an iing surprise at the end ;D). I believe I have id the foundations well enough, and it is time to explore what is truly important and iing. Thank you for your patienbsp;That said, I want to thank you for the ents, likes (power stones or kudos), and to everyone who has supported me so far on Patreon. I hope to tinue on this incredible journey with you for much loime. Soon, there will be a fixed update schedule so everyone enjoy chapters murly. Lastly, remember that you find the chapter of this story on Patreon (patreon.maCruzader). If you want to read the chapter in advand get some other bes, you go and check it out. All the support received helps me a lot ;D. Remember to leave your ents, critiques, and suggestions as well as your likes. See you in the chapter.